Philosopher's Zone
Philosopher's Zone
✓

Technology and the lure of ancient Athens

00:45:10
Podcasts
RSS
Link

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

One of the more utopian promises of technology has always been that it will free us from the necessity of work - but not having to work poses its own problems. What will we do instead? how will we make money? and what might a leisure-oriented society look like? Technophiles - from the early cybernetics enthusiasts to today's AI promoters - have looked to ancient Athens as an example of a society where citizens were free to engage in culture, reflection and political participation. But was ancient Athens really such a place? and how likely is it that today's tech lords will deliver 'the good life' to us all?

Guest: Michele Kennerly, Associate Professor Communication Arts and Sciences, and Classics and Mediterranean Studies, Pennsylvania State University

Producer: David Rutledge

Automated Athens: Ancient Greek Ideals in the Early Age of Automation by Michele Kennerly (University of Chicago Press 2026)

Society & Culture
Philosophy
English
Australia
Use API to fetch this episode in JSON

IN THIS EPISODE

Edit these tags

TRANSCRIPT 🔗

Are you the producer of this podcast? Add a podcast transcript
Need Audio-to-Text? Transcribe with Listen411 in Just 60 Seconds

SEARCH PAST EPISODES

Search past episodes of Philosopher's Zone.
Embed this search bar to your website

OTHER EPISODES IN THIS PODCAST

Habermas and the retreat of reason

Habermas and the retreat of reason

The great German philosopher Jürgen Habermas, who died in March, wrote in his later works about what he called Unheimlichkeit — roughly translated as "the unease of the times" — to describe the global retreat of liberal democracy, the fraying of the rules-based international order, and the increasi…
00:42:05
SHARE
SAVE
How smart are machines, anyway?

How smart are machines, anyway?

Ever since AI was founded in the 1950s, people have talked and written about 'intelligence' as though we all broadly agree on what that word means. But there's considerable debate on that score, and among the debaters are philosophers - like this week's guest - who question the degree to which mach…
00:32:01
SHARE
SAVE
Who's afraid of Cultural Marxism?

Who's afraid of Cultural Marxism?

Cultural Marxism is many things to many people — at one end of the political spectrum, it's the hidden force behind political correctness, identity politics and 'wokeness', while at the other end it's a shopworn conspiracy theory that explains nothing much at all. So what is Cultural Marxism? Did a…
00:45:54
SHARE
SAVE
Getting angry at the system

Getting angry at the system

If I pick up a tree branch and smash your window with it, you're going to be angry, and your anger will rightly be directed at me. But if a tree branch smashes your windscreen during a cyclone whose intensity has been caused by global warming, you're still going to be angry — but who or what exactl…
00:36:33
SHARE
SAVE
Visual art as philosophy

Visual art as philosophy

When it comes to the ideal philosophical medium, most of us would identify the written word - or maybe the spoken word, if we're fans of Socratic dialogue - and this is because for centuries, philosophy has been a linguistic practice. But this week we're arguing that visual art can be philosophy, a…
00:32:49
SHARE
SAVE
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from ABCABC Australia, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
PROMOTED
The best Podcast API to search all podcasts and episodes. Trusted by 15,200+ companies and developers.
The best Podcast API to search all podcasts and episodes. Trusted by 15,200+ companies and developers.
PodcastAPI.com

RECOMMENDATIONS
Use API to fetch this episode