CONCEPT
Individuation (Simondon)
Gilbert Simondon's concept — adopted and extended by Stiegler — of the process by which a being becomes itself, always incomplete and always co-constituted with its milieu.
Individuation is the process through which a being differentiates itself — not a state it arrives at but the ongoing dynamic through which it continues to become what it is. Simondon, against the philosophical tradition that took the individual as a given starting point, argued that individuation is always incomplete: preindividual potentials remain that can continue to individuate under the right conditions. Stiegler adopted this framework and made it the anchor of his critique of technical systems that interrupt individuation by providing the outputs of individuated activity without requiring the process through which individuation occurs. AI is, in these terms, the most powerful interrupter of individuation ever produced.
In The You On AI Field Guide
Simondon's 1958 thesis L'individuation à la lumière des notions de forme et d'information and his 1958 companion Du mode d'existence des objets techniques together provided the philosophical framework Stiegler built on. The key move was the refusal to treat the individual as complete: individuation happens, unfolds, continues, and is