2025
Our relationship with technology is usually described in terms of the brain. But anyone who has ever felt the acute urge to interrupt what they are doing to click through a random stream of images and videos, knows that this instinct resides in the body.
In Possessed, Aksel Kielland explores how our digital addictions are eroding our ability to concentrate, and how this ties into artificial intelligence, Silicon Valley ideology, and the recent right-wing turn among young people.
Using critical theory and the visceral imagery of the body horror genre, Kielland offers a strikingly original perspective on how technology — and the tech industry — is shaping our lives and our world.
'A radical and sensual new way of thinking about the body and artificial intelligence. Absolutely fantastic.'
'an important and long-awaited contribution.
'[...] the author's framing of AI as a social and cultural phenomenon is some of the best that has been written on the subject in Scandinavia. [...] Possessed is a pitch-dark dystopia and a grim critique of capitalism, and its analyses feel completely convincing. [...] I could quote pages of interesting points and convincing analyses from Kielland's book. [...] It is difficult not to share the pessimism of Kielland, but at least his fascinating book reminds us of how much is at stake.'
Aksel Kielland
