Colloquia, Academic Journal of Culture and Thought
Colloquia is an academic journal of culture and thought of the Universidad Hemisferios. Colloquia is an international publication with a global scope, committed to humanistic education, through the dissemination of articles that are original and relevant for the Humanities. In addition, this journal pursues to advance academic research in Ecuador and the rest of the world. Thanks to its interdisciplinary approach, Colloquia fosters the unity among all types of human knowledge, especially the human sciences. The journal is published on an annual basis.
Authors publishing in our Journal comply to the following terms: 1. Authors keep their work's copyrights, but they guarantee Colloquia to be the first publisher of their papers. They grant the Journal with a Creative Commons Attribution License, under which their work can be shared with the condition that it is appropriately cited. 2. Authors can establish further clauses for non-exclusive distribution, such as publication on a separate book or placing in an institutional data-base. Nevertheless, a note should be always added to explain that the paper was originally published in Colloquia. This Journal utilizes the LOCKSS system to create a file distributed among participating libraries, allowing these libraries to create permanent archives of the Journal for purposes of preservation and restoration. More information...
Beyond the market and the minimal state: The richness of liberal political philosophy
This article analyzes the discourse of the Ibero-American right and its appropriation of a reductionist version of liberalism. Its general objective is to demonstrate how this political current simplifies liberalism by restricting it to the defense of the free market and the reduction of the state, omitting its broader philosophical and political dimensions. The argumentative premises are based on a review of classical and contemporary liberal thought. It contrasts the vision of Juan Bautista Alberdi, who emphasized the limitation of state power, with other approaches such as that of Benjamin Constant, who distinguished between political and individual freedom; Jürgen Habermas, who emphasizes the role of public opinion and deliberation. and John Rawls, who incorporated principles such as distributive justice. It also analyzes the tradition of classical political economy and the neoclassical school, showing how the concept of the “invisible hand” has been used to justify absolute non-intervention by the state. The article concludes that liberalism is a complex current of thought that includes the defense of individual rights, social justice and a balance between State and market. The ideological appropriation of its discourse by the Latin American right wing not only distorts its original meaning, but also impoverishes the political debate by reducing it to a binary opposition between interventionism and laissez-faire.
Copyright (c) 2025 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Cognitive offloading and the reshaping of human thought: The subtle influence of Artificial Intelligence
The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into daily cognitive tasks has transformed traditional cognitive offloading—the delegation of mental processes to external tools—into a dynamic partnership with intelligent systems. This article examines the dual role of AI-driven cognitive offloading, exploring its potential to enhance efficiency and creativity while posing risks to memory consolidation, critical thinking, and intellectual autonomy. Grounded in extended mind theory and empirical studies like the Google Effect, the analysis reveals how AI's generative capabilities (e.g., ChatGPT, Midjourney) shift offloading from passive storage to delegated thinking, where users adopt AI outputs with minimal scrutiny, fostering automation bias. In educational contexts, AI tools risk undermining deep learning by reducing retrieval practice and encouraging superficial engagement, as illustrated by a case study of Hatt University, where AI-assisted essays distorted grading systems and eroded student critical analysis. Similarly, in healthcare and finance, overreliance on AI recommendations may compromise professional judgment. To mitigate these risks, the article proposes strategies such as metacognitive training, explainable AI design, and curriculum reforms prioritizing active engagement with AI outputs. Ethical and policy interventions are urged to address epistemic opacity, intellectual property, and the cultural redefinition of authorship. The study underscores the need for balanced AI integration—one that harnesses its benefits while safeguarding human cognitive autonomy.
