Select a Plan Today!
Why wait?
Sign up NowTechnoscience: This term refers to the complex, interconnected, and often inseparable aspects of technology and science. It acknowledges that scientific knowledge and technological advancements are deeply intertwined, influencing each other in profound ways.
Materiality: This concept focuses on the physical or tangible aspects of reality. In the context of technoscience, materiality might explore how technology and science interact with, influence, or are influenced by the material world.
Philosophy of Technology: This branch of philosophy examines the nature of technology, its impact on human society, and the ethical implications of technological advancements. It can include questions about the essence of technology, whether technology is merely a tool for human use, or if it has its own dynamics and implications.
You might ask: Is a 2003 book still relevant in an age of AI, geoengineering, and synthetic biology? Absolutely. The matrix for materiality has only become more urgent.
Consider large language models (LLMs) like GPT-4. Their materiality is not just the server farms and GPUs, but the training data (scraped from the web), the human feedback loops (RLHF), and the electrical grids powering them. Chasing Technoscience provides the vocabulary to analyze how these matrices produce certain truths while obscuring others. Similarly, CRISPR-Cas9’s materiality involves not just the Cas9 protein, but the patent landscape, the lab mouse bodies, and the petri dish surfaces.
The Indiana Series continues to publish new volumes that extend this matrix thinking. Yet Chasing Technoscience remains the foundational reader that introduces students to the key players and the central metaphor. In many graduate seminars, it is the first book assigned after Ihde’s Postphenomenology.
If you’re expecting a systematic theory, this book will frustrate you. It’s deliberately fragmentary, polyvocal, and recursive. The “matrix” is never fully mapped because, as Pickering might say, we’re always in the mangle of practice.
But if you’re willing to chase—through instrumental realism, actor-network theory, and posthumanist phenomenology—you’ll come out the other side unable to see a smartphone, a scalpel, or even a doorknob the same way.
Final takeaway: Chasing Technoscience isn’t a destination. It’s a permission slip to run after the real. And thanks to the Indiana Series and that little MOBI file, you can do it while running (or reading) late into the night.
Have you read this or other titles in the Indiana Series in MOBI format? How does digital reading change your engagement with philosophy of technology? Let me know in the comments.
Chasing the Matrix: Why Materiality is the New Frontier of Technoscience Materiality: This concept focuses on the physical or
In the digital age, we often treat "the cloud" and "data" as ethereal, almost magical concepts. But a landmark volume in the Indiana Series in the Philosophy of Technology Chasing Technoscience: Matrix for Materiality (edited by Evan Selinger
) suggests we need to look back at the "stuff" behind the screen.
If you are looking to dive into this "Matrix for Materiality," here is why this book remains a must-read for anyone trying to understand our techno-physical world. 1. It Kills the "Pure Science" Myth
For a long time, philosophy treated science as a purely theoretical pursuit—just brains thinking big thoughts about the universe. Chasing Technoscience
argues that science is actually "embodied" in its technologies. We don’t just observe the world; we use tools to poke, prod, and manipulate it. This is technoscience : where knowing and making are two sides of the same coin. 2. The Four Pillars of Technoscience
The book centers on a "matrix" of four major thinkers who redefined how we see the material world:
: Explores how technology isn't just a tool, but a way we experience the world—like a pair of glasses that you eventually "see through" rather than "look at". Donna Haraway
: The famous "cyborg" theorist who shows how we are inseparable from our biological and mechanical parts. Bruno Latour
: Argues that objects (like speed bumps or microbes) have a kind of "agency" and actually shape our human decisions. Andrew Pickering
: Focuses on the "dance of agency" between humans and the material world during scientific experimentation. 3. Why Materiality Matters (Even in a Digital World) Matrix for Materiality
The "Matrix for Materiality" reminds us that every digital interaction has a physical footprint. The Post-Phenomenological Turn
: We are moving beyond just human subjectivism. We now have to recognize that the social world is materially mediated Ethical "Monsters"
: When we edit a gene or build a robot like AIBO, we create "hybrids" that don't fit into our old categories of "natural" or "artificial". The book challenges us to find a new ethics for these "monsters". Where to Read
While primarily a scholarly text, it is available for those who prefer digital convenience. You can find copies through Books-A-Million . For those specifically searching for the format, many academic libraries or platforms like Project Gutenberg Open Library
offer digital transitions for scholarly works, though official DRM-protected MOBI/Kindle versions are most reliably sourced through Amazon's listing Chasing Technoscience - Indiana University Press
For a scholarly analysis or review that functions like a "paper" on this topic, the following resources are highly regarded: 1. Key Review Paper
The Matter of Technology: A Review of Don Ihde and Evan Selinger (eds.), Chasing Technoscience: Matrix for Materiality Peter-Paul Verbeek : Published in Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology Core Argument
: Verbeek analyzes how the book attempts to move beyond the subject-object divide by focusing on the mediating roles of technologies
. He highlights the book's three main themes: the importance of materiality, the relationship between empirical and philosophical research, and the role of normativity in Science and Technology Studies (STS). Virginia Tech 2. Core Book Chapters (Primary Source)
The book itself is a collection of essays and interviews with four foundational figures in the field: Amazon.com and flesh? The answer
: Discusses his transition to "post-phenomenology" and the human-technology-world relationship. Donna Haraway
: Explores "Cyborgs to Companion Species" and the reconfiguration of kinship in technoscience. Bruno Latour
: Focuses on the "Promises of Constructivism" and the agency of non-humans. Andrew Pickering
: Contributes to the discussion of the "mangle of practice" and material agency. Indiana University Press 3. Summary of the "Technoscience Matrix"
The "matrix" described in these works refers to a lens for understanding materiality not as a fixed physical property, but as a dynamic entity
shaped by the interplay of science, technology, and societal values. It challenges traditional views by emphasizing that materiality is essential to scientific practices, often previously ignored by philosophers. Amazon.com Access and Formats
The title, Matrix for Materiality, is not a reference to science fiction, but rather a philosophical callback to the Latin mater (mother) and materia (matter). In this context, a "matrix" is a breeding ground—a structure from which something originates.
For decades, the philosophy of technology was dominated by "substantivist" views (think Martin Heidegger or Jacques Ellul), where technology was seen as an autonomous, often monstrous force alienating humanity from nature. This text challenges that narrative. It asks: What if we stopped viewing technology as a separate, threatening entity and started viewing it as an extension of our biological and material existence?
The book introduces the concept of Technoscience—a term popularized by thinkers like Don Ihde and Bruno Latour—to blur the line between pure science and applied technology. It argues that technology is not merely "applied science," but the very medium through which we perceive and construct reality.
In an era where algorithms dictate desire and nanotechnologies rewire biological substrates, philosophy struggles to keep pace. The traditional boundaries between science, technology, and society have dissolved into what scholars now call technoscience. But how do we chase something so slippery? How do we map the materiality of things that exist simultaneously as data, commodity, and flesh?
The answer, for many scholars, lies in a specific intellectual artifact: "Chasing Technoscience: Matrix for Materiality" – a cornerstone volume within the prestigious Indiana Series in the Philosophy of Technology. For researchers, graduate students, and techno-philosophers seeking access to this text in a portable digital format, the Mobi file extension has become a quiet but crucial keyword. It represents not just a file type, but the mobility of deep thought in a networked age.
This article explores the intersection of three critical vectors: the argument of Chasing Technoscience, the legacy of the Indiana Series, and the practical (yet philosophical) implications of obtaining the Mobi version of this text.
A representative will you at