인공자연 생태비평Ⅰ: 기계세의 생태 불평등 = Artificial Ecocriticism I: Ecological Inequality in the Mechanocene

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study defines the post-Anthropocene stage of digital civilization as the “Mechanocene,” a new epoch in which ecological inequality deepens beyond disparities in material resources to the unequal distribution of immaterial ecological resources such as sensibility, information, and attention. Integrating Heidegger’s ontology of technology, Baudrillard’s theory of simulacra, Latour’s actor–network theory, and the new materialist perspectives of Bennett and Braidotti, this paper reconstructs the relationship between technology, sensibility, and human–nonhuman agency through an ecocritical lens. The emergence of generative AI in 2023 is examined as a civilizational rupture that disrupted the continuity of technological evolution, marking an ontological shift in which the human cognitive system became integrated within technical structures that intervene in real time in human thought and expression.
Chapter IV provides empirical analyses of the mechanisms of ecological inequality in artificial nature. First, nonhuman terraforming is explored through Google’s data centers and Meta’s AI ecosystem design, illustrating how technology simultaneously reconfigures physical and sensory environments. Moreover, cognitive pollution is defined as a non-ecological cognitive structure generated by the interplay of information pollution and the attention economy. Second, algorithmic power is analyzed through Facebook’s “emotional contagion experiment,” which demonstrated that newsfeed algorithms can manipulate users’ affective states―revealing algorithms as environmental governance technologies that regulate emotional flows. Third, the automation of user experience is examined through Netflix’s recommendation system and TikTok’s emotional analytics, showing how platforms predict and induce user preferences and emotions, thereby automating the very rhythm of experience.
The proposed concept of Artificial Nature Ecocriticism expands the scope of traditional ecocriticism beyond material environments to the epistemological and sensorial dimensions of the immaterial ecology of technology. Conceptually, it redefines the ecological inequality of the Mechanocene as a problem of distributive justice in sensibility, information, and attention. Methodologically, it offers a new humanistic framework combining technological ontology and new materialism to analyze nonhuman agency and algorithmic power. Ultimately, this study argues that the ecological inequality of the Mechanocene signifies a shift from material resources to cognitive and sensory distribution, suggesting a new academic paradigm of sensory ethics and cognitive justice for restoring humanity within technological civilization.