anamnesis

The chapter examines the intricate relationship between geometry, time, and technics in Western philosophy, highlighting how geometry spatializes and exteriorizes time through technical means, enabling mechanization and logical inference. It contrasts this with Chinese conceptions of time, which emphasize cyclical occasions (shi) embedded in natural rhythms, leading to fundamentally different technological philosophies. Drawing on Bernard Stiegler's concept of tertiary retention and Plato's anamnesis, the chapter underscores how technical exteriorization of memory facilitates the temporalization and transmission of knowledge across generations.

The chapter explores Lyotard's concept of anamnesis as a dynamic working-through of modernity, drawing on psychoanalytic and Eastern philosophical ideas to articulate a postmodern self-negation of the modern. It interrogates the possibility of overcoming deterministic inscription through logos and technics, emphasizing the paradoxical potential for anamnesis to transcend hegemonic systems of memory and time. The text concludes by critiquing global technological synchronization and advocating for pluralistic cosmotechnics as a means to rethink technological rhythms beyond the global-local dichotomy.