We discuss Chapter 7 of Autonomous Technology: “Complexity and the Loss of Agency.” Ed couldn’t be here for this episode, so we’re joined again by David Banks, who really stepped up to provide some great insights into understanding our socio-political relationship to complex technical systems designed to keep us in the dark about how and why the things we rely on actually work—and who they work for. We explore the dialectic between increasing complexity and diminishing agency, the poverty to cultural criticism vs. political analysis, and why technologies are not enchanted objects that grant us magical powers. You can find a free pdf of the whole book here: https://www.ratical.org/ratville/AoS/AutonomousTechnology.pdf

• Read David’s article: Engineered Violence: Confronting the Neutrality Problem and Violence in Engineering: https://ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/IJESJP/article/view/6604

• Follow David: https://twitter.com/DA_Banks

• Listen to Iron Weeds: https://twitter.com/ironweedspod

• Listen to Reaction: https://twitter.com/reactionpodcast

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Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)