Episode 8.13 Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness—Examined
Discussing Simone Browne’s epistemology, ideas, and arguments: what persuaded us, and what didn’t?
Show Notes
- Critical theory
- Critical race theory
- Black feminism
- Intersectionality
- White as default in AI, potentially due to biased/non-diverse training data
- Finding God in the Lord of the Rings
- Looking for God in Harry Potter
- Surveillance Studies
- David Hume
The two main subjects we mentioned on the show as relevant were critical theory (and specifically critical race theory) and surveillance studies. Notably, while Browne describes herself as a black feminist and makes reference to the adjacent idea of intersectionality, she never explicitly refers to critical (race) theory. We applied the term to her work based on the historical and interpretive methods she used.
Reminder: as noted in 8.12, Stephen was definitely recording from a closet and some of his level drops are a result of (potentially) getting hit in the face with a sweater:
Upcoming Books
- August (8.14 and 8.15): The Real World of Technology, Dr. Ursula Franklin
- September (8.16 and 8.17): Evolution as a Religion: Strange Hopes and Stranger Fears, Mary Midgley
(Last episode we said we had a plan for the year and then it changed, so we’ll just keep going two books at a time!)
Credits
Music
- “Sali Lento” by Chouk Bwa & The Ångstromers. Used by permission.
- “Winning Slowly Theme” by Chris Krycho. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0, meaning you can do whatever you want with this music… as long as you share it for others to likewise do what they want.
Sponsors
Many thanks to the people who help us make this show possible by their financial support! This month’s sponsors:
- Daniel Ellcey
- Douglas Campos
- Jake Grant
- Marnix Klooster
- Spencer Smith
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