Machinic Heterogenesis

This self-reproducing node in the machine is what separates and differentiates
it from structure and gives it value. Structure
implies feedback loops, it puts into play a concept of totalisation
that it itself masters. It is occupied by inputs and outputs whose
purpose is to make the structure function according to a principle
of eternal return. It is haunted by a desire for eternity. The
machine, on the contrary, is shaped by a desire for abolition. Its
emergence is doubled with breakdown, catastrophe – the
menace of death. It possesses a supplement: a dimension of
alterity which it develops in different forms. This alterity differentiates
it from structure, which is based on a principle of
homeomorphism. The difference s upplied by machinic
autopoiesis is based on disequilibrium, the prospection of virtual
Universes far from equilibrium. And this doesn’t simply
involve a rupture of formal equilibrium, but a radical ontological
reconversion. The machine always depends on exterior elements
in order to be able to exist as such. It implies a complementarity,
not j ust with the man who fabricates it, makes it
function or destroys it, but it is itself in a relation of alterity with
other virtual or actual machines – a “non-human” enunciation,
a proto-subjective diagram.