Strange Attractor Roundtable Ep 3: The Philosophy of Cool

After listening to Alex Ebert’s fantastic presentation ‘Dead Cool’ at the Stoa we thought we would invite Alex, who like Alexander Bard, is a pop star turned philosopher for a discussion on ‘The Philosophy of Cool’.  What is cool in the age of attentionalism?  What is fake cool and what is real cool? How is cool related to Réne Girard’s theories of mimetic desire.  Originally part of the Sweeny vs Bard podcast, we thought it exemplified a lively round table and should be part of the Strange Attractor series.  After all ‘cool’ is a strange attractor and mysterious enough to merit a serious conversation.

One of the coolest (in the sense of ‘most awesome’) conversations so far.  Part 2 coming soon.

Alex Ebert is an erstwhile multiplatinum songwriter and Golden Globe-winning film composer now taking up philosophy in New Orleans.   He is currently finishing his first book, Dead Cool, an analysis of sociodynamics and status anxiety in the age of Cool.

Alexander Bard: Alexander Bard is a Swedish author, lecturer, artist, songwriter, music producer, TV personality, philosopher and political activist, and one of the founders of the Syntheist movement along with his co-author Jan Söderqvist. His books include “The Futurica Trilogy”, “Digital Libido” & “Syntheism”.

Thomas Hamelryck is a Lecturer and Researcher at the Bioinformatics Centre at the University of Copenhagen Biocenter. His academic research interests revolve around  Machine learning, Bayesian statistics, Protein Structure Prediction, Probabilistic Programming, Deep Learning.  He is also an enthusiast of Réne Girard, and denies all rumours that he was once the keyboard player for Depeche Mode.

Andrew Sweeny:  Andrew Sweeny is a writer, editor, blogger, Youtuber, published poet, podcaster, musician, and teacher. He has worked as a touring musician and put out several albums, published a book of poetry, and animated two popular podcasts and a philosophical blog on Medium and now on Parallax. He Lectures at Sciences Po, in Paris, France.

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Intro music: Beautiful Machines, by Andrew Sweeny