Non-domination: The Institutional Foundation of Liberty
Freedom in the age of algorithms is not the absence of prohibitions, but non-domination—a state in which no power can arbitrarily extinguish human agency. At the heart of modern statehood lies the Gilgamesh Problem: the paradox that citizens need the state for protection against private violence, yet that same state gains the power to crush them. This article analyzes how to build institutions within the narrow corridor between anarchy and tyranny to harness the power of technology before it becomes a tool of ultimate control.
Four Types of Leviathan and the Red Queen Effect
The stability of freedom depends on the architecture of the state. An Absent Leviathan breeds a cage of norms—a stifling system of tradition and ostracism that replaces law. A Despotic Leviathan is tyranny without social control, while a Paper Leviathan is a facade of institutions that is repressive yet ineffective. Only a Shackled Leviathan ensures predictability. Maintaining this state requires the Red Queen Effect: a dynamic race in which society must increase its vigilance in proportion to the growing efficiency of the state apparatus. Freedom is not a state, but a process of daily restoring the balance of power.
Algorithms and Code: The New Structure of Digital Dominance
Technology acts as a multiplier of information asymmetry. In the model of Chinese algorithmic legalism, the algorithm becomes a tool for micromanagement and discipline, realizing the ideal of frictionless dominance. Conversely, European normativism attempts to build procedural barriers (GDPR, AI Act), though it risks falling into paper capacity—multiplying regulations while real agency declines. In regions like Latin America or Africa, technology often reinforces the pathologies of the Paper Leviathan, offering digital oppression instead of real public services. Populism further erodes institutional checks and balances, promising agency to the people while, in practice, restoring full executive discretion.
The Private Sector and Institutional Prosthetics of Reason
In the AI era, the classic state-society framework is disrupted by the private sector, which controls data infrastructure. To avoid a new tyranny, we need prosthetics of reason: institutional safeguards that compensate for human weaknesses. The foundation must be the contestability of decisions—where an algorithmic system takes irrevocable steps regarding credit or employment, freedom ends. Public algorithmic audits and institutional pluralism, which disperses control over code, are essential. Freedom becomes a costly good, requiring high digital and legal literacy from society.
Summary: Algorithmic Freedom as a Luxury
Freedom in an algorithmic world is not a product of benevolence, but of balance. It requires the constant synchronization of the clocks of the market, the state, and society. Will we manage to create institutions that shackle the digital Leviathan, or will we succumb to the illusion of security offered by technology? The true core of non-domination remains contestability: the right to error, to dissent, and to human correction in a world governed by objective functions. Without these safeguards, technology, instead of liberating us, will only tighten the cage in which we live.
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