Abstract

Cutting against the technophobic grain of philosophical traditions inspired by Heidegger and Habermas, Simondon’s book on « The mode of existence of technical objects » invites us to find a positive way beyond the critique of modernity. He offers a framework particularly appropriate for understanding the stakes of the « techno-nature » which has been accepted and appropriated by the hacker ethic, and for inquiring into its corresponding forms of political subjectivity. The unity of producer, technical object and user, which for Simondon is part of the transindividuality of the machine, suggests a fresh treatment of the questions of the expressiveness of code, of open source, and of the constitution of connectionist collectivities