The Techbro Looting of Science Fiction w/ Ali Rıza Taşkale (E231)

Today we’re joined by Ali Rıza Taşkale to talk about a piece he wrote for Aeon called “⁠the looting of science fiction⁠.” Previous listeners of TFTT would know that I’ve talked about this a fair bit because I don’t think we can understand the ongoing dominance of techbro billionaires over our politics without understanding how they routinely ignore the core messages of works of sci-fi or fantasy that many of us know and love. It’s like that metaphor-turned-meme by Alex Blechman which goes like this: Sci-Fi Author: In my book I invented the Torment Nexus as a cautionary tale. Tech Company: At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus from classic sci-fi novel Don’t Create The Torment Nexus.

But ranting about Musk’s bastardisation of Star Trek and Thiel’s bastardisation of Lord of the Rings would be one thing. Understanding their material impact is quite another. As much as I could spend hours insulting these two men and other insufferable men, I wouldn’t be doing you – my dear listener – a service by limiting myself to that. So allow me to introduce you to what Taşkale called materialised science fiction. To borrow from a paper of his: “The most consequential illiberal infrastructure now being constructed may not be emerging from political parties or state institutions at all. It is being built by a small cohort of tech oligarchs” who don’t know how to fucking read. I added that last bit.

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The Star Trek pod: ⁠Resistance is Fertile⁠ produced by the Collective of Anarchist Writers

Ali’s recs:

Movie: Distant (Uzak) by Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Movie: Blade Runner 2049
Book: The Disposessed by Ursula Le Guin

Elia’s Links

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The Fire These Times

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Credits:

Elia Ayoub (host, sound editor, episode design), israa’ (host), the rosa artist (TFTT theme design, 2026-), Rap and Revenge⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (Music), ⁠⁠⁠Wenyi Geng⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (TFTT theme design),⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Hisham Rifai⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (FTP theme design),⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Molly Crabapple⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (FTP team profile pics) and ⁠⁠⁠Antidote Zine⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (Transcriptions).