Biobanks as Exteriorized Memories of Life

• Published in: Philosophy & technology Vol. 35; no. 1
• Main Author: Clarizio, Emanuele
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01-03-2022; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Analysis; Artificial intelligence; Biobanks; Biology; Education; Environment; Humanities and Social Sciences; Life; Memory; Philosophy; Philosophy of Technology; Philosophy of Technology and the French Thought; Research Article; Technology; France; Life; Biological philosophy of technology; Exteriorization; Bio-objects; Memory; Biobanks
• ISSN: 2210-5433; 2210-5441
• DOI: 10.1007/s13347-022-00504-8

The aim of this article is to consider biobanks through the conceptual tools of French Thought and twentieth-century French philosophy of technology. Firstly, two pairs of authors and their respective conceptions of the relationship between technics and memory are considered: on the one hand, Jacques Derrida and Bernard Stiegler, who thought of memory and technics on the model of writing; on the other hand, Henri Bergson and André Leroi-Gourhan, who thought of memory as linked to biological life, and of technics as an exteriorization of life. On the basis of this discussion, a philosophical analysis of biobanks is then provided, understanding them as
exteriorized memories of life
, and some conceptual problems raised by biobanks are addressed: the question of exteriorization and its relation with the organic and the inorganic matter; the relation between the living and the environment; the mode of existence of biological data; and the distinction between natural and artificial memory.