Mediatization, polarization, and intolerance (between environments, media, and circulation)

301 Hypotheses about polarization, mediatization, and algorithms Jairo G. Ferreira 1 Abstract: The purpose of this chapter is to establish a relation- ship between the polarization process and algorithms. In the first part of the article, we present our formulation on algorithms as a central sign in culture, whose materialization in modernity is central to the industrial revolution and capitalism. The algo- rithm understood as syllogism - the core of its inferential power in culture and digital machines - differs from the approach that situates it as complex mathematics - although it includes this one. However, in culture and use of material algorithms, abduc- tion is always at play as a form of inference resulting from the distinction between logic and environment. In the third section, we approach the interactions in a semiotic perspective in which the algorithms and abductions are the mental operative center. In conclusion, polarization is addressed as a permanent possi- bility in interactions, particularly when culture does not consti- tute systems in which the abductive logics and processes are not in a socially productive synergy. Keywords: Mediatization. Polarization. Algorithms. Interaction. Semiotics. Systems. 1. Introduction A cosmological perspective is part of the reflection on mediatization. Polarization is part of the nature of semiosis; 1 Full professor at PPGCC-UNISINOS and CNPq Researcher. ORCID: https://orcid. org/0000-0002-4540-0572. E-mail: jferreira@unisinos.br