MACHINE AND SOVEREIGNTY

Machine and Sovereignty, Yuk Hui, 2024

Yuk Hui argues that our current political ideas must evolve to meet new global challenges like artificial intelligence, ecological crises, and geopolitical conflicts. In Machine and Sovereignty, he starts with three main points. First, we need a new language for coexistence that goes beyond the limits of traditional nation-states. Second, he views political systems—whether cities, empires, or modern states—as technological constructs, or "megamachines" in Lewis Mumford’s terms. Third, each political system is supported by its own way of understanding or political thought.

Yuk shifts away from the old debate between mechanism and organism that shaped modern thought. Instead, he reexamines political ideas from thinkers like Hegel and Schmitt, uncovering the shortcomings of the modern state. His work suggests a new framework that connects ideas of biodiversity, noodiversity, and technodiversity. Ultimately, Yuk believes that we have reached the limits of modernity, the traditional view of history, globalisation, and even the human-centered perspective. To address today’s crises and shape a better future, we must develop new epistemological and technological frameworks.

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Other articles by Yuk that relate to the 2025 Summit theme:
On the Recurrence of Neoreactionaries (February 2025)
For a Planetary Thinking (December 2020)