Afleveringen
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This summer Matteo MacDermant is teaching a course on Technoprogressive Worldbuilding for the IEET. We discuss the themes of the course, and some philosophical reflections about the technoprogressive project.
* James Hughes and Matteo McDermant discuss their IEET âTechnoprogressive Worldbuildingâ summer course, tracing its intellectual roots from Enlightenment progress theory through Bogdanovâs proto-transhumanist âtectologyâ and the Bolshevik God Builders.
* They debate biohacking and âright to tryâ ethics using Bryan Johnson as a case study, weighing bioliberal bodily autonomy against the FDAâs informed-consent rationale for regulation.
* The conversation covers Sasha Costanza-Chuckâs Design Justice, examining how systems (subway elevators, dating-site dropdowns, census categories) encode assumptions about a âdefaultâ user and exclude marginalized groups.
* They trace the historically constructed nature of racial/ethnic categories, using the U.S. censusâs pre/post-2010 Hispanic classification and the âone drop ruleâ as examples of Foucauldian statistical governmentality.
* Matteo explains his dissertation focus on tech worker organizing as a âsocio-technicalâ labor movement, distinguishing it from the âclick workerâ and content-moderation labor performed largely in the Global South.
* They discuss the class divides within tech labor (FTEs vs. TVCs/contractors) and how marginalized tech workers, not âclass reductionistâ purists, drove early solidarity with Silicon Valley service workers.
* Automationâs limits are examined through Waymo remote operators and robot food-delivery services secretly controlled by workers in the Philippines and Colombia, tying this to John Scalziâs Head On and a Tokyo robot cafĂ© staffed by disabled teleoperators.
* They contrast deterministic/accelerationist libertarian transhumanism with Jamesâs âdemocratic transhumanism,â emphasizing epistemic humility, non-teleological history, and Bogdanovâs concept of âradical imminence.â
* Drawing on Bogdanovâs âview from the peakâ metaphor and standpoint epistemology, they argue technoprogressive knowledge requires actively incorporating diverse perspectives (race, gender, trans experience) to approach a more universal picture of reality.
* The episode closes with reflections on constructed narratives (via the show Siloâs memory-erasure plot and a Simone Weil quote on history), an invitation to join the course, and wry commentary on the surreal banality of Trump-era politics.
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OpenAI is offering 5% equity to the US government. Trump has ordered the creation of a US sovereign wealth fund, received 10% government equity in Intel, and a âgolden shareâ in US Steel. Now Bernie Sanders has proposed 50% nationalization of AI stocks, to be held in a sovereign wealth fund that will finance a UBI. Why is there a sudden convergence by Right and Left on nationalizing AI?
Notes
âThe Case for Nationalizing Artificial Intelligenceâ Dustin Guastella https://jacobin.com/2026/07/ai-policy-nationalization-commons-work
âThe Sanders-Trump Plan for an AI Sovereign Wealth Fund: Donât Buy Itâ Dean Baker https://cepr.net/publications/the-sanders-trump-plan-for-an-ai-sovereign-wealth-fund-dont-buy-it/
âThe Bernie Sanders AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Proposalâ Matt Bruenig https://www.peoplespolicyproject.org/2026/06/26/bernie-sanders-ai-swf/
âOpenAI Woos Trump Administration as Investorâ Chad de Guzman https://time.com/article/2026/07/03/openai-invest-ai-trump-administration-sam-altman/
âWhy Everyone Is Suddenly Talking About âUniversal Basic Capitalââ RogĂ© Karma https://www.theatlantic.com/economy/2026/07/universal-basic-capital-ai/687759/
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Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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J Hughes, Sarah Shahed, Matteo MacDermant discuss Sarahâs editorial on age verification laws. We all want to protect children from harm, and age-gating social media websites has broad support. But mandating age-verification means identifying everyone, giving platforms much more information about consumers and putting the anonymity of journalists, activists and whistleblowers at risk. They also oblige defining what kinds of content are inappropriate for children. Is there a technofix for age-gating that preserves user anonymity?
