Hey, in about an hour at 8pm ET we're going to get together to talk about Techno-Negative and plan for the next few weeks.

I asked you all to read the introduction of Techno-Negative this week; as with past books, I'm really keen to hear what parts of the introduction sparked your curiosity or got you interested to read more.

Something I'm looking to learn more about is the rejection of humanist arguments, and how it connects to techno-negativity. I think I understand what Dekeyser is saying, but then I go back and re-read a paragraph and I'm not as sure as I was. I think I understand what he says about this idea that the designation of something that's human vs something that's not human sort of fundamentally implicates a boundary and policing. Ayesha A. Siddiqi wrote a while back that "every border implies the violence of its maintenance" and I think Dekeyser is trying to point to that with his writing on ontological policing, albeit in a super conceptual way.

As confused as I am, I'm really keen to read his dismantling of reformism, post-humanism, and techno-rationalism - and figure out how abolition and techno-negativity draws in the abolition of humanism. Again, I'm unclear if I understand where he's going with this, but I'm intrigued.

Backing away from what might be conceptually complex... I'm really, really interested to read what boundaries he draws and what he recognizes within the bounds of refusal or techno-negativity. At this conference last week, I gave a lightning talk about how computing conferences draw surprisingly narrow boundaries around what is considered acceptable - when or how refusal is legible; what kinds of optimism are pragmatic versus radical or unrealistic; what kinds of resistance are politically principled versus politically incoherent or senseless. That kind of stuff.

Dekeyser talked about how many of the stories we'll read about will only be in the archival record because people ended up on the metaphorical radar of the state, which reminds me obliquely of Orisanmi Burton's Tip of the Spear, a book I also recommend (that we read in another reading group).

I'm meandering off the path. Anyway, like I said, I'm curious what you all are thinking about and interested in.

When you're ready to join at 8p ET, you can click on this link or you can go here:

https://al2.in/ReadingGroupRoom

See you then.