Philosophy + Critical Theory in the Age of Now, and Those of Before

This critical examination of a very interesting, but mortally flawed, emerging theoretical framework in the area of climate change, technology and political theory is largely based on this interview . All direct quotes are from the interview. Benjamin Bratton is, in my view, an overlooked figure in philosophy, especially in the areas where philosophy join up with political theory, and, at his best, with practical philosophy. An art theorist by training, it's undeniable that his recent work reaches, at many points, the grand systematizing heights of philosophy. We can quibble on that: at any rate, his work is enormously provoking, politically and ethically serious, sometimes tantalizing, and robustly informed by an eclectic yet coherent array of disciplines and sciences. He proposes a "planetarity," or ultimately a new sort of ontology of Earth, a new way of understanding what the planet could be. He expounds this new view in terms of a kind of Hegelian  becoming-other , b...