On power: Tech, the state, and class

Power comes in many forms. Productive power is a relationship between society and nature, whereby people transform nature through technologies (or ‘forces of production’, as Marx called them). Social power is a relationship between people, involving both coercion (the use of threats and rewards, most often to maximise power over production) and legitimation (the use … Continue reading On power: Tech, the state, and class →

The story so far

Nature is as old as time itself. Power is as old as humanity is. But both matter to how we live our lives today. That's why I recently covered issues like 'What it means to be human', 'What power is', and 'How power begins'. Next week, I hope to cover the last theme: hope. So … Continue reading The story so far →

How power begins

In the beginning, there was nothing. No power, no nature, no hope. Then, there was something. Power by legitimation is exercised in this sculpture of a female deity in the first city-state of Uruk, Mesopotamia (Creative Commons). Time, space, atoms, and energy sprang from the strange singularity that gave birth to our reality. Since 4.7 … Continue reading How power begins →

What power is

Power, for the sociologist Max Weber, is the capacity of agent A to achieve their will despite the resistance of agent B, regardless of the basis on which this ability rests. But there are two problems with this view of power, which might suggest what an alternative theory of power might look like. In this … Continue reading What power is →

What it means to be human

What does it mean to be human? There are few questions more basic but also more difficult to answer. So, let me start as all answers to hard questions must. With a story. Meet Australopithecus africanus. An early human (Creative Commons). Yesterday, I sat as countless numbers of students before me have sat. In an … Continue reading What it means to be human →

At the very beginning…

Welcome! This blog is about us. It's about what it means to be human today, what it meant to be human yesterday, and what it might mean to be human tomorrow. And it's about how human nature is wrapped up with relations of power. But most importantly, though, it's about hope. So, what is nature? … Continue reading At the very beginning… →