Simondon, Control and the Digital Domain




Rantala Juho, Muilu Mirka

PublisherSage

2023

Theory, Culture and Society

1460-3616

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1177/02632764231201337(external)

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/02632764231201337(external)

https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/182420447(external)



Deleuze put forth a description of fluid control in computerized society in his text ‘Postscript on Control Societies’. With the help of the philosophy of Gilbert Simondon, we can broaden and complexify this view and understand digital systems through the concept of modulation. These modulatory systems intervene in human individuation by controlling individuals as ‘dividuals’. In contemporary digital technologies, like blockchain platforms, the modulatory dividual control can be fierce and even total. Simondon’s concepts of pre-individual, individuation, and transindividuation present us with an ontology for this contemporary mode of control and enable us to better understand the complex relations between the being of humans and technical networks.


Last updated on 2024-26-11 at 12:07