Haining Zhou
Zhou Haining holds a Ph.D. in Communication Studies and is currently an Assistant Professor at the School of Journalism and Communications, Shandong Normal University (Jinan, China). His research interests encompass media philosophy, communication theory, and Chinese communication thought. He is the translator and editor of the first systematically introduced collection of Vilém Flusser’s works in Mainland China, the “Flusser Series” in media philosophy. In recent years, he has published nine books, including five Chinese translations of Flusser’s works: Communicology, Praise of Appearance, Does Writing Have a Future?, Gestures, and The Surprising Phenomena of Human Communication. Among his original publications, Theory of Human Communication: Flusser’s Media Philosophy stands as the first Chinese monograph devoted to Flusser’s media philosophy.
Articles of Haining Zhou
Vilém Flusser's Media Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence
In his philosophy of media, Vilém Flusser offers profound insights into the transition of human communication from a “writing civilization” to a “programmed civilization” through key concepts such as “programmed thinking,” the “apparatus,” and “artificial intelligence.” He argues that the linear, historical, and critical characteristics of traditional writing are being replaced by the programmed and functional logic of symbolic encoding. Among these, the “apparatus” serves as the operational matrix of programmed thinking, devouring history to generate post-history (technical images) and transforming humans into “functionaries,” ultimately diluting human subjectivity. Artificial intelligence, as a programmed apparatus, further intensifies this crisis by projecting and simulating human brain functions externally. Based on this, this paper examines the internal logic among Flusser’s concepts of programmed thinking, the apparatus, and artificial intelligence, synthesizes the theoretical framework of his thought on artificial intelligence as media, and provides theoretical resources for understanding the technological‑cultural dilemmas of the digital age. Furthermore, through a phenomenological‑existential “secondary translation,” this paper reframes the crisis of subjectivity as a generative issue within media ontology, offering a theoretical entry point for revisiting human subjectivity in the digital era.