World(coin) in the AI future

How sociotechnical fictions are instrumental to the cyberlibertarian transition

Bibliographic Data

ID17675992
AuthorsAndreu Belsunces (0000-0001-6654-2070, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, corresponding author), Andreu Belsunces Gonçalves, Laura Forlano (0000-0002-3997-7180, Northeastern University)
Year2026
Volume41
Issue5
Pages5411-5425
Publication date2026-02-18
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAI & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0951-5666 • E-ISSN: 1435-5655
PublisherSpringer Nature (PUBLISHER • SG)
DOI10.1007/s00146-026-02913-1
OpenAlexW7130310683
LanguageEN
References cited45

World is a crypto identity and financial infrastructure created by Sam Altman to face the challenges of what he calls the “Intelligence Age”. Building on science and technology studies, this paper examines how sociotechnical fictions are instrumentalised to enable both the emergence of this technology and broader cyberlibertarian politics. These fictions, forms of imagination produced within science and technology but unrecognised as such due to technoscientific legitimacy, operate at the core of this process. It analyses how speculative visions grounded in existential risk narratives legitimise World ’s value proposition, positioning it to secure governance and economic power in an AI-driven future. Through critical analysis of World ’s white paper, algorithmic protocols, Orb design and marketing materials, the study demonstrates how these fictions perform at four levels: epistemically by constructing knowledge around projected problems; aesthetically by materialising science fiction imaginaries and re-enchanting biometric scanning as an act of pre-emptive safety; affectively by eliciting excitement, fear, and urgency; and normatively by embedding assumptions about artificial general intelligence, security, and economy that naturalise private and post-democratic governance as inevitable. These intertwined performative agencies align with venture capital’s logic of transforming future crises into present assets, revealing how fiction, finance, and technoscientific legitimacy converge to advance a long-standing cyberlibertarian transition

Agency (philosophy) · Corporate governance · Existentialism · Identity (music) · Legitimacy · Narrative · Performative utterance · Performativity · Sociotechnical system · Technological determinism · Vision · Digital Education and Society · Digital Media and Philosophy · Neuroethics, Human Enhancement, Biomedical Innovations

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access