On t h e Mode of E x i s t e n c e o f T e c h n i c a l O b j e c t s by G i l b e r t Simondon Paris: A u b i e r , E d i t i o n s Montaigne, 1958

T r a n s l a t e d from t h e French by Ninian Mellamphy w i t h a P r e f a c e by John Hart

U n i v e r s i t y of Western O n t a r i o June 1980

Work on t h i s p r o j e c t was s u p p o r t e d t h r o u g h t h e E x p l o r a t i o n s Program o f The Canada C o u n c i l

Contents

CHAPTER ONE ----------THE GENESIS O THE TECHNICAL OBJECT: THE PROCESS O CONCRETIZATION F F I. A b s t r a c t Technical Object and Concrete Technical Object ..... 11 11. Conditions o f Technical E v o l u t i o n . .

........................ .17

111. The Rythm o f Technical Progress; Continuous and Minor Improvement and Discontinuous and Major Improvement.. .......... .34

CHAPTER T O W ----------THE EVOLUTION OF TECHNICAL REALITY: ELEMENT, INDIVIDUAL AND ENSEMBLE

I. H y p e r t e l i a and S e l f - c o n d i t i o n i n g i n Technical E v o l u t i o n .....51

.................................... 60 111. Technical I n d i v i d u a l ,i z a t i o n ................................ 68 I V . E v o l u t i v e Chains and T e c h n i c i t y Conservations - The Law o f Relaxation.. ............. .................................... 75
V. T e c h n i c a l i t y and t h e E v o l u t i o n o f Technics: T e c h n i c a l i t y as an Instrument o f Technical E v o l u t i o n ......................... 82

11. Technical I n v e n t i o n I n v e n t i v e Thought .......

Form and Content i n L i f e and i n

PREFACE by John H a r t

Simondon's d o c t o r a l t h e s i s , of which t h e E n g l i s h t r a n s l a t i o n of P a r t I is g i v e n h e r e , h a s a two-fold v a l u e , f i r s t l y f o r reasons i m p l i c i t i n t h e i n i t i a l r e c o g n i t i o n it r e c e i v e d two decades ago, and s e c o n d l y f o r i t s r e l e v a n c e

i n c o n n e c t i o n w i t h themes which have s i n c e become more

evident. Slow a s i t h a s been t o o b t a i n t h e r e c o g n i t i o n i t

d e s e r v e s , t h e book r e c e i v e d a t t e n t i o n o r i g i n a l l y a s a n i n t r o d u c t i o n t o a new way o f u n d e r s t a n d i n g t e c h n o l o g y .

A s a s c h o l a r l y work e x p l a i n i n g t h e humanity c o n t a i n e d i n
t h e machine, t h e r e was n o t h i n g l i k e i t i n t h e e n t i r e p h i l o s o p h i c a l c o r p u s d e v o t e d t o t h e machine, n o t h i n g t h a t i s , which combined a p h i l o s o p h i c a l t r e a t m e n t w i t h t h e same proximity t o t h e t e c h n i c a l o b j e c t . The o u t s t a n d i n g q u a l i t y

of Simondon's t r e a t m e n t i s t h a t f o r a l l t h e d i f f i c u l t i e s of c r o s s i n g s e p a r a t e d domains of meaning h i s w r i t i n g is e s s e n t i a l l y , deep down, a work of p r a i s e . When, a t t h e

second mechanology c o n f e r e n c e , he commended t h e Coal Board of England f o r t h e r e s t o r a t i o n of a Newcornen E n g i n e , he

o b s e r v e d t h a t t h e o b j e c t i v e of c o n s e r v a t o r i e s and museums

i s t o p u t t e c h n i c a l o b j e c t s back i n t o working c o n d i t i o n .
"There i s , " he s a i d "something e t e r n a l i n a t e c h n i c a l

schema

.. .

And i t is t h a t ( q u a l i t y ) which is always The o n l y

p r e s e n t and which can be conserved i n a t h i n g . "

o t h e r writer who p l a c e d t h e t e c h n i c a l o b j e c t on t h e same h i g h p l a n e was J a c q u e s L a f i t t e whose book p u b l i s h e d i n 1932 f i r s t recommended t h e e s t a b l i s h m e n t of a s c i e n c e of machines o r mechanology .
2

I f as I b e l i e v e , t h i s t r a n s l a t i o n i s a s s o c i a t e d w i t h

a second moment i n t h e emergence o f mechanology, i t nonetheless r e s p o n d s s t i l l t o t h e e x i g e n c i e s o f t h e f i r s t .

W may e

e n v i s a g e a new group of r e a d e r s , not n e c e s s a r i l y d i s t i n c t b u t e n c o r p o r a t i n g i n t e r e s t s which d i d n o t e x i s t b e f o r e . The f i r s t group were s c h o l a r s and p r o f e s s i o n a l s i n t h e s o c i a l sciences; f o r them mechanology is a much needed d i s c o u r s e

on t e c h n i c s , which is t o s a y , a s c i e n t i f i c t r e a t m e n t h a v i n g technical operations a s object. The new group would b e t h o s e

who, a n t i c i p a t e d by t h e a u t h o r , p e r c e i v e t h e p o s s i b i l i t y of e n c o r p o r a t i n g t h e machine i n t o t h e f a m i l y of t h i n g s human a s p a r t of a g l o b a l c u l t u r a l r e n n a i s s a n c e . Between t h e e a r l i e r and l a t e r p r e s e n t a t i o n s o f t h e t e c h n o l o g i c a l o b j e c t t h e r e i s no i n c o m p a t a b i l i t y .

As

o c c i d e n t a l t e c h n o l o g y expands t h r o u g h o u t t h e w o r l d , r e f l e c t i o n on i t s meaning must r e a c h down p a s t c o n t r a d i c t i o n s i n t o

G . Simondon, i n C a h i e r s du C e n t r e C u l t u r a l Canadien No. 4 , Deuxieme C o l l o q u e S u r l a Mecanologie, P a r i s , 1976, p . '87.

J . L a f i t t e , R e f l e x i o n s s u r l a s c i e n c e d e s machines, Bloud

e t Gay, P a r i s , 1932.

t h e most fundamental, most u n i v e r s a l i n t e n t i o n s i n d e p e n d e n t o f e t h n i c r o o t s and n a t i o n a l c u l t u r e s . The c r e a t i v e flower-

i n g o f some p a r t o f human e x p r e s s i o n i s n o t n e c e s s a r i l y confining o r r e s t r i c t i n g . But t e c h n o l o g i c a l c r e a t i v i t y is

c o n f i n i n g u n l e s s i t is a l l i e d w i t h o t h e r human a s p i r a t i o n s . T e c h n i c a l o b j e c t s a l i e n a t e u n l e s s t h e y a r e somehow b a p t i z e d , t h a t i s , u n l e s s t h e y become a t t a c h e d t o i n t e n t i o n s which r e s p o n d t o t h e contemporary l e v e l of t h e h i g h e s t human hope.

I t is v a l u e which g i v e s t e c h n i c a l c r e a t i v i t y i t s c u r r e n c y ,

i t s t r a n s c e n d a n c e i n view of communication, a d d i n g t o p r a i s e
t h e e s s e n t i a l quality of t h e g i f t . R e f e r r i n g t o t h e need f o r q u a l i t y ( i . e . v a l u e ) P e r s i g g i v e s t h e example o f a c o u p l e whose a t t i t u d e toward a broken motorcycle o r a l e a k i n g f a u c e t a l t e r n a t e d between o u t r i g h t h o s t i l i t y and a p p a r e n t unconcern. He d i s c o v e r e d

t h a t t h e unconcern was a mask f o r s u p p r e s s e d a n g e r , h e l d back b e c a u s e t o r e v e a l i t would b e t o g i v e t e c h n o l o g y t o o much i m p o r t a n c e . He concluded t h a t i t was not t h e motor-

c y c l e maintenance, n o r t h e f a u c e t r e p a i r nor any o t h e r annoyance or m a l f u n c t i o n b u t t h e whole of t e c h n o l o g y which

i s t h e enemy.'

The i n d i v i d u a l machine o r machine element

becomes a d i s t a s t e f u l symbol f o r t h e e n t i r e dehumanized w o r l d , b e s t symbolized by t h e b a r b e d w i r e f e n c e around

R . M . P e r s i g , Zen and t h e A r t o f Motorcycle Maintenance, Bantam, N e w York, 1975, p . 15.

a factory.

P e r s i g s a y s t h a t h e is s e n s i t i v e t o t h e h o s t o f
He disagrees with t h e couple

dehumanizing i n f l u e n c e s .

a b o u t c y c l e m a i n t e n a n c e , " n o t b e c u a s e I am o u t o f sympathy w i t h t h e i r f e e l i n g s about technology.

I just think their

f l i g h t f r o m a n d h a t r e d o f t e c h n o l o g y is s e l f - d e f e a t i n g . The Buddha, t h e Godhead, r e s i d e s q u i t e a s c o m f o r t a b l y i n t h e c i r c u i t s o f a d i g i t a l computer o r t h e g e a r s o f a c y c l e

as h e d o e s a t t h e t o p o f a m o u n t a i n o r i n t h e p e t a l s o f a
flower. To t h i n k o t h e r w i s e i s t o demean t h e Buddha, w h i c h

i s t o demean o n e s e l f ."I
I n a c t u a l f a c t , t h e group of people envisaged i n t h i s s e c o n d moment o f mechanology s c a r c e l y e x i s t s . They are

p e o p l e p o s s e s s e d o f t h e i d e a t h a t t h e m a c h i n e is i n a s e n s e s e p a r a t e b u t not n e c e s s a r i l y d i v o r c e d from v a l u e . Knowing t h a t i t a r i s e s o u t o f a p u r e D i o n y s i a n a s p i r a t i o n , c a p a b l e o f e x i s t i n g i n r a d i c a l i s o l a t i o n from o t h e r a s p e c t s o f l i f e , a n d t h a t a l o n g s i d e i t , a l o n g s i d e i t s mechanology t h e r e must e x i s t what Daly c a l l s a m e t a e t h i c s , a w a r e n e s s o f v a l u e beyond t h e c u r r e n t p e r c e p t i o n o f h u m a n i t y , a d v a n c i n g t o g e t h e r with it i n a process of convergence.
2

B e f o r e making t h e jump t o t h e new p o s s i b i l i t i e s , l e t

' M .

D a l y , G y n e c o l o ~ y ; t h e M e t a e t h i c s o f R a d i c a l Feminism, Beacon P r e s s , B o s t o n , 1 9 7 8 .

us c o n s i d e r t h e way Simondon's work was p e r c e i v e d i n 1958. The French e d i t i o n is i n t h r e e p a r t s , c o r r e s p o n d i n g t o t h r e e modes o f e x i s t e n c e o f t h e t e c h n o l o g i c a l o b j e c t . Part I ,

e n t i t l e d Genesis and E v o l u t i o n of T e c h n i c a l O b j e c t s , i s d e v o t e d t o i n t r i n s i c machine r e a l i t y , t o t h e p r i n c i p l e s and c o r r e s p o n d i n g examples o f t h e n a t u r e of t h e t e c h n i c a l object. P a r t I1 is c a l l e d Man and t h e T e c h n i c a l O b j e c t .

I t may be c o n s i d e r e d commentary, i n t h e l i g h t of mechanology,

o f t h e work of Wiener: Human Use of Human B e i n g s .
1

The

c o n c e p t o f i n f o r m a t i o n , t h e n a t u r e of p r o g r e s s , t h e meaning of a u t o m a t i o n and o t h e r d e r i v a t i v e s of t h e s c i e n t i f i c and e n g i n e e r i n g a p p l i c a t i o n s o f thermodynamics a r e i m p o r t a n t themes. P a r t I11 i s c a l l e d G e n e s i s of T e c h n i c a l i t y . If

P a r t I may b e s a i d t o b e d e v o t e d t o t h e machine i t s e l f , i t s i n t r i n s i c s t r u c t u r e and e v o l u t i o n , and P a r t I1 t o t h e manmachine r e l a t i o n s h i p , P a r t I11 is e s s e n t i a l l y an e s s a y on t h e machine and p h i l o s o p h y . I n i t t h e a u t h o r expands on

t h e idea t h a t philosophical thought, i n order t o s e i z e t h e s i g n i f i c a n c e o f t h e e x i s t e n c e of t e c h n i c a l o b j e c t s , must b e d i r e c t e d t o t h e e x i s t e n t i a l s i t u a t i o n of t h e s e o b j e c t s and t o t h e c o n d i t i o n s o f t h e i r g e n e s i s a r i s i n g o u t of t h e r e l a t i o n s h i p between humanity and t h e w o r l d . I n a t t e m p t i n g t o i n t r o d u c e t h e i d e a s o f Simondon, I

N . Wiener, Human Use of Human B e i n g s : C y b e r n e t i c s and S o c i e t y , Houghton and M u f f l i n , Boston, 1950.

a m f a c e d w i t h a t a s k s i m i l a r t o h i s when he o r g a n i z e d a
c o n f e r e n c e i n t h e s e r i e s of i n t e r n a t i o n a l c o l l o q u i a a t Royamount i n 1964, devoted t o c y b e r n e t i c s and f e a t u r i n g Wiener as key s p e a k e r . Simondon was c a l l e d upon t o

p r o v i d e t h e c o n t e x t i n which t h e assembled p h i l o s o p h e r s and s c i e n t i s t s might h e a r what t h e founder of c y b e r n e t i c s had t o s a y on t h e t o p i c and t i t l e of t h e p r o c e e d i n g s : The Concept of I n f o r m a t i o n i n Contemporary S c i e n c e . R e f e r r i n g t o t h e f a c t t h a t c y b e r n e t i c s grew o u t o f t h e r e f l e c t i o n s of a group o f s c i e n t i s t s a t MIT ( m a t h e m a t i c i a n s , b i o l o g i s t s , p h y s i o l o g i s t s , e t c . ) he compared i t t o t h e work of Newton, t h e l a s t man of s c i e n c e t o c o v e r t h e e n t i r e domain o f o b j e c t i v e r e f l e c t i o n , and went on t o s a y , " I n f a c t , h i s t o r i c a l l y , c y b e r n e t i c s appeared a s something new d i r e c t e d t o a c h i e v i n g a s y n t h e s i s ; i n sum, we f i n d o u r s e l v e s brought hack t o t h e t i m e o f Newton, o r t o t h e t i m e when t h e g r e a t p h i l o s o p h e r s were m a t h e m a t i c i a n s o r s c i e n t i s t s

i n t h e n a t u r a l s c i e n c e s and i n v e r s e l y .
t h e c o n t e x t i n which i t is now

This is doubtless

p o s s i b l e t o l i s t e n t o what
1 , 1

P r o f e s s o r Wiener h a s t o p r e s e n t t o u s .

A r e s u r g e n c e of i n t e r e s t i n Simondon's main themes

G . Simondon, i n t r o d u c t i o n of Norbert Wiener i n Le Concept

de l ' i n f o r m a t i o n dans l a s c i e n c e contemporaine, Les C a h i e r s do Rovaumont. C o l l e c t i o n I n t e r n a t i o n a l e s o u s l a Couf f i g n a l , G a u t i e r - V i l l a r s , P a r i s , d i r e c t i o n de M . ~ o u i k 1965, p. 99.

would show up t h e c o n t r a s t between t h e s c i e n t i f i c p h i l o s o phy o f c y b e r n e t i c s and mechanology. Mechanology i s n o t ,

l i k e W i e n e r ' s c y b e r n e t i c s , a k i n d of s u c c e s s o r t o t h e n a t u r a l philosophy o f Newton, b u t , i n s o f a r a s t h e p a r a l l e l

i s v a l i d , a s u c c e s s o r t o t h e Anatomia U n i v e r s a l i s of
~ a r v e ~ Whereas t h e c e n t r a l n o t i o n o f c y b e r n e t i c s was s y s t e m , t h e comparable concept i n mechanology is

.'

m.

I t is t h e human body w i t h i t s b a l a n c e , i t s r a p p o r t , and i t s

emanations which g i v e s t o mechanology a d e g r e e of u n i v e r s a l i t y which p u t i t i n t o l e g i t i m a t e comparison w i t h t h e broad extension of s c i e n c e . Although t h i s r e f e r e n c e t o

t h e body i s n o t e x p l i c i t i n Simondon, t h e new importance a t t a c h e d t o h i s i d e a s may be s e e n t o a r i s e b e c a u s e of t h e c o n t r i b u t i o n t h e y make t o t h i s p e r s p e c t i v e . The s y n t h e s i s which c y b e r n e t i c s a t t e m p t e d , o f t e n d e s c r i b e d a s a new c r o s s r o a d s of s c i e n c e , was v e r y i n s t r u c t i v e b o t h i n how it f a i l e d and how i t s u c c e e d e d . Kuhn's t e r m i n o l o g y , i t was t h e l o c u s o f a paradigm change which, i n s o f a r a s s c i e n c e was c o n c e r n e d , was b o t h a check and a b a l a n c e , a c o n s t r a i n t and a r e n e w a l . Science Using

w a s d i r e c t e d toward new and f r e s h p a t h s w h i l e b e i n g

W . Harvey, The Anatomical L e c t u r e s o f W i l l i a m Harvey, G . W h i t t e r i d g e , E d . , E. & S . L i v i n g s t o n e , Edinburgh, 1 9 6 4 .

'T.s.

Kuhn, The S t r u c t u r e of S c i e n t i f i c R e v o l u t i o n s , U n i v e r s i t y of Chicago P r e s s , Chicago, 1962.

c a u t i o n e d t o abandon i t s Promethean a m b i t i o n .

Cybernetics

had begun w i t h a p l e a t o r e t u r n t o i n t e r d i s c i p l i n a r y s t u d i e s , t o t u r n away from narrow f r a g m e n t a t i o n t o a mode of p e r c e p t i o n l i k e t h a t of Newton's. t h a t is what happened.

I n t h e b e s t minds,

The c y b e r n e t i c c o n c e p t s o f feed-

back and i n f o r m a t i o n began t o r e a c h o u t a c r o s s t h e n a t u r a l s c i e n c e s and i n c l u d e t h e s o c i a l s c i e n c e s a s w e l l .

A t the

same t i m e , computer and i n f o r m a t i o n s c i e n c e was r e c o g n i z e d

a s a welcome newcomer s i n c e i t s independent i n v e s t i g a t i o n s of i n f o r m a t i c s and a l g o r i t h m i c s were found t o b e v a l u a b l e i n the other sciences. Finally, i n a dramatic extension

beyond p r e v i o u s l y c h a r t e d domains o f i n v e s t i g a t i o n , t h e s t u d y of A r t i f i c i a l I n t e l l i g e n c e of and w i t h t h e a i d o f machines opened v a s t h o r i z o n s f o r o b j e c t i v e , s c i e n t i f i c investigation. These p r o j e c t s were a l l l a t e r a l h o r i z o n t a l expans i o n s , t h e l e g i t i m a t e r e p r o d u c t i o n i n k i n d of t h e domain of o b j e c t i v e i n v e s t i g a t i o n .

A t t h e same t i m e t h e over-

weening a m b i t i o n o f s c i e n c e s i n c e l o n g b e f o r e Newton which gave s c i e n c e i t s v e r t i c a l a s c e n s i o n was t e r m i n a t e d , p r o b a b l y never t o r e t u r n . S c i e n c e , meaning t h e e n t i r e

domain o f o b j e c t i v e i n v e s t i g a t i o n , had become t h e P r o c r u s t i a n measure o f knowledge.

I t s p r o p o n e n t s made i t

i n t o a k i n d o f b e l i e f s y s t e m , o r a t l e a s t t h e prominent h a l f of t h e two i n t e l l e c t u a l c u l t u r e s , A r t s and S c i e n c e .

Cybernetics, i n its s h o r t career a s s y n t h e s i s o r umbrella o f s c i e n c e , was d r i v e n by t h e same i m p e r i a l i s m .

A t the

Royaumont Conference, one of t h e s p e a k e r s , F r a n q o i s Bonsack, a t t e m p t i n g t o d e s c r i b e i n f o r m a t i o n a s something t o b e s o u g h t f o r i t s own s a k e and as component of f i n a l i z e d a c t i o n , r e f e r s t o t h e c r u c i a l s t u d y o f Ruyer d e v o t e d t o t h e problem of d e f i n i n g i n f o r m a t i o n independent o f c o n s c i ~ u s n e s s . ~ n h i s book on c y b e r n e t i c s and t h e I o r i g i n of i n f o r m a t i o n , Ruyer q u e s t i o n s t h e a b s e n c e i n c y b e r n e t i c s of an a x i o l o g y , t h a t i s , of a r e f e r e n c e t o value. He a s s e r t s t h a t what i s o m i t t e d from a l l of t h e

mechanistic explanations a r e t h e "values o r valences c o n t r o l l i n g a c t i o n s by a k i n d of a x i o l o g i c a l feedback a n a l o g o u s , but not r e d u c i b l e t o t h e mechanical feedback of a u t o m a t a " . C l a s s i c a l s c i e n c e and t e c h n o l o g y had begun

t o recognize t h e i n s u f f i c i e n c y of a s c i e n t i f i c s p e c u l a t i o n from which v a l u e i s a b s e n t i n t h e e x p l o s i v e d a n g e r s of excessive productivity: n u c l e a r armament, a u t o m o b i l e

p o l l u t a n t s , i n d u s t r i a l waste, a g r i c u l t u r a l p r a c t i c e . Ruyer, l o o k i n g a t t h e i n t r i n s i c development of s c i e n c e as

i t d e a l t w i t h t h e concept o f i n f o r m a t i o n , p i c k s t h e
p r e c i s e moment where a n o t i o n o f v a l u e is e x c l u d e d . In

doifag s o he was b r i n g i n g t o b e a r t h e r a d i c a l d e p a r t u r e o f

R . Ruyer, L a C y b e r n e t i q u e e t l ' o r i g i n e de l ' i n f o r m a t i o n , Flammarion, P a r i s , 1 9 5 4 .

c o n t e m p o r a r y E u r o p e a n t h o u g h t i n s o f a r a s i t owed i t s b a s i s t o c l a s s i c a l Greek c u l t u r e .
A s e x p r e s s e d i n t h e phenome-

nology o f H u s s e r l and o t h e r s , t h i s d e p a r t u r e began by denying t h a t s c i e n c e h a s a p r e f e r e n t i a l s i t u a t i o n w i t h r e s p e c t t o t h e r e a l i t y w h i c h s u r r o u n d s human l i f e . The

c r y s t a l i z a t i o n a n d p e r h a p s t h e most d e c i s i v e moment o f t h i s r e v o l u t i o n a r y mode o f t h o u g h t is g i v e n i n Max S c h e l e r , a s t u d e n t o f H u s s e r l , i n h i s d o c t o r a l t h e s i s a t J e n a i n 1897. T h i s t h e s i s a t t a c k e d t h e r a t i o n a l i s t i c b a s i s o f a l l t h a t is i m p l i e d i n t h e Nicomachean E t h i c s o f A r i s t o t l e a n d s t a t e d i n e f f e c t t h a t e t h i c a l p r i n c i p l e s and l o g i c a l p r i n c i p l e s b e l o n g t o d i f f e r e n t domains o f m e a n i n g .

1

Around t h e m a c h i n e c i r c l e t h e main t h e m e s o f o u r age: t e c h n o l o g y is i m p l i c i t i n t h e i r c a u s e s as w e l l a s But s i n c e c y b e r n e t i c s

b e i n g an element i n t h e i r e v o l u t i o n .

h a s s u f f e r e d a c h e c k t o b e c o m i n g t h e means o f u n d e r s t a n d i n g t h a t t e c h n o l o g y , where c a n w e t u r n ? I f s c i e n c e and its

a s s o c i a t e d p h i l o s o p h y c a n n o t do s o b e c a u s e i t s b a s i s i n n a t u r a l p h i l o s o p h y i s n o t s u i t a b l e , c a n we c a l l upon a mechanology i n v e n t e d p r e c i s e l y t o b r i n g t h e m e a n i n g o f t h a t r e a l i t y i n c o n t a c t w i t h o t h e r domains o f knowledge? W e

M . S c h e l e r , B e i t r a g e z u r F e s t s t e l l u n g d e r Beziehungen z w i s c h e n den L o g i s c h e n und E t h i s c h e n P r i n z i p i e n , J e n a , 1 8 9 7 . The most a c c e s s i b l e i n t r o d u c t i o n t o S c h e l e r ' s e t h i c s o f v a l u e s is g i v e n i n h i s book The N a t u r e o f Sympathy, t r . by P e t e r H e a t h , New Haven, 1 9 5 4 .

r u n h e r e i n t o a o b s t a c l e which h a s n o t t o do w i t h approp r i a t e n e s s b u t t o t h e f a c t t h a t Simondon's t h e s i s ( a n d L a f i t t e ' s ) is p r e s e n t e d i n a language which i s by and l a r g e i n a c c e s s i b l e t o most r e a d e r s . Simondon i s not unaware of t h e t e r m i n o l o g i c a l difficulties.

H e attempted t o r e c t i f y t h e inadequacies of

t h e w r i t t e n word w i t h diagrams b e t t e r a b l e t o i l l u s t r a t e t e c h n o l o g i c a l f u n c t i o n and c o m p o s i t i o n . The f i r s t e d i t i o n

was p u b l i s h e d w i t h o u t t h e s e diagrams, an o m i s s i o n by t h e
p u b l i s h e r due t o c o s t b u t s i g n i f i c a n t f o r o t h e r r e a s o n s . Without t h i s non-verbal p r e s e n t a t i o n , deemed e s s e n t i a l , 1

t h e book a s i t f i r s t appeared i n t h e Analyse e t Raison c o l l e c t i o n of A u b i e r , b o r e t h e stamp and manner of a philosophical study. The p r e s e n t a t i o n i m p l i e d t h a t t h e

work was t o b e s e e n , as i t had been l a u n c h e d , among t h e progeny o f t h e f a m i l i a r French p h i l o s o p h i c a l t r a d i t i o n , r a t h e r than a r a d i c a l departure. When t h e book appeared i n Typical of i t s

1958 i t was n o n e t h e l e s s w e l l r e c e i v e d .

r e c o g n i t i o n was t h e r e f e r e n c e t o i t i n Volume 110 o f C a h i e r s d e 1' I .S .E . A . (1964) d e v o t e d t o ' P r o g r e s s ' , a f t e r

i t appeared.

C o n s i d e r e d a s " a s o l i d and b r i l l i a n t e s s a y

on t h e t e c h n i c a l o b j e c t , " i t is p r a i s e d a s a p h i l o s o p h i c a l

s e e t h e d e f e n c e o f non-verbal t h i n k i n g and n o n - s c i e n t i f i c modes o f t h o u g h t i n E . S . Ferguson, The Mind's Eye: Nonv e r b a l Thought i n Technology, S c i e n c e , Vol. 1 9 7 , August 1977, p p . 827-836.

