“Digital subjectivation is shaping our modes of existence”

Ximena Torres

There is no inherent opposition between the natural and the artificial. Evolution arises as a human-technical assemblage and, therefore, reconfigures who we are. Given this reality, which several theorists have conceptualized, higher education institutions must incorporate new tools so that their students can interpret the present.

“We cannot continue to exist, to know, and to create knowledge in the same way, as if the processes of 'techno-digitalization' that we are experiencing today did not exist,” said Fernando Castro, an academic at the Colegiatura Colombiana Higher Education Institution. His participation took place during the conference “Simondon, Posthumanism, AI, and Digital Ontogenesis: Four Movements for a Hermeneutics of the Present,” organized by the Moira Laboratory, Narratives in Transit, of the Department of Sociocultural Studies (Deso) at ITESO, within the framework of the Interfásica 2026 Forum: Non-Anthropocentric Conversations on Technology.

Castro and Jorge W. Montoya, an academic at the National University of Colombia, Medellín campus, presented some concepts, problems, and alternatives for understanding the “profound metamorphosis” the world is undergoing. The first approach was the theory of individualization by the French philosopher Gilbert Simondon. This theory proposes that the individual—which refers not only to the human being, but also to the physical, biological, psychological, and collective—is not a closed block with an essentialist substance, but rather a dynamic process that emerges from a pre-existing reality.

Given this ever-changing nature, Simondon asserts that humankind has the capacity to transform everything that exists as a form of artificialization, including nature itself, through disciplines such as biotechnology. As a result, "technogeographic" means are generated, which Montoya explained with the following example: "The water in a hydroelectric plant is associated, like an organ, with the functioning of the turbines. This hybridization between technology and geography challenges the otherwise dualistic and essentialist idea that there is an opposition between the natural and the artificial."

How digital technology transforms our way of being

By “artificializing” the world, technology reconfigures who we are. To illustrate this, Castro presented the trajectory of digital subjectivation (the process by which we constitute ourselves as subjects) since 1990, when the creation of the internet sought connection as a principle regardless of the barriers of time and space.

“We no longer just seek to connect devices, we seek to connect with human beings. This has become an existential principle that guides our daily relationships [...] that is why understanding the issue of digital subjectivation is fundamental, because it is shaping our modes of existence,” explained the speaker from Colegiatura, a higher education institution in Colombia.

Then, around the year 2000, the web became a social space operating under the principle of interaction through participatory architecture. In 2010, the semantic and ubiquitous phases arrived. The former sought personalization and micro-segmentation through the introduction of artificial intelligence, while the latter paved the way for anytime, anywhere connectivity via mobile devices. Finally, in the 2020s, automation became the driving force behind digital development.

Each of the stages has caused psychic transformations that have accumulated to the point that human beings delegate part of their communicative production to artificial intelligence, have extended their cognitive processes (to process information) beyond their own minds and have materialized it with active computational interfaces.

Several problems accompany this ecosystem, including alienation—which implies a disconnection between the individual and their experiences—hyper-individualization, the acceleration of life, energy demands, cognitive dependence, the homogenization of outcomes, and others. Castro asserts that, to respond, we must "stay with the problem," as Donna Haraway suggests.

“Artificial intelligence is not going to slow down, so what are we going to do? We have to accelerate the processes of humanization, of exploiting human sensitivity, our capabilities and potential,” said the academic.

Other authors Castro recommends for confronting the world's metamorphosis include Rosi Braidotti, the Italian philosopher who proposes the affirmative power of human beings as an antagonistic tool against the current crisis. Also recommended is Hartmut Rosa, the German sociologist who argues that resonance is a tool for understanding human experience beyond acceleration. Finally, there is the work of Yuk Hui, the Chinese philosopher, who speaks of "technodiversity" as a way to resist the homogenization of Western digitalization.

The theoretical reflections of Castro and Montoya were developed from the thematic axis of the forum designed for the university community to explore the relationship between emerging technologies and human ways of perceiving, narrating, generating and consuming images today, explained Jorge Valente García, coordinator of Moira.

In the second edition of Interfásica (the first was in 2024), the meeting schedule extends until October 9 with activities such as keynote lectures, discussion panels, workshops, installations and film screenings.

The full program of activities is available at https://ite.so/zma5p .