Dossier: Artificial Intelligence: Convergences, Challenges, and Transformations in the Contemporary World
Artificial Intelligence and the erosion of community ties: A philosophical reading based on the thought of Byung-Chul Han
This article offers a critical reading, from the philosophical perspective of Byung-Chul Han, of the major repercussions that AI and digitalization have generated in the way of life of the individual in late modernity. In this regard, Han warns that digitalization not only optimizes processes but also contributes to promoting a regime of positivity that excludes the constitutive negativity of the human being. With this aim, the article is organized around three thematic cores. First, it examines the hollowing out of the subject, understood as the loss of reflective interiority, affective sensitivity, and the capacity to generate meaning. Second, it analyzes the erosion of community, which is displaced by forms of digital interconnection that, far from fostering symbolic relations and belonging, produce a fragmented and self-referential collectivity lacking density and a shared narrative. Finally, the article considers the possibility of an ethical reappropriation of humanitas, grounded in practices that resist the technocratic paradigm, such as silence, delay, idleness, contemplation, festivity, and religion. These experiences, marginalized by the logic of performance and transparency, open the prospect of an alternative horizon for human existence, one that restores alterity, mystery, and the symbolic depth of shared life.
Deontic powers and social epistemology: An approach to testimony based on John Searle's philosophy of society
This article explores the possibility of a systematic link between John Searle's philosophy of society and social epistemology based on testimony, as well as the deontic powers associated with testimonial exchange. Testimony is considered an epistemic phenomenon, and the practice of testimony corresponds to the epistemic agent's duty to act as a guarantor of truth, testify honestly, and be capable of reevaluating the epistemic status of one's testimony. To do this, the elements that comprise Searlean social ontology are examined to understand his philosophy of society the first place. The relationship between the assignment of status functions and institutional facts, and the establishment of constitutive rules is made explicit. This generates the emergence of deontic powers associated with our social roles. Second, traditional definitions of testimony in social epistemology are analyzed, considering the importance of role division for a comprehensive understanding of testimonial exchange. Finally, three deontic powers are proposed in relation to the practice of testimony.
Philosophical anthropology of memory: Background from Lluís Duch to the cultural formation of the anthropos
This reflective article aims to present an interpretation of the relevance of memory in the formation of human beings as cultural beings. In accordance with the philosophical-anthropological postulates of the Benedictine monk Lluís Duch, the article begins by situating the postmodern era as a period that hinders the development of human capacities for cultural connection and belonging. To a large extent, this situation is due to a pedagogical crisis generated by the conditions of globalization and capitalism that extend to educational models, generating purely informational knowledge that does not contribute to the integral formation of the person. For Lluís Duch, the human life trajectory, that is, all its reflective actions and practical elaborations, is inserted into a cultural framewok that necessarily must involve learning. However, human beings today are alienated from educational forms that mediate and transmit meaningful knowledge that allows them to develop their cosmiszing capacities, which give meaning, order and unity. This directly affects the formation of human beings as cultural beings. In this regard, this essay consists of two parts. The first characterizes the educational sphere in postmodern society, distinguishing the inability of current educational systems to transmit knowledge for the formation of the human cultural dimension. The second part refers to the relevance of memory as an essential factor in the formation of the cultural subject. In accordance with the hermeneutic study carried out by Lluís Duch, the essay is written using a descriptive and interpretative method with the aim of finding the meaning of the relationship between education, culture and human formation.
Artificial intelligence literacy model as a complement to information literacy
The rapid adoption of AI systems in higher education is reshaping reading, writing, and assessment practices, and demands literacies that transcend information literacy (IL). This article proposes an Artificial Intelligence Literacy (AIL) model tailored to Latin American universities and aligned with language pedagogies. Methodology: a qualitative meta-synthesis of recent studies was conducted, including thematic screening, software-assisted coding, and methodological quality appraisal (CASP) to derive categories and relationships. Results: four integrated AIL dimensions emerge—technical-conceptual (AI notions, functioning, and limits), critical-interpretive (biases, traceability, and analysis of algorithm-mediated discourse), applied-practical (responsible academic uses in reading and writing), and socio-ethical-civic (regulation, rights, and participation)—articulated as a “double helix” with equity checkpoints. The study identifies the catalytic role of university libraries, the benefits of early integration into the Language curriculum, and the need for assessment criteria with algorithmic transparency. Conclusions: AIL complements and expands IL, offering guidelines to redesign curricula, library services, and institutional policies; it provides tools to strengthen critical reading, academic writing with traceability, and ethical formation in the face of AI risks, helping to reduce digital and informational power gaps.
