Social Networks: A Virtual Parallel Society

Maison Suger is pleased to host the first session of the seminar series "Accumulations and Accelerations: Computer Totalitarianism III", with Michael Stora, psychologist and psychoanalyst, and author of Réseaux (a)sociaux. Discover the Dark Side of Algorithms (Larousse, 2021).

On the Internet and its various platforms, numerous professional, social, or interest-based groups are created every day. Their virtual nature, lacking physical connections, can reduce empathy and the capacity to live together harmoniously. This virtuality also affects the vitality of language, the meaning individuals give to their lives, and even their will to live.

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.