The Lifeworld of the Digital Age: Trans(in)dividual and Technosophistry

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to comprehend the defining trend of recent years, namely the accelerated digitisation of human life, which leads to a rethinking of human self-determination. It is also necessary to analyse the main components of the new era of humanity, namely: a) the creation of a global communication platform – the Internet and a "digitised network structure of values"; b) a digital mode of exchange, leading to the transformation of the very form of the human being, which can be defined as a digital transhuman. According to the authors, the characteristics of the conceptualisation of this form in a certain (trans)anthropological perspective also deserve attention. The theoretical basis of the article is subject-disoriented anthropology, which is based on three topographical principles: disorientation, non-self-identity, and the multiplicity of the human being. Originality. Based on the three topographical principles of digitalisation (Network, Blockchain, Transformer), the transhuman is considered as a dividual or trans(in)dividual, and his or her life world and worldview are defined. Digitalisation, the rapid development of artificial intelligence technologies, the Internet, blockchain technology, ChatGPT, etc. have significantly changed the human Lifeworld. The Internet has introduced a networked mode of social interaction. The network is a rhizomatic multiplicity, all components of which are interdependent, unstable, and transformative. Blockchain technology implements decentralised data distribution and is a set in which all elements are interdependent, distributed, decentralised and interchangeable. A transformer, in particular ChatGPT, is a set in which all elements are transductive and generative. Thus, a person is sifted through digital technologies when everything (generic, common, individual) is subject to digital division. That is why the transhuman is already a dividual or trans(in)dividual – a transformative, inner-divided, multiple being. The dividual is characterised by decentralised subjectivity, fragmentation, embodied in a multitude of digital identities distributed in chains of network connections in virtual worlds. The multiple subject is not holistic, it is transgressive and deconstructive, its boundaries are blurred, it transgresses and deconstructs itself on the border between the real and the virtual, the biological and the technological. The achievements of AI developments distribute the thinking of individuals in networks that generate synthetic meanings created by algorithms that cannot be verified for truthfulness and are not considered in terms of truth. The existence of the trans(in)dividual determines his or her belonging to a particular network and the interdependence of the elements that comprise it. His or her worldview can be defined as technosophistic. Conclusions. An essential component of the technosophical worldview is that it does not proceed from the principle of truthfulness; its adherents are guided in life by emotions evoked by images produced by networks, which form the basis for unstable beliefs. For humans, the tasks of searching for objective knowledge and creating the preconditions for general social agreement are becoming increasingly important.