Ciro Sbailò, full professor of Comparative Public Law and president of the Master's Degree Course in Investigation, Crime and International Security at the University of International Studies of Rome - UNINT, and director of the Geodi - Geopolitics, Law and Data Intelligence study center, has published a quite interesting essay in Geodis' journal, "Alexis" , previewed on Huffpost. The essay,
Grammatica quantistica del potere nell’era dei sistemi instabili [Quantum Grammar of Power in the Age of Unstable Systems] offers a fascinating semiotic glimpse of the underbelly of the ordering of collective cognitive systems on which it is possible to build, with necessary appearance of certainty, political or related systems. In the process, Professor Sbailò offers a glimpse at a way of rethinking notions of corridors, pathways and trade routes as a sort of dynamic reality pathways toward a window onto a different approach to structuring a reality into which one might embed the usual tools of social organization, and from which its phenomenology can be usefully managed (authoritatively) in dynamic states.
Professor Sbailò sets the tone with the opening epigraph: "Governare oggi non significa più conservare l’ordine, ma progettare il possibile. E capire dove e come il reale si forma, prima che lo facciano altri" [Governing today no longer means preserving order, but designing the possible. And understanding where and how reality is formed, before others do]. In a coded society, where the underlying premises and the bars of conceptual cages are invisible to those caged, order becomes a secondary element. The primary element focuses on the means of coding those situations which can be perceived as ordered, and thus perceived internalized as "naturally" or "correctly" ordered. Coding, however, is performative--one does not derive the materials for the building of cognitive cages from nowhere--one hunts around for the possible, in space and time, one lathers oneself with desires however detached from its own mooring, and one than builds cages in the sky into which one places the birds of collective order. For those with the talent, a rules based international aviary, or the aviary of transactional elements, may well be possible.
Professor Sbailò starts with something of an eternal return--but to Foucault:
"“Il potere produce realtà: produce ambiti di oggetti e rituali di verità" (Michel Foucault, 1977). Questa affermazione, spesso letta in chiave critica o genealogica, assume oggi un significato più radicale e inatteso: esce dal registro della denuncia per entrare in quello dell’analisi operativa. Il potere non si limita a intervenire su una realtà già data, ma concorre attivamente alla sua definizione." ["Power produces reality: it produces spheres of objects and rituals of truth" (Michel Foucault, 1977). This statement, often interpreted critically or genealogically, today takes on a more radical and unexpected meaning: it moves beyond the register of denunciation to that of operational analysis. Power does not simply intervene in a pre-existing reality, but actively contributes to its definition. ] (Grammatica quantistica del potere nell’era dei sistemi instabili )
Power is, indeed, fun, and as useful a way of organizing the structures of self- and collective relations as any other (for Foucault on power see, e.g.
here among many others; generally for starters
here). Its semiotics suggests its nature both as a "thing" (force); as a signifier of the concession of the consequences of that "thing"(authority/control); and as the reality around which the exercise of that object on oneself and in social relations is organized and exercised (reality/power-knowledge systems). Its essence is in its self-reflective phenomenology. It is known only by the detritus of its effect.
One distills power from the memory of power relations; and one understands
power relations as the means by which
social relations (and the relations within oneself that serve as its mimetic heartland) are caged and organized. That caging and organization, then, (re)produce Professor Sbailò's operaitonal analysis. And indeed, its etymology suggests the way it folds in on itself--from the
Vulgar Latin *potere, pointing to both an ability and the connection between that ability and the action undertaken to realize that ability on something else through the exercise of authority,
from the Latin auctoritatem (nominative
auctoritas) "invention, advice, opinion, influence, command," from
auctor "master, leader, author". Taken together, one understands both the radical notion of power and also its deep roots in the understanding of the ordering of society through the organization of social self-actualization, which is, in turn possible only by the constitution of the premises around which all this ordering (power) can be identified, curated, managed and exercised).
But this is only a picture--a still life of a flow (see here) or a stream (see here) of actions and objects that themselves are the particles around which it is possible to weave this reality making, and perhaps control or direct it.