G . G r a n g e r , i n Le P r o g r e s s , C a h i e r s d e l T I n s t i t u t de S c i e n c e Economique Applique N 110, F e v r i e r 1961, p . 2 3 .

i n v e s t i g a t i o n i n which t h e m o d a l i t i e s o f p r o g r e s s a r e described.
I t is noted t h a t "the perfectioning proper t o

t e c h n o l o g y c o n s i s t s i n p a s s i n g from t h e ' a b s t r a c t ' machine t o t h e ' c o n c r e t e ' machine wherein t h e o r g a n s a r e more o r l e s s i n t e g r a t e d i n t o t h e whole. The antagonisms and

reciprocal limitations a r e progressively effaced, t h e f u n c t i o n i n g o f t h e machine t e n d i n g t o become a g l o b a l f u n c t i o n i n g , and i n sum, t h e t e c h n o l o g i c a l o b j e c t approaches t h e n a t u r a l o b j e c t b u t by o t h e r ways t h a n t h o s e of n a t u r e . t, 1 V a l o r i z i n g t h e same theme and making i t more i m p o r t a n t , van L i e r , i n 'Le Nouvel A g e ' , a book d e v o t e d t o t h e new chances of humanism, p r o p o s e s t h a t " t h i s new v i s a g e ( o f t h e machine) e x p l a i n s o r i n any c a s e r e i n f o r c e s most of t h e e s s e n t i a l c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of t h e contemporary w o r l d ; t h a t

i t s u g g e s t s a s y s t e m of v a l u e s s u c e p t i b l e
new humanism. 1?2

of promoting a

And y e t , a l t h o u g h t h e r e v i e w s and commentaries were favorable,

i t h a s n o t happened t h a t t h e i n t r i n s i c n a t u r e

of t h e machine a c c o r d i n g t o Simondon h a s become p a r t and p a r c e l o f contemporary t e c h n i c a l d i s c o u r s e and i n d e e d is not a s w e l l known a s t h e m a j o r i t y o f t h o u g h t f u l works a p p e a r i n g a t t h e same time o r l a t e r . The r e a s o n f o r t h i s ,

H . van L i e r , Le Nouvel Age, Casterman, T o u r n a i , 1964.

though c r e d i t a b l e somewhat t o t h e s p e c i a l o p t i c o f t h e s o c i a l s c i e n t i s t s , p h i l o s o p h e r s and l i t e r a r y c r i t i c s who s i g n a l e d i t s a d v e n t , i s t h a t t h e language i n which mechanology is w r i t t e n is an o b s t a c l e f o r a l l b u t t h e r a r e i n d i v i d u a l s i n whom t h e r e is a combination o f s c h o l a r l y and mechanological e x p e r i e n c e , e n a b l i n g them t o b r i d g e t h e gap between domains of meaning which u n t i l now have been separated. Consider t h e concept which h a s been r e c o g n i z e d a s key. I n t h i s t r a n s l a t i o n we have a l l o w e d t h e word

' c o n c r 6 t u d e ' t o b e t r a n s l a t e d a s ' c o n c r e t i s a t i o n ' knowing t h a t t h e t r u e s e n s e of machine g e n e s i s i s t h e r e b y l o s t . The e q u i v a l e n t i n E n g l i s h of t h e mechanological meaning i s closer t o 'concrescense' but it too is inadequate. What

we a r e d e a l i n g w i t h i s a n o n - p e j o r a t i v e b u t d i s t a n c e d mode o f e x p r e s s i o n ; i t i s l a t i n i n o r i g i n and c h o i c e o f s e n s e , w i t h consequent d i s t a n c e between t h e r e a l machine and our conception. T h i s u s a g e and t h a t o f t h e c o r r e s p o n d i n g

antonym, a b s t r a c t , i s n o t an i s o l a t e d phenomenon; nor i s

it i n d i f f e r e n t .

E x c e l l e n t words a s t h e y a r e , nouns such

a s c o n c r e t e and a b s t r a c t g i v e images which a r e removed from the technical object. They c a n be t o o r e a d i l y a s s i m i l a t e d

i n t o t h e a n t i t e c h n o l o g i c a l b i a s , t o j o i n o t h e r words where t h a t b i a s i s cemented i n t o t h e i r c o n n o t a t i o n . Thus t h e y

do not e s c a p e t h e p e r e n n i a l d i s t r u s t embedded i n c l a s s i c a l

humanism where t h e word machine i t s e l f h a v i n g a meaning

s i m i l a r t o m a c h i n a t i o n , i s d e r i v e d from t h e Greek machine,

meaning ' a t r i c k a g a i n s t n a t u r e ' . What is needed i s n o t s o much a t r a n s l a t i o n as a transduction. To go d i r e c t l y from French t o E n g l i s h t r a n s -

p o s i n g o n e word from l a t i n o r g r e e k by a n o t h e r h a v i n g t h e

same o r i g i n u s u a l l y worsens t h e i n t e n d e d meaning where

t e c h n o l o g y is c o n c e r n e d . Having r e c o g n i z e d t h a t l i t e r a r y

l a n g u a g e i s n o t s u i t a b l e , t h e q u e s t i o n i s what s t e p s must b e t a k e n t o r e n d e r mechanology i n a mode c a p a b l e of conveyi n g f o r a b r o a d a u d i e n c e t h e s i g n i f i c a n c e of t h e machine f o r t h e g l o b a l c u l t u r e i t is c a l l i n g f o r t h . The f r e s h e n i n g of language is t a k i n g two main r o u t e s , t h e one connected t o c r a f t s , t h e o t h e r t o A r t i f i c i a l Intelligence. T h i s l a t t e r r o u t e r e l a t e s t o computer

language and computer g r a p h i c s c o n s i d e r e d a s a form of e x p r e s s i o n which, l i k e f i l m , r e n d e r s t h e e s s e n c e of t h e machine a c c e s s i b l e i n s o f a r as o p e r a t i o n s a r e c o n c e r n e d . L i k e h a n d i c r a f t s , i t w i l l h e l p t o a r t i c u l a t e i n a way t h a t t h e g e n e r a l p u b l i c w i l l u n d e r s t a n d , t h e h i d d e n human e l e m e n t s i n t h e machine. In p a r a l l e l with t h a t , recent

l i n g u i s t i c s t u d i e s have t h e i m p o r t a n t f u n c t i o n t o b r i n g forward t h e g r a s p of t h e machine from e a r l i e r t e c h n o l o g i e s p a r t i c u l a r l y those of t h e a r t i s a n .

For p e o p l e today t o u n d e r s t a n d , t o u s e and t o humanize t h e machine, i t is n e c e s s a r y t o s t a r t w i t h c r a f t s b o t h o l d and new. For t h e c r a f t s show, w i t h a

depth o f sonance comparable t o t h e sympathy o f i n t e r s u b j e c t i v i t y , t h e image o f a l i f e t i m e o f d i a l o g u e between t h e s e l f and t h e o t h e r . The c r a f t s have had t o b e k e p t

a l i v e by M o r r i s and o t h e r s t h r o u g h a k i n d o f Dark Ages, much a s w r i t i n g i s s a i d t o have been p r e s e r v e d by monks. The c r a f t s d i d n o t go u n s c a t h e d i n t h e p r o c e s s , s i n c e t h e y sometimes had t o masquerade under i n a p p r o p r i a t e l a b e l s . R e s u r r e c t e d a s a d e f e n c e a g a i n s t t h e w o r s t f e a t u r e s of i n d u s t r i a l i z a t i o n , they sometimes assumed a d e g r e e of a r t i f i c i a l i t y not i n keeping with t h e i r o l d e r purpose o r future possibilities.1 T h i s was e v i d e n t i n t h e e s t a b l i s h -

ment of h i e r a r c h y among d i f f e r e n t c r a f t s p e o p l e , a c t i n g a s a k i n d of c a s t e system. Even Ghandi c a l l i n g on t h e

t r a d i t i o n s of I n d i a , was n o t a b l e t o r e s t o r e t h e c r a f t s t o t h e i r f u l l value i n t h e case of i n d u s t r i a l i z a t i o n . The c r a f t s can a c t t o p r o v i d e c o n t i n u i t y of meaning t h r o u g h d i r e c t knowledge of f u n c t i o n made s p e c i f i c by t h e u n d e r s t a n d i n g of g e s t u r e . Nonverbal knowledge a r t i c u l a t e d

by t h e hands and f e e t i s t h e b o d y ' s way of t h i n k i n g j u s t as t h e c h i s e l l i n g of words from sound is t h e mind's way o f

s e e t h e p e r t i n e n t d e s c r i p t i o n of t h e Arts-and C r a f t s
Movement i n J . A . A r g u e l l e s , The T r a n s f o r m a t i v e V i s i o n , Shambhala, B e r k e k e l , 1975, p . 1 8 2 .

xvi

making c o n t a c t .

Nothing s o much p r e v e n t s t h e harmonious

i n t e g r a t i o n of t h e human i n d i v i d u a l a s t h e downgrading of one i n f a v o u r o f t h e o t h e r u n l e s s i t i s l o s s o f h a b i l i t y i n both.

I t is t h e a s s e r t i o n by R i c h a r d s of t h e incon-

v e r t a b l e s t r e n g t h and symmetry o f t h e combination which makes h e r combination o f p o t t e r y and w r i t i n g s o i m p o r t a n t . 1

Her c o n c e p t of c e n t e r i n g and f u s i o n a s found i n t h e p o t t e r ' s

c r a f t h a s t h e b e s t chance of p r o v i d i n g a language f o r machine ' c o n c r e t u d e ' i n Simondon. This a s s o c i a t i o n belongs

t o t h e same p r o c e s s of renewal a s t h e l i n g u i s t i c s t u d i e s i n B r i t a i n by Evans where terms used by a r t i s a n s i n t h e v i l l a g e s h a s l e d t o t h e d i s c o v e r y of unexpected t r e a s u r e s

i n t h e a n g l o saxon words a s s o c i a t e d w i t h t h e c r a f t s .

The contemporary i n t e r e s t i n t h e body o r i g i n a t e d , n o t s o much as a r e a c t i o n a g a i n s t t h e c e n t u r i e s o f r a t i o n a l i s m , b u t a s a r e s u l t of t h e d e v a s t a t i n g e f f e c t s of t h e shock caused by t h e advent o f a u t o m a t i c machinery.

A s Marx w a s a c u t e l y aware, i t was t h e r e p l a c e m e n t o f t h e

human hand by t h e machine t o o l , which c a u s e d t h e r u p t u r e .

A s l o n g a s man p e r c e i v e d himself a s demiurge, a s m a s t e r

whose hands remodelled n a t u r e , h i s s e l f - i m a g e was s e c u r e .

1 1 . C . R i c h a r d s , C e n t e r i n g i n P o t t e r y , P o e t r y , and t h e P e r s o n Wesleyan U n i v e r s i t y P r e s s , Middletown, 1962.

2
G . E . Evans, The Days That W Have S e e n , Faber and F a b e r , e

1975.

xvii

B u t when t h e m a c h i n e o r t h e i n d i v i d u a l t e c h n i c a l o b j e c t

w a s a v a i l a b l e n o t m e r e l y as t o o l b u t s t a n d i n g i n f o r him
i n execution a s a s e p a r a t e i n d i v i d u a l , it w a s e q u i v a l e n t t o t h e l o s s f o r man, i n a s i n g l e s t e p , o f a c r u c i a l p a r t o f h i s inheritance. 1 T h a t shock h a s f a r from been r e s o l v e d . The e n t i r e

mythology o f t h e r o b o t , more p o p u l a r t h a n e v e r d u e t o t h e d i f f u s i o n b y f i l m a n d t e l e v i s i o n , is w i t n e s s t o i t s c o n t i n u e d c o n c e r n i n t h e minds o f t h e m a j o r i t y o f p e o p l e . But w h e r e a s mass m e d i a h a v e k e p t a l i v e a n d e n h a n c e d t h e i r r a t i o n a l f e a r of t e c h n o l o g y , t h e s e q u e n c e o f a c t u a l e v e n t s h a s n o t f o l l o w e d t h e same r e g r e s s i v e r o u t e . By

n e c e s s i t y and through genuine concern, t h e e a r l y p a t r o n s of i n d u s t r y recognized t h a t p r o d u c t i v i t y , goal of t h e f a c t o r i e s p a r e x c e l l e n c e , demanded a s o u n d body as much

as a n e f f i c i e n t m a c h i n e .

G u i l l e r m e s a y s t h a t Dupin, o n e

o f t h e o r i g i n a t o r s o f F r e n c h i n d u s t r i a l s o c i e t y , was t y p i c a l o f s u c h men i n t h a t w h i l e h e s o u g h t t o i m p r o v e t h e e f f i c i e n c y of t h e workers, h e b e l i e v e d t h a t s o c i a l harmony c o u l d o n l y b e r e a l i z e d by t h e p e r f e c t i o n i n g o f a l l t h e f a c u l t i e s of t h e i n d i v i d u a l . The i m p o r t a n c e o f

a t h l e t i c s , t h e a c q u i s i t i o n o f t h e l i b e r a l a r t s as o r n a m e n t

were t h e outcome o f t h e s e a t t i t u d e s .

I n t h e m i d s t of t h i s

'^K. Marx, C a p i t a l , Volume 1, V i n t a g e B o o k s , 1 9 7 7 , p . 4 9 7 .

x v i ii

was t h e need t o s e e t h e body t o t a l l y .

The body t h a t was p e r c e i v e d was known v e r y imperf e c t l y and from a s t a n d p o i n t o f t h e very r a t i o n a l i s m t o which i t would be opposed.

I t was a body image t h a t

e v o l v e d from "pseudo-mathematized enigma" t o "animated motor" t o "thermodynamic e x c h a n g e r " . And such models,

however v a l u a b l e t h e y may have been i n g i v i n g an impetus t o p h y s i o l o g y and t o t h e modern s c i e n t i f i c models of t h e body, a r e n o t t o be confused w i t h t h e soma, t h e body

which i n d u s t r y i n i t s g r e a t e r c o n c r e t e n e s s was a p p r o a c h i n g and which i s a l s o i t s e l f f a r from t h e r e a l i t y . With

r e s p e c t t o t h e t r u e human body which i s a s s e r t i n g i t s e l f b e n e a t h and beyond t h e s e movements, t h e s c i e n t i f i c and t e c h n o l o g i c a l models a r e l i t t l e b e t t e r t h a n rumours and t h e c o n s i d e r a t i o n s o f t h e man/machine r e l a t i o n s h i p o n l y and i n d e x o r a name. Along w i t h i n a d e q u a t e knowledge of t h e t e c h n i c a l o b j e c t , t h e c r i s i s of v a l u e c l o u d s t h e p r e s e n c e o f humanity i n t h e machine and p r e v e n t s t h e c a l l i n g - f o r t h of new c r e a t i v e r e s p o n s e s . For some, t h e achievements of t h e Memories of C h a r t r e s

p a s t p r o v i d e b a s i s enough f o r hope.

J . G u i l l e r m e , V a r i a t i o n s s u r l e s r e v e r i e s du Baron Dupin,
i n Mgcanologie 2 , p . 54.

o r Chambord i n F r a n c e , o f S t o n e h e n g e a n d t h e F l y i n g Scotsmen i n E n g l a n d , o f t h e g e o d e s i c dome a n d t h e B o e i n g 747 i n America a r e s u f f i c i e n t p r o o f o f t h e b e s t i n t h a t c r e a t i v e impulse. T h e s e i n d i v i d u a l t e c h n i c a l o b j e c t s d o n o t come

about simply through response t o n e c e s s i t y but because they

a r e c a l l e d f o r t h by a n d s u p p o r t e d by c r e a t i v e i n d i v i d u a l s .
They are o n e o f t h e m a n i f e s t a t i o n s o f s t a t e s o f r e v e r y and p l a c e s o f h a p p i n e s s as a n c i e n t a s t h e r i n g i n g a n v i l o f t h e b l a c k s m i t h and as r e c e n t a s t h e smooth s p i n n i n g o f t h e S t i r l i n g e n g i n e , s t a t e s d i s c o v e r a b l e on t h e o n e hand w i t h Bachelard through an archeology o f t h e imagination found i n p o e t r y , 1 and on t h e o t h e r w i t h LeMoyne i n t h e " r e v e r i e s machinques" o f t h e men who work w i t h m a c h i n e s t o b e f o u n d i n s u c h p l a c e s as t h e " c a t h e d r a l s o f e l e c t r i c i t y " . What

is t h i s c r e a t i v e p r o c e s s when i t i s o p e r a t i v e ?
a r t i c u l a t e d and what f o r m s d o e s i t t a k e ?

How is i t

Anticipated i n

t h e t h e s i s devoted t o t h e t e c h n i c a l o b j e c t is a later s t u d y by Simondon i n t o t h e n a t u r e o f i n v e n t i o n . I n t h e course of

h i s t o r y i n v e n t i o n h a s shown up i n t h r e e d i f f e r e n t ways

G . B a c h e l a r d , La t e r r e e t l e s r e v e r i e s d e l a v o l o n t 6 , J o s e C o r t i , P a r i s , 1948.

J . LeMoyne, R e v e r i e s M a c h i n q u e s , i n La M g c a n o l o g i e , C a h i e r No. 2 , C e n t r e C u l t u r e 1 C a n a d i e n , P a r i s , 1 9 7 1 .
i n f o r m a t i o n comes f r o m G . Simondon, L 1 i n v e n t i o n d a n s l e s t e c h n i q u e s , i n La M g c a n o l o g i e o p . c i t . , a l s o f r o m c o u r s e n o t e s , u n p u b l i s h e d , S o r b o n n e , 1968.

his

I n network t e c h n o l o g y , a s e x e m p l i f i e d by t h e mine, improvements come from t h e c e n t r a l i s a t i o n of t a s k s r e l a t i v e t o t h e pits. C o n c e n t r a t i o n of men and a p p a r a t u s , f l o w o f m a t e r i a l s

underground and t o t h e s u r f a c e , o r g a n i s a t i o n o f t h e ensemble i n view o f improved o p e r a t i o n a r e t h e o b j e c t i v e s t o which t h e inventive process is directed. This kind of technology

i s symbolized i n t h e p i c t u r e s showing t h e o r g a n i z a t i o n of a
m u l t i t u d e of p e o p l e , h o r s e s , and p u l l i e s t o r a i s e a n o b i l i s k ; i t i s t y p i c a l of a r c h a i c t e c h n o l o g y . C r e a t i v i t y comes from

r e s o l v i n g t h e problems connected w i t h t h e d i v i s i o n between t h e c e n t r a l command and t h e t e r m i n a l s l e a d i n g t o f u n c t i o n a l u n i c i t y of t h e t e r m i n a l s . Component t e c h n o l o g y , t h e

examples b e i n g t h e t r a n s f o r m e r , t h e g a s p i s t o n e n g i n e , is c h a r a c t e r i z e d by t h e c o n s t r u c t i o n o f a t e r t i u m q u i d ; i n v e n t i o n adds a new t h i r d r e a l i t y l i n k i n g p r e v i o u s l y unconnected components. The p r i m a r y e f f e c t o f c r e a t i v i t y

i n t h i s o r d e r i s t o produce a d e v i c e s u c h a s t h e a l t e r n a t i n g c u r r e n t t r a n s f o r m e r which l i n k s t h e power of t h e e l e c t r i c motor t o a v a s t a r r a y of equipment s u c h as t o o l s , h e a t e r s , radios e t c . T h i s i s done by e n v i s a g i n g , b e f o r e m a n u f a c t u r e ,

a u n i t whose f u n c t i o n is t o c o n n e c t two m i l i e u x p r e v i o u s l y separated. I n d i v i d u a l i z e d technology i s technology focussed

on t h e c o n s t r u c t i o n of t h e complete i n d i v i d u a l machine o f which t h e house, t h e a u t o m o b i l e t h e computer a r e examples. I n v e n t i o n p r o c e e d s mainly by e v o l u t i o n of s y n e r g i e s t h r o u g h t h e process of c o n c r e t i z a t i o n .

xxi

Simondon

has observed t h a t t h e i n d i v i d u a l i z e d

t e c h n i c a l o b j e c t c o r r e s p o n d s most d i r e c t l y t o t h e human dimension. The human i n d i v i d u a l i s n o t dominated by i t Nor does he

a s he is i n t h e mining o r any o t h e r network.

dominate i t , making i t an e x t e n s i o n o f h i s hands or p r o s t h e t i c d e v i c e , a s happens i n component t e c h n o l o g y . He n e i t h e r dominates nor i s dominated b u t e n t e r s i n t o a kind of d i a l e c t i c . To u n d e r s t a n d t h e c a t e g o r i e s o f t h i s

exchange, i t i s v a l u a b l e t o s e e t h e t r i p a r t i t e d i v i s i o n of L a f i t t e a s t h e b a s i s of t h e mechanology of t h e i n d i v i d u a l t e c h n i c a l o b j e c t , t h e s e c a t e g o r i e s depending on whether t h e machine is p r i m a r i l y d e v o t e d t o m a i n t a i n i n g a h o m e o s t a t i c c o n d i t i o n ( h o u s e , b r i d g e ) , o p e r a t i n g i n d e p e n d e n t l y (on machine t o o l s , s a t e l l i t e s ) , p r o v i d i n g i n f o r m a t i o n ( c o m p u t e r ) . T h i s m i l l e n i a l i t i n e r a r y of t h e e v o l v i n g human s p e c i e s which k e e p s t h e p r o c e s s o f c o n c r e t i s a t i o n b e f o r e us f i n d s c o r r e s p o n d e n c e s i n t h e s e a r c h f o r t h e harmonious body f u n c t i o n i n g which i s t h e g o a l of p h y s i c a l h e a l t h . In

psychotherapy a l s o , t h e human soma a s p e r c e i v e d i n t h e b i o e n e r g e t i c s of Reich and L o w e n , i s t h a t which c o n c r e t i z e s i t s e l f , t h a t i s , which engages i n a s e a r c h t o remember t h e body i n t o a s t a t e o f u n i t y c o r r e s p o n d i n g t o t h e magic u n i t y of t h e c h i l d .

1 A . Lowen, B i o e n e r g e t i c s , Penguin, Hanmondsworth, 1971

xxii

The s t u d i e s of t h e c r a f t s and of l i n g u i s t i c s as p r e l u d e t o mechanology t a k e u s c l o s e r t o t h e c e n t r e of somatic r e a l i t y . They have t h e e f f e c t o f j o i n i n g t h e

d i s t a n c e t h a t h a s l o n g s e p a r a t e d o c c i d e n t a l man from t h e work o f h i s h a n d s . But t h e y t o o a r e p r e p a r a t i o n ; means

whereby t h e animated body may b e g i n t o b e made t r u l y present. The f i n a l s t e p is t a k e n through t h e emanations

o f t h e body r o o t e d i n t h e most a n c i e n t b i o l o g i c a l s o u r c e s . The c l o s e s t we can come i s n o t through t h o s e models which a r e s o u s e f u l t o s c i e n c e nor t h r o u g h t h e i n d i c e s o f t e c h n o l o g y , nor t h r o u g h t h e e l e m e n t s r e v e a l e d by c l o s e c o n t a c t w i t h t h e o p e r a t i o n s o f t h e c r a f t s and t h e names o f language b u t o n l y t h r o u g h t h e o r i g i n a l m a n i f e s t a t i o n assumed by t h e body by way of what Leroi-Gourhan call

"Ie g e s t e e t l a p a r o l e " which is t h e emanation o f t h e body

i n e v e r renewed and c r e a t i v e forms.

In t h i s regard t h e

h i s t o r y of t h e s p e c i e s is one w i t h t h e moment o f u p r i g h t s t a t u r e when t h e r e t o o k p l a c e t h e s i m u l t a n e o u s l i b e r a t i o n of t h e hands from locomotion and t h e mouth from nourishment The e a r l i e s t v e r s i o n s o f o u r humanity s u c h a s t h e Austrolanthrope, "possessed h i s t o o l s a s a kind of pincher.

H e seemed t o have a c q u i r e d them not i n a s o r t o f i l l u m i n a t i o n w i t h which t o arm h i m s e l f b u t a s i f h i s b r a i n and body exuded them p r o g r e s s i v e l y . Thus t h o s e marvelous

A . Leroi-Gourhan, P a r i s , 1964.

Le g e s t e e t l a p a r o l e , A l b i n Michel,

x x i ii

p o l i s h e d s t o n e s which m i r r o r f o r u s t h e c o n c e p t i o n s o f t h a t o l d e s t h u m a n i t y are f i r s t e m a n a t i o n s o f t h e b o d y . I f we

c o n t i n u e t h e same p r o c e s s i t is d u e t o t h e f a c t t h a t t h e e v e r - i n c r e a s i n g human f a c u l t y o f s y m b o l i z a t i o n a n d i n c a r n a t i o n b e s p e a k t h e v i t a l i t y o f t h e same s o m a t i c s o u r c e . I t i s b e c a u s e Simondon h a s s o u n d e d a c a l l t o a l l o w t h e meaning o f t h e machine t o r e s o n a t e a t t h i s profound l e v e l t h a t h i s work g a i n s s p e c i a l v a l u e i n t h e c o n t e m p o r a r y reexamination o f technology.

Introduction The purpose of t h i s s t u d y i s t o a t t e m p t t o s t i m u l a t e awareness of t h e s i g n i f i c a n c e of t e c h n i c a l o b j e c t s . C u l t u r e h a s become a system of d e f e n s e T h i s i s t h e r e s u l t of t h e assumption W should l i k e t o show t h a t e

designed t o s a f e g u a r d man from t e c h n i c s .

t h a t t e c h n i c a l o b j e c t s c o n t a i n no human r e a l i t y .

c u l t u r e f a i l s t o t a k e i n t o account t h a t i n t e c h n i c a l r e a l i t y t h e r e i s a human r e a l i t y , and t h a t , i f i t i s f u l l y t o p l a y i t s r o l e , c u l t u r e must come t o terms w i t h t e c h n i c a l e n t i t i e s a s p a r t of i t s body of knowledge and v a l u e s . Recogni-

t i o n of t h e modes of e x i s t e n c e of t e c h n i c a l o b j e c t s must be t h e r e s u l t of p h i l o s o p h i c c o n s i d e r a t i o n ; what philosophy h a s t o a c h i e v e i n t h i s r e s p e c t i s analogous t o what t h e a b o l i t i o n of s l a v e r y achieved i n a f f i r m i n g t h e worth of t h e i n d i v i d u a l human being. The o p p o s i t i o n e s t a b l i s h e d between t h e c u l t u r a l and t h e t e c h n i c a l and between man and machine i s wrong and has no foundation. ance o r resentment. What u n d e r l i e s i t i s mere ignor-

It u s e s a mask of f a c i l e humanism t o b l i n d us t o a r e a l i t y

t h a t i s f u l l o f human s t r i v i n g and r i c h i n n a t u r a l f o r c e s .