Links
* Sarahâs essay:
* The Win That Wasnât: What New Mexico v. Meta Is Really About:
* UK ban announcement (GOV.UK):
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/social-media-to-be-banned-for-under-16s-in-landmark-government-move-to-givekids-their-childhood-back
* TechPolicy.Press on UK ban and surveillance: https://www.techpolicy.press/could-a-uk-teen-social-media-ban-work-without-expanding-surveillance/
* House KIDS Act deal (this week): https://www.techtimes.com/articles/318896/20260623/house-kids-act-deal-drops-kosa-duty-care-adds-age-verification-all-users.htm
* Texas app verification ruling:https://www.texastribune.org/2026/05/28/texas-apple-google-app-store-age-verification/
* EFF on age verification dangers:https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/06/kids-act-would-require-age-checks-get-online
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Thomas Baudinette is Senior Lecturer in Global Cultures at Macquarie University in Australia, a cultural anthropologist whose work maps the role popular culture plays in shaping gender and sexuality across East and Southeast Asia. His first book, Regimes of Desire: Young Gay Men, Media, and Masculinity in Tokyo (University of Michigan Press, 2021), examined how commercial gay media and the bar culture of Shinjuku shapes gay male identity in Japan. His second book, Boys Love Media in Thailand: Celebrity, Fans, and Transnational Asian Queer Popular Culture (Bloomsbury, 2023), is the first book-length study of the Thai BL phenomenon, drawing on six years of ethnographic fieldwork documenting the shift of queer cultural production in Asia from Japan to Thailand. He also co-edited East Asian Pornographies and Online Porn Cultures (Routledge, 2023) and Queer Transfigurations: Boys Love Media in Asia. He is currently working on two new book projects: an edited collection titled Riding the Thai Wind: Globalising Thai Media, Transnational Fandom, and Soft Power, and a monograph titled Queer Fantasies of Asia: Japanese and Korean Media Fandom in the Philippines.
Show Notes
* Thomas Baudinetteâs personal website thomasbaudinette.com
* Academia.edu profile https://mq.academia.edu/ThomasBaudinette
* Boys Love Media in Thailand (Bloomsbury, 2023) https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/boys-love-media-in-thailand-9781350330641/
* âExploring the rise of activism for LGBTQ+ rights in contemporary Thailand within Boys Love idol cultureâ (Celebrity Studies, 2025) https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19392397.2025.2521219
* Queer Transfigurations: Boys Love Media in Asia (University of Michigan Press, 2022) https://www.press.umich.edu/12040318/queer_transfigurations
* Marriage Equality, Thai BL Culture, and Queer Soft Power
* The Untamed https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10554898/
* Khemjira https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33258229/
* The Paradise of Thorns https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32362515
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Today on Technoprogressive Hub Iâm speaking with Dr. Evie Kendal, a bioethicist and public health scientist at Australiaâs Swinburne University of Technology. She is the author of the provocative and influential monograph, Equal Opportunity and the Case for State Sponsored Ectogenesis, in which she argued that artificial wombs are a potential requirement for genuine social and gender equality. In her latest volume, Science Fiction and the Ethics of Artificial Wombs (Bloomsbury, 2025), Dr. Kendal pivots to the âimagination as a laboratory.â She critiques the traditional bioethical reliance on sterile clinical vignettes, arguing instead that the âthickâ narratives found in science fictionâfrom the cautionary tales of Aldous Huxley to the liberating visions of Marge Piercy and Octavia Butlerâprovide a more robust framework for anticipating the social and political shocks of emerging biotechnologies.
Show Notes
Evie Kendalâs recent publications https://experts.swinburne.edu.au/6209-evie-kendal/publications
Google Scholar page: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=9x0hed0AAAAJ&hl=en
Equal Opportunity and the Case for State Sponsored Ectogenesis, Evie Kendalhttps://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9781137549877
Science Fiction and the Ethics of Artificial Wombs, Evie Kendalhttps://www.bloomsbury.com/us/science-fiction-and-the-ethics-of-artificial-wombs-9781350542990/
âArtificial Womb: A Short History,â J. Hughes https://philarchive.org/rec/HUGAWA
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As anxiety about data centers, AI-driven precarity, and tech oligarch authoritarianism mount, progressives have mostly responded with proposals to slow down AI. Bernie in particular has been channeling some of the existential risk concerns of Eliezer Yudkowsky, Geoffrey Hinton and Max Tegmark, and with Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, promoting regulation of data center construction.
On the other hand, California Congressman and US Presidential aspirant Ro Khanna, Congressional candidate Alex Bores, and Massachusetts state legislature candidate Jason Poulos have emerged with technoprogressive policy proposals, universal basic income and services, progressive taxation and sovereign wealth funds. Some Big Tech firms, like OpenAI, are also now pushing for UBI and technoprogressive policies, while others like Palantir have fully embraced a techno-libertarian/authoritarian policy agenda.
