velcro city tourist board
a blog by Paul Graham Raven
science fiction / social theory / climate futures / infrastructure / utopian narratology / sometimes cats
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The solutionism of the Hope Police
Of course, if you really need to blame someone, look no further than those naysayers over in the corner; they’re the ones who didn’t Dream Big enough, after all. They’re the ones who failed to Inspire the rest of us. Don’t blame us when the boulder squashes you flat; blame them, for “making us all fear…
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How does the rabbit end up in the hat? (Or: what transhumanism doesn’t want you to know about infrastructure)
Talk delivered at the Munich Volkstheater on 14th October 2017 for Bayerischer Rundfunk’s annual Zundfunk-Netkongress.
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Unpacking the suitcase words
Half a dozen different people sent me this article for slightly different reasons; one has come to dread the listicle format, but this example is excellent, with every point well worth passing on. My talk in Munich last week was an extensive riff on Clarke’s Third Law, so I’ll not reprise that now; instead, I’ll highlight…
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Five theses for the future
(Or: what I did on my holiday, by Paul Graham Raven, aged 40 ¾) Many thanks to the lovely people at Bayerischer Rundfunk for inviting me to their annual conference in Munich, putting me up in what looks to be possibly its most characterful hotel, and giving me a stage from which to expose the noxious back-stage…
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Bolshie centennial
In Europe, we knew that the Nazis never really went away. But we never used to put them on mainstream fucking television. We never used to stick them on cable news and ask them for their fucking opinions. When you can open the Overton Window and march a few thousand fascists through it, then it’s…
Who is Paul Graham Raven?
“… who, with raving lips uttering things mirthless, unbedizened, and unperfumed, reaches over a thousand years with [his] voice, thanks to the god in [him].”