Transhumanism and the Desubjectification of Politics: Technological Objects, Biopolitics, and the Redefinition of Power in the Digital Age

Anjomrooz, Matin; Khezri, Mohammad

doi:10.30465/os.2025.53410.2078

Transhumanism and the Desubjectification of Politics: Technological Objects, Biopolitics, and the Redefinition of Power in the Digital Age

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Matin Anjomrooz ¹

Mohammad Khezri ²

¹ Department of Political Science, Ra.C., Islamic Azad University, Rasht, Iran

² Department of Political Science, SR.C., Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.

10.30465/os.2025.53410.2078

Abstract

Technological transformations in the realms of artificial intelligence (AI), biotechnology, cognitive sciences, and brain-computer interfaces (BCI) have marked a pivotal shift in political philosophy and anthropological thought. Transhumanism, as a discourse and project aimed at surpassing human biological limitations through technological enhancement, fundamentally redefines the body, mind, and the foundational concepts of the modern subject (Bostrom, 2005). The autonomous subject of Cartesian-Kantian tradition—characterized as rational, self-determining, and central to political decision-making—now confronts technologies that reduce cognitive capacities, volition, and even biological existence to computable and predictable data streams (Floridi, 2014). This development heralds an era in which both power dynamics and human subjectivity undergo profound ontological reconfiguration (Han, 2017). The present study adopts an analytical-critical perspective to interrogate these transformations, proposing "algorithmic power" as the fifth face of power. The core research question is: Do transhumanist technologies, by transforming humans into data objects, engender a novel form of power in the digital age? The hypothesis posits that these technologies, through the integration of body and mind into algorithmic networks, constitute the fifth face of power, thereby redirecting politics from human agency toward computational governance. The study's novelty resides in its conceptualization of algorithmic power as distinct from classical models and Foucauldian biopolitics, its examination of digital de-subjectification's socio-political consequences, and its empirical focus on the Neuralink project as a paradigmatic case of direct mind-algorithm fusion.
Materials & Methods
This interdisciplinary investigation operates at the intersection of political philosophy, technology studies, and critical theory. It deploys critical discourse analysis (CDA) and Foucauldian genealogy as complementary methodological tools to dissect power configurations in both modern and transhuman contexts (Fairclough, 1992; Foucault, 1980). CDA is applied to uncover representations of power and subjectivity in theoretical texts (e.g., Hobbes, Marx, Foucault, Zuboff, Han) as well as contemporary technological and media discourses, including official statements from Neuralink, OpenAI, and related reports. Foucauldian genealogy traces the historical evolution of power, body, and subject from modernity through to the algorithmic epoch. The Neuralink project serves as a targeted case study, with analysis encompassing official documents, patents filed between 2019 and 2024, and media coverage (Reuters, 2024; Lavazza et al., 2025). CDA coding tables highlight discursive elements such as "enhancement" and "symbiosis," revealing mechanisms through which discourse naturalizes algorithmic domination. Genealogical reconstruction maps the progression of power faces from coercive forms (Hobbes) through biopolitical management (Foucault) to algorithmic prediction. These integrated methods facilitate a shift from mere conceptual description to rigorous critical explication, addressing persistent theoretical lacunae in the comprehension of algorithmic power.
Discussion & Result
The findings are structured across four primary axes. First, the genealogy of digital de-subjectification traces the subject's transformation from the autonomous Cartesian-Kantian entity (Descartes, Kant) to a nodal point within informational networks (Floridi, Cheney-Lippold), unfolding in sequential stages of body, behavioral, and mental datafication. This process is discursively normalized through transhumanist terminology such as "augmented intelligence" (Bostrom, 2005). Second, algorithmic power is formulated as the fifth face, evolving beyond coercive, structural, ideological, and biopolitical modalities, distinguished by its predictive, distributed, microphysical, consent-driven, and opaque characteristics—a comparative tabular analysis elucidates this progression (Clegg, 2024). Third, data colonialism is identified as a novel mode of domination, operating at biological levels (via wearables), behavioral levels (via platforms), and cognitive levels (via BCIs), thereby converting body and mind into exploitable technological objects (Couldry & Mejias, 2019; Braidotti, 2019). Fourth, the Neuralink case study demonstrates concrete instantiation: patents facilitate high-density neural recording, closed-loop stimulation, and wireless data relay, operationalizing cognitive data colonialism. Discursive analysis ("liberation," "precision") shows how promotional language conceals the reduction of the subject to a mere data node. Collectively, these findings substantiate that transhumanism engenders digital de-subjectification of politics, displacing human agency with computational logic and necessitating urgent reconceptualization of freedom, justice, and political legitimacy.
Conclusion
Transhumanism precipitates a profound ontological-political metamorphosis, manifesting in digital de-subjectification, the emergence of algorithmic power as the fifth face, pervasive data colonialism across bodily and mental domains, and their empirical embodiment in the Neuralink project. Consequently, politics transitions from an anthropocentric paradigm to one dominated by calculative processes, thereby eroding traditional autonomy and legitimacy while exacerbating bio-inequalities. Effective resistance demands reconceptualizing freedom as sovereign data ownership, justice as equitable cognitive access, and legitimacy as mandated algorithmic transparency. Specific policy proposals include establishing a Global Data Rights Charter, instituting mandatory algorithmic audits, promoting universal digital critical literacy, enacting stringent neurotechnology regulations, ensuring subsidized equitable access to enhancements, and creating hybrid governance institutions incorporating human-AI collaboration. Transhumanism presents humanity with a critical bifurcation: acquiescence to a predetermined computational destiny or active reconstruction of politics upon principles of hybrid agency—reappropriating data control, enforcing transparency, and empowering self-determined futures.

Keywords

Transhumanism

Digital Desubjectification

Algorithmic Power

Biopolitics

Surveillance Capitalism

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