科技與時間：資本主義全球化時代的失能與潛能

Technology and Time: The Problem of De-skilling and Future Potentiality in the Age of Global Capitalism

本文擬從班雅民的「模仿機能」概念與史提格勒提出之「誰」與「什麼」之間相互成立的關係來探討人類是否藉著科技增能的同時產生失能的問題，以及當中是否存在逆轉失能的可能。班雅民認為人與物之間相互參照模仿的機能在現代資本主義社會中產生根本的轉變。史提格勒對當今資本主義全球化的觀察與批判與班雅民有所呼應，他認為記憶的工業化嚴重弱化「誰」之所以為「誰」的關鍵「延異機制」。班雅民和史提格勒皆從所處時代的資本主義與科技技術雙重發展中探究人的「能」如何依附於物質層面。本文的重要提問為：班雅民和史提格勒對於科技與時間的討論是否能夠扭轉資本主義全球化時代的失能，進而勾勒未來潛能。對班雅民而言，「模仿機能」背後所蘊含的是一種閱讀過去的方法，在這種「實現過去」的閱讀當中，存在於過去但卻隱而未顯的面向得以躍然浮現。史提格勒則提出「誰」能否對新科技造成的衝擊做出「劃時代的趕超」將是未來潛能的關鍵。

In this paper, Walter Benjamin’s notion of the mimetic faculty andBernard Stiegler’s theorization of the co-constituting relation between thewho and the what are read together to address the question whether humanityactually loses certain capacities while trying to increase its capacity with allthe technological advances. Benjamin’s notion of the mimetic faculty servesas a wedge into the question of capitalist modernity. For Stiegler, global capitalismhas hijacked real-time digital technology to extend its reach in contemporarylife, which has greatly weakened the différance movement criticalto the constitution of the who. The global world suffers from the problem ofdisorientation, while the who suffers from that of de-skilling. Both Benjaminand Stiegler try to take account of the double development of capitalismand technology by exploring how the capacity of man attaches to matter.Inasmuch as the notion of time also plays an important role in both scholars’conceptualization of the relation between man and matter, the principalconcern of this paper is whether Benjamin’s and Stiegler’s theorization oftechnology and time helps us to envision the contours of the globalizationproblem more clearly, along with its future potentiality beyond.