In this episode, I speak with James Poulos about his book, Human, Forever: The Digital Politics of Spiritual War. We discuss a wide variety of themes including technology, human memory, what it means to be an embodied person. James argues that instead of worrying about an impending crisis, we need to realize that it has already happened — Digital entities have taken over. We need to recognize this, figure out what has happened, and orient our senses and sensibilities around what technology does, how it changes us, and how we can work with and use technology to affirm our humanity. Part of this includes using technology better which is one of the reasons he argues for the importance of Bitcoin.
Poulos argues that we are at Generation Zero— the first generation of the digital age. This brings with it a heightened responsibility for fatherhood, memory, ancestry, knowing who we are and where we come from. Understanding our humanity, our embodiment, the value of suffering, and that human memory is distinct and essential to our human identity can help us become resistant and not succumb to digital devices, but put technology at the service of our humanity.
We discuss a number of themes and thinkers including
Tele-visual technology and the culture of the imagination and the shift to the digital medium and machine memory
Social Credit system in China— and the rising social credit system in the West
Human faculty of memory
The return of analogy as a mode of thinking through human problems
Political Theology in China, Russia, Europe, and the US
Continuing Gnostic movements in the West
The Medium is the Message
Human Consciousness
Mind and Brain
Post-Humanism - Trans-humanism - Transgenderism
Digital Cyborgs
Human Identity
Artificial Intelligence
Embodiment and the Christian Dogma of Resurrection of the Body
Marshall MacLuhan
Romano Guardini
Marianna Mazucatto
Karl Stern
Visit https://www.themoralimagination.com/episodes/snead for show notes and resources.
Biography
James Poulos is the author of Human, Forever, Digital Politics of Spiritual War. He creates and advises brands and enterprises at the intersection of technology, media, and design. He is the cofounder and editor of the American Mind at the Claremont Institute and the cofounder and publisher of Return at New Founding. He is the author of the Art of Being Free and his work has appeared in the Claremont Review of Books, Le Figaro, National Affairs, the New York Times, and the Washington Post, among many other publications.
He holds a PhD in government from Georgetown University and a BA in political science from Duke University. A fellow at the Center for the Study of Digital Life, he was previously the communications director at the Heraion Foundation, a veterans-run rescue and recovery nonprofit operating in failed and fragile states. He lives on the edge of Los Angeles.
Resources
James Poulos, Human, Forever, Digital Politics of Spiritual War
My Book on Digital Contagion: 10 Steps to Protect
Religion and Liberty: Thinking Clearly in an Age of Ideology
Essays by James Poulos
James Poulos: Sacred Culture versus Social Credit
James Poulos The Future of Optimism: Accepting our reckoning with our humanity and our technology
James Poulos: Breaking the Spell of the Swarm
James Poulos Congressional Testimony: Disrupting Dangerous Algorithms
James Poulos: Our Humanity Hinges on a Cyber Second Amendment
James Poulos Cryptophobia
James Poulos Video: Securing our Liberty — and our Humanity — Online
Additional Resources and Books
Marshall McLuhan: Understanding Media —See book link below
Leon Kass on the Tower of Babel: See book link below
Podcast Episode with Carter Snead on Embodiment, Individualism, & What it Means to Be Human Also see book link below
Podcast Episode with Noelle Mering on Awake not Woke Also see book link below
Podcast Episode with James Madden on Embodied, Embedded Persons
Marianna Mazucatto: The Entrepreneurial State & Mission Economy — See Links Below
Karl Stern: Flight From Woman — See link below. This book is excellent. Highly recommend
Buy Human Forever on Cannoic.xyz
The Art of Being Free: How Alexis de Tocqueville Can Save Us from Ourselves
By Poulos, James
By McLuhan, Marshall, Fiore, Quentin
By Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr
The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis
By Kass, Leon R.
Awake, Not Woke: A Christian Response to the Cult of Progressive Ideology
By Mering, Noelle
The Entrepreneurial State: Debunking Public vs. Private Sector Myths
By Mazzucato, Mariana
Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism
Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man
By Marshall McLuhan, Lewis H. Lapham
By Matheson Miller, Michael
The Gulag Archipelago Volume 1: An Experiment in Literary Investigation
By Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr I.
Values in a Time of Upheaval by Pope Benedict XVI (30-May-2006) Hardcover
Ignatius Press (30 May 2006)
By Romano Guardini
What It Means to Be Human: The Case for the Body in Public Bioethics
By Snead, O. Carter
By Stern, Karl
Ep. 37: James Poulos: Digital Politics & Spiritual War