of affective phenomena, the biological, machinic and semiotic implicate
and criss-cross each other. Heterogeneous fragments compose each other
on singular planes of consistency.
The distinction between the biosphere and the noosphere is useful at
a very abstract level, but does not account for the fact that biological
evolution incorporates mutagenic elements coming from the noos-
phere as well as machinic elements coming from the technosphere.
The viral principle is irreducible to mono-planarity since cultural
viruses can be transferred into the biological universe on the one hand
and on the other hand biological viruses can produce cultural effects, as
demonstrated by the effects that the HIV virus has had on desire, the
imaginary, culture and daily life. There is no biosphere, noosphere or any
other sphere that is distinct and circumscribed, but rather a kind of
mechanosphere.
The mechanosphere is the sphere in which entirely heterogeneous ele-
ments are assembled and still capable of functioning together. We can
call these elements different things: Guattari himself used the expression
‘a-signifying machinic traits’, meaning elements of heterogeneous types
(material, imaginary, biological, noetic ...) that in themselves cannot
create sense, but conjoin to constitute coherent constellations that can
define events, or haecceities: singularities endowed with meaning.
To understand what a-signifying machinic traits might be, we can
think about how viruses function. A virus does not manifest its behav-
iour (its possibilities, its meanings) without being in relation with an
organism; then we have effects of mutation, illness, morphogenesis.
We say a-signifying traits because these affective, linguistic, technical,
biological, ideological, imaginary, etc., segments do not carry along with
them their own fate or finality, and do not go in one direction rather
than another. They acquire their meaning in mutable relations with
other elements. Traits of this kind can function according to contradic-
tory modalities.
There are behaviours, symbols and enunciations that can function
as consolidating elements of the fascistic obsession with identity, or can
free up schizoid processes and even put into motion liberating processes,
depending on the assemblages in which they are caught and on the
aggregate they end up composing. Any a-signifying machinic trait pro-
duces different effects depending on the inter-machinic complex with
which it reacts, and on the assemblage in which it gets caught. For
example, the feeling of belonging within a community can produce an
effect of solidarity and friendship in certain assemblages, but in others
can produce effects of aggression against the external community. This
does not only depend on political, community-related or affective factors,104 Thought, Friendship and Visionary Cartography9780230_221192_10_cha09.pdf 10/3/08 11:35 AM Page 104