Abstract

I want to examine the Habermasian account of modernity from a particular vantage-point: namely the collection of new technologies that are called variously “artificial intelligence,” “knowledge engineering,” “intelligent systems,” “expert systems,” and the like. The significance of these technologies far exceeds whatever role they may come to play in business, government, or the other institutions they penetrate. I suggest that they cast doubt over the entire project of modernity as understood by Habermas — not because they signify the penetration of the lifeworld by instrumental rationality, but because they demonstrate the extent to which the formation of the lifeworld itself has simply moved beyond the problematic of autonomy and communicative rationality elaborated by Habermas