The Computer Room

The Computer Room

By Katherine DeeSociety & CultureTechnology
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The Computer Room episodes

  • Technology for Conviviality ft. LM Sacasas
    I spoke with the writer and technological theorist L.M. Sacasas about his work, grounding your perception of digital technology in philosophy, and moving towards a more coherent understanding of what the Internet is. Subscribe to his Substack here: https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/.
    Produced by: Will Kraus
    59 min
  • Technology for Conviviality ft. LM Sacasas

    I spoke with the writer and technological theorist L.M. Sacasas about his work, grounding your perception of digital technology in philosophy, and moving towards a more coherent understanding of what the Internet is. Subscribe to his Substack here.

    Theme: Computer Love by Kraftwerk

    59 min
  • The Android and the Human
    Today, Emmet and I discussed PKD's sprawling 1972 speech from the Vancouver Science Fiction Convention, "The Android and the Human."
    I encourage everyone read the whole piece here, but it's perhaps best summed up by the following quote:
    Our environment — and I mean our man-made world of machines, artificial constructs, computers, electronic systems, interlinking homeostatic components — all of this is in fact beginning more and more to possess what the earnest psychologists fear the primitive sees in his environment: animation. In a very real sense our environment is becoming alive, or at least quasi-alive, and in ways specifically and fundamentally analogous to ourselves...Rather than learning about ourselves by studying our constructs, perhaps we should make the attempt to comprehend what our constructs are up to by looking into what we ourselves are up to.
    Read it here: https://genius.com/Philip-k-dick-the-android-and-the-human-annotated
    55 min
  • That's right, I win! ft. Meme Analysis
    From the “glow up” to main character syndrome, the internet loves a hero (or an anti-hero, as it were). I sat down with my dear friend Meme Analysis to talk about what this has to do with the persistent popularity of MGMT’s “Little Dark Age” on TikTok.
    Theme: Little Dark Age by MGMT
    47 min
  • This Used To Be Real Estate ft. John Zerzan

    Years ago

    I was an angry young man
    And I'd pretend
    That I was a billboard
    Standing tall
    By the side of the roadI fell in love
    With a beautiful highway
    This used to be real estate
    Now it's only fields and trees

    — [Nothing But] Flowers, The Talking Heads

    Please excuse the static!

    This is an interview with the anarcho-primitivist John Zerzan.

    What to say about John. He’s a really nice guy. He’s anti-civilization, but not an accelerationist (as far as I know). He’s an icon. There’s also a chance you don’t know who he is.

    John Zerzan was one of the first philosophers I ever read. I’ve been a fan of his work since I was very young. I remember a long, long time ago, it must have been the mid-2000s, anarcho-primitivism was having a real moment online. I was old enough to grok it, young enough to still be enchanted by it. As I’ve grown older, there’s lots about his work that I can’t totally get behind or relate to (for example, one thing I’m learning about my politics, whatever they are, is that I don’t believe you can eliminate hierarchy), but I still think it’s well worth checking out. His commentary on symbolic thought, time, and computers are both especially interesting and prescient.

    You can read more of his work here. I also highly, highly recommend his two appearances on one of my favorite podcasts, Hermitix, The Death of Civilization, and Time and Primitivism.

     

    57 min
  • Casual Sex Doesn't Exist ft. Rayne Fisher-Quann

    One of my favorite TikTokers, Rayne Fisher-Quann, joined me to talk about TikTok, cancel culture, the futility of the culture wars, how people talk about casual sex, and a shared favorite topic, the Internet.

    You can find Rayne’s reading recs, advice column, and internet culture observations here (and you can follow her on TikTok here).

    Theme: You’re Standing On My Neck by Splendora 

    59 min
  • Discord in the Dark Forest ft. Joshua Citarella
    Joshua Citarella is an artist and researcher whose work focuses on the fringe political groups developing in cyberspace. I love his work, partially because it’s a reminder to me that there’s more to Internet politics than the Dissident Right. In fact, talking to Joshua was good reminder in general of the vastness of cyberspace. For me, I always think of it through the lenses of Twitter, Tumblr, and TikTok. Certain podcasts. Journalists.
    But there’s a whole other ecosystem on YouTube, Twitch, and Instagram.
    It got me thinking about two things: Fans don’t always mean influence, and influence doesn’t always mean fans. Influence and fans don’t always mean you’ll be familiar with either group.
    We talked about a lot, more than just the terrain of online life. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much I did.
    Theme: The Robots by KraftworkProduced by Will Kraus
    1 hr 7 min
  • u mIRCin', brah? ft. Oliver Bateman

    This was a wide-ranging conversation.

    We talked about mIRC WWE roleplays, the impossibility of creating a genealogy of bodybuilding forums, how trolling evolved from Usenet to Twitter, the implicit similarities between Aimee Terese and Zyzz, why the digital invites body modification, male-to-male transsexuals, and the lasting impact of what the New York Times’ once dubbed “the male fitness internet.”

    Read Oliver’s EXCELLENT reporting here:

    The Unheard History of Bodybuilding Forums

    Steroid Solidarity

    Muscle, Smoke, Mirrors

    The Life of a Jacked Guy in 2019

    How Selfies and Social Media Shaped Modern Bodybuilding

    What Could Have Triggered Elliot Rodger?

    Books referenced:

    Muscle, Smoke, and Mirrors by Randy Roach

    Muscle: Confessions of an Unlikely Bodybuilder by Sam Fussell

    Theme: I Should Have Walked Away by KAAZE 

    2 hr 22 min
  • Complete Erasure of the Self ft. Limpida
    Here’s a theory I’ve been kicking around with today’s guest: Tumblr was an extension of MK Ultra. I’ve never been more serious.
    Subscribe to Limpida’s Substack here: https://strigoi.substack.com/
    Theme: Autobahn by Kraftwerk
    Produced by: Will Kraus
    1 hr 8 min

About The Computer Room

From the publisher's feed

A show about our lives online.