This r e a l i t y i s t h e

world of t e c h n i c a l o b j e c t s , t h e mediators between man and n a t u r e . C u l t u r e behaves towards t h e t e c h n i c a l o b j e c t much i n t h e same way a s a man caught up i n p r i m i t i v e xenophobia behaves towards a s t r a n g e r . T h i s kind of

misoneism d i r e c t e d a g a i n s t machines does n o t s o much r e p r e s e n t a h a t r e d of t h e new a s a r e f u s a l t o come t o terms w i t h an u n f a m i l i a r r e a l i t y . Now, however

s t r a n g e t h i s r e a l i t y may b e , i t is s t i l l human, and a complete c u l t u r e i s one t h a t e n a b l e s us t o d i s c o v e r t h a t t h i s s t r a n g e r i s indeed human. S t i l l , the

machine i s a s t r a n g e r t o u s ; i t i s a s t r a n g e r i n which what i s human i s locked i n , unrecognized, m a t e r i a l i z e d and e n s l a v e d , b u t human n o n e t h e l e s s . The most

powerful cause of a l i e n a t i o n i n t h e world of today i s based on misunderstanding of

t h e machine.

The a l i e n a t i o n i n q u e s t i o n i s n o t caused by t h e machine b u t by

a f a i l u r e t o come t o an understanding of t h e n a t u r e and e s s e n c e of t h e machine, by t h e absence of t h e machine from t h e world of meanings, and by i t s omission from t h e t a b l e of v a l u e s and concepts t h a t a r e an i n t e g r a l p a r t o f culture. C u l t u r e i s unbalanced because, w h i l e i t g r a n t s r e c o g n i t i o n t o c e r t a i n o b j e c t s , f o r example t o t h i n g s a e s t h e t i c , and g i v e s them t h e i r due p l a c e i n t h e world of meanings, i t b a n i s h e s o t h e r o b j e c t s , p a r t i c u l a r l y t h i n g s t e c h n i c a l , i n t o t h e u n s t r u c t u r e d world of t h i n g s t h a t have no meaning b u t do have a u s e , a u t i l i t w a r i a n function. Faced w i t h such a marked d e f e n s i v e n e g a t i v e a t t i t u d e

on t h e p a r t o f a b i a s e d c u l t u r e , men who have knowledge of t e c h n i c a l o b j e c t s and a p p r e c i a t e t h e i r s i g n i f i c a n c e t r y t o j u s t i f y t h e i r judgment by g i v i n g t o t h e t e c h n i c a l o b j e c t t h e o n l y s t a t u s t h a t today h a s any s t a b i l i t y a p a r t from t h a t g r a n t e d t o a e s t h e t i c o b j e c t s , t h e s t a t u s of something s a c r e d . T h i s , of

c o u r s e , g i v e s r i s e t o an i n t e m p e r a t e t e c h n i c i s m t h a t i s n o t h i n g o t h e r than i d o l a t r y of t h e machine and, through such i d o l a t r y , by way of i d e n t i f i c a t i o n ,

i t l e a d s t o a t e c h n o c r a t i c y e a r n i n g f o r u n c o n d i t i o n a l power.

The d e s i r e f o r

power confirms t h e machine a s a way t o supremacy and makes of i t t h e modern p h i l t r e (love-potion). t h e android machine. t o it. The man who wishes t o dominate h i s f e l l o w s c r e a t e s He a b d i c a t e s i n favour of i t and d e l e g a t e s h i s humanity

He t r i e s t o c o n s t r u c t t h e t h i n k i n g machine and dreams o f b e i n g a b l e

t o c o n s t r u c t t h e w i l l i n g machine o r t h e l i v i n g machine, s o t h a t he can l a g behind i t , w i t h o u t a n x i e t y , f r e e d from a l l danger and exempt from a l l f e e l i n g s of weakness, w h i l e e n j o y i n g a v i c a r i o u s triumph through what he h a s invented. I n t h i s c a s e , t h e n , once through an i m a g i n a t i v e p r o c e s s t h e machine h a s become a r o b o t , a d u p l i c a t e o f man, b u t w i t h o u t i n t e r i o r i t y , i t i s q u i t e e v i d e n t l y and i n e v i t a b l y n o t h i n g o t h e r t h a n a p u r e l y mythic and imaginary b e i n g .

3
Our p r e c i s e aim i s t o show t h a t t h e r e i s no such t h i n g a s a r o b o t ; t h a t a r o b o t i s no more a machine t h a n a s t a t u e i s a l i v i n g b e i n g ; t h a t i s merely a product of t h e imagination, of man's f i c t i v e powers, a product o f t h e a r t of illusion. N e v e r t h e l e s s , t h e n o t i o n of t h e machine i n present-day c u l t u r e in-

c o r p o r a t e s , t o a c o n s i d e r a b l e e x t e n t , t h i s mythic r e p r e s e n t a t i o n of t h e r o b o t . N c u l t i v a t e d man would a l l o w himself speak of t h i n g s o r persons p a i n t e d on a o canvas a s v e r i t a b l e r e a l i t i e s w i t h an i n t e r i o r l i f e and a w i l l , good o r bad. D e s p i t e t h i s , t h e c u l t i v a t e d man does a l l o w himself t o speak o f machines which t h r e a t e n mankind, a s i f he were a t t r i b u t i n g t o t h e s e o b j e c t s a s o u l and a s e p a r a t e and autonomous e x i s t e n c e which g r a n t s them t h e p o s s e s s i o n of f e e l i n g s and of i n t e n t i o n s towards mankind. Our c u l t u r e thus e n t e r t a i n s two c o n t r a d i c t o r y a t t i t u d e s t o t e c h n i c a l objects. On t h e one hand, i t t r e a t s them a s p u r e and simple assemblies of

m a t e r i a l t h a t a r e q u i t e w i t h o u t t r u e meaning and t h a t o n l y p r o v i d e u t i l i t y . On t h e o t h e r hand, i t assumes t h a t t h e s e o b j e c t s a r e a l s o r o b o t s , and t h a t t h e y harbour i n t e n t i o n s h o s t i l e t o man, o r t h a t t h e y r e p r e s e n t f o r man a c o n s t a n t t h r e a t of a g g r e s s i o n o r i n s u r r e c t i o n . Thinking i t b e s t t o p r e s e r v e

t h e f i r s t c h a r a c t e r , c u l t u r e s t r i v e s t o p r e v e n t t h e m a n i f e s t a t i o n of t h e second, and speaks of p u t t i n g t h e machine i n t h e s e r v i c e of man, i n t h e b e l i e f t h a t reducing i t t o s l a v e r y i s a s u r e means of p r e v e n t i n g r e b e l l i o n o f any k i n d . I n f a c t , t h i s i n h e r e n t c o n t r a d i c t i o n i n o u r c u l t u r e a r i s e s from an ambiguity i n o u r i d e a s about a u t o m a t i s m ~ a n dt h i s i s where t h e hidden l o g i c a l flaw l i e s . I d o l a t o r s of t h e machine g e n e r a l l y assume t h a t t h e degree of p e r f e c t i o n of a machine i s d i r e c t l y p r o p o r t i o n a l t o t h e degree of automatism. Going beyond what

can be l e a r n t from e x p e r i e n c e , t h e y suppose t h a t a n i n c r e a s e i n and improvement of automatism would l e a d t o t h e b r i n g i n g i n t o oneness and mutual i n t e r c o n n e c t i o n of a l l m a c h i n e s ~ t h ec r e a t i n g o f a machine made up of a l l machines. Now, i n f a c t , automatism i s a f a i r l y low d e g r e e of t e c h n i c a l p e r f e c t i o n . I n o r d e r t o make a machine a u t o m a t i c , i t i s n e c e s s a r y t o s a c r i f i c e many of i t s f u n c t i o n a l p o s s i b i l i t i e s and many of i t s p o s s i b l e u s e s . Automatism, and t h a t

use of it in the form of industrial organisation which we call automation, has an economic or social, rather than a technical, significance. The real perfecting of machines, which we can say raises the level of technicality, h^a t ^/t*-c- -^i-itl^ e a p e m d - t e an increase in automatism but, on the contrary, relates to the fact that the functioning of the machine conceals a certain margin of indetermination. It is such a margin that allows for the machine's sensitivity

Zz-XLS.

to outside information. It is this sensitivity to information on the part of machines, much more than any increase in automatism that makes possible a technical ensemble. A purely automatic machine completely closed in on itself in a predetermined operation could only give summary results. The machine

with superior technicality is an open machine, and the ensemble of open machines assumes man as permanent organizer and as a living interpreter of the interrelationships of machines. Far from being the supervisor of a squad of slaves,

man is the permanent organizer of a society of technical objects which need him as much as musicians in an orchestra need a conductor. The conductor can

direct his musicians only because, like them, and with a similar intensity, he can interpret the piece of music performed; he determines the tempo of their performance, but as he does so his interpretative decisions are affected by the actual performance of the musicians; in fact, it is through him that the members of the orchestra affect each other's interpretation; for each of them he is the real, inspiring form of the group's existence as group; he is the central focus of interpretation of all of them in relation to each other. This is how man functions as permanent inventor and coordinator of the

machines around him. He is among the machines that work with him. The presence of man in regard to machines is a pe,rpetualinvention. Humar as reality resides in machines human actions fixed and crystalized in functioning
\

structures. These structures need to be maintained in the course of their

functioning, and their maximum perfection coincides with their maximum openness, that is, with their greatest possible freedom in functioning. Modern calculating machines are not pure automata; they are technical beings which, over and above their automatic adding ability (or decision-making ability, which depends on the working of elementary switches)possess a very great range of circuit-commutations which make it possible to programme the working of the machine by limiting its margin of indetermination. It is because of this primitive margin of

indetermination that the same machine is able to work out cubic roots or to translate from one language to another a simple text composed of a small number of words and turns of phrase. It is also by the medium of this margin of indetermination, and not by automatisms, that machines can be grouped into coherent ensembles so as to exchange information with each other through the intermediacy of the human interpreter as coordinator. Even when the exchange of information between two

machines is direct (such as between a pilot oscillator and another oscillator synchronized by impulses), man intervenes as the being who regulates the margin of indetermination so as to make it adaptable to the greatest possible exchange of information. Now, we might ask ourselfves who can achieve an understanding of technical reality and introduce it to our culture? It is only with the greatest diffi-

culty that a man attached to a single machine by his work and the routine actions of every day could arrive at such an understanding; an accustomed relationship does not promote this understanding, because doing the same thing over and over blurs, in the sterffotypy of acquired gestures, any awareness of structures and function. The fact of managing a business that uses machines, or of owning one,

offers no greater likelihood of understanding than does working in one; it creates abstract attitudes towards the machine, causing it to be viewed, not in its own

right, but in terms of its costs and the results of its operation. knowledge, which theoretical law,

Scientific

COuU

Rather, it would seem that the attainment of the understanding in question, be the achievement of an organization engineer who is, as it were, a sociologist or psychologist of machines, a person living in the midst of this society of technical beings as its responsible and creative conscience. In order to restore to culture the really general character which it has lost, it must be possible to reintroduce an understanding of the nature of machines, of their mutual relationships and their relationships with man, and of the values involved in these relationships. This understanding necessitates the existence of the technologist or mechanologist, side by side with the psychologist and the sociologist. Furthermore, the basic systems of causality and regulation which constitute the axioms of technology should be taught universally in the way that the basics of literary culture are taught.

An introduction to
It is as

technics should be put on the same level as scientific education.

objective as the use of the arts and it influences practical applications as much as does the theory of physics: it can arrive at the same degree of abstraction and of symbolization. A child should know the meanings of self-regulation or positive reaction as well as he knows mathematical theorems. This cultural reform carried out by a process of broadening rather than destroying, could give back to present-day culture the real regulating power it has lost. As the basis of meanings, modes of expression, proofs and forms, a

culture establishes regulatory communication among those who share that culture.

A particular culture arises from the life of the group and, by furnishing norms
and systems, informs the actions of those who insure the exercise of authority. Now, before the great development in technics, culture incorporated by virtue of

systems, symbols, qualities and analogues, the main kinds of technics that are the source of living experience. Present-day culture does no such thing; it does the contrary. Present-day culture is ancient culture incorporating as dynamic systems artisanal and agricultural techniques of earlier centuries, and doing so in such a way that these systems mediate between groups of people and their leaders and give rise to a basic distortion which results from our inadequacies vis-a-vis things technical. Power becomes literature; it has to do with
nLvCb it-&

the manipulation of opinion, with pleading based on appearances rhetoric.

'^

The

exercise of authority is false because there no longer exists an adequate code of relationships between the reality governed and the beings who govern. The

reality governed is made up of man and machines; the code is based on the experience of man working with tools; this very experience is both weakened and remote, because those who use the code have not, like Cincinnatus, just left the handles of the plough. is absent. To put is simply, the symbol is weakening and the reality

A regulatory relationship of circular causality cannot be established

between the whole of governed reality and the function of authority: information no longer achieves its purpose because the code has become inadequate for the type of information it should transmit. The type of information which expresses the simultaneous and correlative existence of men and machines should involve the systems by which machines function and the values which they imply. Culture, which has become specialized and impoverished, must once again become general. Such an extension of culture is of value both politically and socially because it suppresses one of the main causes of alienation and because it re-establishes regulatory information: it can give man the means of thinking about his existence The task of en-

and his situation in terms of the reality that surrounds him.

larging and deepening culture has an especially philosophical function, because it leads to a critique of a certain number of myths and stereotypes, such as the

idea of the robot and the notion of automata catering to a lazy and fully satisfied humanity. To bring about the understanding of which we speak, we might attempt to define the technical object in itself by a method of concretization and of functional over-determination, proving that the technical object is the end-product of an evolution and that it is something which cannot be considered as a mere utensil. The modalities of this genesis make It possible to grasp the three levels of the technical object and their temporal, nondialectic coordination: the element, the individual, and the ensemble. Once the technical object has been defined in terms of its genesis, it is possible to study the relationship between technical objects and other realities, in particular man as adult and as child. Finally, considered as the object of an assessment of values, the technical object can give rise to very diverse attitudes, depending on whether it is considered at the level of element, individual, or ensemble. At the element level, its improvement does not lead to any upset that causes anxiety arising out of conflict with acquired habits: it leads to an eighteenth-

century climate of optimism, with its introduction of the idea of continued and limitless progress and the constant betterment of man's lot. On the other

hand, the machine as technical individual becomes for a time man's adversary or competitor, and the reason for this is that man centralized all technical individuality in himself, at a time when only tools existed. The machine takes the place of man, because man as tool-bearer used to do a machine's job. To this phase corresponds the dramatic and impassioned idea of progress as the rape of nature, the conquest of the world, the exploitation of energies. The will for power is expressed in the technicist and technocratic excessiveness of the thermodynamic era, which has taken a direction both prophetic and cataclysmal. Then, at the level of the technical ensembles of the twentieth century,

themodynamic energeticism is replaced by information theory, the normative content of which is eminently regulatory and stabilizing: the development

of technics seemed to be a guarantee of stability. The machine, as an element in the technical ensemble, becomes the effective unit which augments the quantity of information, increases negentropy, and opposes the degradation n u t of energy. The machine is a of organization and information; it life and cooperates with life in its opposition to disorder and to the levelling of all things that tend to deprive the world of its powers of change. The
t i d

machine is something which fights against the death of the universe; it slows down, as life does, the degradation of energy, and becomes a stabilizer of the world. Such a modification of the philosophic view of technical objects heralds the possibility of making the technical being part of culture. This integration,

which was not possible in a definitive way either at the level of elements or at the level of individuals, is possible and has a greater chance of stability at the ensembles level. Once technical reality has become regulatory, it can

be integrated into culture, which is itself essentially regulatory. Such an integration could only have been possible by addition at the time when technicality resided in elements, or by effraction and revolution at the time when technicality resided in new technical individuals. Today, technicality tends

to reside in ensembles. For this reason, it can become a foundation for culture, to which it will bring a unifying and stabilizing power, making cultured~respond to the reality which it expresses and which it governs.

PART ONE

The Genesis and Evolution of Technical Objects

CHAPTER I "THE GENESIS OF THE TECHNICAL OBJECT: THE PROCESS OF CONCRETIZATION"

I.

Abstract Technical Object and Concrete Technical Object Every technical object undergoes a genesis. It is difficult, however,

to define the genesis of each technical object, because the individuality of technical objects is modified in the course of the genesis. What we can

ice is to define technical objects with reference to the technical species

A

da

to which they belong, but we can only do so with difficulty.

Species are

easy to identify summarily for practical purposes, in so far as we are willing to understand the technical object in terms of the practical end it is designed to meet. But such specificity as this is illusory, for no fixed structure We can get the same result from very different
/{^v^J

corresponds to its defined use.

functionings and structures: steam-engines, petrol-engines, turbines,engines powered by springs or weights are all engines; yet, for all that, there is a more apt analogy between a spring-engine and a bow or cross-bow than between the former and a steam-engine; a clock with weights has an engine analogous to a windlass, while an electric clock is analogous to a house-bell or buzzer. Usage brings together heterogeneous structures and functions in genres and. species which get their meaning from the relationships between their particular

12
functions and another function, that of the human being in action. Therefore,

anything to which we give a particular name--that of engine, for example~may, perhaps, be multiple even as we speak of it and may vary with time, as it changes its individuality. Meanwhile, if we wish to define the laws of the genesis of a technical object within the framework of its individuality and specificity, we had better not begin with its individuality or even its specificity but, rather, reverse the problem. If we begin with the criteria of its genesis we can

define the individuality or specificity of any technical object.

An indivi-

dual technical object is not such and such a thing, something given hie et
-9

nunc but something that has a genesis.

The unity, individuality, and spe-

cificity of a technical object are thoseits characteristics which are consistent and convergent with its genesis. is part of its being. The genesis of the technical object

IS

The technical object as such is not anterior to its The technical

own becoming but it is present at every stage of its becoming. object is a unit of becoming.

The petrol engine is not any particular, given

is, according to the specific modalities that distinguish the genesis of the technical object from those of other kinds of objects, for example an aesthelic object or a living being. These specific modalities should be distinguished from a static modality which could be established following the genesis of the object by taking into account characteristics of various kinds of objects. The precise goal in using the genetic method is to avoid the use of established ideas of classification which come into play once the genesis is complete and which divide the totality of objects into genus and species suitable for discussion. The past evolution of a technical being remains as an essential of this being in its technical form. The technical being, which is a bearer of technicality according to what we call analytic application, cannot be an object of adequate knowledge unless the temporal meaning of its evolution is grasped as something essential to it. The adequate knowledge of which we speak is technical culture, as distinct from technical knowledge, which is limited to the understanding in everyday application of isolated systems of functioning. Since relationships which exist on the level of technicality between one technical object and another are horizontal as well as vertical, the kind of knowledge arrived at by determinations of genus and species is not suitable. We shall try to indicate in what sense the relationship between technical object is transductive.

hat

engine in time and space; it is the fact that there is a sequence, a continuity, which extends from the first engines to those which we know and to those still in evolution. As a consequence, just as in the case of phylogenetic sequences, any particular stage of evolution contains within itself dynamic structures and systems which are at the basis of any evolution of forms. The technical being evolves by convergence and by adaption to itself; it is unified from within according to a principle of internal resonance. The automobile engine of the present day is not a descendant of the 1910 engine simply because the 1910 engine was the one which our ancestors built. Nor is it a descendent of the Indeed, for certain

latter because of greater improvement in relation to use. uses the 1910 engine is superior to a 1956 engine.

For example, it can with-

stand a high degree of heating without seizing or leaking, because it is constructed with a considerably greater degree of looseness and without fragile alloys such as white metal; it is also more autonomous, because of its magneto ignition. Old engines still function on fishing boats without breaking down after being taken over from worn-out cars. The present-day car-engine can be defined as posterior to the 1910 engine only through an internal examination of its systems of operation and of its formal construction in the light of those systems of operation. In the modern engine, each critical piece is so

connected with the rest by reciprocal exchanges of energy that it cannot be other than it is. The shape of cylinder, the shape and size of the valves and the

shape of the piston are all part of the same system in which a multitude of reciprocal exchanges of energy that it cannot be other than it is. The shape

of cylinder, the shape and size of the valves and the shape of the piston are all part of the same system in which a multitude of reciprocal causalities exist. To the shape of these elements there corresponds a compression ratio

which itself requires a determined degree of spark advance; the shape of the

14
cylinder-head and the metal of which it is made produce, in relation to all the other elements of the cycle, a certain temperature in the spark plug electrodes; this temperature in turn affects the characteristics of the ignition and, as a result, the whole cycle. It could be said that the modern In the old

engine is a concrete engine and that the old engine was abstract.

engine each element comes into play at a certain moment in the cycle and, then, it is supposed to have no effect on the other elements; the different parts of the engine are like individuals who could be thought of as working each in his turn without their ever knowing each other. This is very much how the functioning of thermal engines is explained in the classroom; each part is isolated from the rest in geometric space partes extra partes, like the lines of the diagram on the blackboard. The early

engine is a logical assembly of elements defined by their total and single function. Each element can best accomplish its particular function if it is like a perfectly finished instrument that is completely oriented towards the accomplishment of that function. A permanent exchange of energy between two elements may be seen as an imperfection if this exchange is not part of their theoretical functioning. Also, there exists a primitive form of the technical object, its abstract form,in which each theoretical and material unity is treated as an absolute that has an intrinsic perfection of its own that needs to be constituted as a closed system in order to function. In this case, the

integration of the particular unit into the ensemble involves a series of problems to be resolved, problems that are called technical but which, in fact, are problems concerning the compatibility of already given ensembles. These already given ensembles ought to be maintained and, in spite of their reciprocal influences, preserved. Then there appear particular structures which, in the case of each of their constituent units, we might call defense

structures: the cylinder-head of the thermal internal combustion engine bristles with cooling gills specially developed in the valve region which are subject to intense changes in heat and high pressures. In early engines, the

cooling gills are as it were extraneously added on to cylinder and cylinder-head which, in theory, are geometrically cylindrical: they fulfil a single function

only, that of cooling. In recent engines, these gills have an added function of a mechanical kind, that of preventing the buckling of the cylinder-head under gaseous thrust. In these conditions, it is impossible to distinguish the

volumetric unit (the cylinder or cylinder-head) from the heat-dissipation unit. If one were to grind or saw off the cylinder gills in an air-cooled engine, the volumetric unit constituted by the cylinder alone would no longer be viable, not even as volumetric unit; it would buckle under gaseous pressure. The volumetric and mechanical unit has become co-extensive with the heat-dispersal unit because the structure of the whole is bi-valent. These gills working with currents of

air from outside effect changes in temperature and so constitute a cooling surface. In so far as they are part of the cylinder, these same gills limit

the size of the combustion chamber by preserving its shape and making it unnecessary to use as much metal as a non-ribbed shell would require. The development

of the unique structure is not a compromise but a concomitance and convergence; a ribbed cylinder-head can be thinner than a smooth cylinder-head with the same rigidity. In addition, a thin cylinder-head allows for more efficient thermal The bi-valent structure of the

changes than would be possible with a thick one.

gill-rib improves cooling not only by increasing the heat-change surface (this is the very function of the gill gill) but also by making possible a thinner

cylinder-head (and this is the function of the gill as rib). Therefore the technical problem has to do with the convergence of structures into a structural unity rather than with the seeking of compromises between con-

flicting requirements. If, in the case in question, a conflict between the two aspects of a single structure is to continue, it can only be possible in so far as the positioning of ribs in the interests of maximum rigidity is not necessarily that which best contributes to maximum cooling by facilitating the flow of air between the gills while the vehicle is running. In that case, the maker can be obliged to settle for a mixed and imperfect design: if the

gill-ribs are arranged for the best cooling possible, they should have to be heavier and more rigid than if they were mere gills. If, on the other hand,

they are so arranged as perfectly to solve the problem of providing rigidity, they have a larger surface, so as to compensate, by an extension of the surface, for the slowing down of air currents in the heat-change process. Finally, there can even be a structural compromise between the two forms in the very shape of the gills; this would involve a more complex development than would be necessary if a single function were taken as the goal of the structure. This kind of divergence of functional aims is a residue of abstract design in the technical object, and the progress of a technical object is definable in terms of the progressive reduction of this margin between functions in plurivalent structures. It is such a convergence that gives the technical

object its specific identity because, at any given time, an indefinite plurality of functional systems is not possible. Technical species are a great deal more Human needs

restricted in number than the destined uses of technical objects.

diversify to infinity, but directions of convergence for technical species are finite in number. The technical object exists, then, as a specific type that is arrived at at the end of a convergent series. the concrete mode: This series goes from the abstract mode to

it tends towards a state at which the technical being

becomes a system that is entirely coherent with itself and entirely unified.

11.

Conditions of Technical Evolution What are the reasons for the convergence manifest in the evolution of

technical structures?--There are beyond doubt a certain number of extrinsic causes, in particular those which lead to the production of standardized units and replacement parts. At the same time, extrinsic causes are no more power-

ful than those which lead to the multiplication of types in response to an infinite variety of needs. If technical objects evolve in the direction of a

small number of specific types it is by virtue of internal necessity and not as a consequence of economic influences or requirements of a practical nature. It is not the production-line which produces standardization; rather it is intrinsic standardization which makes the production line possible. Any attempt

to discover the reason for the formation of specific types of technical object in the movement from manual production to industrial production would be based on the fallacy of mistaking the consequence for the condition; the formation of stable types is what makes industrialization possible. Manual trade corresponds to the primitive stage of the evolution of technical objects~thatis, to the abstract stage. Industry corresponds to the concrete stage. There is
I
A

nothing essential about the made-to-measure aspect of the artisan's handcraft. This derives from another, though essential, aspect of the abstract technical object: its being based on an analytical organization which always leaves the

way clear for new possibilities, possibilities which are the exterior manifestation of an interior contingency. In the encounter between the coherence of

technical work and the coherence of the system of industrial needs, it is the coherence of utilization that prevails. The reason for this is that the made-to-

measure object is one which has no intrinsic limits; its norms are imposed from without: it fails to achieve its own internal coherence; it is not a system of

the necessary; it corresponds to an open system of requirements. On the other hand, the object has acquired its coherence on the industrial level, where the system of supply and demand is less coherent than the object's own system. Needs are moulded by the industrial technical object, which thereby acquires the power to shape a civilization. Utilization becomes an ensemble out to the measure of the technical object. When the fancy of some individual demands a made-to-measure automobile, the best thing the maker can do is to take an assembly line engine and an assembly line chassis and modify a few of their external characteristics, adding decorative features and extra accessories as superficial adjuncts to the automobile as the essential technical object. Only non-essential aspects can

be made to measure and this is so because they are contingent. The relationship between non-essential aspects of the technical type and its true nature is negative in kind, The more a car must meet the critical needs of its user the more its essential features are encumbered by an external bondage. The body-work becomes loaded with accessories and the shape no

longer approximates a stream-lined structure. The made-to-measure feature is not only non-essential, it works against the essence of the technical being, like a dead weight imposed from without. raised, and bulk increased. However, it is not enough to affirm that the evolution of the technical object takes place by a passage from an analytic to a synthetic order which conditions the passage from manual to industrial production. Even if such an The car's centre of gravity is

evolution Is necessary it is not automatic, and it is appropriate that the causes of the evolutionary movement should be investigated. These causes reside essentially in the imperfection of the abstract technical object. Because of

its analytic character, this object uses more material and requires more con-

struction work.