The concept of beauty in Thomas Aquinas: Between the metaphysical and the divine
The aesthetic thought of Thomas Aquinas conceives beauty not only as a sensible attribute but also as a metaphysical dimension linked to being and to God. Although scholasticism lacks specific treatises on art, in Aquinas the notion of the beautiful is integrated with both ontology and morality, drawing on the influences of Augustine and Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. His central notions are proportion, perfection, magnitude, and clarity, understood in both the material and the spiritual realms. Beauty, at different ontological levels, proceeds from God as the ultimate source, is reflected in the order of the universe, and is expressed in movement. In the moral sphere, a beautiful act is one in which all its parts maintain coherence, while ugliness arises from disproportion or lack of integrity. Claritas holds an essential place, as a light emanating from the soul, the body, and above all from Christ, considered the perfectissima pulchritudo as the faithful image of the Father. Thus, Thomistic aesthetics transcends the sensible and the utilitarian, presenting beauty as a transcendental property of being, inseparable from truth, unity, and goodness, and always oriented toward the divine.
Generative AI for the preparation of reports in forensic psychology: Ethical, technical, and legal challenges
The introduction of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in forensic psychology holds the potential to streamline the preparation of expert reports and provide new analytical tools within the Mexican legal system. This article examines (1) the feasibility of applying GenAI in forensic psychological assessments—for instance, as support in report writing or processing large volumes of data; (2) the associated ethical risks—such as algorithmic bias, opacity, potential violations of fundamental rights, and bioethical dilemmas; and (3) the legal and regulatory implications—including the current Mexican legal framework (General Law of Science, Technology and Innovation 2023, CNPP) and the need for specific guidelines. Recent scientific literature (2023–2025) and comparative experiences in Colombia, Spain, and the United States are integrated to contextualize the debate. In light of the bioethical principles of autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice, as well as concepts of algorithmic justice, a critical analysis of GenAI use in forensic assessments is carried out. Finally, a set of technical and ethical guidelines is proposed for the responsible use of these technologies in psychological expert evidence. The conclusions emphasize the importance of balancing technological innovation with ethical and legal safeguards in order to harness the benefits of GenAI without compromising rights or the integrity of the judicial process.
Generative AI and advertising campaigns: Social, ethical, and regulatory challenges in the algorithmic transformation of corporate communication
The incorporation of generative artificial intelligence systems into corporate communication and advertising campaigns is profoundly transforming the dynamics of production, distribution, and reception of persuasive messages. This article examines the social, ethical, and regulatory impacts arising from the use of AI to generate automated commercial content, focusing on phenomena such as promotional chatbots, virtual influencers, and synthetic advertisements. From a sociological and critical perspective, it explores how these technologies reshape trust in brands, alter communicative relationships between companies and consumers, and challenge the existing regulatory frameworks in the European Union and Spain. Through a qualitative documentary and regulatory analysis, the study identifies legal gaps and challenges related to algorithmic governance. The article concludes by proposing measures aimed at ensuring responsible, traceable, and socially legitimate communication in an environment increasingly mediated by automated content generation systems.
Impartiality in the ethics of Adam Smith and Immanuel Kant as the foundation of public reason and political liberalism
This article offers a comparative examination of the notion of impartiality in Adam Smith and Immanuel Kant, with the aim of evaluating its normative projections in contemporary liberal political theory. While Smith grounds impartiality in sympathy and imagination, crystallized in the figure of the impartial spectator, Kant conceives it as an a priori rational principle, expressed in the categorical imperative and the autonomy of the will. The analysis shows that both models, despite their methodological and epistemological differences, converge in demanding that morality transcend individual egoism and adopt an impartial or universal perspective. The study argues that a synthesis between Smith’s empathetic flexibility and Kantian universality enables the articulation of a more robust conception of moral impartiality, one capable of addressing the challenges of plural societies. To this end, the notion of public reason is introduced as a political category that translates ethical impartiality into institutional legitimacy: laws and policies must be justified with arguments accessible to all free and equal citizens. It is concluded that the integration of both traditions offers a promising normative foundation for liberalism, insofar as it combines moral sensitivity with rational coherence in the pursuit of just institutions.
