Epistemic agency is no longer exclusively human

Synthetic Epistemology explores how knowledge is assembled from multiple, often competing sources and the role of media in the broader dynamics of information synthesis. *Media here defined in the broadest sense as all physical, technological, and communicative materials or systems used to store, transmit, and represent information, encompassing materials and technological systems. 

Synthetic epistemology is a term that aligns with how historical and political narratives are constantly developing constructions based on available data, discourse, and interpretation.

The term also has a bit of materiality to it—suggesting that knowledge isn’t just abstract but actively - mediated - over time. It ties into information theory, AI, and media studies, making it broad enough to apply across disciplines.

Today, knowledge is continuously constructed, revised, and legitimized through the interplay of sources, discourse, and real-time updates. In the digital information ecosystem, information isn't a fixed body of facts contained by a physical object, but a composite structure that is being assembled and reassembled based on available information, visibility, interpretation and mediator. Assembled and reassembled based on context, discourse, and mediation. Authenticity and authority is decentralized, meaning emerges from aggregated synthesis, and truth is contingent on visibility, dissemination, power structures, algorithms and competing knowledge systems. 

A synthetic epistemology depends on engagement—what is asked, how it is framed, and what sources are prioritized at any given moment. The boundary between human and machine knowledge production blurs. AI and mediation tools don't not merely retrieve facts; they generate, refine, and contextualize knowledge dynamically. 

Epistemic agency is no longer exclusively human.