342 - Paul Kingsnorth - Becoming Gods Without God
The Symbolic World
In this conversation with Paul Kingsnorth, we discuss his main takeaways from his Substack series on The Machine, technology, artificial intelligence and silicon valley, civilization, principalities, the act of creation and desiring to be God, yet also creating the space for our annihilation. We also touch on environmentalism, storytelling, and art, including Tolkien and The Matrix. Enjoy. Original YouTube version: https://youtu.be/BCIRA9wRkIA His Substack: https://paulkingsnorth.substack.com/ Join me and Richard Rohlin for the Symbolic World course on Dante's Inferno: https://www.thesymbolicworld.com/courses-pages/dantes-inferno Previous conversations with Paul Kingsnorth: - Civilization and Control: https://youtu.be/QetAHfg7w8s?si=mVSI0fOTFiroIwTb - Environmentalism, the Tower of Babbel, and the Disintegration of Culture: https://youtu.be/uqDWGdJJx1Y?si=At5HMZaDohzgAFvm Timestamps: 00:00 - Coming up 01:01 - Intro music 01:26 - Introduction 02:11 - What are your main insights? 07:19 - Can this serve God? 10:53 - Become dependent on tools 13:05 - The god of economy 14:44 - The short history of progress 16:05 - No conspiracy needed 19:35 - A desire to supplant us 22:12 - Theosis 24:27 - Making vs giving birth 27:02 - Creation myths 28:09 - The environmental narrative 35:54 - How has your perception on story changed? 39:33 - Changing Paul's writing 41:47 - Language and AI in Writing 45:32 - The Influence of art 53:19 - Tolkien and a simple ending 56:54 - New stories 💻 Website and blog: http://www.thesymbolicworld.com 🔗 Linktree: https://linktr.ee/jonathanpageau 🗣 Join The Symbolic World Community for discussions about symbolism: https://thesymbolicworld.com/subscribe 🔒 BECOME A PATRON: https://thesymbolicworld.com/subscribe 📱 SOCIAL MEDIA Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TheSymbolicWorld Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/pageaujonathan Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonathan.pageau Our website designers: https://www.resonancehq.io/ My intro was arranged and recorded by Matthew Wilkinson.