Techneme

Definition

Techneme is Baudrillard's coinage (The System of Objects, 1968, Introduction) for the elementary technical units whose interplay founds technological evolution — "those simple technical elements – different from real objects – upon whose interplay technological evolution is founded might well be dubbed 'technemes'." The term is modelled explicitly on the linguistic phoneme/moneme: Baudrillard proposes "a science of structural technology" that would study "the organization of such technemes into more complex technical objects," on the analogy of linguistics. But he immediately limits the analogy: unlike language, "technemes are continually evolving," the technical system is in "permanent revolution," and connotation can "alter" technical structures. The concept marks both the book's structuralist ambition and its boundary — it is the technical counterpart of the langue/parole distinction, invoked only to show why the object-system cannot be a language. It relates to functional-system and system-of-objects.

Key Claims

Technology speaks a "language." "We are in effect at the level of a language here, and, by analogy with linguistic phenomena, those simple technical elements… might well be dubbed 'technemes'."
A structural technology is conceivable but limited. "It is quite possible to envision a science of structural technology working at this level"; but it "could be strictly applied… only to a limited number of areas" (aeronautics, astronautics, shipbuilding), "where the collective and impersonal nature of the product reduces the effects of fashion to a minimum."
The analogy with language breaks down. "For technology, unlike language, does not constitute a stable system. Unlike monemes and phonemes, technemes are continually evolving."
Connotation acts back on technique. "The connotation of an object may for its part bring great weight to bear upon technical structures, and alter them significantly."
The system is practice intruding on technique. "The system of objects… cannot be described scientifically unless it is treated… as the result of the continual intrusion of a system of practices into a system of techniques."

Key Thinkers

Jean Baudrillard — the concept's coiner: technemes as technical phonemes; the limits of the linguistic analogy.
Gilbert Simondon (not yet paged) — the philosophy of the technical object (concretization, convergence of functions) from which Baudrillard derives the concept.
Ferdinand de Saussure — the phoneme/moneme and langue/parole frame the coinage presupposes.
Roland Barthes (not yet paged) — semiology's extension of the linguistic model, which Baudrillard invokes for "combinative variants."

System of Objects — the concept's home; the system that both requires and resists technemic analysis.
Structuralism — the linguistic model the coinage imitates.
The Functional System — the plane technemes structure.
Objecthood — the technical reality of the object.
Semiotics — the discipline the analogy is drawn from.

Source Support

Sources in the wiki that discuss this concept:

The System of Objects (Baudrillard 1968) — the concept's defining source (Introduction): the techneme coinage; the proposed structural technology; the breakdown of the linguistic analogy.
Jean Baudrillard: The Defence of the Real (Butler 1999) — the analogy's limit restated as the book's method: the system of objects has no techneme because "connotation… may for its part bring great weight to bear upon technical structures" (SO, 10), so the system "cannot be described scientifically unless it is treated in the process as the result of the continual intrusion of a system of practices into a system of techniques" — and Baudrillard's own analysis is subject to the same intrusion: "every criticism is also a form of practice, changes the very thing it seeks to account for" (Butler pp. 124–25); Chapin's "vicious circle" (PE, 35) as the techneme-quest's failure case. See paradox-of-the-sign, double-strategy.

Open Questions

Is the techneme a genuine analytical unit or a rhetorical analogy? Does any later philosophy of technology (Simondon, Stiegler, Hui) retain it?
The concept's failure is as important as its success: it marks the point where Baudrillard abandons pure structuralism for a semiology of practice. Is that the book's pivot (see structuralism-vs-poststructuralism)?
If technemes "continually evolve," how does the concept relate to the wiki's computational-design grammars (shape-grammars, computational-design)?