The Policy Umwelt: How AI Problem Representations Render Governance Alternatives Unthinkable

Abstract

This paper investigates how AI narratives actively constrain the horizon of conceivable governance options. Moving beyond the established finding that narratives influence policy, we argue they fundamentally prefigure the scope of the politically thinkable by creating what we term “Policy Umwelten.” Adapting Jakob von Uexküll’s concept, a Policy Umwelt describes the perceptible and actionable landscape of interventions available within a given narrative, which systematically renders alternatives invisible. We analyze three competing narratives: Existential Risk, Accelerationism, and Critical AI. We do so through a “What’s the Problem Represented to Be?” analysis of their foundational manifestos. Each constructs a distinct Umwelt: Existential Risk makes global technocratic containment imperative; Accelerationism legitimizes only deregulation and market liberation; and Critical AI centers structural reform. Despite their overt conflict, these narratives converge in constructing Policy Umwelten that render a pragmatic approach to governance difficult to perceive: one that emphasizes iterative learning from empirical feedback and institutional flexibility over grand visions or predetermined certainties. The paper concludes that the most significant constraint on AI policy is not a lack of options but a collective failure of political perception. The Policy Umwelt concept thus provides a diagnostic tool for mapping ideological deadlock and identifying pathways toward more adaptive and less deterministic technological futures.