Media as in The Matrix: Invisible machines in social communication from the perspective of systems theory

Abstract

With reference to the assumptions of the sociological theory of communication of social systems, its understanding of society and its media, the article deals with the issue of how the change of social communication dictated by the digitalization of media changes society. Society accepts the presence of digitization but looks for fields to criticize the non-reflective development of its routine. An example is the movie The Matrix, to which the analysis relates. The examples show what the technology of technical communication and self-learning (artificial intelligence) is already able to do today. The article summar-izes that the introduction of media 4.0 to communication — with their example of invisible machines — is consent to their “participation” (in an automated but effective form) in the creation of society. This influences the autopoietic notion of society developed by systems theory.