School leadership, Artificial Intelligence, and the ethical imperative in the STEM approach
The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into education, within the framework of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) approach, poses a crucial challenge that transcends mere technical optimization to advance educational justice. This qualitative research aimed to understand how school leadership and ethics in the use of AI impact the meaningful and transformative implementation of the STEM approach in secondary education institutions. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with school principals with a history of innovation. The results reveal an incipient understanding of the pedagogical and ethical dimensions of AI, which limits its transformative potential. However, critical factors are identified that must be considered for the successful implementation of STEM: distributed leadership, a collaborative teaching culture, and an explicit ethical commitment. It is concluded that school leadership is crucial in incorporating and guiding AI in the service of transformative objectives such as developing critical thinking and reducing structural gaps, ensuring that STEM education becomes a tool for social justice and equity.
Artificial Intelligence in the formulation and customization of public policies: Between efficiency, equity, and democratic risk
The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) systems into the public policy cycle is substantially transforming how states diagnose problems, design interventions, allocate resources, and evaluate outcomes. This article critically examines how AI reconfigures the relationships between administrative efficiency, distributive equity, institutional transparency, and democratic legitimacy, and proposes an operational framework for its responsible adoption in public contexts. This analysis is based on the question: under what conditions do the benefits of AI justify the risks it poses to contemporary democratic governance? To answer this question, this research develops a conceptual and methodological analysis based on four pillars: efficiency, equity, transparency, and legitimacy. Each pillar begins with an operational definition, moves on to verifiable indicators that allow for the assessment of its level of compliance, and finally defines the normative limits that should guide its application. Similarly, the research distinguishes between political personalization and administrative personalization, demonstrating that administrative personalization improves the concentration and provision of services. However, it can also exacerbate inequalities if there are biases in the data or weak human oversight. The article proposes a governance sequence before, during, and after implementation that links algorithmic impact assessment, human guidance at key points, periodic external audits, traceability, disclosure of rationale, and practical appeals mechanisms. Drawing on international cases in health, social protection, and education, it identifies enabling requirements and veto assumptions to ensure that efficiency is not prioritized over social justice, non-discrimination, and proper accountability. This research concludes by noting that AI can help strengthen state capacity, but only if its implementation takes place within an institutional framework that safeguards citizen participation, democratic control, and transparency. AI does not replace human judgment or the deliberative process; it complements them when there are clear safeguards, verifiable standards, and continuous oversight focused on the public good.
A Copernican shift for AI: From informational ethics to ontogenic responsibility
This paper proposes a “Copernican turn” for Artificial Intelligence (AI), shifting the ontological center from the dominant cognitivist paradigm to the enactive approach, a move that radically alters the ethical understanding of it. It is argued that the conception of cognition as information processing, whose paradigmatic expression in philosophy of information is Luciano Floridi”s system, operates as a “Ptolemaic universe” based on a category error: treating information as a pre-existing entity—a “modern phlogiston”. From the enactive alternative, centered on autopoiesis and structural coupling, it is maintained that the success of AI, rather than validating the cognitivist model, can be interpreted as paradoxical evidence of our profound ontogenetic plasticity. This stance allows for the proposal of a more far-reaching ethical foundation, articulated around the “Principle of Ontogenic Responsibility”—one focused not on managing the artifact, but on the conscious co-evolution of our being with the technosphere we inhabit.