Ciò che appare come “reale” – nella forma di soggetti, oggetti, norme,
verità – è il risultato di osservazioni, selezioni, dispositivi
regolativi e interferenze strategiche. Pensare in termini quantistici
significa riconoscere che la realtà giuridica e geopolitica non è più
uno sfondo stabile su cui si applicano decisioni, ma un campo dinamico,
retroattivo, sensibile alle condizioni iniziali e ai punti di
osservazione. Le norme operano. Le strategie producono. [What appears "real"—in the form of subjects, objects, norms, truths—is the result of observations, selections, regulatory mechanisms, and strategic interference. Thinking in quantum terms means recognizing that legal and geopolitical reality is no longer a stable backdrop against which decisions are made, but a dynamic, retroactive field, sensitive to initial conditions and observation points. Norms operate [act]; strategies produce [cause]. ] (Grammatica quantistica del potere nell’era dei sistemi instabili )
This reminder of an ancient understanding, lost to the pragmatic realities of managing people towards whatever ends appear useful at the time, ought now to be recaptured. Technology makes that unavoidable, it seems. Technology refocuses for us, whether we like it or not, on the foundations--on the roots and starting points for coding the simulacra from which realities (virtual and consequently real or physical) are now made (producono) through the architecture of norms. "occorre comprendere come si ristrutturano oggi le soglie teoriche, come
si genera rilevanza, come si costruisce intelligenza operativa in
ambienti complessi. "[there is a need to understand how theoretical thresholds are restructured today,
how relevance is generated, how operational intelligence is built in
complex environments]. (Grammatica quantistica del potere nell’era dei sistemi instabili ).
What is needed, then, Professor Sbailò suggests, is an architecture of power/knowledge to suit the times. It is no longer partocularly useful to cling to the ordered linearity--the theory of "pathways" that can be followed toward a desired end (whatever that is).
"La linearità, la separabilità, l’oggettività restano efficaci in
contesti coerenti. Ma nei sistemi instabili, retroattivi, ad alta
interconnessione – come quelli giuridici, politici, strategici
contemporanei – servono modelli capaci di trattare interferenze,
fluttuazioni, salti di scala." [Linearity, separability, and objectivity remain effective in coherent
contexts. But in unstable, retroactive, highly interconnected
systems—such as contemporary legal, political, and strategic systems—we
need models capable of dealing with interference, fluctuations, and
scale shifts.] (Grammatica quantistica del potere nell’era dei sistemi instabili ).
For this enterprise he suggests, a quantum grammar of power (grammatica quantistica del potere) is necessary. It is meant to offer "a theoretical framework for acting in environments that elude deductive regulation" [offre un quadro teorico per agire in ambienti che sfuggono a regolazione deduttiv] that is grounded in what is called the precise formalisms of "entanglement, decoherence, non-commutativity" [entanglement, decoerenza, non-commutatività]. (Grammatica quantistica del potere nell’era dei sistemi instabili ).
Within this conceptual universe legal norms serve as the sauce for the constitution of reality. "Treaties, rulings, and directives do not merely describe or regulate:
they produce. If we ignore its quantum implications, we risk adopting
tools unsuitable for a reality that is no longer stable or separable." [Il trattato, la sentenza, la direttiva non si limitano a descrivere o a
regolare: producono. Se ne ignorano le implicazioni quantistiche, si
rischia di adottare strumenti inadatti a una realtà che non è più
stabile, né separabile.]. (Ibid.). These are the semiotic objects the signification of which serve as the bricks for building realities that must (may) follow. Obne codes the structures of action. But one also acts to structure normative cages within which one desires to fit in. In this sense there may also be a strong phenomenology to quantum grammar. "Geopolitics, too, if it still intends to act, must abandon the logic of
linear projection and embrace a logic of coemergence—understood as the
simultaneous and interdependent emergence of actors and context. Acting
strategically today means generating worlds."[Anche la geopolitica, se intende ancora agire, deve abbandonare la
logica della proiezione lineare e accettare una logica di coemergenza
(coemergence) – intesa come l’emersione simultanea e interdipendente di
attori e contesto. Agire strategicamente, oggi, significa generare mondi.] (Grammatica quantistica del potere nell’era dei sistemi instabili ). This has an American aspect as well (The Phenomenology of Peace and the Price of the Deal--Text of and Reflections on the Interview: Secretary of State Marco Rubio with Brian Kilmeade of Fox Radio).
The contest of two corridor realities: Professor Sbailò offers the contemporary Chinese experience as a model and a cautionary tale.
The cycle of accumulation, industrialization, export, and containment has stalled. The cracks are not only economic (deflation, housing crisis, demographic decline), but systemic: loss of plasticity, adaptive rigidity, strategic rigidity. China displays the entropic form of a system that rejects probability, that demands determinism in an indeterminate world. Its every reaction—repression, closure, aggressive exportation of risk—accelerates domestic and global instability. [Il ciclo di accumulo, industrializzazione, esportazione e contenimento si è inceppato. Le crepe non sono solo economiche (deflazione, crisi immobiliare, contrazione demografica), ma sistemiche: perdita di plasticità, rigidità adattiva, rigidità strategica. La Cina mostra la forma entropica di un sistema che non accetta la probabilità, che pretende determinismo in un mondo indeterminato. Ogni sua reazione – repressione, chiusura, esportazione aggressiva del rischio – accentua l’instabilità interna e globale.] (Grammatica quantistica del potere nell’era dei sistemi instabili ).
