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Zwischen Algorithmus und Apokalypse: Die Sozialwissenschaften im Zeitalter digitaler Eschatologie.

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Title: Zwischen Algorithmus und Apokalypse: Die Sozialwissenschaften im Zeitalter digitaler Eschatologie. (German)
Alternate Title: Between Algorithm and Apocalypse: The Social Sciences in the Age of Digital Eschatology. (English)
Authors: Breuer, Gereon
Source: SWS - Rundschau; 2025, Vol. 65 Issue 4, p374-390, 17p
Subject Terms: ESCHATOLOGY, ARTIFICIAL intelligence, POLITICAL science, FUTURES studies, SECULARIZATION (Theology), VIRTUES, PROGNOSIS, SOCIAL scientists
Abstract (English): Technological promises of the future organize perception, politics and expectation. This article develops digital eschatology as a lens that reveals the meaning, time and measure of these narratives. The focus is on AI as a node of prognosis, power and hope. Genealogically, secular images of salvation emerge as residual theologies of the tech society. The key question is: How do possibilities become obligations, and prognostics become pressure to cope? Touchstones are explanatory scope, the performativity of prognostics, and the capacity for criticism under acceleration. Theologically sensitized resources – chronos and kairos, responsibility beyond compliance, finitude – impose a measure on the gesture of omnipotence. This leads to virtues for institutions: moderation, temperance, mercy, not as ornamentation, but a force of order. A sober presence of the social sciences is presented to the public: authority without messianism, intervention without alarmism or cynicism. In this way, hope is freed from the rhetoric of salvation, and decisions under uncertainty are subject to rigorous, transparent scrutiny [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Abstract (German): Technische Zukunftsversprechen ordnen Wahrnehmung, Politik und Erwartung. Der Beitrag entfaltet dafür digitale Eschatologie als Linse, die Sinn-, Zeit- und Maßfiguren dieser Erzählungen sichtbar macht. Im Blick steht KI als Knoten von Prognosen, Macht und Hoffnung. Genealogisch treten säkulare Heilsbilder zutage als Resttheologien der Tech-Industrie. Die Leitfrage lautet: Wie werden aus Möglichkeiten Verbindlichkeiten, aus Prognosen Handlungsdruck? Prüfsteine sind: Erklärungsreichweite, die Performativität von Prognosen und die Kritikfähigkeit unter Beschleunigung. Theologisch sensibilisierte Ressourcen – Chronos und Kairos, Verantwortung jenseits von Compliance, Endlichkeit – setzen dem Allmachtsgestus ein Maß. Daraus folgen Tugenden für Institutionen: Maßhalten, Mäßigung, Barmherzigkeit, nicht als Zierde, sondern als Ordnungskraft. Für die Öffentlichkeit wird eine nüchterne Präsenz der Sozialwissenschaften profiliert: Autorität ohne Messianismus, Intervention ohne Alarmismus und Zynismus. So wird Hoffnung entlastet von Heilsrhetorik und Entscheidung unter Ungewissheit einer strengen, transparenten Prüfung zugänglich. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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Database: Complementary Index
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Abstract:Technological promises of the future organize perception, politics and expectation. This article develops digital eschatology as a lens that reveals the meaning, time and measure of these narratives. The focus is on AI as a node of prognosis, power and hope. Genealogically, secular images of salvation emerge as residual theologies of the tech society. The key question is: How do possibilities become obligations, and prognostics become pressure to cope? Touchstones are explanatory scope, the performativity of prognostics, and the capacity for criticism under acceleration. Theologically sensitized resources – chronos and kairos, responsibility beyond compliance, finitude – impose a measure on the gesture of omnipotence. This leads to virtues for institutions: moderation, temperance, mercy, not as ornamentation, but a force of order. A sober presence of the social sciences is presented to the public: authority without messianism, intervention without alarmism or cynicism. In this way, hope is freed from the rhetoric of salvation, and decisions under uncertainty are subject to rigorous, transparent scrutiny [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
ISSN:10131469