Though simpler from the logical point of view, technically

it is more complicated because it is made from a bringing together of several complete systems. It is more fragile than the concrete technical object,

because, in the case of a break-down, the relative isolation of each system constituting a working sub-system threatens the conservation of the other systems. Thus, in an internal combustion engine, the business of cooling could be carried out by an entirely autonomous sub-system. fails to function, the engine can be ruined.

If this sub-system

If, on the other hand, cooling

is a unified effect of the working of the ensemble, the functioning of the engine and the cooling of it are inseparable. In this sense, an air-cooled engine is more concrete than an engine cooled by water. Thermal infra-red They are

radiation and convection are effects that cannot be prevented. necessitated by the very working of the engine.

Water-cooling is semi-concrete:

if it were entirely effected by thermo-syphon* it would be almost as concrete as direct air cooling; but the use of a water-pump which receives its energy from the engine by means of a drive-belt makes this cooling system more abstract in character. Water-cooling can be said to be concrete in so far as it is a security system (the presence of water makes possible an arbitrary cooling for a few minutes because of the absorption of heat energy through vaporization if there is failure in transmission from engine to pump). In

normal functioning, however, this is an abstract system. Moreover, an element of abstraction remains in the possibility that there may be no water in the cooling system. Likewise, ignition by current transformer and by battery is

more abstract than magneto-ignition, and this is more abstract than ignition by air compression and fuel injection used in Diesel engines. In this sense,

it may be said that an engine with magnetic fly-wheel and air cooling is more concrete than the engine in an ordinary car. In it every unit performs a

variety of roles. It is not surprising that the scooter should be the result of an airplane engineer's work; whereas the automobile can retain residues of abstraction (e.g. water-cooling, ignition by battery and current transformer) aviation is forced to produce technical objects of the most concrete sort in order to increase functional dependability and to reduce dead weight. There exists therefore a convergence of purely technical requirements and of economic constraints, such as a decrease in the amount of raw material or of labour or of energy-consumption during use. The object ought not to be self-destructive; it should maintain itself in stable operation for as long as possible.

It seems that of the two major causes of technical evolu-

tion, the first economic, the other purely technical, it is the second which is of greater importance. Indeed, economic causes are found everywhere.

But areas of most active progress are those in which technical conditions outweigh economic conditions (e.g. aviation and war material). Economic causes,

then, are not pure; they involve a diffuse network of motivations and preferences which qualify and even reverse them (e.g. the taste for luxury, the desire for novelty which is so evident among consumers, and commercial propaganda). This is so much the case that certain tendencies towards com-

plication come to light in areas where the technical object is known through social myths and opinion-fads and is not appreciated in itself. For example,

certain car-manufacturers offer as a great improvement a superabundance of automatisms in accessories or a systematic recourse to power-steering* even when direct steering in no way exceeds the driver's strength; some of them go so far as to use the suppression of direct starting by crank-handle as a sales pitch and as a proof of progress, even though the result is to render functioning more analytical by making it depend on the use of electrical energy in the storage batteries. Although there is a technical complication

here, the maker pretends that the suppression in question is a simplification proving the modern character of the car and making obsolete the stereotype idea (an unpleasant one, at that) of the difficult start. This casts nuances of ridicule on other cars--those that have a starting handle~which are therely outmoded and made obsolete by an advertising gimmick. The automobile, this technical object that is so charged with psychic and social implications, is not suitable for technical progress: whatever advances there are in the automobile come from neighbouring areas, such as aviation, shipping, and trq*ort trucks.

The actual evolution of technical objects does not happen in an absolutely continuous manner; it does not happen in an absolutely discontinuous manner either: it involves stages that are definable by the fact that they bring There can be an evolution of a

into being successive systems of coherence.

continuous kind between the stages that indicate structural reorganization; it results from improvements in detail resulting from what usage reveals and from the production of raw materials, or from better-adapted attachments. Over the past thirty years the automobile has been improving beo^fee of the use of metals better adapted to the conditions of its use, because of increased compression-ratios resulting from research into motor-fuels, and because of the study of the precise shape of cylinders and cylinder-heads in terms of the phenomenon of detonation.* The problem of achieving combustion without

detonation can only be solved by specific research into the cause of the sound wave inside a petrol mixture at different pressures and temperatures, using different volumes and starting from set points of ignition. such as this does not lead to direct uses: But an attempt

the experimental work has still

to be done and such trudging towards improvement has its own technicalness. The reforms in structure which allow the technical object to reveal its own specific character are the sheer essentials in the becoming of this object.

Even if there were no scientific advances during a certain period of time, the progress of the technical object towards its own specificity could continue; the principle of progress is none other than the way in which the object causes and conditions itself in its operation and in the feed-back effect of its operation upon utilization. The technical object, the issue

of an abstract work of organization of sub-sets, is the theatre of a number of relationships of reciprocal causalty. These relationships make it possible for the object to discover obstacles within its own operation on the basis of certain limits in the conditions of its use: in the incompatibilities that arise from the progressive saturation

of the system of sub-sets there is discoverable an indefiniteness in limitations, and the transcending of these limitations is what constitutes progress.
z

But because of its very nature, such a transcending of limitations can only be arrived at by a leap, by the modification of internal disposition of functions, by a rearrangement of their system; what was an obstacle should become a means of achievement. Take for example the evolution of the electronic tube, of Internal obstacles preventing

which the radio-tube is the most common kind.

the proper functioning of the triode led to structural improvements which resulted in the current series of tubes. One of the most awkward phenomena

in the triode was the critical mutual capacitance within the system formed by the artificial grid and the anode. This capacitance made possible a capacitative coupling between the two electrodes without risk of generating self-oscillation. This unavoidable internal coupling had to be compensated for by external assembl procedures, particularly through a neutralizing effected by the use of an assembly of symmetrical tubes with cross-connected anode-grid coupling.

These are conditions of individuation of a system.

To resolve the difficulty rather than simply evade it, an electrostatic shroud was introduced into the interior of the triode between the artificial grid and the anode. Now, this adjunction does more than provide the advantage The screen cannot merely fulfil the decoupling

afforded by an electric screen.

function for which it was intended. When it is placed in the space between grid and anode, its difference in voltage (relative to grid and anode in turn) causes it to act as a grid relative to the anode and as an anode relative to the grid. Its voltage-charge must be made higher than that of the grid and

lower than that of the anode; otherwise either there is no transfer of electrons or else electrons move to the screen and not to the anode. Thus the

screen plays its part in the transference of electrons from anode to grid. The screen itself is both grid and anode. These two paired functions are not

intentionally brought about; they are an extra that happens of its own accord as a result of the character of the system which the technical object presents. For the screen to be introduced into the triode without upsetting its operation, along with tis electrostatic function it has to fulfil certain other functions relating to the electrons in transit. Considered as a simple elec-

trostatic shroud, it could be raised to any voltage whatever, as long as the voltage is continuous, but then it would upset the dynamic functioning of the triode. It necessarily becomes an acceleration grid for the flux of

electrons and plays a positive role in the dynamic functioning. It greatly increases internal resistance and, consequently, the coefficient of amplification if it is raised to a specific voltage determined by its exact position in the grid-anode space. So the tetrode is no longer merely a triode lacking

electrostatic connection between anode and artificial grid; the tetrode is a steeply curved electronic tube which makes possible a voltage increase in the order of 200, instead of 30 to 50 for the triode.

This discovery, nevertheless, entailed a drawback.

In the tetrode,

the phonemon of secondary emission of electrons by the anode proved awkward in that it tended to send back to the screen all of the electrons coming from the cathode and bypassing the artificial grid (primary electrons). Because of this, Tellegen introduced a new screen between the first screen and the anode. This is a wide-meshed grid which, when brought to negative

voltage in relation to anode and screen (generally the voltage of the cathode or even still more negative), does not hinder accelerated electrons from the cathode from arriving at the anode, but acts as a negatively polarized artificial grid and prevents the return of secondary electrons in the opposite direction. In this way, the penthode is an outcome of the tetrode, in the

sense that it comprises a supplementary artificial grid with fixed voltage which completes the dynamic functioning system. Still, the same effect of

irreversibility can he obtained by a concentration of electron-flow in beams. If the bars of the accelerating grid-screen are placed in the electric shadow of the artificial grid,there is a great reduction of the phenomenon of seconda emission. Furthermore, the capacity variation between cathode and grid screen in the course of functioning becomes very weak (0.2 ufd instead of 1.8 ufd)
,,

Ill"
'lt#881,,,,

which practically suppresses all frequency drift when the tube is used in an oscillator circuit. Consequently, we might say that the tetrode's functioning

system is not perfectly complete in itself when we conceive of the screen as a simple electrostatic shrouding, that is, as an enclosed space kept at any constant voltage whatsoever. Such a definition would be too broad and too

open, in that it requires a multiple functional incorporation of the screen within the electronic tube--which is brought about by reducing the margin of indetermination of the continuous voltage to be appled to the screen (to make it an accelerator) and by its position in the grid-anode space. A first re-

duction consists in specifying that the continuous tension should be intermediate between the voltage of the grid and the voltage of the anode. The result is a structure which, in relation to the acceleration of primary electrons, is relatively stable but which, in relation to the trajectory of secondary electrons coming from the anode, is relatively unstable. structure is too open and too abstract. Such a

It can be closed in a way that makes

it correspond to the needed stable operation either by means of a supplementary structure (e.g. the suppressor or third grid) or by a more precise placing of the grid-screen in relation to the other elements, by aligning its bars with those of the artificial grid. It should be noted that the ad-

junction of a third grid is equivalent to the adjunction of a higher degree of determination to the placing of the grid screen. The functional character

of structures that already exist in reciprocal causality is reversible with the functional character of a supplementary structure. Closing by supplementary determination the causalty system in
A
I

structures is

equivalent to adding a new structure that is especially designed to perform a determined function. There is a reversibility of function and structure wfci^f in order to regulate their functioning renders the object more concrete because
A

this stabilizes its functioning without the addition of a new structure.

tetrode with directed beams is the equivalent of a penthode; it is even superior iw its function as amplifier of the power of acoustic frequencies because it produces a lower level of distortion. The adjunction of a supplementary

structure is not a real progress for the technical object unless that structure is concretely incorporated into the ensemble of the dynamic systems of its operation. It is because of this that we can say that the tetrode with

directed beams Is more concrete than the penthode. We must not confuse an increase in the concrete character of the technical

object with any widening of its possibilities resulting from a greater complication of its structure. For example, a twin-grid tube (that allows for the separate action of two mutually independent control grids in a single cathode-anode space) is no more concrete than a triode. It is of the same

order as the triode and could be replaced by two independent triodes whose anodes and cathodes would be exteriorly united but whose control-grids would be left independent. On the other hand, the beam-directed tethrode is more fully evolved than the Lee de Forest triode, in that it is a realization of the development or an improvement of the primitive system for modulating the flux of electrons with fixed or variable electric fields. The primitive triode has a greater degree of indetermination than modern electronic tubes because interactions between structural elements are not defined, with the single exception of the modulatory function of the electric field produced by the control grid. The successive precisions and closures

applied to this system transform into stable functions the disadvantages that arise of their own accord in the course of functioning. In the necessity for

the negative polarization of the grid in order to counteract heating and secondary emission lies the possibility of dividing the primitive grid into a control grid and an accelerating grid. In a tube containing an acceleration

grid, the negative polarization of the control grid can be reduced to a few volts, to one volt in certain cases. The control grid becomes almost entirely a control grid; its function is more effective and the slope of the tube increases. The control grid is brought closer to the cathode while, on the other hand, the secondary grid, or screen, is moved further away and is positioned at approximately an equal distance from the anode and the cathode. At the same time, the functioning becomes more precise; the dynamic system shuts just like an axiomatic system which is saturated. It used to be possible to

regulate the slope of the primary triodes by a potentiometric variation of the

heater voltage of the cathode acting on the density of the flux of electrons; this possibility hardly available any longer with penthodes that have a steep slope, because an appreciable variation of the heater voltage would profoundly alter their characteristics. It seems contradictory, surely, to affirm that the evolution of a technical object depends upon a process of differentiation (take for example, the command grid in the triode dividing into three grids in the penthode) and, at the same time, a process of concretization, with each structural element filling several functions instead of one. one to the other. But in fact these two processes are tied

Differentiation is possible because this very differentia-

tion makes it possible to integrate into the working of the whole~andthis in a manner conscious and calculated with a view to the necessary result-correlative effects of overall functioning which were only partially corrected by palliative measures unconnected with the performance of the principal function.

A similar kind of evolution is noticeable in the change between the

Crookes tube and the Coolidge tube. The former is not only less effective

that the latter; it is also less stable in its functioning and more complex. The Crookes tube uses cathode-anode voltage to separate molecules or atoms of monoatomic gas into positive ions and electrons and then to accelerate the electrons and to give them a critical kinetic energy before collision with the anticathode.

In the Coolidge tube, on the other hand, the function of pro-

ducing electrons is dissociated from that of accelerating electrons already produced; the production is caused by a thermoelectric effect (which is im~roperlycalled thermoionic, no doubt because it replaces the production of electrons by ionization) and the acceleration takes place later; thus, the functions are purified by their dissociation and the corresponding structures

are at the same time more distinct and more productive.

The hot cathode of the

Coolidge tube is more productive from the point of view of structure and function than the cold cathode of the Crookes tube. Still, looked at from

the electrostatic point of view, it is equally perfect as a cathode, and all the more so because it comprises a rather narrowly localized area for generating thermoelectrons and because the surface shape of the cathode surrounding the filament insures an electrostatic gradient which allows for a focusing of electrons in a thin beam falling on the anode (a few square millimeters in area in the tubes of today). In the Crookes tube, on the other hand, the

area for the generating of electrons is not sufficiently narrowly defined to make possible a really effective focusing of the beam to obtain a source of X-rays that approaches an ideal point of convergence. Besides, the presence of ionizable gas in the Crookes tube involved more than the problem of instability (the hardening of the tube by the impingement of molecules on the electrode, as well as the need for arranging valves through which gas may be re-introduced into the tube). The presence of gas

also involved an essential disadvantage, in that gas molecules presented an obstacle to already produced electrons in the course of their acceleration in the electric field between cathode and anode. This disadvantage is a typical example of the kinds of antagonism that comes into play in the evolution of abstract technical object: the very gas which is necessary for the production This It dis-

of electrons to be accelerated is an obstacle to their acceleration. antagonism disappears in the Coolidge tube, which has a high vacuum.

appears because the groups of synergetic functions are distributed in defined structures, each structure gaining by this redistribution a greater functional productivity and an improved structural precision. This is so in the case of

the cathode, which instead of being a simple spherical or hemispherical case

made of any particular metal becomes an ensemble made of a parabolic bulb at the centre of which there is a filament producing thermoelectrons. The

anode, which in the Crookes tube occupied any position in regard to the Cathode, becomes geometrically identified with the earlier anticathode. new anode-anticathode plays two synergetic roles; in the first case, it produces a difference in potential relative to the cathode (this is its anode role); in the second, it constitutes an obstacle against which accelerated electrons collide as a result of a drop in potential, transforming their kinetic energy to light energy of very short wave-length. These two functions are synergetic because it is only after they have undergone the entire drop in potential in the electric field that the electrons have acquired maximum kinetic energy. Therefore, only at this moment and place is it possible to draw from them the greatest possible amount of electromagnetic energy by suddenly stopping them. The new anodeThe

anticathode then plays a role in the evacuation of the heat produced (due to the inefficiency of the transformation of kinetic energy of electrons to electromagnetic energy, about I ) and this new function is fulfilled in %, perfect agreement with the two preceding functions. A plate of hard-to-melt metal such as tungsten is embedded in the large bevelled copper bar which forms the anode-anticathode at the point of impact of the beam of electrons. The heat developed on this plate is conducted to the outside of the tube by the copper bar which is extended in cooling flanges on the outside. The three functions are synergetic because the electric properties of the copper bar, which is a good conductor of electricity, are on a par with the thermic properties of the same bar, which is a good conductor of heat. Besides, the bevelled section of the copper bar is equally suited to its functions as target-obstacle (anode), as accelerator of electrons (anode)

and as evacuator of the heat produced. In these conditions one could say that the Coolidge tube is a Crookes tube that is both simplified and concretized and in which each structure fulfills many functions which are synergetic in nature. The Imperfection of the Crookes tube with its

abstract and artisanal character, which make necessary frequent adjustments as it functions, arose from the antagonism of functions filled by the rarefied gas--the gas which is suppressed in the Coolidge tube. Its

indistinct structure corresponding to ionization is wholly replaced by the new thennoelectronic characteristic of the cathode, which is perfectly distinct. Thus, these two examples tend to show that differentiation proceeds in the same direction as the condensation of multiple functions in the same structure, because the differentiation of structures at the core of a system of reciprocal causalties allows for the suppression (by integration into the functioning) of secondary effects that were formerly obstacles. The specialization of each structure is a specialization of positive, functional, synthetic unity which is free of unlooked-for secondary effects that amortize this functioning. The technical object improves through the interior redistribution of functions into compatible unities, eliminating risk or the antagonism of primitive division. achieved function & function but synergy Specialization is not synergy. What constitutes the

real system in a technical object is not the individual function but the synergetic group of functions. It is because of the search for synergies that the concretization of the technical object can be seen as an aspect of simplification. The concrete technical object is one which is no longer divided against itself, one in which no secondary effect either compromises the functioning of the whole or is omitted from that functioning. In this

way and for this reason, in a technical object which has become comcrete, a

function can be fulfilled by a number of structures that are associated synergetically, whereas in the primitive and abstract technical object each structure is designed to fulfil a specific function and generally a single one. The essence of the concretization of a technical object is the

organizing of functional sub-systems into the total functioning. Starting from this principle, we can understand precisely how the redistribution of functions is brought about in a network of different structures, in abstract as much as in concrete objects. Each structure fulfilSfea number of functions; but in the abstract technical object each structure fulfils only one essential and positive function that is integrated into the functioning of the whole, whereas in the concrete technical object all functions fulfilled by a particular structure are positive, essential, and integrated into the functioning of the whole. Those marginal consequences of functioning

which in the abstract technical object are eliminated or attentuated by correctives, become evolutionary stages or positive aspects of the concrete object. The functioning scheme incorporates marginal aspects, and effects

which were of no value or were prejudicial become links in the chain of functioning. This progress assumes that each structure is consciously endowed by its maker with characteristics which correspond to all the components of its functioning, as if an artificial object differed in no way from a physical system studied in all knowable aspects of energy exchange and of physical and chemical transformations. In the concrete object each piece is not merely a thing designed by its maker to perform a determined function; rather, it is part of a system in which a multitude of forces are exercised and in which effects are produced that are independent of the design plan. The

concrete technical object is a physicochemical system in which mutual actions

take place according to all the laws of science.

The ultimate goal of the

design can only be perfectly realized in the construction of the object if it identified with universal scientific knowledge. One must insist that the knowledge in question must be universal, because the fact that the technical object belongs to the class of artifacts which meet a certain specific human need in no way limits or defines the type of physicochemical actions which can occur in this object or between this object and the outside world. Whatever difference exists between a technical object and a physicochemical system studied as an object exists only in the imperfection of science. The kinds of scientific knowledge that serve as a guide to predict the universality of mutual actions taking place in a technical system are by no means free of imperfection. They do not make possible an absolute and rigorously precise forecast of all effects. This is why there is a certain

gap between the system of technical intentions related to a particular goal and the scientific system of the knowledge of causal interactions that achieve this goal. The scientific object is never completely known. For this very

reason, it is never completely concrete either, except in the rarest of chance occurrences. The ultimate assignment of functions to structures and the exact calculation of structures could only be accomplished if scientific knowledge of all phenomena that could possibly occur in the technical object were fully acquired. Since this is not the case, there continues to exist

a clear difference between the technical system of the object (comprising the representation of a human goal) and the scientific picture of the phenomena to which it gives rise (comprising only systems of efficient causally, whether mutual or recurrent). Concretization of technical objects is conditioned by the narrowing of the gap separating science from technics. The primitive artisanal phase is

&aracterized

by a weak correlation between the scientific and the technical,

while the industrial phase is characterized by improved correlation. Industrial construction of a specific technical object is possible as soon as the object in question becomes concrete, which means that it is understood in an almost identical way from the point of view of design plan and scientific outlook. This explains why certain objects have been capable of The windlass, the hoist,

being constructed industrially long before others.

tackle-blocks and the hydrolic press are all technical objects in which such phenomena as friction, electrization, electrodynamic induction, and thermal and chemical exchanges can, in the majority of cases, be ignored without any possibility of the object's being destroyed or if its functioning improperly. Classical rational mechanics makes possible a scientific understanding of the functioning of those objects which we call simple machines; nevertheless, in the seventeenth century the industrial construction of a gas-run centrifuge pump or a thermal engine would have been impossible. The first thermal engine to be constructed industrially, Newcommer's, used depression only, and the reason for this was that the phenomenon of vapour condensation under cooling influences was scientifically known. Likewise, electrostatic machines have remained artisanal almost to our own day, because, although the phenomena of dielectrical projection and transport of charges and the flow of these charges by Corona effect have been qualitatively known since the eighteenth century at least, they have never been the object of very rigorous scientific study. After the Wimshurst machine, the Van de Graaf generator itself retains something of the artisanal, for all its great size and increased power.

111. The Rhythm of Technical Progress; Continuous and Minor Improvement and Discontinuous and Major Improvement The discovery of functional synergies is the essential characteristic of progress in the development of the technical object. So it is appropriate that

we should ask ourselves whether this discovery is made all at once or in a continuous manner. Insofar as the reorganization of structures affects

functioning, it comes about abruptly, though it may involve many successive steps; so the Coolidge tube could not have been conceived before Fleming's discovery of the production of electrons by a heated metal. But the Coolidge tube with its static anode-anticathode is not necessarily the final version of the tube which produces X-rays or Gamma rays. and can be,appropriated to more particular uses. It is open to improvement For example, an important

improvement that allows for the discovery of a source of X-rays closer to the ideal geometric point has been arrived at by the use of an anode in the form of a large plate mounted on an axis within the tube. This plate can be set

in motion by a magnetic field created by a conductor placed outside the tube and in relation to which the plate acts as a rotor comprising an induced circuit. The region of electron impact becomes a circular line close to the edge of the copper plate and, because of this, it presents very great possibilities of thermal dissipation. Nevertheless, statistically and geometrically, the place of impact is fixed in relation to cathode and tube. The X-ray beam therefore

derives fromageometrically fixed centre, although the anticathode goes by this fixed point at great speed. Tubes with a rotating anode allow for an increase in power without an increase in the size of the area of impact, and for a reduction in power. So, the rotating anode fulfils the functions of speeding and It is more efficient

stopping electrons as efficiently as does a fixed anode.

in the business of heat-evacuation, and this permits an improvement of the optical properties of the tube for a given power. Ought we, for this reason, to consider that the invention of the rotating anode brings a structural conretization to the Coolidge tube? No, because its special role is to lessen a disadvantage which could not be converted into a positive aspect of the functioning of the whole. The disadvantage of the

Coolidge tube, the residual antagonism continuing in its functioning, is its low efficiency in converting kinetic energy to electromagnetic radiation. Without doubt, this low efficiency does not constitute a direct antagonism between functions, but in practice it effects a real antagonism. If the melting

temperatures of the tungsten plate and of the copper bar were to be raised infinitely, it would be possible to bring to a very precise focus a very powerful beam of very rapid electrons. But, since in fact the melting point of tungsten is fairly quickly reached, we find that this low efficiency is a limitation which produces a great amount of heat, so we must decide to sacrifice the sharpness of the beam, or the density of electron-flow, or the speed of electrons; this means that we must sacrifice the punctuality of the X-ray source, the amount of electromagnetic energy radiated, or the penetration of the resulting X-rays. If only we could discover a means of increasing the efficiency

of energy transformation which occurs on the anticathode plate, every characteristic of the Coolidge tube would be improved by the elimination or diminution of the most critical antagonisms in its functioning.

(A much weaker antagonism

consists in the impossibility of sharply focusing the beam because of the mutual repulsion of electrons which are affected by electrical charges of the same sign; it could be compensated for by means of devices for beam-focussing comparable to those of cathode type oscilloscopes, of electrostatic lenses, or of the electromagnetics of electronic microscopes.) The rotating anode makes possible the

reduction of the consequences of the antagonism between sharpness and power, and between optical and electonic characteristics. There are two kinds of improvements, then: those which modify the division

of functions, increasing in an essential manner the synergy of functioning, and those which without modifying the division in question diminish the harmful effects of residual oppositions. To this order of minor improvement belong: more regular system of lubrication in an engine, the use of self-lubricating bearings, and the use of metals of higher resistance or of more solid assembly. So, in electronic tubes, the discovery of the increased transmitting power of certain oxides or of metals such as thorium has made possible the construction of oxide cathodes that operate at a lower temperature and absorb less heat energy for the same density of electron flow. Though this improvement is of practical importance it remains minor, and it is only suitable for certain kinds of electronic tubes because of the relative fragility of the oxide covering. The rotating anode of the high-power Coolidge tube is a minor improvement such as the discovery of a more highly efficient energy transformation that would made it possible to reduce to a few hundred watts the power needed to accelerate the electrons, where present-day X-ray tubes need many kilowatts. In this sense, it could be said that minor improvements adversely affect major improvements because they blind us to the real imperfection of a technical object that makes use of non-essential devices, which are not completely integrate1 into the functioning of the whole, to compensate for real antagonisms. The characteristic problems of abstraction become evident anew in the case of minor improvements. Thus, the Coolidge tube with its rotating anode is less concrete than a tube with static cooling provided by copper bars and flanges in the air. If, for whatever reason, the anode rotation stops while the tube is functioning, the point of the anode receiving the concentrated beam of electrons begins to melt a

almost instantly and the whole tube is ruined.