China and its Belt & Road is proffered as an example of the old way of thinking and doing--static, two-dimensional, and stubborn. In essence a system led by its theory rather than a theory used to advance its system. He offers an alternative trajectory in the form of the India-Middle East-Europe Corridor (IMEC).
It is not just an infrastructure, but a
strategic operator: a device that acts on geopolitical space like a
quantum observer acts on an open system. It does not impose, but
interferes; it does not stabilize, but generates local coherence; it
does not pit force against force, but constructs possibilities. It is a
physical corridor, but also a cognitive, semantic, and normative one: it
restructures the field of observation and action, redefining the
criteria of relevance and marginality. [Non è solo un’infrastruttura, ma un operatore strategico: un dispositivo
che agisce sullo spazio geopolitico come un osservatore quantistico
agisce su un sistema aperto. Non impone, ma interferisce; non
stabilizza, ma genera coerenze locali; non contrappone forza a forza, ma
costruisce possibilità. È un corridoio fisico, ma anche cognitivo,
semantico e normativo: ristruttura il campo dell’osservazione e
dell’azione, ridefinendo i criteri di rilevanza e marginalità.] (Grammatica quantistica del potere nell’era dei sistemi instabili).
And yet there is nothing that suggests that Chinese ideological dialectics may not also, out of the fundamental contradiction noted by Professor Sbailò, also (re)produce itself in forms consistent with the times. Yet that gap between realization and change, especially where change requires a more dynamic engagement with change--an automated dialectices within Marxist-Leninist realities that may require a fundamental shift in modernization that has already been inted at in China's 20th Congress 3rd Plenum.
In this new context, the role of jurists, strategists, and decision-makers must also change. They must, in effect, become the coders of the quantum--they are perhaps not the architects or designers, but rather the engineers of systems in constant states of dynamic change. In one sense, then, one can understand this as the transformation of traditional normative elites from that of "white collar" to "blue collar" roles. They make things happen. But perhaps they are less essential to its conceptualization. Who or what, then, is the architect? Perhaps it is its object itself. Power may serve not just as its own object, but as the essence of its own positive signification; and thus signified, the master of its own interpretation. "This faculty is already active. It is exercised by algorithmic
platforms, opaque legal systems, adaptive regimes. A truth is not
imposed: environments are constructed in which alternatives become
impracticable. The new authoritarianism does not prohibit—it dictates.
Invisible, operational, performative." [Questa facoltà è già attiva. La esercitano piattaforme algoritmiche,
sistemi giuridici opachi, regimi adattivi. Non si impone una verità: si
costruiscono ambienti in cui le alternative diventano impraticabili. Il
nuovo autoritarismo non vieta – dispone. Invisibile, operativo,
performante.] (Grammatica quantistica del potere nell’era dei sistemi instabili ).
For that effort person/objects are needed to transpose the abstractness of cognitive systems into the realities of action in simulated and physical space. That is the work of jurists, strategists, and decision-makers. This power is objecti-fiable--through the aggregation of its mimetic iterative actions, actions which are controlled by and reflect the "flow", the "stream" rather than serving to make either. As Nietzsche might have suggested--this is a time in which an embedded priestly class may find itself unemployed, or relegated to the margins of the new structural basis of reality and the ways of its care and feeding.
It is in this sense, perhaps, that quantum grammar becomes far more interesting. Professor Sbailò suggests the power of a democratic turn, both as an active agent of quantum grammar of power and as its salvation from automation and its transposition from the physical world to that of the simulacra. "Every rule, infrastructure, or strategic device is a transformative
agent. What is at stake is no longer the preservation of order, but the
design of the possible. And it is in this gesture—selective, situated,
responsible—that the quality of public action is measured today." [Ogni norma, infrastruttura o dispositivo strategico è un operatore
trasformativo. La posta in gioco non è più la conservazione dell’ordine,
ma la progettazione del possibile. Ed è in questo gesto – selettivo,
situato, responsabile – che si misura oggi la qualità dell’azione
pubblica.] (Grammatica quantistica del potere nell’era dei sistemi instabili ).
I suspect we are well beyond that--and out of desire. Professor Sbailò offers us thew world of the multiverse in which humans can all be Dr. Strange. I might suspect that we have moved on to a different sort of multiverse, one that has created itself out of itself--risen from the swamp of infinite flows of data and streams of action from out of which it could produce itself in real time (Describe,
Predict, Intervene!—On Objective Subjectivities and the Simulacra of
Semiotics in the New Era; Simulated Signification and Mechanical Meaning
Making in Managing Post-COVID Human Society).
The essay appears below in the original Italian and in acrude English translaiton.
