Sociology and the Politics of AI: The Sovereign Individual Revisited
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.60923/issn.1971-8853/24416Keywords:
AI, Digital Technology, Corporation, Power, Sovereignty & Exception, ElitesAbstract
This commentary argues that the conditions for sociological analysis of AI technologies have changed. Previously, sociologists understood AI and “intelligence” as bounded systems and, as a consequence, the key question was how machines might mimic human judgment. Today, there is a different problem as AI infrastructures are now widely diffused, aligned with concentrated private ownership and state procurement. This development was antipicated and advocated by a central text for techno-libertarians but one that is little known within sociological circles: James Dale Davidson and William Rees-Mogg’s The Sovereign Individual (1997). This commentary returns to the core arguments of this text to consider what sociology can be “after AI”; in a world in which AI is now embedded in infrastructural frameworks that envelop the very institutions from which sociological critique can be launched.
References
Bell, D. (1973). The Coming of Post-Industrial Society: A Venture in Social Forecasting. New York, NY: Basic Books.
Brent, E. (1988). Is There a Role for Artificial Intelligence in Sociological Theorizing? The American Sociologist, 19(2), 158–166. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02691809
Burrows, R. (2012). Living with the H-Index? Metric Assemblages in the Contemporary Academy. The Sociological Review, 60(2), 355–372. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954X.2012.02077.x
Carstens, D. (2009). Hyperstition: An Introduction. 0(rphan)d(rift>) Archive. https://www.orphandriftarchive.com/articles/hyperstition-an-introduction.
Castronovo, J. (2021). Palantir’s Picture of Michel Foucault. The Brooklyn Rail. https://brooklynrail.org/2021/05/field-notes/Palantirs-Picture-of-Michel-Foucault-or-How-to-Discipline-and-Punish.
Cooper, M. (2024). Counterrevolution: Extravagance and Austerity in Public Finance. Brooklyn, NY: Zone Books.
Daston, L. (2022). Rules: A Short History of What We Live By. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Davidson, J.D., & Rees-Mogg, W. (1987). Blood in the Streets: Investment Profits in a World Gone Mad. New York, NY: Summit Books.
Davidson, J.D., & Rees-Mogg, W. (1992). The Great Reckoning: Protect Yourself in the Coming Depression. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
Davidson, J.D., & Rees-Mogg, W. (1997). The Sovereign Individual: Mastering the Transition to the Information Age. New York, NY: Touchstone.
Denning, S. (2014). Peter Thiel on What Works in a World of Dynamism and Secrets. Forbes, 21 October. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2014/10/15/peter-thiel-seven-surprising-keys-to-market-creating-innovation/
Gane, N. (2006). Speed Up or Slow Down? Social Theory in the Information Age. Information, Communication & Society, 9(1), 20–38. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691180500519282
Gane, N. (2020). Against a Descriptive Turn. British Journal of Sociology, 71(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-4446.12715
Gilbert, G.N., & Heath, C. (1985). Social Action and Artificial Intelligence (Eds.). Aldershot: Gower.
Halpern, O., & Mitchell, R. (2023). The Smartness Mandate. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Karp, A. (2002). Aggression in der Lebenswelt: Die Erweiterung des Parsonsschen Konzepts der Aggression durch die Beschreibung des Zusammenhangs von Jargon, Aggression und Kultur [Doctoral dissertation, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität]. Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. https://d-nb.info/966060652/34
Land, N. (2012). The Dark Enlightenment. https://www.thedarkenlightenment.com
Lyotard, J.-F. (1984). The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (G. Bennington & B. Massumi, Trans.). Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Lyotard, J-F. (1991). The Inhuman: Reflections on Time (G. Bennington & R. Bowlby, Trans.). Cambridge: Polity Press.
McLuhan, M. (1964). Understanding Media. London: Routledge.
Rosenberg, J. (2026). Reactionary Bricolage: Curtis Yarvin and Postliberalism. Theory, Culture & Society, 43(4), 81–98. https://doi.org/10.1177/02632764251407509
Savage, M., & Burrows, R. (2007). The Coming Crisis of Empirical Sociology. Sociology, 41(5), 885–899. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038507080443
Smith, H., & Burrows, R. (2021). Software, Sovereignty and the Post-Neoliberal Politics of Exit. Theory, Culture & Society, 38(6), 143–166. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276421999439
Slobodian, Q. (2023). Crack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World Without Democracy. New York, NY: Metropolitan Books.
Slobodian, Q., & Tarnoff, B. (2026). Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Stephenson, N. (1992). Snow Crash. New York, NY: Bantam Books.
Taşkale, A.R. (2025). Manufacturing the Leviathan: Palantir’s Technological Republic and the Nationalist Faction of the Tech Oligarchy. Science as Culture. https://doi.org/10.1080/09505431.2025.2607360
Thiel, P. (2009). The Education of a Libertarian. Cato Unbound, 13 April. https://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/education-libertarian.
Thiel, P. (2014a). Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future. New York, NY: Crown Business.
Thiel, P. (2014b). Competition is for Losers. Wall Street Journal, 12 September. https://www.wsj.com/articles/peter-thiel-competition-is-for-losers-1410535536
Thiel, P. (2020). Preface. In J.D. Davidson & W. Rees-Mogg, The Sovereign Individual (pp. 5–6). New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
Thrift, N. (2005). Knowing Capitalism. London: Sage.
Vlassis, V.S. (2024). More than Software Vendors: The Peculiar Case of Palantir’s Data Integration Platforms. Information, Communication & Society, 27(13), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2024.2442399
Woolgar, S. (1985). Why Not a Sociology of Machines? The Case of Sociology and Artificial Intelligence. Sociology, 19(4), 557–572. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038585019004005
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Nicholas Gane, Roger Burrows
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
