Texts for KASK seminar ‘The Religion of Technology’ 2017-2018

1. introduction

Gilbert Simondon – Introduction to “On the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects”

pp. 11-17 from unpublished translation by Ninian Mellamphy, University of Western Ontario, June 1980.
originally published as:
Gilbert Simondon (1958). “Du Mode d’Existence des Objets Techniques”. Paris: Méot.

2. the religion of technology

David Noble – “Technology and Religion”
David Noble – “The New Eden”

pp. 3-6 and 88-100 from:
David Noble (1997). “The Religion of Technology; The Divinity of Man and the Spirit of Invention.” London: Penguin Books.

3. technology in reality

David Edgerton – introduction and “Significance”

pp. ix-xviii and 1-27 from:
David Edgerton (2006) – “The Shock of the Old; Technology and Global History since 1900”. London: Profile Books.

4. the posthuman

N. Katherine Hayles – “Toward Embodied Virtuality”
N. Katherine Hayles – “What does it mean to be Posthuman ?”

pp. 1-24 and 283-291 from:
N. Katherine Hayles (1999). “How we became Posthuman; Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature and Informatics”. University of Chicago Press.

5. the megamachine

Jacques Ellul – “Characteristics of Modern Technique”

pp. 79-116 from:
Jacques Ellul (1964). “The Technological Society”. New York: Vintage Books.
originally published as:
Jacques Ellul (1954). La Technique: L’Enjeu du siècle. Paris: Armand Colin.

6. the cyborg

Donna J. Haraway – “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century”

pp. 149-181 from:
Donna J. Haraway (1991). “Simians, Cyborgs and Women; the Reinvention of Nature”. London: Free Association Books.

7. the autonomy of technology

Langdon Winner – “Complexity and the Loss of Agency”
Langdon Winner – “Frankenstein’s Problem”

pp. 279-335 from:
Langdon Winner (1977). “Autonomous Technology: Technics-out-of-Control as a Theme in Political Thought.” Boston: MIT Press.

8. the invention of the human

Bernard Stiegler – “Who ? What ? The Invention of the Human”

pp. 134-179 from:
Bernard Stiegler (1998). “Technics and Time 1: The Fault of Epimetheus”. Stanford University Press.
originally published as:
Bernard Stiegler (1994). La Technique et Le Temps 1: La Faute d’Epimethee. Paris: Galilee.