Such an analytic property

of the functioning therefore makes necessary another species of correctives-security systems obtained by the conditioning of one operation by means of another operation. In the case just analysed, it is necessary that the

generator of anode voltage should function only if the anode is already turning. A relay controls the application of voltage to the transformer, which supplies the anode voltage for the passage of current into the circuit of the anode motor. But this subordination does not entirely reduce the

analytic distance introduced by the rotating anode device; the current can pass into the anode without an effective turning of the anode, as a result of the deterioration of axles for example. Likewise, the relay can remain

switched on even when the inductor is not subject to voltage. An extreme complication and improvement of appended systems of security or compensation can only tend towards the equivalent of the concrete in a technical object, though it neither attains nor prepares for this, simply because the way of concretization has not been chosen. The course of minor improvements is one of detours; useful as they are In certain cases of practical use, they hardly lead to the evolution of the technical object. Minor improvements conceal the true and essential

system of each technical object beneath a pile of complex palliatives; they encourage a false awareness of the continuity of progress in technical objects while, at the same time, diminishing the value of essention transformations and lessening our sense of urgency about them. For this

reason, continuous minor improvements provide no clear boundary in relation to the false renovations which commerce requires in order to pretend that a recent object is an improvement on the less recent. Minor improvements can be so non-essential as to be hidden by the cyclic rhythm of shapes which

fashion super-imposes on the essential lines of utilitarian objects. It is not enough to say, therefore, that the technical object is one which has a specific genesis proceeding from the abstract to the concrete. Once again, it must be s ecified that this genesis is achieved by essential and

discontinuous improvements that bring about modifications in the internal system of the technical object, and do so in leaps and not along a continuous line. This does not mean that the development of the technical object is

brought about by chance or that it is independent of any assignable meaning. On the contrary, it is minor improvements which to a certain extent come about by chance and obscure by their incoordinated proliferation the pure lines of the essential technical object. The real stages of improvement of the technical

object are achieved by mutations, but by mutations that have meaningful direction; the Crookes tube potentially contains the Coolidge tube, because the very intention which becomes organized, stabilized, and refined in the Coolidge tube already existed in the Crookes tube in a confused but nevertheless real state. Many abandoned technical objects are incomplete inventions which remain as an open-ended virtuality and could be taken up once more and given new life in another field according to the profound intention which informs them, that is, their technical essence.

IV. Absolute Origins of a Technical Lineage Like every evolution, the evolution of technical objects raises the problem of absolute origins. To what first beginning can we return in order to estab-

lish the coming into existence of a specific technical reality? Before the penthode and the tethrode there was the Lee de Forest triode. de Forest triode there was the diode. Before the Lee Is

But what was there before the diode?

the diode an absolute origin? Not completely.

There is no doubt that thennoelec

tric emission was then unknown, but the phenomena of transport of charges in space by an electric field had long been known; electrolysis had been known for a century, and the ionization of gas for many decades. Thermoionic emis-

sion is necessary for the diode as a technical system, because the diode would not be a diode if the transport of electric charges were reversible. Such reversibility does not occur under normal conditions, because one of the electrodes is hot and, consequently, emissive, and the other cold, and, consequently, non-emissive. What makes the diode essentially a diode, a two-way valve, is

the fact that the hot electrode can be almost interchangeably either cathode or anode, while the cold electrode can only be an anode, as it cannot emit electrons; it can only attract them if it is positive, but it cannot emit them even if, in relation to another electrode, it is negative. The result of this is that if external voltages are applied to the electrodes, current will pass through because of the thermoelectronic effect if the cathode is negative in relationg to the anode, but no current will pass through if the hot electrode is positive in relation to the cold electrode. What constitutes the diode is pre-

cisely this discovery of a condition of functional dissymmetry and not, properly speaking, the transport of electric charges across a vacuum by means of an electric field. Experiments having to do with the ionization of monoatomic gases
L
4

had earlier demonstrated that free electrons can move about in an electrid field. -But this is a reversible, not a polarized, phenomenon; if the rarified gas tube is turned around, the positive pole and the luminous rings change sides in relation to the tube, but their position remains unchanged in relation to the direction of current from generator. The diode is made fromthe association of this reversible phenomenon of the transport of electric charges through a field and from the condition of reversibility effected by the fact that transportable electric currents are produced by one single kind of electric charge (negative only) and by only one of the two electrodes,

is one hot and one cold electrode, between which an electric field is created. Here we surely have an absolute beginning; it is to be found in the condition of irreversibility of the electrodoes and the phenomenon of the transport of electric charges across the vacuum; here we have the creation of a technical essence. The diode is an asymmetric conductance. It is to be noted, however, that this essence is more extensive than the definition of the Fleming valve. Many other procedures have been discovered for creating asymmetric conductance. The contact of galena with a metal, of copper oxide with copper, of selenium with another metal, of germanium with a tngsten point, as well as of crystalized silicon with a metal point are all
/'

asymmetrical conductances. Finally, a photoelectric cell could be considered as a diode, because the photo-electrons behave like thermoelectrons in the vacuum of the cell (in vacuum cell and also in gas cell, though the phenomenon is complicated by the emission of secondary electrons which become attached to the photoelectrons). Should the Fleming valve be called a diode therefore? Tech-

nically, the Fleming valve can be replaced in a number of applications by germanium diodes (for weak intensities or high frequencies) or by selenium or copper oxide rectifiers (for applications with low frequency and high intensity). usage does not supply good criteria. But

The Fleming valve can also be replaced by

a rotating transformer,* a technical object whose essential system is entirely different from that of the diode. In fact, the thermoelectronic diode consti-

tutes a definite type with its own historical existence. Above this type there exists a pure functioning system which is transposable into other structures, for example into those of imperfect conductors or semi-conductors. The functioning system is the same, to the extent that on a theoretic diagram a diode can be indicated by a sign (asymmetric conductance:
)

which does not prejudge the

*See Appendix

type of diode used and which leaves complete freedom to the builder. But the
1-.

*-V:.

pure technical diagram does define a type of existence for the technical object in terms of its ideal function, which differs from the reality of the historic type. Historically, the Fleming diode is nearer to the Lee de Forest triode

than to germanium, copper oxide or selenium and iron rectifiers, though these are indicated by the same schematic symbols and, in certain cases, fulfil the same functions, even to the point of being replaceable by the Fleming diode. The whole essence of the Fleming tube is not contained in its property of asymmetric conductance; it is also a device that produces and transports the flow of electrons that are capable of being slowed down, accelerated and deviated, and that can be dispersed or concentrated, repulsed or attracted. The technical object exists not only by virtue of its functioning in exterior devices (for example, an asymmetric conductance) but by virtue of phenomena of which it is, itself, the centre. grants it a progeny. The primitive technical object can be considered as a non-saturated system. Whatever later improvements it undergoes act as steps forward towards the saturation of the system. Judging from the outside, it is possible to believe that, instead of being improved, the technical object is becoming altered and is changing its structure. But it could be said that the technical object evolves by engendering a family; the primitive object is the forefather of this family. We could even call such an evolution a natural technical evolution. In this sense, the gas engine is the forefather of petrol and diesel engines, the Crookes tube forefather of the Coolidge tube, and the diode forefather of the triode as well as of other multiple-electrode tubes. At the start of each such series there is a definite act of invention. In a certain sense the gas engine derives from the steam engine; the placing This is why is posesses a fecundity or non-saturation which

of its cylinder, piston, transmission system, as well as its distribution by slide-valve and slots, is analogous to the steam engine's. What was needed

was a new phenomenon, a system which existed neither in the steam engine nor the discharge tube. In the steam-engine, both the boiler, producing

gas under pressure, and the heat source were outside of the cylinder. In the gas engine, the cylinder itself, as explosion chamber, becomes both boiler and furnace; combustion takes place within the cylinder: combustion

is internal. In the discharge tube, the electrodes were indistinguishable and conductance remained symmetrical; the discovery of thermo-electronic effect allows for the making of a tube analogous to the discharge tube in which electrodes are polarized, thus rendering the conductance symmetrical. The beginning of a lineage of technical objects is marked by a synthetic act of invention that is basic to a technical essence. Technical essence is recognizable by the fact that it remains stable all through the course of evolution and that, further, it not only remains stable but is ever capable of producing structures and functions by internal development and progressive saturation. That is why the technical essence of the combustion engine could become that of the diesel engine by increased concretization of function. In an engine with preliminary combustion, the heating of the fuel mixture within the cylinder at the moment of compression is inessential and even harmful, because of the risk of producing detonation instead of deflagration (combustion with progressive explosive wave) which limits the admissable compression ratio for a given kind of motor fuel. In the diesel engine on the other hand,

compression heat becomes an essential and positive factor, because it initiates deflagration. What gives compression a positive role is a more'" precise fixing of the exact time of carburation. In an engine with

preliminary combustion, carburation can take place at any time before the introduction of the fuel mixture into the cylinder. In a diesel engine

carburation must take place after the introduction and compression of pure air, which is free of carburating fumes, at the precise moment when the piston reaches the top dead point, because this introduction initiates deflagration (the start of the cycle's power-time) and cannot initiate it unless it occurs at the instant when the air reaches its highest temperature at the end of compression. The introduction of motor fuel into the air (carburation) is, for this reason, charged with much more functional significance in the diesel engine than in the gasoline engine. It is integrated into a more saturated and rigorous system, which allows the builder less freedom and the user less tolerance. The triode is also a more saturated system than the diode. In the

diode the only factor that limits asymmetric conductance is thermoelectronic emission. When the cathodeanode voltage is raised, the internal current
A

progressively increases for a temperature established by the cathode, but reaches a certain ceiling (saturation current) which corresponds to the fact that all electrons emitted by the cathode are collected by the anode. Therefore the only way to regulate the current crossing the diode is to vary the anode voltage. On the other hand, the triode is a system in

which the current crossing the anode-cathode space can be made to vary on a continuous basis without any varying of cathode-anode voltage. The primitive property remains (that is, the variation of current as a direct function of cathode-anode voltage) but it is paired with a second possibility of variation which fixes the voltage of the control grid. The function of variation which in the primitive state was tied to anode voltage now becomes individualized, free and definite; this adds an

element t o t h e system and, a s a r e s u l t , s a t u r a t e s i t because t h e system of c a u s a l i t y i n c l u d e s an e x t r a component. I n t h e e v o l u t i o n of t h e t e c h n i c a l o b j e c t t h e s a t u r a t i o n of t h e system by s e g r e g a t i o n of f u n c t i o n s becomes accentuated. I n t h e penthode, t h e

c u r r e n t c r o s s i n g t h e cathode-anode space becomes independent of anode v o l t a g e f o r v a l u e s of anode v o l t a g e between a low minimum and h i g h maximum r e l a t e d t o t h e p o s s i b i l i t y of thermal d i s s i p a t i o n . This c h a r a c t e r i s t i c

1s s t a b l e enough t o make p o s s i b l e t h e use o f t h e penthode as a charge

r e s i s t a n c e i n r e l a x a t i o n o s c i l l a t o r s t h a t a r e needed f o r t h e production of l i n e a r saw-teeth f o r t h e h o r i z o n t a l sweep v o l t a g e s of cathode-ray oscillographs. I n t h i s p a r t i c u l a r c a s e , t h e v o l t a g e s of s c r e e n , c o n t r o l This i s n o t t h e case

g r i d , and t h i r d g r i d ( s u p p r e s s o r ) a r e k e p t c o n s t a n t .

w i t h t h e t r i o d e , where f o r a given c o n t r o l - g r i d v o l t a g e anode c u r r e n t v a r i e s as a f u n c t i o n of anode v o l t a g e . I n t h i s sense, t h e t r i o d e is s t i l l

a s s i m i l a b l e t o a d i o d e , whereas t h i s i s no l o n g e r t r u e of t h e penthode, i n t h e dynamic system. The b a s i s f o r t h i s d i f f e r e n c e i s t h e f a c t t h a t i n a dynamic r o l e

t h e t r i o d e t h e anode c o n t i n u e s t o p l a y an ambivalent r o l e :

a s e l e c t r o d e c o l l e c t i n g e l e c t r o n s and a s t a t i c r o l e a s e l e c t r o d e c r e a t i n g an e l e c t r i c f i e l d . I n t h e t e t r o d e o r penthode, on t h e o t h e r hand, i t i s

t h e g r i d - s c r e e n , p l a y i n g i t s e l e c t r o s t a t i c anode r o l e , t h a t a s s u r e s t h e maintenance of t h e e l e c t r i c f i e l d , by r e g u l a t i n g t h e e l e c t r o n flow. anode-plate h a s a s i n g l e r o l e t o p l a y , t h a t o f e l e c t r o n c o l l e c t o r . The For

t h i s reason t h e s l o p e of t h e penthode can b e much g r e a t e r t h a n t h a t of t h e t r i o d e , because t h e f u n c t i o n of m a i n t a i n i n g t h e e l e c t r o s t a t i c f i e l d of a c c e l e r a t i o n i s guaranteed w i t h o u t v a r i a t i o n o r diminution ( t h e s c r e e n is a t a f i x e d p o t e n t i a l ) , even when anode v o l t a g e d i p s when t h e r e i s an i n c r e a s e i n c u r r e n t , because of t h e i n s e r t i o n of a charge r e s i s t a n c e i n t h e anode

circuit. We can say that the tetrode and penthode eliminate the antagonism that exists in the triode, an antagonism between its function as accelerator of electrons by the anode and its function as collector of electric charges conveyed by the electrons that are accelerated by the same anode; this function occasions a drop in anode potential when a charge resistance is inserted, and it lessens electron acceleration. From this point of view, the grid-screen should be considered as an electrostatic anode of fixed voltage. It is obvious, therefore, that the tetrode and the penthode are indeed results of a development of the primitive diode system through saturation and synergetic concredization. The grid-screen concentrates in ---

itself all the functions relative to the electrostatic field that have to do with the maintenance of a fixed potential. The control-grid and the anode maintain no other functions than those that have to do with a variable potential, and they can perform these functions to a much greater extent (in the course of operation, the anode of a penthode used as a voltage amplifier can be raised to potentials varying between 30 and 300 volts in the dynamic system). The control grid collects fewer electrons

than it would in a triode and this makes possible to treat the input impedance as very high. The control grid becomes much more purely a control

grid, and it is no longer subject to continuous current created by the collecting of electrons. It is, in a much more rigorous sense, an

electrostatic structure. Thus, the tetrode and penthode can be considered to be direct descendants of the triode: the development of the triode's

internal technical system is realized in them through a reduction of incompatibilities by means of a redistribution of functions in synergetic subsystems. What establishes the unity and distinctiveness of a technical

lineage is the stability of an underlying system of invention that is at once concrete and controlling. Concretization gives the technical object an intermediate position between natural object and scientific representation. The abstract, or primitive, technical object is far from constituting a natural system. It is a translation into matter of an ensemble of scientific notions and principles that at the most basic level are unconnected one with the other and that are connected only by those their consequences that converge for the production of a looked-for result. The primitive technical object is not a physical natural system but a physical translation of an intellectual system. It is an application, therefore, or a bunch of applications. It

is a consequence of knowledge and it can teach nothing. It is not subject to inductive examination, as a natural object is, and the reason for this is that it is nothing if not artificial. The concrete technical object, that is, the evolved technical object, is quite the opposite in that it approximates the mode of existence of natural objects. It tends to internal coherence, and towards a closure of

the system of causes and effects which operate in circular fashion within its boundaries. Further, it incorporates part of the natural world

which intervenes as a condition of its functioning and, thus, becomes part of the system of causes and effects. As it evolves such an object loses its artificial character: the essential artificiality of an object resides

in the fact that man has to intervene in order to keep the object in existence by protecting it from the natural world and by giving it a status as well as existence. Artificiality is not a characteristic that denotes the manufactured origin of the object as opposed to nature's productive spontaneity.

A r t i f i c i a l i t y i s something t h a t i s within t h e a r t i f i c i a l i z i n g a c t i o n of man, regardless of whether t h i s a c t i o n a f f e c t s a n a t u r a l o b j e c t o r an e n t i r e l y fabricated object.

A greenhouse developed blossom t h a t y i e l d s

p e t a l s ( a double flower) but does not engender f r u i t i s the product of a p l a n t t h a t has been made a r t i f i c i a l .

M n has deflected t h e p l a n t ' s a

functions from coherent performance t o the extent t h a t the p l a n t can't reproduce i t s e l f except by procedures such a s g r a f t i n g which require human intervention. Making a n a t u r a l o b j e c t a r t i f i c i a l gives r e s u l t s t h a t A p l a n t t h a t has

d i f f e r from those effected by technical concretization.

been made a r t i f i c i a l can only e x i s t i n t h a t plant laboratory, the greenhouse, with i t s complex system of thermic and hydraulic regulations. The

i n i t i a l l y coherent system of b i o l o g i c a l functions has been opened up t o functions t h a t a r e independent of each o t h e r and t h a t a r e r e l a t e d t o one another only by the gardener's care. Flowering becomes pure flowering,

something detached and anomic; the p l a n t blooms u n t i l i t i s worn out and i t produces no seeds. and s o l a r heat.
I t l o s e s i t s o r i g i n a l a b i l i t i e s t o r e s i s t cold, drought

The a r t i f i c i a l regulations of t h e greenhouse replace Artificialization

what o r i g i n a l l y were t h e o b j e c t ' s n a t u r a l regulations.

i s a process of a b s t r a c t i o n i n t h e o b j e c t which i s rendered a r t i f i c i a l .

B technical concretization, on t h e o t h e r hand, an o b j e c t t h a t was y a r t i f i c i a l i n i t s primitive s t a t e comes more and more t o resemble a n a t u r a l object. In i t s beginning, the o b j e c t had need of a more e f f e c t i v e

e x t e r i o r regulatory environment, f o r example a laboratory o r a workshop o r , i n c e r t a i n cases, a factory. L i t t l e by l i t t l e , a s i t develops i n

concretization, i t becomes capable of doing without t h e a r t i f i c i a l environment, and t h i s i s s o because i t s i n t e r n a l coherence increases and i t s functioning system becomes closed by becoming organized. A concretized It

o b j e c t i s comparable t o an o b j e c t t h a t i s produced spontaneously.

becomes independent of t h e l a b o r a t o r y w i t h which i t i s i n i t i a l l y a s s o c i a t e d and i n c o r p o r a t e s i t i n t o i t s e l f dynamically i n t h e performance of i t s functions.

Its r e l a t i o n s h i p w i t h o t h e r o b j e c t s , whether t e c h n i c a l o r n a t u r a l ,

becomes t h e i n f l u e n c e which r e g u l a t e s i t and which makes i t p o s s i b l e f o r t h e c o n d i t i o n s of f u n c t i o n i n g t o be s e l f - s u s t a i n i n g . The o b j e c t i s , t h e n ,

no l o n g e r i s o l a t e d ; e i t h e r i t becomes a s s o c i a t e d w i t h o t h e r o b j e c t s o r i s s e l f - s u f f i c i e n t , whereas a t t h e beginning i t was i s o l a t e d and heteronomous. The consequences of t h e c o n c r e t i z a t i o n under d i s c u s s i o n a r e n o t merely human and economic (by w a r r a n t i n g d e c e n t r a l i z a t i o n , f o r example), they are also intellectual. Because t h e mode of e x i s t e n c e of t h e c o n c r e t e

t e c h n i c a l o b j e c t i s analogous t o t h a t of a spontaneously produced n a t u r a l o b j e c t , we can l e g i t i m a t e l y c o n s i d e r them a s n a t u r a l o b j e c t s ; t h i s means t h a t we can submit them t o i n d u c t i v e study. They a r e no l o n g e r merely I n t h a t they

a p p l i c a t i o n s of c e r t a i n a n t e r i o r s c i e n t i f i c p r i n c i p l e s .

e x i s t , they prove t h e v i a b i l i t y and t h e s t a b i l i t y o f a c e r t a i n s t r u c t u r e which h a s t h e same s t a t u s a s a n a t u r a l s t r u c t u r e , though i t can b e s c h e m a t i c a l l y d i f f e r e n t from a l l n a t u r a l s t r u c t u r e s . The s t u d y of t h e systems of f u n c t i o n i n g i n c o n c r e t e t e c h n i c a l o b j e c t s
i s v a l u a b l e s c i e n t i f i c a l l y because t h e s e o b j e c t s a r e n o t d e r i v e d from a

single principle.

They a r e t h e evidence of a c e r t a i n mode of f u n c t i o n i n g

and of c o m p a t i b i l i t y t h a t e x i s t s i n f a c t and t h a t was c o n s t r u c t e d b e f o r e being foreseen. The c o m p a t i b i l i t y i n q u e s t i o n was n o t c o n t a i n e d i n each

of t h e d i s t a n t s c i e n t i f i c p r i n c i p l e s which played t h e i r p a r t i n t h e c o n s t r u c t i o n of t h e o b j e c t ; i t was e m p i r i c a l l y d i s c o v e r e d . I n order t o v e r i f y t h i s

c o m p a t i b i l i t y , we can go back t o t h e s e p a r a t e s c i e n c e s i n o r d e r t o pose t h e problem of t h e c o r r e l a t i o n of t h e i r p r i n c i p l e s ; t o do s o would b e found a s c i e n c e o f c o r r e l a t i o n s and t r a n s f o r m a t i o n s , which would b e a g e n e r a l technology o r mechanology.

But in order to give direction to the general technology just referred to it is necessary to avoid basing it on an improper assimilation of technical object to natural object, particularly to the living. Analogues or, rather,

exterior resemblances should be rigorously outlawed, because they lack signification and can only lead astray. Cogitation about automata is unsafe because

of the risk of its being confined to a stury of exterior characteristics and so work in terms of improper comparison. What alone is significant is exchanges of energy and information within the technical object or between the technical object and its environment; outward aspects of behaviour observed by a spectator are not objects of scientific study.

It would not even be right to found a separate science for the stury of
regulatory and control mechanisms in automata built to be automata: ought to take as its subject the universality of technical objects. technology In this

respect, the science of Cybernetics is found wanting; even though it has the boundless merit of being the first inductive stufy of technical objects and of being a study of the middle ground between the specialized sciences, it has particularized its field of investigation to too great an extent, for it is part of the study of a certain number of technical objects. Cybernetics at its

starting point accepted a classification of technical objects that operates in terms of criteria of genus and species: There is no species of automata: the science of technology must not do so.

there are simply technical objects; these

possess a functional organisation, and in them different degrees of automatism are realized. There is one element that threatens to make the work of Cybernetics to some degree useless as an interscientific study (though this is what Norbert Weiner defines as the goal of his research), the basic postulate that living beings and self-regulated technical objects are identical. The most that can be said about

technical objects is that they tend towards concretization, whereas natural objects, as living beings, are concrete right from the beginning. There should

be no confusing of a tendency towards concretization with a status of absolutely concrete existence. Though every technical object possesses to some degree

aspects of residual abstraction, one cannot go to the extent of speaking of technical objects as if they were natural objects. Technical objects must be studied in their evolution in order that the process of concretization as tendency can be abstracted therefrom. Still, the final product of the technical evolution does not have to be isolated so that it can be defined as entirely concrete; it is more concrete than what preceded it, but it is still artificial. Instead of considering one class of technical beings, automata,

we should follow the lines of concretization throughout the temporal evolution of technical objects. This is the only approach that gives real signification, all mythology apart, to the bringing together of living being and technical object. Without the goal thought out and brought to realization by the living,

physical causality alone could not produce a positive and effective concretizatio

Chapter I1 The Evolution of Technical Reality: Element, Individual and Ensemble

I: Hypertelia and Self-conditioning i n Technical Evolution

The evolution of technical objects manifests c e r t a i n hypertelic phenomena which endow each technical object with s p e c i a l i z a t i o n , which causes i t t o adapt badly t o changes, however s l i g h t , i n the conditions of i t s operation o r manufacture. The system t h a t c o n s t i t u t e s the essence ways. First,

of the technical object can, i n e f f e c t , be adapted in-two

it can be adapted t o t h e material and human conditions i n i t s production:

each p a r t i c u l a r object can make the best possible use of t h e e l e c t r i c a l , mechanical o r even chemical c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of t h e materials of which it

i s made.

For example, a pump s u i t a b l e f o r a cold country may not be a t a l l

s u i t a b l e f o r a hot country, and vice versa; an aeroplane made f o r high a t t i t u d e s may have d i f f i c u l t i e s , especially i n landing and taking o f f , i f it has t o operate f o r a short period a t low a l t i t u d e s . The j e t engine, whose

principle of propulsion makes it superior t o the propeller engine a t high a l t i t u d e s , does not work well a t low a l t i t u d e s . The great speed a t t a i n e d

by a j e t plane becomes a crippling f a c t o r i n terms of ground contact, because a reduction i n l i f t i n g surface coupled with the use of a j e t engine makes
it necessary t o land a t high speed ( a t more o r l e s s the cruising speed of

a propeller plane) and t h i s c r e a t e s the need f o r a very long landing s t r i p . Early aeroplanes, which could land i n the open country, were l e s s overadapted functionally than modern planes. Functional overadaption can

go so f a r a s t o eventuate i n systems resembling symbiosis and parasitism

i n biology.

Some small planes cannot e a s i l y take off unless they are Others use rockets t o increase t h e i r power

launched by a larger plane. of ascent.

The transport g l i d e r i s an example of a hypertelic technical

object; i t i s nothing i f not an a i r f r e i g h t e r o r , b e t t e r s t i l l , an a i r barge without a "tugboat", and i n t h i s it i s quite d i f f e r e n t from an ordinary g l i d e r which, following a simple launching, can a v a i l of a i r curr e n t s t o s t a y a l o f t on i t s own. The autonomous g l i d e r i s very well adapted

t o engineless f l i g h t , while t h e transport g l i d e r i s merely one of two asymmetrical partners i n a technical whole whose other half i s t h e towing vessel. For i t s p a r t , the towing vessel i s not well adapted because on i t s

own i t i s incapable of carrying a load proportional t o i t s own power. W can say, therefore, t h a t t h e r e are two kinds of hypertelia, e one of which i s well adaptable t o determined conditions without involving t h e s l i g h t e s t division of the technical object o r any l o s s of autonomy, t h e second of which involves a division of the technical object, a s i s the case i n the division of a primitive technical being i n t o towing u n i t and u n i t towed. In the f i r s t case the autonomy of the object i s preserved, W find a mixed hypertelic case i n a e

i n the second it i s s a c r i f i c e d .

s i t u a t i o n involving adaptation t o environment, where the object requires a p a r t i c u l a r environment i n order t o work properly, because of i t s being paired energetically with i t s milieu. This case i s p r e t t y well i d e n t i c a l For example, a

t o t h a t involving a d i v i s i o n i n t o towing and towed u n i t s .

clock t h a t i s synchronized t o a p a r t i c u l a r e l e c t r i c a l c i r c u i t w i l l not be able t o function i f i t i s transported from France t o America because of t h e difference i n frequency (60 Hertz and 50 Hertz respectively).