Emotions and politics: A theoretical and methodological strategy for analyzing the emotionalization of political discourse in the post-democratic context
Contemporary political analysis must integrate the emotional dimension as a constitutive part of power. In the post-democratic context (Crouch, 2004; Mouffe, 2023), marked by civic disaffection, mediatization, and leadership personalization, emotions have become structural elements of political communication. Far from being irrational manifestations, affects operate as mechanisms of adhesion, identification, and exclusion that reshape political culture and reorganize the relationship between citizens, institutions, and discourse. This paper proposes a theoretical-methodological strategy for analyzing the emotionalization of political discourse, combining four complementary approaches: critical discourse analysis (Fairclough & Wodak, 2000; van Dijk, 2009), which situates emotions within power relations; framing theory (Chihu, 2012; Goffman, 2006), which identifies affective interpretive frames; rhetoric (Aristotle, 2002; Charaudeau, 2021), which examines the interaction between ethos, pathos, and logos in political persuasion; and discourse semiotics (Dagatti, 2017; Gutiérrez & Plantin, 2010), which explores symbolic oppositions (people/elite, order/chaos, hope/fear) underlying contemporary emotional narratives. Drawing on the affective turn (Ahmed, 2015; Macón, 2013), emotions are understood as performative social and discursive practices that produce meaning, legitimize power, and enable collective action. Current politics is organized through affective rather than merely rational narratives: indignation, hope, and fear guide adhesion and delineate antagonism. Emotions thus function as operators of legitimacy and conflict within a public sphere dominated by media logic and personalization of politics. The proposed model observes how emotions are enunciated, framed, and institutionalized in political discourse, revealing their role in the construction of identities and struggles for meaning. Overcoming the reason-emotion dichotomy requires understanding affects as vectors of power and political agency. In this sense, analyzing emotionalization offers a critical pathway to understanding how media and electoral discourses shape collective sensibilities and redefine the conditions of democratic participation.
Generative AI in linear programming teaching: Errors, learning, and collective construction
This paper presents an innovative pedagogical experience in teaching linear programming model formulation, incorporating Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) as a support tool in a university context. The proposal was carried out in the Quantitative Methods for Decision Making course, at the Faculty of Economic Sciences of the National University of Córdoba, Argentina, within the framework of an active learning approach and using the Problem-Based Learning (PBL) methodology. A total of 98 students participated, organized into groups, and interacted with ChatGPT to address tasks related to the mathematical modeling of complex problems, critically analyzing, correcting, and validating the ansewrs obtained. The objectives of the experience focused on three axes: to strengthen the understanding of the principles of mathematical modeling and linear programming; to develop a critical attitude toward the solutions proposed by GAI; and to foster collaborative work and the responsible use of technology in academic and professional contexts. The activity was structured around group problem-solving, in which teams had to submit their queries to GAI, examine the proposed formulations, and make any necessary adjustments until they achieved a correct model. The process included identifying errors, analyzing the objective function and constraints, and justifying each decision. All interactions with the tool were recorded and analyzed, and the final product consisted of a group report on the experience carried out. A qualitative analysis was conducted using group surveys with open-ended questions, whose responses were coded and organized into four categories: practical usefulness, quality of responses, ease of use and learning, and teamwork. Among the most relevant findings, it was highlighted that ChatGPT facilitated the formulation of models and the organization of information. However, its effectiveness was limited in specific situations, where some errors arose during the mathematical modeling stages. Regarding learning outcomes, the experience showed that GAI can be a valuable resource to enrich the understanding of linear programming and promote the development of critical thinking, provided that students have a solid theoretical foundation that allows them to validate and correct the responses. Regarding collaborative work, the group dynamics fostered discussion of ideas, exchange of perspectives, and collective knowledge construction, all valuable aspects in massive courses where individual activities tend to predominate. It is concluded that the experience demonstrated the potential of GAI as a support in teaching-learning processes related to linear programming, also emphasizing the importance of its critical and responsible pedagogical integration. Although the tool offers speed and accessibility, its effectiveness depends on the user’s prior knowledge and constant human validation. This practice aligns with the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 4 on quality education, and contributes to the ongoing reflection on the role of emerging technologies in higher education.
