After algorithms. From social utopias to the phantasm of cosiness
- Authors: Ocheretyany K.1,2, Pogrebnyak A.3,1
-
Affiliations:
- National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE University)
- St. Petersburg State University (SPbU)
- St. Petersburg National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics (ITMO University)
- Issue: Vol 34, No 6 (2024)
- Pages: 1-7
- Section: ARTICLES
- URL: https://journals.rcsi.science/0869-5377/article/view/290028
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.17323/0869-5377-2024-6-1-7
- ID: 290028
Cite item
Abstract
The article is an introduction to a block of papers devoted to understanding the conditions of possibility and validity of claims for a cosy existence in a situation brought to life by the so-called digital revolution. This situation is characterized by radical changes both technologically and socially: politics, economics, culture, as well as everyday life and nature itself, undergoing digitalization, are turning into objects whose mode of existence calls into question the relevance of traditional forms of treatment of concepts such as property, alienation, responsibility, justice, humanity, etc. Digitalization also forces us to reconsider the attitude towards fundamental oppositions (nature/culture, mental/physical, living/dead, serious/playful, rational/affective, real/phantasmatic, etc.), structuring our experience and setting the coordinates of its sanity and cognition. It is possible that the feeling of the general uncosiness of life in the world after algorithms is only a temporary, partial and purely evaluative phenomenon; but it is also likely that today’s preoccupation with cosiness (the possibility of finding a digital home) may serve as an impetus for rethinking the status of utopia as a form of critical thinking about modernity.
Keywords
Full Text

About the authors
Konstantin Ocheretyany
National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE University); St. Petersburg State University (SPbU)
Author for correspondence.
Email: kocheretyany@gmail.com
Russian Federation, St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg
Alexander Pogrebnyak
St. Petersburg National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics (ITMO University); National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE University)
Email: aapogrebnyak@gmail.com
Russian Federation, St. Petersburg; St. Petersburg
References
Supplementary files