An

electric motor requires an electric circuit or a generator. A singlephased, synchronous motor can be more satisfactorily adapted to a particular milieu than a universal motor: within the chosen environment it works much better, but outside of that environment it is worthless. A triple-phase synchronous motor is even more adaptable to working on a particular type of electrical circuit than is a single-phase motor, but it can't be used with any other kind of circuit. By means of this limitation, it functions much more satisfactorily than does the single-phase engine: it has a better control system and better output and it is subject

to very little wear and to very slight losses in connecting lines. Adaptation to technical environment is of fundamental importance in certain cases. The use of triple-phase alternating current, for example, is perfect for factory engines of whatever capacities. As opposed to this, up to now it has not been possible to use triple phase alternating current to drive electric trains. It is necessary to have recourse to a

transfer system that connects and adapts the train-engine's current to the network of high tension, triple phase, alternating current. This is done either by sub-stations that provide continuous voltage to the feeders of the overhead wires or by transformers and adaptors on board the train itself supplying the engine with continuous voltage from overhead wires that are powered with alternating current. adapt itself to energy distribution network Indeed, if the engine had to in terms of both energy and

frequency it would losetoogreat a part of its range of use. Whether synchronized or unsynchronized, an engine cannot supply a large amount of mechanical energy until it reaches its working speed. However satisfactory

t h i s may be f o r a fixed machine, such a s a l a t h e o r a d r i l l , which s t a r t s without any load and does not encounter any resistance u n t i l it reaches maximum speed, the t r a i n engine does not work i n t h i s fashion. The t r a i n

engine s t a r t s with f u l l load and with a l l the i n e r t i a of t h e t r a i n it hauls. I f it is a t a l l admissable t o speak of the working speed f o r a

locomotive, w can say t h a t t h e locomotive i s l e a s t able t o provide e energy when it reaches i t s working speed; it has t o supply maximum energy i n t r a n s i t i o n a l stages such as acceleration and deceleration o r counter-current braking. Such a mode of operation, with i t s many f r e -

quent adaptations and changes i n power i s quite d i f f e r e n t from t h a t reduction of t h e range of systems of operation t h a t t y p i f i e s adaptation t o the technical environment, a s i n the case of the f a c t o r y with i t s polyphase e l e c t r i c c i r c u i t of constant frequency. The example of t h e t r a c t i o n

engine enables us t o understand t h a t t h e existence of the technical object

i s sustained by a double relationship--a r e l a t i o n s h i p with i t s geographic

environment on the one hand, and with i t s technical environment on the other, The technical object stands a t the point where two environments come together, and it ought t o be integrated i n t o both these environments a t the same time. S t i l l , these two environments are two worlds t h a t do

not belong t o t h e same system and are not necessarily completely compatible with each other. Hence, t h e technical object i s delimited t o a c e r t a i n

extent by human choice which t r i e s t o e s t a b l i s h t h e b e s t compromise poss i b l e between these two worlds. The t r a c t i o n engine, i n one sense, r e -

sembles a factory engine i n t h a t it receives i t s power from high tension,

t r i p l e phase, a l t e r n a t i n g l i n e s .

In another sense altogether it i s a

device t h a t expends i t s energy i n hauling a t r a i n from a dead stop t o f u l l speed and then, by diminishing degrees of speed, t o a stop once again; it has t o haul t h e t r a i n up ramps, around corners, and down slopes, maintaining t h e most constant speed possible i n a l l of t h i s . The t r a c t i o n

engine doesn't simply transform e l e c t r i c a l energy t o mechanical energy; it applies e l e c t r i c a l energy t o a geographically varied world, t r a n s l a t i n g
it technically i n response t o t h e p r o f i l e of t h e railway track, the

varying r e s i s t a n c e of t h e wind, and t o the r e s i s t a n c e provided by snow which the engine pushes ahead and shoves a s i d e . The t r a c t i o n engine

causes a r e a c t i o n i n t h e l i n e t h a t powers i t , a r e a c t i o n t h a t i s a transl a t i o n ofageographical and meteorological s t r u c t u r e of t h e world.

There

is an increase i n the absorbed i n t e n s i t y and a decrease i n l i n e voltage

when snow becomes deepest, when t h e slope becomes more acute, and when l a t e r a l wind increases f r i c t i o n by pushing t h e wheel flanges against the rails.

--worlds --- another The two a c t on one

through the t r a c t i o n engine.

Such i s not the case with a triple-phase factory engine, which does not e f f e c t a causal r e l a t i o n s h i p between t h e technical world and the geographic i n any such manner; i t s operation i s almost t o t a l l y confined within t h e technical world. Because of i t s singleness of milieu, the factory engine

does not have t o be adapted t o i t s environment, whereas the t r a c t i o n engine needs an environment of adaptation, which i s composed of repressors located i n the e l e c t r i c a l sub-station o r on the locomotive i t s e l f .
A l l the f a c t o r y

engine needs by way of an environment of adaptation is a voltage-lowering transformer. Such a transformer could be done without i n high powered

engines; in engines of medium power it is needed as a precautionary measure, but this has more to do with human operators than with the job of environment adaptation. There is a third case in which adaptation takes a different direction and has different significance, a case in which it does not lead at all so directly to hypertelic phenomena or to the consequences of hypertelia Where there is need of adaptation not so much to environment in the strict sense but to the task of interrelating two environments, both of which are in a state of evolution, adaptation is limited and particularized in the direction of autonomy and concretization. This represents real technical progress. Thus, the use of silicon sheet metal, which has a higher magnetic penetrability and a lower hysteresis than iron sheet metal has made it possible to lessen the weight and volume of traction engines while, at the same time, increasing their efficiency. A modification of this kind tends to mediate between the technical and geographical worlds, because a locomotive could have a lower centre of gravity as a result of the placing of the
'"'I..,
It,

"'

#;#,

motors on the same level as the bogies; this would lessen the enertia of the rotor, and the significance of this for rapid braking would be appreciable. The use of silicon insulators has made possible a greater augmentation in heat without risk of insulator deterioration; this increases the possibilities of very high voltage to increase both starting torque and breaking torque. Modifications such as these extend rather than restrict the field of use for ti'action engines. A silicon-insulated engine could be used without extra precautionary measures on a locomotive that-has

t o climb very steep slopes, and a l s o i n very hot countries. t i o n a l use becomes greater. used ( i n small models) i n
ib

I t s rela-

The same kind of improved motor can be braking system of trucks. The engine becomes

adapted t o t h e r e l a t i o n a l modality primarily, r a t h e r than t o the very special type of r e l a t i o n s h i p which brings together e l e c t r i c a l network and geographical world f o r the express purpose of hauling a t r a i n . The Guimbal turbine cretization. 1 provides us with an analogous kind of con-

This turbine i s immersed i n the water-pipe and i s d i r e c t l y

connected t o a very small generator contained i n a housing f i l l e d with o i l under pressure. Here, the dam wall confines the whole power-house

within the water-pipe, f o r a l l t h a t appear a t ground level a r e the enclosure containing the o i l reservoir and the measuring d i a l s . becomes plurifunctional. The water

I t supplies the energy t h a t a c t i v a t e s the turbine The o i l

and the generator, and evacuates heat produced by the generator.

i s j u s t a s notably plurifunctional.

I t l u b r i c a t e s the generator, i n s u l a t e s

t h e gears, and conducts heat from gears t o housing, where i t i s evacuated by t h e water. Also. i t prevents water seepage through the axle-casing

i n t o the housing, because the o i l pressure within the housing i s g r e a t e r than the water-pressure without. plurifunctional. This very high pressure i t s e l f i s

I t e f f e c t s permanent greasing under pressure i n t h e

bearings, while preventing seepage of water i f t h e bearings a r e not q u i t e watertight.

A t t h i s point, w should note t h a t the r e l a t i o n a l adaptation e

' ~ h e s e turbines a r e of a kind with those equipping "bulb- rou s" i n t h e new French tide-powered f a c t o r i e s . They a r e reversible and, w i t a small expenditure of energy, they can be used t o pump water a t low t i d e .

&-^-

under discussion is due to the plurifunctional nature of this concretization. Before Guimbal's invention, it was unthinkable to place the generator in the water-pipe containing the turbine, because even if all problems of watertightness and insulation could be imagined as solved, the generator was too big to be placed in a pipe. The method used to solve problems regarding watertightness and insulation made it possible to place the generator within the pipe by insuring improved cooling by means of both oil and water. One might even go so far as to say that the positioning of the generator inside the pipe is itself possible because the generator itself makes energy cooling possible at the very same time. If the Guimbal generator were operated at full power in air it would quickly be ruined by heat, whereas there is no appreciable heat detected in its concentric double bath of oil and water, each of which is energetically stirred, the oil by generator rotation, the water by turbine turbulence. Here concretization is effected by an invention which supposes the problem solved. This particular concretization is only possible because of the new conditions erected by concretization. The only environment that tolerates non-hypertelic adaptation is the environment created by the adaptation itself. In this case, the act of adaptation is not really an act of adaptation in the sense we give the word when we define adaptation in terms of an environment which is already established prior to the process of adaptation. The adaptation-concretization process is one which causes the birth of an environment rather than being the result of an already established environment. It is caused by an environment which had merely virtual

e x i s t e n c e before the invention.

The invention happens because a jump i s made

and i s j u s t i f i e d by the r e l a t i o n s h i p which i s i n s t i t u t e d within t h e environment

i t creates.

The very existence of the p o s s i b i l i t y of the turbogenerator It cannot have be geometrically

p a i r i n g i s t h e r e a l i z a t i o n of the same.

s i t u a t e d i n s i d e t h e water-pipe unless there i s some physical means of e f f e c t i n g thermic changes which make possible a reduction i n dimensions. I t could be s a i d t h a t concretizing invention brings i n t o being a technogeographic environment ( i n t h i s case, o i l and water i n turbulence) which i s a condition upon which the possible functioning of the technical object depends. Therefore t h e technical o b j e c t i s t h e condition of i t s e l f a s a condition f o r t h e existence of t h i s mixed environment t h a t i s a t once technical and geographical. This phenomenon of self-conditioning defines the p r i n c i p l e by

which i t i s possible t o develop t e c h n i c a l o b j e c t s f r e e of tendency towards h y p e r t e l i a and disadaptation. Hypertelia a r i s e s when adaptation r e l a t e s Adaptation

t o a p r i n c i p l e t h a t existed p r i o r t o the process of adaptation.

of t h i s kind makes a s i t s goal conditions which always o u t s t r i p i t , because

i t does not r e a c t on them and because i t f a i l s i n i t s t u r n t o a f f e c t them.

Progress i n the evolution of technical o b j e c t s i s only possible i f these o b j e c t s a r e f r e e t o evolve and do not become s u b j e c t t o any n e c e s s i t y t h a t l e a d s towards f a t a l h y p e r t e l i a . For t h i s t o be possible, t h e evolution

of technical o b j e c t s has t o be constructive, t h a t i s t o say, has t o lead towards the c r e a t i o n of a t h i r d technogeographical environment i n which every modification i s self-conditioned. What i s i n question here i s not

progress conceived as a predetermined movement forward o r a s a humanization

of nature; such a process could equally be thought of as a naturalization of man. Indeed, between man and nature there develops a technogeographic

milieu whose existence is only made possible by man's intelligence. The self-conditioning of a system by virtue of the result of its operation presupposes the use of an anticipatory functioning which is discoverable neither in nature nor 1. technical objects made up to the present. It is in the work of a lifetime to achieve such a leap beyond established reality and its system of actuality towards new forms which continue to be only because they exist all together as an established system. When a new device appears in the evolving series, it will last only if it becomes part of a systematic and plurifunctional convergence. The new device is the state of its own possibility. It is in this way that the geographical

world and the world of already existing technical objects are made to interrelate in an organic concretization that is defined in terms of its relational function. Like a vault that is only stable once it has been completed, an object that has a relational function continues in existence and is coherent only when after it has begun to exist a d because it exists. n It creates its associated environment by itself and it achieves true individualization in itself.

11: Technical Invention: Form and Content in Life and in Inventive Thought

For the reasons already outlined, we can rightly state that the individualization of technical beings is the essential condition for technical progress. Such individualization is possible because of the recurrence of causality in the environment which the technical being

creates around i t s e l f , an environment which i t influences and by which it

is influenced.

This environment, which i s a t t h e same time n a t u r a l and B means of t h i s the y This is no fabricated

technical, can be called t h e associated milieu. technical being i s conditioned i n i t s operation.

milieu, o r a t l e a s t it i s not wholly fabricated; it i s a d e f i n i t e system of natural elements surrounding the technical object and it i s linked t o a d e f i n i t e system of elements which c o n s t i t u t e t h e technical object. The

associated milieu i s the mediator of the r e l a t i o n s h i p between manufactured technical elements and natural elements within which the technical being functions. The ensemble constituted by o i l and water i n motion within and This ensemble i s concretized

around the Guimbal turbine i s of t h i s s o r t .

and individualized by t h e recurring thermal changes t h a t take place i n i t .

The f a s t e r the turbine turns, the more the generator expels heat by Joule
e f f e c t and magnetic l o s s . But the f a s t e r the turbine turns, the more t h e

o i l i n the r o t o r and water around t h e housing increase i n turbulence and a c t i v a t e heat exchanges between r o t o r and water. This associated milieu The only

i s the invented technical o b j e c t ' s condition of existence.

technical objects t h a t , s t r i c t l y speaking, can be said t o be invented a r e those needing an associated milieu t o make them viable. Indeed, they

cannot be formed p a r t by p a r t i n the course of a gradual evolution, because e i t h e r they e x i s t i n t h e i r completeness o r not a t a l l . Technical objects

which i n t h e i r l i a i s o n with the natural world put i n t o play what i s ess e n t i a l l y a recurrent c a u s a l i t y must be invented r a t h e r than developed i n stages, because such objects are the cause of t h e i r own condition of functioning. Such objects a r e viable only i f the problem i s resolved;

t h a t i s t o say, only i f they e x i s t along with t h e i r associated milieu. I t i s f o r t h i s reason t h a t so much discontinuity i s noticeable i n t h e h i s t o r y of technical objects with absolute o r i g i n s . Previsionary and

imaginatively creative thought alone can e f f e c t such a reversed conditioning i n time. Elements t h a t materially a r e t o c o n s t i t u t e t h e technical

object, and t h a t a r e independent one of the other, lacking an associated milieu t h a t precedes t h e c o n s t i t u t i o n of t h e technical object, must be organised i n r e l a t i o n t o one another by means of c i r c u l a r c a u s a l i t y which
w i l l e x i s t once the object i s constituted.

What i s involved here, then,

i s a conditioning of the present by the future, o r by what up t o now does

not e x i s t . I t i s only very r a r e l y t h a t any such function of the f u t u r e The reason f o r t h i s i s t h a t t h i s function

could be the r e s u l t of chance.

depends upon a capacity f o r the organisation of elements i n terms of requirements t h a t a r e meaningful a s a whole i n terms of the goal towards which they aim and t h a t a c t as symbols of a f u t u r e ensemble a s yet without existence. The u n i t y of t h a t f u t u r e associated milieu i n which causal

r e l a t i o n s h i p s w i l l be so deployed a s t o make possible the functioning of the new technical object i s represented o r acted out by systems of t h e creative imagination, i n much t h e same way a s an actor can play a r o l e i n t h e absence of the r e a l person. The dynamism of thought is l i k e t h a t of technical objects. Mental

systems influence each other during invention i n the same way a s d i f f e r e n t dynamisms of a technical object influence each other i n material functioning. The u n i t y of t h e associated milieu of a technical object has an During invention l i v i n g u n i t y

analogue i n the u n i t y of a l i v i n g thing.

i s t h e coherence of mental systems t h a t are arrived a t because they e x i s t i n and a r e deployed i n t h e same being; systems t h a t a r e contradictory come i n t o confrontation with and reduce each other. That which i s a l i v e

can invent, because whatever is a l i v e is an individual being t h a t brings with it i t s own associated milieu. The a b i l i t y t o be self-conditioning What

i s a p r i n c i p l e of production capacity i n self-conditioning objects.

escapes t h e a t t e n t i o n of psychologists i n t h e i r analysis of t h e inventive imagination i s not so much the systems o r forms o r operations of t h i s f a c u l t y , those elements t h a t so immediately demand a t t e n t i o n , a s the dynamic background on which these systems confront each other and combine with each other, and with which they p a r t i c i p a t e . The Psychology of Form, c l e a r l y taking i n t o account t h e function of t o t a l i t i e s , a t t r i b u t e s force t o form. But, a more profound analysis

of the imaginative process would undoubtedly reveal t h a t the determining f a c t o r playing an energising r o l e i s not forms but t h a t which supports form, t h a t i s , t h e i r background. However marginal it may always be i n

terms of our a t t e n t i o n , the background i s the harbour f o r dynamisms, and

it is what gives existence t o t h e system of forms.

Forms i n t e r a c t not

with forms but with t h e i r background, which i s t h e system of a l l forms o r , b e t t e r s t i l l , t h e common r e s e r v o i r of t h e tendencies of a l l forms even before they had separate existence o r constituted an e x p l i c i t system. The p a r t i c i p a t i o n a l r e l a t i o n s h i p connecting forms t o t h e i r background is a r e l a t i o n s h i p which straddles t h e present and brings the f u t u r e t o bear upon the present, t h a t which brings the v i r t u a l t o bear upon t h e a c t u a l . This i s so because the base i s a system of v i r t u a l i t i e s , of p o t e n t i a l s ,

and of moving forces, whereas forms are a system of the actual. Invention is a taking into account of the system of actuality by a system of virtualities; it is the creation of a new system from these two. Forms are passive to the extent that they represent actuality. They become active when they are organised in relation to their base, and thus bring to actuality former virtualities. It is undoubtedly very difficult to clarify those modalities by which a forms system relates to a background of virtualities. All we can say is that it happens in much the same manner of causality and conditioning as that by which each of the structures in a constituted technical object relates to the dynamisms of its associated milieu. These structures are in the associated milieu, and they are influenced by it and, through it, by the other structures of the technical being. They exert a partial influence on it in turn, while

the technical milieu, which is influenced by each structure individually, influences them all together by supplying them with energetic, thermal, and chemical conditions of functioning. There is a recurrence of causality between associated milieu and these structures, but this is not a symmetrical recurrence. The milieu plays an informational role. It is a basis for self-regulations, and it is a vehicle for information or for informationcontrolled energy (for example, water shaken at a certain speed cooling a housing at a certain rate). The associated milieu, on the other hand, is

homeostatic and the structures are affected by a non-recurring causality, each of them going in its own direction. Freud analysed the influence of background on form in psychic life. He interpreted it in terms of the influence of hidden forms on explicit

forms; hence 1:he notion of suppression. The existence of symbolization has indeed been demonstrated (experiments on a hypnotised subject to whom a violently emotional scene is described and who, on waking up, uses symbolic transposition in his account of the scene), that the unconscious is populated by forms comparable to explicit forms has not been demonstrated.

The dynamic of tendencies is sufficient to explain symbolization if we

accept as efficacious the existence of a psychic background on which are deployed, and which is influenced by, explicit forms which the conscious and waking state shows forth. The environment associated with the systematic of forms establishes recurrent causal relationships between forms and causes reorganizations of the system of forms taken in its totality. Alienation is a rupture between background and forms in psychic life.

It occurs when the associated milieu no longer effectively regulates the

dynamism of forms. The reason why the imagination has never been properly analysed up to the present day is that forms have been accorded an active role and have been considered to take the initiative in both psychic and physical life. In reality, there is a strong kinship between life and thought. In a living organism all living matter cooperates with life. The most obvious and clearly defined structures in the body are not the only ones with life initiative; blood, lymph and conjunctive tissues play their part in life. An individual is not only made of a collection of organs joined together in systems. He is composed too of something that is no organ and that is not a structure of living matter in the sense of forming an associated milieu for the organs. Living matter serves as back-

ground f o r t h e organs i n t h a t it connects them one t o another and makes then i n t o an organism. I t preserves the fundamental chemical and physi-

c a l equilibriums on which the organs exert sudden, though limited, variations. The organs p a r t i c i p a t e i n the body. Living matter i s f a r from Neither i s it a blind In s i m i l a r

being pure indetermination o r pure passivity.

tendency; it is, r a t h e r , the vehicle of informed energy.

fashion, thought comprises p r e c i s e and d i s t i n c t s t r u c t u r e s such a s representations, images, memories and perceptions. But a l l these elements

r e l a t e t o a background which gives them direction and homeostatic u n i t y and conveys informed energy from one t o the other and from a l l t o each. W might say t h a t the background i s axiomatic t h a t i s i m p l i c i t . e systems of forms a r e elaborated i n it. Nw e

Without a background of thought,

there can be no thinking being but only a unconnected s e r i e s of discontinuous representations. milieu of forms. Their background i s the mental associated

I t is t h e middle term between l i f e and conscious thought

j u s t a s t h e environment associated with the technical object i s a middle term between the n a t u r a l world and the technical object's fabricated structures. W a r e able t o c r e a t e technical beings because we have within e

ourselves an interplay of relationships and a matter-form association which i s remarkably analogous t o t h a t which we e s t a b l i s h i n t h e technical object. The relationship between thought and l i f e i s analogous t o t h e

r e l a t i o n s h i p between a structured technical object and the n a t u r a l environment. The individualized technical object i s an invented object, one t h a t

i s a product of the i n t e r p l a y of recurrent c a u s a l i t y between l i f e and thought i n man. A object t h a t i s associated e i t h e r with l i f e o r thought n

alone is a utensil or tool rather than a technical object.

It has no

internal consistency, because it has no associated milieu to institute recurrent causality.

111. Technical Individualization The principle that recurrent causality individualizes a technical object in its associated milieu makes it possible for us to consider all the more clearly certain technical ensembles and to know whether we should treat them as technical individuals or as an organized collection of individuals. We may say that a technical individual is one having an associated milieu as a sine qua non condition of its functioning. The opposite is true of an ensemble. In the case of a laboratory such as a laboratory for the study of the psychology of sensations, one might ask if an audiometer is a technical individual. If we consider it apart from power supply circuits and the earphones or microphones that are its electroacoustic conductors, the answer is no. The audiometer is defined as having to be placed in certain conditions of temperature, voltage, and noise-level so that stable intensities and proper measurement of thresholds are possible. The room's coefficient of absorption and its resonances at various frequencies have to be taken into account. The locale is part of the whole apparatus. The audiometer has to be operated either in flat, open country or else measurements must be taken in a sound-proof room with microphonic floor suspension and walls heavily covered with glass wool. What, we might ask, is an audiometer essentially, regardless of whether it is factory-made or homemade? It is an ensemble of technical forms with relative individuality. For example, it has two high-frequency oscillators, one of which is fixed, the other variable. Whichever of the two frequencies has the lower beat

is the one producing the audible sound. An attenuator makes it possible to regulate the intensity of stimuli. Neither of these oscillators is

alone a technical object because in order it be stable it requires stabilized heater voltage and anode voltage. Generally, this stabilization is obtained by means of a recurrent causality electronic system which functionally constitutes the associated milieu of the technical forms of oscillators. However, what I have called an associated milieu is not quite that. It is,

rather, a transfer system, a means of adaptation allowing the oscillators not to be influenced by the external technical and natural environment. It could not be a true associated milieu unless a chance frequency drift in one of the oscillators led to a variation in the supply-current that works against such a drift. This would involve an exchange between regulated supply and oscillators through reciprocal causality. The ensemble of technical structures would be self-stabilized, whereas here the opposite happens: only the supply is self-stabilized and does not react to chance variations in the frequency of one of the oscillators. There is a great practical and theoretical difference between these two cases. Indeed, if only the supply is stabilized without any connection of recurrent causality with the oscillators, other uses of the power supply at the same time could be limited or extended without inconvenience. For example, one can plug in a third oscillator to the same supply without interfering with its operation, as long as normal limits of output are not exceeded. On the other hand, if one wishes to get an effective retroactive regulation, one must have no more than one single structure attached to a single associated milieu. Otherwise, chance variations opposite in direction to the two structures that are not synergetically connected to the same associated milieu could balance each other and fail

to lead to a regulatory reaction. Structures connected with one single associated milieu should operate synergetically. Therefore, the audiometer comprises at least two distinct parts that cannot be self-stabilized by the same associated milieu-the first, the frequency generator, the second,

the amplifier-attenuator. One of these ensembles cannot be allowed to act upon the other, so the two connecting leads must be carefully separated and, in order to prevent interaction of any kind, the partition separating them must be electrically and magnetically screened. On the other hand, the material limitation of the audiometer is n u a functional limitation. The amplifier-attenuator is normally extended by the acoustic reproducer, or by the room,or by the outer ear of the subject, depending on whether connection with the subject is made by loud-speaker or earphones. Consequently, it is possible to postulate the existence of relative levels of individualization in technical objects. This criterion has an axiological value: the coherence of a technical ensemble is maximal when the ensemble

is made up of two sub-systems with the same level of relative individualization. So, in a laboratory for the study of the psychology of sensations it would not be advantageous to group together the amplifier-attenuator and the two oscillators of the audiometer. There would be an advantage, however, in grouping the two oscillators so that they could respond at the same time and to the same degree to current or temperature variation, so that the lower beat-frequency resulting from these two correlative frequency variations in each oscillator are reduced as much as possible, assuming that both the fundamental frequencies rise and fall together. As opposed to this, it I would be totally contrary to the functional unity ofthe beat-frequency

generator to have two separate power supplies and to connect the power supply of one oscillator with one phase of the circuit and the second with the other phase. This would upset the effect of self-stabilization because it would compensate for the two variations which give the ensemble of the two oscillators stability in low-beat frequencies. Still, it would be useful to plug the oscillators into a different power-phase than the one to which the amplifier-attenuator is attached: this would prevent the supply voltage of the oscillators from reacting to variations in anode consumption by the amplifier. The principle of the individualization of technical objects in an ensemble is a principle of sub-ensembles with recurrent causality in their associated milieu. All technical objects with recurrent causality in their associated milieu should be separated from each other and should be connected in such a way as to preserve the mutual independence of their associated milieux. Hence, the respective sub-ensembles of oscillators and amplifierattenuator-reproducer should be independent of each other in power supply and in their coupling. Amplifier intake should high in relation to oscillator outlet, so as to insure that oscillator reaction to the amplifier is as slight as possible. If, for example, the attenuator were connected to

the outlet of the oscillators, adjustment of the attenuator would react on the frequency of the oscillators. An ensemble of higher degree which comprises all these sub-ensembles is defined by its capacity to effect various free relationships without destroying the autonomy of individualized subensembles. This is the part played by a general connection command panel in a laboratory. Electrostatic and electromagnetic screening and the use

of non-reactive couplings such as the cathode-follower are designed to maintain the independence of sub-ensembles while allowing for the various necessary combinations between sub-ensemble functions. The availing of the benefits of functioning without any interaction between conditions of functioning is a secondary functional role of the ensemble called the laboratory. We might ask, then, at what level individuality exists. Does it exist at the sub-ensemble or ensemble level? The answer must as usual be given in terms of the criterion of recurrent causality. Indeed at the higher ensemble level (that of the factory, for example) there is really no associally milieu. If there is, it exists in only certain respects, and

has no existence of a general nature. As an example, to have oscillators in a room where an audiometry experiment is being done is often bothersome. If the oscillators use transformers with magnetic circuits made of iron

magnetostriction in the laminations leads to a vibration that emits a disturbing sound. An oscillator with resistors and capacitators also gives off a weak sound as a result of alternating electric attractions. In order to conduct delicate experiments, it becomes necessary either to place the apparatus in a different room and to operate them by remote control or to isolate the subject in a soundproof room. Likewise, magnetic radiation in power transformers can greatly interfere with amplifiers in electroencephalographic and electrocardiographic experiments. That higher ensemble which is the laboratory is therefore made up of non-connected devices thereby preventing the/chance creation of associated milieux. The difference between ensemble and technical individuals lies in the fact that

<

'I,

for the ensemble the creation of a unique associated milieu is undesirable. The ensemble comprises a certain number of devices that prevent any possibility of the creation of a unique associated milieu. It prevents the

interior concretization of the technical objects it contains and only makes use of the results of their operation without allowing for any interaction of what conditionsthem. Below the level of technical individuals, are there any groupings with some degree of technical individuality? Yes, but the individuality

n they possess is not structured like that of technical objects with a

associated milieu. Its structure is like that of a plurifunctional

composition that lacks a positive associated milieu; that is to say, without self-regulation. Let us take the case of hot-cathode tube. As soon as this tube is placed in a lay-out with automatically polarised cathode resistance it becomes the centre of phenomena of self-regulation. If the heater voltage increases, for example, there is an increase in cathode emission and this leads to an increase in negative polarisation. The tube no longer increases amplification and output scarcely rises, and the same is true of its anode dissipation. A similar phenomenon in Class A amplifiers* is responsible for stable levels of output despite variations in levels of input in the amplifier. But such regulatory counter-reactions are not centred only in the interior of the tube. They depend upon the ensemble of the layout and, in certain kinds of fixed layouts, they do not exist at all. Thus, a diode whose anodeheats up conducts in both directions, and this increases the intensity of the current that goes through it. The cathode, receiving the electrons coming

from the anode, becomes increasingly hot and, accordingly, gives off an increasingly greater number of electrons. This destructive process is therefore an example of positive circular causality which belongs to the whole layout and not solely to the diode. Infra-individual technical objects can be called technical elements. They differ from true individuals in the sense that they have no associated milieu. They can be integrated into an individual. A hot-cathode tube

is more a technical element than a complete technical individual. It can be compared to an organ in a living body. Inthis sense it would be pos-

sible to define a new science of general organology. This science would involve the study of technical objects at the level of the element. It would be part of the science of technology, including mechanology, whose subject of study would be complete technical individuals.

