Lebenswelt, Digital Phenomenology, and the Modification of Human Intelligence

The development of contemporary digital technologies leads to a profound modification of human intelligence. The authors assume that this modification should be studied by means of a special kind of phenomenology. It is digital phenomenology which examines the structures of consciousness of the modern technogenic subject. This builds on their previous works where the authors have already discussed a theory of the transformation of human intelligence driven by digital technologies. The influence of these technologies results in virtualization of affect. Affect becomes detached from its local manifestation in the human body and is manifested in material and energetic processes in digital infrastructure. As a result, space and time, categories of reason, and productive imagination become aspects of mobile devices and digital infrastructure. The aim of this contribution is to discuss the possibilities of digital phenomenology in the study of communication of the technogenic subject. Methodologically, the study refers to the phenomenological approach. Archetypes are compared of classical intelligence and technogenic subjectivity which defines the content of communication. The authors suggest that consciousness as a pure orientation can undergo digital modification, as the world of primordial objects is discovered through corporeal experience. A modern human body is not constituted within the boundaries of direct sensual experience but perceives digital devices as body organs. The peculiarities of the language of these devices determine human linguistic practices as well. So we can see non-human intelligence and non-human communication. Both intelligence and communication are becoming increasingly artificial. The prospect of further in-depth research in the digital humanities is outlined.