Show Notes
IEET Summer Course on Technoprogressive Worldbuilding - June 20-August 20, 2026 - Online The Technoprogressive Opportunity - Sept 19-20, 2026 - London UK https://www.meetup.com/london-futurists/events/314148857/
Ro Khannaâs âAI for the Peopleâ agenda https://www.thenation.com/article/society/ro-khanna-ai-democracy-blueprint/
Alex Boresâ AI Dividend https://www.axios.com/2026/04/20/alex-bores-ai-dividend-plan-wealth
Alex Boresâ AI Policy Framework https://www.alexbores.nyc/files/Bores_AI_Framework.pdf
Jason Poulos, MA-4 Dem candidate platform https://poulos.house/
OpenAIâs Proposed Industrial Policy https://openai.com/index/industrial-policy-for-the-intelligence-age/
Alex Karp/Palantirâs mini-manifesto https://www.businessinsider.com/palantir-manifesto-alex-karp-technological-republic-summary-2026-4
Technoprogressive Hub is an IEET-sponsored podcast/vlog produced by J. Hughes. Also check out Bread and Robots, an IEET-sponsored podcast/vlog produced by Matteo McDermant.
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Today on Technoprogressive Hub weâre speaking with Aleksandra PrzegaliĆska, a philosopher and social scientist of AI. Dr. PrzegaliĆska is Vice Rector and the head of the Human-Machine Interaction Research Center at Kozminski University in Poland. Currently she is Senior Research Associate at the Center for Labour and Just Economy at Harvard University. She works on the future of work, humanoid and social robots, and wearable technologies. She is co-author of the book Collaborative Society and Debating Universal Basic Income.
Links
Collaborative Society (MIT Press), Aleksandra PrzegaliĆska and Dariusz Jemielniak
Debating Universal Basic Income: Pros, Cons, and Alternatives, Aleksandra PrzegaliĆska and Robert Wright
Aleksandra PrzegaliĆska on Google Scholar
Aleksandra PrzegaliĆska on Researchgate
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This week on Technoprogressive Hub, Eli, Matteo and J discuss the legislation proposed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders to restrict the building of AI data centers. âOpposing AIâ is Luddite, not technoprogressive, but the sentiment against oligarchs, AI and data centers is so strong now that we may need to accept some Luddite positioning to get the Left to promote desirable AI safety and regulation.
Links
âSeizing the Data Center Buildout for Grid Modernizationâ by Jane Flagal https://www.searchlightinstitute.org/research/seizing-the-data-center-buildout-for-grid-modernization/
âAI data center fight blurs political linesâ Axios https://www.axios.com/2026/01/16/ai-data-center-fight-blurs-political-lines
âNew Bernie Sanders AI Safety Bill Would Halt Data Center Constructionâ WIRED https://www.wired.com/story/new-bernie-sanders-ai-safety-bill-would-halt-data-center-construction/
âAI & robotics briefing: Data centresâ huge âwater footprintâ becomes clear amid AI boomâ by Katrina KrĂ€mer https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-03768-y
âAI Data Centers: Big Techâs Impact on Electric Bills, Water, and Moreâ by Nicole Greenfield https://www.consumerreports.org/data-centers/ai-data-centers-impact-on-electric-bills-water-and-more-a1040338678/
âAI data centerâ Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=AI_data_center&oldid=1346973952
âAI, Data Centers, and the U.S. Electric Grid: A Watershed Momentâ by Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs https://www.belfercenter.org/research-analysis/ai-data-centers-us-electric-grid
âSanders, Ocasio-Cortez push bill to impose AI data center moratoriumâ by Matthew Daly https://apnews.com/article/data-centers-ai-electricity-sanders-aoc-65651bd28c3d911d18eeb46cd54f4c75
âWhy is Everyone So Wrong About AI Water Use?â by Hank Green
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ProWorker AI?
This week on Technoprogressive Hub, Eli, Matteo and J are discussing proposals for pro-worker artificial intelligence laws. Recently David Autor, Daron Acemoglu, and Simon Johnson and the UK Trades Union Council have proposed a set of regulatory and legal reforms to protect workers from automation and enhance human expertise. Arguably technoprogressive, will they only work briefly until AI surpasses human labor?
