Social Discipline Social Discipline

In this episode of Social Discipline, we're joined by the renowned philosopher and complexity scientist, Alicia Juarrero. Alicia delves into the intricate world of causality in complex systems, offering insights from her seminal work, Dynamics in Action and Context Changes Everything. Throughout our conversation, she unpacks the principles of complexity and their implications for understanding human behavior and decision-making processes. We also explore how her theories challenge traditional views of causality and control in both social and natural sciences. Additionally, Alicia shares her thoughts on the ethical dimensions of complexity, particularly how they relate to issues of freedom and responsibility in contemporary society.

In this cultural biography from the incendiary and radical poet and thinker Howard Slater (Break/Flow), we speak about far-left culture in Britain since the 1970s and its relationship to politics and poetry. Slater started the legendary Break/Flow zine in the 90s and participated in the Virtual Future conference. In the 2000s, he began the eclectic label Difficult Fun with others. In the early 2010s, he was part of developing MayDay Rooms, a fantastic archive and resource for social movements and marginal cultures based in London. Slater is currently translating Jacques Camatte and working on his poetry. This podcast includes previously unreleased poetry from Slater.

In this episode, we speak with artist Marwa Arsanios about her practice, documenta fifteen, feminism, and the possibility of reshaping the political potential of art. She talks to us about her ongoing project, Who Is Afraid of Ideology?, which Arsanios did as part of documenta fifteen. In this project, she explores through collaboration the possibility of communizing land and its practical, legal, and geological connotations. Furthermore, we discuss the aftermath of documenta fifteen and its problems. We also get to know  about the origins of the title and the ideological differences in regards to feminism in Beirut in the last decade.

Conversation with artist, writer and curator Hamja Ahsan on the support campaign he organized for his brother Syed Talha Ahsan, his groundbreaking book Shy Radicals, his project at documenta fifteen and the hate campaign that he is receiving from some of the German media. Hamja talks openly about mental heath issues, islamophobia and the crucial support that he got from Anne Tallentire while he was studying at Central Saint Martins.

Miguel Prado and fellow Guild navigator (and co-host for today's episode) Sonia de Jager meet Diana Walsh Pasulka: professor of philosophy and religion at UNCW and author of American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, and Technology. We discuss what do we mean by agnostic when we want to be challenged by new knowledge, the UFO phenomena as a new form of religion, recent congress' public hearing into "unidentified aerial phenomena'', how ancient aliens could have handed technology to humanity and much more!

Cover image by NonayahBiz
https://www.reddit.com/r/singularity/comments/w92937/i_told_ai_starryai_to_show_me_the_moment_ancient/

We had the great pleasure of being joined by Jeffrey J. Kripal in conversation about how to lift the veil of Isis, the radical collapse of the subject-object structure, paranormal research, LaMBDA alleged consciousness, conspirituality, Esalen Institute and its impact on American culture and many other liminal topics.

Jeffrey Kripal is J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University and is the associate director of the Center for Theory and Research at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. He is the author of eight books, including: The Flip: Epiphanies of Mind and the Future of Knowledge (2019), Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the Sacred (2010) and Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion (2007)–all mentioned in this episode.