Recourse to the Stars

Authoritarian Technologies, Cosmological Freedom, and the Planetary Condition

Abstract

Silicon Valley CEOs have postponed their trip to Mars to seize power on Earth instead. Let’s take this opportunity—even if it’s a sombre one—to philosophically affirm our planetary condition: however situated we may be (in terms of race, class, and gender), we are cosmologically un-situatable, i.e. exceeding any terrestrial situation. Escaping all terrestrial power, this cosmological freedom can be a last resort when democracy, attacked by authoritarian technologies and neo-dictatorships, is fading away.