Abstract
Late in his life, Bernard Stiegler begins to articulate the totality of his thought and his project around the ramifications of entropy. Entropy and its correlate negentropy come to the fore in such a manner that they may be seen to provide the coordinates of the third phase of Stiegler’s work, the period that Daniel Ross calls neganthropological, following the technological and the organological-pharmacological phases.
[1] Daniel Ross, ‘Introduction’, in Bernard Stiegler, The Neganthropocene, trans. Daniel Ross, London: Open Humanities Press, 2018, 7–32, 22.
The concept of entropy weaves together the fundamental laws of thermodynamics and in a schematic, preliminary manner can be understood as a designation of the amount of maximally distributed or ‘disordered’ energy in a system, the energy of the system that is thus irreversibly unavailable for the production of any kind of work, or indeed any kind of play. Its correlate opposite, negative entropy or negentropy, designates accordingly – and even more schematically – a systemic energy differential that subsists in states ‘ordered’ in such a manner that work can still be effected.
[1] Daniel Ross, ‘Introduction’, in Bernard Stiegler, The Neganthropocene, trans. Daniel Ross, London: Open Humanities Press, 2018, 7–32, 22.
The concept of entropy weaves together the fundamental laws of thermodynamics and in a schematic, preliminary manner can be understood as a designation of the amount of maximally distributed or ‘disordered’ energy in a system, the energy of the system that is thus irreversibly unavailable for the production of any kind of work, or indeed any kind of play. Its correlate opposite, negative entropy or negentropy, designates accordingly – and even more schematically – a systemic energy differential that subsists in states ‘ordered’ in such a manner that work can still be effected.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Bernard Stiegler |
Subtitle of host publication | Memories of the Future |
Editors | B. Buseyne, G. Tsagdis, P. Willemarck |
Publisher | Bloomsbury |
Chapter | 7 |
Pages | 97-106 |
Number of pages | 10 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9781350410459 |
ISBN (Print) | 9781350410442 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 25 Jan 2024 |