社群媒體與AI 科技政治效應：反思第三波SSS 與代碼／空間理論

A Review of Studies on the Political Effects of Social Media and AI Technologies: Reflecting on the Third Wave of SSS and Code/Space Theory

本文旨在說明，基於經驗性以及理論性兩個面向的考量，建議STS（Science and Technology Studies） 與SSS（Social Studies of Science）學界必須將社群媒體科技與AI 科技對於成熟民主國家與非民主國家的政治衝擊共同討論。在經驗性的層次，「數位獨裁」的擴張與民主國家的政治發展息息相關，民主國家一方面需要慎防與之鄰近或交流密切的數位獨裁國家所帶來的資安威脅，另一方面也需要因應社群媒體科技對於國內民主機制運作的負面衝擊。本文更試圖論證，STS 與SSS 學界也應該發展，能夠一同對「數位獨裁」與「數位民主」進行研究的思考方向，以能夠實質增進「第三波SSS 理論」與其他社會科學科技研究的對話。本文會呈現，人文地理學家所發展出的概念—代碼／空間理論（code/space theory），得以彌補第三波SSS 理論對於數位科技的政治效應關懷的不足，並能夠同時幫助思考數位獨裁國家中，電腦運算能力（computational power）如何強化了政治權力（political power）。

In this article, I argue that the scholarly communities of STS and SSS should analyze, in empirical as well as theoretical terms, the political effects of social media and AI technologies on advanced democracies in relation to non-democratic regimes. At the empirical level, the expansion of ‘digital autocracies’ has impacted political developments in democracies. On the one hand, democratic countries need to guard against information security threats brought about by adjacent digital autocracies or ones with whom close exchanges are unavoidable. On the other hand, they need to cope with the negative impact of ubiquitous social media technologies on the domestic functioning of a democracy. This article demonstrates why it is vital that scholarly communities of STS and SSS study ‘digital autocrats’ and ‘digital democracies’ in relation to each other. This could substantially facilitate a meaningful conversation between the Third Wave of Social Studies of Science and studies from other social science traditions. I also assert that the ‘code/space theory’ developed by human geographers could fill the void left by the Third Wave of Social Studies of Science concerning how the latter rarely discusses the political effects of digital technologies. Lastly, I intend to inspire future study of how computational power has enhanced the political power of digital autocrats.