Gaseous identity
the rarefaction of the self in the hyperinformational society
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4013/con.2025.213.04Keywords:
Subjectivity. Information. Symbolic entropy. Gaseous identity. Thermodynamics of the self.Abstract
This article proposes the hypothesis of a gaseous identity, a post-Baumanian stage of subjectivity in which the self undergoes a process of symbolic rarefaction. If liquid modernity dissolved the solid forms of social life, gaseous contemporaneity dissolves the very subject who once acted within them. Drawing on a thermodynamic analogy, identity is conceived as an energetic system in disequilibrium, exposed to informational heat and unable to convert stimuli into inner work. Engaging with Bauman, Han, Stiegler, Rosa, Crary, Zuboff, Illouz, and Fisher, the essay argues that informational hyper-acceleration and the culture of transparency generate a symbolic entropy that corrodes bond, memory, and meaning. It concludes that the gaseous subject not only lives dispersed — he has become the very medium of dispersion.
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