On the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects

by
Gilbert Simondon
Paris: Aubier, Editions Montaigne, 1958
Translated from the French by inian Mellam!hy
"ith a Preface by #ohn $art
%ni&ersity of 'estern (ntario
#une 198)
'or* on this !ro+ect "as su!!orted through
the E,!lorations Program of The -anada -ouncil
Table of Contents
Preface................................................................................................................................................../
0ntroduction........................................................................................................................................1/
-ha!ter 0: The 1enesis and E&olution of Technical (b+ects..............................................................19
0: Abstract Technical (b+ect and -oncrete Technical (b+ect. ..................................................19
00: -onditions of Technical E&olution.......................................................................................22
000: The 3hythm of Technical Progress4 -ontinuous and Minor 0m!ro&ement and
5iscontinuous and Ma+or 0m!ro&ement...................................................................................//
06: Absolute (rigins of a Technical 7ineage............................................................................/8
-ha!ter 00: The E&olution of Technical 3eality: Element, 0ndi&idual and Ensemble........................99
0: $y!ertelia and :elf;-onditioning in Technical E&olution....................................................99
00: Technical 0n&ention: Form and -ontent in 7ife and in 0n&enti&e Thought..........................99
000: Technical 0ndi&iduali<ation.................................................................................................5/
06: E&oluti&e -hains and Technicity -onser&ation. The 7a" of 3ela,ation...........................58
6: Technicality and the E&olution of Technics: Technicality as an 0nstrument of Technical
E&olution...................................................................................................................................8)
3eferences..........................................................................................................................................=)
Preface
>y #ohn $art
:imondon?s doctoral thesis, of "hich the English translation of Part 0 is gi&en here, has a t"o;fold
&alue, firstly for reasons im!licit in the initial recognition it recei&ed t"o decades ago, and secondly
for its rele&ance in connection "ith themes "hich ha&e since become more e&ident. :lo" as it has
been to obtain the recognition it deser&es, the boo* recei&ed attention originally as an introduction
to a ne" "ay of understanding technology. As a scholarly "or* e,!laining the humanity contained
in the machine, there "as nothing li*e it in the entire !hiloso!hical cor!us de&oted to the machine,
nothing that is, "hich combined a !hiloso!hical treatment "ith the same !ro,imity to the technical
ob+ect. The outstanding @uality of :imondon?s treatment is that for all the difficulties of crossing
se!arated domains of meaning his "riting is essentially, dee! do"n, a "or* of !raise. 'hen, at the
second mechanology conference, he commended the -oal >oard of England for the restoration of a
e"comen Engine, he obser&ed that the ob+ecti&e of conser&atories and museums is to !ut
technical ob+ects bac* into "or*ing condition. AThere isB, he said Asomething eternal in a technical
schema . . . And it is that C@ualityD "hich is al"ays !resent and "hich can be conser&ed in a thingA.
E1F The only other "riter "ho !laced the technical ob+ect on the same high !lane "as #ac@ues
7afitte "hose boo* !ublished in 19/2 first recommended the establishment of a science of
machines or mechanology.E2F
0f as 0 belie&e, this translation is associated "ith a second moment in the emergence of
mechanology, it nonetheless res!onds still to the e,igencies of the first. 'e may en&isage a ne"
grou! of readers, not necessarily distinct but incor!orating interests "hich did not e,ist before. The
first grou! "ere scholars and !rofessionals in the social sciences4 for them mechanology is a much
needed discourse on technics, "hich is to say, a scientific treatment ha&ing technical o!erations as
ob+ect. The ne" grou! "ould be those "ho, antici!ated by the author, !ercei&e the !ossibility of
incor!orating the machine into the family of things human as !art of a global cultural renaissance.
>et"een the earlier and later !resentations of the technological ob+ect there is no incom!atibility.
As occidental technology e,!ands throughout the "orld, reflection on its meaning must reach
do"n !ast contradictions into the most fundamental, most uni&ersal intentions inde!endent of
ethnic roots and national cultures. The creati&e flo"ering of some !art of human e,!ression is not
necessarily confining or restricting. >ut technological creati&ity is confining unless it is allied "ith
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other human as!irations. Technical ob+ects alienate unless they are someho" ba!ti<ed, that is,
unless they become attached to intentions "hich res!ond to the contem!orary le&el of the highest
human ho!e. 0t is &alue "hich gi&es technical creati&ity its currency, its transcendence in &ie" of
communication, adding to !raise the essential @uality of the gift.
3eferring to the need for @uality Ci.e. &alueD Persig gi&es the e,am!le of a cou!le "hose attitude
to"ard a bro*en motorcycle or a lea*ing faucet alternated bet"een outright hostility and a!!arent
unconcern. $e disco&ered that the unconcern "as a mas* for su!!ressed anger, held bac* because
to re&eal it "ould be to gi&e technology too much im!ortance. $e concluded that it "as not the
motorcycle maintenance, nor the faucet re!air nor any other annoyance or malfunction but the
"hole of technology "hich is the enemy.E/F The indi&idual machine or machine element becomes a
distasteful symbol for the entire dehumani<ed "orld, best symboli<ed by the barbed "ire fence
around a factory. Persig says that he is sensiti&e to the host of dehumani<ing influences. $e
disagrees "ith the cou!le about cycle maintenance, Anot because 0 am out of sym!athy "ith their
feelings about technology. 0 +ust thin* their flight from and hatred of technology is self;defeating.
The >uddha, the 1odhead, resides @uite as comfortably in the circuits of a digital com!uter or the
gears of a cycle as he does at the to! of a mountain or in the !etals of a flo"er. To thin* other"ise is
to demean the >uddha, "hich is to demean oneselfA.E9F
0n actual fact, the grou! of !eo!le en&isaged in this second moment of mechanology scarcely e,ists.
They are !eo!le !ossessed of the idea that the machine is in a sense se!arate but not necessarily
di&orced from &alue. Gno"ing that it arises out of a !ure 5ionysian as!iration, ca!able of e,isting
in radical isolation from other as!ects of life, and that alongside it, alongside its mechanology there
must e,ist "hat 5aly calls a metaethics, a"areness of &alue beyond the current !erce!tion of
humanity, ad&ancing together "ith it in a !rocess of con&ergence.E5F
>efore ma*ing the +um! to the ne" !ossibilities, let us consider the "ay :imondonHs "or* "as
!ercei&ed in 1958. The French edition is in three !arts, corres!onding to three modes of e,istence of
the technological ob+ect. Part 0, entitled 1enesis and E&olution of Technical (b+ects,is de&oted to
intrinsic machine reality, to the !rinci!les and corres!onding e,am!les of the nature of the technical
ob+ect. Part 00 is called Man and the Technical (b+ect, 0t may be considered commentary, in the
light of mechanology, of the "or* of 'iener: $uman %se of $uman >eings.E8F The conce!t of
information, the nature of !rogress, the meaning of automation and other deri&ati&es of the
scientific and engineering a!!lications of thermodynamics are im!ortant themes. Part 000 is called
1enesis of Technicality. 0f Part 0 may be said to be de&oted to the machine itself, its intrinsic
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structure and e&olution, and Part 00 to the man;machine relationshi!, Part 000 is essentially an essay
on the machine and !hiloso!hy. 0n it the author e,!ands on the idea that !hiloso!hical thought, in
order to sei<e the significance of the e,istence of technical ob+ects, must be directed to the
e,istential situation of these ob+ects and to the conditions of their genesis arising out of the
relationshi! bet"een humanity and the "orld.
0n attem!ting to introduce the ideas of :imondon, 0 am faced "ith a tas* similar to his "hen he
organi<ed a conference in the series of international collo@uia at 3oyamount in 1989, de&oted to
cybernetics and featuring 'iener as *ey s!ea*er. :imondon "as called u!on to !ro&ide the conte,t
in "hich the assembled !hiloso!hers and scientists might hear "hat the founder of cybernetics had
to say on the to!ic and title of the !roceedings: The -once!t of 0nformation in -ontem!orary
:cience. 3eferring to the fact that cybernetics gre" out of the reflections of a grou! of scientists at
M0T Cmathematicians, biologists, !hysiologists, etc.D he com!ared it to the "or* of e"ton, the last
man of science to co&er the entire domain of ob+ecti&e reflection, and "ent on to say, I0n fact,
historically, cybernetics a!!eared as something ne" directed to achie&ing a synthesis4 in sum, "e
find oursel&es brought bac* to the time of e"ton, or to the time "hen the great !hiloso!hers "ere
mathematicians or scientists in the natural sciences and in&ersely. This is doubtless the conte,t in
"hich it is no" !ossible to listen to "hat Professor 'iener has to !resent to usA.E=F
A resurgence of interest in :imondon?s main themes "ould sho" u! the contrast bet"een the
scientific !hiloso!hy of cybernetics and mechanology. Mechanology is not, li*e 'iener?s
cybernetics, a *ind of successor to the natural !hiloso!hy of e"ton, but, insofar as the !arallel is
&alid, a successor to the Anatomia %ni&ersalis of $ar&ey.E8F 'hereas the central notion of
cybernetics "as system, the com!arable conce!t in mechanology is soma. 0t is the human body "ith
its balance, its ra!!ort, and its emanations "hich gi&es to mechanology a degree of uni&ersality
"hich !ut it into legitimate com!arison "ith the broad e,tension of science. Although this reference
to the body is not e,!licit in :imondon, the ne" im!ortance attached to his ideas may be seen to
arise because of the contribution they ma*e to this !ers!ecti&e.
The synthesis "hich cybernetics attem!ted, often described as a ne" crossroads of science, "as
&ery instructi&e both in ho" it failed and ho" it succeeded. %sing GuhnHs terminology, it "as the
locus of a !aradigm change "hich, insofar as science "as concerned, "as both a chec* and a
balance, a constraint and a rene"al.E9F :cience "as directed to"ard ne" and fresh !aths "hile
being cautioned to abandon its Promethean ambition. -ybernetics had begun "ith a !lea to return to
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interdisci!linary studies, to turn a"ay from narro" fragmentation to a mode of !erce!tion li*e that
of e"tonHs. 0n the best minds, that is "hat ha!!ened. The cybernetic conce!ts of feedbac* and
information began to reach out across the natural sciences and include the social sciences as "ell.
At the same time, com!uter and information science "as recogni<ed as a "elcome ne"comer since
its inde!endent in&estigations of informatics and algorithmics "ere found to be &aluable in the
other sciences. Finally, in a dramatic e,tension beyond !re&iously charted domains of in&estigation,
the study of Artificial 0ntelligence of and "ith the aid of machines o!ened &ast hori<ons for
ob+ecti&e, scientific in&estigation.
These !ro+ects "ere all lateral hori<ontal e,!ansions, the legitimate re!roduction in *ind of the
domain of ob+ecti&e in&estigation. At the same time the o&er"eening ambition of science since long
before e"ton "hich ga&e science its &ertical ascension "as terminated, !robably ne&er to return.
:cience, meaning the entire domain of ob+ecti&e in&estigation, had become the Procrustian measure
of *no"ledge. 0ts !ro!onents made it into a *ind of belief system, or at least the !rominent half of
the t"o intellectual cultures, Arts and :cience.
-ybernetics, in its short career as synthesis or umbrella of science, "as dri&en by the same
im!erialism. At the 3oyaumont -onference, one of the s!ea*ers, Francois >onsac*, attem!ting to
describe information as something to be sought for its o"n sa*e and as com!onent of finali<ed
action, refers to the crucial study of 3uyer de&oted to the !roblem of defining information
inde!endent of consciousness.E1)F 0n his boo* on cybernetics and the origin of information, 3uyer
@uestions the absence in cybernetics of an a,iology, that is, of a reference to &alue. $e asserts that
"hat is omitted from all of the mechanistic e,!lanations are the A&alues or &alences controlling
actions by a *ind of a,iological feedbac* analogous, but not reducible to the mechanical feedbac*
of automataA.E11F -lassical science and technology had begun to recogni<e the insufficiency of a
scientific s!eculation from "hich &alue is absent in the e,!losi&e dangers of e,cessi&e !roducti&ity:
nuclear armament, automobile !ollutants, industrial "aste, agricultural !ractice. 3uyer, loo*ing at
the intrinsic de&elo!ment of science as it dealt "ith the conce!t of information, !ic*s the !recise
moment "here a notion of &alue is e,cluded. 0n doing so he "as bringing to bear the radical
de!arture of contem!orary Euro!ean thought insofar as it o"ed its basis to classical 1ree* culture.
As e,!ressed in the !henomenology of $usserl and others, this de!arture began by denying that
science has a !referential situation "ith res!ect to the reality "hich surrounds human life. The
crystali<ation and !erha!s the most decisi&e moment of this re&olutionary mode of thought is gi&en
in Ma, :cheler, a student of $usserl, in his doctoral thesis at #ena in 189=. This thesis attac*ed the
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rationalistic basis of all that is im!lied in the icomachean Ethics of Aristotle and stated in effect
that ethical !rinci!les and logical !rinci!les belong to different domains of meaning.E12F
Around the machine circle the main themes of our age: technology is im!licit in their causes as "ell
as being an element in their e&olution. >ut since cybernetics has suffered a chec* to becoming the
means of understanding that technology, "here can "e turnJ 0f science and its associated
!hiloso!hy cannot do so because its basis in natural !hiloso!hy is not suitable, can "e call u!on a
mechanology in&ented !recisely to bring the meaning of that reality in contact "ith other domains
of *no"ledgeJ 'e run here into a obstacle "hich has not to do "ith a!!ro!riateness but to the fact
that :imondon?s thesis Cand 7afitteHsD is !resented in a language "hich is by and large inaccessible
to most readers.
:imondon is not una"are of the terminological difficulties. $e attem!ted to rectify the inade@uacies
of the "ritten "ord "ith diagrams better able to illustrate technological function and com!osition.
The first edition "as !ublished "ithout these diagrams, an omission by the !ublisher due to cost but
significant for other reasons. 'ithout this non;&erbal !resentation, deemed essential,E1/F the boo*
as it first a!!eared in the Analyse et 3aison collection of Aubier, bore the stam! and manner of a
!hiloso!hical study. The !resentation im!lied that the "or* "as to be seen, as it had been launched,
among the !rogeny of the familiar French !hiloso!hical tradition, rather than a radical de!arture.
'hen the boo* a!!eared in 1958 it "as nonetheless "ell recei&ed. Ty!ical of its recognition "as
the reference to it in 6olume 11) of -ahiers de l? 0.:.E.A. C1989D de&oted to ?Progress?, after it
a!!eared. -onsidered as Aa solid and brilliant essay on the technical ob+ectA,E19F it is !raised as a
!hiloso!hical in&estigation in "hich the modalities of !rogress are described. 0t is noted that Athe
!erfectioning !ro!er to technology consists in !assing from the ?abstract? machine to the ?concrete?
machine "herein the organs are more or less integrated into the "hole. The antagonisms and
reci!rocal limitations are !rogressi&ely effaced, the functioning of the machine tending to become a
global functioning, and in sum, the technological ob+ect a!!roaches the natural ob+ect but by other
"ays than those of natureA.E15F 6alori<ing the same theme and ma*ing it more im!ortant, &an 7ier,
in ?7e ou&el Age?, a boo* de&oted to the ne" chances of humanism, !ro!oses that Athis ne" &isage
Cof the machineD e,!lains or in any case reinforces most of the essential characteristics of the
contem!orary "orld4 that it suggests a system of &alues susce!tible of !romoting a ne" humanismA.
E18F
And yet, although the re&ie"s and commentaries "ere fa&orable, it has not ha!!ened that the
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intrinsic nature of the machine according to :imondon has become !art and !arcel of contem!orary
technical discourse and indeed is not as "ell *no"n as the ma+ority of thoughtful "or*s a!!earing
at the same time or later. The reason for this, though creditable some"hat to the s!ecial o!tic of the
social scientists, !hiloso!hers and literary critics "ho signalled its ad&ent, is that the language in
"hich mechanology is "ritten is an obstacle for all but the rare indi&iduals in "hom there is a
combination of scholarly and mechanological e,!erience, enabling them to bridge the ga! bet"een
domains of meaning "hich until no" ha&e been se!arated.
-onsider the conce!t "hich has been recogni<ed as *ey. 0n this translation "e ha&e allo"ed the
"ord ?concrKtudeL to be translated as Hconcretisation? *no"ing that the true sense of machine genesis
is thereby lost. The e@ui&alent in English of the mechanological meaning is
closer to Hconcrescense? but it too is inade@uate. 'hat "e are dealing "ith is a non;!e+orati&e but
distanced mode of e,!ression4 it is latin in origin and choice of sense, "ith conse@uent distance
bet"een the real machine and our conce!tion. This usage and that of the corres!onding antonym,
abstract, is not an isolated !henomenon4 nor is it indifferent. E,cellent "ords as they are, nouns
such as concrete and abstract gi&e images "hich are remo&ed from the technical ob+ect. They can
be too readily assimilated into the antitechnological bias, to +oin other "ords "here that bias is
cemented into their connotation. Thus they do not esca!e the !erennial distrust embedded in
classical humanism "here the "ord machine itself ha&ing a meaning similar to machination, is
deri&ed from the 1ree* machine, meaning ?a tric* against nature?.
'hat is needed is not so much a translation as a transduction. To go directly from French to English
trans!osing one "ord from latin or gree* by another ha&ing the same origin usually "orsens the
intended meaning "here technology is concerned. $a&ing recogni<ed that literary language is not
suitable, the @uestion is "hat ste!s must be ta*en to render mechanology in a mode ca!able of
con&eying for a broad audience the significance of the machine for the global culture it is calling
forth.
The freshening of language is ta*ing t"o main routes, the one connected to crafts, the other to
Artificial 0ntelligence. This latter route relates to com!uter language and com!uter gra!hics
considered as a form of e,!ression "hich, li*e film, renders the essence of the machine accessible
insofar as o!erations are concerned. 7i*e handicrafts, it "ill hel! to articulate in a "ay that the
general !ublic "ill understand, the hidden human elements in the machine. 0n !arallel "ith that,
recent linguistic studies ha&e the im!ortant function to bring for"ard the gras! of the machine from
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earlier technologies !articularly those of the artisan.
For !eo!le today to understand, to use and to humani<e the machine, it is necessary to start "ith
crafts both old and ne". For the crafts sho", "ith a de!th of sonance com!arable to the sym!athy of
intersub+ecti&ity, the image of a lifetime of dialogue bet"een the self and the other. The crafts ha&e
had to be *e!t ali&e by Morris and others through a *ind of 5ar* Ages, much as "riting is said to
ha&e been !reser&ed by mon*s. The crafts did not go unscathed in the !rocess, since they
sometimes had to mas@uerade under ina!!ro!riate labels. 3esurrected as a defence against the "orst
features of industriali<ation, they sometimes assumed a degree of artificiality not in *ee!ing "ith
their older !ur!ose or future !ossibilities.E1=F This "as e&ident in the establishment of hierarchy
among different crafts !eo!le, acting as a *ind of caste system. E&en 1handi calling on the
traditions of 0ndia, "as not able to restore the crafts to their full &alue in the case of
industriali<ation.
The crafts can act to !ro&ide continuity of meaning through direct *no"ledge of function made
s!ecific by the understanding of gesture. on;&erbal *no"ledge articulated by the hands and feet is
the body?s "ay of thin*ing +ust as the chiselling of "ords from sound is the mind?s "ay of ma*ing
contact. othing so much !re&ents the harmonious integration of the human indi&idual as the
do"ngrading of one in fa&our of the other unless it is loss of hability in both. 0t is the assertion by
3ichards of the incon&ertible strength and symmetry of the combination "hich ma*es her
combination of !ottery and "riting so im!ortant.E18F $er conce!t of centering and fusion as found
in the !otter?s craft has the best chance of !ro&iding a language for machine ?concretude? in
:imondon. This association belongs to the same !rocess of rene"al as the linguistic studies in
>ritain by E&ans "here terms used by artisans in the &illages has led to the disco&ery of une,!ected
treasures in the anglo;sa,on "ords associated "ith the crafts.E19F
The contem!orary interest in the body originated, not so much as a reaction against the centuries of
rationalism, but as a result of the de&astating effects of the shoc* caused by the ad&ent of automatic
machinery. As Mar, "as acutely a"are, it "as the re!lacement of the human hand by the machine
tool, "hich caused the ru!ture. As long as man !ercei&ed himself as demiurge, as master "hose
hands remodelled nature, his self;image "as secure. >ut "hen the machine or the indi&idual
technical ob+ect "as a&ailable not merely as tool but standing in for him in e,ecution as a se!arate
indi&idual, it "as e@ui&alent to the loss for man, in a single ste!, of a crucial !art of his inheritance.
E2)F
;=;
That shoc* has far from been resol&ed. The entire mythology of the robot, more !o!ular than e&er
due to the diffusion by film and tele&ision, is "itness to its continued concern in the minds of the
ma+ority of !eo!le. >ut "hereas mass media ha&e *e!t ali&e and enhanced the irrational fear of
technology, the se@uence of actual e&ents has not follo"ed the same regressi&e route. >y necessity
and through genuine concern, the early !atrons of industry recogni<ed that !roducti&ity, goal of the
factories !ar e,cellence, demanded a sound body as much as an efficient machine. 1uillerme says
that 5u!in, one of the originators of French industrial society, "as ty!ical of such men in that "hile
he sought to im!ro&e the efficiency of the "or*ers, he belie&ed that social harmony could only be
reali<ed by the !erfectioning of all the faculties of the indi&idual. The im!ortance of athletics, the
ac@uisition of the liberal arts as ornament "ere the outcome of these attitudes. 0n the midst of this
"as the need to see the body totally.E21F
The body that "as !ercei&ed "as *no"n &ery im!erfectly and from a stand!oint of the &ery
rationalism to "hich it "ould be o!!osed. 0t "as a body image that e&ol&ed from A!seudo;
mathemati<ed enigmaA to Aanimated motorA to Athermodynamic e,changerA.E22F And such models,
ho"e&er &aluable they may ha&e been in gi&ing an im!etus to !hysiology and to the modern
scientific models of the body, are not to be confused "ith the soma, the body "hich industry in its
greater concreteness "as a!!roaching and "hich is also itself far from the reality. 'ith res!ect to
the true human body "hich is asserting itself beneath and beyond these mo&ements, the scientific
and technological models are little better than rumours and the considerations of the manMmachine
relationshi! only and inde, or a name.
Along "ith inade@uate *no"ledge of the technical ob+ect, the crisis of &alue clouds the !resence of
humanity in the machine and !re&ents the calling;forth of ne" creati&e res!onses. For some, the
achie&ements of the !ast !ro&ide basis enough for ho!e. Memories of -hartres or -hambord in
France, of :tonehenge and the Flying :cotsmen in England, of the geodesic dome and the >oeing
=9= in America are sufficient !roof of the best in that creati&e im!ulse. These indi&idual technical
ob+ects do not come about sim!ly through res!onse to necessity but because they are called forth by
and su!!orted by creati&e indi&iduals. They are one of the manifestations of states of re&ery and
!laces of ha!!iness as ancient as the ringing an&il of the blac*smith and as recent as the smooth
s!inning of the :tirling engine, states disco&erable on the one hand "ith >achelard through an
archaeology of the imagination found in !oetry,E2/F and on the other "ith 7eMoyne in the Are&eries
machin@uesA of the men "ho "or* "ith machines to be found in such !laces as the Acathedrals of
;8;
electricityA.E29F 'hat is this creati&e !rocess "hen it is o!erati&eJ $o" is it articulated and "hat
forms does it ta*eJ Antici!ated in the thesis de&oted to the technical ob+ect is a later study by
:imondon into the nature of in&ention.E25F 0n the course of history in&ention has sho"n u! in three
different "ays.
