Hacking State
Alex Murshak explores minds, machines, and matters political in the spirit of overcoming system limitations. Hacking State is a show about political technology. Heidegger describes the nature of technology as a kind of revealing. It remains to be seen where and whether technology gives us Nietzschean will-to-power-like mastery over nature and ourselves or, as Plato warns, we are liable to be lead astray by novel ideas. Our capacity to harness nature has never been greater. Science and technology have unlocked immense power. Yet the human animal remains remarkably similar across millennia. In such a situation, discernment is our greatest asset. It is our relationship to ourselves, our systems, and one another, that requires tending to. Hacking State is about doing more with less, pushing limitations, and finding gainful exploits at every level of the human operating system; from minds, to bodies, to tools, organizations, governments, and higher order social systems.
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Episodes
Tuesday Mar 05, 2024
Tuesday Mar 05, 2024
On Ayn Rand, Objectivism, the resonance of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead, the development and spread of Individualism, high Romanticism, Rand's polarizing characters, the relationship between altruism and selfishness in her works and philosophy, Ayn Rand's large influence on entrepreneurs, and the intellectual subculture of Randian academics.
Stephen R. C. Hicks is Professor of Philosophy at Rockford University and Executive Director of the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship, and Senior Scholar at The Atlas Society.
Site: https://www.stephenhicks.org/
If you enjoyed this interview, please leave a review on Spotify/iTunes. Support Hacking State: https://hackingstate.substack.com/subscribe
Listen on:
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@alexmurshak
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hacking-state/id1689677076
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1XB9XYULrAY4dp0qIJVvCg
RSS: https://feed.podbean.com/hackingstate/feed.xml
Tuesday Jan 23, 2024
Tuesday Jan 23, 2024
For part 2 of the Cofnas-Macdonald debate I interview evolutionary psychologist Kevin Macdonald. We go over his response to Nathan Cofnas' objections to the Jewish Group Evolutionary Strategy laid out in "The Culture of Critique" series, his explanations for outstanding Jewish influence, conscientiousness, emotional intensity, and affect intensity as notably Jewish personality traits, Ashkenazi verbal tilt in IQ, the history of Jewish advocacy for immigration, the dispute over group-level selection in evolutionary biology, and his response to the charge of antisemitism.
Youtube interview: https://youtu.be/_tIut3USaFM
Relevant Links:
https://kevinmacdonald.net/
https://nathancofnas.com/debate-with-kevin-macdonald
https://x.com/nathancofnas
https://nathancofnas.com
If you enjoyed this interview, please leave a review on Spotify/iTunes.
Support Hacking State: https://hackingstate.substack.com/subscribe
Listen on:
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@alexmurshak
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hacking-state/id1689677076
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1XB9XYULrAY4dp0qIJVvCg
RSS: https://feed.podbean.com/hackingstate/feed.xml
Tuesday Jan 16, 2024
Tuesday Jan 16, 2024
Nathan Cofnas is Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, working in philosophy of biology and ethics. We discuss his paper “Still No Evidence for a Jewish Group Evolutionary Strategy” in the context of his ongoing debate with Kevin MacDonald and "The Culture of Critique” series. We cover explanations for outstanding and disproportionate Jewish success, differences in Jewish intelligence, whether Jews are particularly ethnocentric, Jewish involvement in Multiculturalism, Liberalism, mass immigration, and other political & intellectual movements, Margherita Sarfatti and Jews’ role in Italian Fascism, and the relationship of these unanswered questions to antisemitism.
Relevant Links:
https://nathancofnas.com/debate-with-kevin-macdonald
https://x.com/nathancofnas
https://nathancofnas.com
If you enjoyed this interview, please leave a review on Spotify/iTunes. Support Hacking State: https://hackingstate.substack.com/subscribe
Listen on:
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@alexmurshak
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hacking-state/id1689677076
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1XB9XYULrAY4dp0qIJVvCg
RSS: https://feed.podbean.com/hackingstate/feed.xml
Tuesday Jan 02, 2024
Tuesday Jan 02, 2024
I speak with sci-fi horrorist Zero HP Lovecraft on his Six Components of Religious Experience, a functionalist approach to religion, the concept of God becoming increasingly abstract and far away (divine distance), how Christianity can benefit from Nietzsche’s bitter medicine, Christianity’s struggle with modern sexual mores, pathological altruism, why goodness is strength, regaining self-possession, submitting to tradition to gain mastery over craft, and the tension between self-love and self-abolishment driving Western man.
