New on SSRN: Rule by Nobody 2.0
Abstract
The proliferation of autonomous multi-agent systems necessitates a fundamental departure from strictly technical frameworks of artificial intelligence alignment. This paper integrates Anthony Giddens' structuration theory with Bruno Latour's actor-network theory to conceptualize machine agents not as emergent sentiences but as non-human actants bearing the inscribed normative delegations of human institutions. When these sociotechnical networks are prematurely sealed from scrutiny, they precipitate the administrative catastrophe Hannah Arendt termed the rule by Nobody. By conflating procedural cognition with reflexive moral thought, algorithmic governance risks substituting technical fabrication for authentic political action. Drawing upon Karl Popper's defense of the open society, this work argues that preserving democratic legitimacy in the age of recursive machine learning requires defending the Arendtian space of appearance. Institutions must maintain structures of human accountability that actively resist the diffusion of moral responsibility across opaque algorithmic pipelines.