0n net"or* technology, as e,em!lified by the mine, im!ro&ements come from the centralisation of
tas*s relati&e to the !its. -oncentration of men and a!!aratus, flo" of materials underground and to
the surface, organisation of the ensemble in &ie" of im!ro&ed o!eration are the ob+ecti&es to "hich
the in&enti&e !rocess is directed. This *ind of technology is symboli<ed in the !ictures sho"ing the
organi<ation of a multitude of !eo!le, horses, and !ullies to raise an obelis*4 it is ty!ical of archaic
technology. -reati&ity comes from resol&ing the !roblems connected "ith the di&ision bet"een the
central command and the terminals leading to functional unicity of the terminals. -om!onent
technology, the e,am!les being the transformer, the gas !iston engine, is characteri<ed by the
construction of a tertium guid4 in&ention adds a ne" third reality lin*ing !re&iously unconnected
com!onents. The !rimary effect of creati&ity in this order is to !roduce a de&ice such as the
alternating current transformer "hich lin*s the !o"er of the electric motor to a &ast array of
e@ui!ment such as tools, heaters, radios etc. This is done by en&isaging, before manufacture, a unit
"hose function is to connect t"o milieu, !re&iously se!arated. 0ndi&iduali<ed technology is
technology focussed on the construction of the com!lete indi&idual machine of "hich the house,the
automobile the com!uter are e,am!les. &ention !roceeds mainly by e&olution of synergies through
the !rocess of concreti<ation.
:imondon has obser&ed that the indi&iduali<ed technical ob+ect corres!onds most directly to the
human dimension. The human indi&idual is not dominated by it as he is in the mining or any other
net"or*. or does he dominate it, ma*ing it an e,tension of his hands or !rosthetic de&ice, as
ha!!ens in com!onent technology. $e neither dominates nor is dominated but enters into a *ind of
dialectic. To understand the categories of this e,change, it is &aluable to see the tri!artite di&ision of
7afitte as the basis of the mechanology of the indi&idual technical ob+ect, these categories
de!ending on "hether the machine is !rimarily de&oted to maintaining a homeostatic condition
Chouse, bridgeD, o!erating inde!endently Con machine tools, satellitesD, !ro&iding information
Ccom!uterD.
This millenial itinerary of the e&ol&ing human s!ecies "hich *ee!s the !rocess of concretisation
before us finds corres!ondences in the search for the harmonious body functioning "hich is the
;9;
goal of !hysical health. 0n !sychothera!y also, the human soma as !ercei&ed in the bioenergetics of
3eich and 7o"en,E28F is that "hich concreti<es itself, that is, "hich engages in a search to
remember the body into a state of unity corres!onding to the magic unity of the child.
The studies of the crafts and of linguistics as !relude to mechanology ta*e us closer to the centre of
somatic reality. They ha&e the effect of +oining the distance that has long se!arated occidental man
from the "or* of his hands. >ut they too are !re!aration4 means "hereby the animated body may
begin to be made truly !resent. The final ste! is ta*en through the emanations of the body rooted in
the most ancient biological sources. The closest "e can come is not through those models "hich are
so useful to science nor through the indices of technology, nor through the elements re&ealed by
close contact "ith the o!erations of the crafts and the names of language but only through the
original manifestation assumed by the body by "ay of "hat 7eroi;1ourhan call Ale geste et la
!aroleA "hich is the emanation of the body in e&er rene"ed and creati&e forms. 0n this regard the
history of the s!ecies is one "ith the moment of u!right stature "hen there too* !lace the
simultaneous liberation of the hands from locomotion and the mouth from nourishment. The earliest
&ersions of our humanity such as the Austrolanthro!e, A!ossessed his tools as a *ind of !incher. $e
seemed to ha&e ac@uired them not in a sort of illumination "ith "hich to arm himself but as if his
brain and body e,uded them !rogressi&elyA.E2=F Thus those mar&ellous !olished stones "hich
mirror for us the conce!tions of that oldest humanity are first emanations of the body. 0f "e
continue the same !rocess it is due to the fact that the e&er;increasing human faculty of
symboli<ation and incarnation bes!ea* the &itality of the same somatic source. 0t is because
:imondon has sounded a call to allo" the meaning of the machine to resonate at this !rofound le&el
that his "or* gains s!ecial &alue in the contem!orary re;e,amination of technology.
;1);
Introduction
The !ur!ose of this study is to attem!t to stimulate a"areness of the significance of technical
ob+ects. -ulture has become a system of defence designed to safeguard man from technics. This is
the result of the assum!tion that technical ob+ects contain no human reality. 'e should li*e to sho"
that culture fails to ta*e into account that in technical reality there is a human reality, and that, if it is
fully to !lay its role, culture must come to terms "ith technical entities as !art of its body of
*no"ledge and &alues. 3ecognition of the modes of e,istence of technical ob+ects must be the result
of !hiloso!hic consideration4 "hat !hiloso!hy has to achie&e in this res!ect is analogous to "hat
the abolition of sla&ery achie&ed in affirming the "orth of the indi&idual human being.
The o!!osition established bet"een the cultural and the technical and bet"een man and machine is
"rong and has no foundation. 'hat underlies it is mere ignorance or resentment. 0t uses a mas* of
facile humanism to blind us to a reality that is full of human stri&ing and rich in natural forces. This
reality is the "orld of technical ob+ects, the mediators bet"een man and nature.
-ulture beha&es to"ards the technical ob+ect much in the same "ay as a man caught u! in !rimiti&e
,eno!hobia beha&es to"ards a stranger. This *ind of misoneism directed against machines does not
so much re!resent a hatred of the ne" as a refusal to come to terms "ith an unfamiliar reality. o",
ho"e&er strange this reality may be, it is still human, and a com!lete culture is one that enables us
to disco&er that this stranger is indeed human. :till, the machine is a stranger to us4 it is a stranger in
"hich "hat is human is loc*ed in, unrecogni<ed, materiali<ed and ensla&ed, but human nonetheless.
The most !o"erful cause of alienation in the "orld of today is based on misunderstanding of the
machine. The alienation in @uestion is not caused by the machine but by a failure to come to an
understanding of the nature and essence of the machine, by the absence of the machine from the
"orld of meanings, and by its omission from the table of &alues and conce!ts that are an integral
!art of culture.
-ulture is unbalanced because, "hile it grants recognition to certain ob+ects, for e,am!le to things
aesthetic, and gi&es them their due !lace in the "orld of meanings, it banishes other ob+ects,
!articularly things technical, into the unstructured "orld of things that ha&e no meaning but do ha&e
a use, a utilitarian function. Faced "ith such a mar*ed defensi&e negati&e attitude on the !art of a
biased culture, men "ho ha&e *no"ledge of technical ob+ects and a!!reciate their significance try
;11;
to +ustify their +udgement by gi&ing to the technical ob+ect the only status that today has any
stability a!art from that granted to aesthetic ob+ects, the status of something sacred. This, of course,
gi&es rise to an intem!erate technicism that is nothing other than idolatry of the machine and,
through such idolatry, by "ay of identification, it leads to a technocratic yearning for unconditional
!o"er. The desire for !o"er confirms the machine as a "ay to su!remacy and ma*es of it the
modern !hiltre Clo&e;!otionD. The man "ho "ishes to dominate his fello"s creates the android
machine. $e abdicates in fa&our of it and delegates his humanity to it. $e tries to construct the
thin*ing machine and dreams of being able to construct the "illing machine or the li&ing machine,
so that he can lag behind it, "ithout an,iety, freed from all danger and e,em!t from all feelings of
"ea*ness, "hile en+oying a &icarious trium!h through "hat he has in&ented. 0n this case, then, once
through an imaginati&e !rocess the machine has become a robot, a du!licate of man, but "ithout
interiority, it is @uite e&idently and ine&itably nothing other than a !urely mythic and imaginary
being.
(ur !recise aim is to sho" that there is no such thing as a robot4 that a robot is no more a machine
than a statue is a li&ing being4 that is merely a !roduct of the imagination, of man?s ficti&e !o"ers, a
!roduct of the art of illusion. e&ertheless, the notion of the machine in !resent;day culture
incor!orates, to a considerable e,tent, this mythic re!resentation of the robot. o culti&ated man
"ould allo" himself s!ea* of things or !ersons !ainted on a can&as as &eritable realities "ith an
interior life and a "ill, good or bad. 5es!ite this, the culti&ated man does allo" himself to s!ea* of
machines "hich threaten man*ind, as if he "ere attributing to these ob+ects a soul and a se!arate
and autonomous e,istence "hich grants them the !ossession of feelings and of intentions to"ards
man*ind. (ur culture thus entertains t"o contradictory attitudes to technical ob+ects. (n the one
hand, it treats them as !ure and sim!le assemblies of material that are @uite "ithout true meaning
and that only !ro&ide utility. (n the other hand, it assumes that these ob+ects are also robots, and
that they harbour intentions hostile to man, or that they re!resent for man a constant threat of
aggression or insurrection. Thin*ing it best to !reser&e the first character, culture stri&es to !re&ent
the manifestation of the second, and s!ea*s of !utting the machine in the ser&ice of man, in the
belief that reducing it to sla&ery is a sure means of !re&enting rebellion of any *ind. 0n fact, this
inherent contradiction in our culture arises from an ambiguity in our ideas about automatism ; and
this is "here the hidden logical fla" lies. 0dolators of the machine generally assume that the degree
of !erfection of a machine is directly !ro!ortional to the degree of automatism. 1oing beyond "hat
can be learnt from e,!erience, they su!!ose that an increase in and im!ro&ement of automatism
"ould lead to the bringing into oneness and mutual interconnection of all machines ;the creating of
;12;
a machine made u! of all machines. o", in fact, automatism is a fairly lo" degree of technical
!erfection. 0n order to ma*e a machine automatic, it is necessary to sacrifice many of its functional
!ossibilities and many of its !ossible uses. Automatism, and that use of it in the form of industrial
organisation "hich "e call automation, has an economic or social, rather than a technical,
significance. The real !erfecting of machines, "hich "e can say raises the le&el of technicality, has
nothing to do "ith an increase in automatism but, on the contrary, relates to the fact that the
functioning of the machine conceals a certain margin of indetermination. 0t is such a margin that
allo"s for the machine?s sensiti&ity to outside information. 0t is this sensiti&ity to information on the
!art of machines, much more than any increase in automatism that ma*es !ossible a technical
ensemble. A !urely automatic machine com!letely closed in on itself in a !redetermined o!eration
could only gi&e summary results. The machine "ith su!erior technicality is an o!en machine, and
the ensemble of o!en machines assumes man as !ermanent organi<er and as a li&ing inter!reter of
the inter;relationshi!s of machines. Far from being the su!er&isor of a s@uad of sla&es, man is the
!ermanent organi<er of a society of technical ob+ects "hich need him as much as musicians in an
orchestra need a conductor. The conductor can direct his musicians only because, li*e them, and
"ith a similar intensity, he can inter!ret the !iece of music !erformed4 he determines the tem!o of
their !erformance, but as he does so his inter!retati&e decisions are affected by the actual
!erformance of the musicians4 in fact, it is through him that the members of the orchestra affect
each other?s inter!retation4 for each of them he is the real, ins!iring form of the grou!?s e,istence as
grou!4 he is the central focus of inter!retation of all of them in relation to each other. This is ho"
man functions as !ermanent in&entor and coordinator of the machines around him.
$e is among the machines that "or* "ith him. The !resence of man in regard to machines is a
!er!etual in&ention. $uman reality resides in machines as human actions fi,ed and crystali<ed in
functioning structures. These structures need to be maintained in the course of their functioning,
and their ma,imum !erfection coincides "ith their ma,imum o!enness, that is, "ith their greatest
!ossible freedom in functioning. Modern calculating machines are not !ure automata4 they are
technical beings "hich, o&er and abo&e their automatic adding ability Cor decision;ma*ing ability,
"hich de!ends on the "or*ing of elementary s"itchesD !ossess a &ery great range of circuit;
commutations "hich ma*e it !ossible to !rogramme the "or*ing of the machine by limiting its
margin of indetermination. 0t is because of this !rimiti&e margin of indetermination that the same
machine is able to "or* out cubic roots or to translate from one language to another a sim!le te,t
com!osed of a small number of "ords and turns of !hrase.
;1/;
0t is also by the medium of this margin of indetermination, and not by automatisms, that machines
can be grou!ed into coherent ensembles so as to e,change information "ith each other through the
intermediacy of the human inter!reter as coordinator. E&en "hen the e,change of information
bet"een t"o machines is direct Csuch as bet"een a !ilot oscillator and another oscillator
synchroni<ed by im!ulsesD, man inter&enes as the being "ho regulates the margin of
indetermination so as to ma*e it ada!table to the greatest !ossible e,change of information.
o", "e might as* oursel&es "ho can achie&e an understanding of technical reality and introduce it
to our cultureJ 0t is only "ith the greatest difficulty that a man attached to a single machine by his
"or* and the routine actions of e&ery day could arri&e at such an understanding4 an accustomed
relationshi! does not !romote this understanding, because doing the same thing o&er and o&er blurs,
in the sterKoty!y of ac@uired gestures, any a"areness of structures and function. The fact of
managing a business that uses machines, or of o"ning one, offers no greater li*elihood of
understanding than does "or*ing in one4 it creates abstract attitudes to"ards the machine, causing it
to be &ie"ed, not in its o"n right, but in terms of its costs and the results of its o!eration. :cientific
*no"ledge, "hich sees in a technical ob+ect the !ractical a!!lication of a theoretical la", is not on
the !ro!er le&el of technical a"areness either. 3ather, it "ould seem that the attainment of the
understanding in @uestion, be the achie&ement of an organi<ation engineer "ho is, as it "ere, a
sociologist or !sychologist of machines, a !erson li&ing in the midst of this society of technical
beings as its res!onsible and creati&e conscience.
0n order to restore to culture the really general character "hich it has lost, it must be !ossible to
reintroduce an understanding of the nature of machines, of their mutual relationshi!s and their
relationshi!s "ith man, and of the &alues in&ol&ed in these relationshi!s. This understanding
necessitates the e,istence of the technologist or mechanologist, side by side "ith the !sychologist
and the sociologist. Furthermore, the basic systems of causality and regulation "hich constitute the
a,ioms of technology should be taught uni&ersally in the "ay that the basics of literary culture are
taught. An introduction to technics should be !ut on the same le&el as scientific education. 0t is as
ob+ecti&e as the use of the arts and it influences !ractical a!!lications as much as does the theory of
!hysics4 it can arri&e at the same degree of abstraction and of symboli<ation. A child should *no"
the meanings of self;regulation or !ositi&e reaction as "ell as he *no"s mathematical theorems.
This cultural reform carried out by a !rocess of broadening rather than destroying, could gi&e bac*
to !resent;day culture the real regulating !o"er it has lost. As the basis of meanings, modes of
;19;
e,!ression, !roofs and forms, a culture establishes regulatory communication among those "ho
share that culture. A !articular culture arises from the life of the grou! and, by furnishing norms and
systems, informs the actions of those "ho insure the e,ercise of authority. o", before the great
de&elo!ment in technics, culture incor!orated by &irtue of systems, symbols, @ualities and
analogues, the main *inds of technics that are the source of li&ing e,!erience. Present;day culture
does no such thing4 it does the contrary. Present;day culture is ancient culture incor!orating as
dynamic systems artisanal and agricultural techni@ues of earlier centuries, and doing so in such a
"ay that these systems mediate bet"een grou!s of !eo!le and their leaders and gi&e rise to a basic
distortion "hich results from our inade@uacies &is;a;&is things technical. Po"er becomes literature4
it has to do "ith the mani!ulation of o!inion, "ith !leading based on a!!earances and "ith rhetoric.
The e,ercise of authority is false because there no longer e,ists an ade@uate code of relationshi!s
bet"een the reality go&erned and the beings "ho go&ern. The reality go&erned is made u! of man
and machines4 the code is based on the e,!erience of man "or*ing "ith tools4 this &ery e,!erience
is both "ea*ened and remote, because those "ho use the code ha&e not, li*e -incinnatus, +ust left
the handles of the !lough. To !ut is sim!ly, the symbol is "ea*ening and the reality is absent. A
regulatory relationshi! of circular causality cannot be established bet"een the "hole of go&erned
reality and the function of authority: information no longer achie&es its !ur!ose because the code
has become inade@uate for the ty!e of information it should transmit. The ty!e of information
"hich e,!resses the simultaneous and correlati&e e,istence of men and machines should in&ol&e the
systems by "hich machines function and the &alues "hich they im!ly. -ulture, "hich has become
s!eciali<ed and im!o&erished, must once again become general. :uch an e,tension of culture is of
&alue both !olitically and socially because it su!!resses one of the main causes of alienation and
because it re;establishes regulatory information: it can gi&e man the means of thin*ing about his
e,istence and his situation in terms of the reality that surrounds him. The tas* of enlarging and
dee!ening culture has an es!ecially !hiloso!hical function, because it leads to a criti@ue of a certain
number of myths and stereoty!es, such as the idea of the robot and the notion of automata catering
to a la<y and fully satisfied humanity.
To bring about the understanding of "hich "e s!ea*, "e might attem!t to define the technical
ob+ect in itself by a method of concreti<ation and of functional o&er;determination, !ro&ing that the
technical ob+ect is the end;!roduct of an e&olution and that it is something "hich cannot be
considered as a mere utensil. The modalities of this genesis ma*e it !ossible to gras! the three
le&els of the technical ob+ect and their tem!oral, non;dialectic coordination: the element, the
indi&idual, and the ensemble.
;15;
(nce the technical ob+ect has been defined in terms of its genesis, it is !ossible to study the
relationshi! bet"een technical ob+ects and other realities, in !articular man as adult and as child.
Finally, considered as the ob+ect of an assessment of &alues, the technical ob+ect can gi&e rise to
&ery di&erse attitudes, de!ending on "hether it is considered at the le&el of element, indi&idual, or
ensemble. At the element le&el, its im!ro&ement does not lead to any u!set that causes an,iety
arising out of conflict "ith ac@uired habits: it leads to an eighteenth;century climate of o!timism,
"ith its introduction of the idea of continued and limitless !rogress and the constant betterment of
man?s lot. (n the other hand, the machine as technical indi&idual becomes for a time man?s
ad&ersary or com!etitor, and the reason for this is that man centrali<ed all technical indi&iduality in
himself, at a time "hen only tools e,isted. The machine ta*es the !lace of man, because man as
tool;bearer used to do a machine?s +ob. To this !hase corres!onds the dramatic and im!assioned idea
of !rogress as the ra!e of nature, the con@uest of the "orld, the e,!loitation of energies. The "ill for
!o"er is e,!ressed in the technicist and technocratic e,cessi&eness of the thermodynamic era,
"hich has ta*en a direction both !ro!hetic and cataclysmal. Then, at the le&el of the technical
ensembles of the t"entieth century, thermodynamic energeticism is re!laced by information theory,
the normati&e content of "hich is eminently regulatory and stabili<ing: the de&elo!ment of technics
seemed to be a guarantee of stability. The machine, as an element in the technical ensemble,
becomes the effecti&e unit "hich augments the @uantity of information, increases negentro!y, and
o!!oses the degradation of energy. The machine is a result of organi<ation and information4 it
resembles life and coo!erates "ith life in its o!!osition to disorder and to the le&elling out of all
things that tend to de!ri&e the "orld of its !o"ers of change. The machine is something "hich
fights against the death of the uni&erse4 it slo"s do"n, as life does, the degradation of energy, and
becomes a stabili<er of the "orld.
:uch a modification of the !hiloso!hic &ie" of technical ob+ects heralds the !ossibility of ma*ing
the technical being !art of culture. This integration, "hich "as not !ossible in a definiti&e "ay
either at the le&el of elements or at the le&el of indi&iduals, is !ossible and has a greater chance of
stability at the ensembles le&el. (nce technical reality has become regulatory, it can be integrated
into culture, "hich is itself essentially regulatory. :uch an integration could only ha&e been !ossible
by addition at the time "hen technicality resided in elements, or by effraction and re&olution at the
time "hen technicality resided in ne" technical indi&iduals. Today, technicality tends to reside in
ensembles. For this reason, it can become a foundation for culture, to "hich it "ill bring a unifying
;18;
and stabili<ing !o"er, ma*ing culture Cres!ond to the reality "hich it e,!resses and "hich it
go&erns.
;1=;
Chapter I: The Genesis and Evolution of Technical Objects
I: Abstract Technical Object and Concrete Technical Object.
E&ery technical ob+ect undergoes a genesis. 0t is difficult, ho"e&er, to define the genesis of each
technical ob+ect, because the indi&iduality of technical ob+ects is modified in the course of the
genesis. 'hat "e can do is to define technical ob+ects "ith reference to the technical s!ecies to
"hich they belong, but "e can only do so "ith difficulty. :!ecies are easy to identify summarily for
!ractical !ur!oses, in so far as "e are "illing to understand the technical ob+ect in terms of the
!ractical end it is designed to meet. >ut such s!ecificity as this is illusory, for no fi,ed structure
corres!onds to its defined use. 'e can get the same result from &ery different functionings and
structures: steam;engines, !etrol;engines, turbines and engines !o"ered by s!rings or "eights are
all engines4 yet, for all that, there is a more a!t analogy bet"een a s!ring;engine and a bo" or cross;
bo" than bet"een the former and a steam;engine4 a cloc* "ith "eights has an engine analogous to
a "indlass, "hile an electric cloc* is analogous to a house;bell or bu<<er. %sage brings together
heterogeneous structures and functions in genres and s!ecies "hich get their meaning from the
relationshi!s bet"een their !articular functions and another function, that of the human being in
action. Therefore, anything to "hich "e gi&e a !articular name ;that of engine, for e,am!le may,
!erha!s, be multi!le e&en as "e s!ea* of it and may &ary "ith time, as it changes its indi&iduality.
Mean"hile, if "e "ish to define the la"s of the genesis of a technical ob+ect "ithin the frame"or*
of its indi&iduality and s!ecificity, "e had better not begin "ith its indi&iduality or e&en its
s!ecificity but, rather, re&erse the !roblem. 0f "e begin "ith the criteria of its genesis "e can define
the indi&iduality or s!ecificity of any technical ob+ect. An indi&idual technical ob+ect is not such and
such a thing, something gi&en hic et nunc, but something that has a genesis.1 The unity,
indi&iduality, and s!ecificity of a technical ob+ect are those of its characteristics "hich are
consistent and con&ergent "ith its genesis.
1
The genesis of the technical ob+ect is !art of its being.
1 That is, according to the s!ecific modalities that distinguish the genesis of the technical ob+ect from those of other
*inds of ob+ects, for e,am!le an aesthetic ob+ect or a li&ing being. These s!ecific modalities should be distinguished
from a static modality "hich could be established follo"ing the genesis of the ob+ect by ta*ing into account
characteristics of &arious *inds of ob+ects. The !recise goal in using the genetic method is to a&oid the use of
established ideas of classification "hich come into !lay once the genesis is com!lete and "hich di&ide the totality of
ob+ects into genus and s!ecies suitable for discussion. The !ast e&olution of a technical being remains as an essential
of this being in its technical form. The technical being, "hich is a bearer of technicality according to "hat "e call
analytic a!!lication, cannot be an ob+ect of ade@uate *no"ledge unless the tem!oral meaning of its e&olution is
gras!ed as something essential to it. The ade@uate *no"ledge of "hich "e s!ea* is technical culture, as distinct
from technical *no"ledge, "hich is limited to the understanding in e&eryday a!!lication of isolated systems of
functioning. :ince relationshi!s "hich e,ist on the le&el of technicality bet"een one technical ob+ect and another are
hori<ontal as "ell as &ertical, the *ind of *no"ledge arri&ed at by determinations of genus and s!ecies is not
suitable. 'e shall try to indicate in "hat sense the relationshi! bet"een technical ob+ect is transducti&e.