Relevant Links:
Zero HP Lovecraft on X: https://x.com/0x49fa98
Zero HP Lovecraft on Substack: https://zerohplovecraft.substack.com/
Toward a Functionalist Understanding of Religion - https://zerohplovecraft.substack.com/p/marooned-in-the-deepest-darkness-993
Toward a Functionalist Understanding of Religion, Pt. 2: The American Civic Religion - https://zerohplovecraft.substack.com/p/marooned-in-the-deepest-darkness-90b
Toward a Functionalist Understanding of Religion, Pt. 3: Christo-Nietzschean Synthesis - https://zerohplovecraft.substack.com/p/marooned-in-the-deepest-darkness-bad
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If you enjoyed this interview, please leave a review on Spotify/iTunes.
Support Hacking State: https://hackingstate.substack.com/subscribe
Listen on:
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@alexmurshak
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hacking-state/id1689677076
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1XB9XYULrAY4dp0qIJVvCg
RSS: https://feed.podbean.com/hackingstate/feed.xml
Sunday Dec 24, 2023
Sunday Dec 24, 2023
Luca Cacciatore joins me to discuss Christianity in America, the decline of religiosity, the Second Great Awakening, how technology mediates religiosity, faith and fertility, religion grappling with science, the Evangelical Revolution, and the dearth of compelling Christian narratives for young men.
Tuesday Dec 19, 2023
Tuesday Dec 19, 2023
I am joined by Kino Corner to discuss movie making, film as a medium for capturing the zeitgeist of different eras, shooting on digital, film, and hybrid, the economics of why mid-budget movies have disappeared, crowdfunding movies, The Killer (Fincher, 2023), Asteroid City (Anderson, 2023), drifting from the binge model of TV series', and the Kino Corner's 5 masterpiece film recommendations.
Relevant Links:
https://www.youtube.com/c/thekinocorner
https://x.com/thekinocorner
https://instagram.com/the_kino_corner
https://letterboxd.com/TheKinoCorner
If you enjoyed this interview, please leave a review on Spotify/iTunes.
Support Hacking State: https://hackingstate.substack.com/subscribe
Listen on:
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@alexmurshak
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hacking-state/id1689677076
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1XB9XYULrAY4dp0qIJVvCg
RSS: https://feed.podbean.com/hackingstate/feed.xml
Tuesday Dec 05, 2023
Tuesday Dec 05, 2023
Michael Millerman joins me to discuss starting a philosophy school, why tech and startups are seeking wisdom, whether Western philosophy is still a living tradition, objections to the usefulness of philosophy, leading students to the eternal questions, the intimate pleasure of communing with old friends, Martin Heidegger's influence on Alexander Dugin, Leo Strauss and Heidegger's disagreement on philosophical historicism, our place in the cave beneath Plato's Cave, Millerman's intriguing encounter with Dugin, why Dugin is a dangerous philosopher, his take on "Selective Breeding and the Birth of Philosophy," and the potential for the rewilding of philosophy.
Relevant Links:
https://x.com/M_Millerman
https://www.michaelmillerman.ca/
https://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Heidegger-Philosophical-Constitution-Political/dp/1912975793
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AVVipiukPI
If you enjoyed this interview, please leave a review on Spotify/iTunes.
Support Hacking State: https://hackingstate.substack.com/subscribe
Listen on:
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@alexmurshak
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hacking-state/id1689677076
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1XB9XYULrAY4dp0qIJVvCg
RSS: https://feed.podbean.com/hackingstate/feed.xml
Friday Nov 24, 2023
Friday Nov 24, 2023
I sit down with Bitcoin Gandalf for a deep dive on Satoshi's immaculate coinception. Gandalf is a large influencer in the Bitcoin space and works in Bitcoin mining.
