ABSTRACT
The governance mode of Sensing deploys new technologies in a very different way to that of Mapping on the assumption that the key to governing is the capacity to respond to effects rather than to act instrumentally upon the basis of causal chains of interconnection. While the focus shifts from an ontology of depth to that of the surface of appearances, Sensing is nevertheless dependent on a high level of technological regulation and analysis. In fact, the problem of infinitude, raised in Chapter 3, can be understood to be reposed through the Sensing paradigm as a problem of seeing the world of entangled interaction in its real-time emergence. In effect, the problem space of governance shifts from the depths to the surface and becomes a concern of time rather than space. In the language of speculative realism, the ‘great outdoors’ comes ever closer and becomes much more tangible. However, in coming nearer, the world of exploration becomes less full of alternative possibilities: while the paradigm of Mapping was autopoietic, with the subject or entity adapting through encountering problems, that of Sensing is homeostatic: rapid responsivity to effects enables the world to remain as it is.