Links
âBuilding a pro-worker AI innovation strategyâ UK Trade Union Council
âCan A.I. Be Pro-Worker?â by John Cassidy
âCan We Have Pro-Worker AI? Choosing a path of machines in service of mindsâ by Daron Acemoglu, David Autor, and Simon Johnson (Hamilton Project)
âBuilding pro-worker artificial intelligenceâ by Daron Acemoglu, David Autor, and Simon Johnson (NBER)
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On Technoprogressive Hub, Dr. J. spoke with philosopher Mark Walker about moral enhancement, universal basic income, theology and technoprogressivism. Mark Walker holds the Richard L. Hedden Endowed Chair in Advanced Philosophical Studies at New Mexico State University.
Links
Happy-People-Pills For All by Mark Walker
Free Money for All by Mark Walker
Mark Walkerâs Papers
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The Pro-Human AI Declaration
On Technoprogressive Hub, Matteo and J react to the Pro-Human AI Declaration. Co-signed by major progressive and conservative organizations and leaders, does it finally represent a tenuous alliance of the populist Right with the progressive Left, united by anti-AI Luddism? Or is the Declaration actually a technoprogressive project dressed as Luddism?
Links
Pro-Human AI Declaration
âInside the secret meeting that led to the AI political resistanceâ by Tina Nguyen
âPro-human AI declaration brings together unlikely group calling for trustworthy techâ by Jared Perlo
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Post-Labor Economics With David Shapiro
David Shapiro is a futurist, author, social media producer, and one of the most prolific popularizers of post-labor economics â the argument that accelerating automation isn't a bug to be managed but a civilizational transition to be designed. Drawing on ideas ranging from universal basic income and sovereign wealth funds to the radical deflationary potential of AI-driven production, he makes the case that we are approaching a world where human labor is simply no longer the primary mechanism for distributing prosperity.
Find David at
Kickstarter - Patreon - Substack - Bluesky - X - LinkedIn - Youtube
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David Wood is a prominent British futurist, author, and pioneer of the smartphone industry as a co-founder of Symbian, the worldâs first successful smartphone operating system. David serves as the Chair of London Futurists, one of the worldâs largest foresight communities, as the Executive Director of the Longevity Escape Velocity (LEV) Foundation, and as a member of the IEET Board of Directors.
We critique both the "bioconservative" resistance to human modification and the "libertarian" approach to transhumanism, arguing instead for state-supported access to these tools to prevent deepening global inequality. Finally, the discussion underscores the necessity of international cooperation and institutional reform to manage the existential risks and ethical dilemmas posed by the accelerating pace of technological change.
David has authored or edited over a dozen books, including:
* Transcending Politics: A roadmap for technoprogressive governance.
* Sustainable Superabundance: A vision for a post-scarcity economy.
* The Singularity Principles: A framework for managing the risks of artificial superintelligence.
* The Abolition of Aging: An argument for curing senescence as a medical priority.
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Join James Hughes and George Dvorsky for a timely discussion on the Technoprogressive Hub podcast, at the intersection of technology and progressive politics. They explore the Left's identity crisis in Canada, the politics of universal access to GLP-1 drugs, and the evolving landscape of AI regulation.
Links
âWhat Ever Happened to the Transhumanists?â by George Dvorsky
George on Wikipedia
George at Gizmodo
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Today on Technoprogressive Hub, Matteo and J unpack Cory Doctorowâs enshittification thesis, the emerging concept of technofascism, and the connection between them.
âThe Age of Enshittificationâ by Kyle Chayka.
âThe Enshittifcation of Governmentâ by Christian Sarkar
âTechnofascism comes to Americaâ by Kyle Chayka
âTechnofascism: AI, Big Tech, and the new authoritarianismâ by Mark Coeckelbergh
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Richard (RJ) Eskow is a journalist and policy consultant, and host of The Zero Hour, a nationally syndicated radio and television program. He has served as a Senior Fellow with Social Security Works and the Campaign for Americaâs Future, and is a member of the IEET Board of Directors.
We talk about the challenge of promoting technoprogressive solutions to progressives who associate the technologies with billionaires and fascism. We address universal basic income, regulating AI, Buddhist approaches to the self and machine sentience, and Medicare4All.
Links:
RJ Eskow https://www.rjeskow.com/bio
The Zero Hour https://thisisthezerohour.com/
RJ Eskow at Common Dreams https://www.commondreams.org/author/richard-eskow
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The Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies is working to create a technoprogressive policy agenda. This Technoprogressive Hub podcast will be hosted by IEET Executive Director J. Hughes, a sociologist and ethicist, interviewing people about technoprogressive ideas. For this initial podcast Dr. J. is joined by Eli Zupnick, a Washington DC-based political operative, and Matteo McDermant who teaches in Albuquerque, New Mexico and produces the Bread and Robots podcast and Substack.
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