The Age of Disruption: Technology and Madness in Computational Capitalism PDF
Preview The Age of Disruption: Technology and Madness in Computational Capitalism
The Age of Disruption To the memory of Gérard Granel and Nicolas Auray. For Thomas Berns. For Michel Deguy. For the animals of the forest. Bernard Stiegler The Age of Disruption Technology and Madness in Computational Capitalism followed by A Conversation about Christianity with Alain Jugnon, Jean-Luc Nancy and Bernard Stiegler Translated by Daniel Ross polity First published in French as Dans la disruption. Comment ne pas devenir fou? © Les Liens qui Libèrent, 2016 This English edition © Polity Press, 2019 This book is supported by the Institut français (Royaume-Uni) as part of the Burgess Programme Polity Press 65 Bridge Street Cambridge CB2 1UR, UK Polity Press 101 Station Landing Suite 300 Medford, MA 02155, USA All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-2926-1 ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-2927-8 (pb) A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Stiegler, Bernard, author. Title: The age of disruption : technology and madness in computational capitalism / Bernard Stiegler. Description: English edition. | Medford, MA, USA : Polity Press, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018046809 (print) | LCCN 2018050869 (ebook) | ISBN 9781509529292 (Epub) | ISBN 9781509529261 | ISBN 9781509529278 (pbk) Subjects: LCSH: Technological innovations--Social aspects. | Capitalism--Social aspects. | Computers and civilization. Classification: LCC T14.5 (ebook) | LCC T14.5 .S747 2019 (print) | DDC 303.48/3--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018046809 Typeset in 10 on 11 Sabon by Fakenham Prepress Solutions, Fakenham, Norfolk NR21 8NL Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ International Limited The publisher has used its best endeavours to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active at the time of going to press. However, the publisher has no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content is or will remain appropriate. Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition. For further information on Polity, visit our website: politybooks.com Contents Part One: The Epokhē of My Life 1 1 Disruption: A ‘New Form of Barbarism’ 3 2 The Absence of Epoch 10 3 Radicalization and Submission 19 4 Administration of Savagery, Disruption and Barbarism 35 5 Outside the Law: Saint-Michel and the Dragon 46 Part Two: Madness, Anthropocene, Disruption 69 6 Who am I? Hauntings, Spirits, Delusions 71 7 Dreams and Nightmares in the Anthropocene 86 8 Morality and Disinhibition in Modern Times 108 9 Ordinary Madness, Extraordinary Madnesses 132 10 The Dream of Michel Foucault 148 Part Three: Demoralization 165 11 Generation Strauss-Kahn 167 12 Thirty-Eight Years Later 193 vi Contents 13 Death Drive, Moral Philosophy and Denial 220 14 Nonconformism, ‘Uncoolness’ and Libido Sciendi at the University 237 15 The Wounds of Truth: Panic, Cowardice, Courage 258 Conclusion: Let’s Make a Dream 286 A Conversation about Christianity 313 Notes 330 Index 391 Inch’Allah is a French transcription of the Arabic phrase لاله شاء إن (In Shaa Allah), which means ‘God willing’. In Arab countries this term is used by Christians and Muslims with the same meaning, as inspired by the epistle of James: ‘If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that’ (James 4:15). Muslims believe it is obligatory to pronounce this formula when they evoke an action to be realized in the future. This belief is founded on the reading of the Sūrat al-Kahf (The Cave): 23. Do not say of anything: ‘I will do it tomorrow.’ 24. Without adding: ‘If Allah wills.’ When you forget, remember your Lord and say: ‘May Allah guide me and bring me nearer to the truth.’ The expression is also used more generally to mark the desire and the hope to see realized an event in the future, equivalent to current secular sayings such as ‘touch wood’ or ‘fingers crossed’. There is also the expression Maa Shaa Allah (لاله شاء ما), which means approximately, ‘as God has willed’. Finally, another expression, Law Shaa Allah, meaning ‘If God wills/ wishes’, is used to express a desire or wish that cannot be reached. The Portuguese word oxalá and Castilian ojalá, meaning ‘Hopefully’, are both derived from the Arabic Inshallah. French Wikipédia We should […] deny our We and draw from this, not foreseeable disso- lution, but a burst of refounding lucidity. We need to confront its defeat because it is formed in exaltation, and, each time, in forgetting that it is highly perishable, which does not mean that it is illusory. We, here, fall into silence and contemplate an abyss. We close our eyes and clench our teeth in order to avoid having to uselessly pronounce: Who am I? We know that it would destroy that for which it asks. We think that our We should choose collective union in despair, but can we make despair a combative bond? Bernard Noël1 And, after Solon’s speech denouncing what is taking place and criticizing his fellow citizens, the Council replies that in fact Solon is going mad (mainesthai). To which Solon retorts: ‘You will soon know if I am mad … when the truth comes to light.’ Michel Foucault2 But we are probably speaking at cross purposes and it will take centuries before our differences are settled. Sigmund Freud to Ludwig Binswanger3 Μή, φίλα ψυχά, βίον ἀθάνατονσπεῦδε, τὰν δ ̓ ἔμπρακτον ἄντλει μαχανάν. Pindar4 Now you ask nothing more because you have nothing more… apart from what you remember. Derya (at the slam workshop held in the Glacis housing project, Belfort, and led by Dominique Bourgon) Part One The Epokhē of My Life Philosophizing So as Not to Go Mad
The list of books you might like