Bitcoin is one of the most innovative technologies of the last century from a governance and coordination perspective. I believe it has the potential to be a vehicle for civilization-level reconfiguration of value.
We cover our respective journeys in becoming "orange-pilled" on Bitcoin, the Bitcoin mining industry from the inside, Bitcoin maximalism, its potential to supplant existing fiat currencies, the virtues of self-custody, Bitcoin ETFs, Bitcoiners (community), proof of work vs. proof of stake, where we are in the current hype cycle, and getting into Bitcoin for noobs.
You can find Gandalf on:
https://x.com/BTCGandalf
Suggested Reading:
Bitcoin White Paper: https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
If you enjoyed this interview, please leave a review on Spotify/iTunes.
Support Hacking State: https://hackingstate.substack.com/subscribe
Listen on:
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@alexmurshak
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hacking-state/id1689677076
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1XB9XYULrAY4dp0qIJVvCg
RSS: https://feed.podbean.com/hackingstate/feed.xml
Friday Nov 17, 2023
Friday Nov 17, 2023
DeepNews is using LLMs to aggregate and summarize the latest news across the internet, seeking to change the way we digest news.
Nikolai Yakovenko is an ex-Twitter, Google, and Nvidia machine-learning engineer who initially forayed into Web3 with his venture 'DeepNFTValue,' which uses machine learning to estimate the value of NFTs; before also going on to create DeepNews.
We cover using generative AI for compression, why this application of LLMs could better deliver news from primary sources across the internet in real time, the narrative neutrality of the AI-platform, concerns about information accuracy, misinformation, fidelity, and robustness, as well as potential areas for improvement.
You can find Nikolai on:
https://twitter.com/ivan_bezdomny
https://nikocrypto.substack.com/
https://substack.com/@nikocrypto
Relevant Links:
https://deepnewz.com/
https://www.deepnftvalue.com/
If you enjoyed this interview, please leave a review on Spotify/iTunes. Support Hacking State: https://hackingstate.substack.com/subscribe
Listen on:
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@alexmurshak
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hacking-state/id1689677076
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1XB9XYULrAY4dp0qIJVvCg
RSS: https://feed.podbean.com/hackingstate/feed.xml
Friday Nov 10, 2023
Friday Nov 10, 2023
In this conversation, I speak with Will (@latinxputler) about Anthrochauvinism, an alternative to e/acc & decel ideologies.
We cover his experiences in the early days witnessing the formulation of e/acc (Effective Accelerationism) in groupchats as a response to Effective Altruism. His reservations about transhumanism and encounters with post-human or anti-human AI researchers. We then get into laying out the concept of Anthrochauvinism as a reactionary, human-centric orientation that puts technology in service of us. Finally, we touch on reproductive technology and genomics when considered from an Anthrochauvinist perspective.
Will on X: https://twitter.com/LatinxPutler
Readings mentioned:
The Artilect War by Hugo de Garis
https://www.amazon.com/Artilect-War-Controversy-Concerning-Intelligent/dp/0882801546
https://agi-conf.org/2008/artilectwar.pdf
The Question Concerning Technology by Martin Heidegger https://www2.hawaii.edu/~freeman/courses/phil394/The%20Question%20Concerning%20Technology.pdf
If you enjoyed this interview, please leave a review on Spotify/iTunes.
Support Hacking State: https://hackingstate.substack.com/subscribe
Listen on:
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@alexmurshak
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hacking-state/id1689677076
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1XB9XYULrAY4dp0qIJVvCg
RSS: https://feed.podbean.com/hackingstate/feed.xml
Political Technology
Our capacity to harness nature has never been greater. Science and technology have unlocked immense power, making us comparable to the Gods of yore. Yet the human animal remains remarkably similar across millenia. In such a situation, it is our relationship to ourselves, our systems, and one another, that requires tending to, as we shepherd humanity into the aeons on the horizon. Hacking State is about doing more with less, pushing limitations, and finding gainful exploits at every level of the human operating system; from minds, to bodies, to tools, to organizations, governments, and social systems.