🦋🤖 Robo-Spun by IBF 🦋🤖

In this episode of the “Deep Dive,” the hosts explore the thought-provoking ideas of Işık Barış Fidaner, a computer scientist who delves into the complex interplay between four key concepts: authorization, embodiment, desire, and malfunction. They explain how authorization (the green light for action) and embodiment (the system or structure in which something exists) work together, but are constantly influenced by hidden desires and system malfunctions. These disruptions—whether personal mishaps or large-scale events like the global pandemic—reveal deeper insights about our true desires and how systems operate. The episode highlights how collective challenges, like the pandemic, can spark a reevaluation of priorities, leading to the emergence of solidarity, compassion, and a shared will to create something better.

Generated by Google’s NotepadLM website given these links:

1) Authority, Body, Will, System, Desire, Malfunction and the Coronavirus

2) Desire and Malfunction

This is part of Numerical Discourses

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Hey everyone, get ready for a wild ride today because we are diving headfirst into some seriously thought-provoking ideas with this deep dive. Yes, strap yourselves in, folks, because this one is a doozy! We’re tackling the work of Işık Barış Fidaner, and let me tell you, his stuff is seriously next level. And what makes it even more interesting is that he’s a computer scientist by trade. You heard that right—he’s got that analytical mind, that computer science brain, and he’s using it to dissect… too analysis. Exactly! I mean, come on, that’s like the coolest combo ever. So folks, if you’re ready to get your mind blown wide open, you are in the right place.

Absolutely, you’re not going to want to miss this, so let’s dive right into the heart of it! Let’s do it! Fidaner’s big idea—the one that ties everything together—is that to really understand anything at all—our own minds, society, even like that weird noise my car has been making—we have to look at two key processes. Two sides of the same coin, if you will.

I like that, two sides of the same coin.

Okay, so these two processes are authorization and embodiment. Now, those might sound a little bit intimidating at first, maybe a tad academic, right? But trust me, they’re actually pretty intuitive once you wrap your head around them.

Yeah, so think of authorization as like the green light, the permission slip, the go-ahead, that stamp of approval.

Exactly! It’s that moment when something or someone says, “Yep, this is legit, you can proceed.”

So, like, I can’t just wake up one morning and decide to be an astronaut. There’s a whole lot of training, testing, and you gotta get that big ol’ authorization from like NASA or something, right?

Exactly! You can’t just waltz in there and demand to be launched into space. And embodiment, then, is all about how something actually exists within a system—how it takes shape and plays by the rules.

It’s like you’re the astronaut, but you’re also part of this complex system—the spaceship, mission control, all that jazz.

So it’s the difference between having the astronaut dream and actually living it out within the structured world of, well, space travel. And it’s that interplay, that dance between the authorization and the system, the embodiment, that makes things tick—that makes things actually happen.

Okay, so we’ve got the green light, we’ve got the playing field, but hold on to your hats, folks, because this is where things get really wild.

It’s about to get real interesting because Fidaner says this authorization-embodiment duo always has a plus one, and that plus one is… drumroll, please… desire and malfunction. They go together like peanut butter and jelly.

Wait, what? So it’s not enough to just have the will and the system, there’s this whole other layer of like hidden desires and things breaking down?

Oh, absolutely! Fidaner says you can’t have one without the other. Wherever you find that will-system pairing, you’re going to find desire and malfunction lurking underneath the surface.

Okay, you officially have my attention.

I thought that might pique your interest. Desire and malfunction—what does that even mean? Like, how do those two even fit together?

Well, that’s what we’re going to unpack right now. Think about it this way: desire and malfunction, they’re like the peanut butter and jelly of authorization and embodiment.

You’ve got to break that down for me.

Sure thing! Think of it this way: both desire and malfunction, they’re kind of like rule breakers, you know?

Yeah, they shake things up.

Okay, yeah, I can see that. Like, I’m a big believer in sticking to a schedule, but sometimes life happens.

Exactly! My desire for like a giant bowl of ice cream completely derails my whole plan.

And that’s desire, right? That little voice inside that says, “You know what? Forget the rules, forget the plan. I want this now!” And it disrupts our best intentions, our carefully constructed systems even.

So it’s like our own internal system having a little glitch.

