Archipelago, and the information platform that is the state: A political philosophy based on information and its processing

Prof. Dr. Vagelis Papakonstantinou

doi:10.5771/9783748969266

Summary

This book outlines a new political philosophy that is based on information and its processing. Aristotelians will appreciate the analysis; those siding with Plato (there are only two kinds of people, as Coleridge said), less so. In essence, it supports Aristotle’s argument by complementing his intuitively correct but unsupported and never fully elaborated claim that states are natural to humans. It corrects Plato and his epigones (practically every political philosopher ever since) by refuting their claim (considered a given today) that states are artificial, the product of agreement among humans. This title is also available as Open Access.

Keywords

Search publication

Bibliographic data

Edition: 1/2026
Copyright year: 2026
ISBN-Print: 978-3-7560-3902-9
ISBN-Online: 978-3-7489-6926-6
Publisher: Nomos, Baden-Baden
Series: The Regulation of Digital Technologies
Volume: 4
Language: German
Pages: 502
Product type: Book Titles

Download chapter (PDF)
1. Foreword
Download chapter (PDF)
1. 1. *
2. 2. *
3. 3.
4. 4. The decline of the Westphalian state*
5. 5. Why now? The digital world*
6. 6. The three (informational) milestone moments in humanity’s development*
7. 7. The owl of Minerva*
8. 8. A God-like, Genesis moment for humans
Download chapter (PDF)
1. 1. Everything is information*
2. 2. Datasets*
3. 3. Each dataset to be considered a closed system*
4. 4. *
5. 5. Information can be processed
6. 6. Processing on datasets*
7. 7. New information*
8. 8. *
9. 9. Life, birth, death*
10. 10. The analogue world. Nature*
11. 11. The digital world: a simulacrum gone rogue*
12. 12. Sometimes blended, but never the same*
13. 13. The individual is torn in the digital world
14. 14. *
15. 15. ‘All that is solid melts into air’
16. 16. Information in the analogue world is finite, but infinite in the digital world*
17. 17. Total control is impossible in the analogue world, but possible in the digital one
Download chapter (PDF)
1. 1. *
2. 2.
3. 3.
4. 4.
5. 5. The materialisation and dematerialisation of information*
6. 6.
7. 7. The materialisation of (immaterial) information
8. 8. The dematerialisation of materialised (immaterial) information
9. 9.
10. 10. The invention of intellectual property
11. 11.
12. 12. The (re-)materialisation of information into digits (the digitisation of information)
13. 13.
14. 14. The digitisation of material, analogue-world information*
15. 15. The digitisation of (already) dematerialised information
16. 16. Digital information is infinite*
17. 17. Digital-born and digital world-only information*
18. 18. Digital humans? *
Download chapter (PDF)
1. 1. Beings can and will process information
2. 2. Life is information processing: organisations and artificial Beings have lives of their own*
3. 3. All Beings, when they perish, become Things
4. 4.
5. 5.
6. 6. Organisations
7. 7. Why do organisations come into existence at all? How do they die?*
8. 8.
9. 9. The state is an organisation*
10. 10.
11. 11. Biological Beings do not have a purpose, while non-biological Beings do*
12. 12. Artificial Beings*
13. 13.
14. 14. The effigy of an artificial Being*
15. 15.
16. 16. Words (language)*
17. 17. Money*
18. 18. Computer programs*
19. 19. A, materialised, fiction*
20. 20. Artificial Beings do not have a need to survive and can die*
21. 21.
Download chapter (PDF)
1. 1.
2. 2.
3. 3.
4. 4. Humans differ from each other
5. 5.
Download chapter (PDF)
1. 1. *
2. 2. *
3. 3.
4. 4. Artefacts*
5. 5. Things (and Beings, in this regard) are to be treated as a single, unitary dataset
Download chapter (PDF)
1. 1. *
2. 2. The processing of information leads to the creation of new information*
3. 3. *
4. 4. Processing is material*
5. 5. *
6. 6. A beginning but not necessarily an end
7. 7. Co-processing is possible, but not all processing is equal
8. 8.
9. 9.
10. 10.
11. 11. *
12. 12. The processing of information by humans is made possible only on the information platform that is their state*
13. 13.
Download chapter (PDF)
1. 1. *
2. 2.
3. 3.
4. 4. The purpose of the processing is irrelevant to Reason
5. 5. *
6. 6. Why does Reason exist in Beings?
7. 7. Not neutral*
8. 8. Is Reason specific to humans only? *
