Skip to content
/Seeing Like a State/, part two: recognizing your High Modernist eidolon episode artwork

Nov 30, 2022 25 min

/Seeing Like a State/, part two: recognizing your High Modernist eidolon

from Oddly Influenced Hosted by Brian Marick

James C. Scott, Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, 1998. Paul McCauley has used the idea of eidolons in more than one series. (Two that I know of.) The most recent is in his "Jackaroo" series of two novels and a few shorter pieces. The first of the novels is Something Coming Through. Here's a review. "Something Happened Here, But We’re Not Quite Sure What It Was" is a short story that I think stands alone. I quote from the second Jackaroo novel, Into Everywhere, but I wouldn't read it first unless you're a fan of Gene Wolfe and like figuring out the backstory yourself. E. H. Gombrich, The Story of Art, 1995 Paul Feyerabend, Bert Terpstra (editor), Conquest of Abundance: A Tale of Abstraction versus the Richness of Being, 2001 Albert O. Hirschman, Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States, 1972. Credits Worker and Kolkhoz (collective farm) Woman Monument from C.K. Leung, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. Although I don't dwell on it in this episode, Scott uses the Soviet collective farm as a big example of a failure of Seeing Like a State.

Episode details come from the podcast's RSS feed.

Embed this episode

What this episode covers

We in software are prone to "Seeing Like a State". It's easy to adopt that perspective despite good intentions. How can you realize that's what you're doing?

Ready to play

/Seeing Like a State/, part two: recognizing your High Modernist eidolon

0:00 25:09

Chapters

  1. 1:40 Marker 1
  2. 3:38 Marker 2
  3. 12:12 Marker 3

No transcript yet.

Requests help us decide what to transcribe next.

Share this episode

Similar episodes

A Biblical Perspective on AI - Part 2

Sep 20, 2026 38 min

A Biblical Perspective on AI - Part 1

Sep 13, 2026 44 min

Similar podcasts

Street Style Squad Street Style Squad Welcome to the Street Style Squad podcast, your ultimate guide to the world of street dance. Whether you are a seasoned dancer or just starting out, this podcast is for you. We are dedicated to exploring the culture, history, and techniques of street dance styles and equipping you with the mental preparation and strategies needed to win battles and events. Join us as we dive deep into the foundations of street dance, examining the styles that make up this vibrant art form and the rich history and culture that have influenced its development. From breaking to popping, locking to krumping, waacking to vogueing, we will explore the origins and evolution of each style and its unique characteristics and movements. We will also provide practical advice and tips on how to improve your technique, build your skills, and develop a winning mindset for street dance battles and events. Our guests will include top dancers, choreographers, and educators in the street dance comm Epics of Rome Dr Rhiannon Evans This subject explores Ancient Roman epic poetry, the literary genre which deals with grand mythical narratives involving heroes, gods, war, and love affairs. Epic was the most prestigious literary form in the ancient world. Roman poets adapted and developed Greek epic, particularly influenced by the Homeric Iliad and Odyssey. Roman epics similarly deal with divine and heroic material, but Roman poets also weave contemporary and topical themes into the mythical subject matter. The primary text for this subject is Ovid's Metamorphoses, which tells many comic tales of the gods in love and encounters between heroes and monsters through a series of transformations. Epics which influenced Ovid will also be studied, such as the Greek epics of Homer, the early Roman epics of Naevius and Ennius, and Virgil's Aeneid, which was the most significant influence on Ovid. We shall also consider Ovid as a major influence upon Western artists and writers, from Shakespeare to David Malouf.

Frequently asked questions

How long is this episode of Oddly Influenced?

This episode is 25 minutes long.

When was this Oddly Influenced episode published?

This episode was published on November 30, 2022.

Is there a transcript available for this episode?

Yes, a full transcript is available for this episode. You can read the complete transcript on the episode page.

Can I download this Oddly Influenced episode?

Yes. Use the download control on the episode player to save the publisher-provided media file.