Technosocial complexity as a problem of individuation: the perspective of Gilbert Simondon

The modern world is characterized by the explosive complexity of the interconnections among humans, technology, and society (algorithms, digital platforms, artificial intelligence, social networks), giving rise to the phenomenon of technosocial complexity. This complexity manifests in the opacity of systems, unintended consequences, loss of control, and new forms of alienation. The article offers an analysis of this issue through the lens of the philosophy of the thinker in the field of technology and technological innovations, Gilbert Simondon. The author asserts that technosocial complexity is not merely an external challenge but primarily a crisis of traditional processes of individuation. Based on Simondon's key concepts (individuation, pre-individual field, transduction, human-machine ensembles), the article demonstrates how modern technologies create intense tensions in the "pre-individual" that existing individual and collective forms are unable to manage. In this case, complexity arises as a problematic field of the unfinished phase of individuation of numerous elements (people, groups, and technical systems). The methodological foundation of the research is built on the inseparable unity of ontology, epistemology, and methodology, which stems from Simondon's philosophy and the requirements of complexity analysis. Based on this foundation, the article will apply the following methods: conceptual analysis, philosophical hermeneutics, and theoretical modeling. Conceptual analysis provides the theoretical foundation and analytical language, while theoretical modeling creates a tool for analyzing complexity based on it. The article critiques simplified approaches (determinism, constructivism, reductionism) that exacerbate the cultural divide and alienation. It demonstrates how a Simondonian perspective, which sees technology as an active joint participant in the formation of reality within indivisible ensembles, allows one to understand the dynamics of complexity and its negative effects (disorientation, loss of agency). As a path to overcoming the crisis, the article proposes Simondonian guidelines: the development of a "culture of technology" (understanding the genesis and logic of systems), designing for open concretization of technologies (adaptability, reparability, modularity), creating ensembles based on enhancing human capabilities, and supporting transindividual practices of collective individuation. The key conclusion is that working with technosocial complexity requires recognizing it as a field of tensions that demands new forms of metastable individuation of humans, technology, and society in their inseparable connection.

individuation, specification, transduction, transindividual, complexity, pre-individual field, genesis, emergence, heterogeneity, exteriority