;18;
The technical ob+ect as such is not anterior to its o"n becoming but it is !resent at e&ery stage of its
becoming. The technical ob+ect is a unit of becoming. The !etrol engine is not any !articular, gi&en
engine in time and s!ace4 it is the fact that there is a se@uence, a continuity, "hich e,tends from the
first engines to those "hich "e *no" and to those still in e&olution. As a conse@uence, +ust as in the
case of !hylogenetic se@uences, any !articular stage of e&olution contains "ithin itself dynamic
structures and systems "hich are at the basis of any e&olution of forms. The technical being e&ol&es
by con&ergence and by ada!tion to itself4 it is unified from "ithin according to a !rinci!le of
internal resonance. The automobile engine of the !resent day is not a descendant of the 191) engine
sim!ly because the 191) engine "as the one "hich our ancestors built. or is it a descendent of the
latter because of greater im!ro&ement in relation to use. 0ndeed, for certain uses the 191) engine is
su!erior to a 1958 engine. For e,am!le, it can "ithstand a high degree of heating "ithout sei<ing or
lea*ing, because it is constructed "ith a considerably greater degree of looseness and "ithout
fragile alloys such as "hite metal4 it is also more autonomous, because of its magneto ignition. (ld
engines still function on fishing boats "ithout brea*ing do"n after being ta*en o&er from "orn;out
cars. The !resent;day car;engine can be defined as !osterior to the 191) engine only through an
internal e,amination of its systems of o!eration and of its formal construction in the light of those
systems of o!eration. 0n the modern engine, each critical !iece is so connected "ith the rest by
reci!rocal e,changes of energy that it cannot be other than it is. The sha!e of cylinder, the sha!e
and si<e of the &al&es and the sha!e of the !iston are all !art of the same system in "hich a
multitude of reci!rocal e,changes of energy that it cannot be other than it is. The sha!e of cylinder,
the sha!e and si<e of the &al&es and the sha!e of the !iston are all !art of the same system in "hich
a multitude of reci!rocal causalities e,ist. To the sha!e of these elements there corres!onds a
com!ression ratio "hich itself re@uires a determined degree of s!ar* ad&ance4 the sha!e of the
cylinder;head and the metal of "hich it is made !roduce, in relation to all the other elements of the
cycle, a certain tem!erature in the s!ar* !lug electrodes4 this tem!erature in turn affects the
characteristics of the ignition and, as a result, the "hole cycle. 0t could be said that the modern
engine is a concrete engine and that the old engine "as abstract. 0n the old engine each element
comes into !lay at a certain moment in the cycle and, then, it is su!!osed to ha&e no effect on the
other elements4 the different !arts of the engine are li*e indi&iduals "ho could be thought of as
"or*ing each in his turn "ithout their e&er *no"ing each other.
This is &ery much ho" the functioning of thermal engines is e,!lained in the classroom4 each !art is
isolated from the rest in geometric s!ace !artes e,tra !artes, li*e the lines of the diagram on the
blac*board. The early engine is a logical assembly of elements defined by their total and single
;19;
function. Each element can best accom!lish its !articular function if it is li*e a !erfectly finished
instrument that is com!letely oriented to"ards the accom!lishment of that function. A !ermanent
e,change of energy bet"een t"o elements may be seen as an im!erfection if this e,change is not
!art of their theoretical functioning. Also, there e,ists a !rimiti&e form of the technical ob+ect, its
abstract form,in "hich each theoretical and material unity is treated as an absolute that has an
intrinsic !erfection of its o"n that needs to be constituted as a closed system in order to function. 0n
this case, the integration of the !articular unit into the ensemble in&ol&es a series of !roblems to be
resol&ed, !roblems that are called technical but "hich, in fact, are !roblems concerning the
com!atibility of already gi&en ensembles.
These already gi&en ensembles ought to be maintained and, in s!ite of their reci!rocal influences,
!reser&ed. Then there a!!ear !articular structures "hich, in the case of each of their constituent
units, "e might call defence structures: the cylinder;head of the thermal internal combustion engine
bristles "ith cooling gills s!ecially de&elo!ed in the &al&e region "hich are sub+ect to intense
changes in heat and high !ressures. 0n early engines, the cooling gills are as it "ere e,traneously
added on to cylinder and cylinder;head "hich, in theory, are geometrically cylindrical: they fulfil a
single function only, that of cooling. 0n recent engines, these gills ha&e an added function of a
mechanical *ind, that of !re&enting the buc*ling of the cylinder;head under gaseous thrust. 0n these
conditions, it is im!ossible to distinguish the &olumetric unit Cthe cylinder or cylinder;headD from
the heat;dissi!ation unit. 0f one "ere to grind or sa" off the cylinder gills in an air;cooled engine,
the &olumetric unit constituted by the cylinder alone "ould no longer be &iable, not e&en as
&olumetric unit4 it "ould buc*le under gaseous !ressure. The &olumetric and mechanical unit has
become co;e,tensi&e "ith the heat;dis!ersal unit because the structure of the "hole is bi&alent.
These gills "or*ing "ith currents of air from outside effect changes in tem!erature and so
constitute a cooling surface. 0n so far as they are !art of the cylinder, these same gills limit the si<e
of the combustion chamber by !reser&ing its sha!e and ma*ing it unnecessary to use as much metal
as a non;ribbed shell "ould re@uire. The de&elo!ment of the uni@ue structure is not a com!romise
but a concomitance and con&ergence4 a ribbed cylinder;head can be thinner than a smooth cylinder;
head "ith the same rigidity. 0n addition, a thin cylinder;head allo"s for more efficient thermal
changes than "ould be !ossible "ith a thic* one. The bi&alent structure of the gill;rib im!ro&es
cooling not only by increasing the heat;change surface Cthis is the &ery function of the gill @ua gillD
but also by ma*ing !ossible a thinner cylinder;head Cand this is the function of the gill as ribD.
Therefore the technical !roblem has to do "ith the con&ergence of structures into a structural unity
;2);
rather than "ith the see*ing of com!romises bet"een conflicting re@uirements. 0f, in the case in
@uestion, a conflict bet"een the t"o as!ects of a single structure is to continue, it can only be
!ossible in so far as the !ositioning of ribs in the interests of ma,imum rigidity is not necessarily
that "hich best contributes to ma,imum cooling by facilitating the flo" of air bet"een the gills
"hile the &ehicle is running. 0n that case, the ma*er can be obliged to settle for a mi,ed and
im!erfect design: if the gill;ribs are arranged for the best cooling !ossible, they should ha&e to be
hea&ier and more rigid than if they "ere mere gills. 0f, on the other hand, they are so arranged as
!erfectly to sol&e the !roblem of !ro&iding rigidity, they ha&e a larger surface, so as to com!ensate,
by an e,tension of the surface, for the slo"ing do"n of air currents in the heat;change !rocess.
Finally, there can e&en be a structural com!romise bet"een the t"o forms in the &ery sha!e of the
gills4 this "ould in&ol&e a more com!le, de&elo!ment than "ould be necessary if a single function
"ere ta*en as the goal of the structure.
This *ind of di&ergence of functional aims is a residue of abstract design in the technical ob+ect, and
the !rogress of a technical ob+ect is definable in terms of the !rogressi&e reduction of this margin
bet"een functions in !luri&alent structures. 0t is such a con&ergence that gi&es the technical ob+ect
its s!ecific identity because, at any gi&en time, an indefinite !lurality of functional systems is not
!ossible. Technical s!ecies are a great deal more restricted in number than the destined uses of
technical ob+ects. $uman needs di&ersify to infinity, but directions of con&ergence for technical
s!ecies are finite in number.
The technical ob+ect e,ists, then, as a s!ecific ty!e that is arri&ed at at the end of a con&ergent
series. This series goes from the abstract mode to the concrete mode: it tends to"ards a state at
"hich the technical being becomes a system that is entirely coherent "ith itself and entirely unified.
II: Conditions of Technical Evolution
'hat are the reasons for the con&ergence manifest in the e&olution of technical structuresJ There
are beyond doubt a certain number of e,trinsic causes, in !articular those "hich lead to the
!roduction of standardi<ed units and re!lacement !arts. At the same time, e,trinsic causes are no
more !o"erful than those "hich lead to the multi!lication of ty!es in res!onse to an infinite &ariety
of needs. 0f technical ob+ects e&ol&e in the direction of a small number of s!ecific ty!es it is by
&irtue of internal necessity and not as a conse@uence of economic influences or re@uirements of a
!ractical nature. 0t is not the !roduction;line "hich !roduces standardi<ation4 rather it is intrinsic
standardi<ation "hich ma*es the !roduction line !ossible. Any attem!t to disco&er the reason for
;21;
the formation of s!ecific ty!es of technical ob+ect in the mo&ement from manual !roduction to
industrial !roduction "ould be based on the fallacy of mista*ing the conse@uence for the condition4
the formation, of stable ty!es is "hat ma*es industriali<ation !ossible. Manual trade corres!onds to
the !rimiti&e stage of the e&olution of technical ob+ects;;that is, to the abstract stage. 0ndustry
corres!onds to the concrete stage. There is nothing essential about the made;to;measure as!ect of
the artisan?s hand;craft. This deri&es from another, though essential, as!ect of the abstract technical
ob+ect: its being based on an analytical organi<ation "hich al"ays lea&es the "ay clear for ne"
!ossibilities, !ossibilities "hich are the e,terior manifestation of an interior contingency. 0n the
encounter bet"een the coherence of technical "or* and the coherence of the system of industrial
needs, it is the coherence of utili<ation that !re&ails. The reason for this is that the made;to;measure
ob+ect is one "hich has no intrinsic limits4 its norms are im!osed from "ithout4 it fails to achie&e its
o"n internal coherence4 it is not a system of the necessary4 it corres!onds to an o!en system of
re@uirements.
(n the other hand, the ob+ect has ac@uired its coherence on the industrial le&el, "here the system of
su!!ly and demand is less coherent than the ob+ect?s o"n system. eeds are moulded by the
industrial technical ob+ect, "hich thereby ac@uires the !o"er to sha!e a ci&ili<ation. %tili<ation
becomes an ensemble out to the measure of the technical ob+ect. 'hen the fancy of some indi&idual
demands a made;to;measure automobile, the best thing the ma*er can do is to ta*e an assembly line
engine and an assembly line chassis and modify a fe" of their e,ternal characteristics, adding
decorati&e features and e,tra accessories as su!erficial ad+uncts to the automobile as the essential
technical ob+ect. (nly non;essential as!ects can be made to measure and this is so because they are
contingent.
The relationshi! bet"een non;essential as!ects of the technical ty!e and its true nature is negati&e
in *ind. The more a car must meet the critical needs of its user the more its essential features are
encumbered by an e,ternal bondage. The body;"or* becomes loaded "ith accessories and the
sha!e no longer a!!ro,imates a streamlined structure. The made;to;measure feature is not only non;
essential, it "or*s against the essence of the technical being, li*e a dead "eight im!osed from
"ithout. The car?s centre of gra&ity is raised, and bul* increased.
$o"e&er, it is not enough to affirm that the e&olution of the technical ob+ect ta*es !lace by a
!assage from an analytic to a synthetic order "hich conditions the !assage from manual to
industrial !roduction. E&en if such an e&olution is necessary it is not automatic, and it is a!!ro!riate
;22;
that the causes of the e&olutionary mo&ement should be in&estigated. These causes reside
essentially in the im!erfection of the abstract technical ob+ect. >ecause of its analytic character, this
ob+ect uses more material and re@uires more construction "or*. Though sim!ler from the logical
!oint of &ie", technically it is more com!licated because it is made from a bringing together of
se&eral com!lete systems. 0t is more fragile than the concrete technical ob+ect, because, in the case
of a brea*;do"n, the relati&e isolation of each system constituting a "or*ing sub;system threatens
the conser&ation of the other systems. Thus, in an internal combustion engine, the business of
cooling could be carried out by an entirely autonomous sub;system. 0f this sub;system fails to
function, the engine can be ruined. 0f, on the other hand, cooling is a unified effect of the "or*ing
of the ensemble, the functioning of the engine and the cooling of it are inse!arable. 0n this sense, an
air;cooled engine is more concrete than an engine cooled by "ater. Thermal infrared radiation and
con&ection are effects that cannot be !re&ented. They are necessitated by the &ery "or*ing of the
engine. 'ater cooling is semi;concrete: if it "ere entirely effected by thermo;sy!hon it "ould be
almost as concrete as direct air cooling4 but the use of a "ater;!um! "hich recei&es its energy from
the engine by means of a dri&e;belt ma*es this cooling system more abstract in character. 'ater;
cooling can be said to be concrete in so far as it is a security system Cthe !resence of "ater ma*es
!ossible an arbitrary cooling for a fe" minutes because of the absor!tion of heat energy through
&a!ori<ation if there is failure in transmission from engine to !um!D. 0n normal functioning,
ho"e&er, this is an abstract system. Moreo&er, an element of abstraction remains in the !ossibility
that there may be no "ater in the cooling system. 7i*e"ise, ignition by current transformer and by
battery is more abstract than magneto;ignition, and this is more abstract than ignition by air
com!ression and fuel in+ection used in 5iesel engines. 0n this sense, it may be said that an engine
"ith magnetic fly;"heel and air cooling is more concrete than the engine in an ordinary car. 0n it
e&ery unit !erforms a &ariety of roles. 0t is not sur!rising that the scooter should be the result of an
air!lane engineer?s "or*4 "hereas the automobile can retain residues of abstraction Ce.g. "ater;
cooling, ignition by battery and current transformerD a&iation is forced to !roduce technical ob+ects
of the most concrete sort in order to increase functional de!endability and to reduce dead "eight.
There e,ists therefore a con&ergence of !urely technical re@uirements and of economic constraints,
such as a decrease in the amount of ra" material or of labour or of energy;consum!tion during use.
The ob+ect ought not to be self;destructi&e4 it should maintain itself in stable o!eration for as long
as !ossible. 0t seems that of the t"o ma+or causes of technical e&olution, the first economic, the
other !urely technical, it is the second "hich is of greater im!ortance. 0ndeed, economic causes are
found e&ery"here. >ut areas of most acti&e !rogress are those in "hich technical conditions
;2/;
out"eigh economic conditions Ce.g. a&iation and "ar materialD. Economic causes, then, are not
!ure4 they in&ol&e a diffuse net"or* of moti&ations and !references "hich @ualify and e&en re&erse
them Ce.g. the taste for lu,ury, the desire for no&elty "hich is so e&ident among consumers, and
commercial !ro!agandaD. This is so much the case that certain tendencies to"ards com!lication
come to light in areas "here the technical ob+ect is *no"n through social myths and o!inion;fads
and is not a!!reciated in itself. For e,am!le, certain car;manufacturers offer as a great im!ro&ement
a su!erabundance of automatisms in accessories or a systematic recourse to !o"er;steeringN e&en
"hen direct steering in no "ay e,ceeds the dri&er?s strength4 some of them go so far as to use the
su!!ression of direct starting by cran*;handle as a sales !itch and as a !roof of !rogress, e&en
though the result is to render functioning more analytical by ma*ing it de!end on the use of
electrical energy in the storage batteries. Although there is a technical com!lication here, the ma*er
!retends that the su!!ression in @uestion is a sim!lification !ro&ing the modern character of the car
and ma*ing obsolete the stereoty!e idea Can un!leasant one, at thatD of the difficult start. This casts
nuances of ridicule on other cars ;;those that ha&e a starting handle;; "hich are thereby outmoded
and made obsolete by an ad&ertising gimmic*. The automobile, this technical ob+ect that is so
charged "ith !sychic and social im!lications, is not suitable for technical !rogress: "hate&er
ad&ances there are in the automobile come from neighbouring areas, such as a&iation, shi!!ing, and
trans!ort truc*s.
The actual e&olution of technical ob+ects does not ha!!en in an absolutely continuous manner4 it
does not ha!!en in an absolutely discontinuous manner either: it in&ol&es stages that are definable
by the fact that they bring into being successi&e systems of coherence. There can be an e&olution of
a continuous *ind bet"een the stages that indicate structural reorgani<ation4 it results from
im!ro&ements in detail resulting from "hat usage re&eals and from the !roduction of ra" materials,
or from better;ada!ted attachments. (&er the !ast thirty years the automobile has been im!ro&ing
because of the use of metals better ada!ted to the conditions of its use, because of increased
com!ression;ratios resulting from research into motor;fuels, and because of the study of the !recise
sha!e of cylinders and cylinder;heads in terms of the !henomenon of detonation. The !roblem of
achie&ing combustion "ithout detonation can only be sol&ed by s!ecific research into the cause of
the sound "a&e inside a !etrol mi,ture at different !ressures and tem!eratures, using different
&olumes and starting from set !oints of ignition. >ut an attem!t such as this does not lead to direct
uses: the e,!erimental "or* has still to be done and such trudging to"ards im!ro&ement has its
o"n technicalness. The reforms in structure "hich allo" the technical ob+ect to re&eal its o"n
s!ecific character are the sheer essentials in the becoming of this ob+ect.
;29;
E&en if there "ere no scientific ad&ances during a certain !eriod of time, the !rogress of the
technical ob+ect to"ards its o"n s!ecificity could continue4 the !rinci!le of !rogress is none other
than the "ay in "hich the ob+ect causes and conditions itself in its o!eration and in the feed;bac*
effect of its o!eration u!on utili<ation. The technical ob+ect, the issue of an abstract "or* of
organi<ation of sub;sets, is the theatre of a number of relationshi!s of reci!rocal causalty.
These relationshi!s ma*e it !ossible for the ob+ect to disco&er obstacles "ithin its o"n o!eration on
the basis of certain limits in the conditions of its use: in the incom!atibilities that arise from the
!rogressi&e saturation of the system of sub;sets there is disco&erable an indefiniteness in
limitations, and the transcending of these limitations is "hat constitutes !rogress
2
. >ut because of
its &ery nature, such a transcending of limitations can only be arri&ed at by a lea!, by the
modification of internal dis!osition of functions, by a rearrangement of their system4 "hat "as an
obstacle should become a means of achie&ement. Ta*e for e,am!le the e&olution of the electronic
tube, of "hich the radio;tube is the most common *ind. 0nternal obstacles !re&enting the !ro!er
functioning of the triode led to structural im!ro&ements "hich resulted in the current series of
tubes. (ne of the most a"*"ard !henomena in the triode "as the critical mutual ca!acitance "ithin
the system formed by the artificial grid and the anode. This ca!acitance made !ossible a
ca!acitati&e cou!ling bet"een the t"o electrodes "ithout ris* of generating self;oscillation. This
una&oidable internal cou!ling had to be com!ensated for by e,ternal assembly !rocedures,
!articularly through a neutrali<ing effected by the use of an assembly of symmetrical tubes "ith
cross;connected anode;grid cou!ling.
To resol&e the difficulty rather than sim!ly e&ade it, an electrostatic shroud "as introduced into the
interior of the triode bet"een the artificial grid and the anode. o", this ad+unction does more than
!ro&ide the ad&antage afforded by an electric screen. The screen cannot merely fulfil the decou!ling
function for "hich it "as intended. 'hen it is !laced in the s!ace bet"een grid and anode, its
difference in &oltage Crelati&e to grid and anode in turnD causes it to act as a grid relati&e to the
anode and as an anode relati&e to the grid. 0ts &oltage;charge must be made higher than that of the
grid and lo"er than that of the anode4 other"ise either there is no transfer of electrons or else
electrons mo&e to the screen and not to the anode. Thus the screen !lays its !art in the transference
of electrons from anode to grid. The screen itself is both grid and anode. These t"o !aired functions
are not intentionally brought about4 they are an e,tra that ha!!ens of its o"n accord as a result of
2 These are conditions of indi&iduation of a system.
;25;
the character of the system "hich the technical ob+ect !resents. For the screen to be introduced into
the triode "ithout u!setting its o!eration, along "ith its electrostatic function it has to fulfil certain
other functions relating to the electrons in transit. -onsidered as a sim!le electrostatic shroud, it
could be raised to any &oltage "hate&er, as long as the &oltage is continuous, but then it "ould
u!set the dynamic functioning of the triode. 0t necessarily becomes an acceleration grid for the flu,
of electrons and !lays a !ositi&e role in the dynamic functioning. 0t greatly increases internal
resistance and, conse@uently, the coefficient of am!lification if it is raised to a s!ecific &oltage
determined by its e,act !osition in the grid;anode s!ace. :o the tetrode is no longer merely a triode
lac*ing electrostatic connection bet"een anode and artificial grid4 the tetrode is a stee!ly cur&ed
electronic tube "hich ma*es !ossible a &oltage increase in the order of 2)), instead of /) to 5) for
the triode.
This disco&ery, ne&ertheless, entailed a dra"bac*. 0n the tetrode, the !honemon of secondary
emission of electrons by the anode !ro&ed a"*"ard in that it tended to send bac* to the screen all
of the electrons coming from the cathode and by!assing the artificial grid C!rimary electronsD.
>ecause of this, Tellegen introduced a ne" screen bet"een the first screen and the anode. This is a
"ide;meshed grid "hich, "hen brought to negati&e &oltage in relation to anode and screen
Cgenerally the &oltage of the cathode or e&en still more negati&eD, does not hinder accelerated
electrons from the cathode from arri&ing at the anode, but acts as a negati&ely !olari<ed artificial
grid and !re&ents the return of secondary electrons in the o!!osite direction. 0n this "ay, the
!enthode is an outcome of the tetrode, in the sense that it com!rises a su!!lementary artificial grid
"ith fi,ed &oltage "hich com!letes the dynamic functioning system. :till, the same effect of
irre&ersibility can be obtained by a concentration of electron;flo" in beams. 0f the bars of the
accelerating grid;screen are !laced in the electric shado" of the artificial grid, there is a great
reduction of the !henomenon of secondary emission. Furthermore, the ca!acity &ariation bet"een
cathode and grid screen in the course of functioning becomes &ery "ea* C).2 ufd instead of 1.8 ufdD
"hich !ractically su!!resses all fre@uency drift "hen the tube is used in an oscillator circuit.
-onse@uently, "e might say that the tetrode?s functioning system is not !erfectly com!lete in itself
"hen "e concei&e of the screen as a sim!le electrostatic shrouding, that is, as an enclosed s!ace
*e!t at any constant &oltage "hatsoe&er. :uch a definition "ould be too broad and too o!en, in that
it re@uires a multi!le functional incor!oration of the screen "ithin the electronic tube;;"hich is
brought about by reducing the margin of indetermination of the continuous &oltage to be a!!led to
the screen Cto ma*e it an acceleratorD and by its !osition in the grid;anode s!ace. A first reduction
consists in s!ecifying that the continuous tension should be intermediate bet"een the &oltage of the
grid and the &oltage of the anode. The result is a structure "hich, in relation to the acceleration of
;28;
!rimary electrons, is relati&ely stable but "hich, in relation to the tra+ectory of secondary electrons
coming from the anode, is relati&ely unstable. :uch a structure is too o!en and too abstract. 0t can
be closed in a "ay that ma*es it corres!ond to the needed stable o!eration either by means of a
su!!lementary structure Ce.g. the su!!ressor or third gridD or by a more !recise !lacing of the grid;
screen in relation to the other elements, by aligning its bars "ith those of the artificial grid. 0t should
be noted that the ad+unction of a third grid is e@ui&alent to the ad+unction of a higher degree of
determination to the !lacing of the grid screen. The functional character of structures that already
e,ist in reci!rocal causality is re&ersible "ith the functional character of a su!!lementary structure.
-losing by su!!lementary determination the causality system in e,tant structures is e@ui&alent to
adding a ne" structure that is es!ecially designed to !erform a determined function. There is a
re&ersibility of function and structure in order to regulate their functioning "hich renders the ob+ect
more concrete because this stabili<es its functioning "ithout the addition of a ne" structure. A
tetrode "ith directed beams is the e@ui&alent of a !enthode4 it is e&en su!erior in its function as
am!lifier of the !o"er of acoustic fre@uencies because it !roduces a lo"er le&el of distortion. The
ad+unction of a su!!lementary structure is not a real !rogress for the technical ob+ect unless that
structure is concretely incor!orated into the ensemble of the dynamic systems of its o!eration. 0t is
because of this that "e can say that the tetrode "ith directed beams is more concrete than the
!enthode.
