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Alasdair Cannon
Alasdair Cannon

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The Startup

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The Enjoyment of Negativity: On ‘The Social Dilemma’

I If God Is Dead, Social Media Is Permitted At the mercy of whatever obscure algorithmic forces now dictate our lives, many of us recently watched new Netflix film, The Social Dilemma. Enraptured by our irascible gods — postmodern deities whose digital powers make a mockery of self-determination, autonomy, free will, the Enlightenment project at large, etc. — we…

Social Dilemma

11 min read

The Enjoyment of Negativity: On ‘The Social Dilemma’
The Enjoyment of Negativity: On ‘The Social Dilemma’
Social Dilemma

11 min read


Published in

The Startup

·Sep 9

As a writer, I’m afraid of capitalism — not ChatGPT.

We expected the ‘routine’ jobs to go first. After ChatGPT, though, creatives face the threat of automation. Freelance authors and artists now fear the prospect of mass immiseration.[1] Yet as a writer AI doesn’t worry me. Computers are ‘just sitting there,’ Radiohead’s Thom Yorke once observed. …

AI

3 min read

As a writer, I’m afraid of capitalism — not ChatGPT.
As a writer, I’m afraid of capitalism — not ChatGPT.
AI

3 min read


Feb 10

Playing & (Knowing the Other’s) Reality

Transitional Phenomena, Empathy & Epistemology — This is an assignment I wrote on Donald Winnicott’s work as part of the MA in Psychoanalytic Studies program at Birkbeck, University of London. I Introduction Donald Winnicott’s writings on ‘transitional phenomena’ and ‘objects’ describe all that exists in the ‘intermediate’ area between our ‘inner reality’ and the world’s ‘shared reality’: a…

Psychoanalysis

11 min read

Playing & (Knowing the Other’s) Reality
Playing & (Knowing the Other’s) Reality
Psychoanalysis

11 min read


Jan 17

Secondary Narcissism & Freudian Subjectivity

An essay I wrote for the Concepts in Psychoanalysis Module, undertaken as part of Birkbeck, University of London’s MA in Psychoanalytic Studies. I received a High Distinction for this piece. ‘Without a movement of narcissistic reappropriation, the relation to the other would be absolutely destroyed…’ Jacques Derrida (1987). I Introduction Ever since…

Freud

12 min read

Secondary Narcissism & Freudian Subjectivity
Secondary Narcissism & Freudian Subjectivity
Freud

12 min read


Sep 16, 2021

Can Australia Afford COVID-Zero?

Originally written for RealTimeCEO — The Australian government’s lockdowns and COVID-Zero policies have saved many lives, yet they cost our economy tens of millions of dollars a day. With all the uncertainties surrounding the pandemic’s future, can our current approach continue? This article looks at the health and economic implications of Australia’s policies. I The Cost of COVID-Zero It is…

Covid-19

14 min read

Can Australia Afford COVID-Zero?
Can Australia Afford COVID-Zero?
Covid-19

14 min read


Published in

DataDrivenInvestor

·May 14, 2021

‘Another Now’ by Yanis Varoufakis

A Review (That Sort of Became an Essay on Why You Should Respect This Man) — I Political Symphonies As Vintage’s resident ‘erratic Marxist’, Yanis Varoufakis recently had the opportunity to pen an introduction to their new reprint of the Communist Manifesto. There, he expounds on the nature of great manifestos. To succeed, a manifesto ‘must speak to our hearts like a poem while infecting the mind with images…

Economics

11 min read

‘Another Now’ by Yanis Varoufakis
‘Another Now’ by Yanis Varoufakis
Economics

11 min read


Mar 4, 2021

Voodoo Finance for Sick Markets: Stocks & COVID-19

Written for RealTimeCEO Today, finance and economics have nothing to do with one another. I deliberately open with this ridiculous statement, because financial markets in the last 12 months have behaved in ridiculous ways. In 2020, the real economy in the USA shrank significantly; yet, financial markets boomed. Some commentators…

Finance

15 min read

Ersatz Capitalism?
Ersatz Capitalism?
Finance

15 min read


Jan 6, 2021

Shoshana Zuboff’s Techno-Inevitabilism

The Politics of Technological Change, Pt. I — ‘Technological inevitability is the mantra on which we are trained, but it is an existential narcotic prescribe to induce resignation: a snuff dream of the spirit.’ - The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, p. 516. Of the many threads that comprise Shoshana Zuboff’s excellent book, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, we…

Social Media

6 min read

Shoshana Zuboff’s Inevitabilism
Shoshana Zuboff’s Inevitabilism
Social Media

6 min read


Dec 15, 2020

Modern Monetary Theory

Written for RealTimeCEO — As our leaders look to repair our economies after the COVID-19 crash, a wild new way of economic thinking has surged to prominence: modern monetary theory, or MMT for short. MMT’s supposedly radical ideas for money creation and government spending have caused fear and confusion. ‘It’s dangerous,’ we hear. ‘We’ll…

Mmt

10 min read

Modern Monetary Theory
Modern Monetary Theory
Mmt

10 min read


Nov 12, 2020

‘F*cking My Stepson for Stimulus Check’: On Ideology + American Pornography

“Nobody ever goes broke overestimating the rage and misogyny of the average American male” — David Foster Wallace, Consider the Lobster. I Iso-Sex The most depressing moment¹ of the COVID-19 economic crash so far occurred on Thursday 09/10/20 at approx. 2130h on the homepage of the USA’s eight-most popular website,² PornHub.com, where…

Ideology

15 min read

‘F*cking My Stepson for Stimulus Check’: An Essay On Ideology + American Pornography
‘F*cking My Stepson for Stimulus Check’: An Essay On Ideology + American Pornography
Ideology

15 min read

Alasdair Cannon

Alasdair Cannon

83 Followers

Writer / Author. Debut book, Holding Patterns, out now via Bonfire Books.

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