The Anti-Dystopians

On this episode, Alina Utrata talks to Olivier Jutel, a lecturer at the University of Otago and an expert in cyberlibertarianism. They discuss the ideology of many technology industry elites and the strange political ideas permeating through Silicon Valley. What makes these Sand Hill Road venture capitalists different from the East Coast banking establishment? Why are they imagining a world of venture capitalists in miniature? How does this relate to the Network State treatisie? Can you really “exit” or “LARP” a country into existence? And is this all just capitalism, or something else?For a complete reading list from the episode, check out the Anti-Dystopians substack at bit.ly/3kuGM5X.You can follow Alina Utrata on Bluesky at @alinau27.bsky.socialAll episodes of the Anti-Dystopians are hosted and produced by Alina Utrata and are freely available to all listeners. To support the production of the show, subscribe to the newsletter at bit.ly/3kuGM5X.Nowhere Land by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4148-nowhere-landLicense: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Alina Utrata talks to Dr Jenny Carla Moran, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow based at the Trinity Long Room Hub and a faculty member at TCD-TU Dublin Joint Centre for the Sociology of Humans and Machines. They discuss Jenny's research about robots and loveability. Why are so many people falling in love with ChatGPT partners? What does the trope of "true love's first kiss" show us about which robots are considered human? How does society proscribe the acceptable limits of love in both gendered and racial ways (or why men can only cry at football games)? What's the problem with apologizing to your hairbrush when you drop it? And, most importantly, do you remember Spongebob Square Pants's underwater computer robot wife?For a complete reading list from the episode, check out the Anti-Dystopians substack at bit.ly/3kuGM5X.You can follow Alina Utrata on Bluesky at @alinau27.bsky.socialAll episodes of the Anti-Dystopians are hosted and produced by Alina Utrata and are freely available to all listeners. To support the production of the show, subscribe to the newsletter at bit.ly/3kuGM5X.Nowhere Land by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4148-nowhere-landLicense: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

FROM THE ARCHIVE: In this episode, Alina Utrata talks to Dr Trishant Simlai, a conservation researcher studying the politics and geographies of wildlife conservation in India, who just received his PhD in the Department of Geography at Cambridge. They discuss wildlife surveillance in the Corbett Tiger Reserve, as well as conservation’s colonial origins, how camera traps can be used to uphold the patriarchy, and when workplace surveillance technologies literally lead to tiger attacks.All episodes of the Anti-Dystopians are hosted and produced by Alina Utrata and are freely available to all listeners. To support the production to the show, visit: bit.ly/3AApPN4Nowhere Land by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4148-nowhere-landLicense: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, Alina Utrata talks to Connor O'Brien, a PhD Candidate at University of Cambridge researching a conceptual history of good governance and sovereign debt. They discussed a little-known tool for climate finance called "debt for nature swaps". While they might sound nice, they're actually an insidious tactic of finance guys taking control of government policies amidst the green energy transition. But also they discussed how these financial tools also show more broadly the power of international financial regimes and their relationship to state sovereignty, local power and control and authoritarian or private power. For a complete reading list from the episode, check out the Anti-Dystopians substack at bit.ly/3kuGM5X.You can follow Alina Utrata on Bluesky at @alinau27.bsky.socialAll episodes of the Anti-Dystopians are hosted and produced by Alina Utrata and are freely available to all listeners. To support the production of the show, subscribe to the newsletter at bit.ly/3kuGM5X.Nowhere Land by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4148-nowhere-landLicense: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

FROM THE ARCHIVE: Alina Utrata talks with Josh Lappen, a fellow Californian and environmental historian researching at Oxford University, who studies some of the most important technology there is: critical infrastructure. They discuss why hundreds of Elon Musks can’t (and won’t) solve climate change, the government funding and politics behind many technology entrepreneurs’ businesses, why low-tech solutions and indigenous practices are critical sources of knowledge, and the surprising number of technological innovations enabled by the US Postal Service (including Amazon’s e-commerce business and commercial flight). Plus, is PG&E really the worst company, what’s going on with the Texas blackouts, and should the government give you an email (and a bank account)?For a complete reading list from the episode, check out the Anti-Dystopians substack at bit.ly/3kuGM5X.You can follow Alina Utrata on Bluesky at @alinau27.bsky.socialAll episodes of the Anti-Dystopians are hosted and produced by Alina Utrata and are freely available to all listeners. To support the production of the show, subscribe to the newsletter at bit.ly/3kuGM5X.Nowhere Land by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4148-nowhere-landLicense: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.