Through the looking glass: heteronymic self and otherness in AI therapy

Abstract

In this thought-provoking essay, Matan Shapiro invites us to explore how digital “friction surfaces” – interfaces that mediate interactions between people and systems – blur distinctions between the virtual and actual, reshaping social boundaries on a global scale. He argues that digital avatars and data-doubles are not mere representations but immersive extensions of the self. This creates metonymic relationships that collapse distance and forge new, algorithmically driven collectives. Shapiro suggests this transformation leads to a paradoxical experience of being both inside and outside one’s own digital existence, fundamentally altering how individuals and societies engage with otherness.