Ana Paula da Rosa 234 4. The pseudo-transparency of the machine: banks and virtual assistants Being in mediatization implies an increasingly strong relationship between man and machine and, consequently, be- tween machine and man. It is important to note that a relation- ship involves interaction and dialogue, i.e., essentially communication. If, historically, this relationship has been permeated by various circulating meanings – criticism, praise, adhesion, coer- cion –, we can also think about the presence of technology in our lives today. The black box of media devices has several layers. Flusser (2002), referring to this black box, considers that ‘such a complex system is never completely penetrated.’ That is, no matter how many layers are unveiled, there are always others that remain untouched. Although we know that Google, for example, collects our data at every moment, even if this layer is explicit from the moment we join the program, what is done with our data remains a provocative mystery, giving rise to many other images. Many years before the concept of deep mediatization or datafied studies emerged, Flusser (1980) already focused on developing processes of miniaturization of cybernetic mem- ory, enabling the storage and processing of data. According to Flusser, the most notable feature of these programs is their in- visibility since human interaction shifts from dealing with the programmer to the program itself. To imagine a society equipped with such instru- ments is to imagine a society programmed with new meaning. Society will feel existentially freer because it will have great freedom of choice and because the programs that control its action will be practically invisible. In such an imaginary society, politics would disappear in the ordinary sense of the term. In the traditional sense, it is a method for making decisions and entails a public square, where these decisions are made by dialogue or dictation. This imaginary society excludes all pub- lic squares because its programs are elaborated in
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