Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity | Paul Kingsnorth

In Episode 440 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Paul Kingsnorth, a novelist, essayist, and former environmental activist who first came on many people’s radars during the Covid-19 pandemic with the publication of his viral three-part series “The Vaccine Moment.” His current work explores the intersection of technology, culture, and the divine. In his latest book, Against the Machine, Kingsnorth examines how our increasingly mechanized way of seeing and relating to the world—and to ourselves—has contributed to the death of Western culture, and what it would take to reclaim our humanity and save our souls.

Paul Kingsnorth and Kofinas spend the first hour of the episode tracing his journey from direct-action environmentalism through Buddhism and paganism to his eventual baptism into Orthodox Christianity and how that quest informs his critique of The Machine. They discuss AI as a false God and conduit through which humanity may be ushering in the anti-Christ and how Kingsnorth’s Machine framework relates to Jacques Ellul’s concept of technique and Iain McGilchrist model of the divided brain. They also explore why this historical moment feels “apocalyptic”—as if something is being unveiled—or perhaps more accurately as if something is being born through the wires and towers of the web and through the electric pulses and touchscreens of our connected devices.

The second hour turns to a conversation about how we should each respond in this consequential time, how we draw practical lines around technology, how to rebuild our communities, how to guard ourselves against charlatans and false prophets, and why love and nostalgia can guide us home.

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00:00 Introduction
06:19 From Buddhism to Orthodox Christianity
10:58 The Birth of AI and Its Implications
13:41 The Machine as a Metaphor
23:50 The Digital World and Social Control
27:31 The Surreality of Modern Life
29:31 The Overwhelming Complexity of Modern Life
31:45 Digital Age and Alienation
33:19 Transgenderism and Social Pressure
35:19 The Role of Digital Technology in Social Issues
36:39 The Need for Labels in Modern Society
37:14 The Illusion of Diversity and Tolerance
39:06 The Death of Culture
41:11 The Collapse of Shared Values
46:46 The Four S's of Modern Culture
50:50 Topics for the Second Hour

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Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas

Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou

Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas