Technological system and the problem of desymbolization

Yuk Hui

pp. 73-82

in: Helena Mateus Jerónimo, José L. García, Carl Mitcham (eds), Jacques Ellul and the technological society in the 21st century, Berlin, Springer, 2013

Abstract

This paper focuses on what Jacques Ellul calls a technological system, especially on the aspects of symbolization and desymbolization which characterize the technological evolution that separated human from nature. Ellul's conceptualization of a technological system suggests a new way to mediate on the relation between human beings and, following the vocabulary of Gilbert Simondon, the technical reality. The technical reality constitutes the world which we dwell, that can only be reinvented by admitting that we are actually being-in-the-technological-system.But it is also essential to evaluate the technological system according to a technical reality which never remains static, and this requires reinvestigating Ellul's technological system in contemporary terms. This article is divided into three parts, the first part discusses the relation between a technological system and desymbolization in Ellul's thought; the second part evaluates the technical system and desymbolization through a discussion of Ellul's inspiration by Gilbert Simondon, looking at the technological system that we confront today; lastly, it examines the technical system from the perspective of another French philosopher, Bernard Stiegler who was also inspired by Simondon. These steps aim to re-access Ellul's thought in the contemporary technical reality.

Cited authors

Simondon Gilbert

Stiegler Bernard

Ellul Jacques