When technology goes out of control

This paper uses the example of software and electronic devices used in musical improvisation to develop a critique of the dominant view of technology, specified by function and input–output behaviour, and optimized so that it is as domesticated as a faithful dog. The optimization in question attempts to avoid discontinuity and, more generally, unforeseen responses from a system, assuming a human being’s need for an interface is purely functional. Against this, we argue that some devices are, by their nature, complex and chaotic, and also that, because of this complexity, we can form deep attachments to them. These interspecies forms of affection are rooted in the sense of incompleteness of the human, its uncertainty in relation to an other and the reasons why, while a synthetic companion can be desirable because more predictable, in the case of improvisational interaction we desire our machinic counterparts to surprise us.