'e must not confuse an increase in the concrete character of the technical ob+ect "ith any "idening
of its !ossibilities resulting from a greater com!lication of its structure. For e,am!le, a t"in;grid
tube Cthat allo"s for the se!arate action of t"o mutually inde!endent control grids in a single
cathode;anode s!aceD is no more concrete than a triode. 0t is of the same order as the triode and
could be re!laced by t"o inde!endent triodes "hose anodes and cathodes "ould be e,teriorly
united but "hose control;grids "ould be left inde!endent. (n the other hand, the beam;directed
tethrode is more fully e&ol&ed than the 7ee de Forest triode, in that it is a reali<ation of the
de&elo!ment or an im!ro&ement of the !rimiti&e system for modulating the flu, of electrons "ith
fi,ed or &ariable electric fields.
The !rimiti&e triode has a greater degree of indetermination than modern electronic tubes because
interactions bet"een structural elements are not defined, "ith the single e,ce!tion of the
modulatory function of the electric field !roduced by the control grid. The successi&e !recisions
and closures a!!lied to this system transform into stable functions the disad&antages that arise of
their o"n accord in the course of functioning. 0n the necessity for the negati&e !olari<ation of the
;2=;
grid in order to counteract heating and secondary emission lies the !ossibility of di&iding the
!rimiti&e grid into a control grid and an accelerating grid. 0n a tube containing an acceleration grid,
the negati&e !olari<ation of the control grid can be reduced to a fe" &olts, to one &olt in certain
cases. The control grid becomes almost entirely a control grid4 its function is more effecti&e and the
slo!e of the tube increases. The control grid is brought closer to the cathode "hile, on the other
hand, the secondary grid, or screen, is mo&ed further a"ay and is !ositioned at a!!ro,imately an
e@ual distance from the anode and the cathode. At the same time, the functioning becomes more
!recise4 the dynamic system shuts +ust li*e an a,iomatic system "hich is saturated. 0t used to be
!ossible to regulate the slo!e of the !rimary triodes by a !otentiometric &ariation of the heater
&oltage of the cathode acting on the density of the flu, of electrons4 this !ossibility hardly a&ailable
any longer "ith !enthodes that ha&e a stee! slo!e, because an a!!reciable &ariation of the heater
&oltage "ould !rofoundly alter their characteristics.
0t seems contradictory, surely, to affirm that the e&olution of a technical ob+ect de!ends u!on a
!rocess of differentiation Cta*e for e,am!le, the command grid in the triode di&iding into three grids
in the !enthodeD and, at the same time, a !rocess of concreti<ation, "ith each structural element
filling se&eral functions instead of one. >ut in fact these t"o !rocesses are tied one to the other.
5ifferentiation is !ossible because this &ery differentiation ma*es it !ossible to integrate into the
"or*ing of the "hole;;and this in a manner conscious and calculated "ith a &ie" to the necessary
result;; correlati&e effects of o&erall functioning "hich "ere only !artially corrected by !alliati&e
measures unconnected "ith the !erformance of the !rinci!al function.
A similar *ind of e&olution is noticeable in the change bet"een the -roo*es tube and the -oolidge
tube. The former is not only less effecti&e that the latter4 it is also less stable in its functioning and
more com!le,. The -roo*es tube uses cathode;anode &oltage to se!arate molecules or atoms of
monoatomic gas into !ositi&e ions and electrons and then to accelerate the electrons and to gi&e
them a critical *inetic energy before collision "ith the anticathode. 0n the -oolidge tube, on the
other hand, the function of !roducing electrons is dissociated from that of accelerating electrons
already !roduced4 the !roduction is caused by a thermoelectric effect C"hich is im!ro!erly called
thermoionic, no doubt because it re!laces the !roduction of electrons by ioni<ationD and the
acceleration ta*es !lace later4 thus, the functions are !urified by their dissociation and the
corres!onding structures are at the same time more distinct and more !roducti&e. The hot cathode of
the -oolidge tube is more !roducti&e from the !oint of &ie" of structure and function than the cold
cathode of the -roo*es tube. :till, loo*ed at from the electrostatic !oint of &ie", it is e@ually !erfect
;28;
as a cathode, and all the more so because it com!rises a rather narro"ly locali<ed area for
generating thermoelectrons and because the surface sha!e of the cathode surrounding the filament
insures an electrostatic gradient "hich allo"s for a focusing of electrons in a thin beam falling on
the anode Ca fe" s@uare millimeters in area in the tubes of todayD. 0n the -roo*es tube, on the other
hand, the area for the generating of electrons is not sufficiently narro"ly defined to ma*e !ossible a
really effecti&e focusing of the beam to obtain a source of O;rays that a!!roaches an ideal !oint of
con&ergence.
>esides, the !resence of ioni<able gas in the -roo*es tube in&ol&ed more than the !roblem of
instability Cthe hardening of the tube by the im!ingement of molecules on the electrode, as "ell as
the need for arranging &al&es through "hich gas may be re;introduced into the tubeD. The !resence
of gas also in&ol&ed an essential disad&antage, in that gas molecules !resented an obstacle to
already !roduced electrons in the course of their acceleration in the electric field bet"een cathode
and anode. This disad&antage is a ty!ical e,am!le of the *inds of antagonism that comes into !lay
in the e&olution of abstract technical ob+ect: the &ery gas "hich is necessary for the !roduction of
electrons to be accelerated is an obstacle to their acceleration. This antagonism disa!!ears in the
-oolidge tube, "hich has a high &acuum. 0t disa!!ears because the grou!s of synergetic functions
are distributed in defined structures, each structure gaining by this redistribution a greater functional
!roducti&ity and an im!ro&ed structural !recision. This is so in the case of the cathode, "hich
instead of being a sim!le s!herical or hemis!herical case made of any !articular metal becomes an
ensemble made of a !arabolic bulb at the centre of "hich there is a filament !roducing
thermoelectrons. The anode, "hich in the -roo*es tube occu!ied any !osition in regard to the
-athode, becomes geometrically identified "ith the earlier anticathode. The ne" anode;anticathode
!lays t"o synergetic roles4 in the first case, it !roduces a difference in !otential relati&e to the
cathode Cthis is its anode roleD4 in the second, it constitutes an obstacle against "hich accelerated
electrons collide as a result of a dro! in !otential, transforming their *inetic energy to light energy
of &ery short "a&e;length.
These t"o functions are synergetic because it is only after they ha&e undergone the entire dro! in
!otential in the electric field that the electrons ha&e ac@uired ma,imum *inetic energy. Therefore,
only at this moment and !lace is it !ossible to dra" from them the greatest !ossible amount of
electromagnetic energy by suddenly sto!!ing them. The ne" anode;anticathode then !lays a role in
the e&acuation of the heat !roduced Cdue to the inefficiency of the transformation of *inetic energy
of electrons to electromagnetic energy, about 1PD, and this ne" function is fulfilled in !erfect
;29;
agreement "ith the t"o !receding functions. A !late of hard;to;melt metal such as tungsten is
embedded in the large be&elled co!!er bar "hich forms the anode;anticathode at the !oint of im!act
of the beam of electrons. The heat de&elo!ed on this !late is conducted to the outside of the tube by
the co!!er bar "hich is e,tended in cooling flanges on the outside.
The three functions are synergetic because the electric !ro!erties of the co!!er bar, "hich is a good
conductor of electricity, are on a !ar "ith the thermic !ro!erties of the same bar, "hich is a good
conductor of heat. >esides, the be&elled section of the co!!er bar is e@ually suited to its Q functions
as target;obstacle CanodeD, as accelerator of electrons CanodeD and as e&acuator of the heat
!roduced. 0n these conditions one could say that the -oolidge tube is a -roo*es tube that is both
sim!lified and concreti<ed and in "hich each structure fulfills many functions "hich are synergetic
in nature. The im!erfection of the -roo*es tube "ith its abstract and artisanal character, "hich
ma*e necessary fre@uent ad+ustments as it functions, arose from the antagonism of functions filled
by the rarefied gas;;the gas "hich is su!!ressed in the -oolidge tube. 0ts indistinct structure
corres!onding to ioni<ation is "holly re!laced by the ne" thermoelectronic characteristic of the
cathode, "hich is !erfectly distinct.
Thus, these t"o e,am!les tend to sho" that differentiation !roceeds in the same direction as the
condensation of multi!le functions in the same structure, because the differentiation of structures at
the core of a system of reci!rocal casualties allo"s for the su!!ression Cby integration into the
functioningD of secondary effects that "ere formerly obstacles. The s!eciali<ation of each structure
is a s!eciali<ation of !ositi&e, functional, synthetic unity "hich is free of unloo*ed;for secondary
effects that amorti<e this functioning. The technical ob+ect im!ro&es through the interior
redistribution of functions into com!atible unities, eliminating ris* or the antagonism of !rimiti&e
di&ision. :!eciali<ation is not achie&ed function by function but synergy by synergy. "hat
constitutes the real system in a technical ob+ect is not the indi&idual function but the synergetic
grou! of functions. 0t is because of the search for synergies that the concreti<ation of the technical
ob+ect can be seen as an as!ect of sim!lification. The concrete technical ob+ect is one "hich is no
longer di&ided against itself, one in "hich no secondary effect either com!romises the functioning
of the "hole or is omitted from that functioning. 0n this Q "ay and for this reason, in a technical
ob+ect "hich has become concrete, a function can be fulfilled by a number of structures that are
associated synergetically, "hereas in the !rimiti&e and abstract technical ob+ect each structure is
designed to fulfil a s!ecific function and generally a single one. The essence of the concreti<ation of
a technical ob+ect is the organi<ing of functional sub;systems into the total functioning. :tarting
from this !rinci!le, "e can understand !recisely ho" the redistribution of functions is brought about
;/);
in a net"or* of different structures, in abstract as much as in concrete ob+ects. Each structure fulfils
a number of functions4 but in the abstract technical ob+ect each structure fulfils only one essential
and !ositi&e function that is integrated into the functioning of the "hole, "hereas in the concrete
technical ob+ect all functions fulfilled by a !articular structure are !ositi&e, essential, and integrated
into the functioning of the "hole. Those marginal conse@uences of functioning "hich in the abstract
technical ob+ect are eliminated or attenuated by correcti&es, become e&olutionary stages or !ositi&e
as!ects of the concrete ob+ect. The functioning scheme incor!orates marginal as!ects, and effects
"hich "ere of no &alue or "ere !re+udicial become lin*s in the chain of functioning.
This !rogress assumes that each structure is consciously endo"ed by its ma*er "ith characteristics
"hich corres!ond to all the com!onents of its functioning, as if an artificial ob+ect differed in no
"ay from a !hysical system studied in all *no"able as!ects of energy e,change and of !hysical and
chemical transformations. 0n the concrete ob+ect each !iece is not merely a thing designed by its
ma*er to !erform a determined function4 rather, it is !art of a system in "hich a multitude of forces
are e,ercised and in "hich effects are !roduced that are inde!endent of the design !lan. The
concrete technical ob+ect is a !hysicochemical system in "hich mutual actions ta*e !lace according
to all the la"s of science. The ultimate goal of the design can only be !erfectly reali<ed in the
construction of the ob+ect if it identified "ith uni&ersal scientific *no"ledge. (ne must insist that
the *no"ledge in @uestion must be uni&ersal, because the fact that the technical ob+ect belongs to
the class of artefacts "hich meet a certain s!ecific human need in no "ay limits or defines the ty!e
of !hysicochemlcal actions "hich can occur in this ob+ect or bet"een this ob+ect and the outside
"orld. 'hate&er difference e,ists bet"een a technical ob+ect and a !hysicochemical system studied
as an ob+ect e,ists only in the im!erfection of science. The *inds of scientific *no"ledge that ser&e
as a guide to !redict the uni&ersality of mutual actions ta*ing !lace in a technical system are by no
means free of im!erfection. They do not ma*e !ossible an absolute and rigorously !recise forecast
of all effects. This is "hy there is a certain ga! bet"een the system of technical intentions related to
a !articular goal and the scientific system of the *no"ledge of causal interactions that achie&e this
goal. The scientific ob+ect is ne&er com!letely *no"n. For this &ery reason, it is ne&er com!letely
concrete either, e,ce!t in the rarest of chance occurrences. The ultimate assignment of functions to
structures and the e,act calculation of structures could only be accom!lished if scientific *no"ledge
of all !henomena that could !ossibly occur in the technical ob+ect "ere fully ac@uired. :ince this is
not the case, there continues to e,ist a clear difference bet"een the technical system of the ob+ect
Ccom!rising the re!resentation of a human goalD and the scientific !icture of the !henomena to
"hich it gi&es rise Ccom!rising only systems of efficient causality, "hether mutual or recurrentD.
;/1;
-oncreti<ation of technical ob+ects is conditioned by the narro"ing of the ga! se!arating science
from technics. The !rimiti&e artisanal !hase is characteri<ed by a "ea* correlation bet"een the
scientific and the technical, "hile the industrial !hase is characteri<ed by im!ro&ed correlation.
0ndustrial construction of a s!ecific technical ob+ect is !ossible as soon as the ob+ect in @uestion
becomes concrete, "hich means that it is understood in an almost identical "ay from the !oint of
&ie" of design !lan and scientific outloo*. This e,!lains "hy certain ob+ects ha&e been ca!able of
being constructed industrially long before others. The "indlass, the hoist, tac*le;bloc*s and the
hydrolic !ress are all technical ob+ects in "hich such !henomena as friction, electri<ation,
electrodynamic induction, and thermal and chemical e,changes can, in the ma+ority of cases, be
ignored "ithout any !ossibility of the ob+ect?s being destroyed or if its functioning im!ro!erly.
-lassical rational mechanics ma*es !ossible a scientific understanding of the functioning of those
ob+ects "hich "e call sim!le machines4 ne&ertheless, in the se&enteenth century the industrial
construction of a gas;run centrifuge !um! or a thermal engine "ould ha&e been im!ossible. The
first thermal engine to be constructed industrially, e"commer?s, used de!ression only, and the
reason for this "as that the !henomenon of &a!our condensation under cooling influences "as
scientifically *no"n. 7i*e"ise, electrostatic machines ha&e remained artisanal almost to our o"n
day, because, although the !henomena of dielectrical !ro+ection and trans!ort of charges and the
flo" of these charges by -orona effect ha&e been @ualitati&ely *no"n since the eighteenth century
at least, they ha&e ne&er been the ob+ect of &ery rigorous scientific study. After the 'imshurst
machine, the 6an de 1raaf generator itself retains something of the artisanal, for all its great si<e
and increased !o"er.
III: The Rhyth of Technical Pro!ress" Continuous and #inor
Iproveent and $iscontinuous and #ajor Iproveent
The disco&ery of functional synergies is the essential characteristic of !rogress in the de&elo!ment
of the technical ob+ect. :o it is a!!ro!riate that "e should as* oursel&es "hether this disco&ery is
made all at once or in a continuous manner. 0nsofar as the reorgani<ation of structures affects
functioning, it comes about abru!tly, though it may in&ol&e many successi&e ste!s4 so the -oolidge
tube could not ha&e been concei&ed before Fleming?s disco&ery of the !roduction of electrons by a
heated metal. >ut the -oolidge tube "ith its static anode;anticathode is not necessarily the final
&ersion of the tube "hich !roduces O;rays or 1ama rays. 0t is o!en to im!ro&ement and can
bg.a!!ro!r1ated to more !articular uses. For e,am!le, an im!ortant im!ro&ement that allo"s for the
;/2;
disco&ery of a source of O;rays closer to the ideal geometric !oint has been arri&ed at by the use of
an anode in the form of a large !late mounted on an a,is "ithin the tube. This !late can be set in
motion by a magnetic field created by a conductor !laced outside the tube and in relation to "hich
the !late acts as a rotor com!rising an induced circuit. The region of electron im!act becomes a
circular line close to the edge of the co!!er !late and, because of this, it !resents &ery great
!ossibilities of thermal dissi!ation. e&ertheless, statistically and geometrically, the !lace of im!act
is fi,ed in relation to cathode and tube. The O;ray beam therefore deri&es from a geometrically
fi,ed centre, although the anticathode goes by this fi,ed !oint at great s!eed. Tubes "ith a rotating
anode allo" for an increase in !o"er "ithout an increase in the si<e of the area of im!act, and for a
reduction in !o"er. :o, the rotating anode fulfils the functions of s!eeding and sto!!ing electrons as
efficiently as does a fi,ed anode. 0t is more efficient in the business of heat;e&acuation, and this
!ermits an im!ro&ement of the o!tical !ro!erties of the tube for a gi&en !o"er.
(ught "e, for this reason, to consider that the in&ention of the rotating anode brings a structural
concreti<ation to the -oolidge tubeJ o, because its s!ecial role is to lessen a disad&antage "hich
could not be con&erted into a !ositi&e as!ect of the functioning of the "hole. The disad&antage of
the -oolidge tube, the residual antagonism continuing in its functioning, is its lo" efficiency in
con&erting *inetic energy to electromagnetic radiation. 'ithout doubt, this lo" efficiency does not
constitute a direct antagonism bet"een functions, but in !ractice it effects a real antagonism. 0f the
melting tem!eratures of the tungsten !late and of the co!!er bar "ere to be raised infinitely, it
"ould be !ossible to bring to a &ery !recise focus a &ery !o"erful beam of &ery ra!id electrons.
>ut, since in fact the melting !oint of tungsten is fairly @uic*ly reached, "e find that this lo"
efficiency is a limitation "hich !roduces a great amount of heat, so "e must decide to sacrifice the
shar!ness of the beam, or the density of electron;flo", or the s!eed of electrons4 this means that "e
must sacrifice the !unctuality of the O;ray source, the amount of electromagnetic energy radiated,
or the !enetration of the resulting O;rays. 0f only "e could disco&er a means of increasing the
efficiency of energy transformation "hich occurs on the anticathode !late, e&ery characteristic of
the -oolidge tube "ould be im!ro&ed by the elimination or diminution of the most critical
antagonisms in its functioning. CA much "ea*er antagonism consists in the im!ossibility of shar!ly
focusing the beam because of the mutual re!ulsion of electrons "hich are affected by electrical
charges of the same sign4 it could be com!ensated for by means of de&ices for beam;focussing
com!arable to those of cathode ty!e oscillosco!es, of electrostatic lenses, or of the electromagnetics
of electronic microsco!es.D The rotating anode ma*es !ossible the reduction of the conse@uences
of the antagonism bet"een shar!ness and !o"er, and bet"een o!tical and electronic characteristics.
;//;
There are t"o *inds of im!ro&ements, then: those "hich modify the di&ision of functions,
increasing in an essential manner the synergy of functioning, and those "hich "ithout modifying
the di&ision in @uestion diminish the harmful effects of residual o!!ositions. To this order of minor
im!ro&ement belong: a 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. :o, in electronic
tubes, the disco&ery of the increased transmitting !o"er of certain o,ides or of metals such as
thorium has made !ossible the construction of o,ide cathodes that o!erate at a lo"er tem!erature
and absorb less heat energy for the same density of electron flo". Though this im!ro&ement is of
!ractical im!ortance it remains minor, and it is only suitable for certain *inds of electronic tubes
because of the relati&e fragility of the o,ide co&ering. The rotating anode of the high;!o"er
-oolidge tube is a minor im!ro&ement such as the disco&ery of a more highly efficient energy
transformation that "ould made it !ossible to reduce to a fe" hundred "atts the !o"er needed to
accelerate the electrons, "here !resent;day O;ray tubes need many *ilo"atts.
0n this sense, it could be said that minor im!ro&ements ad&ersely affect ma+or im!ro&ements
because they blind us to the real im!erfection of a technical ob+ect that ma*es use of non;essential
de&ices, "hich are not com!letely integrated into the functioning of the "hole, to com!ensate for
real antagonisms. The characteristic !roblems of abstraction become e&ident ane" in the case of
minor im!ro&ements. Thus, the -oolidge tube "ith its rotating anode is less concrete than a tube
"ith static cooling !ro&ided by co!!er bars and flanges in the air. 0f, for "hate&er reason, the anode
rotation sto!s "hile the tube is functioning, the !oint of the anode recei&ing the concentrated beam
of electrons begins to melt almost instantly and the "hole tube is ruined. :uch an analytic !ro!erty
of the functioning therefore ma*es necessary another s!ecies of correcti&es;; security systems
obtained by the conditioning of one o!eration by means of another o!eration. 0n the case +ust
analysed, it is necessary that the generator of anode &oltage should function only if the anode is
already turning. A relay controls the a!!lication of &oltage to the transformer, "hich su!!lies the
anode &oltage for the !assage of current into the circuit of the anode motor. >ut this subordination
does not entirely reduce the analytic distance introduced by the rotating anode de&ice4 the current
can !ass into the anode "ithout an effecti&e turning of the anode, as a result of the deterioration of
a,les for e,am!le. 7i*e"ise, the relay can remain s"itched on e&en "hen the inductor is not sub+ect
to &oltage.
An e,treme com!lication and im!ro&ement of a!!ended systems of security or com!ensation can
;/9;
only tend to"ards the e@ui&alent of the concrete in a technical ob+ect, though it neither attains nor
!re!ares for this, sim!ly because the "ay of concreti<ation has not been chosen. The course of
minor im!ro&ements is one of detours4 useful as they are in certain cases of !ractical use, they
hardly lead to the e&olution of the technical ob+ect. Minor im!ro&ements conceal the true and
essential system of each technical ob+ect beneath a !ile of com!le, !alliati&es4 they encourage a
false a"areness of the continuity of !rogress in technical ob+ects "hile, at the same time,
diminishing the &alue of essention transformations and lessening our sense of urgency about them.
For this reason, continuous minor im!ro&ements !ro&ide no clear boundary in relation to the false
reno&ations "hich commerce re@uires in order to !retend that a recent ob+ect is an im!ro&ement on
the less recent. Minor im!ro&ementsR can be so non;essential as to be hidden by the cyclic rhythm
of sha!es "hich fashion su!er;im!oses on the essential lines of utilitarian ob+ects.
0t is not enough to say, therefore, that the technical ob+ect is one "hich has a s!ecific genesis
!roceeding from the abstract to the concrete. (nce again, it must be s!ecified that this genesis is
achie&ed by essential and discontinuous im!ro&ements that bring about modifications in the internal
system of the technical ob+ect, and do so in lea!s and not along a continuous line. This does not
mean that the de&elo!ment of the technical ob+ect is brought about by chance or that it is
inde!endent of any assignable meaning. (n the contrary, it is minor im!ro&ements "hich to a
certain e,tent come about by chance and obscure by their incoordinated !roliferation the !ure lines
of the essential technical ob+ect. The real stages of im!ro&ement of the technical ob+ect are achie&ed
by mutations, but by mutations that ha&e meaningful direction4 the -roo*es tube !otentially
contains the -oolidge tube, because the &ery intention "hich becomes organi<ed, stabili<ed, and
refined in the -oolidge tube already e,isted in the -roo*es tube in a confused but ne&ertheless real
state. Many abandoned technical ob+ects are incom!lete in&entions "hich remain as an o!en;ended
&irtuality and could be ta*en u! once more and gi&en ne" life in another field according to the
!rofound intention "hich informs them, that is, their technical essence.
