Han, In the Swarm: Ellie Anderson and David Peña-Guzmán

Dr. Ellie Anderson and Dr. David Peña-Guzmán, philosophy professors and co-hosts of Overthink podcast, discuss Byung-Chu Han's book, “In the Swarm." They discuss: how does Han’s concept of Homo Digitalis respond and relate to Arendt’s political philosophy? What is “the swarm,” as opposed to “the crowd,” according to Han, and how are swarms and crowds similar or different as political agents? And is our society still characterized by the domination of the ruling class, or are we today, in the digital world of swarms, exploited through self-domination?
Graphics and editing by Aaron Morgan
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[@ashutosh4978]

Prof that've tought me more than the ones from my university. I come running everytime anything drops from y'll anywhere.❤

[@Rods_road]

I find that Han identifies different historical contexts as a dichotomy when I find that they are in a spectrum or dialectical relations. But I really like his work, there is some really insightful perspective in his writing.

[@bourdieufan7433]

two legends

[@robertalenrichter]

"Der Schwarm" was the title of a huge sci-fi bestseller of 2004 by Frank Schätzing, entered German culture thereafter as a sort of buzzword.

[@wordofthewords]

In the fourth iteration of the Matrix franchise, a.k.a. The Matrix Resurrections, there was a sleek visualization of Han's swarm idea. Actually, now thinking, the whole movie was based on Han's idea of mass vs. swarm. Even the villains of the original trilogy, i.e. Merovingian, was complaining about the "new society".

[@altertopias]

Also "real" swarms are an emergence property no? So actual swarms are indeed a total that is more then the sums of its parts. I also think it's weird he doesn't talk about algorithms. I feel like there's much to be said about how people talk about The Algorithm as this supreme ruling thing almost, as if it was not a human product, made by a bunch of humans who decide what to prioritise and what to avoid and how to manage a platform in order to get what they want. So online swarms have rules just like actual swarms do.

[@maxwellmills4825]

They discuss the algorithm in their episode on surveillance which draws heavily on deleuze society of control

[@maxwellmills4825]

So the "swarm" is the riot and "anarchy" is not "bad" but can be a liberatory expression of an otherwise which in being illegible to the hegemony of mainstream society is viewed as "chaotic" but which from the inside has an internal cohesion and logic

[@jorb1903]

Babe wake up my philosophy professor parents charli mom and troye dad posted

[@RomeoChapola]

Sibling!

[@ashutosh4978]

hear ye the mortal siblings I just woke up.

[@rohitranjan329]

He is talking about concept of liquid modernity zygman Bauman in this book.you people read about it.

[@la8076]

Would be interesting to see deleuze guattari being covered

[@OverthinkPodcastPhilosophy]

We cover D&G frequently on the podcast and also now and again on our KZbin channel! Most recently is our Organisms episode :)

[@eyeamen]

The swarm logic is that there is a new queen made in the hive, which causes separation.

[@robertalenrichter]

Almost surprising when contemporary theoretical texts written in German do also find an English-language readership. Translations are perhaps more common in that niche than in literature. Dussmann, the "Kulturkaufhaus", as they call themselves, always has stacks of Han books, prominently displayed.

[@altertopias]

I think Han is one of the most popular contemporary philosophers no?

[@robertalenrichter]

@@altertopias Contemporary Germans of a certain category read as many English texts as German ones, either in the original or in translation. A lot less frequent when things go the other way, especially in terms of popularity. That's just the way it is nowadays for European languages in general. Books written in English are much more likely to get noticed and translated into the other languages. The global attention economy is heavily biased in favour of the language that everyone speaks, so people like Han have actually overcome a significant hurdle in attaining such dissemination.

[@altertopias]

@@robertalenrichter While I definitely agree that English is quite dominant, I think as soon as a books gets translated to English, it can become quite popular internationally. And I think philosophy in particular is quite international, like academia in general.

[@robertalenrichter]

@@altertopias Books have to be noticed in the first place, to even get translated. I'll switch to another subject to make my point. Since most journalists only speak their own language, plus English, guess what they pay attention to? Information coming from the UK or the USA is a thousand times more likely to show up in German or French media than information from Germany in France, and vice versa. German or French journalists are infinitely better informed about events in Britain or the US than they are about the country right next door. I've been observing this for decades because I speak both languages. It actually distorts public perceptions about the world.

[@altertopias]

@@robertalenrichter Oh, I agree! That's why I said: as soon as it gets translated. Before that, it indeed needs to be noticed. And I said that when it's translated, it can become popular, but a lot of them don't. I think a lot of more "mainstream" anglophone readers don't read many translations, especially not contemporary. And I def get what you're talking about. I have never lived in the US and I probably know more about its politics than about any other country, it's ridiculous.

[@siddhantjaitpal3901]

Buying chul Han for the win

[@bobcabot]

boy the way the both of you get exited on Philosophy is almost palpable...

[@demeron]

I hate the way this man talks down to you