Technological forms of life

This article attempts to gain purchase on the information society via the notion of 'technological forms of life'. It first addresses the idea of 'forms of life'. Forms of life are a mode of conceiving of culture that arose at the turn of the 20th century in conjunction with phenomenology. Previously, in early modernity, culture was conceived very much on a representational model. The rest of the essay explores the possibility that a new paradigm of culture, i.e. technological forms of life is emerging at the turn of the 21st century. Technological forms of life are understood as 'culture-at-a-distance'. They are the flattening, stretch-out, speedup and lift-out of forms of life. They are forms of life become non-linear. They involve the exteriorization of inferiority and reflexivity.