I%: Absolute Ori!ins of a Technical &inea!e
7i*e e&ery e&olution, the e&olution of technical ob+ects raises the !roblem of absolute origins. To
"hat first beginning can "e return in order to establish the coming into e,istence of a s!ecific
technical realityJ >efore the !enthode and the tethrode there "as the 7ee de Forest triode. >efore
the 7ee de Forest triode there "as the diode. >ut "hat "as there before the diodeJ 0s the diode an
absolute originJ ot com!letely. There is no doubt that thermoelectric emission "as then un*no"n,
but the !henomena of trans!ort of charges in s!ace by an electric field had long been *no"n4
;/5;
electrolysis had been *no"n for a century, and the ioni<ation of gas for many decades. Thermoionic
emission is necessary for the diode as a technical system, because the diode "ould not be a diode if
the trans!ort of electric charges "ere re&ersible. :uch re&ersibility does not occur under normal
conditions, because one of the electrodes is hot and, conse@uently, emissi&e, and the other cold, and,
conse@uently, non;emissi&e. "hat ma*es the diode essentially a diode, a t"o;"ay &al&e, is the fact
that the hot electrode can be almost interchangeably either cathode or anode, "hile the cold
electrode can only be an anode, as it cannot emit electrons4 it can only attract them if it is !ositi&e,
but it cannot emit them e&en if, in relation to another electrode, it is negati&e. The result of this is
that if e,ternal &oltages are a!!lied to the electrodes, current "ill !ass through because of the
thermoelectronic effect if the cathode is negati&e in relationg to the anode, but no current "ill !ass
through if the hot electrode is !ositi&e in relation to the cold electrode. 'hat constitutes the diode is
!recisely this disco&ery of a condition of functional dissymmetry and not, !ro!erly s!ea*ing, the
trans!ort of electric charges across a &acuum by means of an electric field. E,!eriments ha&ing to
do "ith the ioni<ation of monoatomic gases had earlier demonstrated that free electrons can mo&e
about in an electric field. >ut this is a re&ersible, not a !olari<ed, !henomenon4 if the rarified gas
tube is turned around, the !ositi&e !ole and the luminous rings change sides in relation to the tube,
but their !osition remains unchanged in relation to the direction of current from generator. The
diode is made from the association of this re&ersible !henomenon of the trans!ort of electric
charges through a field and from the condition of re&ersibility effected by the fact that trans!ortable
electric currents are !roduced by one single *ind of electric charge Q Cnegati&e onlyD and by only
one of the t"o electrodes, is one hot and one cold electrode, bet"een "hich an electric field is
created. $ere "e surely ha&e an absolute beginning4 it is to be found in the condition of
irre&ersibility of the electrodes and the !henomenon of the trans!ort of electric charges across the
&acuum4 here "e ha&e the creation of a technical essence. The diode is an asymmetric conductance.
0t is to be noted, ho"e&er, that this essence is more e,tensi&e than the definition of the Fleming
&al&e. Many other !rocedures ha&e been disco&ered for creating asymmetric conductance. The
contact of galena "ith a metal, of co!!er o,ide "ith co!!er, of selenium "ith another metal, of
germanium "ith a tungsten !oint, as "ell as of crystali<ed silicon "ith a metal !oint are all
asymmetrical conductances. Finally, a !hotoelectric cell could be considered as a diode, because the
!hoto;electrons beha&e li*e thermoelectrons in the &acuum of the cell Cin &acuum cell and also in
gas cell, though the !henomenon is com!licated by the emission of secondary electrons "hich
become attached to the !hotoelectronsD. :hould the Fleming &al&e be called a diode thereforeJ
Technically, the Fleming &al&e can be re!laced in a number of a!!lications by germanium diodes
;/8;
Cfor "ea* intensities or high fre@uenciesD or by selenium or co!!er o,ide rectifiers Cfor a!!lications
"ith lo" fre@uency and high intensityD. >ut usage does not su!!ly good criteria. The Fleming &al&e
can also be re!laced by a rotating transformer, a technical ob+ect "hose essential system is entirely
different from that of the diode. 0n fact, the thermoelectronic diode constitutes a definite ty!e "ith
its o"n historical e,istence. Abo&e this ty!e there e,ists a !ure functioning system "hich is
trans!osable into other structures, for e,am!le into those of im!erfect conductors or semi;
conductors. The functioning system is the same, to the e,tent that on a theoretic diagram a diode
can be indicated by a sign Casymmetric conductance: if D "hich does not !re+udge the ty!e of diode
used and "hich lea&es com!lete freedom to the builder. >ut the !ure technical diagram does define
a ty!e of e,istence for the technical ob+ect in terms of its ideal function, "hich differs from the
reality of the historic ty!e. $istorically, the Fleming diode is nearer to the 7ee de Forest triode than
to germanium, co!!er o,ide or selenium and iron rectifiers, though these are indicated by the same
schematic symbols and, in certain cases, fulfil the same functions, e&en to the !oint of being
re!laceable by the Fleming diode. The "hole essence of the Fleming tube is not contained in its
!ro!erty of asymmetric conductance4 it is also a de&ice that !roduces and trans!orts the flo" of
electrons that are ca!able of being slo"ed do"n, accelerated and de&iated and that can be dis!ersed
or concentrated, re!ulsed or attracted. The technical ob+ect e,ists not only by &irtue of its
functioning in e,terior de&ices Cfor e,am!le, an asymmetric conductanceD but by &irtue of
!henomena of "hich it is, itself, the centre. This is "hy is !ossesses a fecundity or non;saturation
"hich grants it a !rogeny.
The !rimiti&e technical ob+ect can be considered as a non;saturated system. 'hate&er later
im!ro&ements it undergoes act as ste!s for"ard to"ards the saturation of the system. #udging from
the outside, it is !ossible to belie&e that, instead of being im!ro&ed, the technical ob+ect is becoming
altered and is changing its structure. >ut it could be said that the technical ob+ect e&ol&es by
engendering a family4 the !rimiti&e ob+ect is the forefather of this family. 'e could e&en call such
an e&olution a natural technical e&olution. 0n this sense, the gas engine is the forefather of !etrol
and diesel engines, the -roo*es tube forefather of the -oolidge tube, and the diode forefather of the
triode as "ell as of other multi!le;electrode tubes.
At the start of each such series there is a definite act of in&ention. 0n a certain sense the gas engine
deri&es from the steam engine4 the !lacing of its cylinder, !iston, transmission system, as "ell as its
distribution by slide;&al&e and slots, is analogous to the steam engine?s. "hat "as needed "as a ne"
!henomenon, a system "hich e,isted neither in the steam engine nor the discharge tube. 0n the
;/=;
steam;engine, both the boiler, !roducing gas under !ressure, and the heat source "ere outside of the
cylinder. 0n the gas engine, the cylinder itself, as e,!losion chamber, becomes both boiler and
furnace4 combustion ta*es !lace "ithin the cylinder: combustion is internal. 0n the discharge tube,
the electrodes "ere indistinguishable and conductance remained symmetrical4 the disco&ery of
thermo;electronic effect allo"s for the ma*ing of a tube analogous to the discharge tube in "hich
electrodes are !olari<ed, thus rendering the conductance symmetrical. The beginning of a lineage of
technical ob+ects is mar*ed by a synthetic act of in&ention that is basic to a technical essence.
Technical essence is recogni<able by the fact that it remains stable all through the course of
e&olution and that, further, it not only remains stable but is e&er ca!able of !roducing structures and
functions by internal de&elo!ment and !rogressi&e saturation. That is "hy the technical essence of
the combustion engine could become that of the diesel engine by increased concreti<ation of
function. 0n an engine "ith !reliminary combustion, the heating of the fuel mi,ture "ithin the
cylinder at the moment of com!ression is inessential and e&en harmful, because of the ris* of
!roducing detonation instead of deflagration Ccombustion "ith !rogressi&e e,!losi&e "a&eD "hich
limits the admissable com!ression ratio for a gi&en *ind of motor fuel. 0n the diesel engine on the
other hand, com!ression heat becomes an essential and !ositi&e factor, because it initiates
deflagration. 'hat gi&es com!ression a !ositi&e role is a moreQ !recise fi,ing of the e,act time of
carburation. 0n an engine "ith !reliminary combustion, carburation can ta*e !lace at any time
before the introduction of the fuel mi,ture into the cylinder. 0n a diesel engine carburation must ta*e
!lace after the introduction and com!ression of !ure air, "hich is free of carburating fumes, at the
!recise moment "hen the !iston reaches the to! dead !oint, because this introduction initiates
deflagration Cthe start of the cycle?s !o"er;timeD and cannot initiate it unless it occurs at the instant
"hen the air reaches its highest tem!erature at the end of com!ression. The introduction of motor
fuel into the air CcarburationD is, for this reason, charged "ith much more functional significance in
the diesel engine than in the gasoline engine. 0t is integrated into a more saturated and rigorous
system, "hich allo"s the builder less freedom and the user less tolerance.
The triode is also a more saturated system than the diode. 0n the diode the only factor that limits
asymmetric conductance is thermoelectronic emission. 'hen the cathodeanode &oltage is raised,
the internal current !rogressi&ely increases for a tem!erature established by the cathode, but g
reaches a certain ceiling Csaturation currentD "hich corres!onds to the fact that all electrons emitted
by the cathode are collected by the anode. Therefore the only "ay to regulate the current crossing
the diode is to &ary the anode &oltage. (n the other hand, the triode is a system in "hich the current
;/8;
crossing the anode;cathode s!ace can be made to &ary on a continuous basis "ithout any &arying of
cathode;anode &oltage. The !rimiti&e !ro!erty remains Cthat is, the &ariation of current as a direct
function of cathode;anode &oltageD but it is !aired "ith a second !ossibility of &ariation "hich fi,es
the &oltage of the control grid. The function of &ariation "hich in the !rimiti&e state "as tied to
anode &oltage no" becomes indi&iduali<ed, free and definite4 this adds an element to the system
and, as a result, saturates it because the system of causality includes an e,tra com!onent.
0n the e&olution of the technical ob+ect the saturation of the system by segregation of functions
becomes accentuated. 0n the !enthode, the current crossing the cathode;anode s!ace becomes
inde!endent of anode &oltage for &alues of anode &oltage bet"een a lo" minimum and high
ma,imum related to the !ossibility of thermal dissi!ation. This characteristic is stable enough to
ma*e !ossible the use of the !enthode as a charge resistance in rela,ation oscillators that are needed
for the !roduction of linear sa";teeth for the hori<ontal s"ee! &oltages of cathode;ray
oscillogra!hs. 0n this !articular case, the &oltages of screen, control;grid, and third grid Csu!!ressorD
are *e!t constant. lhis is not the case "ith the triode, "here for a gi&en control;grid &oltage anode
current &aries as a function of anode &oltage. 0n this sense, the triode is still assimilable to a diode,
"hereas this is no longer true of the !enthode, in the dynamic system. The basis for this difference
is the fact that in the triode the anode continues to !lay an ambi&alent role: a dynamic role as
electrode collecting electrons and a static role as electrode creating an electric field. 0n the tetrode or
!enthode, on the other hand, it is the grid;screen, !laying its electrostatic anode role, that assures the
maintenance of the electric field, by regulating the electron flo". The anode;!late has a single role
to !lay, that of electron collector. For this reason the slo!e of the !enthode can be much greater than
that of the triode, because the function of maintaining the electrostatic field of acceleration is
guaranteed "ithout &ariation or diminution Cthe screen is at a fi,ed !otentialD, e&en "hen anode
&oltage di!s "hen there is an increase in current, because of the insertion of a charge resistance in
the anode circuit. 'e can say that the tetrode and !enthode eliminate the antagonism that e,ists in
the triode, an antagonism bet"een its function as accelerator of electrons by the anode and its
function as collector of electric charges con&eyed by the electrons that are accelerated by the same
anode4 this function occasions a dro! in anode !otential "hen a charge resistance is inserted, and it
lessens electron acceleration. From this !oint of &ie", the grid;screen should be considered as an
electrostatic anode of fi,ed &oltage.
0t is ob&ious, therefore, that the tetrode and the !enthode are indeed results of a de&elo!ment of the
!rimiti&e diode system through saturation and synergetic concreKl<ation. The grid;screen
;/9;
concentrates in itself all the functions relati&e to the electrostatic field that ha&e to do "ith the
maintenance of a fi,ed !otential. The control;grid and the anode maintain no other functions than
those that ha&e to do "ith a &ariable !otential, and they can !erform these functions to a much
greater e,tent Cin the course of o!eration, the anode of a !enthode used as a &oltage am!lifier can be
raised to !otentials &arying bet"een /) and /)) &olts in the dynamic systemD. The control grid
collects fe"er electrons than it "ould in a triode and this ma*es !ossible to treat the in!ut
im!edance as &ery high. The control grid becomes much more !urely a control grid, and it is no
longer sub+ect to continuous current created by the collecting of electrons. 0t is, in a much more
rigorous sense, an electrostatic structure. Thus, the tetrode and !enthode can be considered to be
direct descendants of the triode: the de&elo!ment of the triode?s internal technical system is reali<ed
in them through a reduction of incom!atibilities by means of a redistribution of functions in
synergetic subsystems. 'hat establishes the unity and distincti&eness of a technical lineage is the
stability of an underlying system of in&ention that is at once concrete and controlling.
-oncreti<ation gi&es the technical ob+ect an intermediate !osition 0 bet"een natural ob+ect and
scientific re!resentation. The abstract, or !rimiti&e, technical ob+ect is far from constituting a
natural system. 0t is a translation into matter of an ensemble of scientific notions and !rinci!les that
at the most basic le&el are unconnected one "ith the other and that are connected only by those their
conse@uences that con&erge for the !roduction of a loo*ed;for result. The !rimiti&e technical ob+ect
is not a !hysical natural system but a !hysical translation of an intellectual system. 0t is an
a!!lication, therefore, or a bunch of a!!lications. 0t is a conse@uence of *no"ledge and it can teach
nothing. 0t is not sub+ect to inducti&e e,amination, as a natural ob+ect is, and the reason for this is
that it is nothing if not artificial. The concrete technical ob+ect, that is, the e&ol&ed technical ob+ect,
is @uite the o!!osite in that it a!!ro,imates the mode of e,istence of natural ob+ects. 0t tends to
internal coherence, and to"ards a closure of the system of causes and effects "hich o!erate in
circular fashion "ithin its boundaries. Further, it incor!orates !art of the natural "orld "hich
inter&enes as a condition of its functioning and, thus, becomes !art of the system of causes and
effects. As it e&ol&es such an ob+ect loses its artificial character: the essential artificiality of an
ob+ect resides in the fact that man has to inter&ene in order to *ee! the ob+ect in e,istence by
!rotecting it from the natural "orld and by gi&ing it a status as "ell as e,istence. Artificiality is not
a characteristic that denotes the manufactured origin of the ob+ect as o!!osed to nature?s !roducti&e
s!ontaneity. Artificiality is something that is "ithin the artificiali<ing action of man, regardless of
"hether this action affects a natural ob+ect or an entirely fabricated ob+ect. A greenhouse de&elo!ed
blossom that yields !etals Ca double flo"erD but does not engender fruit is the !roduct of a !lant that
;9);
has been made artificial. Man has deflected the !lant?s functions from coherent !erformance to the
e,tent that the !lant can?t re!roduce itself e,ce!t by !rocedures such as grafting "hich re@uire
human inter&ention. Ma*ing a natural ob+ect artificial gi&es results that differ from those effected by
technical concreti<ation. A !lant that has been made artificial can only e,ist in that !lant laboratory,
the greenhouse, "ith its com!le, system of thermic and hydraulic regulations. The initially coherent
system of biological functions has been o!ened u! to functions that are inde!endent of each other
and that are related to one another only by the gardener?s care. Flo"ering becomes !ure flo"ering,
something detached and anomic4 the !lant blooms until it is "orn out and it !roduces no seeds. 0t
loses its original abilities to resist cold, drought and solar heat. The artificial regulations of the
greenhouse re!lace "hat originally "ere the ob+ect?s natural regulations. Artificiali<ation is a
!rocess of abstraction in the ob+ect "hich is rendered artificial.
>y technical concreti<ation, on the other hand, an ob+ect that "as artificial in its !rimiti&e state
comes more and more to resemble a natural ob+ect. 0n its beginning, the ob+ect had need of a more
effecti&e e,terior regulatory en&ironment, for e,am!le a laboratory or a "or*sho! or, in certain
cases, a factory. 7ittle by little, as it de&elo!s in concreti<ation, it becomes ca!able of doing "ithout
the artificial en&ironment, and this is so because its internal coherence increases and its functioning
system becomes closed by becoming organi<ed. A concreti<ed ob+ect is com!arable to an ob+ect that
is !roduced s!ontaneously. 0t becomes inde!endent of the laboratory "ith "hich it is initially
associated and incor!orates it into itself dynamically in the !erformance of its functions. 0ts
relationshi! "ith other ob+ects, "hether technical or natural, becomes the influence "hich regulates
it and "hich ma*es it !ossible for the conditions of functioning to be self;sustaining. The ob+ect is,
then, no longer isolated4 either it becomes associated "ith other ob+ects or is self;sufficient, "hereas
at the beginning it "as isolated and heteronomous.
The conse@uences of the concreti<ation under discussion are not merely human and economic Cby
"arranting decentrali<ation, for e,am!leD, they are also intellectual. >ecause the mode of e,istence
of the concrete technical ob+ect is analogous to that of a s!ontaneously !roduced natural ob+ect, "e
can legitimately consider them as natural ob+ects4 this means that "e can submit them to inducti&e
study. They are no longer merely a!!lications of certain anterior scientific !rinci!les. 0n that they
e,ist, they !ro&e the &iability and the stability of a certain structure "hich has the same status as a
natural structure, though it can be schematically different from all natural structures.
The study of the systems of functioning in concrete technical ob+ects is &aluable scientifically
;91;
because these ob+ects are not deri&ed from a single !rinci!le. They are the e&idence of a certain
mode of functioning and of com!atibility that e,ists in fact and that "as constructed before being
foreseen. The com!atibility in @uestion "as not contained in each of the distant scientific !rinci!les
"hich !layed their !art in the construction of the ob+ect4 it "as em!irically disco&ered. 0n order to
&erify this com!atibility, "e can go bac* to the se!arate sciences in order to !ose the !roblem of the
correlation of their !rinci!les4 to do so "ould be found a science of correlations and
transformations, "hich "ould be a general technology or mechanology.
>ut in order to gi&e direction to the general technology +ust referred to it is necessary to a&oid
basing it on an im!ro!er assimilation of technical ob+ect to natural ob+ect, !articularly to the li&ing.
Analogues or, rather, e,terior resemblances should be rigorously outla"ed, because they lac*
signification and can only lead astray. -ogitation about automata is unsafe because of the ris* of its
being confined to a study of e,terior characteristics and so "or* in terms of im!ro!er com!arison.
"hat alone is significant is e,changes of energy and information "ithin the technical ob+ect or
bet"een the technical ob+ect and its en&ironment4 out"ard as!ects of beha&iour obser&ed by a
s!ectator are not ob+ects of scientific study.
0t "ould not e&en be right to found a se!arate science for the study of regulatory and control
mechanisms in automata built to be automata: technology ought to ta*e as its sub+ect the
uni&ersality of technical ob+ects. 0n this res!ect, the science of -ybernetics is found "anting4 e&en
though it has the boundless merit of being the first inducti&e study of technical ob+ects and of being
a study of the middle ground bet"een the s!eciali<ed sciences, it has !articulari<ed its field of
in&estigation to too great an e,tent, for it is !art of the study of a certain number of technical
ob+ects. -ybernetics at its starting !oint acce!ted a classification of technical ob+ects that o!erates
in terms of criteria of genus and s!ecies: the science of technology must not do so. There is no
s!ecies of automata: there are sim!ly technical ob+ects4 these !ossess a functional organisation, and
in them different degrees of automatism are reali<ed.
There is one element that threatens to ma*e the "or* of -ybernetics to some degree useless as an
interscientific study Cthough this is "hat orbert 'einer defines as the goal of his researchD, the
basic !ostulate that li&ing beings and self;regulated technical ob+ects are identical. The most that
can be said about technical ob+ects is that they tend to"ards concreti<ation, "hereas natural ob+ects,
as li&ing beings, are concrete right from the beginning. There should be no confusing of a tendency
to"ards concreti<ation "ith a status of absolutely concrete e,istence. Though e&ery technical ob+ect
;92;
!ossesses to some degree as!ects of residual abstraction, one cannot go to the e,tent of s!ea*ing of
technical ob+ects as if they "ere natural ob+ects. Technical ob+ects must be studied in their e&olution
in order that the !rocess of concreti<ation as tendency can be abstracted therefrom. :till, the final
!roduct of the technical e&olution does not ha&e to be isolated so that it can be defined as entirely
concrete4 it is more concrete than "hat !receded it, but it is still artificial. 0nstead of considering one
class of technical beings, automata, "e should follo" the lines of concreti<ation throughout the
tem!oral e&olution of technical ob+ects. This is the only a!!roach that gi&es real signification, all
mythology a!art, to the bringing together of li&ing being and technical ob+ect. 'ithout the goal
thought out and brought to reali<ation by the li&ing, !hysical causality alone could not !roduce a
!ositi&e and effecti&e concreti<ation.
;9/;
Chapter II: The Evolution of Technical Reality: Eleent'
Individual and Enseble
I: (ypertelia and )elf*Conditionin! in Technical Evolution
The e&olution of technical ob+ects manifests certain hy!ertelic !henomena "hich endo" each
technical ob+ect "ith s!eciali<ation, "hich causes it to ada!t badly to changes, ho"e&er slight, in
the conditions of its o!eration or manufacture. The system that constitutes the essence of the
technical ob+ect can, in effect, be ada!ted inS1T;t"o "ays. First, it can be ada!ted to the material
and human conditions in its !roduction: each !articular ob+ect can ma*e the best !ossible use of the
electrical, mechanical or e&en chemical characteristics of the materials of "hich it is made. For
e,am!le, a !um! suitable for a cold country may not be at all suitable for a hot country, and &ice
&ersa4 an aero!lane made for high attitudes may ha&e difficulties, es!ecially in landing and ta*ing
off, if it has to o!erate for a short !eriod at lo" altitudes. The +et engine, "hose !rinci!le of
!ro!ulsion ma*es it su!erior to the !ro!eller engine at high altitudes, does not "or* "ell at lo"
altitudes. The great s!eed attained by a +et !lane becomes a cri!!ling factor in terms of ground
contact, because a reduction in lifting surface cou!led "ith the use of a +et engine ma*es it
necessary to land at high s!eed Cat more or less the cruising s!eed of a !ro!eller !laneD and this
creates the need for a &ery long landing stri!. Early aero!lanes, "hich could land in the o!en
country, "ere less o&er;ada!ted functionally than modern !lanes. Functional o&er;ada!tion can go
so far as to e&entuate in systems resembling symbiosis and !arasitism in biology. :ome small
!lanes cannot easily ta*e off unless they are launched by a larger !lane. (thers use roc*ets to
increase their !o"er of ascent. The trans!ort glider is an e,am!le of a hy!ertelic technical ob+ect4 it
is nothing if not an air freighter or, better still, an air barge "ithout a AtugboatA, and in this it is @uite
different from an ordinary glider "hich, follo"ing a sim!le launching, can a&ail of air currents to
stay aloft on its o"n. The autonomous glider is &ery "ell ada!ted to engineless flight, "hile the
trans!ort glider is merely one of t"o asymmetrical !artners in a technical "hole "hose other half is
the to"ing &essel. For its !art, the to"ing &essel is not "ell ada!ted because on its o"n it is
inca!able of carrying a load !ro!ortional to its o"n !o"er.
'e can say, therefore, that there are t"o *inds of hy!ertelia, one of "hich is "ell ada!table to
determined conditions "ithout in&ol&ing the slightest di&ision of the technical ob+ect or any loss of
autonomy, the second of "hich in&ol&es a di&ision of the technical ob+ect, as is the case in the
di&ision of a !rimiti&e technical being into to"ing unit and unit to"ed. 0n the first case the
;99;
autonomy of the ob+ect is !reser&ed, in the second it is sacrificed. 'e find a mi,ed hy!ertelic case
in a situation in&ol&ing ada!tation to en&ironment, "here the ob+ect re@uires a !articular
en&ironment in order to "or* !ro!erly, because of its being !aired energetically "ith its milieu.
