Rethinking Computer Science and Political Economy with Bernard Stiegler

One of the projects left behind by the French philosopher Bernard Stiegler (1952–2020) was meant to revisit the theoretical foundations of computer science in order to open a different digital future: a future in which information technology is no longer subject to the imperatives of ‘computational capitalism’ but, instead, fosters noodiversity (the diversity of the forms of practical, theoretical technical, and every-day life knowledge). This workshop aims to better explain some concepts related to this project (exosomatization, entropy, anti-entropy, neganthropology, neganthropocene) and, more generally, to Stiegler’s specific approach to technics as the object of thinking.

But first of all we will try to flag up the political and theoretical (epistemological) stakes of Stiegler’s take on computer science. More specifically, we will reflect on 1) why the question of a new foundation of computer science should be addressed today as the central issue of a new political economy; 2) why it is necessary to restore a dialogue between scientific thinking and philosophy in order to make this foundation possible; 3) why such a dialogue entails challenging cognitivism considered a general paradigm for contemporary AI-based systems; 4) how cognitivism and neoliberal apparatus, which has now become libertarian, are ideologically related to each other; 5) what artificial intelligence would look like if we changed theoretical models on which it is based.

The starting point for the workshop will be Bernard Stiegler’s paper Noodiversity, Technodiversity. Elements of a New Economic Foundation Based on a New Foundation for Theoretical Computer Science, trans. Dan Ross, Angelaki, vol. 25 no 4, August 2020, pp. 67–80. Reprinted by Biennale Warszawa.

Workshop in English.
Free entry, registration via the form on the website until 10 June 2022.
We will select participants from among the submitted applications, who will be informed by email.