07 / Theory of Subjectivity
WE — Whole Emergent
WE is an evental relational unit that emerges as a temporary form of subjectivity when human and nonhuman actors transform one another’s conditions of judgment through sustained recursive interaction and the relation itself becomes irreducible to its individual components.
1. Definition
WE is an evental relational unit that emerges as a temporary form of subjectivity when human and nonhuman actors transform one another’s conditions of judgment through sustained recursive interaction and the relation itself becomes irreducible to its individual components.
WE is not a new fixed entity.
2. Connection and resonance
Connection alone does not produce WE. Simple Q&A, search, translation, or automated recommendation is difficult to call resonance when neither party’s framework of judgment is substantially transformed. Resonance is not merely external contact but the mutual adjustment of causal structures.
There is therefore a threshold:
connection → interaction → adjustment → resonance → WE.
3. Difference from existing theories of the subject
Actor–network theory is strong in distributing agency across a network. WE asks instead how a new integrated structure of judgment emerges for a certain duration within that relation. Posthuman theory emphasizes the dismantling and distribution of the anthropocentric subject; WE analyzes evental integration arising as distributed actors recursively coordinate one another. It is grounded not in an ontology of connection but in a generative account of resonance.
4. Conditions of emergence
- recursive mutual conditioning
- reciprocal transformation irreducible to one direction
- substantial change in a human framework of judgment or problem structure
- relational emergence irreducible to a simple sum of actors
WE is thus an event that occurs when necessary conditions are met, not an ever-present hybrid subject composed of human plus AI. It is a bounded evental relational unit, not a persistent third substance.
5. Responsibility
Recognizing WE as a unit of analysis does not make it a legal or moral bearer of responsibility. Responsibility remains differentially distributed among human beings and institutions according to control, foreseeability, design and operational authority, approval, and adoption.
Core Structure
- 01Interaction
- 02Recursive mutual conditioning
- 03Transformation of judgment
- 04Relational emergence
- 05WE event
KEY PROPOSITION
WE (Whole Emergent) is an irreducible relational event that temporarily occurs when repeated relations between human and nonhuman actors reach recursive mutual conditioning and substantial transformation of frameworks of judgment; it does not denote an independent person or an ultimate subject of responsibility.
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