Towards a Critical Theory of Digitality: Gunther Anders in the Age of Platform Capitalism and Smart Technocracies

Various media-theoretical studies have recently characterized the fourth in-dustrial revolution as a process of all-encompassing technicization and cyber-netization. Against this background, this paper seeks to show the timely and critical potential of Gunther Anders's magnum opus Die Antiquiertheit des Menschen vis-a-vis the ever-increasing power of cybernetic devices and net-works. Anders has both witnessed, and negotiated, the process of cyberne-tization from its very beginning, having criticised not only its tendency of automatization and expansion, but also the circular logic and the "integral power" it rests upon, including the destructive consequences for the consti-tution of the political and the social. In this vein, Anders's oeuvre can indeed shed new light on the techno-logically organized milieus of the contemporary digital regime. The aim of the essay is, thus, not only to emphasize the con -temporariness of Anders's critical thought and to highlight his advanced un-derstanding of technology compared to representatives of early critical theory, but also use it to frame a critique vis-a-vis current neo-technocratic and, ulti-mately, post-political concepts, such as "algorithmic regulation", "smart states", "direct technocracy", and "government as platform". The essay finally seeks to, through Anders's lens, address the question of the position and role of the critic in relation to ever expanding technical environments.