In ‘The Birth of Technology’ (1970), Simondon argues that “scientific spirit” (the lógos, as such, of technè) developed in the West as a result of the meeting and mingling of Eastern, Near-Eastern, orEgyptian technics on the one hand and the [principally Greek] contemplative and theoretical sciences onthe other (Alexandria — with its Ptolemaïc Pharos — was an exemplary hub of this confluence between thetechnical and the theoretical). Since it deals for the most part with what the ancient Egyptians called al-khem (the Arabic al-khimiya, the Latin alkimia, the French alchimie and the English alchemy, originallydesignating a fertile as opposed to a desert milieu: the generative “black earth” of al-khem as opposed tothe deleterious “red earth” of al-deshret), ‘The Birth of Technology’ could just as easily have been called ‘The Birth of Technology from the Spirit of Alchemy’ (the title of the present essay).
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Del Re concludes his essay on ‘Alchemy and Technology’ with a statement the spirit of which isalso (beyond the bounds of its alchemical analysis) altogether Simondonian and indeed (in addition)Stieglerian: “those who develop technology without even a trace of the spirit of alchemy, i.e. without aparallel upgrading of their spiritual standards—particularly their sense of responsibility—may becontributing to the devastating ills of society[…] which no vaccine can prevent.” “The main spiritualphilosophy of alchemy,” he explains, “placed the search for the secrets of nature in the context of a pathtoward elevation beyond [individual or collective] ambitions and lust for power”; “as a condition formaking matter proceed toward its ultimate perfection, the operator [in any and every alchemicalundertaking] should tread the same path as the matter s/he is modifying and manipulating].”
https://www.academia.edu/7812274/The_Birth_of_Technology_from_the_Spirit_of_Alchemy
