The Architecture of Re-Empowerment

Abstract

We analyze how the processes of democratic backsliding and post-scarcity autarchy have become entangled with digital technologies, especially artificial intelligence (AI), to become drivers for the disempowerment of individuals and communities. This is especially in relation to the selection, modification, and application of their own preferences for social arrangements or for managing matters of local public interest. Alternatively, we articulate a new architecture of re-empowerment, which integrates ideas of polycentric governance, ethical platformization, and the embodiment of deep social knowledge in human-AI coworking and coproduction. We argue that this will enable communities to mitigate AI-driven forms of domination and enhance new modes and mechanics of political self-organization for democratized neighborhoods.