Tradition and Modernity in Yuk Hui’s Cosmotechnical Thinking

How Cultural Traditions can Form a Path to Technodiversity

Abstract

This article explores Yuk Hui's cosmotechnical thinking, focusing on how technological development is influenced by culture, and the possibility of technodiversity. Yuk Hui introduces the concept of cosmotechnics, which links technology to specific cultural cosmologies, and argues for the necessity of technodiversity to counter the homogenizing effects of modern technology.  However, it remains a question how technodiversity is to be realized exactly. This article claims this follows from Hui’s classical interpretation of the relation between tradition and modernity and his noöcentric approach to cultural traditions. By criticizing this position, this article aims to bring Hui’s thinking into contact with other ways of thinking, which can lead to a fruitful conversation and open a possible pathway to technodiversity.