Post-Humanity & The Singularity
The technological horizon, associated with Kurzweil and transhumanism, at which human and machine intelligence merge into direct collective self-awareness; Žižek treats it as a kind of secular theology that abolishes the fall and with it human freedom.
In his words 8
“What will not be taken from us, because of the reasons I already indicated, is our unconscious, this purely virtual negative dimension. So this will be a nice paradox where precisely our unconscious will escape this collective machine of singularity.”59:50 Hegel with Neuralink · the unconscious as what escapes the singularity's total transparency
“eroticism disappears and I think that that's one big lesson from Hegel human spirit is immanently eroticized so if you take this away you lose precisely the spiritual dimension”6:14 Hegel in a Wired Brain · singularity destroys eroticized spirit
“the first to develop this idea of singularity were very harsh Bolsheviks... in communism there will be no sexuality”7:14 Hegel in a Wired Brain · Bolshevik Gnosticism as first singularity theology
The stories that teach it
the jokes and anecdotes he reaches for when he works in this idea, ranked by how many of its talks they turn up in; each card is one story, with every retelling on its page
Stalin's dialectical synthesis on money in communism
Left radicals (Trotskyists) say no money in communism, Bukharin says money is natural; Stalin's dialectical 'synthesis', in communism there will be money and there will not be money: some people will have money, others will not.
Remote-controlled rat
Žižek describes experiments where rats are connected to machines and controlled like remote-control cars, illustrating the potential for direct neural control in humans without the subject feeling controlled.
coffee without cream / coffee without milk
A customer orders coffee without cream; the waiter says they have no cream but can offer coffee without milk. Even though the result is identical, the absent supplement matters, Hegelian negativity in a joke.
Hitler as contingentist
Žižek claims Hitler was an anti-essentialist who viewed history as a 'meaningless battlefield' of contingency and will, not predetermined fate.
Stephen Hawking's brain-wired wheelchair
A man who knew Stephen Hawking told Žižek that in his last years Hawking no longer needed to move his finger, his brain was directly connected and he just thought 'forward' and his chair moved. If the signal goes out, it can also go in: who will control this?
Algorithm predicting Trump voters' 'true' voting intentions
American researchers followed Trump voters, registered their opinions and habits, and found the machine not only predicted how they would vote but also how they should vote 'in accordance with their own true convictions', arguing the machine made better decisions.
Where it comes up 41
60 moments located in the transcripts, click a timestamp to play from there