Blog Series
After Necessity
A three-part argument about what happens to human leverage when the machinery of production stops needing us — and what, if anything, a civilization can build in necessity's place.
3 parts 49 min read
Mass political power has always rested on mass indispensability. Ordinary people held leverage because production and violence genuinely required them, and that requirement — not anyone’s generosity — is what forced concessions in rights and wages. These essays ask what remains when the requirement dissolves.
Part 1 of 3
The Last Necessity
How we came to ask whether any human function is irreplaceable — and what hangs on the answer. (Installment 1 of 3)
Part 2 of 3
The Cathedral and the Lifeboat
Why the architects of human obsolescence are spending fortunes to put bodies in space. (Installment 2 of 3)
Part 3 of 3
The Heading and the Harbor
Why a civilization’s only livable future is the one it never finishes arriving at. (Installment 3 of 3)