Section IV: Evolutive Chains and TechnicityConservation. The Law of Relaxation The evolution of technical elements can have reverberations in the evolution of technical individuals. Technical individuals, composed as they are of elements and associated milieu, depend to some extent on the characteristics of the elements which they use. Today, for example, electric magnetic engines can be much smaller than was possible in Gramme's day because their magnets are much smaller. In some cases the elements are as it were the crystalization of an earlier technical operation that produced them. Thus, magnets with set bushings, which are still called magnetically hardened magnets, are produced by a process that consists in keeping a strong magnetic field around the melting mass which, once cooled, will be the magnet. Thus, magnetization of the mass begins above the Curie point,* then the same intense magnetization is continued during the cooling of the mass. When the mass is cold, it is

a much more powerful magnet than it would have been had it been magnetized
after cooling. All this happens as if the strong magnetic field caused a fixing of the molecules in the melting mass. This fixing continues after cooling if the magnetic field is preserved during cooling and solidification. Now the furnace, crucible and coils creating the magnetic field constitute a system which is a technical ensemble. The furnace heat should not affect the coils and the field of induction creating heat in the melting mass should not neutralize the continuous field designed to produce magnetization. This technical ensemble is itself made up of a number of technical

individuals that are arranged in terms of the result of their functioning and in such a way that they do not interfere with the conditioning of their particular functioning. So, in the evolution of technical objects we witness a causal development from earlier ensembles to later elements. When these elements are introduced into an individual and modify its characteristics, they make possible a progression in technical causality from the level of elements to the level of individuals and thence to the level of ensembles. Thence, in a new cycle, technical causality,

by a process of fabrication, goes back once again to the level of elements and there becomes reincarnated in new individuals and, later, in new ensembles. Thus, there exists a line of causality which is serrated rather than rectilinear, in which the same reality exists first in the form of element and then with characteristics of an individual and, finally, with the characteristics of an ensemble.
A historical solidarity exists in technical realities.

The

fabrication of elements is the intermediary that transmits it. If any technical reality is to have posterity, it is not enough that it be improved in itself; it must also be reincarnated and must participate in a cycle of becoming in accord with a formula of relaxation in levels of reality. The solidarity of technical beings in relation one to the other in the present generally tends to obscure a much more essential solidarity, one which requires a temporal evolutionary dimension but is not identical to biological evolution because it happens along continuous lines and scarcely ever involves successive changes in level. Transposed into biological terms, technical evolution consists in this, that if a species

produced an organ, the organ were given to an individual, it would thereby

/^

,s J,

become the first term of a lineage which in turn produces a new organ. In life an organ cannot be detached from a species; in technics an element is detachable from the ensemble that produced it for the very reason that it is fabricated; therein lies the difference between a product and something engendered. So, the technical world has a historical as well as a spatial dimension. Its solidarity at a given moment should not obscure its successive solidarity. Indeed, the latter is responsible for the major stages or periods of technical life because of its law of serrated evolution. The law of relaxation has no corresponding rhythm elsewhere. Neither the human nor geographic worlds are capable of producing oscillations of relaxation with successive bursting and spouting forth of new structures. The time of relaxation is the real technical time. It can

become more dominant than all other aspects of historical time, to the extent that it can synchronize all other rhythms of development and appear to determine the whole technical evolution, whereas in fact it merely synchronizes and induces evolutive phases. We may take the evolution of energy sources since the eighteenth century as an example of evolution according to a rhythm of relaxation. A large part of the energy used in the eighteenth century came from waterfalls, from air displacements in the atmosphere, and from animals. These kinds of driving power were availed of for artisinal exploitation or in restricted mills here and there along the water-course. From these mills there developed, early

in the nineteenth century, thermodynamic machines of much greater efficiency. Another development was the modern locomotive which resulted from the adapta-

tion to the Marc Seguin boiler, which was lighter and smaller than the distiller boiler, of Stephenson's sliding panel, which made it possible to have variation in the relationship between time of admission and time of expansion, first of all, and, then, made it possible to exploit the dead point in order to move into reverse gear (steam reversal). This

invention, which is of an artisanal sort, and which made possible the adaptation of the traction engine to great range of contours, with great variation in torque, at the slight cost of a loss in output in systems of very high frequency only (ones in which admission time equals total driving time), makes thermal energy easily adaptable to rail haulage. The Stephenson slide-panel and the tubular boiler, elements which emerged from the artisinal ensemblesof the eighteenth century enter into the forms of the new individuals of the nineteenth century, particularly into the form of the locomotive. The transportation of large tonnage across terrains of all sorts became possible and, since following contour lines and the meanders of navigation channels was no longer necessary, this led to nineteenth century industrial concentration, which is essentially thermodynamic in its structures, as well as incorporating individuals with thermodynamically-based principles of function. There the great industrial ensembles of the nineteenth century at its apogee were concentrated around such sources of thermal energy as coal-fields or around placeswhere there was greatest use of heat energy, such as coal-mines and iron foundries. The route of progression was from thermodynamic element to thermodynamic individual and from thermodynamic individuals to the thermodynamic ensemble. The principal aspects of electrotechnics appear as elements produced

by thermodynamic ensembles under discussion. Before they become autonomous, the applications of electric energy appear as very flexible means of energy transmission from place to place by means of power lines. Metals with high magnetic permeability are elements produced by applications of thermodynamics in metallurgy. Copper cables and high resistance porcelains for insulators emerge from steam-powered wire mills and coal furnaces. The metallic framework of pylons and concrete for dams come from great thermodynamic concentrations and, as elements, they enter into those new technical individuals, turbines and alternators. So, a new height and new concentration of beings is arrived at and concretized. In the production of electric energy Gramme's machine makes way for the polyphase alternator. The continuous currents of the first energy transmitters make way for alternating currents of constant frequency that are adaptable to production by heat turbine and, consequently, by hydraulic turbine too. These electrotechnical individuals have been integrated into ensembles for the production, distribution, and use of electric energy, ensembles whose structure differs greatly from that of thermodynamic concentrations. The role once played by the railway inthermodynamic concentraturs is taken over, in the ensemble of industrial electricity, by high tension transmission lines. The moment electrical technics reach their full development, they produce as elements new systems which begin a new phase. First of all particle-acceleration is achieved, initially by electric fields, then by continuous electric fields and alternating magnetic fields and, because the possibility of exploiting nuclear energy is discovered by this means, it leads to the construction of technical individuals. The next thing that

happens is that, quite remarkably, the possibility of discovering, thanks to electrical metallurgy, metals such as silicon which permit a transformation of the radiant energy of light into electrical current, with an output that attains significant ratio for limited applications (6%) an output not much lower than that of the first steam-engines. The pure silicon photocell, a product of the great industrial electronic ensembles,is one element that as yet has not been incorporated into a technical individual. Up to now it is no more than an object of curiosity situated at the extreme point of possibilities in the electrometallurgy industry, but it could be a starting point for a phase of development similar to the familiar and still incomplete development phase in the use of industrial electricity. Now each phase of relaxation is capable of effecting a synchronization of minor or equally important aspects. For example, developments in thermodynamics went hand in hand with developments in coal transport and railway passenger service and, again, developments in electrotechnics parallelled those in transportation by automobile. Even though in principle the automobile is thermodynamic, it uses electric energy as an essential auxiliary system, particularly for lighting purposes. Long-distance transport of electric energy made possible an industrial decentralization that needs the automobile as a correlative means of transporting human beings between various places and altitudes, regardless of whether or not there is rail service in the same areas. The automobile and the hightension line are parallel technical structures which are synchronized but not identical. At the present moment, the automobile industry cannot fully avail of electric energy.

Similarly, there is no relationship between nuclear energy and energy obtained by photoelectric effect. Still, these two forms are parallel and can be synchronized.' For example, in all likelihood it

will prove impossible to make use of nuclear energy for limited applications such as those requiring a few dozen watts; on the other hand, photoelectric energy does lend itself to decentralization. Photoelectric energy is essentially decentralized in production, while nuclear energy is essentially centralized. The kind of relationship that existed between electric energy and energy extracted from petrol combustion now obtain between energy of nuclear origin and energy of photoelectric origin, though the differences are more pronounced.

~ n they can be joined together; a photocell can be irradiated by d a radioactive source.

V.

T e c h n i c a l i t y and t h e Evolution o f Technics: o f T e c h n i c a l Evolution

T e c h n i c a l i t y a s an Instrument

The d i f f e r e n t a s p e c t s of t h e i n d i v i d u a l i z a t i o n o f t h e t e c h n i c a l being c o n s t i t u t e t h e c e n t r e of an e v o l u t i o n t h a t proceeds by s u c c e s s i v e s t e p s , b u t t h a t i s n o t d i a l e c t i c i n t h e proper sense of t h e term because i n t h i s i n s t a n c e t h e r o l e o f n e g a t i v i t y i s n o t t o be a progress-promoting f a c t o r . Negativity

i n t h e t e c h n i c a l world i s a flaw i n i n d i v i d u a l i z a t i o n , an incomplete meeting of t h e t e c h n i c a l world and t h e n a t u r a l world. gress. N e g a t i v i t y does n o t promote pro-

R a t h e r , it promotes change because it s p u r s man t o look f o r new and But t h i s d e s i r e f o r change does

more s a t i s f a c t o r y s o l u t i o n s t h a n t h o s e he h a s . n o t d i r e c t l y a f f e c t t h e t e c h n i c a l being. user.

It o n l y a f f e c t s man a s i n v e n t o r and

Furthermore, t h e change i n q u e s t i o n should n o t be mistaken f o r p r o g r e s s .

A t o o r a p i d change works a g a i n s t t e c h n i c a l p r o g r e s s because i t i n t e r f e r e s with

t h e t r a n s m i s s i o n of what one age bequeathes t o t h e n e x t i n t h e form of t e c h n i c a l elements. I f t e c h n i c a l p r o g r e s s i s t o o c c u r , each age h a s t o p a s s on t o i t s s u c c e s s o r t h e f r u i t o f i t s t e c h n i c a l endeavour. What can be t r a n s m i t t e d from

age t o age i s n o t t e c h n i c a l ensembles o r i n d i v i d u a l s b u t t h e elements t h a t t h e s e i n d i v i d u a l s grouped a s ensembles were a b l e t o produce. Indeed, because of

t h e i r c a p a c i t y f o r i n t e r n a l intercommutation, t e c h n i c a l ensembles can go o u t s i d e o f t h e m s e l v e s , producing elements d i f f e r e n t from t h e i r own. Technical

beings d i f f e r from l i v i n g b e i n g s i n a g r e a t number o f ways, but t h e y d i f f e r e s s e n t i a l l y i n t h i s r e s p e c t : a l i v i n g b e i n g engenders o t h e r b e i n g s t h a t a r e s i m i l a r t o i t s e l f o r t h a t can become l i k e it a f t e r a c e r t a i n number of s u c c e s s i v e r e o r g a n i s a t i o n s t h a t occur spontaneously i f t h e c o n d i t i o n s a r e s u i t a b l e ; t h e

t e c h n i c a l being i s d i f f e r e n t i n t h a t i t l a c k s t h i s c a p a c i t y ; it cannot produce o t h e r t e c h n i c a l b e i n g s l i k e i t s e l f , d e s p i t e t h e e f f o r t s o f c y b e r n e t i c i a n s who have t r i e d t o make t e c h n i c a l b e i n g s copy l i v i n g b e i n g s i n c o n s t r u c t i n g b e i n g s s i m i l a r t o themselves. That i s impossible a t t h e p r e s e n t time except i n an But t h e t e c h n i c a l b e i n g has a wider scope t h a n t h e

imaginary and b a s e l e s s way.

l i v i n g , and t h i s i s made p o s s i b l e by a n i n f i n i t e l y s m a l l e r advancement: t h e t e c h n i c a l b e i n g can produce elements t h a t r e t a i n t h e degree o f p e r f e c t i o n a t t a i n e d by a t e c h n i c a l ensemble and can be brought t o g e t h e r t o make p o s s i b l e t h e c o n s t i t u t i o n o f new t e c h n i c a l b e i n g s i n t h e form o f i n d i v i d u a l s . This i s

a c a s e n o t of b e g e t t i n g o r p r o c e s s i o n o r d i r e c t production b u t o f i n d i r e c t prod u c t i o n through t h e c o n s t i t u t i o n o f elements t h a t have w i t h i n them a c e r t a i n degree of t e c h n i c a l p e r f e c t i o n . T h i s a f f i r m a t i o n c a l l s f o r a d e t a i l e d e x p l a n a t i o n o f what we mean by technical perfection. From an e m p i r i c a l and e x t e r n a l p o i n t of view, it can be

s a i d t h a t t e c h n i c a l p e r f e c t i o n i s a p r a c t i c a l q u a l i t y o r , a t t h e very l e a s t , t h e m a t e r i a l and s t r u c t u r a l support f o r c e r t a i n p r a c t i c a l q u a l i t i e s . a good t o o l i s n o t merely a w e l l made and w e l l shaped t o o l . For example

A adze can be i n n

bad c o n d i t i o n and p o o r l y sharpened and y e t , from a p r a c t i c a l p o i n t o f view, be a good t o o l . A adze i s a good t o o l i f , on t h e one hand, i t s curve is s u i t a b l e n

f o r a c l e a n and w e l l - d i r e c t e d s t r o k e on t h e wood and, on t h e o t h e r , i f it t a k e s and keeps a keen edge even when it i s used on h a r d woods. Nw t h i s l a s t q u a l i o The a d z e ,

t y i s a product of t h e t e c h n i c a l ensemble t h a t produced t h e t o o l .

a s a manufactured element, can be made of a m e t a l whose make-up v a r i e s a t d i f ferent points. This t o o l i s n o t merely a block of homogeneous m e t a l shaped
I t h a s been f o r g e d , which means t h a t t h e molecu-

a c c o r d i n g t o a p a r t i c u l a r form.

l a r c h a i n s i n t h e metal have a c e r t a i n o r i e n t a t i o n t h a t v a r i e s i n d i f f e r e n t p l a c e s , l i k e a wood with f i b r e s s o disposed a s t o g i v e t h e g r e a t e s t s o l i d a r i t y and t h e g r e a t e s t e l a s t i c i t y . This i s p a r t i c u l a r l y t h e c a s e i n middle p a r t s be-

tween t h e c u t t i n g edge and t h e f l a t p a r t and between t h e socket and t h e c u t t i n g p a r t of t h e b l a d e . The a r e a c l o s e t o t h e c u t t i n g edge i s e l a s t i c a l l y deformed

d u r i n g work because it a c t s a s a wedge and a s a l e v e r on t h e wood-chip a s it

i s being removed.

Indeed, t h e c u t t i n g end i s tempered more t h a n a l l t h e o t h e r

p a r t s ; and it must be well-tempered, though i n a c a r e f u l l y d e l i m i t e d way, f o r otherwise a t o o g r e a t weight of metal would r e n d e r t h e t o o l breakable and t h e c u t t i n g edge would s h a t t e r .

I t i s a s i f t h e t o o l a s a whole were made up of

The t o o l

a p l u r a l i t y of d i f f e r e n t l y f u n c t i o n i n g zones s o l d e r e d t o each o t h e r .

i s n o t made o f m a t t e r and form only.

I t i s made up of t e c h n i c a l elements a r -

ranged f o r a c e r t a i n system of usage and assembled i n t o a s t a b l e s t r u c t u r e by t h e manufacturing p r o c e s s . The t o o l r e t a i n s w i t h i n it t h e r e s u l t of t h e funcThe production of a good adze r e q u i r e s a

t i o n i n g of a t e c h n i c a l ensemble.

t e c h n i c a l ensemble of foundry, f o r g e , and tempering. The t e c h n i c a l i t y o f t h e o b j e c t i s , t h e r e f o r e , more than a q u a l i t y o f usage.

I t i s t h a t i n t h e o b j e c t which i s added t o an i n i t i a l design determined

by t h e r e l a t i o n of form t o m a t t e r .

It i s , a s it were, an intermediary between

form and m a t t e r ; f o r example, i n t h e c a s e o f t h e a d z e , t h e p r o g r e s s i v e h e t e r o g e n e i t y of tempering a t c e r t a i n p o i n t s . c r e t i z a t i o n i n an o b j e c t . T e c h n i c a l i t y i s t h e degree of con-

The c o n c r e t i z a t i o n i n q u e s t i o n i s what, i n t h e days

of wood foundry, made f o r t h e worth and fame o f Toledo b l a d e s and, l a t e l y , t h e q u a l i t y of Saint-Etienne s t e e l s . These s t e e l s a r e an e x p r e s s i o n of t h e func-

t i o n i n g of a t e c h n i c a l ensemble which included t h e c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of t h e c o a l

used a s much a s t h e temperature and chemical composition of non-chalky Furens w a t e r s , o r t h e e s s e n t i a l elements of t h e green wood used f o r t h e s t i r r i n g and r e f i n i n g of t h e molten metal p r i o r t o c a s t i n g . In c e r t a i n cases, t e c h n i c a l i t y

becomes preponderant i n r e l a t i o n t o t h e a b s t r a c t c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of t h e m a t t e r form r e l a t i o n s h i p . simple t h i n g . Thus, i n m a t t e r and form a h e l i c o i d a l s p r i n g i s a v e r y

Yet, t h e manufacturing of s p r i n g s r e q u i r e s a high d e g r e e of perQuite o f t e n , t h e q u a l i t y of

f e c t i o n i n t h e t e c h n i c a l ensemble producing them.

i n d i v i d u a l s such a s a motor o r a m p l i f i e r i s dependent more on t h e t e c h n i c a l i t y of simple elements ( v a l v e s p r i n g s o r a modulation t r a n s f o r m e r , f o r i n s t a n c e ) than on t h e s o p h i s t i c a t i o n of t h e assembly. Also, t e c h n i c a l ensembles c a p a b l e

of producing such simple elements a s a s p r i n g o r t r a n s f o r m e r a r e sometimes extremely l a r g e and complex, almost coextensive with a l l t h e r a m i f i c a t i o n s of many worldwide i n d u s t r i e s . There would be no exaggeration i n saying t h a t t h e
Ill

q u a l i t y of a simple n e e d l e e x p r e s s e s t h e degree of p e r f e c t i o n of a n a t i o n ' s industry. This i s t h e reason f o r t h e f a i r l y l e g i t i m a t e e x i s t e n c e of judgments Judgments such a s

of t h e s o r t t h a t d e f i n e a needle a s "an English needle."

t h e s e make sense because t e c h n i c a l ensembles a r e r e f l e c t e d i n t h e s i m p l e s t elements t h e y produce. One c a n ' t deny t h a t t h e r e a r e o t h e r , l e s s l e g i t i m a t e

r e a s o n s f o r t h i s s o r t of t h i n k i n g , p a r t i c u l a r l y because it i s e a s i e r t o q u a l i f y a t e c h n i c a l o b j e c t i n terms of i t s o r i g i n than t o make judgments on t h e b a s i s of i t s i n t r i n s i c v a l u e . This i s a phenomenon of opinion; but t h i s phenomenon,

however much it may g i v e r i s e t o e x a g g e r a t i o n s o r t o i n t e n t i o n a l misinformation,

i s n o t without foundation.
T e c h n i c a l i t y can be regarded a s a p o s i t i v e c h a r a c t e r i s t i c o f an e l e ment, a s analogous t o t h e s e l f - r e g u l a t i o n brought about i n a t e c h n i c a l i n d i v i d u -

a 1 by i t s a s s o c i a t e d m i l i e u . zation.

A t t h e element l e v e l , t e c h n i c a l i t y i s c o n c r e t i -

I t i s what makes an element produced by an ensemble r e a l l y an element

This p e c u l i a r i t y makes it d e t a c h a b l e There
A t the

r a t h e r t h a n an ensemble o r i n d i v i d u a l .

from t h e ensemble and f r e e s it f o r t h e composition of new i n d i v i d u a l s .

i s no peremptory r e a s o n , a d m i t t e d l y , t e c h n i c a l i t y t o t h e element a l o n e .

i n d i v i d u a l l e v e l , t h e a s s o c i a t e d m i l i e u i s a d e p o s i t a r y of t e c h n i c a l i t y , a s is t h e scope of intercommutativity on t h e ensemble l e v e l . S t i l l , i t i s proper t o

r e s e r v e t h e term, t e c h n i c a l i t y , f o r t h a t q u a l i t y of t h e element which i s t h e e x p r e s s i o n of what t h e t e c h n i c a l ensemble has a c q u i r e d , and p r e s e r v e s , and w i l l send forward i n t o a new p e r i o d . The element c a r r i e s forward t e c h n i c a l r e a l i t y ,

whereas t h e i n d i v i d u a l and t h e ensemble c o n t a i n t e c h n i c a l r e a l i t y without being a b l e t o t r a n s p o r t and t r a n s m i t i t . transmit. They can produce and p r e s e r v e but n o t

Elements have a t r a n s d u c t i v e p r o p e r t y t h a t makes them t h e t r u e c a r -

r i e r s of t e c h n i c a l i t y , j u s t l i k e seeds t h a t c a r r y a l o n g t h e p r o p e r t i e s o f a s p e c i e s and a r e t o remake new i n d i v i d u a l s . Therefore it i s i n elements t h a t we

f i n d t e c h n i c a l i t y a t i t s p u r e s t o r , a s it were, i n a f r e e s t a t e ; i n i n d i v i d u a l s and ensembles we can f i n d it only i n a s t a t e o f combination. N w t h e t e c h n i c a l i t y c a r r i e d by elements does n o t comprise n e g a t i v i t y , o and no n e g a t i v e c o n d i t i o n i n g comes i n t o p l a y a t t h e moment of t h e production of elements by ensembles o r a t t h e moment when i n d i v i d u a l s a r e produced by inv e n t i o n , which b r i n g s elements t o g e t h e r t o form i n d i v i d u a l s . I n v e n t i o n , which

i s t h e c r e a t i o n of an i n d i v i d u a l , presupposes an i n t u i t i v e knowledge of t h e
t e c h n i c a l i t y of elements i n t h e i n v e n t o r . Invention t a k e s p l a c e on a middle

l e v e l between t h e c o n c r e t e and t h e a b s t r a c t , t h e l e v e l of diagrams, which i m p l i e s an e a r l i e r e x i s t e n c e and a coherence f o r i t s r e p r e s e n t a t i o n s - - t h o s e i m -

ages t h a t mask t e c h n i c a l i t y w i t h a l a y e r of symbols which a r e p a r t of an imaginary methodology and imaginary dynamics. Imagination i s n o t o n l y a f a c u l t y f o r

i n v e n t i n g o r c r e a t i n g images beyond t h e bounds of s e n s a t i o n .

