Sound Research WIKINDX
Sound Research WIKINDX |
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Simondon, G., Malaspina, C., & Rogove, J. (1958/2017). On the mode of existence of technical objects. Univocal Publishing. Added by: alexb44 (7/7/26, 6:24 AM) Last edited by: alexb44 (7/10/26, 5:41 AM) |
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| Resource type: Book Published ID no. (ISBN etc.): 9781937561031 BibTeX citation key: Simondon1958 Email resource to friend View all bibliographic details  |
Categories: General Keywords: Philosophy, Philosophy of technology, Technology Creators: Malaspina, Rogove, Simondon Publisher: Univocal Publishing |
Views: 6/6
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Some of Simondon's key terms as I understand them:
Hypertely: When a technology's traits evolve to the point of being over-specialised, causing it to lose its ability to adapt and meaning it functions only in the specific milieu it was developed to work in. This is at the cost of future potential for evolution and interconnection. Concretisation: A machine becomes more of a cohesive whole. It becomes one structure that functions synergistically, which is a direct contrast to the abstract stage, where each bit does its own little thing in the whole. Technical essence: The internal coherence of a tech object. It's the ovearching idea that allows a machine or technology to have a lineage and evolve further. Might think of this as the guiding light of a technical object. Adaptation-concretisation (pp. 58-59): The technical object exists only as an idea, and forces the creation of a different milieu. As such they both exist only virtually until invention. In this sense, the technical object becomes its own condition as it relates to the techno-geographical milieu overall. (not happy with this description yet...) Techno-geographical milieu (pp. 58-59): Exists between man and nature, and is only possible through man's intelligence. The physical conditions of a geographically specific location is integrated into the functioning of a technical being, and is also modified through it. Associated milieu: The associated milieu exists purely virtually until the actual inventio of the technical object. For instance, a thermostat is an open system, as it is capable of 'responding' to the temperature of the room (unlike automatic systems that are pre-programmed and closed). The room then changes temperature, and that in turn affects the thermostat. This is now the associated milieu of the thermostat as a technical object, as they both come into existence once the technical object is actualised. Metastability: The metastable is neither stable nor unstable, like a bowling pin that wobbles after a shove. Individuals exist in this metastable state because they retain preindividual potentials. When an external force, like a shove of the pins, acts upon them, it resolves a tension between the disparate, incompatible potentials within their preindividual being. The specific direction of their individuation is determined by which of these disparate potentials is actualised through that resolution. Simondon uses this merely as an analogy. ADD!: Ground
Good source: https://epochemagazine.org/34/gilbert-simondon-and-the-process-of-individuation/ Added by: alexb44 Last edited by: alexb44 |
| Quotes |
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pp. 16–17
"We would like to show, precisely, that the robot does not exist, that it is not a machine, no more so than a statue is a living being, but that it is merely a product of the imagination and of fictitious fabrication, of the art of illusion. The notion of the machine as it currently exists in culture, however, incorporates to a great extent this mythical representation of the robot. An educated man would never dare to speak of objects or figures painted on a canvas as genuine realities, having interiority, good or ill will. However, this same man speaks of machines as threatening man, as if he attributed a soul and a separate, autonomous existence to them, conferring on them the use of sentiment and intention toward man."
Speaks for itself.
Added by: alexb44
(7/7/26, 10:16 AM)
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p. 17
“(…) a purely automatic machine completely closed in on itself in a predetermined way of operating would only be capable of yielding perfunctory results.”
Simondon argues that automatism is a low degree of technical perfection, because automating a machine means sacrificing a wide range of possible usages. Instead, raising the technicity of a machine corresponds to a certain margin of indeterminacy, which allows the machine to be sensitive to outside information - an "open" machine.
Added by: alexb44
(7/7/26, 10:27 AM)
Comments:
Interesting in relation to AI. The shift to working on primarily post-training and harnesses is precisely a step towards determinacy, which robs it of this 'openness'.
Added by: alexb44
(7/7/26, 10:27 AM)
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p. 60
"The unity of the future associated milieu, within which the causal relations will be deployed that will enable the functioning of the new technical object, is represented, it is played or acted out as much as a role can be played in the absence of the true character, the way of the schemes of the creative imagination"
Simondon says that these objects can only exist by virtue of imagination, and that humans can make use of these schema in their minds to envision how things will work. This is why the milieu is purely virtual until the invention of the technical object itself, which in turn puts the new milieu into existence, and so they affect each other.
Added by: alexb44
(7/7/26, 8:13 AM)
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pp. 60–61
On invention and ground.
"The reason the living being can invent is because it is an individual being that carries its associated milieu with it; this capacity for conditioning itself lies at the root of the capacity to produce objects that condition themselves." Here Simondon mentions that psychologists missed not schemas, forms or operations, but the dynamic ground upon which these schemas confront each other, combine and participate: "[...] a deeper analysis of the inventive process would no doubt show that what is deterinant and plays an energetic role are not forms but that which carries the forms, which is to say their ground; the ground [...] is what harbors the dynamisms; it is that through which the system of forms exists" "For the ground is the system of virtualities, of potentials, forces that carve our their path, whereas forms are the system of actuality. Invention is the taking charge of the system of actuality through the system of virtualities, the creation of a unique system on the basis of these two systems." Forms then, are actualised potentials and virtualities.
Added by: alexb44
(7/7/26, 8:21 AM)
Comments:
I sense a lot of parallels to Merleau-Ponty's intentional arc.
Added by: alexb44
(7/7/26, 8:21 AM)
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p. 134
"The technical individual [the machine] is not of the same era as the labor that enacts it and the capital that frames it”
Simondon points out that alienation is certainly a result of the worker no longer being the owner of his means of production, but also at the physiological and psychological level of the individual. He says that: "the machine no longer prolongs the corporeal schema, neither for workers, nor for those who possess the machines" (p. 133), meaning that the machine doesn't function as an extension of the mind, but instead we feed ir ot manage its logistics.
Added by: alexb44
(7/7/26, 10:56 AM)
Comments:
This might be viewed as both a cognitive and physical discontinuity and is an interesting perspective as it relates to the extended mind.
Added by: alexb44
(7/7/26, 10:56 AM)
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pp. 162–163
"(…) From then on the most positive, most direct aspect, of the first notion of progress, is no longer experienced. The progress of the eighteenth century is a progress experienced by an individual through the force, speed, and precision of his gestures. The progress of the nineteenth century can no longer be experienced by the individual because it is no longer centralized with the individual as the center of command and perception in the adapted action. The individual becomes the mere spectator of the results of the functioning of the machines, or the one who is responsible for the organization of technical ensembles putting the machines to work."
Said in relation to technology that didn't directly replace humans, but rather animals or tools. The automatic weaving loom, for instance, is a bearer of tools much like humans.
Added by: alexb44
(7/7/26, 10:37 AM)
Comments:
This is very similar to the promise of AI. Agents specifically make this very promise of operating just as a human would. Regardless of whether it works or not (it doesn't), the human individual experiences technological advancement as a spectator, rather than as a wielder of a new tool.
Added by: alexb44
(7/7/26, 10:37 AM)
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