Geopolitics of Numerical Space and the Rule of Algorithms

Abstract

The numerical media can simulate all the details of other media by accumulating all the previous classical media functions (television, typewriter, etc.) and acting in this direction they captured so far unprecedented spaces of representation and expression. Due to such capacity for digital programming through modular structures of all the previous functions of the classical mass media, the numerical media succeed through the network reconfiguration and cultural transcoding in presenting a retrospective picture of the world and culture in the history of mankind. Inter-connectivity between the numerical media and internet networks implies a planetary virtual network that some compare with “the world’s collective cortex”. However, given the increasing density and complexity, the numerical media have become more hermetical and more complex in their deep functioning. The gradual autonomy and emancipation of its creators and operators opens the process of creating a mysterious artificial intelligence as an introduction to the new reign of algorithms. It is an introduction to the new virtual geopolitics of cyberspace where the strategies of conquest and the monopoly over information become the rival space of power between official government actors and other asymmetric actors.

Keywords

• numerical
• the media
• geopolitics
• cables
• attention
• economy
• totalitarianism