Computational Viscosity. How We Stick to AI and Why We Need a New Existentialism
Michał Krzykawski, PhD
Today, we face a new form of viscosity: computational. In the dying internet, where half of traffic is generated by AI-powered bots and synthetic content clogs our feeds, something sticks to our attention with similar absorbing force. (…).
This talk explores computational viscosity as both diagnosis and challenge. I argue we need a new existentialism, one adequate to our moment, to address fundamental questions: How do we protect human autonomy when algorithms shape our perception of reality while AI slop poisons our existential territories? How might we exit computational capitalism, or at least navigate it without losing ourselves?
Michał Krzykawski, PhD
Michał Krzykawski is Professor of Philosophy at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Silesia, Poland, where he heads the Centre for Critical Technology Studies. He has published extensively in the fields of contemporary French philosophy, philosophy of technology, and social theory. He is Vice-President of Contributory Lab (Pracownia Współtwórcza) and currently serves as consortium leader of The Makers: Mobilizing Arts, Knowledge, and Education to Reclaim Human Agency. Strategies for the Age of Machine Thinking (Horizon Europe, 2026–2030).