\(cover art and icon: Robert Irwin)* (not the animal guy, the artist haha)**
12 Weeks (start date TBD) · 6 Biweekly Meetings · Selected Readings
Reader Packets — The Technological Condition
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Guiding question: How are technological systems shaping the realities we inhabit—and how might we participate in constructing one worth being optimistic about?
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This book club is for people who want to understand what’s happening in the world right now (and why everything feels so crazy/destabilizing).
I organized this list to span over 3 months (tbd on this - I'll evaluate pacing as we move through), we'll cover some philosophy, media theory, critical race and feminist theory, art, science fiction, Silicon Valley, and AI to think through some pressing questions: How is technology changing the way we understand reality? How does media shape what we perceive and desire? Why are we more connected than ever but often feel increasingly alone and isolated? Who gets to define what counts as human, normal, or real? And what kinds of new communities, rituals, and ways of living might emerge from all of this?
I don’t think that the point is to become experts on any of these thinkers or even to agree with them. I selected these readings because I think they will provide some useful frameworks to think through technologies and power systems we interface with in everyday life: TikTok, AI, art, work, identity, relationships, politics, internet culture, and the increasingly weird experience of being a person online and offline.
This is for people who are curious, slightly obsessive, and interested in things outside their own lane.
Maybe you work in tech but spend your free time reading philosophy. Maybe you're an artist who wants to understand AI beyond whether it's good or bad for art. Maybe you're a designer, engineer, writer, researcher, founder, student, or someone with a completely unrelated job who keeps falling down Wikipedia/Youtube rabbit holes about media theory, religion, internet subcultures, political economy, contemporary art, or why everyone suddenly seems to be talking the same way online.
You do not need a background in philosophy, critical theory, art, or technology. You don't need to know who these authors are or understand all of the references and you certainly don't need to understand every page we read.
You probably will enjoy this if you like conversations that start with “why does TikTok feel like this?” and somehow end two hours later talking about ritual, capitalism, cybernetics, race, gender, contemporary art, science fiction, and whether Silicon Valley is inventing a theology (spoiler alert - it is).
Every two weeks, we'll read a small selection of chapters or essays organized around one question, with optional readings for anyone who wants to go deeper. Parable of the Sower will run slowly alongside the course as a fictional companion.
You don't need to arrive with a polished interpretation. Come with something you noticed, something you didn't understand, something you disagreed with, or something the reading made you see differently in your own life.
The only real prerequisites are being willing to engage seriously with ideas you may not agree with, being curious about what other people noticed that you didn't, and occasionally fighting your way through a difficult paragraph without needing to pretend you understood it.
This syllabus is by no means comprehensive, and I haven't read most of these books yet. I actually made this as a more structured way for me to get through some books I’ve been meaning to read and situate them in a larger context, so we’ll be learning alongside each other :)