Programming benevolence and the risk of soft domination

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Slavoj Žižek is international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London, visiting professor at New York University, and a senior researcher at the University of Ljubljana’s Department of Philosophy. This is Slavoj’s fifth appearance on the show. On episode 109, he and Robinson discussed wokeness and psychoanalysis. On episode 118, he, Sean Carroll, and Robinson discussed quantum physics, the multiverse, and time travel. And on episode 206 he, Lee Smolin, and Robinson discussed quantum physics. In episode 212, Robinson and Slavoj talk about ancient philosophy, god, communism, quantum mechanics, and psychoanalysis. In this episode, they discuss current political events, marxism, quantum mechanics, and artificial intelligence. Slavoj’s upcoming book is Quantum History: A New Materialist Philosophy (Bloomsbury, 2025).
Quantum History: https://a.co/d/7WFcAGi

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OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

01:07 Marxism and Quantum Mechanics

07:34 Why We Aren’t Pessimistic Enough

16:29 The Wisdom of the First Philosopher

29:27 The Assassination of Charlie Kirk

38:10 On Curtis Yarvin

49:23 The Naivety of Pete Hegseth

51:06 The Contradiction in American Fascism

57:43 Could a Coup Overthrow Trump?

01:04:17 The Utter Shamelessness of Today’s Society

01:14:15 The Danger of the Disappearing Left

01:18:06 AI Is a Tool of Authoritarian Suppression

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where he is also a JD candidate in the Law School.