FaIl1991+V3 N2 'ARD h Synr.rm COMMON KNOWLEDGE riadis 'll CoruuNs The Recruiting ofJarka, tace Code Name Hammer, Davis Tl.rePolitical Economy of Hunger: As Voluntary PoliceInformer: :in On Reasoning.rn.l Parciciparion A Patho-Biographyl)87 Anartya Sen 'nd usefi Lr,tre&l I J k Translatedby Kâèa Polâëkovâ-Henley 'rk Self-Subversion l4) :lz Albert O. Hirschttun ,'ese A Future f-orPhilosophy g l0 Lzc Ferrl' )t Translatedby Franklin Philip ell Potentially Every Culture te Is All Cultures r6) ;on Paul Feyerabend altz 16 FrcloN/Poprny rde off The Blancmange wski -rid Kathryn Dartis lj0 't^ Anrrclts ofI Snowball rs Paul Feyerabend,Humanist Heut,ing LIS lan Hatking Jeanne rik )1 r12 )SZ ,Ck On TechnicalIUediarion- t\' Philosophy,Sociology, Genealogy Rsvrews II Brxn0 LJt1ilr I: Chomsky and Derrida )L) Ilc f ChristopherNorris Cultural Change- r19 The Thought-Stylesof Little Reviews Mannheim and Kuhn Ric/:ard Rotl Barry Barnes Kathl Eden 6' Jake A1.lYtien Char/esBernsTein Modernismand the trIarjarie PerloJJ' Rejectionof Ornament: Hanna Sega/ The RevolutionThat Never Happened Pat/ Felerabenr,l Janes Tri//ing 79 The Editors lt0 Doubtrng Thomasand the Senscsof Knowing E/len Spo/tk1 NorEs oN CoNTRTBUToRS 1 i 1 182 * . \What if an en- ON TpcHNICAL MsotartoN t the thought of PHIrosoPHY, SoctorocY, GENEALoGY that arise when ly Greek notion BrunoLatour y, was trying to closeto the very f Greek thought ean the word in advocatesvalues e senseo[ those ng the world of Apollodorus, Minos used lrate,oPPose arts fter Daedalus'escape fiom rhe labyrinth, according to place and take fevenge. o[ both arts and one of Daedalus' own subterfugesto find his hiding anyone who couid lv{inos, in disguise, heralded near and far his offer of a reward to King Cocalus thread the convolr-rtedshell oia snail. Daedalus,hidden ar the court of Ariadne's and unaware that the offer was a rrap, managed the trick by replicating penetratethe shell cunning: he attacheda thread to an anc and, after allowing it to through this tiny through a hole at its apex, he induced the ant to weaveits way equallytrium- labyrinth.Triumphant, Daedalusclaimed his reward,but King Minos, Daedalr-rs;strli, rhe phant, askedfor Daedalus'exrradition ro crete. cocalus abandoned the hot water artful doclger managed, with the help of Minos' daughters, to divert on Minos in from pipesl.re had insralledin rhe palace,so chatit fell, as if by accident. Minos outwit his bath. (The king died, boiled like an egg') Only for a brief while did beyond his his master engineer-Daedalus was ,rlwaysone fuse, one machination, rivals. The direct path oi In the myth of Daedalus,all things deviarefrom the straight line. every Greek. The reasonand scientilic knowledge-episteme-is not the Path of of the sort clevercechnical knorv-how of Daedalusis an instanceof nntis,of strategy, pal1'trcrit ' a bag of of intelligence for which O<Jysseus(of whom tl'teI /iad si;ysthat he is realm of tricks) is ntost larmecl.'No unmediatedaction is possibleonce we enter tlre veering tion-r engineersand crafismen. A ,/aeda/ion,in Greek, is son-rethingcttrved, o[ rhe straisht line, artful but [ake,beautiful and contrived.Daedalus is an inventor Trevor Pinch' ior che The aurhor rvislrcsto rhank Cprnell Uriversiry. and rspeciallvSltei{aJasanofiand l!!l lv{essengerLectures. The ideas opportunin.ro presenrrrn earll,rersion ofthis mirterialas thc April link betu'een technol- .leuelnp.d h... pu., oian ongoing project with Sliirley Strum on rhe Primatology, ".. ogv. and socirl theorl. by FrançoiseFronrisi-Dtrcrotrx. 'For the mvth of Dâeclalus,I am hcrc firllorvingtlte rtmarkable book (Paris: Dy'dale..\I1tholotgttdt/'trtittnttGti.eiilLienilr Maspéro-LaDécoLrverte'1975)' ]O COMMONKNO\(/LEDGE contraptions: statues that seem to be alive, military robots that watch over Crete, an kill people;n ancient version ofgenetic engineering that enables Poseidon's bull to impregnate Pasi- components i phae with ths À{jne13u1-for whom he builds the labyrinth, from which, via another a good guy, tl set of machines, he manages to escape,losing his son Icarus on the way. despised, offers(amusir indispensable, criminal, ever ar war with the three kings who draw their power from associatedwir his machinations. Daedalus is our best eponym for techniqae-and the concept of dae- its material cr dalion our best tool to penetrare the evolution of civilization. His path leads through gunman ts a i three disciplines: philosophy, sociology, genealogy. gunman is a < would in any gun add to tf Pnrlosopny becomesa cri: alsoinstructs, To understandtechniques-technical msxn5-and their place in society,we haveto not wanted at be as devrousas the ant to which Daedalusattached his thread.The straight lines of irs "affordance philosophyare of no usewhen it is the crookedlabyrinth of machineryand machina- its story. By c tions, of artifacts and daulalia. we have to explore. That Heidegger's interpretation of carrierof will technologypasses âs the deepestofinterpretations I lind surprising.rTo cut a hole at tor, good and , the apexof the shell and weavemy tl-rread,I