This case is !retty "ell identical to that in&ol&ing a di&ision into to"ing and to"ed units. For
e,am!le, a cloc* that is synchroni<ed to a !articular electrical circuit "ill not be able to function if
it is trans!orted from France to America because of the difference in fre@uency C8) $ert< and 5)
$ert< res!ecti&elyD. An electric motor re@uires an electric circuit or a generator. A single;!hased,
synchronous motor can be more satisfactorily ada!ted to a !articular milieu than a uni&ersal motor:
"ithin the chosen en&ironment it "or*s much better, but outside of that en&ironment it is "orthless.
A tri!le;!hase synchronous motor is e&en more ada!table to "or*ing on a !articular ty!e of
electrical circuit than is a single;!hase motor, but it can?t be used "ith any other *ind of circuit. >y
means of this limitation, it functions much more satisfactorily than does the single;!hase engine: it
has a better control system and better out!ut and it is sub+ect to &ery little "ear and to &ery slight
losses in connecting lines.
Ada!tation to technical en&ironment is of fundamental im!ortance in certain cases. The use of
tri!le;!hase alternating current, for e,am!le, is !erfect for factory engines of "hate&er ca!acities.
As o!!osed to this, u! to no" it has not been !ossible to use tri!le !hase alternating current to dri&e
electric trains. 0t is necessary to ha&e recourse to a transfer system that connects and ada!ts the
train;engine?s current to the net"or* of high tension, tri!le !hase, alternating current. This is done
either by sub;stations that !ro&ide continuous &oltage to the feeders of the o&erhead "ires or by
transformers and ada!tors on board the train itself su!!lying the engine "ith continuous &oltage
from o&erhead "ires that are !o"ered "ith alternating current. 0ndeed, if the engine had to ada!t
itself to energy distribution net"or* in terms of both energy and fre@uency it "ould lose too great a
!art of its range of use. 'hether synchroni<ed or unsynchroni<ed, an engine cannot su!!ly a large
amount of mechanical energy until it reaches its "or*ing s!eed. $o"e&er satisfactory this may be
for a fi,ed machine, such as a lathe or a drill, "hich starts "ithout any load and does not encounter
any resistance until it reaches ma,imum s!eed, the train engine does not "or* in this fashion. The
train engine starts "ith full load and "ith all the inertia of the train it hauls. 0f it is at all admissable
to s!ea* of the "or*ing s!eed for a locomoti&e, "e can say that the locomoti&e is least able to
!ro&ide energy "hen it reaches its "or*ing s!eed4 it has to su!!ly ma,imum energy in transitional
stages such as acceleration and deceleration or counter;current bra*ing. :uch a mode of o!eration,
"ith its many fre@uent ada!tations and changes in !o"er is @uite different from that reduction of the
range of systems of o!eration that ty!ifies ada!tation to the technical en&ironment, as in the case of
;95;
the factory "ith its !oly!hase electric circuit of constant fre@uency. The e,am!le of the traction
engine enables us to understand that the e,istence of the technical ob+ect is sustained by a double
relationshi!;;a relationshi! "ith its geogra!hic en&ironment on the one hand, and "ith its technical
en&ironment on the other. The technical ob+ect stands at the !oint "here t"o en&ironments come
together, and it ought to be integrated into both these en&ironments at the same time. :till, these t"o
en&ironments are t"o "orlds that do not belong to the same system and are not necessarily
com!letely com!atible "ith each other.
$ence, the technical ob+ect is delimited to a certain e,tent by human choice "hich tries to establish
the best com!romise !ossible bet"een these t"o "orlds. The traction engine, in one sense,
resembles a factory engine in that it recei&es its !o"er from high tension, tri!le !hase, alternating
lines. 0n another sense altogether it is a de&ice that e,!ends its energy in hauling a train from a dead
sto! to full s!eed and then, by diminishing degrees of s!eed, to a sto! once again4 it has to haul the
train u! ram!s, around corners, and do"n slo!es, maintaining the most constant s!eed !ossible in
all of this. The traction engine doesn?t sim!ly transform electrical energy to mechanical energy4 it
a!!lies electrical energy to a geogra!hically &aried "orld, translating it technically in res!onse to
the !rofile of the rail"ay trac*, the &arying resistance of the "ind, and to the resistance !ro&ided by
sno" "hich the engine !ushes ahead and sho&es aside. The traction engine causes a reaction in the
line that !o"ers it, a reaction that is a translation of geogra!hical and meteorological structure of
the "orld. There is an increase in the absorbed intensity and a decrease in line &oltage "hen sno"
becomes dee!est, "hen the slo!e becomes more acute, and "hen lateral "ind increases friction by
!ushing the "heel flanges against the rails. The t"o "orlds act on one another through the traction
engine. :uch is not the case "ith a tri!le;!hase factory engine, "hich does not effect a causal
relationshi! bet"een the technical "orld and the geogra!hic in any such manner4 its o!eration is
almost totally confined "ithin the technical "orld. >ecause of its singleness of milieu, the factory
engine does not ha&e to be ada!ted to its en&ironment, "hereas the traction engine needs an
en&ironment of ada!tation, "hich is com!osed of re!ressors located in the electrical sub;station or
on the locomoti&e itself. All the factory engine needs by "ay of an en&ironment of ada!tation is a
&oltage;lo"ering transformer. :uch a transformer could be done "ithout in high !o"ered engines4
in engines of medium !o"er it is needed as a !recautionary measure, but this has more to do "ith
human o!erators than "ith the +ob of en&ironment ada!tation.
There is a third case in "hich ada!tation ta*es a different direction and has different significance, a
case in "hich it does not lead at all so directly to hy!ertelic !henomena or to the conse@uences of
;98;
hy!ertelia. 'here there is need of ada!tation not so much to en&ironment in the strict sense but to
the tas* of interrelating t"o en&ironments, both of "hich are in a state of e&olution, ada!tation is
limited and !articulari<ed in the direction of autonomy and concreti<ation. This re!resents real
technical !rogress.
Thus, the use of silicon sheet metal, "hich has a higher magnetic !enetrability and a lo"er
hysteresis than iron sheet metal has made it !ossible to lessen the "eight and &olume of traction
engines "hile, at the same time, increasing their efficiency. A modification of this *ind tends to
mediate bet"een the technical and geogra!hical "orlds, because a locomoti&e could ha&e a lo"er
centre of gra&ity as a result of the !lacing of the motors on the same le&el as the bogies4 this "ould
lessen the inertia of the rotor, and the significance of this for ra!id bra*ing "ould be a!!reciable.
The use of silicon insulators has made !ossible a greater augmentation in heat "ithout ris* of
insulator deterioration4 this increases the !ossibilities of &ery high &oltage to increase both starting
tor@ue and brea*ing tor@ue. Modifications such as these e,tend rather than restrict the field of use
for traction engines. A silicon;insulated engine could be used "ithout e,tra !recautionary measures
on a locomoti&e that has to climb &ery stee! slo!es, and also in &ery hot countries. 0ts relational use
becomes greater. The same *ind of im!ro&ed motor can be used Cin small modelsD the bra*ing
system of truc*s. The engine becomes ada!ted to the relational modality !rimarily, rather than to the
&ery s!ecial ty!e of relationshi! "hich brings together electrical net"or* and geogra!hical "orld
for the e,!ress !ur!ose of hauling a train.
The 1uimbal turbine
/
!ro&ides us "ith an analogous *ind of concreti<ation. This turbine is
immersed in the "ater;!i!e and is directly connected to a &ery small generator contained in a
housing filled "ith oil under !ressure. $ere, the dam "all confines the "hole !o"er;house "ithin
the "ater;!i!e, for all that a!!ear at ground le&el are the enclosure containing the oil reser&oir and
the measuring dials. The "ater becomes !lurifunctional. 0t su!!lies the energy that acti&ates the
turbine and the generator, and e&acuates heat !roduced by the generator. The oil is +ust as notably
!lurifunctional. 0t lubricates the generator, insulates the gears, and conducts heat from gears to
housing, "here it is e&acuated by the "ater. Also, it !re&ents "ater see!age through the a,le;casing
into the housing, because the oil !ressure "ithin the housing is greater than the "ater;!ressure
"ithout. This &ery high !ressure itself is !lurifunctional. 0t effects !ermanent greasing under
!ressure in the bearings,S"hile !re&enting see!age of "ater if the bearings are not @uite "atertight.
/ These turbines are of a *ind "ith those e@ui!!ing Ibulb grou!sB in the ne" French tide;!o"ered factories. They are
re&ersible, and, "ith a small e,!enditure of energy, they can be used to !um! "ater at lo" tide.
;9=;
At this !oint, "e should note that the relational ada!tation under discussion is due to the
!lurifunctional nature of this concreti<ation. >efore 1uimbal?s in&ention, it "as unthin*able to
!lace the generator in the "ater;!i!e containing the turbine, because e&en if all !roblems of
"atertightness and insulation could be imagined as sol&ed, the generator "as too big to be !laced in
a !i!e. The method used to sol&e !roblems regarding "atertightness and insulation made it !ossible
to !lace the generator "ithin the !i!e by insuring im!ro&ed cooling by means of both oil and "ater.
(ne might e&en go so far as to say that the !ositioning of the generator inside the !i!e is itself
!ossible because the generator itself ma*es energy cooling !ossible at the &ery same time.
0f the 1uimbal generator "ere o!erated at full !o"er in air it "ould @uic*ly be ruined by heat,
"hereas there is no a!!reciable heat detected in its concentric double bath of oil and "ater, each of
"hich is energetically stirred, the oil by generator rotation, the "ater by turbine turbulence. $ere
concreti<ation is effected by an in&ention "hich su!!oses the !roblem sol&ed. This !articular
concreti<ation is only !ossible because of the ne" conditions erected by concreti<ation. The only
en&ironment that tolerates non;hy!ertelic ada!tation is the en&ironment created by the ada!tation
itself. 0n this case, the act of ada!tation is not really an act of ada!tation in the sense "e gi&e the
"ord "hen "e define ada!tation in terms of an en&ironment "hich is already established !rior to
the !rocess of ada!tation.
The ada!tation;concreti<ation !rocess is one "hich causes the birth of an en&ironment rather than
being the result of an already established en&ironment. 0t is caused by an en&ironment "hich had
merely &irtual e,istence before the in&ention. The in&ention ha!!ens because a +um! is made and is
+ustified by the relationshi! "hich is instituted "ithin the en&ironment it creates. The &ery e,istence
of the !ossibility of the turbo;generator !airing is the reali<ation of the same. 0t cannot ha&e be
geometrically situated inside the "ater;!i!e unless there is some !hysical means of effecting
thermic changes "hich ma*e !ossible a reduction in dimensions. 0t could be said that concreti<ing
in&ention brings into being a technogeogra!hic en&ironment Cin this case, oil and "ater in
turbulenceD "hich is a condition u!on "hich the !ossible functioning of the technical ob+ect
de!ends. Therefore the technical ob+ect is the condition of itself as a condition for the e,istence of
this mi,ed en&ironment that is at once technical and geogra!hical. This !henomenon of self;
conditioning defines the !rinci!le by "hich it is !ossible to de&elo! technical ob+ects free of
tendency to"ards hy!ertelia and disada!tation. $y!ertelia arises "hen ada!tation relates to a
!rinci!le that e,isted !rior to the !rocess of ada!tation. Ada!tation of this *ind ma*es as its goal
conditions "hich al"ays outstri! it, because it does not react on them and because it fails in its turn
;98;
to affect them.
Progress in the e&olution of technical ob+ects is only !ossible if these ob+ects are free to e&ol&e and
do not become sub+ect to any necessity that leads to"ards fatal hy!ertelia. For this to be !ossible,
the e&olution of technical ob+ects has to be constructi&e, that is to say, has to lead to"ards the
creation of a third technogeogra!hical en&ironment in "hich e&ery modification is self;conditioned.
"hat is in @uestion here is not !rogress concei&ed as a !redetermined mo&ement for"ard or as a
humani<ation of nature4 such a !rocess could e@ually be thought of as a naturali<ation of man.
0ndeed, bet"een man and nature there de&elo!s a technogeogra!hic milieu "hose e,istence is only
made !ossible by man?s intelligence. The self;conditioning of a system by &irtue of the result of its
o!eration !resu!!oses the use of an antici!atory functioning "hich is disco&erable neither in nature
nor in technical ob+ects made u! to the !resent. 0t is the "or* of a lifetime to achie&e such a lea!
beyond established reality and its system of actuality to"ards ne" forms "hich continue to be only
because they e,ist all together as an established system. 'hen a ne" de&ice a!!ears in the e&ol&ing
series, it "ill last only if it becomes !art of a systematic and !lurifunctional con&ergence. The ne"
de&ice is the state of its o"n !ossibility. 0t is in this "ay that the geogra!hical "orld and the "orld
of already e,isting technical ob+ects are made to interrelate in an organic concreti<ation that is
defined in terms of its relational function. 7i*e a &ault that is only stable once it has been
com!leted, an ob+ect that has a relational function continues in e,istence and is coherent only "hen
after it has begun to e,ist and because it e,ists. 0t creates its associated en&ironment by itself and it
achie&es true indi&iduali<ation in itself.
II: Technical Invention: +or and Content in &ife and in Inventive
Thou!ht
For the reasons already outlined, "e can rightly state that the indi&iduali<ation of technical beings is
the essential condition for technical !rogress. :uch indi&iduali<ation is !ossible because of the
recurrence of causality in the en&ironment "hich the technical being creates around itself, an
en&ironment "hich it influences and by "hich it is influenced. This en&ironment, "hich is at the
same time natural and technical, can be called the associated milieu. >y means of this the technical
being is conditioned in its o!eration. This is no fabricated milieu, or at least it is not "holly
fabricated4 it is a definite system of natural elements surrounding the technical ob+ect and it is
lin*ed to a definite system of elements "hich constitute the technical ob+ect. The associated milieu
is the mediator of the relationshi! bet"een manufactured technical elements and natural elements
;99;
"ithin "hich the technical being functions. The ensemble constituted by oil and "ater in motion
"ithin and around the 1uimbal turbine is of this sort. This ensemble is concreti<ed and
indi&iduali<ed by the recurring thermal changes that ta*e !lace in it. The faster the turbine turns, the
more the generator e,!els heat by #oule effect and magnetic loss. >ut the faster the turbine turns,
the more the oil in the rotor and "ater around the housing increase in turbulence and acti&ate heat
e,changes bet"een rotor and "ater. This associated milieu is the in&ented technical ob+ect?s
condition of e,istence. The only technical ob+ects that, strictly s!ea*ing, can be said to be in&ented
are those needing an associated milieu to ma*e them &iable. 0ndeed, they cannot be formed !art by
!art in the course of a gradual e&olution, because either they e,ist in their com!leteness or not at all.
Technical ob+ects "hich in their liaison "ith the natural "orld !ut into !lay "hat is essentially a
recurrent causality must be in&ented rather than de&elo!ed in stages, because such ob+ects are the
cause of their o"n condition of functioning. :uch ob+ects are &iable only if the !roblem is resol&ed4
that is to say, only if they e,ist along "ith their associated milieu.
0t is for this reason that so much discontinuity is noticeable in the history of technical ob+ects "ith
absolute origins. Pre&isionary and imaginati&ely creati&e thought alone can effect such a re&ersed
conditioning in time. Elements that materially are to constitute the technical ob+ect, and that are
inde!endent one of the other, lac*ing an associated milieu that !recedes the constitution of the
technical ob+ect, must be organised in relation to one another by means of circular causality "hich
"ill e,ist once the ob+ect is constituted. 'hat is in&ol&ed here, then, is a conditioning of the !resent
by the future, or by "hat u! to no" does not e,ist. 0t is only &ery rarely that any such function of
the future could be the result of chance. The reason for this is that this function de!ends u!on a
ca!acity for the organisation of elements in terms of re@uirements that are meaningful as a "hole in
terms of the goal to"ards "hich they aim and that act as symbols of a future ensemble as yet
"ithout e,istence. The unity of that future associated milieu in "hich causal relationshi!s "ill be so
de!loyed as to ma*e !ossible the functioning of the ne" technical ob+ect is re!resented or acted out
by systems of the creati&e imagination, in much the same "ay as an actor can !lay a role in the
absence of the real !erson.
The dynamism of thought is li*e that of technical ob+ects. Mental systems influence each other
during in&ention in the same "ay as different dynamisms of a technical ob+ect influence each other
in material functioning. The unity of the associated milieu of a technical ob+ect has an analogue in
the unity of a li&ing thing. 5uring in&ention li&ing unity is the coherence of mental systems that are
arri&ed at because they e,ist in and are de!loyed in the same being4 systems that are contradictory
;5);
come into confrontation "ith and reduce each other. That "hich is ali&e can in&ent, because
"hate&er is ali&e is an indi&idual being that brings "ith it its o"n associated milieu. The ability to
be self;conditioning is a !rinci!le of !roduction ca!acity in self;conditioning ob+ects. 'hat esca!es
the attention of !sychologists in their analysis of the in&enti&e imagination is not so much the
systems or forms or o!erations of this faculty, those elements that so immediately demand attention,
as the dynamic bac*ground on "hich these systems confront each other and combine "ith each
other, and "ith "hich they !artici!ate.
The Psychology of Form, clearly ta*ing into account the function of totalities, attributes force to
form. >ut, a more !rofound analysis of the imaginati&e !rocess "ould undoubtedly re&eal that the
determining factor !laying an energising role is not forms but that "hich su!!orts form, that is, their
bac*ground. $o"e&er marginal it may al"ays be in terms of our attention, the bac*ground is the
harbour for dynamisms, and it is "hat gi&es e,istence to the system of forms. Forms interact not
"ith forms but "ith their bac*ground, "hich is the system of all forms or, better still, the common
reser&oir of the tendencies of all forms e&en before they had se!arate e,istence or constituted an
e,!licit system. The !artici!ational relationshi! connecting forms to their bac*ground is a
relationshi! "hich straddles the !resent and brings the future to bear u!on the !resent, that "hich
brings the &irtual to bear u!on the actual. This is so because the base is a system of &irtualities, of
!otentials, and of mo&ing forces, "hereas forms are a system of the actual. 0n&ention is a ta*ing into
account of the system of actuality by a system of &irtualities4 it is the creation of a ne" system from
these t"o.
Forms are !assi&e to the e,tent that they re!resent actuality. They become acti&e "hen they are
organised in relation to their base, and thus bring to actuality former &irtualities. 0t is undoubtedly
&ery difficult to clarify those modalities by "hich a forms system relates to a bac*ground of
&irtualities. All "e can say is that it ha!!ens in much the same manner of causality and conditioning
as that by "hich each of the structures in a constituted technical ob+ect 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 e,ert a !artial influence on it in turn,
"hile the technical milieu, "hich is influenced by each structure indi&idually, influences them all
together by su!!lying them "ith energetic, thermal, and chemical conditions of functioning. There
is a recurrence of causality bet"een associated milieu and these structures, but this is not a
symmetrical recurrence. The milieu !lays an informational role. 0t is a basis for self;regulations, and
it is a &ehicle for information or for information;controlled energy Cfor e,am!le, "ater sha*en at a
;51;
certain s!eed cooling a housing at a certain rateD. 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
o"n direction.
Freud analysed the influence of bac*ground on form in !sychic life. $e inter!reted it in terms of the
influence of hidden forms on e,!licit forms4 hence the notion of su!!ression. The e,istence of
symboli<ation has indeed been demonstrated Ce,!eriments on a hy!notised sub+ect to "hom a
&iolently emotional scene is described and "ho, on "a*ing u!, uses symbolic trans!osition in his
account of the sceneD, that the unconscious is !o!ulated by forms com!arable to e,!licit forms has
not been demonstrated. The dynamic of tendencies is sufficient to e,!lain symboli<ation if "e
acce!t as efficacious the e,istence of a !sychic bac*ground on "hich are de!loyed, and "hich is
influenced by, e,!licit forms "hich the conscious and "a*ing state sho"s forth. The en&ironment
associated "ith the systematic of forms establishes recurrent causal relationshi!s bet"een forms and
causes reorgani<ations of the system of forms ta*en in its totality. Alienation is a ru!ture bet"een
bac*ground and forms in !sychic life. 0t occurs "hen the associated milieu no longer effecti&ely
regulates the dynamism of forms. The reason "hy the imagination has ne&er been !ro!erly analysed
u! to the !resent day is that forms ha&e been accorded an acti&e role and ha&e been considered to
ta*e the initiati&e in both !sychic and !hysical life. 0n reality, there is a strong *inshi! bet"een life
and thought. 0n a li&ing organism all li&ing matter coo!erates "ith life.
The most ob&ious and clearly defined structures in the body are not the only ones "ith life
initiati&e4 blood, lym!h and con+uncti&e tissues !lay their !art in life. An indi&idual is not only
made of a collection of organs +oined together in systems. $e is com!osed too of something that is
no organ and that is not a structure of li&ing matter in the sense of forming an associated milieu for
the organs. 7i&ing matter ser&es as bac*ground for the organs in that it connects them one to
another and ma*es then into an organism. 0t !reser&es the fundamental chemical and !hysical
e@uilibriums on "hich the organs e,ert sudden, though limited, &ariations. The organs !artici!ate in
the body. 7i&ing matter is far from being !ure indetermination or !ure !assi&ity. either is it a blind
tendency4 it is, rather, the &ehicle of informed energy. 0n similar fashion, thought com!rises !recise
and distinct structures such as re!resentations, images, memories and !erce!tions. >ut all these
elements relate to a bac*ground "hich gi&es them direction and homeostatic unity and con&eys
informed energy from one to the other and from all to each. 'e might say that the bac*ground is
a,iomatic that is im!licit. e" systems of forms are elaborated in it. 'ithout a bac*ground of
thought, there can be no thin*ing being but only a unconnected series of discontinuous
;52;
re!resentations. Their bac*ground is the mental associated milieu of forms. 0t is the middle term
bet"een life and conscious thought +ust as the en&ironment associated "ith the technical ob+ect is a
middle term bet"een the natural "orld and the technical ob+ectLs fabricated structures. 'e are able
to create technical beings because "e ha&e "ithin oursel&es an inter!lay of relationshi!s and a
matter;form association "hich is remar*ably analogous to that "hich "e establish in the technical
ob+ect. The relationshi! bet"een thought and life is analogous to the relationshi! bet"een a
structured technical ob+ect and the natural en&ironment. The indi&iduali<ed technical ob+ect is an
in&ented ob+ect, one that is a !roduct of the inter!lay of recurrent causality bet"een life and thought
in man. An ob+ect that is associated either "ith life or thought alone is a utensil or tool rather than a
technical ob+ect. 0t has no internal consistency, because it has no associated milieu to institute
recurrent causality.
III: Technical Individuali,ation
The !rinci!le that recurrent causality indi&iduali<es a technical ob+ect in its associated milieu ma*es
it !ossible for us to consider all the more clearly certain technical ensembles and to *no" "hether
"e should treat them as technical indi&iduals or as an organi<ed collection of indi&iduals. 'e may
say that a technical indi&idual is one ha&ing an associated milieu as a sine @ua non condition of its
functioning. The o!!osite is true of an ensemble. 0n the case of a laboratory such as a laboratory for
the study of the !sychology of sensations, one might as* if an audiometer is a technical indi&idual.
0f "e consider it a!art from !o"er su!!ly circuits and the ear!hones or micro!hones that are its
electroacoustic conductors, the ans"er is no. The audiometer is defined as ha&ing to be !laced in
certain conditions of tem!erature, &oltage, and noise;le&el so that stable intensities and !ro!er
measurement of thresholds are !ossible. The room?s coefficient of absor!tion and its resonances at
&arious fre@uencies ha&e to be ta*en into account. The locale is !art of the "hole a!!aratus. The
audiometer has to be o!erated either in flat, o!en country or else measurements must be ta*en in a
sound;!roof room "ith micro!honic floor sus!ension and "alls hea&ily co&ered "ith glass "ool.
