Intimacy in the age of technolog

The dissertation aims to show that Bataille's conceptual structure can reveal aspects of technology whose importance has been so far downplayed or ignored. After some introductory remarks meant to invite the readers to view Bataille's central notion of intimacy as a common, everyday experience, the dissertation begins by providing Bataille's critique of technology. This critique considers three main criticisms, namely that technology is antithetical to the experience of intimacy, that it is essentially the manifestation of a utilitarian frame of mind, and that its progressive employment may cause the end of history (understood as the end of the possibility to experience intimacy). Objecting to Bataille's critique of technology as instrumental in causing an original divide between subject and object, the dissertation provides arguments supporting the view that regard technology is compatible with the experience of intimacy, that it is a form of dissipation, and, finally, that it is a possible way of life for post-historical humanity (that is, technology as sovereign). First, relying on the theory of technology as organ projection, the case is made that technology may successfully endeavor to establish an intimate relationship with the psycho-physical personality. Second, the dissertation sets forth an analysis of technology as a form of dissipation. Squander is, for Bataille, the way humanity has pursued, in history, the need to experience the reunification of subject and object, in intimacy. An analysis of various modes of dissipation, such as art and eroticism, reveals the basic structure of all dissipatory activities. This basic structure is, then, found functioning in technology, therefore supporting a non-instrumental interpretation of technology as a form of squander. Finally, the notion of sovereignty is taken up to show that technology has the potentiality to become the prevailing form of consciousness, replacing the current age dominated by consumerism. While consumerism is shown to be experiencing a crisis in its unsustainable myth of unlimited resources, technology reintroduces in consciousness an ultimate goal, termed androidism, inherently valuable, thus escaping the chain of means, typical of a utilitarian consciousness.