The Reality of Real Time

Abstract

Abstract According to Bernard Stiegler the technological contrivances that rule our world have set in motion dangerous developments. Although Stiegler is not a technophobe, he believes that the technological devices that are constructed around real time (live broadcasting, mobile phone communications, digital photography, etc.) introduce a new refation to time that jeopardises the cohesion of society. They erase the delay of time that is essential to it and thereby wipe away the singular, which is a crucial element in the construction of the social.This essay examines the nature of this argument and queries its factual basis. It does this by first exploring the technological or prosthetic nature of Dasein by referring to Heidegger's definition of Dasein as ecstatic time. After this short exposition, the essay shows how Stiegler strengthens this pre-prosthetic nature of time that can be found in Heidegger into a time which is fully fledged prosthetic or fundamentally constituted by the technological devices that exteriorise it. The second part of the essay focuses on Stiegler's hesitations and even contradictory statements regarding the contemporary production of time. Sometimes he presents real time as a factual accompliment, sometimes he is more careful and characterises it to be merely a tendency; there are passages in which he proclaims the end of history, and other ones in which he presents that end as a fiction and a warning. The comments on the rather dramatic and evocative pages Stiegler inserts in La technique et le temps 1 , together with ideas and comments from Maurice Blanchot and Richard Beardsworth, serve as a bridge to ducuss the philosophical importance of an ambiguity in the actuality of real time.Keywords real time, technology, origin by default, prosthesis, end of history, aporia, Heidegger's Dasein, Derrida's differance, Deleuze's ideasOur writing materiah cooperate with our thoughts'Friedrich NietzscheAnybody who has recently attended a big music concert, and is old enough to think back in time twenty years or so, will admit that today's concert experience has radically changed. Big screens allow the viewers to see what happens on stage in every detail and from every angle. Certainly this is of great value for the people standing at the back and not being able to see the stage. But the screen does not only serve these people; it also absorbs the attention of the people in front of the stage. The eye of the camera is so powerful that people almost unconsciously abandon the preference to see with their own eyes. Does this technological innovation in which the delay between the event, the recording of it and the reception of the recording is almost reduced to zero, change the experience in a fundamental way? Do real time technologies change the way we relate to the world, not only in a practical, but also in an essential way?The relation of man and technology is one of the central topics in the work of the French philosopher Bernard Stiegler. In contrast to the technophobe attitude embraced by traditional philosophy, Stiegler stresses the constitutive role of technology in the ever-continuing process of the creation of man's essence. However, with respect to real time technologies his stance is less positive. Stiegler even warns of the metaphysical danger hidden inside these technologies, although he takes care to cloak this criticism in allegories, 'as if arguments and questions.We would like to investigate why Stiegler is so afraid of real time technologies and why his utterances with respect to this subject are so ambiguous. In order to answer the first question we will sketch the Heideggerian and Derridean background of Stiegler's idea of the technologically constituted human and the way in which he appropriates this philosophical heritage. The second question will be dealt with by analysing and comparing several text passages. For there are passages in which Stiegler speaks about real time as a factual accomplishment and others in which he characterises real time as a mere tendency; off and on he proclaims the end of history and warns of or fictionalises the end of history. …