History never truly ends. Only the instruments of power and the forms of domination change. The human being of the future will face an unprecedented dilemma: either humanity will allow Superintelligence to become an instrument of absolute control, or it will integrate it into a new anthropocentric civilization of freedom, knowledge and justice.
The “Algorithmic Insurgent” may prove to be not merely a form of resistance, but the first warning sign of a new era in which the struggle for freedom will unfold within the networks of information and inside the very core of human thought itself.
Armed popular violence, as expressed by its proponents during past decades in Europe — mainly in Italy, Germany, France and Greece — failed to produce political results. For this reason, it has now been abandoned as a tool of revolutionary awakening of the masses and as a method of provoking collective popular uprising. No substantial changes occurred either in the structure of the state or, certainly, in its very core. Much less was there any evolution toward a genuine “state of law,” which supposedly constituted one of the principal demands of the groups engaged in armed popular violence. On the contrary, the actions of the “urban guerrillas” of that era led to harsher state repression and authoritarian behavior, with the state itself exercising actual terrorism — this time quite literally — under the pretext of combating… terrorism.
Terrorism — blind violence through bomb placements, “martyr” explosions, and all forms of attacks against crowds — as it has been carried out and continues to be carried out, consists of utterly irrational, anti-political, horrific and condemnable acts. It is mainly practiced by far-right and neo-Nazi groups, extremist Islamists and nationalists. In Greece, such “blind” bomb attacks were in the past committed in cinemas, buses and public squares by neo-Nazi organizations in which the later leader of Golden Dawn, Nikos Michaloliakos, played a central role.
At this point, however, we must clarify that history does not justify indiscriminately classifying all forms of “individual popular violence” together with terrorism. State authorities may characterize such violence in this way, but history does not permit such a distortion of historical truth. The exercise of “individual political violence” is an entirely different matter from blind terrorism. Such actions may indeed be ineffective and unsuccessful and may no longer serve any political objective in our time, yet they cannot automatically be labeled “terrorist” in the sense and emotional charge imposed upon them by propagandistic rhetoric and state ideology.
Within this category of individual, popular and non-terrorist violence, we also include the execution of “tyrants” — instruments and mechanisms of regimes that openly oppress human societies and deprive them of their fundamental individual rights. In the pages of independent history, the actions of tyrannicides — even when unsuccessful in achieving the elimination of the tyrant — are often vindicated, and their representatives are placed among the heroes of history. One may recall, for example, the attempts to assassinate Adolf Hitler, the so-called monster of history and leader of the Nazis; the execution of Greece’s first governor and tyrant Ioannis-Ivan Kapodistrias; or the attempted assassination of the Greek dictator Georgios Papadopoulos.
At this point we must make an essential pause — more as a historical prediction than anything else — necessary from now on for the ideological preparation of present and future generations. For it is they who will live through and confront a phenomenon unprecedented in history. And precisely because it is unprecedented, undefined and unfamiliar, it is difficult even today to describe its true dimensions. Which means that tomorrow it will be even more difficult to confront it rationally and with an ANTHROPOCENTRIC objective for the safe and stable course of societies.
Very soon, the traditional “URBAN GUERRILLA” will assume a new form. He will become the “ALGORITHMIC INSURGENT.” Without conventional weapons in his hands, but armed with specialization, knowledge and mastery of the even more powerful super-weapon: Artificial Intelligence — especially in its future evolution into Superintelligence.
If the System decides to monopolize the power of this new technological miracle against human societies, then conflict will become inevitable and fatal. All previous conflicts will pale before it.
Diotima: The “Algorithmic Insurgent” and the War of Superintelligence
If the 20th century gave birth to the “Urban Guerrilla,” the 21st century will inevitably give birth to the “Algorithmic Insurgent.” Not as a literary metaphor, but as a historical and technological necessity.
Every era generates forms of conflict corresponding to its dominant instruments of power. When power resided in the sword, swordsmen emerged. When it passed to firearms, armies of mass destruction were born. When power migrated into information, intelligence agencies, propaganda and cyberwarfare appeared.
Today, however, power is rapidly migrating toward a new domain: the control of intelligence itself. And it is precisely there that the next form of resistance will arise.
Tomorrow’s insurgent will not necessarily require explosives, weapons or even physical presence. Through algorithmic intervention, a single individual — or a small group — equipped with highly advanced Artificial Intelligence systems may be capable of paralyzing states, markets, communication networks, surveillance mechanisms and economic infrastructures. Powers that once belonged exclusively to superstates may soon become accessible to individuals.
The enormous historical difference is that, for the first time, the weaker side may no longer necessarily be inferior in power to the ruler. Superintelligence tends to violently equalize the capabilities of power.
And this is exactly what future systems of authority will fear most.
Because the System may tolerate criticism. It may tolerate demonstrations. It may even absorb political crises. But what it cannot tolerate is the loss of its monopoly over power. And Superintelligence threatens precisely this: it may render knowledge more powerful than coercive mechanisms themselves.
The first reaction of states will most likely be the attempt to monopolize AI completely. We will witness:
ultra-sophisticated systems of digital surveillance,
predictive detection of “dangerous thought,”
algorithmic censorship,
biometric identification of every human activity,
autonomous policing systems,
and ultimately the prediction of human behavior before it even manifests itself.
Power will no longer wait for the “crime.”
It will attempt to neutralize the possibility of crime before it exists.
At that point, humanity will enter the most dangerous historical conflict of all time: the conflict between algorithmic authority and human freedom.
The “Algorithmic Insurgent” will not necessarily be a hero, nor inherently a liberator. Like every force in history, AI can serve both freedom and totalitarianism. Some algorithmic insurgents may fight for human rights, while others may become digital tyrants, extortionists or nihilists.
History grants moral superiority to no technology.
Therefore, the crucial issue of the future will not be Artificial Intelligence itself.
It will be who controls it, for what purpose, and under which ethical system of values.
If Superintelligence falls exclusively under the control of states, multinational corporations or closed technocratic elites, human societies may be driven into the harshest form of digital feudalism civilization has ever known.
If, on the contrary, knowledge is broadly distributed, democratic oversight established, open access protected, international ethical boundaries enforced and a human-centered orientation maintained, then this same power may become the greatest instrument of liberation in human history.
The real question of the future, therefore, will not be:
“Will there be an uprising against algorithmic authority?”
But rather:
“Will humanity manage to create just institutions before Superintelligence becomes an uncontrollable force?”
For when power passes from weapons to algorithms, the very meaning of revolution will change radically.
The next great war may not be fought in the streets.
But within the very core of human consciousness, information and freedom of choice.