The new superorganic

Abstract

Despite proposals by Kroeber and others that society and culture represent a distinct level of reality, the prevailing opinion has been that they are abstractions from the behavior of individuals. Recently that position, methodological individualism, has been challenged on several fronts. Especially with the incorporation of artificial intelligence into many aspects of social life, it is no longer feasible to consider the ultimate unit of social action to be the human individual. Bolstered with a case study of the consequences of automation for the legal profession, the argument here is that agency should be redefined in a more expansive and dynamic manner that includes but is not limited to the individual. © 2004 by The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. All rights reserved.