Techs on Texts

Episode #26: JB Flinders on Sneakers

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JB Flinders – omnitechnologist, fellow Ute, and co-host of the Andy and Ammon's Excellent Odyssey podcast: joins us to discuss the 1993 film Sneakers. We discuss data as the primary seat of power, the ethics of privacy protection work, panopticons, Heidegger's "standing reserve," fear as the driver behind nearly every decision in the film (and in life), and what Martin Bishop means when he says "There's nobody there."

This was a continuation of conversations JB and I have had for 30 years. What a joy.

Show notes:
  • Sneakers on Wikipedia
  • Phil Alden Robinson: director and co-writer of Sneakers, also directed Field of Dreams
  • Enemy of the State: part of what JB calls the "Sneakers bundle" of surveillance films from the 70s–90s worth watching together
  • Martin Heidegger on Technology: JB draws on Heidegger's concept of "standing reserve": the danger that technology causes everything, including people, to appear as something to be optimized and used
  • Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault: Foucault's analysis of the Panopticon as a model for how surveillance modifies behavior without requiring active observation
  • Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: "Because attention determines what will or will not appear in consciousness, and because it is also required to make other mental events - such as remembering, thinking, feeling, and making decisions - happen there, it is useful to think of it as psychic energy. Attention is like energy in that without it no work can be done, and in doing work it is dissipated. We create ourselves by how we invest this energy. Memories, thoughts, and feelings are all shaped by how we use it. And it is an energy under our control, to do with as we please; hence, attention is our most important tool in the task of improving the quality of experience."
  • "Love and Serve Where You Stand" a beautiful sermon by Ankur Shah Delight in which he explains how despair is used as a tool of control, and how to fight it.
  • The eBay security team harassment campaign: NYT article on the eBay employees who sent live roaches, a bloody pig mask, and more to a couple who ran a niche e-commerce newsletter. Reads like a Coen Brothers movie.

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    Produced by Jed Sundwall. Write to jed at techsontexts.net with feedback and suggestions for books or guests.

    Intro music by Secret School.

    Outro music is "3/10th of the Population" by WE™.

    Please donate to Radiant Earth.

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    Techs on TextsBy Jed Sundwall