'hat, "e might as*, is an audiometer essentially, regardless of "hether it is factory;made or home;
madeJ 0t is an ensemble of technical forms "ith relati&e indi&iduality. For e,am!le, it has t"o high;
fre@uency oscillators, one of "hich is fi,ed, the other &ariable. 'hiche&er of the t"o fre@uencies
has the lo"er beat is the one !roducing the audible sound. An attenuator ma*es it !ossible to
regulate the intensity of stimuli. either of these oscillators is alone a technical ob+ect because in
order it be stable it re@uires stabili<ed heater &oltage and anode &oltage. 1enerally, this stabili<ation
is obtained by means of a recurrent causality electronic system "hich functionally constitutes the
;5/;
associated milieu of the technical forms of oscillators. $o"e&er, "hat 0 ha&e called an associated
milieu is not @uite that. 0t is, rather, a transfer system, a means of ada!tation allo"ing the oscillators
not to be influenced by the e,ternal technical and natural en&ironment. 0t could not be a true
associated milieu unless a chance fre@uency drift in one of the oscillators led to a &ariation in the
su!!ly;current that "or*s against such a drift. This "ould in&ol&e an e,change bet"een regulated
su!!ly and oscillators through reci!rocal causality. The ensemble of technical structures "ould be
self;stabili<ed, "hereas here the o!!osite ha!!ens: only the su!!ly is self;stabili<ed and does not
react to chance &ariations in the fre@uency of one of the oscillators.
There is a great !ractical and theoretical difference bet"een these t"o cases. 0ndeed, if only the
su!!ly is stabili<ed "ithout any connection of recurrent causality "ith the oscillators, other uses of
the !o"er su!!ly at the same time could be limited or e,tended "ithout incon&enience. For
e,am!le, one can !lug in a third oscillator to the same su!!ly "ithout interfering "ith its o!eration,
as long as normal limits of out!ut are not e,ceeded. (n the other hand, if one "ishes to get an
effecti&e retroacti&e regulation, one must ha&e no more than one single structure attached to a single
associated milieu. (ther"ise, chance &ariations o!!osite in direction to the t"o structures that are
not synergetically connected to the same associated milieu could balance each other and fail to lead
to a regulatory reaction. :tructures connected "ith one single associated milieu should o!erate
synergetically. Therefore, the audiometer com!rises at least t"o distinct !arts that cannot be self;
stabili<ed by the same associated milieu the first, the fre@uency generator, the second, the am!lifier;
attenuator. (ne of these ensembles cannot be allo"ed to act u!on the other, so the t"o connecting
leads must be carefully se!arated and, in order to !re&ent interaction of any *ind, the !artition
se!arating them must be electrically and magnetically screened. (n the other hand, the material
limitation of the audiometer is not a functional limitation. The am!1ifier;attenuator is normally
e,tended by the acoustic re!roducer, or by the room,or by the outer ear of the sub+ect, de!ending on
"hether connection "ith the sub+ect is made by loud;s!ea*er or ear!hones. -onse@uently, it is
!ossible to !ostulate the e,istence of relati&e le&els of indi&iduali<ation in technical ob+ects. This
criterion has an a,iological &alue the coherence of a technical ensemble is ma,imal "hen the
ensemble is made u! of t"o sub;systems "ith the same le&el of relati&e indi&iduali<ation. :o, in a
laboratory for the study of the !sychology of sensations it "ould not be ad&antageous to grou!
together the am!lifier;attenuator and the t"o oscillators of the audiometer. There "ould be an
ad&antage, ho"e&er, in grou!ing the t"o oscillators so that they could res!ond at the same time and
to the same degree to current or tem!erature &ariation, so that the lo"er beat;fre@uency resulting
from these t"o correlati&e fre@uency &ariations in each oscillator are reduced as much as !ossible,
;59;
assuming that both the fundamental fre@uencies rise and fall together. As o!!osed to this, it "ould
be totally contrary to the functional unity of the beat;fre@uency a generator to ha&e t"o se!arate
!o"er su!!lies and to connect the !o"er su!!ly of one oscillator "ith one !hase of the circuit and
the second "ith the other !hase. This "ould u!set the effect of self;stabili<ation because it "ould
com!ensate for the t"o &ariations "hich gi&e the ensemble of the t"o oscillators stability in lo"
beat fre@uencies. :till, it "ould be useful to !lug the oscillators into a different !o"er;!hase than
the one to "hich the am!lifier;attenuator is attached: this "ould !re&ent the su!!ly &oltage of the
oscillators from reacting to &ariations in anode consum!tion by the am!lifier.
The !rinci!le of the indi&iduali<ation of technical ob+ects in an ensemble is a !rinci!le of sub;
ensembles "ith recurrent causality in their associated milieu. All technical ob+ects "ith recurrent
causality in their associated milieu should be se!arated from each other and should be connected in
such a "ay as to !reser&e the mutual inde!endence of their associated milieu,. $ence, the
res!ecti&e sub;ensembles of oscillators and am!lifier attenuator;re!roducer should be inde!endent
of each other in !o"er su!!ly and in their cou!ling. Am!lifier inta*e should high in relation to
oscillator outlet, so as to insure that oscillator reaction to the am!lifier is as slight as !ossible. 0f, for
e,am!le, the attenuator "ere connected to the outlet of the oscillators, ad+ustment of the attenuator
"ould react on the fre@uency of the oscillators. An ensemble of higher degree "hich com!rises all
these sub;ensembles is defined by its ca!acity to effect &arious free relationshi!s "ithout destroying
the autonomy of indi&iduali<ed sub;ensembles. This is the !art !layed by a general connection
command !anel in a laboratory. Electrostatic and electromagnetic screening and the use of non;
reacti&e cou!lings such as the cathode;follo"er are designed to maintain the inde!endence of sub;
ensembles "hile allo"ing for the &arious necessary combinations bet"een sub;ensemble functions.
The a&ailing of the benefits of functioning "ithout any interaction bet"een conditions of
functioning is a secondary functional role of the ensemble called the laboratory.
'e might as*, then, at "hat le&el indi&iduality e,ists. 5oes it e,ist at the sub;ensemble or ensemble
le&elJ The ans"er must as usual be gi&en in terms of the criterion of recurrent causality. 0ndeed at
the higher ensemble le&el Cthat of the factory, for e,am!leD there is really no associally milieu. 0f
there is, it e,ists in only certain res!ects, and has no e,istence of a general nature. As an e,am!le, to
ha&e oscillators in a room "here an audiometry e,!eriment is being done is often bothersome. 0f the
oscillators use transformers "ith magnetic circuits made of iron, magnetostriction in the laminations
leads to a &ibration that emits a disturbing sound. An oscillator "ith resistors and ca!acitators also
gi&es off a "ea* sound as a result of alternating electric attractions. 0n order to conduct delicate
;55;
e,!eriments, it becomes necessary either to !lace the a!!aratus in a different room and to o!erate
them by remote control or to isolate the sub+ect in a sound!roof room. 7i*e"ise, magnetic radiation
in !o"er transformers can greatly interfere "ith am!lifiers in electroence!halogra!hic and
electrocardiogra!hic e,!eriments. That higher ensemble "hich is the laboratory is therefore made
u! of non;connected de&ices thereby !re&enting the,chance creation of associated milieu,. The
difference bet"een ensemble and technical indi&iduals lies in the fact that for the ensemble the
creation of a uni@ue associated milieu is undesirable. The ensemble com!rises a certain number of
de&ices that !re&ent any !ossibility of the creation of a uni@ue associated milieu. 0t !re&ents the
interior concreti<ation of the technical ob+ects it contains and only ma*es use of the results of their
o!eration "ithout allo"ing for any interaction of "hat conditions them.
>elo" the le&el of technical indi&iduals, are there any grou!ings "ith some degree of technical
indi&idualityJ Ues, but the indi&iduality they !ossess is not structured li*e that of technical ob+ects
"ith an associated milieu. 0ts structure is li*e that of a !lurifunctional com!osition that lac*s a
!ositi&e associated milieu4 that is to say, "ithout self;regulation. 7et us ta*e the case of hot;cathode
tube. As soon as this tube is !laced in a layout "ith automatically !olarised cathode resistance it
becomes the centre of !henomena of self;regulation. 0f the heater &oltage increases, for e,am!le,
there is an increase in cathode emission and this leads to an increase in negati&e !olarisation. The
tube no longer increases am!lification and out!ut scarcely rises, and the same is true of its anode
dissi!ation. A similar !henomenon in -lass A am!lifiersN is res!onsible for stable le&els of out!ut
des!ite &ariations in le&els of in!ut in the am!lifier. >ut such regulatory counter;reactions are not
centred only in the interior of the tube. They de!end u!on the ensemble of the layout and, in certain
*inds of fi,ed layouts, they do not e,ist at all. Thus, a diode "hose anode heats u! conducts in both
directions, and this increases the intensity of the current that goes through it. The cathode, recei&ing
the electrons coming from the anode, becomes increasingly hot and, accordingly, gi&es off an
increasingly greater number of electrons. This destructi&e !rocess is therefore an e,am!le of
!ositi&e circular causality "hich belongs to the "hole layout and not solely to the diode.
0nfra;indi&idual technical ob+ects can be called technical elements. They differ from true indi&iduals
in the sense that they ha&e no associated milieu. They can be integrated into an indi&idual. A hot;
cathode tube is more a technical element than a com!lete technical indi&idual. 0t can be com!ared
to an organ in a li&ing body. 0n this sense it "ould be !ossible to define a ne" science of general
organology. This science "ould in&ol&e the study of technical ob+ects at the le&el of the element. 0t
"ould be !art of the science of technology, including mechanology, "hose sub+ect of study "ould
;58;
be com!lete technical indi&iduals.
I%: Evolutive Chains and Technicity Conservation. The &a- of
Rela.ation
The e&olution of technical elements can ha&e re&erberations in the e&olution of technical
indi&iduals. Technical indi&iduals, com!osed as they are of elements and associated milieu, de!end
to some e,tent on the characteristics of the elements "hich they use. Today, for e,am!le, electric
magnetic engines can be much smaller than "as !ossible in 1ramme?s day because their magnets
are much smaller. 0n some cases the elements are as it "ere the crystali<ation of an earlier technical
o!eration that !roduced them. Thus, magnets "ith set bushings, "hich are still called magnetically
hardened magnets, are !roduced by a !rocess that consists in *ee!ing a strong magnetic field
around the melting mass "hich, once cooled, "ill be the magnet. Thus, magneti<ation of the mass
begins abo&e the -urie !oint, then the same intense magneti<ation is continued during the cooling
of the mass. 'hen the mass is cold, it is a much more !o"erful magnet than it "ould ha&e been had
it been magneti<ed after cooling. All this ha!!ens as if the strong magnetic field caused a fi,ing of
the molecules in the melting mass. This fi,ing continues after cooling if the magnetic field is
!reser&ed during cooling and solidification. o" the furnace, crucible and coils creating the
magnetic field constitute a system "hich 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 neutrali<e the
continuous field designed to !roduce magneti<ation. This technical ensemble is itself made u! of a
number of technical indi&iduals that are arranged in terms of the result of their functioning and in
such a "ay that they do not interfere "ith the conditioning of their !articular functioning. :o, in the
e&olution of technical ob+ects "e "itness a causal de&elo!ment from earlier ensembles to later
elements. 'hen these elements are introduced into an indi&idual and modify its characteristics, they
ma*e !ossible a !rogression in technical causality from the le&el of elements to the le&el of
indi&iduals and thence to the le&el of ensembles. Thence, in a ne" cycle, technical causality, by a
!rocess of fabrication, goes bac* once again to the le&el of elements and there becomes reincarnated
in ne" indi&iduals and, later, in ne" ensembles. Thus, there e,ists a line of causality "hich is
serrated rather than rectilinear, in "hich the same reality e,ists first in the form of element and then
"ith characteristics of an indi&idual and, finally, "ith the characteristics of an ensemble.
A historical solidarity e,ists in technical realities. The fabrication of elements is the intermediary
that transmits it. 0f any technical reality is to ha&e !osterity, it is not enough that it be im!ro&ed in
;5=;
itself4 it must also be reincarnated and must !artici!ate in a cycle of becoming in accord "ith a
formula of rela,ation in le&els of reality. The solidarity of technical beings in relation one to the
other in the !resent generally tends to obscure a much more essential solidarity, one "hich re@uires
a tem!oral e&olutionary dimension but is not identical to biological e&olution because it ha!!ens
along continuous lines and scarcely e&er in&ol&es successi&e changes in le&el. Trans!osed into
biological terms, technical e&olution consists in this, that if a s!ecies !roduced an organ and the
organ "ere gi&en to an indi&idual, it "ould thereby become the first term of a lineage "hich in turn
!roduces a ne" organ. 0n life an organ cannot be detached from a s!ecies4 in technics an element is
detachable from the ensemble that !roduced it for the &ery reason that it is fabricated4 therein lies
the difference bet"een a !roduct and something engendered. :o, the technical "orld has a historical
as "ell as a s!atial dimension. 0ts solidarity at a gi&en moment should not obscure its successi&e
solidarity. 0ndeed, the latter is res!onsible for the ma+or stages or !eriods of technical life because of
its la" of serrated e&olution.
The la" of rela,ation has no corres!onding rhythm else"here. either the human nor geogra!hic
"orlds are ca!able of !roducing oscillations of rela,ation "ith successi&e bursting and s!outing
forth of ne" V structures. The time of rela,ation is the real technical time. 0t can become more
dominant than all other as!ects of historical time, to the e,tent that it can synchroni<e all other
rhythms of de&elo!ment and a!!ear to determine the "hole technical e&olution, "hereas in fact it
merely synchroni<es and induces e&oluti&e !hases. 'e may ta*e the e&olution of energy sources
since the eighteenth century as an e,am!le of e&olution according to a rhythm of rela,ation. A large
!art of the energy used in the eighteenth century came from "aterfalls, from air dis!lacements in
the atmos!here, and from animals. These *inds of dri&ing !o"er "ere a&ailed of for artisinal
e,!loitation or in restricted mills here and there along the "ater;course. From these mills there
de&elo!ed, early in the nineteenth century, thermodynamic machines of much greater efficiency.
Another de&elo!ment "as the modern locomoti&e "hich resulted from the ada!tation to the Marc
:eguin boiler, "hich "as lighter and smaller than the distiller boiler, of :te!henson?s sliding !anel,
"hich made it !ossible to ha&e &ariation in the relationshi! bet"een time of admission and time of
e,!ansion, first of all, and, then, made it !ossible to e,!loit the dead !oint in order to mo&e into
re&erse gear Csteam re&ersalD. This in&ention, "hich is of an artisanal sort, and "hich made !ossible
the ada!tation of the traction engine to great range of contours, "ith great &ariation in tor@ue, at the
slight cost of a loss in out!ut in systems of &ery high fre@uency only Cones in "hich admission time
e@uals total dri&ing timeD, ma*es thermal energy easily ada!table to rail haulage. The :te!henson
slide !anel and the tubular boiler, elements "hich emerged from the artisinal ensembles of the
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eighteenth century enter into the forms of the ne" indi&iduals of the nineteenth century, !articularly
into the form of the locomoti&e. The trans!ortation of large tonnage across terrains of all sorts
became !ossible and, since follo"ing contour lines and the meanders of na&igation channels "as no
longer necessary, this led to nineteenth century industrial concentration, "hich is essentially
thermo;dynamic in its structures, as "ell as incor!orating indi&iduals "ith thermodynamically;
based !rinci!les of function. There the great industrial ensembles of the nineteenth century at its
a!ogee "ere concentrated around such sources of thermal energy as coal;fields or around !laces
"here there "as greatest use of heat energy, such as coal;mines and iron foundries. The route of
!rogression "as from thermodynamic element to thermodynamic indi&idual and from
thermodynamic indi&iduals to the thermodynamic ensemble.
The !rinci!al as!ects of electrotechnics a!!ear as elements !roduced by thermodynamic ensembles
under discussion. >efore they become autonomous, the a!!lications of electric energy a!!ear as
&ery fle,ible means of energy transmission from !lace to !lace by means of !o"er lines. Metals
"ith high magnetic !ermeability are elements !roduced by a!!lications of thermodynamics in
metallurgy. -o!!er cables and high resistance !orcelains for insulators emerge from steam;!o"ered
"ire mills and coal furnaces. The metallic frame"or* of !ylons and concrete for dams come from
great thermodynamic concentrations and, as elements, they enter into those ne" technical
indi&iduals, turbines and alternators. :o, a ne" height and ne" concentration of beings is arri&ed at
and concreti<ed. 0n the !roduction of electric energy 1ramme?s machine ma*es "ay for the
!oly!hase alternator. The continuous currents of the first energy transmitters ma*e "ay for
alternating currents of constant fre@uency that are ada!table to !roduction by heat turbine and,
conse@uently, by hydraulic turbine too. These electrotechnical indi&iduals ha&e been integrated into
ensembles for the !roduction, distribution, and use of electric energy, ensembles "hose structure
differs greatly from that of thermodynamic concentrations. The role once !layed by the rail"ay in
dermodynamic concentraturs is ta*en o&er, in the ensemble of industrial electricity, by high tension
transmission lines.
The moment electrical technics reach their full de&elo!ment, they !roduce as elements ne" systems
"hich begin a ne" !hase. First of all !article;acceleration is achie&ed, initially by electric fields,
then by continuous electric fields and alternating magnetic fields and, because the !ossibility of
e,!loiting nuclear energy is disco&ered by this means, it leads to the construction of technical
indi&iduals. The ne,t thing that ha!!ens is that, @uite remar*ably, the !ossibility of disco&ering,
than*s to electrical metallurgy, metals such as silicon "hich !ermit a transformation of the radiant
;59;
energy of light into electrical current, "ith an out!ut that attains significant ratio for limited
a!!lications C8PD, an out!ut not much lo"er than that of the first steam;engines. The !ure silicon
!hotocell, a !roduct of the great industrial electronic ensembles,is one element that as yet has not
been incor!orated into a technical indi&idual. %! to no" it is no more than an ob+ect of curiosity
situated at the e,treme !oint of !ossibilities in the electrometallurgy industry, but it could be a
starting !oint for a !hase of de&elo!ment similar to the familiar and still incom!lete de&elo!ment
!hase in the use of industrial electricity.
o" each !hase of rela,ation is ca!able of effecting a synchroni<ation of minor or e@ually
im!ortant as!ects. For e,am!le, de&elo!ments in thermodynamics "ent hand in hand "ith
de&elo!ments in coal trans!ort and rail"ay !assenger ser&ice and, again, de&elo!ments in
electrotechnics !arallelled those in trans!ortation by automobile. E&en though in !rinci!le the
automobile is thermodynamic, it uses electric energy as an essential au,iliary system, !articularly
for lighting !ur!oses. 7ong;distance trans!ort of electric energy made !ossible an industrial
decentrali<ation that needs the automobile as a correlati&e means of trans!orting human beings
bet"een &arious !laces and altitudes, regardless of "hether or not there is rail ser&ice in the same
areas. The automobile and the high;tension line are !arallel technical structures "hich are
synchroni<ed but not identical. At the !resent moment, the automobile industry cannot fully a&ail of
electric energy.
:imilarly, there is no relationshi! bet"een nuclear energy and energy obtained by !hotoelectric
effect. :till, these t"o forms are !arallel and can be synchroni<ed
9
. For e,am!le, in all li*elihood it
"ill !ro&e im!ossible to ma*e use of nuclear energy for limited a!!lications such as those re@uiring
a fe" do<en "atts4 on the other hand, !hotoelectric energy does lend itself to decentrali<ation.
Photoelectric energy is essentially decentrali<ed in !roduction, "hile nuclear energy is essentially
centrali<ed. The *ind of relationshi! that e,isted bet"een electric energy and energy e,tracted from
!etrol combustion no" obtain bet"een energy of nuclear origin and energy of !hotoelectric origin,
though the differences are more !ronounced.
%: Technicality and the Evolution of Technics: Technicality as an
Instruent of Technical Evolution
The different as!ects of the indi&iduali<ation of the technical being constitute the centre of an
e&olution that !roceeds by successi&e ste!s, but that is not dialectic in the !ro!er sense of the term
9 And they can be +oined together4 a !hotocell can be irradiated by a radioacti&e source.
;8);
because in this instance the role of negati&ity is not to be a !rogress;!romoting factor. egati&ity in
the technical "orld is a fla" in indi&iduali<ation, an incom!lete meeting of the technical "orld and
the natural "orld. egati&ity does not !romote !rogress. 3ather, it !romotes change because it
s!urs man to loo* for ne" and more satisfactory solutions than those he has. >ut this desire for
change does not directly affect the technical being. 0t only affects man as in&entor and user.
Furthermore, the change in @uestion should not be mista*en for !rogress. A too ra!id change "or*s
against technical !rogress because it interferes "ith the transmission of "hat one age be@ueathes to
the ne,t in the form of technical elements.
0f technical !rogress is to occur, each age has to !ass on to its successor the fruit of its technical
endea&our. 'hat can be transmitted from age to age is not technical ensembles or indi&iduals but
the elements that these indi&iduals grou!ed as ensembles "ere able to !roduce. 0ndeed, because of
their ca!acity for internal intercommutation, technical ensembles can go outside of themsel&es,
!roducing elements different from their o"n. Technical beings differ from li&ing beings in a great
number of "ays, but they differ essentially in this res!ect: a li&ing being engenders other beings
that are similar to itself or that can become li*e it after a certain number of successi&e
reorganisations that occur s!ontaneously if the conditions are suitable4 the technical being is
different in that it lac*s this ca!acity4 it cannot !roduce other technical beings li*e itself, des!ite the
efforts of cyberneticians "ho ha&e tried to ma*e technical beings co!y li&ing beings in constructing
beings similar to themsel&es. That is im!ossible at the !resent time e,ce!t in an imaginary and
baseless "ay. >ut the technical being has a "ider sco!e than the li&ing, and this is made !ossible by
an infinitely smaller ad&ancement: the technical being can !roduce elements that retain the degree
of !erfection attained by a technical ensemble and can be brought together to ma*e !ossible the
constitution of ne" technical beings in the form of indi&iduals. This is a case not of begetting or
!rocession or direct !roduction but of indirect !roduction through the constitution of elements that
ha&e "ithin them a certain degree of technical !erfection.
This affirmation calls for a detailed e,!lanation of "hat "e mean by technical !erfection. From an
em!irical and e,ternal !oint of &ie", it can be said that technical !erfection is a !ractical @uality or,
at the &ery least, the material and structural su!!ort for certain !ractical @ualities. For e,am!le a
good tool is not merely a "ell made and "ell sha!ed tool. An ad<e can be in bad condition and
!oorly shar!ened and yet, from a !ractical !oint of &ie", be a good tool. An ad<e is a good tool if,
on the one hand, its cur&e is suitable for a clean and "ell;directed stro*e on the "ood and, on the
other, if it ta*es and *ee!s a *een edge e&en "hen it is used on hard "oods. o" this last @uality is
;81;
a !roduct of the technical ensemble that !roduced the tool. The ad<e, as a manufactured element,
can be made of a metal "hose ma*e;u! &aries at different !oints. This tool is not merely a bloc* of
homogeneous metal sha!ed according to a !articular form. 0t has been forged, "hich means that the
molecular chains in the metal ha&e a certain orientation that &aries in different !laces, li*e a "ood
"ith fibres so dis!osed as to gi&e the greatest solidarity and the greatest elasticity. This is
!articularly the case in middle !arts bet"een the cutting edge and the flat !art and bet"een the
soc*et and the cutting !art of the blade. The area close to the cutting edge is elastically deformed
during "or* because it acts as a "edge and as a le&er on the "ood;chi! as it is being remo&ed.
0ndeed, the cutting end is tem!ered more than all the other !arts4 and it must be "ell;tem!ered,
though in a carefully delimited "ay, for other"ise a too great "eight of metal "ould render the tool
brea*able and the cutting edge "ould shatter. 0t is as if the tool as a "hole "ere made u! of a
!lurality of differently functioning <ones soldered to each other. The tool is not made of matter and
form only. 0t is made u! of technical elements arranged for a certain system of usage and assembled
into a stable structure by the manufacturing !rocess. The tool retains "ithin it the result of the
functioning of a technical ensemble. The !roduction of a good ad<e re@uires a technical ensemble of
foundry, forge, and tem!ering.
