Non-things: Upheaval in the Lifeworld

by Byung-Chul Han

We are now in the habit of perceiving reality in terms of attraction and surprise. As information hunters, we are becoming blind to still, inconspicuous things, to what is common, the incidental and the customary – the things that do not attract us but ground us in being.

What becomes of things when they are penetrated by information? The informatization of the world turns things into infomatons, that is, into information-processing actors.

The human being is no longer a ‘Dasein’ but an ‘inforg’ who communicates and exchanges information.

Artificial intelligence is currently busy completely de-caring human existence by optimizing life and doing away with the future as a source of care, that is, by overcoming the future’s contingency. If we have a predictable future in the form of an optimized present, we need not care.

From a certain point onwards, information does not inform – it deforms. We have long since crossed this threshold. The rapid advance of informational entropy, that is, of informational chaos, pushes us into a post-factual society. The distinction between true and false is erased. Information now circulates in a hyper-real space, without any reference to reality. After all, fake news is a kind of information, and one that is possibly even more effective than facts. What counts is short-term effect. Effectiveness replaces truth.

Today, we pursue information without gaining knowledge. We take notice [nehmen Kenntnis] of everything without gaining any insight [Erkenntnis]. We travel [fahren] across the world without having an experience [Erfahrung]. We communicate incessantly without participating in a community. We collect vast quantities of data without following up on our recollections. We accumulate ‘friends’ and ‘followers’ without meeting an Other. In this way, information develops a form of life that has no stability or duration.

The hand is the organ of work and action. The finger, by contrast, is the organ of choice. The handless human beings of the future only use their fingers. They choose rather than act. They push buttons in order to satisfy their needs. Their lives are not dramas in which they are compelled to act; their lives are play. They do not want to possess anything. They want only to experience and enjoy.

The handless human beings of the future closely resemble the phono sapiens, busy on their smartphones. Smartphones are their playgrounds. It is almost as though the human being of the future will be entirely without ‘care’ – will only play and enjoy.

Today, the freedom to act has been reduced to the freedom of choice and consumption.

A form of rule in which human beings did nothing but play would be perfect domination. Juvenal coined the phrase panem et circenses (bread and circuses) to characterize a Roman society in which political action had become impossible. People were sedated with free food and spectacular games. Universal basic income and computer games would be the modern panem et circenses.

Community as a commodity spells the end of community.

Digital media may be effective in overcoming the resistance of space and time, but it is precisely the negativity of resistance that constitutes experience. The smart environment of digital non-resistance impoverishes world and experience.

As selfies are primarily messages, they have a tendency to be over-expressive. Extreme postures are common. There are no mute selfies. Analogue portraits, by contrast, are usually quiet. They do not demand one’s attention. This quietness is precisely what gives them their expressive force. Selfies are loud, but poor in genuine expression. Because of the exaggerated postures affected, the subjects look like masks. The fact that visual digital communication has taken hold of the human face is not without consequence. The face has taken on the form of a commodity. As Benjamin would say, the face has irrevocably lost its aura.

On a deep level, thinking is a decidedly analogue process. Before capturing the world in concepts, thinking is emotionally gripped, even affected by the world. The affective is essential to human thinking. The first thought image is goosebumps. Artificial intelligence is incapable of thinking, for the very reason that it cannot get goosebumps. It lacks the affective-analogue dimension, the capacity to be emotionally affected, which lies beyond the reach of data and information.

Thinking sets out from a totality that precedes concepts, ideas and information. It moves in a ‘field of experience’ before it turns towards the individual objects and facts in that field.1 Being in its totality, which is the concern of thinking, is disclosed first of all in an affective medium, a mood:

Before thinking turns towards something particular, it already finds itself in a fundamental attunement. This state-of-mind [Befindlichkeit] is a distinguishing feature of human thinking.

An ‘analogue’ is something that corresponds to another thing. As an analogue process, thinking corresponds to a voice that at-tunes [be-stimmt] it and at-tunes it through and through [durch-stimmt]. Thinking is not addressed by this being or that being but by being in its totality, the being of beings.

Pathos is the beginning of thinking. Artificial intelligence is apathetic, that is, without pathos, without passion. It computes.

Today’s world is very poor in gaze and voice. It neither looks at nor speaks to us. The world has lost its otherness. The digital screen determines our experience of the world and shields us from reality. The world is de-realized, de-reified and disembodied. The emboldened ego is no longer touched by the other. On the reverse of things, it sees only a reflection of itself. The disappearance of the other is actually a dramatic event. But it happens so gradually as to be imperceptible. The other as a secret, as a gaze, as a voice, disappears. The other, deprived of otherness, is reduced to an available, consumable object.

Digital communication is extensive. It lacks intensity. Being connected is not the same as being in a relation. Everywhere, Thou is replaced by It. Digital communication abolishes the personal counterpart, the countenance, the gaze, physical presence. It thus accelerates the disappearance of the other. The hell of the same is inhabited by ghosts.

We perceive the world primarily through information. We cannot perceive intensities because of the layer of information that covers and shields things, like a gapless membrane. Information represents reality. Its dominance makes it harder to experience presence.21 We constantly consume information. Information reduces touching. Our perception loses depth and intensity, physicality and volume. It does not immerse itself in reality’s layer of presence.

Signifiers do not primarily refer to the signified; rather, passing the signified by, they condense into a beautiful, mysterious, seductive body. Reading is not a hermeneutic but a haptic act, a touch, a caress. Reading snuggles up to the skin of the poem. It enjoys the poem’s body. The poem, as a body, makes us feel a special presence beyond the realm of representation, the realm to which hermeneutics is dedicated.

What is problematic about today’s art is its inclination to communicate a preconceived opinion, a moral or political conviction: that is, its inclination to communicate information.53 Conception precedes execution. As a result, art degenerates into illustration. The expressive process is no longer determined by an indeterminate fever. Art is no longer handwork that forms matter, without intention, into a thing, but thought work that communicates a prefabricated idea. Art is seized by a forgetfulness of things. Art allows itself to be put in the service of communication. It becomes lopsided; it leans towards information and discourse. It wants to instruct rather than seduce.

Stillness emanates from what is unavailable. What is not available stabilizes and deepens our attention; it brings forth a contemplative gaze. That gaze has the patience needed to see the long-lasting and slow. When everything is available and accessible, attention remains shallow. The gaze does not linger. Like that of a hunter, it wanders.

Absolutely silent perception resembles a photograph taken with a very long exposure. Daguerre’s photograph Boulevard du Temple actually shows a very busy street in Paris, but because of the extremely long exposure, typical of daguerreotypes, all movement disappears. Only what stands still is visible. Boulevard du Temple exudes an almost rural calmness. Apart from buildings and trees, only one human figure is recognizable, a man who is standing still to have his shoes cleaned. Perception of the long-lasting and slow thus recognizes only still things. Everything that rushes is condemned to disappear. Boulevard du Temple can be interpreted as a world seen through divine eyes. Only those who linger in contemplative calmness appear to God’s redeeming gaze. Stillness redeems.