The Technicity of Time From 1.00 oscillations/sec to

ABSTRACT. In modern social and critical theory, clocks have figured as the embodiment of social order or, more ominously, as an exemplar of the threat posed to living thought by technology. As an alternative to such a bipolar evaluation, this paper examines the tech-nicity of clocktime. The concept of technicity was suggested by the French philosopher, Gilbert Simondon. It is way of understanding the mode of existence of technical objects ontogenetically, that is, in terms of how they come to be rather than what they are. This paper introduces an ontogenetic account of clocktime as a new capacity to articulate diverse geographical, economic, technical and political realities together. It explains the convoluted precision of contempo-rary clocktime ensembles as just such an articulation. It discusses an ineliminable residue of metastability in the increasing precision of clocktime. KEY WORDS • GPS • pendulum clock • Simondon • time [T]he simple pendulum does not naturally provide an accurate and equal measure of time since its wider motions are observed to be slower than its narrower motions. But by a geometrical method we have found a different and previously unknown way to suspend the pendulum; and we have discovered a line whose curvature is marvelously and quite rationally suited to give the required equality to the pendulum. After applying this line to clocks, we have found that their motion is so accurate and constant that, after many experiments on both land and sea, it is now obvious that they are very useful for investigations in astronomy and for the art of navigation... Of interest to us is what we have called the power of this line to measure time, which we found not by expecting this but only by following in the footsteps of geometry. (Huygens, 1673/1986: 11) The second is the duration of 9 192 631 770 periods of the radiation correspond