Critique of Pure Plasticity

This project investigates plasticity, or transformation, through energy, entropy and information. Developed alongside White’s postdoctoral research on ENERGY: A Philosophy of Practice, it provides the philosophical foundation of his thermoinformatic research programme.

An appeal to transformability remains indeterminate unless its conditions are specified. What enables a form in experience to emerge, persist or dissolve? What distinguishes a logically conceivable transformation from an actually possible one? How do irreversibility, energetic constraints and informational organisation shape these possibilities?

The project brings Kantian transcendental philosophy into dialogue with thermodynamics, cybernetics and theories of individuation. It examines the conditions and limits of technological transformation, including claims associated with digital immortality, artificial superintelligence and space colonialism.

Critique of Pure Plasticity: A Transcendental Philosophy of Transformation is a manuscript in preparation.

Seminar

The Thermo-Informatic Transduction of Kant — session 1
The New Centre for Research & Practice.