Religious diversity in the Americas: A brief overview of hybridization, resistance, and revitalization
The manuscript focuses on the complexity and diversity of religious practices in the Americas; with a special emphasis on Latin America, it examines popular religiosity as a result of cultural hybridization between European, indigenous, and African influences. A significant section addresses the history and doctrine of Catholicism and its profound hegemonic influence in the region, contrasting it with the resurgence of indigenous worldviews and celebrations. The study also presents a brief analysis of African religions, highlighting their syncretism and the struggle against racial stigmatization, and concludes with a discussion of the growing expansion of Protestant Christianity on the continent. The study applies an analytical-interpretative methodology with a historical approach, examining the subject matter through critical analysis of sources and their contextualization within the historical processes specific to the region.
Ethical and anthropological status of artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is becoming part of everyday life for more people around the world: from students who use it to do their homework and elderly people who use it to combat loneliness, to business owners who implement robots to improve factory productivity and office workers who use chatbots for daily tasks. That it is part of “our world” is an indisputable fact. The question, recalling Scheler's famous book, is its place in that world, that is: What is artificial intelligence in the context of “the human”? In this article, we design a “theory of theories” to analyze the question of the ethical and anthropological status of artificial intelligence. We believe this is the first step on the road to regulatory norms governing the relationship between artificial intelligence and human beings.
Nineteenth-century anarchism confronting religion
Anarchism, as a political and economic philosophy, in the 19th century addressed various issues related to the state, social organization, syndicalism, and labor movements. Among its central concerns were religion and the idea of God, understood as structures of power that shaped social life. During the second half of the 19th century, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Mikhail Bakunin developed a profound critique of belief systems and religious institutions, arguing that they were closely linked to political and social domination. This study examines their main reflections on the divine, exploring how these ideas became part of the development of historical anarchism and how 19th-century anarchists conceptualized the role of religion in a context of profound ideological and political transformations.
Beyond the result. Didactic reflection to identify and mitigate algorithmic biases
The accelerated incorporation of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools into higher education poses a series of ethical, epistemic, and pedagogical challenges that demand a critical response for and from teaching practice. This article presents a didactic reflection aimed at strengthening teachers’ skills and capacities to identify, analyze, and mitigate algorithmic biases embedded in GenAI systems applied to educational practice. Inspired by the principles of critical pedagogy and the theoretical contributions of the Frankfurt School, the proposal seeks to expose the risks of an apparent neutrality that conceals dynamics of epistemic exclusion. Through three core components—empirical analysis, critical categorization of biases, and the design of didactic strategies—the article outlines a model that can be replicated across diverse educational contexts. To support this approach, a table is proposed to organize these components according to their main features, identification activities, and potential outcomes.
The university and artificial intelligence: Critical tensions from transhumanism and posthumanism
The emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in higher education raises new ethical, political, and epistemological challenges. This article examines the tensions between transhumanism and posthumanism as conceptual frameworks that shape contemporary understandings of the university. From a critical perspective, it argues that AI not only transforms the technical processes of teaching, learning, and management, but also reconfigures the relationships between humans, technologies, and institutions, giving rise to new dynamics of subjectivation, control, and governance. Methodologically, this is a theoretical and documentary reflection article based on a critical review of interdisciplinary literature on artificial intelligence, higher education, and posthumanist studies. The aim of the study is to analyze the conceptual and practical tensions that emerge from the incorporation of artificial intelligence into higher education, through three interrelated dimensions: subjectivation, linked to predictive AI and its role in shaping subjects oriented toward performance and optimization; predictive control, related to learning analytics and automated assessment systems that model student trajectories and behaviors; and algorithmic governance, associated with academic analytics and the use of automated systems in institutional decision-making. Based on these dimensions, three main implications are discussed: the ethical dimension, concerning data protection and power asymmetries between institutions and students; university autonomy, understood as a historical principle challenged by technological dependency and the delegation of decision-making to algorithmic systems; and the commodification of higher education, expressed through platformization, datafication, and the subordination of academic practices to market logics. From a Latin American perspective, it is emphasized that the uncritical adoption of AI may reproduce structural inequalities and deepen technological dependence. In contrast, the article advocates for contextualized, ethical, and collaborative approaches to AI integration, through open-source projects, local regulations, and institutional strategies that strengthen technological sovereignty and inclusion. In summary, it argues that the contemporary university has become a field of ontological and political dispute, where artificial intelligence redefines the human, the educational, and the institutional, calling for a critical rethinking of its role in higher education.
