UNLOCKED: /497/ Are We Living in Fast Times? ft. James Hughes & Eli Sennesh
On technology, transhumanism, and progress.
James Hughes (Exec Director, Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies) and Eli Sennesh (postdoc, Vanderbilt) present a futurist approach to Alex and contributing editor Leigh Phillips.
What is wrong with the acronym TESCREAL?
Why is it wrong to worry about future transhumanism when we need to grapple with the technologies of now?
What are the limits of bourgeois futurism? What is an alternative futurism?
Has AI changed everything? Will it?
Are we actually living in an age of rapid technological advance?
Links:
Conspiracy Theories, Left Futurism, and the Attack on TESCREAL, James Hughes & Eli Sennesh
/306/ AI Capitalism: Inhuman Power
/335/ AI & the End of the End of History
/446/ The Techno-Fantasy of Perfect Freedom ft. Amber Trotter
/488/ Homo-Techno, Homo-Solo ...Post-Homo? ft. Alex Gendler
The Obama-to-Yarvin Pipeline, Geoff Schullenberger, Compact Substack
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1:08:22
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1:08:22
/518/ We Have Never Been Postmodern ft. Geoff Shullenberger
On free speech, the tech right, and politicisation.
Geoff Shullenberger, managing editor at Compact, joins Alex and George to talk about Peter Thiel, René Girard, victimhood and the antichrist.
Does it make sense to talk of "right-wing cancel culture"? Is it different from the left's?
Is countercultural trolling in tension with "defending Western civilisation"?
What does René Girard argue about mimesis and scapegoating? Why have his theories become popular?
Is right-populism still politicising? How does it relate to libertarian anti-politics and hard-right militarisation?
How has Silicon Valley libertarianism adapted to the new state-capitalist disposition?
For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast
Links:
René Girard and the Rise of Victim Power, Geoff Shullenberger, Compact
The Real Stakes, and Real Story, of Peter Thiel’s Antichrist Obsession, Laura Bullard, Wired
The Faith of Nick Land, Geoff Shullenberger, Compact
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43:11
/517/ Wonders of the Modern World ft. Pier Paolo Tamburelli
On places of ritual.
Architect Pier Paolo Tamburelli talks to Alex about his project to catalogue modern wonders – structures that are very big, that pretend to be ancient, and are mostly ugly.
For the full episode subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast
How has architecture lost its ritual dimension?
Why are these "modern wonders" kitsch? And why are they found the world over, from Munich to Malaysia, South Dakota to Dakar?
Do 'wonders' speak to a world where places remain distinct, and where conflicts and history seem to have returned?
Are disillusioned and cynical postmodern subjects searching for wonder?
Can architecture rebuild society?
Links:
Wonders of the Modern World, Arch+, issue 259
Wonders of the Modern World: Notes for a Research Programme, Pier Paolo Tamburelli, Arch+ (pdf attached in patreon)
What's wrong with the primitive hut?, Pier Paolo Tamburelli, San Rocco (pdf attached in patreon)
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45:21
/516/ France's Two Peripheries: Riots and Insurrection ft. Fred Lyra
On 20 years since the 2005 riots.
Fred Lyra, philosopher and musicologist based in Paris, joins Alex to talk about France through 4 moments: 1995 – the last moment of classic class struggle; 2005 – riots in the banlieues; 2015 – Islamist terror; 2025 – government collapse.
For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast
How were the riots normalised? And what was the state's response?
Why did the riots prompt debates about "models of integration"?
Why is there an "excess" of state in the banlieues, and an absence of state in left-behind smaller cities?
How did France go from the Nuits Debouts protests to the Gillet Jaunes – and how did they differ?
What about Bloquons Tout protests and the repeated fall of governments today?
Links:
The Peripherisation of France, Fred Lyra, A Terra É Redonda
Two, Three, or More Fractures in French Society?, Fred Lyra, A Terra É Redonda
Bonapartist Solutions, Dylan Riley, Sidecar
Nuits Debout: Up All Night, Fred Lyra, Lavra Palavra
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35:36
/515/ State Capitalism Is Now ft. Ilias Alami
On the weakness of state and capital – and their fusion.
Ilias Alami joins Alex and Lee to talk about his essential co-authored book, The Spectre of State Capitalism.
Why is state capitalism not just a China story, but is global?
What does the rise of state capitalism tell us about the health of contemporary capitalism?
How did globalisation and stagnation combine to give birth to it?
Is this an extension of neoliberalism or something new and different?
Does this represent a 're-politicisation' of the economy – and does it open up more hopeful political futures?
Links:
The Spectre of State Capitalism, Ilias Alami & Adam D Dixon, Oxford UP [OPEN ACCESS]
The global politics podcast at the end of the End of History. Politics is back but it’s stranger than ever: join us as we chart a course beyond the age of ’bunga bunga’. Interviews, long-form discussions, docu-series.
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