No-Cosas (Non-Things) by Byung-Chul Han

This is the Spanish translation but an English version has already been released. 

In this book the author makes a case on how our (excessive) focus on information and communication gives us uncertainty and thereby destabilises us. For this he first explains what “things” are: those tangible, solid, natural things which stabilise human life. Things anchor us and give us identity. In contrast, Non-Things or Information, destabilise us. Digitisation is ending the paradigm of Things. Byung-Chul Han says we do not inhabit earth and sky anymore but Google Earth and the Cloud. Currently “things” are covered with information because of this, they become “Infomats” or information-processing actors.

To explain his points, Byung-Chul Han discusses Smartphones, Selfies and Artificial Intelligence as Non-Things. The smartphone is the main Infomat of our times and has become a sort of prayer book for neoliberal capitalism. The author compares capital neoliberalism (and smartphones) with communism:

• Communism suppresses liberties. Capitalism and smartphones exploit our liberties.
• Communism involves commandments and prohibitions. Smartphones serve our needs.
• Communism makes us docile. Smartphones make us dependent and addicted.
• Communism is repressive. Smartphones are permissive.
• Communism imposes Silence. Smartphones incite communication and sharing of opinions.

Digital photos destroy our magical relationship with photograph. The digital medium transforms light into data, in numerical relationships. Selfies are not made to be kept as an memory token. They are short-lived. Real photographs are natural Things. Digital photographs are instantaneous non-things.

Artificial Intelligence cannot think. It lacks the affective-analogue dimension. AI calculate and process. AI doesn’t think.  Thought starts from a totality which precedes concepts, ideas and information. Before thought goes somewhere it is already on an basic animic disposition. It then articulates concepts the world with a fundamental animic disposition. AI will never achieve the level of conceptual wisdom. It doesn’t understand its calculations.