I come from an interdisciplinary background, trained in computer engineering and UX design but also in human and social sciences of techniques and technologies. I had the opportunity to conduct extensive research in philosophy and history of technology while I was a student at the UTC, especially in the HuTech course. My understanding of these fields now greatly influences how I relate to digital technologies and the effects they have on society and the individual.

Ethics of techniques
« Pervasive telemedicine, an ethical study »
Research Dissertation with Marion Voisin (Fall 2019)

The introduction of telemedicine into medical practice represents a fundamental development in the social definition of healthcare. Increasingly based on objective data, healthcare has its social and care dimensions diminished. As the nature of care changes, so does the idea of health. We no longer feel that we are ill; we read it, see it, measure it. This also alters the relationship with the doctor. Telemedicine blurs the boundaries between medical expertise and medical practice, between freedom and trust, between autonomy and independence. The patient’s relationship with their own health is changed. The individual finds themselves thrown into a paradox where they both take and lose power over their own health. They are both in contact with and distanced from the doctor, protected from and dispossessed of the possibility of forgetting a medication, and benefiting from and suffering from access to data from their remote monitoring tools. In reality, the patient becomes aware of their body as a place of power. By objectifying their body, they take control over it, but are also subjected to the reduction of their sensations to a set of information. The technical medium that provides access to this information is not neutral; it objectifies the body through its very materiality. However, telemedicine does enable more equal access to healthcare, more detailed monitoring and more reliable diagnosis. It can be essential for those wishing to maintain their autonomy without running risks. By putting the body into data, it also facilitates its management. It is then possible to monitor one’s medical condition and follow a prescription, while externalizing the mental burden that this implies.

History and Philosophy of techniques
« Abstraction and Hierarchization in hospital nursing care: the emergence of Nurse Robot »
Research Dissertation with Simon Cattez (Fall 2016)

In this work, we study the history of the nursing profession and healthcare to understand the rising interest for nurse robots. When nursing procedures were clarified and divided into protocols and specialties (with pasteurization) in the 19th century, they became plural. We say they were grammatized. According to Sylvain Auroux, grammatization is the process of putting language into writing. Only when language is grammatized, it can fully develop. This idea is applied to technology by Bernard Stiegler, who states that technology is grammatized when it forms a stable chain or process that may be shared and eventually evolve. During the 19th and 20th centuries, healthcare was grammatized, because it was put into protocols and procedures to form a « technology of health ». In particular, two concepts are then differenciated: the act of treating (cure) and the act of taking care (care).
We then discuss the similarities and differences of the scientification of healthcare with the abstraction of a technical object. Simondon distinguishes two evolutionary movements for technical objects: concretization and abstraction. When a technical product is concretized, all of its parts work together in synergy; in the ideal concretized state, every part serves the purpose of the tool. Conversely, if an object’s constituent parts are independent to one another, then it is abstract. Abstraction also opens up the possibility that an element fulfilling a particular function may impede another function of another element of the same object. This concept provides an interesting outlook into the analysis of healthcare: with cure and care discriminated appears the possibility of one dimension working against the other, of cure impeding care. The differentiation through scientification of healthcare also gives way to a hierarchization of its components, placing cure above care, since care proves difficult, if not impossible, to formalize. This characteristic helps us to understand contemporary nursing malaise, as well as the attraction of robotic assistance to the profession. The nursing robot if democratized would probably, however, change the very meaning of what we call care.

History and formalism of logic
« From graphic reason to computational reason »
Research dissertation with Valentin Delobel (Spring 2016)

In this dissertation, we examine the rupture between the paper and digital media. To that end, we study Jack Goody’s Graphic Reason and Bruno Bachimont’s Computational Reason. We explain what distinguishes Oral Reason from Graphic Reason from Computational Reason, observing that each new medium brings its own rationality, new manipulations of knowledge and therefore new relationships with it. As such, the shift from graphic to digital seems indistinguishable from other media mutations. The conceptualization of a recent technique is just not inherent to it. The concepts, interactions and standards that govern the digital world still need to be thought through. Computing gives reality to what appear to be paradoxes – for a Reason that doesn’t think in digital terms. It is now necessary to give ourselves the tools to think about solitude in society, debasing information or constraining freedom, all of which are made possible by digital technology.

History of techniques
« The railroad and the accessibility of leisure reading in France in the 19th century »
Research dissertation (Fall 2015)

In this thesis, I study the connections between the development of the rail network in France in the 19th century and the democratization of reading. Innovations in printing first led to the mechanization of book production and the industrialization of the book market. The cost of books went down. The nature of the economic market then shifted from a craftsman’s scale to a consumption-based logic. At the same time, new legal frameworks (the Guizot and Ferry laws of 1833 and 1881) encouraged greater literacy among the population. Part of the working class now had the means and the ability to read. The train also gave them the time to do so, with passive travel time to invest. Books were therefore sold in station libraries, and diversified their forms to suit this new clientele. The Hachette publishing house considerably extended the spatial influence of books by integrating them into the train’s technical macro-system.

Philosophy of knowledge
« What is the nature of the ignorance produced by advertising? »
Research dissertation (Fall 2015)

This dissertation looks at the relations between ignorance and advertising, and more specifically at the nature of the ignorance produced by marketing. I begin by exploring the definition of ignorance in the philosophical history of the term. Most philosophers distinguish conscious and unconscious ignorance, ignorance that knows itself and ignorance that ignores itself. I then question the hypothesis of advertising as a source of information. Advertising creates propositional knowledge about the existence of the product it sells. However, it seeks to induce behavior in the consumer without the latter being aware of it. In this sense, it produces ignorance. Is it conscious or unconscious? Advertising produces conscious ignorance because it generates curiosity. It will always seek to pique interest. However, the free will of the ignorant can be called into question: does an influenced subject really choose to be influenced? A manipulated subject is not free if the ignorance produced is unconscious. Even if we consider advertising as a source of dogmatic beliefs, it is not necessary. The ignorance produced would therefore be altering. By questioning the nature of advertising ignorance, this dissertation attempts to provide answers to a contemporary problem, namely the influence of advertising on individuals.