Computer software (operating systems, web browsers, word processors, etc.) structure our daily lives. Comprising both a user interface and the electronic circuits of the machine it is printed to, software represents a hybrid object at the crossroads of materiality and immateriality. But is it, strictly speaking, a technical object ?By examining the status of software against the criteria of philosophy of classic techniques, in particular that of Gilbert Simondon, this book lays the groundwork of a philosophical reflection on this subject.Further, in order to help introduce readers to problematics, lines of code and explanatory schemas have been provided.

Acknowledgments viiIntroduction ixChapter 1. Simondon's Philosophy of Technics: A Work Program 11.1. A philosophy of technicity 11.1.1. Simondonian functionalism 41.1.2. The question of the localization of technicity 121.1.3. The question of the representatives of technicity 171.2. The Simondonian method: approaching the technical object as closely as possible 211.2.1. The epistemological stakes: an inductive method 221.2.2. Case study of a technological example 241.2.3. Reproducing the Simondonian gesture 281.3. Confronting Simondon's thoughts with computers 291.3.1. Existing work on Simondon and computers 291.3.2. The positioning of our study 35Chapter 2. Genetic Study of Technology: the Software Program, A Technical Object? 372.1. Definition and problem statement of the digital object 372.1.1. Technical objects according to Simondon 382.1.2. The browser, a digital object that represents software 402.2. Constructing the software program from the margin of indeterminacy 512.2.1. The computer-machine and the margin of indeterminacy 522.2.2. The complexification of computer code 592.2.3. Three hypotheses on the status of the software program 642.3. The levels of technicity of software 652.3.1. The genesis of the browser 662.3.2. The element, the associated milieu 70Chapter 3. Psychosocial Study of Free Software 773.1. The problem of the industrial technical object 793.1.1. The question of the commensurability of technics 803.1.2. The dual alienation of industrial technical objects 813.1.3. Saving the technical object by dethroning it 873.2. The promise of openness of software as a postindustrial technical object 893.2.1. A complex system 903.2.2. A postindustrial configuration 913.2.3. The free software program, guarantor of software technicity 943.3. Bricolage with the digital technical object 983.3.1. Aspects and extension of the concept of bricolage 993.3.2. Computer bricolage 106Conclusion 117Glossary 125References 131Index 141