For Episode 13, I am joined by Dr. Samir Chopra to talk about intelligent robots, personhood, the complicated machinations of human grieving, and “Be Right Back” (Season 2, Episode 1 of Black Mirror), which first premiered in 2013. Listen/Download BLACK MIRROR REFLECTIONS podcast episodes Subscribe to BLACK MIRROR REFLECTIONS podcast Support/Donate to BLACK MIRROR REFLECTIONS podcast My…
Read MoreFor Episode 15, I am re-joined by Dr. Ammon Allred to talk about social media cesspools, climate change, the unwritten rules of hashtags, so-called “cancel culture,” the Capitol insurrection, and “Hated in the Nation” (Season 3, Episode 6 of Black Mirror), which originally premiered in 2016. (Of course, we also talk about Derrida.) Listen/Download BLACK MIRROR…
Read MoreFor Episode 11– our first Christmas episode!– I am joined by Dr. David Gunkel to talk about the possibility of virtual moral agents, the seriousness of online games, science fiction’s bad politics, and “USS Callister” (Episode 1, Season 4 of Black Mirror), which first premiered in 2017. Listen/Download BLACK MIRROR REFLECTIONS podcast episodes Subscribe to BLACK…
Read MoreFor episode 10, I am joined by Dr. John Danaher to talk about social credit systems, the ubiquity of ranking metrics, whether or not its possible to go “off the grid,” and “Nosedive” (Season 3, Episode 1 of Black Mirror), which first premiered in 2016. Listen/Download BLACK MIRROR REFLECTIONS podcast episodes Subscribe to BLACK MIRROR REFLECTIONS…
Read MoreOn Tuesday, this blog– which I very much consider an extension of myself– was finally released from Facebook jail, after having been “inside” for more than a month. I was reported by a user (who I do not know IRL and who is not a “Facebook friend” of mine) for violating Facebook’s “Community Standards,” specifically the…
Read MoreI’m in the process of recording the first few episodes of a (limited series) podcast entitled Black Mirror Reflections, which will be released next week. I’ve written a lot about Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror on this blog over the years, I regularly teach a course entitled “Technology and Human Values,” and I incorporate Black Mirror episodes in several…
Read MoreHELP SUPPORT LOCAL MEMPHIS MUSICIANS! To mitigate the spread of COVID-19, the Center for Disease Control has urged U.S. citizens to cancel all events of more than 50 people and to practice social distancing for the next 8 weeks. Cities and states across the nation are ordering all bars, clubs, and restaurants to close. No doubt, the same will…
Read MoreI recently finished reading the excellent new book by Jodi Dean (Political Science, Hobart and William Smith College) entitled Comrade: An Essay on Belonging. There are many reasons to recommend Dean’s all-too-brief, but brilliantly executed, text: its surgeon-like evisceration of the ideological cult of “allyship,” its elaboration of the truly liberatory promise of the “Communist Horizon” (which Dean…
Read MoreLast week, I began my second year on the LGBTQ Advocacy Committee for The Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy (SPEP). This organization and this committee are important to me, personally and professionally, and I take my service responsibilities to both very seriously. Contrary to the general demographics/trends of professional Philosophy writ large, SPEP has…
Read MoreI’ve observed a deeply problematic trend on social media of late, one that has been amplified amidst Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee and the several concurrent allegations of sexual assault leveled against Kavanaugh that have been made public in the past several days. Many people—who are (rightfully) outraged by…
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