Cybernetics and Technical Objects

PABLO ESTEBAN RODRÍGUEZ

London

Workshop; Workshop "Simondon and Technics. On the mode of existence of technical objects"; 2017

Kingston University

My paper will focus on the main axes of the second part of On the mode of existence of technical objects (known as MEOT, following the original title in French), called ?Man and technical object?. The first axe is the genealogy of technicity proposed by Simondon, i.e., the relationship between man and the technical object, from the tool to the machine-tool, and from the machine-tool to the machine. This represents three modes of existence of technical objects: technical element, technical individual, technical ensemble. The second axe is the historical relationship between culture and technics, especially in what it concerns the process of education. According to Simondon, Encyclopedism, starting in the Renaissance, ending in cybernetics through the Encyclopedia of Diderot and D?Alembert, is the key to reduce the alienation of man from technical reality that engenders the two classical positions about technics: technophobia and technophilia. Finally, the third axe of this part of MEOT is the detailed analysis of cybernetics developed by Simondon. Cybernetics represents at the same time a new way to approach the reality of technical ensembles (first axe) and an opportunity to renew the encyclopedic mind (second axe). This is why Simondon builds a great philosophy of information, probably the most important concept of cybernetics. In a world shaped by the theory, technologies and practices of information as our world, this aspect of Simondon?s work is extremely important, as well as his criticism of the technological approach to information and the philosophical concept of artificiality it entails.