In the beginning, we were already technical. According to the philosopher Jacques Derrida, life has always been contaminated by an 'originary' technicity. What is the meaning of this claim? How does it change the way we think about life, nature and the being that we ourselves are? And who exactly will turn out to be the thinker of such a thought? This book offers a critical genealogy of Derrida's philosophy of technology. In a series of incisive and original readings of Marx, Freud, Heidegger, Lacan, Stiegler and Derrida himself, Arthur Bradley traces the evolution of originary technicity and considers where it may go in the future.