I've recommended his blog to you twice! I just finished watching 'All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace' and was about to post it for discussion. He has an interesting take on it all, I think his arguement may be somewhat flawed but his approach is pretty interesting, just trawling from unshown BBC dump tapes and putting together the pieces from history. It's funny, the new documentary deals with lots of the same ideas I am interested in at the moment, such as how the counter culture feeds into the personal computer and information technology revolution, and the link between the ideologies of Neo-Liberal Capitalism and the ideology of the post-human, cybernetic ideal of the internet. I am a bit suspicious of his constant wish to return to the days of partizan politcs, I think these guys who came of age in the cold war are a bit nostalgic for the time when it was possible to define yourself as simply left or right.
I just finished watching 'All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace' 1 hour ago. The first thing I did was go see what Tim Morton said about his ecology (not much actually, just that it was "cartoonish").
I'm mega interested in internet cybernetics and post-humanism. I'm particularly interested in the shady group of internet venture capitalists who are behind post-humanism and singularity movements (thiel, friedman, seasteading institute et al) I feel this photo from the singularity institute has always summed it up for me: [ http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_llw4h8ONKO1qfdtbpo1_500.jpg ]
I've been planning to do a peter thiel work for ages.
Regarding the altruism/genetic replication models of Hamilton:
It seems to me that our self interest is not a model of biological replication but a political one. In our current political system (as with most) the rules of the game are such that it really favours people who have particular values ie. certain strategies and worldviews dominate and replicate (similar to genetically).
So for eg in a fascist state a ruling class will have characteristics that are well adapted to fascism ie. powerful, commanding, agressive.
So in modern political systems ruling classes may be seen as not one of hereditary but of entrenching value systems. And the stability of the political system will in some way depend on how self-stabilising those dominant strategies valuse and traits are amongst those at the top.
So clearly we noew live in time which rewards selfish neo-liberal conservative rationality and the system is designed to reward this approach and strengthen it. It seems to me though that western capatalism can be singled out in that it is so strong in self-replecating these values. Its seemingly omnipotent stability is founded on the fact that it so organically and andogenously marginalises other world views, rather than say fascism that has to actively stamp out dissent.
I've recommended his blog to you twice! I just finished watching 'All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace' and was about to post it for discussion. He has an interesting take on it all, I think his arguement may be somewhat flawed but his approach is pretty interesting, just trawling from unshown BBC dump tapes and putting together the pieces from history. It's funny, the new documentary deals with lots of the same ideas I am interested in at the moment, such as how the counter culture feeds into the personal computer and information technology revolution, and the link between the ideologies of Neo-Liberal Capitalism and the ideology of the post-human, cybernetic ideal of the internet. I am a bit suspicious of his constant wish to return to the days of partizan politcs, I think these guys who came of age in the cold war are a bit nostalgic for the time when it was possible to define yourself as simply left or right.
ReplyDeleteI just finished watching 'All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace' 1 hour ago. The first thing I did was go see what Tim Morton said about his ecology (not much actually, just that it was "cartoonish").
ReplyDeleteI'm mega interested in internet cybernetics and post-humanism. I'm particularly interested in the shady group of internet venture capitalists who are behind post-humanism and singularity movements (thiel, friedman, seasteading institute et al) I feel this photo from the singularity institute has always summed it up for me:
[ http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_llw4h8ONKO1qfdtbpo1_500.jpg ]
I've been planning to do a peter thiel work for ages.
Regarding the altruism/genetic replication models of Hamilton:
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that our self interest is not a model of biological replication but a political one. In our current political system (as with most) the rules of the game are such that it really favours people who have particular values ie. certain strategies and worldviews dominate and replicate (similar to genetically).
So for eg in a fascist state a ruling class will have characteristics that are well adapted to fascism ie. powerful, commanding, agressive.
So in modern political systems ruling classes may be seen as not one of hereditary but of entrenching value systems. And the stability of the political system will in some way depend on how self-stabilising those dominant strategies valuse and traits are amongst those at the top.
So clearly we noew live in time which rewards selfish neo-liberal conservative rationality and the system is designed to reward this approach and strengthen it. It seems to me though that western capatalism can be singled out in that it is so strong in self-replecating these values.
Its seemingly omnipotent stability is founded on the fact that it so organically and andogenously marginalises other world views, rather than say fascism that has to actively stamp out dissent.