Mediatized semiosis and power: interfaces for thinking about algorithmic means and platforms 199 social, transforming itself into a new utopia of power (alongside the perspectives inaugurated by cybernetics, functionalism, and approaches to communication as systems). However, at the same time, we consider the importance of analyzing mediatization in its various social functionalities. 2. Mediatization We begin with our convergence with Verón’s (2014) potent hypothesis that the materialization of mental experience is central to mediatization epistemologies. Here, the anthropological genesis of the species characterizes itself by the singular- ity of this semiotic and adaptive process. It is not even a ques- tion of saying that this adaptation is superior or inferior to the semiosis of nature and other living and animal species. It’s just a peculiar adaptation. This formulation allows us to think of an ontological line that is also epistemological: the shift from semiosis of nature to social semiosis. This displacement is founded by the species, by its bio-psycho-cognitive characteristics. The central differentiation is on the inferential capacity that stands out in relation to other species, which already developed and continue to develop the capacity to materialize mental experience (as animal species in general, from ants and bees to elephants and lions, et cetera). Mediatized semiosis refers to this process in which the materi- alization of mental experience into objects is immediately the basis for new individual and social inferences, a reference for interactions, fostering the interpretation of evidence and imagi- naries. Evidently, thinking about the genealogy of mediatization from this perspective is much more complex. It is not to say that all mental experiences may be ob- jectified2. The quantum formulation tells us that not everything is matter; in our planet and social cosmos, there is some energy that is not observable as matter. Therefore, mediatization is a re- stricted universe, even when we talk about mediatized semiosis. 2 Here, it is important to highlight the reflections that João Damásio, a doctoral student, presented in a thesis seminar of the research line Mediatization and Social Processes, at PPGCC-Unisinos.
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