It is a l s o a

capacity f o r perceiving i n objects q u a l i t i e s t h a t a r e not p r a c t i c a l , q u a l i t i e s t h a t a r e n e i t h e r d i r e c t l y sensory nor wholly geometric, q u a l i t i e s t h a t have t o do n e i t h e r w i t h pure m a t t e r nor pure form b u t belong t o t h e in-between l e v e l of systems. The t e c h n i c a l imagination may be considered a s d e f i n e d by a p a r t i c u l a r s e n s i t i v e n e s s t o t h e t e c h n i c a l i t y of elements t h a t paves t h e way f o r t h e d i s covery of p o s s i b l e connections. The i n v e n t o r does n o t proceed e x n i h i l o , be-

ginning with m a t t e r t o which he g i v e s form; he begins w i t h elements t h a t a r e a l r e a d y t e c h n i c a l and then d i s c o v e r s an i n d i v i d u a l being t h a t i s capable of i n c o r p o r a t i n g them. The c o m p a t i b i l i t y of i n d i v i d u a l s i n a t e c h n i c a l i n d i v i d u a l Therefore t h e t e c h n i c a l i n d i v i d u a l should be

i m p l i e s an a s s o c i a t e d m i l i e u .

imagined, t h a t i s t o say, it should be assumed t o be c o n s t r u c t e d , a s an ensemble of organized t e c h n i c a l systems. The i n d i v i d u a l i s a s t a b l e system of t e c h n i What i s organized i s t h e s e

c a l i t i e s of elements organized i n t o an ensemble.

t e c h n i c a l i t i e s ; t h e elements a l s o a r e organized, but only i n s o f a r a s t h e y a r e b e a r e r s o f t h e s e t e c h n i c a l i t i e s and n o t because of anything t h a t h a s t o do w i t h t h e i r own m a t e r i a l i t y . A engine i s an assemblage of a x l e s and volumetric sysn

tems, each d e f i n e d by i t s c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s and t e c h n i c a l i t y r a t h e r t h a n i t s mat e r i a l i t y ; a l s o an element o f i n d e t e r m i n a t i o n can s u b s i s t i n t h e p l a c i n g of any one element i n r e l a t i o n t o t h e o t h e r s . The p l a c e f o r some elements i s chosen

more f o r e x t r i n s i c than i n t r i n s i c c o n s i d e r a t i o n s about t h e s i n g l e t e c h n i c a l obj e c t i n r e l a t i o n t o t h e v a r i o u s p r o c e s s e s of i t s o p e r a t i o n . I n t r i n s i c deter-

minations based on t h e t e c h n i c a l i t y of each of t h e elements a r e t h o s e t h a t c o n s t i t u t e t h e associated milieu. And t h e a s s o c i a t e d m i l i e u i s t h e c o n c r e t i z a -

t i o n i n mutual r e l a t i o n s h i p of t h e t e c h n i c a l i t i e s borne by a l l t h e elements. These t e c h n i c a l i t i e s can b e conceived of a s s t a b l e c o n d u i t s r e f l e c t i n g t h e c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s o f t h e elements r a t h e r t h a n a s simple q u a l i t i e s . They a r e

f o r c e s i n t h e f u l l e s t sense o f t h e word; t h a t i s t o s a y , t h e y a r e c a p a c i t i e s f o r producing o r undergoing an e f f e c t i n a f i x e d manner. The more advanced t h e t e c h n i c a l i t y of an element becomes, t h e more t h e margin of i n d e t e m i n a t i o n o f t h i s f o r c e diminishes. This was what I wanted

t o s t a t e when I s a i d t h a t t h e elementary t e c h n i c a l o b j e c t becomes c o n c r e t e according a s its t e c h n i c a l i t y increases. This f o r c e could a l s o be c a l l e d capa-

9, as

long a s it i s understood t h a t it i s being c h a r a c t e r i z e d w i t h r e f e r e n c e Generally speaking, t h e more advanced t h e t e c h n i c a l i t y o f an

t o a f i x e d use.

element becomes, t h e l a r g e r becomes t h e scope of i t s c o n d i t i o n s of u s e , because of t h e g r e a t s t a b i l i t y of t h e element. Thus, t h e t e c h n i c a l i t y o f a

s p r i n g i n c r e a s e s when it can withstand higher temperatures without l o s s o f e l a s t i c i t y and p r e s e r v e , without c r i t i c a l m o d i f i c a t i o n , i t s c o e f f i c i e n t of e l a s t i c i t y w i t h i n more e x t e n s i v e thermal and mechanical l i m i t s ; t e c h n i c a l l y ,
it remains a s p r i n g w i t h i n l a r g e r l i m i t s and i s s u i t a b l e f o r l e s s r e s t r i c t e d

l i m i t s of i n c o r p o r a t i o n i n t o any k i n d of t e c h n i c a l i n d i v i d u a l .

A electrolytic n

condenser^ h a s a l e s s e r degree of t e c h n i c a l i t y than a d r y d i e l e c t r i c condenser such a s paper o r mica. I n f a c t , a e l e c t r o l y t i c condenser h a s a c a p a c i t y t h a t

v a r i e s as a f u n c t i o n of t h e v o l t a g e t o which it i s submitted; i t s thermal l i m -

i t s of use a r e narrower.

A t t h e same time it v a r i e s when s u b j e c t e d t o c o n s t a n t

v o l t a g e because t h e e l e c t r o l y t e , l i k e e l e c t r o d e s , becomes chemically modified

i n t h e course of functioning. a r e more s t a b l e .

Dry d i e l e c t r i c condensers, on t h e o t h e r hand,

S t i l l , h e r e once a g a i n t h e q u a l i t y o f t e c h n i c a l i t y improves

w i t h t h e independence of c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s i n r e l a t i o n t o c o n d i t i o n s o f u t i l i z a tion.
A mica condenser i s b e t t e r t h a n a paper condenser; t h e vacuum condenser

i s b e s t of a l l , because it is n o t even s u b j e c t t o t h e c o n d i t i o n o f v o l t a g e l i m it a r i s i n g where t h e r e i s r i s k of p e r f o r a t i n g t h e i n s u l a t o r .

A t t h e in-between

l e v e l , t h e s i l v e r e d - c e r a m i c condenser, which v a r i e s v e r y l i t t l e w i t h t e m p e r a t u r e , and t h e a i r condenser t o o provide a very h i g h degree of t e c h n i c a l i t y . I n t h i s r e s p e c t , it should be p o i n t e d o u t t h a t t h e r e is no n e c e s s a r y c o r r e l a t i o n between t h e commercial p r i c e o f a t e c h n i c a l o b j e c t and i t s elementary technical quality. Very o f t e n , c o n s i d e r a t i o n s o f p r i c e have n o t a b s o l u t e

i n f l u e n c e though t h e y may e x e r t some i n f l u e n c e through o t h e r requirements such a s place. Thus, an e l e c t r o l y t i c condenser i s p r e f e r a b l e t o a d r y d i e l e c t r i c

condenser where a g r e a t e r c a p a c i t y would demand t o o g r e a t a bulk f o r housing t h e condenser. Likewise, an a i r condenser i s v e r y bulky compared with a vacuum Yet it i s much c h e a p e r and i n a d r y atmosphere Therefore economic c o n s i d e r a t i o n s

condenser of t h e same c a p a c i t y .

it i s every b i t a s r e l i a b l e i n o p e r a t i o n .

y&

/ftAA^

i n d i r e c t l y i n f l u e n t i a l i n a g r e a t number o f c a s e s , i n terms of t h e r e p e r -

c u s s i o n s of t h e o b j e c t ' s degree o f c o n c r e t i z a t i o n upon t h e o b j e c t ' s o p e r a t i o n i n i t s i n d i v i d u a l ensemble. What i s i n f l u e n c e d by economic r e p e r c u s s i o n s i s

t h e g e n e r a l formula of t h e i n d i v i d u a l being r a t h e r t h a n t h e element a s element. The l i a i s o n between t h e t e c h n i c a l and economic f i e l d s is c r e a t e d a t t h e l e v e l of i n d i v i d u a l o r ensemble, b u t only v e r y r a r e l y a t t h e element l e v e l . For t h i s

r e a s o n , we can s a y t h a t t o a very g r e a t e x t e n t t e c h n i c a l v a l u e i s independent of economic v a l u e and can be e v a l u a t e d a c c o r d i n g t o independent c r i t e r i a .

The t r a n s m i s s i o n of t e c h n i c a l i t y by elements e s t a b l i s h e s t h e p o s s i b i l i t y of t e c h n i c a l p r o g r e s s o v e r and above t h e apparent d i s c o n t i n u i t y o f forms, f i e l d s and k i n d s o f energy used and, o c c a s i o n a l l y , o f systems of f u n c t i o n i n g . Every

s t a g e o f development i s a l e g a t e e of e a r l i e r e r a s and p r o g r e s s i s a l l t h e more c e r t a i n t h e more completely and p e r f e c t l y i t t e n d s towards t h e s t a t e o f s o l e legatee. The t e c h n i c a l o b j e c t is n o t , s t r i c t l y speaking, a h i s t o r i c a l o b j e c t ; o v e r t h e c o u r s e of time i t i s i n f l u e n c e d o n l y i n s o f a r a s it i s a v e h i c l e f o r t e c h n i c a l i t y , o r i n s o f a r a s i t p l a y s a t r a n s d u c t i v e r o l e between one age and the next. N e i t h e r t e c h n i c a l ensembles n o r t e c h n i c a l i n d i v i d u a l s l a s t . Elements

alone have t h e power t o t r a n s m i t t e c h n i c a l i t y from e r a t o e r a i n a form t h a t i s r e a l i z e d , complete and m a t e r i a l i z e d i n a product. For t h i s r e a s o n it i s proper But it

t o a n a l y s e t h e t e c h n i c a l o b j e c t a s composed of t e c h n i c a l i n d i v i d u a l s .

must be made c l e a r t h a t a t c e r t a i n moments i n i t s e v o l u t i o n t h e t e c h n i c a l o b j e c t

i s s i g n i f i c a n t on i t s own account and i s a d e p o s i t a r y of t e c h n i c a l i t y .

In t h i s

r e g a r d , it i s p o s s i b l e t o b a s e a n a n a l y s i s of t h e t e c h n i c s of a human group on a n a n a l y s i s o f t h e elements produced by t h e i r i n d i v i d u a l s and ensembles. Often,

t h e s e elements a l o n e a r e a b l e t o s u r v i v e t h e r u i n o f a c i v i l i z a t i o n and p e r s i s t a s good w i t n e s s e s t o a s t a t e o f t e c h n i c a l development. From t h i s p o i n t of view,

t h e method used by e t h n o l o g i s t s i s p e r f e c t l y v a l i d ; b u t i t s a p p l i c a t i o n could a l s o be extended t o a n a l y s e t h e elements produced by i n d u s t r i a l t e c h n i c s . There i s no fundamental d i f f e r e n c e between p e o p l e s t h a t have no indust r y and peoples whose i n d u s t r y i s w e l l developed. Technical i n d i v i d u a l s and

t e c h n i c a l ensembles e x i s t even among p e o p l e s who have no i n d u s t r i a l development; n e v e r t h e l e s s , i n s t e a d o f b e i n g s t a b i l i z e d by i n s t i t u t i o n s which g i v e them form, p e r p e t u a t e them and i n s t a l l them, such i n d i v i d u a l s and ensembles a r e temporary o r even o c c a s i o n a l . What i s p r e s e r v e d from one t e c h n i c a l o p e r a t i o n t o t h e n e x t

i s t h e elements, t h a t i s , t o o l s and some manufactured o b j e c t s .

The making of

a b o a t i s an o p e r a t i o n t h a t r e q u i r e s a r e a l t e c h n i c a l ensemble: f l a t ground n e a r a water-course

A^JA*^-s h e l t e r e d but b r i g h t and, a l o n g w i t h t h a t , s u p p o r t s and 'A

Even though a d r y dock may be Furthermore,

props t o keep up t h e b o a t d u r i n g c o n s t r u c t i o n .

a temporary t e c h n i c a l ensemble, i t s t i l l c o n s t i t u t e s an ensemble.

i n o u r own day temporary t e c h n i c a l ensembles o f t h i s s o r t a r e t o b e found, some of them, f o r example b u i l d i n g s i t e s , h i g h l y developed and q u i t e complex. There

a r e o t h e r s t h a t a r e temporary but much more d u r a b l e , such a s mines o r o i l f i e l d s . Every t e c h n i c a l ensemble does not n e c e s s a r i l y have t o have t h e s t a b l e form of a f a c t o r y o r workshop. Indeed, n o n - i n d u s t r i a l c i v i l i z a t i o n s d i f f e r That i s t r u e ,

from o u r s e s p e c i a l l y i n t h a t t h e y have no t e c h n i c a l i n d i v i d u a l s .

if we a g r e e t h a t t h e m a t e r i a l e x i s t e n c e o f t e c h n i c a l i n d i v i d u a l s does n o t have
t o be s t a b l e and permanent. However, t h e f u n c t i o n of t e c h n i c a l i n d i v i d u a l i z a Because i n an a p p r e n t i c e s h i p a man

t i o n i s taken o v e r by human i n d i v i d u a l s .

forms h a b i t s , g e s t u r e s , and ways of doing t h i n g s , which enable him t o use t h e many and v a r i o u s t o o l s demanded by t h e whole of an o p e r a t i o n , h i s a p p r e n t i c e s h i p l e a d s him t o t e c h n i c a l s e l f - i n d i v i d u a l i z a t i o n . m i l i e u of d i f f e r e n t t o o l s he u s e s . He becomes t h e a s s o c i a t e d

When he h a s mastered a l l t h e t o o l s and knows

when t o change t o o l s t o c a r r y on working o r t o use two t o o l s a t t h e same t i m e , he i s using h i s own body t o i n s u r e t h e i n t e r n a l d i s t r i b u t i o n and s e l f - r e g u l a t i o n o f t h e job.' I n some c a s e s t h e i n t e g r a t i o n o f t e c h n i c a l i n d i v i d u a l s i n t o

t h e ensemble i s e f f e c t e d through t h e i n t e r m e d i a r y of an a s s o c i a t i o n o f human i n d i v i d u a l s i n teams of two o r t h r e e o r more. When such groups do not i n t r o d u c e

n o b i l i t y of a r t i s a n work is p a r t l y d e r i v e d from t h i s . Man i s a d e p o s i t a r y of t e c h n i c a l i t y . H i s work i s t h e s o l e e x p r e s s i o n of t h i s t e c h n i c a l i t y . H i s need t o work i s t r a n s l a t i o n of t h i s need of expression. To r e f u s e t o work, where one has a t e c h n i c a l knowledge t h a t can o n l y be expressed i n work because it c a n ' t be formulated i n i n t e l l e c t u a l t e r m s , would be t o h i d e o n e ' s n l i g h t under a bushel. O t h e o t h e r hand, t h e need f o r e x p r e s s i o n i s no l o n g e r t i e d t o work when t e c h n i c a l i t y i s immanent i n knowledge t h a t can be formulated i n c o n c r e t e terms t h a t a r e independent of any kind of c o n c r e t e a c t u a l i z a t i o n .

he

f u n c t i o n a l d i f f e r e n t i a t i o n t h e i r d i r e c t g o a l i s an i n c r e a s e i n d i s p o s a b l e energy o r i n speed of work. But when t h e y have r e c o u r s e t o d i f f e r e n t i a t i o n ,

then t h e y provide a good i l l u s t r a t i o n o f t h e g e n e s i s o f an ensemble t h a t i s composed of men employed more a s t e c h n i c a l i n d i v i d u a l s t h a n a s human i n d i v i d u a l s D r i l l i n g w i t h bow and b i t a s it i s d e s c r i b e d by c l a s s i c a l a u t h o r s is of t h i s sort. So t o o is t h e mode of f e l l i n g c e r t a i n t r e e s i n o u r own day. And so a l s o

u n t i l q u i t e r e c e n t l y , was t h e very common method of u s i n g a c r o s s - c u t saw t o make planks and r a f t e r s , with two men working t o g e t h e r i n a l t e r n a t i n g rhythm. This e x p l a i n s why i n c e r t a i n c a s e s human i n d i v i d u a l i t y can be used a s a funct i o n a l support f o r t e c h n i c a l i n d i v i d u a l i t y . The e x i s t e n c e of s e p a r a t e t e c h n i -

c a l i n d i v i d u a l i t i e s i s a f a i r l y r e c e n t phenomenon, and i n some ways it seems t o be an i m i t a t i o n of man by t h e machine, t h e machine b e i n g t h e most g e n e r a l form of t e c h n i c a l i n d i v i d u a l s . However, i n r e a l i t y t h e r e is v e r y l i t t l e s i m i l a r i t y

between t h e machine and man and, even when it s o o p e r a t e s a s t o produce s i m i l a r r e s u l t s , it h a r d l y e v e r employs t h e t e c h n i q u e s used by t h e i n d i v i d u a l man i n h i s work. ficial. Indeed, t h e comparison between t h e two i s most o f t e n v e r y super-

But i f man f e e l s f r u s t r a t i o n on account of t h e machine, it i s because t h e machine t a k e s t h e

ib r e p l a c e s him a s an i n d i v i d u a l i n t h e working world;

p l a c e of man t h e t o o l - b e a r e r .

I n t h e t e c h n i c a l ensembles of i n d u s t r i a l c i v i l i z a t i o n s , p o s i t i o n s i n which many people have t o work i n t i g h t s y n c h r o n i z a t i o n a r e becoming r a r e r thar i n t h e p a s t , a p a s t t h a t was c h a r a c t e r i s t i c a l l y a r t i s a n a l .

A t the artisanal

s t a g e of production, a s opposed t o t h e s t a g e of t e c h n i c a l ensembles, it i s q u i t e common f o r c e r t a i n k i n d s of work t o r e q u i r e a grouping o f human i n d i v i d u a l s who have complementary f u n c t i o n s \ : two men a r e needed t o shoe a h o r s e , one t o hold t h e hoof and t h e o t h e r t o p o s i t i o n t h e shoe and n a i l it on. b u i l d i n g , t h e mason had h i s h e l p e r , t h e h o d - c a r r i e r . In

Threshing with f l a i l r e -

q u i r e d good p e r c e p t i o n o f rhythmic s t r u c t u r e t o synchronize t h e a l t e r n a t i n g movements o f t h e team-members. r e p l a c e d by t h e machine. changed. So, we can h a r d l y say t h a t only h e l p e r s were

The v e r y support f o r t e c h n i c a l i n d i v i d u a l i z a t i o n h a s N w it i s a machine. o

T h i s support used t o be a human i n d i v i d u a l .

The machine b e a r s t o o l s a n d w can d e f i n e t h e machine a s t h a t which both c a r e r i e s and d i r e c t s i t s own t o o l s . of t o o l s . Man d i r e c t s o r c o n t r o l s t h e machine, t h e b e a r e r

He a r r a n g e s t h e grouping of machines, b u t he does not b e a r t o o l s . Man

The machine does t h e main work, t h e work of both blacksmith and h e l p e r .

s e p a r a t e d from h i s r o l e a s t e c h n i c a l i n d i v i d u a l , from what is t h e e s s e n t i a l work o f t h e a r t i s a n , can become e i t h e r t h e o r g a n i s e r o f t h e ensemble o f t e c h n i c a l individuals or a helper f o r technical individuals. He g r e a s e s , c l e a n s ,

p i c k s up b u r r s and d e b r i s and, s o , i n many r e s p e c t s , p l a y s t h e p a r t of h e l p e r . He s u p p l i e s t h e machine w i t h elements, changing t h e d r i v i n g b e l t , sharpening the d r i l l or lathe. a n o t h e r above it. Thus he h a s one r o l e beneath t e c h n i c a l i n d i v i d u a l i t y and Servant and master, he g u i d e s t h e machine a s t e c h n i c a l i n -

d i v i d u a l by a t t e n d i n g t o t h e r e l a t i o n s h i p o f t h e machine t o i t s elements and t o t h e ensemble. He i s t h e o r g a n i s e r o f r e l a t i o n s h i p s between t e c h n i c a l s t a g e s For t h i s

i n s t e a d o f b e i n g , a s a r t i s a n , one o f t h o s e t e c h n i c a l s t a g e s h i m s e l f .

r e a s o n a t e c h n i c i a n i s l e s s p a r t of h i s own p r o f e s s i o n a l s p e c i a l i t y than a n artisan.

However, t h i s i n no way means t h a t man i s n o t capable of being a t e c h n i c a l i n d i v i d u a l and of working i n l i a i s o n with t h e machine. The l i a i -

son between man and machine i s r e a l i z e d when man u s e s t h e machine t o a c t upon t h e n a t u r a l world. So, t h e machine i s a v e h i c l e f o r a c t i o n and infonna-

t i o n i n a three-way r e l a t i o n s h i p involving man, t h e machine and t h e world, with t h e machine i n between man and t h e world. In such a case, man r e t a i n s

t r a c e s of t e c h n i c a l i t y , which a r e defined by h i s need f o r an a p p r e n t i c e s h i p .

The machine, then, has a r e l a y function, a s movement-amplifier, but a l l t h e

while it i s man who i s t h e c e n t r e o f t h e complex t e c h n i c a l i n d i v i d u a l made up o f man and machine. In t h i s case we might say t h a t man i s a machineTherefore,

b e a r e r and t h a t t h e machine r e t a i n s i t s r o l e a s t o o l - b e a r e r .

t h e r e l a t i o n s h i p i s t o some e x t e n t comparable t o t h a t of t h e machine t o o l , where we understand machine-tool t o mean one without s e l f - r e g u l a t i o n . i s always t h e c e n t r e of t h e a s s o c i a t e d m i l i e u i n t h i s r e l a t i o n s h i p . Man The

machine-tool i s something lacking autonomous i n t e r n a l c o n t r o l and needing man t o make it work. Here man i n t e r v e n e s a s l i v i n g being. Using h i s own

sense o f s e l f - r e g u l a t i o n he gives t h e machine s e l f - r e g u l a t i o n , without n e c e s s a r i l y formulating t h i s consciously. For example, a man l e t s an Once it i s cold he

over-heating c a r engine s i t u n t i l it h a s cooled down.

s t a r t s it and g r a d u a l l y speeds it up, "without revving i t t o o much a t t h e beginning. These a c t i o n s of h i s a r e t e c h n i c a l l y proper and they have t h e i r

p a r a l l e l s i n r e g u l a t i o n s t h a t a r e necessary f o r l i f e , b u t they a r e j u s t done, r a t h e r than thought o u t , by t h e d r i v e r . Actions o f t h i s kind a r e a l l t h e

more a p p l i c a b l e t o t h e t e c h n i c a l o b j e c t t h e n e a r e r it i s t o t h e s t a t u s of t e c h n i c a l being embodying homeostatic r e g u l a t i o n s i n i t s f u n c t i o n i n g .

4 . -

Indeed,

a t e c h n i c a l o b j e c t t h a t has become c o n c r e t e has system which reduces t h e process

h

o f s e l f - d e s t r u c t i o n t o a minimum because homeostatic r e g u l a t i o n s a r e exerted t o t h e b e s t possible extent.

A good example i s t h e d i e s e l engine, which

r e q u i r e s a d e f i n i t e temperature t o function and a r o t a t i o n system w i t h i n a narrow maximum and minimum range, whereas t h e p e t r o l engine, being l e s s c o n c r e t e , has g r e a t e r f l e x i b i l i t y . Likewise, an e l e c t r o n i c t u b e w i l l not In

work a t any random temperature o r with an undetermined anode v o l t a g e .

power tubes, i n p a r t i c u l a r , t o o low a cathode temperature causes t h e e l e c t r i c f i e l d t o c a p t u r e electron-emissive oxyde p a r t i c l e s ; hence t h e n e c e s s i t y o f a gradual s t a r t i n g procedure, with, f i r s t , t h e warming o f t h e cathodes and, t h e n , t h e charging of t h e anodes. If p o l a r i z a t i o n c i r c u i t s a r e automatic

(fed by cathode c u r r e n t ) , t h e y have t o be subjected t o i n c r e a s i n g v o l t a g e by a gradual i n c r e a s e i n anode power. Without t h i s precaution, t h e r e would

be a b r i e f i n s t a n t when t h e r e i s cathode output before p o l a r i z a t i o n has reached i t s normal l e v e l ( t h e p o l a r i z a t i o n produced by t h i s o u t p u t , and p r o p o r t i o n a l t o i t , tends t o l i m i t t h e o u t p u t ) : cathode o u t p u t would

exceed t h e maximum admissable because it i s n o t l i m i t e d by t h i s n e g a t i v e reaction. To p u t it very g e n e r a l l y , t h e p r e c a u t i o n s which man t a k e s f o r t h e c o n s e r v a t i o n of t h e t e c h n i c a l o b j e c t have t h e goal of maintaining and d i r e c t i n g i t s functioning i n conditions which render it n o n - s e l f - d e s t r u c t i v e ; i s , i n c o n d i t i o n s i n which it s u b j e c t s i t s e l f t o a n e g a t i v e s t a b i l i z i n g reaction. Beyond c e r t a i n limits, t h e r e a c t i o n s become p o s i t i v e and, conThis i s t h e case where an over-heating engine, that

sequently, d e s t r u c t i v e .

becoming t o o h o t , begins t o s e i z e and, becoming s t i l l h o t t e r because of t h e seizing, deteriorates irreversibly. Likewise, an e l e c t r o n i c t u b e whose anode

becomes red-hot l o s e s i t s asymmetric c o n d u c t i v i t y , p a r t i c u l a r l y i n i t s f u n c t i o n

as rectifier and, as a result, enters a phase of positive reaction. The fact of allowing it cool off early enough allows for the recovery of normal functioning.
o& .

Thus, man can as a substitute for the technical individual, and

A

can join elements to ensembles in a era when the construction of technical individuals is not possible. In reflecting on the consequences of technical development in relation to the evolution of human societies, we must take into account, first and foremost, the process of the individualization of technical objects. Human individuality becomes more and more detached from its technical function because of the construction of technical individuals. The functions that remain for man to perform are higher and lower in kind than the role of tool bearer, tending towards a relationship with elements and towards a relationship with ensembles. Now since, once upon a time, the individuality of man was precisely what had to be used in technical work and man had to be technicized because the machine could not be, there arose the habit of allotting, one sole function to each human individual in the world of work. This sort of functional monism was perfectly useful and necessary when man became a technical individual. But today it creates malaise because man still tries to be a technical individual but has no fixed place in relation to the machine. He becomes either servant of the machinem or organizer of the technical ensemble. Now, in order that the human function be meaningful, it is absolutely necessary that each man employed at a technical task should acquaint himself with every conceivable aspect of the machine, should arrive at some sort of understanding of it, and should pay attention as much to its elements as to its integration into the functional ensemble. For it is a mistake to

create a hierarchical distinction between the care to be given to elements and the care due to ensembles. Technicality is not the kind of reality that lends itself to hierarchical distinctions. It exists wholly in elements and is transductively propagated in the technical individual and in ensembles. By means of individuals, ensembles are made up of elements and elements emerge from them. The apparent preeminence of ensembles arises from the fact that in our day ensembles are granted the prerogatives of persons who are in positions of leadership. However, ensembles are not individuals. Likewise, elements are not valued highly because working with elements was the job of helpers and because the elements used by these helpers were not highly developed. Therefore, the basis for the malaise in the man-machine relationship is the fact that until our own time man played the technical role of the individual. Now that he is a technical being no longer, man is forced to learn a new function and to
IS

find for himself a position in the technical ensemble that1\ something other than the position of individual. The first thing he must do is'to take on two non-individual functions, that of the element and that of the director of the ensemble. But in both these functions man is in conflict with his memories of himself. Man has played the role of technical individual to the extent that he looks on the machine-as-technical-individualas if it were a man and occupying the position of a man, whereas in actual fact it was man who provisionally took the place of the machine before real technical individuals could be made. In all judgments made on the subject of the

machine, there is an implicit humanization of the machine which has this role-change as its deepest source. Man had so well learned to be a technical

of believing that once the technical being is concrete it

wrongly begins t o p l a y t h e r o l e of man.

I d e a s about s l a v e r y and freedom

a r e t o o c l o s e l y bound t o t h e o l d i d e a o f man as t e c h n i c a l o b j e c t t o be a b l e t o r e l a t e t o t h e r e a l problem o f t h e r e l a t i o n s h i p between man and machine. The t e c h n i c a l o b j e c t must be known i n i t s e l f i f t h e r e l a t i o n Hence t h e need

s h i p between man and machine i s t o be s t e a d y and v a l i d . f o r a technical culture.