The Cosmotechnics of Yuk Hui

Post originally created in brazilian portuguese

Venturing into modern philosophy has been a challenge. There is a base of knowledge that is not my specialty, but that I have found great pleasure in exploring - there are so many new, decolonial authors and perspectives that I find myself in an eternal search.

I first came across Yuk Hui at a Quebradev event in 2023. That particular event was a great moment of literacy in aspects of digital colonialism and social transformation. I spent a long time trying to buy the book " The Question Concerning Technology in China ", and waitedto finish my journey at Lambda3 , and sabbatical, to embark on the study of the author.

"Historicity is the hermeneutics conditioned by the finitude of Dasein and technique, which infinitizes its own retentional finitude through the passage of an externalized memory from generation to generation."

It took me about 6 months to read the book, and I can say that it was one of the most difficult I have ever read. Many times I had to question myself if I had the so-called Brio that Clóvis de Barros values so much, and I needed to read it many times to make progress in understanding it. The book is divided into two large parts, which are infinitely interesting, and can really be read as two independent books:

• A historical survey of Chinese thought , evaluating how its ontological bases connect to historical-metaphysical questions of modern technology, asking how this Chinese Thought can contribute to a renewed questioning of a globalized technology.

• Is Technology Anthropologically Universal? Can it be explained by various factual circumstances that define its own trends and evolution? Or is technology always limited to a cosmological understanding of the cultures in which it is inserted? Is it possible that Culture affects technological creation, and that without the modern globalizing perspective, we can think of a future beyond the climate catastrophe in which we find ourselves?

The book aims to analyze, based on its results in the Anthropocene , how to think about a new technological and moral reality:

• The Anthropocene is the era we live in, marked by the understanding that not only because of its intellectuality, but also because of its capacity for destruction, technology has a decisive role in our biosphere and in the future of humanity - the way we continue to live, we don't have much time until the planet becomes uninhabitable.

Culturally, our philosophical foundations are associated with the image of Prometheus, and the inherent dualism between Olympus/Humans, Nature/Culture, Magic/Scientific. The author argues that this division never existed in Chinese thought, and that our life, determined by European naturalism, occurs in differentiating dualisms: life/death, culture/nature, body/mind. In Chinese metaphysics, this representation is not the same: Yin-Yang and Dao-Qi (道器) never had this same dualism; it was in fact a Western adaptation to fit the process of technological modernization. The concern of Chinese Thought is with the continuity and correlation between entities, not with their discontinuity, such as life/death.

Yuk Hui argues how Chinese thought does not traditionally have a mechanistic view of the world - "We master nature through our ability to change it", but a tendency to direct everything towards infinity, and harmony with the cosmos (Dao). This is a fundamentally different view of existing in this world.

On the basis of this dichotomy present in European thought arises our acceptance that creating Technology will always be independent of its moral action in the world (its use), since it would be possible to build a great weapon of mass destruction for the sake of science, while exempting ourselves from its practical application. The intellect of the scientist and technological advancement are the demonstration of man's superiority over nature, removing his moral and cosmological responsibility for the consequences of the use of technology.

Yuk Hui also cites the work of Viveiros de Castro , a great Brazilian anthropologist who presents a deconstruction of European thought through his analysis of Amazonian Cultures.

The author also criticizes the globalizing profile of technology and its tendency to homogenize any and all cultures, in a colonialist imposition of modernization, where homogeneity is promoted by technological convergence and synchronization. Accelerationism emerges as a way of disassociating oneself from any colonialist imposition of culture, but it still falls back on Promethean concepts of technology, never subject to questioning.

The notion of Cosmotechnics , developed by Yuk Hui, has become even more relevant in the current era of Artificial Intelligence. His work criticizes the homogenizing force of Western technological universalism and proposes a plural understanding of technological development, based on diverse cultural and metaphysical traditions. Technology must be integrated into the cultural specificity of the societies in which it is used, otherwise we risk never leaving colonized positions through technology.

Recent developments in his philosophy, including the book Machine and Sovereignty (2024) and debates on the social impact of AI, offer critical avenues for rethinking the role of technology in our planetary future.

The Technical Systems that are currently being formed, filled with digital technologies, tend to homogenize the relationships between humanity and technology. This is why it becomes even more urgent for different cultures to reflect on their own histories and ontologies so that they can adopt digital technologies without merely synchronizing them with the homogeneous "global" bloc and a "generic" episteme.

Cosmotechnics: Beyond Universalism

At the core of Cosmotechnics is the rejection of the idea of a single universal “Technology.” Hui argues that technical activities should be understood as expressions of local moral-cosmological orders , subject to the historical and ontological specificities present in each society.

Cosmotechnics is the unification of the cosmic and moral order through technical activities, proposing a new approach to the issue of modernity, through the reinvention of oneself and of being a technologist at the same time, giving priority to the moral and ethical field.

