Generic technique and the dynamics of technologies: using matroid and design theory to design techniques with systemic impact

Abstract : As underlined in Arthur’s book “the nature of technology” we are very knowledgeable on the design of objects, services or technical systems, but we don’t know much on the dynamics of technologies. Still contemporary innovation often consists in designing techniques with systemic impact. They are pervasive– both invasive and perturbing-, they recompose the family of techniques. Can we model the impact and the design of such techniques? More specifically: how can one design generic technology, ie a single technology that provokes a complete reordering of families of techniques? Recent advances in design theories open new possibilities to answer these questions. In this paper we use C-K design theory and a matroid-based model of the set of techniques to propose a new model (C-K/Ma) of the dynamics of techniques, accounting for the design of generic technologies. We show: • F1: C-K/Ma offers a computational model for designing a technique with systemic impact. • F2: C-K/Ma accounts for some phenomena associated to generic technology design. • F3: C-K/Ma offers an efficient guide for the design of technologies with systemic impact, based on generativity and genericity criteria