Download chapter (PDF)
1. 1. *
2. 2. Beings will process information because they have needs*
3. 3. The need to survive; the conditions for existence*
4. 4. It is not necessary for the processing to happen
5. 5. Is whatever that is necessary to serve a need also natural? *
6. 6. The digital world
7. 7. Opportunity*
8. 8. Ability*
9. 9.
Download chapter (PDF)
1. 1. Humans need to augment their information processing*
2. 2. Augmentation of information processing: the need of needs*
3. 3. Only humans need to augment their information processing*
4. 4.
5. 5. Augmentation towards an imagined (not real) end
6. 6. Creativity
7. 7. Humans need to augment their information processing individually*
8. 8. There is no purposeless individual*
9. 9. On human nature*
10. 10. *
Download chapter (PDF)
1. 1. Control*
2. 2. Total control is impossible*
3. 3. There is no dataset without any control exercised over it
4. 4. Control over new or first-processed information*
5. 5. Attributes of a dataset
6. 6. Access*
7. 7. Control can be delegated*
8. 8. Control is not pursued for its own sake*
9. 9. Power*
Download chapter (PDF)
1. 1. *
2. 2.
3. 3. *
4. 4. *
5. 5. *
6. 6.
7. 7.
8. 8. *
9. 9.
10. 10. *
Download chapter (PDF)
1. 1.
2. 2. Platforms in the analogue world*
3. 3. Platforms in the digital world*
4. 4.
5. 5.
6. 6. The state as a digital platform?
7. 7. In what way, then, are states information platforms for their citizens? *
Download chapter (PDF)
1. 1. *
2. 2. *
3. 3. There is no distinction between modern and ancient states*
4. 4. *
5. 5. Society*
6. 6. The relationship between a state and its citizens is unchangeable and unbreakable
7. 7. Do wolves (or dogs) have a state? *
Download chapter (PDF)
1. 1. Names of humans*
2. 2.
3. 3. *
4. 4. Names of Things (and non-human Beings)*
5. 5.
6. 6.
7. 7. Individualisation in the digital world*
8. 8. Logins and passwords
9. 9. Domain names (and other unique naming attempts)*
10. 10. Names of computer programs*
Download chapter (PDF)
1. 1. *
2. 2.
3. 3. *
4. 4.
5. 5. The transactional and territorial state*
6. 6. *
7. 7. Is there order in the state? *
Download chapter (PDF)
1. 1. *
2. 2. *
3. 3.
4. 4.
5. 5. States and individuals’ (their citizens’) interests are aligned, not conflicting*
6. 6.
7. 7.
Download chapter (PDF)
1. 1. *
2. 2. What the state is*
3. 3.
4. 4. What the state is not*
5. 5. *
6. 6. The state is timeless*
7. 7. What the state has (and does not have). The state has no purpose*
8. 8. *
9. 9. The state does not have a pre-ordained order*
10. 10. What the state does (and does not do)*
11. 11.
Download chapter (PDF)
1. 1. A state is different to its government*
2. 2. What is a government?
3. 3. The (only) purpose of the government is to control the state*
4. 4. How did governments acquire this purpose? *
5. 5. How did governments come to be? *
6. 6. *
7. 7. Governments are natural to humans
8. 8. Controlling the state
9. 9.
10. 10. On the digital world breaking down governments’ control over the⁠(⁠-⁠i⁠r⁠) states*
11. 11. A beginning-of-time model fundamentally and irreversibly eroded: Leviathan’s demise*
Download chapter (PDF)
1. 1. *
2. 2. *
3. 3. Two basic questions*
4. 4. Morality in the system
5. 5.
6. 6. The response to the who: monarchy, oligarchy or democracy
7. 7. The response to the how: the tacit assumption behind monarchy, oligarchy and democracy*
8. 8.
9. 9. The most basic assumption of all: the analogue world
Download chapter (PDF)
1. 1. *
2. 2. Social contract theory*
3. 3. Against social contract theory*
4. 4. Religion*
5. 5. Other state justification theories
6. 6. Utilitarianism*
7. 7. Hegel’s idealism*
8. 8. Marxism*
9. 9. The welfare state*
10. 10. State malaise*
11. 11. The digital world*
Download chapter (PDF)
1. 1.
2. 2. Creation of information
3. 3. Storage and dissemination of information
4. 4. Storage of information*
5. 5. Dissemination of information*
6. 6.
7. 7. State legitimacy*
8. 8.
9. 9. Is control over these types of processing necessary? *
10. 10.
11. 11. Failed states
12. 12. Does legitimacy give rise to platform rights?
Download chapter (PDF)
1. 1. *
2. 2. *
3. 3. Never a void*
4. 4. How does a state die? *
5. 5. What happens to a state after it dies?
6. 6. State succession*
Download chapter (PDF)
1. 1. Sovereignty means control*
2. 2. *
3. 3.
4. 4. Who else could claim sovereignty? The government*