In The Question Concerning Technology in China (2016), he contrasts the Greek technē – a tool for mastering nature – with the Chinese concept of Dao-Qi (道器), in which technology harmonizes cosmic and ethical principles. This framing challenges the idea that AI development needs to follow a single trajectory, dictated by Silicon Valley or authoritarian techno-nationalisms .

In recent interviews and writings (2024–2025), Hui expands this critique to address the geopolitical and ecological implications of AI. He warns that the “gigantic technological system” of global capitalism threatens to erase technodiversity —the multiplicity of technological imaginations shaped by distinct cultural histories.

He highlights how Chinese modernization, despite its rapid adoption of Western technoscience, has failed to reconcile its cosmological traditions (such as the Confucian Li or the Taoist Wu Wei ) with the instrumental logic of industrial capitalism. This mismatch, according to Hui, perpetuates a crisis of Heimatlosigkeit (homelessness), in which societies lose their ethical foundation in the name of technological progress.

"Capitalism is the contemporary Cosmotechnics that dominates the planet"

The book also presents a very interesting view on the Crisis of Modernity, through the analysis of the Japanese (Kyoto Project) and Chinese (Mou Zhongsan) movements, and the eventual realization that the anti-modernity sentiment present since Heidegger's works is fundamentally influenced by technological globalism.

The current critique of Modernity is its tendency to destroy and disrespect history and traditional ways of life - and at the root of most philosophies (Chinese, Japanese, Islamic and African) is a growing fear of an accelerating disorientation and loss of traditions: as when ancient ways of life become merely tourist attractions for those willing to pay for the experience. Every culture needs a "home", and modernization breaks this, leading to a nihilism enhanced by Western cosmology.

Overcoming modernity is the challenge of our time, and the first decades of the 21st century have demonstrated our inability to transcend the problems of the globalization of Technology: extremist and fanatical conservative movements, which are a reflection of the inability to incorporate technological modernization into an episteme located beyond the accelerationist Western cosmology.

Overcame Modernity , in reference to the disastrous Japanese nationalist project of Kyoto, does not mean rejecting progress and returning to tradition, but rather rethinking the metaphysical and cultural foundations that support our understanding of technology, opening space for a plurality of Cosmotechnics and new forms of invention. Without a direct confrontation of the impacts of technological globalization, it will be impossible to organize ourselves for the future, being doomed to a cyclical metaphorical fascism.

"The conservative revolution is invariably a reactionary movement against technological modernization"

This book is a call to reconceptualize the principles of coexistence, governance, and life. We can no longer guide our progress through the modern Industrial Complex: focused on capital and profit.

However, Hui cautions against naïve optimism. The MIT Sloan Review (2025) article Philosophy Eats AI underscores its influence by noting that AI’s value depends on the “philosophical principles” that guide its training data. Without a Cosmotechnical lens, AI risks amplifying what Hui calls the “bad infinity” of nihilism —a void in which technology accelerates without ethical direction.

Artificial Intelligence and the Planetary Imperative

"This new history of the world is possible only by assuming a historical and metaphysical project, rather than simply calling for the end of modernity, the end of metaphysics and the return to nature - or, even less credibly, the arrival of multitude and diversity"

I’m diving into his new book, Machine and Sovereignty (2024), where Yuk Hui reframes Cosmotechnics as a response to today’s “planetary crises”: the rise of Artificial Intelligence, ecological collapse, and geopolitical fragmentation.

He proposes planetary thinking – a political epistemology that goes beyond the nation-state to embrace noodiversity (cognitive diversity), biodiversity and technodiversity . This tripod challenges the current direction of AI in three main ways:

• Against Homogenization: Mainstream AI development, driven by data colonialism and profit motives, often replicates Eurocentric epistemologies. Hui advocates for AI systems informed by non-Western cosmologies, such as indigenous relational ontologies or Asian holistic frameworks. For example, Amazonian multinaturalism (Viveiros de Castro) can inspire AI models that prioritize ecological reciprocity over extraction.

• Ethical Re-embedding: Counterpoint to modern AI ethics, centered on transparency and fairness, remains trapped in a utilitarian calculus. Cosmotechnics demands a deeper alignment with cosmological values. This shift can address the problem of AI’s “black box” by rooting systems in culturally specific moral imaginaries.

• Reimagined Sovereignty: Hui criticizes the nation-state as a “megamachine” incapable of governing the planetary effects of AI. He envisions decentralized networks of techno-ecological alliances where local cosmotechnics inform global governance. Examples such as Estonia’s digital sovereignty model and Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness index point to these possibilities.

I still have a lot to study about this concept and this new book, but I believe I'm on the right path, towards a new perspective on technology.

Finally, for a new vision on technology and the future.

Yuk Hui’s Cosmotechnics may offer an interesting and transformative blueprint for the future of AI. As Hui argues, overcoming the crises of modernity requires not just better algorithms, but the reinvention of technology as a moral-cosmic practice —one that nurtures, rather than denies, the plurality of human and nonhuman worlds.

If you've read this far, thank you. I still have a lot of reading to do, and I hope you'll follow what I'm building.