This paper theorizes the emergence of a new form of capital—documedial surplus value—arising from the systematic digital recording of human behavior. Moving beyond meritocratic and labor-centric models, it conceptualizes a new, rich, renewable, and fair heritage grounded in everyday acts of consumption and need. Within a documental ontology, social objects are constituted not by intention but by recorded acts, giving rise to the “docusphere,” an archive of human life forms with predictive and epistemological significance. This shift undermines intentionalist social theory and foregrounds the economic centrality of consumption in a post-productive society. Data’s iterability and shareability make it suitable for alternative, collective capitalization models-potentially enabling a redistribution of value aligned with human needs rather than individual merit. The paper thus proposes a framework for rethinking justice, social ontology, and economic organization in the age of pervasive digital documentation.

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From Human Capital to World Heritage

  • Maurizio Ferraris

摘要

This paper theorizes the emergence of a new form of capital—documedial surplus value—arising from the systematic digital recording of human behavior. Moving beyond meritocratic and labor-centric models, it conceptualizes a new, rich, renewable, and fair heritage grounded in everyday acts of consumption and need. Within a documental ontology, social objects are constituted not by intention but by recorded acts, giving rise to the “docusphere,” an archive of human life forms with predictive and epistemological significance. This shift undermines intentionalist social theory and foregrounds the economic centrality of consumption in a post-productive society. Data’s iterability and shareability make it suitable for alternative, collective capitalization models-potentially enabling a redistribution of value aligned with human needs rather than individual merit. The paper thus proposes a framework for rethinking justice, social ontology, and economic organization in the age of pervasive digital documentation.