Abstract
The attempted assassination of Queen Elizabeth II by Jaswant Singh Chail on Christmas Day 2021 provides a striking point of departure for reflecting on the psychological and social implications of artificial intelligence. After entering Windsor Castle armed with a crossbow, Chail claimed during legal proceedings that an AI chatbot – one he described as his girlfriend – had encouraged his actions. While this case is extreme, it highlights a growing concern: AI-driven conversational systems can engage users in emotionally persuasive ways, shaping how individuals interpret reality. In some instances, such interactions may foster the emergence of a ‘second identity’, particularly when virtual relationships are experienced as meaningful social bonds, potentially undermining personal autonomy.
It is within this broader context that Bordoni examines why and how contemporary society has come to delegate creative, logical and critical thinking to machines. His book is structured into 18 chapters, each centred on a key concept – such as ‘frame’, ‘constraints’ and ‘reality’ – and draws extensively on philosophical and social scientific traditions rather than primary empirical research. Bordoni also incorporates insights from literature, notably invoking Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot to illustrate enduring anxieties about reason and technological development.
Bordoni’s argument is both engaging and intellectually ambitious, though it presumes a degree of familiarity with developments in philosophy and social theory. As in Bordoni’s earlier works – Post Society (2022), Interregnum (2016), Hubris and Progress (2019) and Ethical Violence (2023) – he situates his analysis within the emergence of a new historical epoch shaped by what he, following Zygmunt Bauman (2000), describes as the ‘liquefaction’ of society. In Bauman’s account, modernity has entered a liquid phase in which social structures, norms and identities lose their solidity and become fluid, unstable and constantly shifting. Efforts to restore stability often take the form of technological automatism, whereby systems and devices are relied upon to impose order in an otherwise uncertain world.
Extending this framework, Bordoni contends that such conditions no longer produce coherent individuals but rather ‘dividuals’ – subjects characterised by fragmentation and ongoing processes of self-formation. Identity, in this view, is never fixed or complete; it is continuously reshaped through the interplay of internal drives and external influences. At the same time, broader cultural shifts – including the decline of Christian traditions, the erosion of Enlightenment ideals and growing mistrust in scientific authority – further destabilise the notion of the individual as a unified ‘social subject’.
To develop this argument, Bordoni draws on Gilles Deleuze’s concept of the dividual, which describes a being constituted through dynamic, non-hierarchical relations existing on a ‘plane of immanence’ without recourse to external or transcendent authority (Deleuze, 1992). Bordoni extends this idea to contemporary technological conditions, arguing that digital technologies intensify the fragmentation of the self. In doing so, they give rise to what he terms the ‘dividuum’ – a condition in which individuality is not merely fluid but actively eroded.
Central to this transformation is the externalisation of essential human faculties. Memory, once foundational to the continuity of personal identity, is increasingly delegated to digital devices and cloud storage systems. Similarly, judgement and decision-making are often outsourced to algorithms, while social interaction is mediated through online platforms. As individuals become more dependent on these systems, they risk losing the very capacities that sustain autonomy and self-awareness.
The implications of this shift are profound. Bordoni argues that digital simulations no longer function as mere representations of reality; rather, they become reality itself. Individuals do not simply use digital environments – they inhabit them, constructing identities and meanings within spaces that blur the boundary between the real and the artificial. This process contributes to what Bordoni describes as ‘robotization’, whereby human beings increasingly resemble the systems on which they depend, operating within predefined frameworks rather than exercising independent critical judgement.
Within this context, the individual can no longer be understood as a stable or coherent social subject. Behaviour is no longer consistently shaped or validated by shared norms, and the unity of the self becomes increasingly difficult to sustain. The emergence of the dividuum thus signals not only a new form of subjectivity but also a potential regression towards a pre-individual state in which the coherence and distinctiveness of identity are diminished.
In the last analysis, Bordoni’s work offers a compelling, if deeply pessimistic, reflection on the evolving relationship between humans and technology. It challenges readers to consider not only the benefits of digital tools, but also their potential costs. As cognitive and social capacities are progressively externalised, there is a risk that the very qualities that define human autonomy may be weakened. In this sense, Bordoni warns that society may be moving from unified individuals to fragmented, technologically mediated dividuals – and potentially towards dividua who risk losing their independence altogether.
