Hypnocracy

Trump, Musk and the New Architecture of Reality

A book. A performance. A demonstration.

Editions

4 languages

Italian

English

French

Spanish

The Experiment

In January 2024, I published a philosophical essay signed by Jianwei Xun, a Chinese philosopher I invented. The book analyzes how contemporary power manipulates reality, coining the term "Hypnocracy" to describe a regime that operates directly on consciousness. Le Monde, El País, The New York Times, Wired—they all reviewed it, discussed it, took it seriously.

In April 2025, L'Espresso revealed that Jianwei Xun does not exist. I created him with artificial intelligence as critical interlocutor. The hoax became the proof: a book about reality manipulation that manipulated reality to demonstrate its thesis. The operation showed how easily a fictitious identity can acquire authority, how cultural validation systems work, how perception is constructed.

This was not a prank. It was philosophy practiced, not described. Co-written with Claude and ChatGPT, the book embeds the very mechanisms it theorizes. If you believed in Xun before learning the truth, you experienced Hypnocracy firsthand.

Hypnocracy is the first regime that operates directly on consciousness. It does not control bodies. It does not repress thoughts. Rather, it induces a permanent altered state of consciousness. A lucid sleep. A functional trance.

Hypnocracy, Introduction

Key Concepts

Algorithmic trance

The continuous flow of digital content induces a permanent altered state of consciousness, where attention is modulated like a wave and emotional states are constantly manipulated.

Perceptual sovereignty

The ability to maintain a core of autonomy in the perception of reality, resisting the dissolution of the boundary between true and false.

Algorithmic edging

The technique through which platforms keep users in perpetual anticipation, promising satisfactions that are constantly postponed.

Dark resistance

Forms of invisible resistance that inhabit the system's cracks, cultivating spaces of opacity within the regime of total transparency.

Gaseous reality

The contemporary condition where reality has become entirely fluid: the distinction between truth and falsehood has lost meaning.

The Other Plane

The intuition that the digital may be not only an instrument of control but an interface toward new dimensions of experience.

International Press

III

The operation generated global coverage. Before and after the revelation, these publications engaged with the work:

The New York Times A.I. Can Trick You, Warns Book That Hid A.I.'s Help Writing It Le Monde Le philosophe Jianwei Xun n'existe pas, mais son concept d'« hypnocratie » entre dans notre réalité Wired A Philosopher Released an Acclaimed Book About Digital Manipulation. The Author Ended Up Being AI El País Jianwei Xun, the supposed philosopher behind the hypnocracy theory, does not exist El Clarín Hipnocracia, el libro del año Télérama La vertigineuse histoire d'"Hypnocratie" Philosophie Magazine "L'IA est un outil d'une puissance extraordinaire pour construire des concepts" La Nación El filósofo inventado con IA que fue un éxito editorial Le Grand Continent Qui est vraiment Jianwei Xun ? Rolling Stone El libro del año del autor inexistente National Geographic Este es el "libro del año", pero su aclamado autor no existe L'Espresso Ipnocrazia, ecco perché il filosofo Xun non esiste

The method that navigates the trance

Prompt Thinking

The Book

Through the cases of Donald Trump and Elon Musk, Hypnocracy reveals how contemporary power operates: the emptying of language into hypnotic signifiers, the flooding of imagination with promises destined never to be fulfilled, the modulation of collective states of consciousness. The book is available in Italian (Tlon), French (Philosophie Magazine), Spanish, and English.

More information and purchase: tlon.it/ipnocrazia

The phantom author's site: jianweixun.com