The post-necessary human: artificial intelligence, societal security, and cognitive governance

Abstract

Artificial intelligence, digital infrastructures, and data-driven systems are reshaping not only strategic capabilities but also the cognitive, motivational, and identity-related conditions that contribute to social cohesion and societal resilience. The post-necessary human is introduced as an analytical construct describing a relational condition in which AI-mediated systems simultaneously reduce human functional necessity and displace human agency within specific domains of activity. The framework examines how this condition may affect perceived contribution, recognition, meaning, identity, and belonging and, when aggregated through institutional and population-level processes, potentially generate societal-security vulnerabilities. Based on the theories of psychologist and ethicist Viktor Frankl, Hannah Arendt and Émile Durkheim on what conditions are necessary for meaning and social participation, the study posits that vulnerabilities created by artificial intelligence impact the psychological foundations required for collective stability. The concepts of cognitive liberty, mental privacy, mental integrity and cognitive sovereignty become strategically relevant. Security, therefore, needs to look beyond protecting conditions for individuals and communities to maintain their autonomy, capacity for judgment and continuity of identity in a precarious technological landscape. This article is a conceptual and policy-oriented analysis; previously published cross-sectional psychological findings are used only to illustrate selected downstream mechanisms and do not constitute empirical validation of the proposed framework.