Workshop on Critical Theory of the Computational

International Workshop on: Critical Theory of the Computational

Date: 16th and 17th of October 2025

Location: Weizenbaum Institute Berlin

 

Workshop Description:

This workshop takes stock of a Critical Theory of the Computational. It engages critical theories (both in the tradition of the Frankfurt School and beyond) in order to examine how computational/digital constellations are shaping (upheaving, consolidating, etc.) foundational dynamics in society, and how said computational constellations are themselves embedded in ongoing planetary transformations (such as global heating). In interrogating possible preconceptions and assumptions entrenched in critical theories—such as human exceptionalism, and universalist aspirations—, we ask how these might be rethought in light of computational and planetary transformations.

The workshop will explore how computational constellations not only introduce new actors—such as AI systems and human–machine hybrids—but also shape existing understandings of agency and its properties like autonomy and emancipation. For example, the computational may give new opportunities for critical discourse, but it may equally give rise to numerous phenomena in politics and other parts of society that give cause for concern (such as power concentration, erosion of public discourse in liberal democracy, and enormous energy consumption).

By revisiting key concepts of critical theories—such as autonomy, emancipation, and social transformation—, the workshop will explore whether they require rearticulation or replacement to address the complex interplay of human, non-human, and planetary orders. Through cross-disciplinary dialogue, we invite participants to confront the assumptions that underpin both critical theories and contemporary discourses on computation. Together, we aim to develop a critical framework capable of addressing the multilayered and entangled realities of a computationally mediated world facing transformations of planetary scale.

The following three central questions will be discussed in the workshop:

• Why Critique—and How? How do we justify a critical stance on the computational amidst planetary stress—should our critique aim for constructive engagement, or does its force lie in unsettling entrenched norms? Which biases frame our standpoint, and how might a reflexive critique, attuned to social and planetary concerns alike, help shape more just futures?
• The Grand Challenges of Computational and Planetary Transformation: How does the computational reshape and challenge our understanding of the relationship of the human, non-human, inhumane, and no-longer human, and what ethical and political implications arise from these shifts?
• Future of Liberal Democracy: As computational networks and infrastructures become ever more embedded in polycrisis and planetary-scale change, how might liberal democracy be reimagined or reconfigured to remain legitimate, inclusive, and capable of addressing the complexities of a computationally mediated world?

The conference is organized in cooperation of the Center for Critical Computational Studies (C³S) in Frankfurt, the Center for Responsible AI Technologies (founded by the University Augsburg, Munich School of Philosophy and the Technical University Munich), and Weizenbaum Institute in Berlin joining our expertise on interdisciplinary research on the impact of digitalisation and new technologies on individuals and society.

 

Program

16 October 2025

9:30 – 9:45 Registration with Coffee

9:45 – 10:00 Welcome by Christoph Neuberger

10:00 – 10:30 Conceptual Framework for Critical Theory of the Computational by Christoph Burchard & Juliane Engel

10:30 – 12:30 Panel 1: Dialectics of the Digital: Critique, Co-Construction, and the Politics of Computation

Chair: Thorsten Thiel

Daniel Martin Feige

David Berry

Leonie Hunter: Technologies of Social Abstraction: Towards a Critical Theory of Computational Power

12:30 – 13:30 Lunch Break

13:30 – 15:30 Panel 2: Crises of Reason: Knowledge, Expropriation and Ideology in Computational Capitalism

Chair: Sebastian Berg

Anna Verena Nosthoff: Cybernetic Authoritarianism: Silicon Valley and the Politics of Dark Enlightenment(s)

Florian Butollo: Generative AI in Knowledge Work and the General Intellect. On the Relationship Between Work and Rent IT-Programming and Journalism (joint paper with Christine Gerber and Marlene Kulla)

Sebastian Sevignani: Can information and data be expropriated and exploited? The computational in digital capitalism

15:30 – 16:00 Coffee Break

16:00 – 18:00 Panel 3: Knowledge and GenAI: Between Truth and Hallucination

Chair: Benjamin Rathgeber

Jan Batzner: Whose Personae? Critical Pathways to Representativeness and Transparency in LLM Research

Ben Potter: Synthetic Mediations

Ann-Kathrin Koster or Paola Lopez: LLMs and the Production of Truth.
Rethinking Hallucinations with Hannah Arendt

Niklas Egberts: Technological Futurity and Common Sense: On a Key Metaphor of Artificial (General) Intelligence

18:00 – 19:00 Networking with Catering

19:00 – 20:00 Keynote speech by Prof Kate Crawford (online) and discussion on “Model Collapse”

The mass production and ingestion of synthetic data is destabilizing AI models, while the planetary resources needed to support this recursive cycle are growing dramatically. In this talk, Crawford will explore the relationships between algorithms, ecologies, and information that are driving toward forms of technical and ecological exhaustion.

