Computerized Medicine or Capitalist Optimization on the Offensive Against the Body

Maison Suger is pleased to host the fifth session of the seminar cycle "Accumulations and Accelerations: Computer Totalitarianism III", with Brenda Bogaert, PhD in Philosophy and Research Lead in Medical Ethics at the University of Lausanne, co-editor of From AI to Clinical Intelligence: What Digital Technology Does to Care, Le Bord de l’eau, 2024

Information technology in general, and so-called artificial intelligence in particular, offer new avenues for optimizing medical care. However, this technicist approach tends to overlook the holistic entanglement of many pathologies within a psycho-corporal framework, to disregard the socio-economic determinants of health, and to obscure environmental causes—often technically simple to eliminate—behind some of the most prevalent diseases, such as cancer.

Following the success of the first two years of the seminar, which focused on the all-encompassing influence of computing, a third cycle has been organised to explore new counter-truths. The promise of virtual communities can sometimes prove harmful to physical social relations. Remote working, far from promoting equality, tends to increase disparities. The mechanised school, often presented as virtuous, risks reducing education to mere conditioning. And the fantasy of the “augmented” human reinforces capitalist logics of accumulation and acceleration.

The seminar will also examine the threats posed by automated warfare and the mechanised rationalisation of medical care, which can obscure the environmental causes of many diseases. New techniques for manipulating texts, sounds and images are making it increasingly difficult to distinguish between true and false. Finally, the artificialisation of life fosters endless individualisation: isolated humans are caught in a race toward immediate technical pleasures and struggle to grasp collective issues.

Inspired by an interactive pedagogy, the seminar is free and open to all, particularly students and researchers in the humanities, law and philosophy.