Michael A Peters

What if the most radical shift in modern education is not that we are teaching machines to think, but that we are redesigning human learning to mimic the carbon-silicon architecture of the computer? Michael A. Peters, a leading philosopher of education, argues that we have moved past the classic knowledge economy into an era of "bio-informational capitalism." In this paradigm, the traditional boundaries between biology, information technology, and education have completely collapsed. ## The Convergence of Biology and Information Peters posits that contemporary education is increasingly governed by the convergence of informationalism and biopolitics. This is not merely about using computers in classrooms. Rather, it represents a fundamental shift where life itself, down to the genomic level, is treated as code, and education is reframed as the programming of human capital. In his seminal work, [*Biopolitics, Bio-conceptualization and the Cybernetic University*](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40841-020-00188-3), Peters describes how cybernetics has mutated from a mid-century theory of control systems into an all-encompassing logic that dictates institutional life: > "The cybernetic university is one that is increasingly integrated into the global system of bio-informational capitalism, where the production of knowledge is subordinated to the laws of feedback, optimization, and algorithmic control." To understand Peters' critique, one must look at how universities now operate. By prioritizing bibliometrics, algorithmic rankings, and predictive student analytics, higher education has surrendered its classic Humboldtian ideal of *Bildung*—holistic self-cultivation—to a regime of digital performativity. We no longer ask what knowledge is intrinsically valuable, but rather how efficiently a curriculum can program a student for the cognitive labor market. ## From Humanism to Postdigital Education This transition marks the rise of the "postdigital" era, a term Peters and his colleagues explore deeply in the [Postdigital Science and Education](https://link.springer.com/journal/42438) journal. The postdigital perspective challenges the clean separation between the digital and the physical, arguing that digital technology is already deeply entangled with our biological and social existence. In this light, the student is no longer an autonomous rational agent in the tradition of Enlightenment humanism. Instead, the learner is repositioned as a node within a vast, self-regulating socio-technical network. Learning analytics do not just measure progress; they actively construct the student's subjectivity by dictating what pathways are visible, desirable, and permissible. ## Follow-up questions 1. How does Michael A. Peters distinguish the concept of "bio-informational capitalism" from traditional definitions of the knowledge economy? 2. In what ways does the cybernetic university alter the ethical responsibility of the educator toward student autonomy? 3. How can postdigital pedagogical practices be designed to resist the totalizing logic of algorithmic optimization and feedback loops?