needto dehne,in opposition to Heidegger, The two pc what nrcdiationmeans in the realm of techniques. by themselves For Heidegger, a technology is never an instrument, a mere tool. Does that mean carrying the g that technologiesmediate actioni'No, becauserve have ourselves become instruments becomea crim \Woman for no other end than instrumentalityitself. Man-no in Heidegger-is pos- Jekyll into Mr, sessedby technology,and it is a completeillusion to believethat we can masterit. \We ity as subjects are, on tlre contrary, Framedby this Gutell. which is in itself one way in which Being hands. Revers.i is unveiled.. Is technologyinferior to scienceand pure knowledge?No, because,for have_whar w Heidegger, far from serving as applied science,technology dominates all, even rhe As to the I\ purely theoreticalsciences. By rationalizingand stockpiling nature,science plays into has no part in the handsof tecl-rnology,whose sole end is to rationaiizeand stockpilenature without thing, though end. Our modern destiny-technology-appears to Heidegger radically different one'smoral star frompoesis. the kind of"making" that ancientcraftsmen knew how to obtain.Technol- As such,the N ogy is entirely unique, insuperable,omnipresent, superior, a monster born rn our have. The sole midsr. rs slower,dirtir But Heidegger is mistaken.I will try to show how and in what way he is wrong dify one'sgoal about technicalmediation by using a simple,well-known example. we can master 1 "Guns kill people" is a sloganof thosewl-ro try to control the unrestrictedsale oF slaves. guns. To which the National Rille Associationreplies with anotherslogan, "People \ùZhoor wl-ratir mediating tech rN{artin means.A first s Heitleggt.'l'/:t Qrettitt Cnttrnirg'ftthrol,trt t*lOther E.'.w1t.rrans. \Villiam Lovitt (Nerv York Harper ftrch Books, 197r). goals and steps L)N TFCHNI( AL NlEDIATION tI sloganis materialist:the gun actsby virtue of material h over Crete,an kill people;nor guns." The firsr socialqualities of the gunman' On accountof the gun' mpregnate Pasi- componentsirreducible to the citizen,becomes dangerous The NRA' on the orherhand' hich, via another a good guy, the law-abiding views)a sociologicalversion more oltten ,ay...despised, offers(amusingly enough, given their political for rhe NRA, the gun doesnothing in itself or by virtue of heir power lrom associatedwirl-r the Left: The gun is a tool, a medium, a neutral carrierof will lf the e concept of dae- its materialcomponenrs. th leads through gunmanisagoodguy,thegunwillbeusedwiselyandwillkillonlyapropos.Ifthe gun itself, a killing that gunman is a crook or a lunatic, ther.r,with no changein the what doesthe would in any caseoccur will be (simply) carriedout more efÊciently. an innocrntcitizen gun add to the sh()oringlIn rhe marerialistaccount' everything: gun enablesoFcourse, but becomesa criminal by virtue ofthe gun in her hand. The a knife in her l-rand,has alsoinstructs, directs, even pulls tl-retrigger-and who, witl-r to stab someoneor somethingl'Eachartifact has its script' :iety, we haveto noc wanted ar some time to take hold o[passersbyand fbrcethem to play rolesin straight lines of its,,affordance,"its potential sociologicalversion of the NRA renders the gun a neutral 'ry and machina- its srory. By contrast, the notl-ringt() the action,playing the role of an electricalconduc- interpretationoi carrierof will rl-raradds through it effortlessly' To cut arhole at tor, good and evil tlowing areabsurdly contradictory. No materialistclaims that guns kill on to Heidegger, The rwo poslrrons good citizen is rransformedby by themselves.1ù7har the marerialist claims is that the good citizen wl.ro,without a gun' might simply be angry may Does that mean carrying the gun. A Dr. if he is holtling a gun-as if the gun had the power to change rme instruments becomea crininal thus make the intriguing suggestiontl-rar our qual- ,l".rep1_r< rros- into Mr. Hyde. Materialists *_ÈÈ_ _ '' r'- Jekyll our personalities'depend on what we hold in our an masterit. \7e ity as subjects,our competences, of moralism, tlre materialistsinsist that we are what we in rvhich Being hands.Reversing the dogma in our l'rands,irt least' No, because,for [2v6-e,'[x1 we have :esall, eventhe AstotheNRA,thel.cannotmaintainthatthegunissoneutralanobjecttlratit killing. They have to acknowledge that the gun adds some- :ienceplays into l.rasno parr in the act of moral stateof the personholding the gun For the NRA' , nirtLlrewithout thing, though not to the Platonicessence: one is born a good cirizenor a criminal' Period' licallv different one'smoral stateis a is moralist-wltzrt mattersis what you areJnot what you 'rbttrin.Technol- As such,the NRA accounr of rhe gun is to speedthe act. Killing bv {istsor knrves ter born in our have.The solecontribution at no point doesit mo- is slower,dirtier, messrer.vith a Éaun,one kills better, but r',rv he is wrong difyone'sgoal.Thus,NRAsociologistsaremakingthetroublingSugsestionthat pliableand diligent \\,ecan mascertechnrques, rhat techniciuesare noching more than rsrricredsale of slaves.