The technicality of the ob+ect is, therefore, more than a @uality of usage. 0t is that in the ob+ect
"hich is added to an initial design determined by the relation of form to matter. 0t is, as it "ere, an
intermediary bet"een form and matter4 for e,am!le, in the case of the ad<e, the !rogressi&e
heterogeneity of tem!ering at certain !oints. Technicality is the degree of concreti<ation in an
ob+ect. The concreti<ation in @uestion is "hat, in the days of "ood foundry, made for the "orth and
fame of Toledo blades and, lately, the @uality of :aint;Etienne steels. These steels are an e,!ression
of the functioning of a technical ensemble "hich included the characteristics of the coal used as
much as the tem!erature and chemical com!osition of non;chal*y Furens "aters, or the essential
elements of the green "ood used for the stirring and refining of the molten metal !rior to casting. 0n
certain cases, technicality becomes !re!onderant in relation to the abstract characteristics of the
matter;form relationshi!. Thus, in matter and form a helicoidal s!ring is a &ery sim!le thing. Uet,
the manufacturing of s!rings re@uires a high degree of !erfection in the technical ensemble
!roducing them. Wuite often, the @uality of indi&iduals such as a motor or am!lifier is de!endent
more on the technicality of sim!le elements C&al&e s!rings or a modulation transformer, for
instanceD than on the so!histication of the assembly. Also, technical ensembles ca!able of !roducing
such sim!le elements as a s!ring or transformer are sometimes e,tremely large and com!le,, almost
coe,tensi&e "ith all the ramifications of many "orld"ide industries. There "ould be no
;82;
e,aggeration in saying that the @uality of a sim!le needle e,!resses the degree of !erfection of a
nation?s industry. This is the reason for the fairly legitimate e,istence of +udgements of the sort that
define a needle as Ian English needle.A #udgements such as these ma*e sense because technical
ensembles are reflected in the sim!lest elements they !roduce. (ne can?t deny that there are other,
less legitimate reasons for this sort of thin*ing, !articularly because it is easier to @ualify a technical
ob+ect in terms of its origin than to ma*e +udgements on the basis of its intrinsic &alue. This is a
!henomenon of o!inion4 but this !henomenon, ho"e&er much it may gi&e rise to e,aggerations or
to intentional misinformation, is not "ithout foundation.
Technicality can be regarded as a !ositi&e characteristic of an element, as analogous to the self;
regulation brought about in a technical indi&idual by its associated milieu. At the element le&el,
technicality is concreti<ation. 0t is "hat ma*es an element !roduced by an ensemble really an
element rather than an ensemble or indi&idual. This !eculiarity ma*es it detachable from the
ensemble and frees it for the com!osition of ne" indi&iduals. There is no !erem!tory reason,
admittedly, technicality to the element alone. At the indi&idual le&el, the associated milieu is a
de!ositary of technicality, as is the sco!e of intercommutati&ity on the ensemble le&el. :till, it is
!ro!er to reser&e the term, technicality, for that @uality of the element "hich is the e,!ression of
"hat the technical ensemble has ac@uired, and !reser&es, and "ill send for"ard into a ne" !eriod.
The element carries for"ard technical reality, "hereas the indi&idual and the ensemble contain
technical reality "ithout being able to trans!ort and transmit it. They can !roduce and !reser&e but
not transmit. Elements ha&e a transducti&e !ro!erty that ma*es them the true carriers of technicality,
+ust li*e seeds that carry along the !ro!erties of a s!ecies and are to rema*e ne" indi&iduals.
Therefore it is in elements that "e find technicality at its !urest or, as it "ere, in a free state4 in
indi&iduals and ensembles "e can find it only in a state of combination.
o" the technicality carried by elements does not com!rise negati&ity, and no negati&e
conditioning comes into !lay at the moment of the !roduction of elements by ensembles or at the
moment "hen indi&iduals are !roduced by in&ention, "hich brings elements together to form
indi&iduals. 0n&ention, "hich is the creation of an indi&idual, !resu!!oses an intuiti&e *no"ledge of
the technicality of elements in the in&entor. 0n&ention ta*es !lace on a middle le&el bet"een the
concrete and the abstract, the le&el of diagrams, "hich im!lies an earlier e,istence and a coherence
for its re!resentations;;those images that mas* technicality "ith a layer of symbols "hich are !art
of an imaginary methodology and imaginary dynamics. 0magination is not only a faculty for
in&enting or creating images beyond the bounds of sensation. 0t is also a ca!acity for !ercei&ing in
;8/;
ob+ects @ualities that are not !ractical, @ualities that are neither directly sensory nor "holly
geometric, @ualities that ha&e to do neither "ith !ure matter nor !ure form but belong to the in;
bet"een le&el of systems.
The technical imagination may be considered as defined by a !articular sensiti&eness to the
technicality of elements that !a&es the "ay for the disco&ery of !ossible connections. The in&entor
does not !roceed e, nihilo, beginning "ith matter to "hich he gi&es form4 he begins "ith elements
that are already technical and then disco&ers an indi&idual being that is ca!able of incor!orating
them. The com!atibility of indi&iduals in a technical indi&idual im!lies an associated milieu.
Therefore the technical indi&idual should be imagined, that is to say, it should be assumed to be
constructed, as an ensemble of organi<ed technical systems. The indi&idual is a stable system of
technicalities of elements organi<ed into an ensemble. 'hat is organi<ed is these technicalities4 the
elements also are organi<ed, but only in so far as they are bearers of these technicalities and not
because of anything that has to do "ith their o"n materiality. An engine is an assemblage of a,les
and &olumetric systems, each defined by its characteristics and technicality rather than its
materiality4 also an element of indetermination can subsist in the !lacing of any one element in
relation to the others. The !lace for some elements is chosen more for e,trinsic than intrinsic
considerations about the single technical ob+ect in relation to the &arious !rocesses of its o!eration.
0ntrinsic determinations based on the technicality of each of the elements are those that constitute
the associated milieu. And the associated milieu is the concreti<ation in mutual relationshi! of the
technicalities borne by all the elements. These technicalities can be concei&ed of as stable conduits
reflecting the characteristics of the elements rather than as sim!le @ualities. They are forces in the
fullest sense of the "ord4 that is to say, they are ca!acities for !roducing or undergoing an effect in
a fi,ed manner.
The more ad&anced the technicality of an element becomes, the more the margin of indetermination
of this force diminishes. This "as "hat 0 "anted to state "hen 0 said that the elementary technical
ob+ect becomes concrete according as its technicality increases. This force could also be called
ca!acity, as long as it is understood that it is being characteri<ed "ith reference to a fi,ed use.
1enerally s!ea*ing, the more ad&anced the technicality of an element becomes, the larger becomes
the sco!e of its conditions of use, because of the great stability of the element. Thus, the technicality
of a s!ring increases "hen it can "ithstand higher tem!eratures "ithout loss of elasticity and
!reser&e, "ithout critical modification, its coefficient of elasticity "ithin more e,tensi&e thermal
and mechanical limits4 technically, it remains a s!ring "ithin larger limits and is suitable for less
;89;
restricted limits of incor!oration into any *ind of technical indi&idual. An electrolytic condenserN
has a lesser degree of technicality than a dry dielectric condenser such as !a!er or mica. 0n fact, a
electrolytic condenser has a ca!acity that &aries as a function of the &oltage to "hich it is submitted4
its thermal limits of use are narro"er. At the same time it &aries "hen sub+ected to constant &oltage
because the electrolyte, li*e electrodes, becomes chemically modified in the course of functioning.
5ry dielectric condensers, on the other hand, are more stable. :till, here once again the @uality of
technicality im!ro&es "ith the inde!endence of characteristics in relation to conditions of
utili<ation. A mica condenser is better than a !a!er condenser4 the &acuum condenser is best of all,
because it is not e&en sub+ect to the condition of &oltage limit arising "here there is ris* of
!erforating the insulator. At the in;bet"een le&el, the sil&ered;ceramic condenser, "hich &aries &ery
little "ith tem!erature, and the air condenser too !ro&ide a &ery high degree of technicality.
0n this res!ect, it should be !ointed out that there is no necessary correlation bet"een the
commercial !rice of a technical ob+ect and its elementary technical @uality. 6ery often,
considerations of !rice ha&e not absolute influence though they may e,ert some influence through
other re@uirements such as !lace. Thus, an electrolytic condenser is !referable to a dry dielectric
condenser "here a greater ca!acity "ould demand too great a bul* for housing the condenser.
7i*e"ise, an air condenser is &ery bul*y com!ared "ith a &acuum condenser of the same ca!acity.
Uet it is much chea!er and in a dry atmos!here it is e&ery bit as reliable in o!eration. Therefore
economic considerations are indirectly influential in a great number of cases, in terms of the
re!ercussions of the ob+ect?s degree of concreti<ation u!on the ob+ect?s o!eration in its indi&idual
ensemble. 'hat is influenced by economic re!ercussions is the general formula of the indi&idual
being rather than the element as element. The liaison bet"een the technical and economic fields is
created at the le&el of indi&idual or ensemble, but only &ery rarely at the element le&el. For this
reason, "e can say that to a &ery great e,tent technical &alue is inde!endent of economic &alue and
can be e&aluated according to inde!endent criteria.
The transmission of technicality by elements establishes the !ossibility of technical !rogress o&er
and abo&e the a!!arent discontinuity of forms, fields and *inds of energy used and, occasionally, of
systems of functioning. E&ery stage of de&elo!ment is a legatee of earlier eras and !rogress is all
the more certain the more com!letely and !erfectly it tends to"ards the state of sole legatee.
The technical ob+ect is not, strictly s!ea*ing, a historical ob+ect4 o&er the course of time it is
influenced only insofar as it is a &ehicle for technicality, or insofar as it !lays a transducti&e role
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bet"een one age and the ne,t. either technical ensembles nor technical indi&iduals last. Elements
alone ha&e the !o"er to transmit technicality from era to era in a form that is reali<ed, com!lete and
materiali<ed in a !roduct. For this reason it is !ro!er to analyse the technical ob+ect as com!osed of
technical indi&iduals. >ut it must be made clear that at certain moments in its e&olution the
technical ob+ect is significant on its o"n account and is a de!ositary of technicality. 0n this regard, it
is !ossible to base an analysis of the technics of a human grou! on an analysis of the elements
!roduced by their indi&iduals and ensembles. (ften, these elements alone are able to sur&i&e the
ruin of a ci&ili<ation and !ersist as good "itnesses to a state of technical de&elo!ment. From this
!oint of &ie", the method used by ethnologists is !erfectly &alid4 but its a!!lication could also be
e,tended to analyse the elements !roduced by industrial technics.
There is no fundamental difference bet"een !eo!les that ha&e no industry and !eo!les "hose
industry is "ell de&elo!ed. Technical indi&iduals and technical ensembles e,ist e&en among !eo!les
"ho ha&e no industrial de&elo!ment4 ne&ertheless, instead of being stabili<ed by institutions "hich
gi&e them form, !er!etuate them and install them, such indi&iduals and ensembles are tem!orary or
e&en occasional. 'hat is !reser&ed from one technical o!eration to the ne,t is the elements, that is,
tools and some manufactured ob+ects. The ma*ing of a boat is an o!eration that re@uires a real
technical ensemble: flat ground near a "ater;course, an area that is sheltered but bright and, along
"ith that, su!!orts and !ro!s to *ee! u! the boat during construction. E&en though a dry doc* may
be ; a tem!orary technical ensemble, it still constitutes an ensemble. Furthermore, in our o"n day
tem!orary technical ensembles of this sort are to be found, some of them, for e,am!le building
sites, highly de&elo!ed and @uite com!le,. There are others that are tem!orary but much more
durable, such as mines or oil fields.
E&ery technical ensemble does not necessarily ha&e to ha&e the stable form of a factory or
"or*sho!. 0ndeed, non;industrial ci&ili<ations differ from ours es!ecially in that they ha&e no
technical indi&iduals. That is true, if "e agree that the material e,istence of technical indi&iduals
does not ha&e to be stable and !ermanent. $o"e&er, the function of technical indi&iduali<ation is
ta*en o&er by human indi&iduals. >ecause in an a!!renticeshi! a man forms habits, gestures, and
"ays of doing things, "hich enable him to use the many and &arious tools demanded by the "hole
of an o!eration, his a!!renticeshi! leads him to technical self;indi&iduali<ation. $e becomes the
associated milieu of different tools he uses. 'hen he has mastered all the tools and *no"s "hen to
change tools to carry on "or*ing or to use t"o tools at the same time, he is using his o"n body to
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insure the internal distribution and self;regulation of the +ob
5
. 0n some cases the integration of
technical indi&iduals into the ensemble is effected through the intermediary of an association of
human indi&iduals in teams of t"o or three or more. 'hen such grou!s do not introduce functional
differentiation their direct goal is an increase in dis!osable energy or in s!eed of "or*. >ut "hen
they ha&e recourse to differentiation, then they !ro&ide a good illustration of the genesis of an
ensemble that is com!osed of men em!loyed more as technical indi&iduals than as human
indi&iduals 5rilling "ith bo" and bit as it is described by classical authors is of this sort. :o too is
the mode of felling certain trees in our o"n day. And so also. until @uite recently, "as the &ery
common method of using a cross;cut sa" to ma*e !lan*s and rafters, "ith t"o men "or*ing
together in alternating rhythm. This e,!lains "hy in certain cases human indi&iduality can be used
as a functional su!!ort for technical indi&iduality. The e,istence of se!arate technical indi&idualities
is a fairly recent !henomenon, and in some "ays it seems to be an imitation of man by the machine,
the machine being the most general form of technical indi&iduals. $o"e&er, in reality there is &ery
little similarity bet"een the machine and man and, e&en "hen it so o!erates as to !roduce similar
results, it hardly e&er em!loys the techni@ues used by the indi&idual man in his "or*. 0ndeed, the
com!arison bet"een the t"o is most often &ery su!erficial. >ut if man feels frustration on account
of the machine, it is because it re!laces him as an indi&idual in the "or*ing "orld4 the machine
ta*es the !lace of man the tool;bearer.
0n the technical ensembles of industrial ci&ili<ations, !ositions in "hich many !eo!le ha&e to "or*
in tight synchroni<ation are becoming rarer than in the !ast, a !ast that "as characteristically
artisanal. At the artisanal stage of !roduction, as o!!osed to the stage of technical ensembles, it is
@uite common for certain *inds of "or* to re@uire a grou!ing of human indi&iduals "ho ha&e
com!lementary functions: t"o men are needed to shoe a horse, one to hold the hoof and the other to
!osition the shoe and nail it on. 0n building, the mason had his hel!er, the hod;carrier. Threshing
"ith flail re@uired good !erce!tion of rhythmic structure to synchroni<e the alternating mo&ements
of the team;members. :o, "e can hardly say that only hel!ers "ere re!laced by the machine. The
&ery su!!ort for technical indi&iduali<ation has changed. This su!!ort used to be a human
indi&idual. o" it is a machine. The machine bears toolsDand "e can define the machine as that
"hich both carries and directs its o"n tools. Man directs or controls the machine, the bearer of
5 The nobility of artisan "or* is !artly deri&ed from this. Man is a de!ositary of technicality. $is "or* is his sole
e,!ression of his technicality. $is need to "or* is translation of this need of e,!ression. To refuse to "or*, "here
one has a technical *no"ledge, "here one has a technical *no"ledge that can only be e,!ressed in "or* because it
cannot be formulated in intellectual terms, "ould be to hide one?s light under a bushel. (n the other hand, the need
for e,!ression is no longer tied to "or* "hen technically is imminent to *no"ledge that can be formulated in
concrete terms that are inde!endent of any *ind of concrete actuali<ation.
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tools. $e arranges the grou!ing of machines, but he does not bear tools. The machine does the main
"or*, the "or* of both blac*smith and hel!er. Man se!arated from his role as technical indi&idual,
from "hat is the essential "or* of the artisan, can become either the organiser of the ensemble of
technical indi&iduals or a hel!er for technical indi&iduals. $e greases, cleans, !ic*s u! burrs and
debris and, so, in many res!ects, !lays the !art of hel!er. $e su!!lies the machine "ith elements,
changing the dri&ing belt, shar!ening the drill or lathe. Thus he has one role beneath technical
indi&iduality and another abo&e it. :er&ant and master, he guides the machine as technical
indi&idual by attending to the relationshi! of the machine to its elements and to the ensemble. $e is
the organiser of relationshi!s bet"een technical stages instead of being, as artisan, one of those
technical stages himself. For this reason a technician is less !art of his o"n !rofessional s!eciality
than an artisan.
$o"e&er, this in no "ay means that man is not ca!able of being a technical indi&idual and of
"or*ing in liaison "ith the machine. The liaison bet"een man and machine is reali<ed "hen man
uses the machine to act u!on the natural "orld. :o, the machine is a &ehicle for action and
information in a three;"ay relationshi! in&ol&ing man, the machine and the "orld, "ith the
machine in bet"een man and the "orld. 0n such a case, man retains traces of technicality, "hich are
defined by his need for an a!!renticeshi!. The machine, then, has a relay function, as mo&ement;
am!lifier, but all the "hile it is man "ho is the centre of the com!le, technical indi&idual made u!
of man and machine. 0n this case "e might say that man is a machine;bearer and that the machine
retains its role as tool;bearer. Therefore, the relationshi! is to some e,tent com!arable to that of the
machine tool, "here "e understand machine;tool to mean one "ithout self;regulation. Man is
al"ays the centre of the associated milieu in this relationshi!. The machine;tool is something
lac*ing autonomous internal control and needing man to ma*e it "or*. $ere man inter&enes as
li&ing being. %sing his o"n sense of self;regulation he gi&es the machine self;regulation, "ithout
necessarily formulating this consciously. For e,am!le, a man lets an o&er;heating car engine sit
until it has cooled do"n. (nce it is cold he starts it and gradually s!eeds it u!, "ithout re&&ing it
too much at the beginning. These actions of his are technically !ro!er and they ha&e their !arallels
in regulations that are necessary for life, but they are +ust done, rather than thought out, by the
dri&er. Actions of this *ind are all the more a!!licable to the technical ob+ect the nearer it is to the
status of technical being embodying homeostatic regulations in its functioning. 0ndeed, a technical
ob+ect that has become concrete has a system "hich reduces the !rocess of self;destruction to a
minimum because homeostatic regulations are e,erted to the best !ossible e,tent. A good e,am!le
is the diesel engine, "hich re@uires a definite tem!erature to function and a rotation system "ithin a
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narro" ma,imum and minimum range, "hereas the !etrol engine, being less concrete, has greater
fle,ibility. 7i*e"ise, an electronic tube "ill not "or* at any random tem!erature or "ith an
undetermined anode &oltage. 0n !o"er tubes, in !articular, too lo" a cathode tem!erature causes the
electric field to ca!ture electron emissi&e o,yde !articles4 hence the necessity of a gradual starting
!rocedure, "ith, first, the "arming of the cathodes and, then, the charging of the anodes. 0f
!olari<ation circuits are automatic Cfed by cathode currentD, they ha&e to be sub+ected to increasing
&oltage by a gradual increase in anode !o"er. 'ithout this !recaution, there "ould be a brief instant
"hen there is cathode out!ut before !olari<ation has feached its normal le&el Cthe !olari<ation
!roduced by this out!ut, and !ro!ortional to it, tends to limit the out!utD: cathode out!ut "ould
e,ceed the ma,imum admissable because it is not limited by this negati&e reaction.
To !ut it &ery generally, the !recautions "hich man ta*es for the conser&ation of the technical
ob+ect ha&e the goal of maintaining and directing its functioning in conditions "hich render it non;
self;destructi&e4 that is, in conditions in "hich it sub+ects itself to a negati&e stabili<ing reaction.
>eyond certain limits, the reactions become !ositi&e and, conse@uently, destructi&e. This is the case
"here an o&er;heating engine, becoming too hot, begins to sei<e and, becoming still hotter because
of the sei<ing, deteriorates irre&ersibly. 7i*e"ise, an electronic tube "hose anode becomes red;hot
loses its asymmetric conducti&ity, !articularly in its function as rectifier and, as a result, enters a
!hase of !ositi&e reaction. The fact of allo"ing it cool off early enough allo"s for the reco&ery of
normal functioning.
Thus, man can act as a substitute for the technical indi&idual, and can +oin elements to ensembles in
a era "hen the construction of technical indi&iduals is not !ossible.
0n reflecting on the conse@uences of technical de&elo!ment in relation to the e&olution of human
societies, "e must ta*e into account, first and foremost, the !rocess of the indi&iduali<ation of
technical ob+ects. $uman indi&iduality becomes more and more detached from its technical
function because of the construction of technical indi&iduals. The functions that remain for man to
!erform are higher and lo"er in *ind than the role of tool bearer, tending to"ards a relationshi!
"ith elements and to"ards a relationshi! "ith ensembles. o" since, once u!on a time, the
indi&iduality of man "as !recisely "hat had to be used in technical "or* and man had to be
technici<ed because the machine could not be, there arose the habit of allotting, one sole function to
each human indi&idual in the "orld of "or*. This sort of functional monism "as !erfectly useful
and necessary "hen man became a technical indi&idual. >ut today it creates malaise because man
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still tries to be a technical indi&idual but has no fi,ed !lace in relation to the machine. $e becomes
either ser&ant of the machine or organi<er of the technical ensemble. o", in order that the human
function be meaningful, it is absolutely necessary that each man em!loyed at a technical tas* should
ac@uaint himself "ith e&ery concei&able as!ect of the machine, should arri&e at some sort of
understanding of it, and should !ay attention as much to its elements as to its integration into the
functional ensemble. For it is a mista*e to create a hierarchical distinction bet"een the care to be
gi&en to elements and the care due to ensembles. Technicality is not the *ind of reality that lends
itself to hierarchical distinctions. 0t e,ists "holly in elements and is transducti&ely !ro!agated in the
technical indi&idual and in ensembles. >y means of indi&iduals, ensembles are made u! of elements
and elements emerge from them. The a!!arent !re;eminence of ensembles arises from the fact that
in our day ensembles are granted the !rerogati&es of !ersons "ho are in !ositions of leadershi!.
$o"e&er, ensembles are not indi&iduals. 7i*e"ise, elements are not &alued highly because "or*ing
"ith elements "as the +ob of hel!ers and because the elements used by these hel!ers "ere not
highly de&elo!ed. Therefore, the basis for the malaise in the man;machine relationshi! is the fact
that until our o"n time man !layed the technical role of the indi&idual. o" that he is a technical
being no longer, man is forced to learn a ne" function and to find for himself a !osition in the
technical ensemble that is something other than the !osition of indi&idual. The first thing he must
do is to ta*e on t"o non;indi&idual functions, that of the element and that of the director of the
ensemble. >ut in both these functions man is in conflict "ith his memories of himself. Man has
!layed the role of technical indi&idual to the e,tent that he loo*s on the machine;as;technical;
indi&idual as if it "ere a man and occu!ying the !osition of a man, "hereas in actual fact it "as
man "ho !ro&isionally too* the !lace of the machine before real technical indi&iduals could be
made. 0n all +udgements made on the sub+ect of the machine, there is an im!licit humani<ation of
the machine "hich has this role;change as its dee!est source. Man had so "ell learned to be a
technical being that he goes to the e,tent of belie&ing that once the technical being is concrete it
"rongly begins to !lay the role of man. 0deas about sla&ery and freedom are too closely bound to
the old idea of man as technical ob+ect to be able to relate to the real !roblem of the relationshi!
bet"een man and machine. The technical ob+ect must be *no"n in itself if the relationshi! bet"een
man and machine is to be steady and &alid. $ence the need for a technical culture.
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