The Pandemic Society or the Difference, as Taboo

The following pages aim to sketch the idea of a pandemic society, that is to emphasize the link among “network”, “technology” and “pandemic” seen as potential basic features of our society. In particular, I will try to clarify in what sense the network society (according to Manuel Castells’ definition) equates to a techno-society or Gestell society, rather than a mere technological society. By Gestell society – according to Heidegger’s definition of technology as Gestell/Enframing – I mean a social and epochal framework within which technology emerges as the “subject of history” (Günther Anders). Given these assumptions, I will show how its technological imprimatur could transform our globalized network society into a pandemic society: an ideal incubator of pandemic phenomena. Expressed in a formula, it sounds: the network society proves to be a potential pandemic society precisely insofar as it is de facto a Gestell society.