HISTORY OF KNOWLEDGE AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: A HISTORICAL AND SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACH TO STRUCTURES OF INFLUENCE IN THE ALGORITHMIC ERA

Abstract

This article draws on the fields of History, Sociology, and Law to argue that the emergence of Artificial Intelligence does not inaugurate an unprecedented crisis but instead intensifies a dynamic that has accompanied human societies since the invention of writing: that changes in the methods of producing and validating knowledge entail profound reorganizations of the structures of power and influence. From a historical perspective, it traces an overview of major paradigm shifts in the West: from orality to rational critique, from tradition to the scientific method, from argument to the document, from the pretense of neutrality to interdisciplinary critique, and finally, from analog to automated information, showing how each redistributed epistemic authority, redefining who can speak, legitimize, and control. Sociologically, the article draws on the concepts of paradigm shift (Thomas Kuhn), power-knowledge (Michel Foucault), ideal type (Max Weber), and epistemicide (Boaventura de Sousa Santos) to reveal a recurring historical pattern: knowledge is never neutral, and the imposition of one regime of truth over others is always an act of power that redistributes influence. From a legal standpoint, it analyzes how the Brazilian legal system has been developing responses to this challenge, especially through the guidelines of the National Council of Justice and pending legislative proposals. It concludes that algorithmic governance, rather than a merely technical problem, is the latest stage in a structuring struggle of human societies over the organization of knowledge, the distribution of power, and the control of influence structures.