Datafication of life

Abstract

This paper aims to discuss the datafication of life in the current phase of the development of digital culture based on three axes: social relations, knowledge and nature. Datafication takes place in the tracking of social relations mediated by digital platforms, and as “requisition” of the world in the form of data that can be operated in two main domains: nature and knowledge. The first form of requisition is produced by the harvesting of mineral and energy to produce machines and devices and to feed the capture, treatment, and circulation of data. The second is a world translation into data, generating an epistocratic algocracy that can decide on the knowledge and management of public affairs. Relating datafication of life as the four Aristotelian bios and communication based on their mode of existence, we can conclude that it cannot be reduced to the whole sphere of communication, nor to be identified to a bios of mediatization. Datafication of life is at the base of contemporary communication and is transversal to the four bios.