Diego Viana

The article examines two digital phenomena linked to money and finance, which are the bitcoin and high-frequency trading, through the lens of Vilém Flusser’s concept of technical image. Flusser’s theory highlights three aspects of technical images: they are engendered by the act of organizing particles, are produced by people who operate devices through keys, and are mediated by code, which is linear and pertains to the era of written text, which Flusser conflates with the notion of history. In this article, the argument focuses on the aspects of high-frequency trading and the blockchain that relate to the idea of images. The sections investigate how money has historically operated in the logic of Flusser’s description of symbol manipulation in relation to consciousness and temporality: from the circular time of magical consciousness to the linear time of historical consciousness, and more recently, to the non-dimensional time of post-historical consciousness. The article argues that there are two levels, or layers, in the images involved in cryptocurrencies or algorithmic trading, but only one of them is visible to the human operator or viewer, in the form of a price. The other, which indeed represents the operations in the system, is only accessible to the machines themselves. The questions raised concern the role of these recent digital financial and monetary forms in the development of a reality dominated by apparatuses and technical images.

The article explores the proximity between Simondon’s philosophical project and phenomenology through his relation to Merleau-Ponty. Three concepts that link the two philosophers are examined: genesis, relation, and Simondon’s preindividual, which are shown to constitute an attempt to answer questions Merleau-Ponty was addressing in his later work. The article shows how Simondon’s argument for ontogenesis rather than ontology is related to Merleau-Ponty’s ontological project, which in turn originates in the latter’s reading of Husserl, particularly the interest in genetic phenomenology expressed as early as the Phenomenology of Perception. It then shows that the radical notion of relation employed by Simondon responds to problems Merleau-Ponty had encountered in thinking the corps propre and the chiasm. The paper then discusses the link between Merleau-Ponty’s thinking of the flesh and Simondon’s concept of preindividual. By confronting these two bodies of work, the article suggests that phenomenology is an important starting point for Simondon.

RESUMO O conceito de desejo é raro na obra de Simondon. Stiegler baseia nessa falta sua crítica ao filósofo, causa de seu caráter “apolítico”. Mas todas as categorias com que está associado o desejo estão presentes: a noção de incompletude, o impulso para objetos exteriores, a relação necessária entre corpo e coletivo. Este artigo explora as conexões entre o conceito de subconsciente afetivo-emotivo em Simondon e a concepção do desejo como produtor de seus objetos. Essas conexões permitem questionar a inserção de Simondon na filosofia de seu tempo e, pela releitura da crítica de Stiegler, esboçar as diretrizes da reflexão política apoiada em Simondon. ABSTRACT Simondon seldom mentions desire. Stiegler criticizes him for that, arguing it renders his thought “apolitical”. Yet, every category to which desire is associated can be found in Simondon: a notion of incompleteness, the impulse towards exterior objects, the relation between body and collective. This paper explores the links between Simondon's affective-emotive subconscious and the concept of desire, conceived as producer of its objects. These connections help to question Simondon's link to other philosophers of his day, by means of a reading of Stiegler's critique, which helps to sketch the outlines of a political reflection based on Simondon.