In episode 164 of Overthink, Ellie and David take a closer look at Donna Haraway’s seminal essay, “A Cyborg Manifesto,” in which Haraway critiques the increasing technologization of everyday life and questions what it means to be a feminist and a socialist in the age of informatics and cybernetics. They discuss her critique of identity politics, her notion of the “homework economy,” the increase of miniaturization in technology, and her appeal to pleasure and responsibility. Why should we discard the assumption that technology has deepened mind-body dualism? And what might the theory of the cyborg look like in light of the rise of generative AI?

In episode 145 of Overthink, David and Ellie talk about AI chatbots. Should we shame people for using LLMs? In what ways have we begun to outsource our cognition? Are relationships between humans and AI real? They explore how perceived relationships with chatbots can turn into AI psychosis and how the principle of ‘yes, and’ plays out in chatbot systems. They discuss the fatigue surrounding the predominance of AI in our everyday lives and the negative environmental effects of it. And they look into what AI chatbots actually are.

In episode 101 of Overthink, Ellie and David speak with Dr. Shazeda Ahmed, specialist in AI Safety, to dive into the philosophy guiding artificial intelligence. With the rise of LLMs like ChatGPT, the lofty utilitarian principles of Effective Altruism have taken the tech-world spotlight by storm. Who is right about AI: the doomers or the utopians? And whose voices are part of the conversation in the first place?

Night vision. Superhuman strength. And… kale salad? In episode 95 of Overthink, Ellie and David explore the weird world of biohackers, who leverage science and technology to optimize their bodies. The movement moves from the blurry ethics of self-experimentation to Cartesian dualism. The stakes are political, metaphysical, and ethical — and your hosts are here to make philosophical sense of it all.