Formuler des promesses technologiques à l’aide de démos

Abstract

Public demonstrations of technology (often referred to also as “demos”) constitute important vectors of making promises nowadays. How do demonstrators manage to convince their audience to support them? This article addresses this issue by analysing how two “demos” were prepared and run. One of them was developed in the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the other by a software firm in Silicon Valley. The analysis shows how these demonstrations set out promises by relying on both a techno-rhetoric and on approaches located at the crossroads of a theatrical game, the drafting of an advertising clip and the teaser of a film. It also sheds light on the importance of the organisation, the resources and the collective efforts mobilised for these sophisticated constructions, stressing thereby the substantial cost of the promises which they make.

Keywords

• demos
• technological promises
• techno-rhetoric
• Media Lab
• Silicon Valley