Other Scales: Simondon and Technotheology

The article provides a detailed examination of the meta-anthropological scheme regarding the evolution of technology and religion from magic, as presented by Gilbert Simondon in the third part of his dissertation On the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects. The conceptual features of this scheme are highlighted: the equal origin and balance of technology and religion, the dual principle of evolution, the hierarchical nature of evolutionary phases, the application of the Gestalt concept, and the crowning role of philosophy. A critique of this scheme and its alternative, named technotheology, is proposed. The technotheological scheme is based on the interpretation of the role of the plastic contour between figure and background, as originally conceptualized in Gestalt theory, applied to techno-religious evolution (Gestalttheology). It is argued that Simondon’s meta-anthropological scheme is covertly technomorphic and is a logical projection of a model of equalarm scales, whereas technotheology is also modeled on the functioning of scales, but of a different kind — hydrostatic.