Dialogue Michel Serres et Bernard Stiegler (complet)

You have said that Wikipedia would defeat Gutenberg

Here, I don't think it is about a battle or victory.

The proof is that, when we invented writing,

we did not stop talking,

when we invented printing,

we did not stop writing

and when we invented Wikipedia

we did not stop printing,

since we even have a printer at home now.

So it is not necessarily about brutality and complete change,

There is sometimes accumulation.

It may be cumulative, and this could be a proof of accumulation.

Then if you want a portray of "Petite Poucette"

In the book, I have tried to avoid opposing two generations

I am still too young to have written "The art of being a grand-father", you see.

But I mainly was trying to describe a change in the state of affairs,

a change of civilization.

And I added to the revolutions you just described, that is the digital revolution,

others revolution that have upsetted both society

and the digital world.

I have given several at the start,

for example, the change of the rural society,

the relations between cities and countryside,

issues about body, birth and death,

issues about pain and diseases, about demography, etc.

Therefore, new technologies arrive in a society

that is already deeply transformed by these parameters.

Then "Petite Poucette" is not only the heroin of new technologies,

she is also the heroin of such world that has never seen calves or chickens,

a world filled with 7.5 billions inhabitants.

(Me, when I was born, there was not even 2.5 billions;

there are only few humans, such as me, that have seen mankind population doubling twice in size.

2 times 2, 4 and 2 times 4, 8, and so on).

She does not have the same body, the same relation with birth, with death, etc.

So, new technologies are,

an element among these other, and indeed,

it is upsetting many things, and specifically,

not only the state of knowledge (which is not in books anymore, but on memory devices),

but also the subject of knowledge.

That is why I have written "Petite Poucette".

If we take seriously this "law of three states" that you have pointed out,

the subject of knowledge changed when we invented writing,

the subject of knowledge change when we invented printing,

as Montaigne was saying: "I prefer a well made head than a well filled one".

It's the subject of knowledge, and it has been confirmed recently

by cognitive science researches, that have highlighted that different types of neurons

are activated when you're using numerical devices or books.

So, this is roughly the profile of this woman.

And we'll talk about her later.

(Interviewer) Bernard, did you recognise in "Petite Poucette"

a character offering an accurate image of this new youth.