Technoprogressive Hub Podcast

Fresh from the Technoprogressive Opportunity conference in London, J. Hughes and Matteo McDermant ask what a summer of rogue AI should do to left futurism. Matteo describes a round of self-critique prompted by PauseAI’s Laiba Rehman: he went looking for a point-by-point rebuttal of the existential risk case and found mostly dismissal by association. Jam… This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit technoprogressives.substack.com

Robert Chapman Brooking writes Cosmopolity, a Substack devoted to what he calls cosmopolitan patriotism. He is an advocate of “ultrahumanism” a synthesis of futurism, transhumanism, spirituality and politics, with contributions from Teilhard de Chardin, Zoltan Istvan and Marianne Williamson. We talk about his recent essay on AI socialism and I press him on his intellectual genealogy and whether a politics of inner transformation can survive contact with an actual strategy for power. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit technoprogressives.substack.com

This summer Matteo MacDermant is teaching a course on Technoprogressive Worldbuilding for the IEET. We discuss the themes of the course, and some philosophical reflections about the technoprogressive project.* James Hughes and Matteo McDermant discuss their IEET “Technoprogressive Worldbuilding” summer course, tracing its intellectual roots from Enlightenment progress theory through Bogdanov’s proto-transhumanist “tectology” and the Bolshevik God Builders.* They debate biohacking and “right to try” ethics using Bryan Johnson as a case study, weighing bioliberal bodily autonomy against the FDA’s informed-consent rationale for regulation.* The conversation covers Sasha Costanza-Chuck’s Design Justice, examining how systems (subway elevators, dating-site dropdowns, census categories) encode assumptions about a “default” user and exclude marginalized groups.* They trace the historically constructed nature of racial/ethnic categories, using the U.S. census’s pre/post-2010 Hispanic classification and the “one drop rule” as examples of Foucauldian statistical governmentality.* Matteo explains his dissertation focus on tech worker organizing as a “socio-technical” labor movement, distinguishing it from the “click worker” and content-moderation labor performed largely in the Global South.* They discuss the class divides within tech labor (FTEs vs. TVCs/contractors) and how marginalized tech workers, not “class reductionist” purists, drove early solidarity with Silicon Valley service workers.* Automation’s limits are examined through Waymo remote operators and robot food-delivery services secretly controlled by workers in the Philippines and Colombia, tying this to John Scalzi’s Head On and a Tokyo robot café staffed by disabled teleoperators.* They contrast deterministic/accelerationist libertarian transhumanism with James’s “democratic transhumanism,” emphasizing epistemic humility, non-teleological history, and Bogdanov’s concept of “radical imminence.”* Drawing on Bogdanov’s “view from the peak” metaphor and standpoint epistemology, they argue technoprogressive knowledge requires actively incorporating diverse perspectives (race, gender, trans experience) to approach a more universal picture of reality.* The episode closes with reflections on constructed narratives (via the show Silo‘s memory-erasure plot and a Simone Weil quote on history), an invitation to join the course, and wry commentary on the surreal banality of Trump-era politics. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit technoprogressives.substack.com

OpenAI is offering 5% equity to the US government. Trump has ordered the creation of a US sovereign wealth fund, received 10% government equity in Intel, and a “golden share” in US Steel. Now Bernie Sanders has proposed 50% nationalization of AI stocks, to be held in a sovereign wealth fund that will finance a UBI. Why is there a sudden convergence by Right and Left on nationalizing AI?Notes“The Case for Nationalizing Artificial Intelligence” Dustin Guastella https://jacobin.com/2026/07/ai-policy-nationalization-commons-work“The Sanders-Trump Plan for an AI Sovereign Wealth Fund: Don’t Buy It” Dean Baker https://cepr.net/publications/the-sanders-trump-plan-for-an-ai-sovereign-wealth-fund-dont-buy-it/“The Bernie Sanders AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Proposal” Matt Bruenig https://www.peoplespolicyproject.org/2026/06/26/bernie-sanders-ai-swf/“OpenAI Woos Trump Administration as Investor” Chad de Guzman https://time.com/article/2026/07/03/openai-invest-ai-trump-administration-sam-altman/“Why Everyone Is Suddenly Talking About ‘Universal Basic Capital’” Rogé Karma https://www.theatlantic.com/economy/2026/07/universal-basic-capital-ai/687759/ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit technoprogressives.substack.com

J Hughes, Sarah Shahed, Matteo MacDermant discuss Sarah’s editorial on age verification laws. We all want to protect children from harm, and age-gating social media websites has broad support. But mandating age-verification means identifying everyone, giving platforms much more information about consumers and putting the anonymity of journalists, activists and whistleblowers at risk. They also oblige defining what kinds of content are inappropriate for children. Is there a technofix for age-gating that preserves user anonymity?Links* Sarah’s essay:* The Win That Wasn’t: What New Mexico v. Meta Is Really About:* UK ban announcement (GOV.UK):https://www.gov.uk/government/news/social-media-to-be-banned-for-under-16s-in-landmark-government-move-to-givekids-their-childhood-back* TechPolicy.Press on UK ban and surveillance: https://www.techpolicy.press/could-a-uk-teen-social-media-ban-work-without-expanding-surveillance/* House KIDS Act deal (this week): https://www.techtimes.com/articles/318896/20260623/house-kids-act-deal-drops-kosa-duty-care-adds-age-verification-all-users.htm* Texas app verification ruling:https://www.texastribune.org/2026/05/28/texas-apple-google-app-store-age-verification/* EFF on age verification dangers:https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/06/kids-act-would-require-age-checks-get-online This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit technoprogressives.substack.com