Technological Republic (with Stewart Lee and Carole Cadwalladr)
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Hello and welcome to Strong Message here from BBC Radio 4, a guide to the use and abuse of political language. I'm Andy Nucci.
What is the Technological Republic and why is it significant?
I'm joined once again this week by Stuart Lee. Hello, thanks for having me. Hello. We're also joined by journalist and founder member of The Nerve. I don't know why I've said it like that, The Nerve. I like it.
It gives you a feeling.
Mysterious... Crime syndicate. Carol Cadwallader. In my dreams. Yes. And the phrase that we're going to look at is the technological republic, which is not a phrase that trips off most people's lips. No, it's a terrible phrase.
In fact, it sounds like the title of a series of novels written by William Shatner.
up with isn't it and there'd be about 14 of them and they'd have to get the set William Shatner somebody gave me as a gift William Shatner's sci-fi novel Tech War Tech War that's it Tech War and it's hilarious reading it out because every sentence has one phrase too many and And once you've kind of noted that, it becomes very, very funny.
Could you imagine him reading it out?
Yeah, yeah. So that's how it works then. So it's kind of like the man wandered into the podcast studio that was sleekly available with its seating in which the area and semicircle of microphones were set up so that he could quickly talk live about his special subject that he'd been thinking about earlier that day.
Are you hoping to do the audio book of it? Yes. Is that a bid for work?
Yeah. Anyway, Carol Cadwell is here. You, of course, have had many a run in and close encounter with people in Silicon Valley.
Let's not beat about the bush. Carol said where we would be now 10 years ago. And everyone went, shut up. And it turns out she's exactly right. Yeah. What do you say to that?
I say, sorry, accurate. Yeah, I mean, I have to say, whenever I'm on the BBC, I do always like to talk about Andrew Neil, who was one of my chief knockers as BBC political commentator. So I make that my own personal challenge just to throw him in. OK.
If I ever get in a sniff of a BBC studio. So there we go. OK, right. So we'll get on to Palantir and what they say. But first of all, I just read recently, I just want to look at the phrase, do you consider yourself pre-frail?
Apparently I am pre-frail, yeah, because I'm on five pills a day. So I'm now not living a normal, healthy life. Is that pre-frail or frail? It's pre-frail, because I'm still sturdy, even though I'm ill.
It's a phrase that has just started to emerge, which is, it was in the Times a couple of weeks ago, an ageing peak may strike at 60, but signs of declining health can be detected decades earlier. And that's when you are technically pre-frail. If you feel drained, less able to pick up a pace while walking or struggling to open a jam jar, you are pre-frail. And in your pre-frail state, you can then, if you're aware of it, you can then do something to try and avoid frailty.
I was struggling with a lot of those things, but I've pulled it back, actually. I spent the last two years dressing as a werewolf in a really heavy, hot costume and running around for an hour every night. And that is a good way to reverse pre-fraildom. Okay, and that's how you open Jam Jam? Yeah, I dress up to do it. It gives me the sense of power and strength. Okay, yeah.
I think sometimes it can be good to pre-fail. Pre-fail. I feel which is a, you know, it's a moderated version of it.
How do tech leaders frame opposition to their ideas?
You know, sometimes you know that you are, this is not going to be a thing for you. And it just is easier to blow yourself up first, I find, rather than be blown up.
So this is the philosophy that, I mean, all our strands and subjects are connecting here. This is the philosophy of Elon Musk, Elon Musk, Elon Musk, Elon Musk, the right to fail.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:49
2
What is the Technological Republic and why is it significant?
0:49–3:59
3
How do tech leaders frame opposition to their ideas?
3:59–9:30
4
What parallels exist between tech rhetoric and Orwellian language?
9:30–12:04
5
What insights does William Shatner's writing provide on tech narratives?
12:04–13:25
6
How does the concept of pre-frailty relate to personal health?
13:25–22:02
7
What are the implications of Palantir's manifesto?
22:02–23:49
8
How do tech companies justify their controversial practices?
23:49–36:18