What are the connective currents between digital technology and the cultural-political forms of libertarianism, neoreaction, posthumanism, and secessionist right-wing theory and practice? Why do cultural representations and fantasies of tech—especially A.I.—oscillate between terror and exaltation? What can scholars of the humanities learn from studying these complex and differentiated conjunctures? This seminar aims to move the discussion beyond polemic by inviting theoretically oriented reflections on, and interpretations of, tech culture and politics.

This seminar explores the relations between digital technology and broader cultural and political tendencies. Why has technology become such a powerful object of hope and fear? How have digital technologies reshaped ideas about reason, creativity, authority, work, and the human? What perspectives can the humanities offer for understanding these developments beyond celebration or denunciation? Possible topics include, but are not limited to: the apocalyptic themes that recur in technology discourse, from fears of AI-driven extinction to narratives of civilizational decline and ecological catastrophe; different forms of techno-optimism, accelerationism, singularity, and long-term thinking; secessionist projects, "exit" strategies, charter cities, network states, and the growing entanglement of corporate and state power; cryptocurrencies, encryption, and changing ideas about secrecy, transparency, and trust; philosophical traditions that continue to shape thinking about technology, including Descartes, Kant, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Whitehead, Leo Strauss, cybernetics, René Girard, Deleuze and Guattari, and Nick Land; feminist and posthumanist approaches to technological transformation, including the work of Donna Haraway, Rosi Braidotti, and Luciana Parisi; the consequences of automated reasoning, cognition, decision-making, and production in policing, warfare, medicine, consumer culture, law, finance, education, media, and the arts; and the emergence of the technology founder as a cultural figure whose authority increasingly draws on the language of artistic creativity, disruption, disinhibition, and visionary leadership.

The seminar welcomes contributions from philosophy, political theory, literary and cultural studies, media studies, science and technology studies, religious studies, history, and related fields. We especially encourage papers that combine theoretical reflection with close attention to contemporary technological culture.