5. 5. Why would the government strive for sovereignty? *
6. 6. *
7. 7. Sovereignty in the digital world*
Download chapter (PDF)
1. 1. The territory of a state is its information processing environment
2. 2.
3. 3. Territory in the analogue world*
4. 4. How state territoriality really works: site-specific locality is irrelevant*
5. 5. Moving around in the analogue world*
6. 6.
7. 7.
8. 8. Territory in the digital world*
9. 9.
10. 10. The link between control and location; the path from humans to individuals (and citizens) and to (today’s) users
11. 11. Users (instead of owners)
12. 12. The digital territory of a state*
13. 13. What about artificial Beings?
14. 14. Borders*
15. 15. Interoperability and data portability*
16. 16. State security and cybersecurity*
Download chapter (PDF)
1. 1. Nation*
2. 2. *
3. 3. *
4. 4. Nationality
5. 5. Are nations human-specific? *
Download chapter (PDF)
1. 1.
2. 2. States are still in the ‘state of nature’ *
3. 3.
4. 4. International law and the UN*
5. 5. *
6. 6.
7. 7. *
8. 8. The EU as the platform for platforms
9. 9.
10. 10. Cosmopolitanism, and other (utopian) alternatives*
11. 11. The EU*
12. 12. Interoperability versus integration*
13. 13. What the EU is and what it does
14. 14. *
15. 15.
16. 16. Archipelagos enlarged*
17. 17. Are archipelagos natural?
18. 18.
19. 19.
20. 20.
21. 21. The differences between an archipelago and a federation—or an empire*
Download chapter (PDF)
1. 1.
2. 2. Many laws? *
3. 3. No law? *
4. 4. No eternal law
5. 5. *
6. 6. *
7. 7. *
8. 8.
9. 9. The digital world differs; A controlled environment*
10. 10. *
Download chapter (PDF)
1. 1. Rights are not claims but permissions*
2. 2.
3. 3.
4. 4.
5. 5.
Download chapter (PDF)
1. 1. *
2. 2.
3. 3. The constitution*
4. 4.
5. 5. Platform rights
6. 6. *
7. 7. Equality*
8. 8. Liberty*
9. 9. Security (of information, not of the person)*
10. 10.
11. 11. Platform rights and natural rights*
12. 12.
13. 13.
14. 14. Human rights in the digital world*
Download chapter (PDF)
1. 1. *
2. 2.
3. 3. Can morality be avoided altogether? *
4. 4. On whether individuals should keep their promises*
5. 5. On religion
Download chapter (PDF)
1. 1. Property is control over a dataset*
2. 2. Property is an attribute of a dataset
3. 3. Property is natural to all Beings (and, thus, is not a platform right)*
4. 4. Property is not a pursuit for its own sake*
5. 5. No property over humans*
6. 6. Property is dependent on the state*
7. 7. Property and sovereignty*
8. 8. Appropriation*
9. 9. Property in the digital world
10. 10.
11. 11.
12. 12. On inequality*
Download chapter (PDF)
1. 1. *
2. 2.
3. 3.
Download chapter (PDF)
1. 1. *
2. 2. Freedom is impossible to attain
3. 3. Freedom is relative*
4. 4. A human need to be free? *
5. 5. *
6. 6. The state is at the same time the source of and the basic impediment to human freedom *
7. 7.
8. 8. Liberty*
9. 9. Liberty is also relative
10. 10.
11. 11. *
Download chapter (PDF)
1. 1. The individualisation of humans and the limits of this philosophy*
2. 2.
3. 3. Individualistic political theories*
4. 4. The distinction between the public and the private spheres*
5. 5. The inherent conundrum that individualistic theories have to deal with*
6. 6.
7. 7. *
8. 8.
9. 9. The digital world and the right to informational self-determination*
10. 10.
11. 11.
Download chapter (PDF)
1. 0. Prologue
2. 1. Information
3. 1.1. Material and immaterial information
4. 2. Beings
5. 2.1. Humans
6. 3. Things
7. 4. Processing
8. 4.1. Reason
9. 5. Need and opportunity
10. 5.1. A need specific to humans
11. 6. Control
12. 7. State definition: States are information platforms for their citizens
13. 7.1. Information platforms
14. 8. States are natural to humans
15. 8.1. Names
16. 9. State formation: from word of mouth to the modern state
17. 10. What states need
18. 11. The nature of the state
19. 12. The government
20. 12.1. The political system
21. 13. State justification
22. 14. State legitimacy
23. 15. State succession
24. 16. Sovereignty
25. 17. Territory and borders
26. 18. Nation
27. 19. Archipelago: where do the information platforms that are states live? The EU
28. 20. Law
29. 21. Rights
30. 22. Human rights
31. 23. Morality
32. 24. Property
33. 24.1. Intellectual property
34. 25. Freedom and liberty
35. 26. Liberalism
36. Notes
BibliographyPages 479 - 502 Download chapter (PDF)