Du mode d’existence des objets techniques
Authors: Gilbert Simondon | Year: 1958
Technical objects evolve through “concretization” — from abstract assemblies of disconnected parts toward integrated wholes where each element serves multiple functions — and they require understanding, not fear, because they are associated individuals rather than threats to humanity.
Core Ideas
Simondon’s central argument is that the standard human relationship to technology is one of misunderstanding, and that this misunderstanding is the source of both alienation and poor technical design. We relate to machines either as tools (subordinate instruments) or as robots (threatening substitutes for human workers), but neither framing grasps what a technical object actually is: an individual with its own mode of existence, undergoing its own form of evolution.
The key concept is “concretization” (concrétisation). Early technical objects are “abstract” in Simondon’s technical sense: their parts each perform a single function, and they are assembled ad hoc from elements that may even work against each other (e.g., an early car engine where the cooling system and the combustion chamber are in thermal conflict). Mature technical objects are “concrete”: through successive refinements, each element comes to serve multiple functions simultaneously, and previously conflicting subsystems become mutually reinforcing. The concrete technical object is not a pile of parts but an integrated whole with emergent properties.
The “associated milieu” (milieu associé) is Simondon’s account of how a mature technical object relates to its environment. A technical object does not simply operate in a pre-given environment; it creates and requires a specific associated milieu. The engine creates heat and requires cooling airflow; the airplane creates lift and requires the atmosphere. This milieu is neither purely natural nor purely artificial but is co-produced by the technical object and its context. This concept anticipates ecological and systems thinking in design.
Individuation is the deepest concept: Simondon argues, against both hylomorphism (matter + form) and substantialism (fixed essences), that beings are not given but become. Technical objects, like organisms, are processes of individuation — ongoing negotiations between their internal structure and their milieu. This process-ontology view of technology makes Simondon an important predecessor for thinking about adaptive systems, learning machines, and co-evolution between AI and its deployment environments.
Significance
Simondon was largely unknown outside France until Deleuze and later philosophers of technology brought him into wider circulation. In AI and design circles, the concept of concretization is useful for thinking about the maturation of technical systems: early neural network architectures are “abstract” (separate modules for feature extraction, classification, etc.), while more integrated architectures are “concrete” (end-to-end systems where each component serves the whole).
The associated milieu concept anticipates questions about AI deployment: a language model does not operate in a neutral environment but co-creates its milieu through the feedback loops of user interaction, fine-tuning, and deployment infrastructure. Simondon’s insistence that technical objects deserve understanding rather than fear or worship is a useful corrective to both AI hype and AI dread.
Related Papers
- Wiener 1948 — cybernetics as the science of control in machines and animals; Simondon draws on cybernetics but goes beyond it
- Turing 1950 — asks whether machines can think; Simondon asks what kind of being a machine is
- Bateson 1972 — ecology of mind as distributed system; resonates with Simondon’s associated milieu