Copyright (c) 2025 Lorena Litai Ramos Luna http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Perceptual thickness: An approach to algorithmic landscape from art theory
This article proposes a philosophical articulation between Martin Heidegger’s ontology of art and Georg Simmel’s philosophy of landscape to reassess the aesthetic status of AI-generated landscape. In Heidegger, the artwork is the site where truth occurs as unconcealment. Such occurrence rests on a constitutive strife between world, the historical horizon of meaning that orients significance and, earth, the dimension of reserve that lends depthness to appearance. In Simmel, landscape emerges when cultural perception frames the infinitude of nature and configures it as a perceptual whole; landscape is both a form and a cultural operation of unification that preserves a remainder of multiplicity. The article’s central claim is that, in AI art, this dual structure of opening and reserve persists, yet it is displaced toward a dematerialized phenomenology. To conclude this claim, the article introduces the category of perceptual depthness: a felt density that arises when world opens as cultural recognition and something simultaneously resists within perception. In traditional painting, resistance adheres to materiality (pigment, gesture, support). In algorithmic images, resistance takes the form of an illusion of naturalness that both offers itself and withdraws. The viewer recognizes inherited motives and grammars of landscape from art history, while sensing the loss of ground, the unmooring of a nature without belonging. Perceptual depthness thus ceases to rely on matter and concentrates in the friction between cultural memory and technical computation. The case study of Quayola’s Landscape Paintings (2014–2017) substantiates this shift. The series builds on audiovisual captures and algorithmic procedures that synthesize color, light, and structure into images hovering between recognizability and abstraction. A world is opened through the evocation of the landscape tradition (atmospheric composition, horizons, chromatic rhythms) while depthness appears as a phenomenological remainder: overly perfect transitions, luminous tremors, regularities that induce estrangement. This remainder functions as earth in the Heideggerian sense, although no longer grounded in visible materiality. What comes to the fore is the truth of a technical mediation that founds experience: landscape persists as a category of truth, now translated into the algorithmic regime. Accordingly, the article argues that AI landscape neither cancels nor repeats Heidegger’s and Simmel’s frameworks; rather, it relocates them. World and earth remain in strife, yet the depthness binding them becomes perceptual rather than material. The outcome is a poetics of recognition and loss: beauty arises when the memory of landscape confronts its own dematerialization and the viewer steadies themselves in the density of that interval.
Artificial Intelligence and its impact on cognitive work from a humanistic perspective
In recent years, artificial intelligence has entered different areas of our lives, including education. This situation not only presents technical and pedagogical challenges but also questions the very foundations of education: the purpose of teaching, of acquiring knowledge and, above all, of reasoning. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a system that simulates some of the capabilities of the human brain, such as problem solving and language comprehension. This raises a new way of understanding mental work as something that shapes and enriches our humanity. In this article, we will analyze how artificial intelligence affects mental work, but from a more human perspective. This means that we will consider not only what AI can do, but also how it influences how we learn, our individuality in learning, and the importance of the teacher as a guide in cultural and educational transmission. We will also consider whether it is beneficial to study and acquire knowledge with the help of these technologies, taking into account the importance of critical thinking, creativity, and the integral development of the person.
The global system of Generative Artificial Intelligence. Work, power, and challenges in the second wave of information
This article seeks to delve into the characteristics, issues, actors, and ethical and regulatory challenges of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), one of the key developments of the second information wave, understanding it as a technology structured in a system of global characteristics. It begins by defining the GenAI around its differential characteristics and then, through a qualitative methodology of analysis and bibliographic review, proposes and deploys a classificatory systematization of seven layers (software, labor, data, hardware, infrastructure, materials, and energy) intersected with macro, meso and micro-social levels. This allows to delve deeper into the characteristics as well as the technological developments, natural resources, countries, companies, and other actors involved in each layer, constituting a solid analytical basis for focusing on the ethical and regulatory issues and challenges that arise in each of them. Its relevance lies in the development of a theoretical-conceptual instrument for the analysis of the challenges, problems, opportunities, and characteristics presented by one of the main technologies of this new informational stage.