 

17 October 2025

9:00 – 11:00 Panel 4: Grand Challenges and Planetary Transformation: Ecologies of Power in a Computational World

Chair: Juliane Engel

Katharina Block: The Rise and Fall of Miss Marble

Angela Oels: Sustainability powered by digitalisation? (Re-)politicising the debate

Markus Maier or Raphael Ronge: Behind the Hype: A Critique of Artificial Reasoning

Jan-Philipp Kruse: New Challenges for Democratic Futures. Towards a Critical Account of Digital Transformations in the Age of Anthropocene

Dan Verständig: Beyond Deconstruction: Co-Constructing Critique with Computational Technologies

11:00 – 11:15 Coffee Break

11:15 – 13:15 Panel 5: The Aesthetic, the Algorithmic, and the End(s) of Law: Critical Counterpoints to Computational Jurisprudence

Chair: Christoph Burchard

Sabine Müller-Mall: Computational Constitutionalism?

Jessica Eaglin

Katrin Becker: Reconfigurations in Law and Culture: Critical Reflections on Computational Transformations and the "Quérelle of the Symbolic"

Barton Beebe: Technological Change and the Beautiful Deaths of Law: A Recurring History

13:15 – 13:45 Lunch Break

13:45 – 15:45 Panel 6: Future of liberal Democracy: Challenges and opportunities

Chair: Christoph Neuberger

Annette Zimmermann; Radical Democratic Agenda-Setting: Contestation and Counterpower Against Big Tech Oligarchs

Markus Patberg: The Oligarchic Capture of the Public Sphere

David Leslie: AI and the heritage of democratic equity

Frederik Heinz: Technocratic Futures: AI, Digital Era Governance, and the Postliberal State

15:45 – 16:00 Final Remarks Thorsten Thiel

 

Panel Abstracts

Panel 1: Dialectics of the Digital: Critique, Co-Construction, and the Politics of Computation

This panel explores the conditions, limits, and possibilities of critical theory in the context of computational capitalism. As algorithmic systems mediate increasingly central aspects of social life — knowledge, labor, perception, and political agency — critical theory must confront not only new forms of domination, but also new modes of abstraction, production, and reflexivity. The panel interrogates technologies embeddedness in socio-historical structures and its role in reshaping subjectivity, value, and epistemology. Emphasizing relational critique, co-construction, and the transformation of critical concepts, the panel rethinks how critique can be enacted within computational infrastructures to confront the challenges of synthetic reason and digital governance.

Panel 2: Crises of Reason: Knowledge, Expropriation and Ideology in Computational Capitalism

The panel explores how computational capitalism reorganizes knowledge, ideology, and power. It examines the rise of generative AI as both productive force and site of control, the expropriation of intellectual and social resources under platform-driven economies, and the emergence of cybernetic-authoritarian imaginaries rooted in Silicon Valley’s “Dark Enlightenment.” At stake is a crisis of reason itself — where infrastructures meant to extend knowledge increasingly delimit the space for critique and reflection.

Panel 3: Knowledge and GenAI: Between Truth and Hallucination

This panel explores the mediation and transformation of concepts of knowledge through LLMs. We try to figure out, which impact LLMs have on our understanding of knowledge and meaning by a new way of production of knowledge and deception. Which way of critical understanding do we need to explore this new kind of ideology? Where are the limits and challenges of LLMs from a perspective of a critical theory of AI.

Panel 4: Grand Challenges and Planetary Transformation: Ecologies of Power in a Computational World

This panel interrogates the grand challenges posed by the convergence of planetary transformations and computational systems through the lens of power, politics, and epistemology. As climate crises escalate, digital technologies are frequently heralded as solutions — yet they often reinforce existing hierarchies, obscure material dependencies, and depoliticize sustainability discourse. Together, the panel examines how the computational reshapes our planetary condition — not simply as a set of tools, but as an ecology of power that entangles knowledge, governance, and the future of democracy itself.

Panel 5: The Aesthetic, the Algorithmic, and the End(s) of Law: Critical Counterpoints to Computational Jurisprudence

This panel interrogates the recurring cultural and institutional reconfigurations of law in response to the rise of computational technologies — from AI and blockchain to techno-regulation and data infrastructures. With perspectives spanning critical race theory, legal aesthetics, and digital governmentality, the panel explores how computational rationality challenges legal subjectivity, normativity, and the symbolic authority of law.

Panel 6: Future of liberal Democracy: Challenges and opportunities

When the richest and most politically powerful men in the world join forces or clash, it has a significant impact on liberal democracy — and not just in the US. Donald Trump and Elon Musk's power also stems from their ability as platform owners to present themselves as “strong men” and capture global attention through constant buzz. This raises the question of how a normative theory of liberal democracy must be linked to digital possibilities. The panel will discuss this with a view to democratizing artificial intelligence (Annette Zimmermann) as well as on AI and democratic equity (David Leslie), and using social media to empower citizens (Markus Patberg). A post-liberal, digitally centralized, anticipatory, and highly efficient state is within reach (Frederik Hein). Beyond dystopia and utopia, the aim is to develop a pragmatic understanding of democracy, according to which experimental means are used to explore how values such as equality, freedom, security, power symmetry, and cohesion can be brought into an appropriate balance.

 

Group photo from the workshop

 

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