Hope in Source

Hope in Source

By Henry ZhuSociety & CulturePhilosophy
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Hope in Source episodes

  • Artificial Physicality (Drew Austin)

    Why does everyone care about New York? Drew Austin explores the interplay bt digital/physical env and how tech values shape our lives. We discuss some of his past essays: fashion as public good, airport lounge-ification highlighting, and how digital paradigms reshape our physical spaces. Topics include: fake serendipity, lofi, gm, resilient systems, the commons as customs, postmodernist software, leaving a trace, Twitter as a waiting room. (Recorded October 2021)


    Transcript: https://hopeinsource.com/artificial

    • (00:00) - Artificial Physicality (Drew Austin)
    • (00:08) - So what's the weather in New York?
    • (01:58) - Even a pandemic becomes about NYC
    • (03:18) - We behave the same, online or in a city
    • (04:39) - Technology, Memory, and Depersonalization
    • (06:46) - Lofi, CDs, and Artifical Physicality
    • (13:19) - From Sharing Silence to gm
    • (15:58) - Worn Out: Fashion and Public Space
    • (21:39) - Modernist architecture and postmodernist software
    • (27:41) - Code isn't just code
    • (29:25) - Infrastructure requires resilience
    • (31:28) - The commons as customs
    • (33:43) - Airport Lounge-ification of Cities
    • (37:03) - McDonalds as the only third place
    • (39:51) - Reverse engineering bodegas
    • (41:31) - Fake serendipity vs the city
    • (44:17) - Can digital environments enable serendipity?
    • (47:12) - Leaving a trace, a legacy, provenance
    • (48:17) - Twitter as a waiting room
    51 min
  • Everyone is "Protestant" Online (L.M. Sacasas)

    How do we all act as protestants online? L.M. Sacasas joins Henry (4th time!?) to chat about material/digital culture, how we compensate for natural affordances in new digital interfaces, our inability to account for non-measurable losses, texture vs. frictionlessness, lofi, roguelikes, reality tv, ambient data capture, extracting our private life for gain, how digital space is more of a past rather a place. (Recorded August 2022) Transcript: https://hopeinsource.com/protestant

    • [00:00] Introduction
    • [04:15] The Everyday Texture of Material Culture
    • [07:11] Translated Affordances of Digital Interfaces
    • [09:11] The Burden of Note-Taking Systems
    • [10:36] No Accounting for Loss
    • [11:48] The Added Texture of Lofi
    • [14:54] Anchors of the Material World
    • [16:02] The Frictionless Life
    • [18:03] The Internal Motivation of Roguelikes
    • [19:42] The Language of Needs
    • [21:52] Liturgies and Mediums
    • [22:47] No Material Trace
    • [24:41] Compensating for the Losses of the Digital
    • [27:28] You can't capture me!
    • [29:11] Reality TV prepped us for the Very Online Life
    • [31:23] Ambient Capture and Surveillance Culture
    • [33:41] On the Terms of the Medium 
    • [35:41] Extraction of Private Life into Public Benefit
    • [38:28] On Loneliness and Making a Living
    • [41:45] Negotiating The Terms of Technology
    • [43:45] The Gradience of Relationality in Sidewalk Life
    • [45:12] Artificially Reconstituting Our Being in a Built Environment
    • [48:07] A Gaze Turned Pastward
    51 min
  • Finding Hope Amid Burnout (Alex Kim)

    Where can hope be found? Alex Kim joins again to open up questions of responsibility, and our place in relation to times of weariness. He speaks out his experiences growing up and also shepherding a local church body as a youth pastor. We speak amidst the burnout on notions of time, the work of Charles Taylor through Andrew Root, work/play, and living out in hope. Maybe it's what this podcast is attempting to work towards! (Recorded June 2022)


    Transcript: https://hopeinsource.com/hope


    44 min
  • Digital Communion (Nick Ripatrazone)
    Can our digitally mediated environment be spiritual? Nick Ripatrazone takes us through the lens of the Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan, focusing on his not well-known Catholic faith. McLuhan himself describes his testimony into the Church as, "I came in on my knees. That is the only way in." We discuss the topics around inter-textuality, the complexity of life, on form/function within mediums like poetry, concept/percept, ambiguity and paradox, and McLuhan's famous phrase "the medium is the message". (Recorded April 2022) Transcript: https://hopeinsource.com/communion
    53 min
  • History is Necromancy (David Cayley)
    What is the place of history in our society? Who was Ivan Illich and how might he be a helpful voice, even in his passing? David Cayley shares about his new book, "Ivan Illich: An Intellectual Journey". It's not really a biography, and as Illich himself would say, "you can't capture me!" We talk about open source, big tech, and enclosure, history which gives you roots, how tradition and change are intertwined, the many myths/idols of society, on good vs. value, aestheticism, and much more. (Recorded in January 2022)
    51 min
  • Reality is Personal (Esther Meek)
    What is the nature of reality? Esther Lightcap Meek speaks of reality as interpersonal, saying yes to life, everyday knowing. We discuss hope as a person-ed affair, how life is a sort of scrabbling together of clues, gift economies, covenant epistemology, on commitment, consent, belonging. (Recorded in November 2021) Transcript: https://hopeinsource.com/reality
    44 min
  • The Dorean Principle (Conley Owens)
    Why is Christianity so commercialized? Conley shares about The Dorean Principle, his new book which explains this biblical concept of the Gospel being "freely given". We talk about being a colaborer vs. a customer, reciprocity vs. gift, Bible translation, Christian music, copyright and creative commons, and how it all relates to an open source ethos. (Recorded in October 2021) Transcript: https://hopeinsource.com/dorean.
    30 min
  • Attending to Silence (L.M. Sacasas)
    How can we think about digital communication, let alone silence? Is it possible? L.M. Sacasas is back to chat about a few of his last newsletter posts: the nature of silence, attention not as a resource, on hope vs. expectations, the arms race of escalation, manufactured needs, askesis or discipline, the commons vs. the public, and trustlessness and codes of law. (Recorded in July 2021) Transcript: https://hopeinsource.com/silence.
    59 min
  • Ivan Illich (L.M. Sacasas)
    Why read Ivan Illich today? In this episode, Madhu Suri Prakash and Dana L. Stuchul of Penn State University (and Journal of Illich Studies) interview L.M. Sacasas on his work as being a sort of bridge or interlocutor of Illich's thoughts. They talk about schooling and inequality in COVID, ways of thinking about technology, a life of planning vs. gift, convivial tools, redemption of work, and more. (Recorded in December 2020) Transcript: https://hopeinsource.com/illich
    51 min
  • Digital Disembodiment (Maggie Appleton)
    How does the digital life shape our perceptions of ourselves? Maggie Appleton starts us off on a discussion of school in pandemic times which lead to a discussion of the disembodiment that technology can create, somehow bringing us further towards our thoughts on time and space? (Recorded in November 2020) Transcript: https://hopeinsource.com/disembodiment
    29 min

About Hope in Source

From the publisher's feed

What are the parallels between faith and open source software? Join Henry Zhu for an off-the-cuff conversation between friends. Check out hopeinsource.com and nadiaeghbal.com/public-faith for the…