Introduction
We are entering a post-literate era, dominated by experience. This presents us with a fundamental conflict between writing – logic, rules, and long-term memory – and adjectives, meaning the energy of collective emotions and mobilization. Writing without emotion becomes a dead archive, and emotions without writing – a chaotic carnival. This article analyzes how this shift redefines politics, art, and ourselves, leading to a new definition of humanity in a world dominated by image and experience.
Post-Literacy: Art Redefines Politics
In the post-literate era, the boundary between art and politics blurs, as both spheres employ the same tools: dramaturgy, emotional direction, and the creation of immersive experiences. To remain effective, politics must feign art. This leads to a model of politics as opera – a monumental spectacle where the leader is a performer, the campaign a serial drama, and the citizen a passive audience reacting to affect rather than argument. Democracy risks transforming into a mere spectacle.
In response, art can assume the role of politics, becoming art as constitution. This is not about writing laws, but about creating laboratories where alternative forms of community are tested. VR installations, participatory theater, and computer games become spaces where citizens can practice new social rules and experience that reality could be different.
Post-Literacy: A New Anthropology of Humanity
The era of writing shaped humans as autonomous individuals with linear identities and the capacity for analytical thought. The post-literate era brings about a fundamental change. Time becomes fragmented, and identity fluid and curated by social media profiles or game avatars. Our psyche adapts to this new environment: we react faster and more intensely, but our emotional vocabulary diminishes. Empathy becomes localized and susceptible to manipulation.
A profound anthropological shift is occurring. Homo sapiens, the thinking human, gives way to Homo experientiae – the human of experience. We are defined not by what we know, but by the quality and range of our experiences. The symbolic human (*animal symbolicum*) is replaced by the aesthetic human (*homo aestheticus*), for whom experiencing, rather than creating meaning, is paramount.
Experience Capitalism: Economy and the Erosion of Truth
This new reality creates experience capitalism, where emotions become the currency. Streaming, gaming, and experience tourism sell feelings, and algorithms not only predict our behavior but actively shape our inner world. This leads to a new axis of inequality: a division between elites with access to a rich palette of experiences and the rest, condemned to mass, digital production of affect. Society drifts towards pathocracy – the rule of affect, not argument.
In the culture of experience, the very concept of truth is redefined. It ceases to be a matter of factual accuracy and becomes a quality of sensation: what is experienced, is true. This is why fake news is so effective. From a cognitive perspective, we are moving away from writing because it is a technology that requires effort. Image and experience are more intuitive for our brains, causing writing to lose its dominant position.
Conclusion
The transition from a culture of writing to a culture of experience is not merely a technological shift, but a profound social and anthropological transformation. Writing, as a tool requiring discipline and interpretation, was inherently elitist. In the era of the global network, more intuitive media dominate, engaging the senses without cognitive effort. We face a fundamental challenge: how to preserve the capacity for critical thinking and community-building based on arguments in a world that systematically rewards the intensity of experience.
📄 Full analysis available in PDF