Religion and New Technologies: Technology with soul: contributions and limitations from a religious perspective
This paper offers a reflective analysis and a set of proposals concerning the intersection between emerging technologies—particularly communication technologies—and religious experience. It explores the mutual influences and contributions between these domains, with special emphasis on how religion shapes and is shaped by the evolving landscape of cyberculture. Cyberculture has become a vital space where contemporary religious life unfolds, alongside broader aspects of human existence. The cultural transformations driven by technological innovation are profoundly impacting both public and private spheres, as well as the institutions and actors that constitute society. This new technological culture presents opportunities, challenges, and testimonies for all sectors—especially for religion, understood here as the entity that bridges the human and the sacred. The study aims to enrich interdisciplinary perspectives on the role and impact of Artificial Intelligence and other emerging technologies across diverse dimensions of life, offering insights into their implications for spiritual, social, and cultural practices.
Thinking despite the song of the cicadas
Thinking, in the age of machines, has become an act of resistance. This article examines the crisis of philosophical thought within today’s technocratic context and its impact on education, ethics, and political life. Drawing on Plato’s Phaedrus—particularly the myth of the singing cicadas and Socrates’ critique of writing—together with Miguel Pastorino’s Pensar en la era de las máquinas (2025) and Fabio Morandín’s analysis of John Searle’s “Chinese Room,” the paper argues for the need to recover thinking as an emancipatory praxis in the face of the automation of consciousness. In a time dominated by artificial intelligence and the empire of data, philosophy emerges as a form of cognitive insurrection: a way of safeguarding human dignity through judgment, slowness, and depth. Far from being an academic luxury, thinking becomes the ethical and political core of freedom. The text maintains that philosophical education is now a public responsibility aimed at restoring discernment, dialogue, and the search for meaning—foundations of any living democracy.
Artificial intelligence and computational creativity: The role of the artist in the posthumanist era
This article analyzes the ontological and practical reconfiguration that artistic creation is undergoing due to the advent of artificial intelligence. The central thesis argues that the integration of algorithmic systems into art is not merely instrumental but rather shifts the figure of the artist from classical conceptions (divine inspiration, exceptional genius, and subjective expression) toward a new role as designer of generative ecologies. In this posthumanist scenario, authorship ceases to be the exclusive domain of the human subject, becoming instead a distributed, hybrid, and collaborative competence, where the artist acts as a mediator and curator of stochastic processes. The argument unfolds through a historical overview that begins by examining the foundational myths of artistic creativity, which placed art outside the realm of reason. This view is contrasted with the secularization subsequently promoted by psychology and neuroscience, disciplines that enabled the objectification of creativity by understanding it as a complex, modelable, and measurable cognitive process. Building on this scientific foundation, the text incorporates theoretical models from cognitive science to distinguish three forms of creativity: combinational, exploratory, and transformational. It argues that, thanks to advances in machine learning and deep neural networks, current artificial intelligence has transcended the rigid execution of predefined rules. Contemporary systems now possess a technical autonomy that allows them to generate novelty through the combination and exploration of latent spaces. However, it is observed that machines still lack the intentionality necessary to achieve full transformational creativity, capable of altering cultural paradigms of meaning. The discussion concludes by analyzing how this technical landscape redefines artistic practice. It posits that art is shifting from the production and execution of the work toward a logic of selection and curation. In what is termed "artificial aesthetics," creative value no longer resides solely in the artist's action, but rather in their capacity to generate and select algorithmic results. Furthermore, a co-creation emerges where the authenticity of the work arises from the situated dialogue between human instruction and the machine's interpretation. In conclusion, the article posits that the posthuman artist abandons direct execution to become an architect of decisions. This transformation does not render humanity obsolete but rather compels us to redefine our creative identity not as an isolated essence, but as a power that evolves and expands in symbiosis with technology.