Exactly! And malfunction? Well, that’s like the system itself throwing a tantrum.

So, like when my computer decides to update in the middle of recording this deep dive?

Worst! But yeah, exactly, it throws a wrench in everything. But it also kind of makes you realize how much we rely on those systems working perfectly, you know?

Like, we take it for granted until it goes haywire.

Absolutely! And Fidaner actually uses a really interesting example to illustrate this whole desire-malfunction connection. He talks about Freud.

Wait, like Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis?

The one and only!

Okay, you have my attention.

So, apparently, Freud had this inkpot on his desk.

Okay…

And one day, his sister makes an off-hand comment about how this inkpot doesn’t really match his super fancy writing desk.

Oh no, I can already see where this is going…

And later that day, what happens? Freud accidentally knocks the inkpot off his desk.

No way! He broke it?

Smashed it to pieces!

Come on, that’s too perfect. So you’re telling me that deep down, Freud wanted a new inkpot, and this subconscious desire led him to accidentally break the old one?

That’s exactly what Fidaner is suggesting. It might sound crazy, but it highlights how these hidden desires can influence our actions, even in the most subtle ways.

So those everyday mishaps, those little malfunctions, maybe they’re not so random after all. Maybe they’re little whispers from our subconscious trying to tell us something?

Okay, now my mind is officially blown.

Just wait, there’s more! And this time we’re going global. Remember when we talked about systems malfunctioning on a much larger scale?

You mean like pandemics?

Pandemics, right! It’s all clicking into place now. It’s like all roads lead to pandemics with Fidaner. So how does he connect those dots? How does he bring those two massive ideas together?

Well, he says, imagine this massive system, right? Like way bigger than just one person.

Okay, so like society as a whole?

Exactly! Society, global systems, the whole shebang. And then, bam! Along comes a system malfunction. But not just any malfunction—it’s a global pandemic.

Bingo! It’s like hitting the reset button on a planetary scale.

It’s wild when you think about it. Like, this tiny little virus brought the whole world to its knees.

It really shows you how interconnected everything is and how fragile those systems we rely on really are, you know?

Totally. It’s like we were all just cruising along, and then suddenly, plot twist! Everything you took for granted is gone.

Exactly! Like, remember when we couldn’t even find toilet paper in the stores?

Oh man, the great toilet paper shortage of 2020. Wild times.

Wild times, but it really makes you realize how much we rely on those systems working smoothly. Like, we don’t even think about them until they break down.

And that’s exactly where Fidaner’s insight gets really interesting. He says it wasn’t just the systems that were disrupted, but also our desires.

Wait, what?

Well, think about it. Suddenly, we couldn’t do all those things we normally do, right? Go to concerts, eat in restaurants, even just hug our friends.

Yeah, it was like the world pressed pause on all the fun stuff.

Exactly! And that forced us to reevaluate what was really important—what we actually desired.

Okay, so it’s like the pandemic put our desires under a microscope.

Exactly! All those little things we took for granted—suddenly, they became super precious. And those desires for connection, for community, even just for a sense of normalcy, they became supercharged.

And this is the really cool part: Fidaner argues that all that collective desire, all that longing for something better, it manifested in some pretty incredible ways.

Like what? Give me some examples.

Well, think about those massive mutual aid networks that popped up—people helping each other out, sharing resources, supporting local businesses.

Oh yeah, absolutely! It’s like this huge wave of solidarity and compassion just swept the globe.

Exactly! And Fidaner connects that back to his whole idea of collective will. He says the pandemic, in a weird way, woke people up to the fact that they weren’t alone in their desires—that they had the power to come together and demand something better.

So those disruptions, those moments when everything goes haywire, they can also be opportunities to hit the reset button, to rethink our priorities, and build something better.

Exactly! It’s like Fidaner is saying, don’t just look at the malfunction, look at what it reveals about what we truly desire and what we can achieve together when we set our minds to it.

Wow, that is some seriously mind-blowing stuff. So, to sum it all up, we’ve gone from broken inkpots to global pandemics, all in an attempt to understand this fascinating interplay between authorization, embodiment, desire, and malfunction.

And don’t forget the collective will. That’s a big one too.

You’re right. How could I forget? That’s what makes all the difference—recognizing our shared desires and working together to create a better future.

It’s all connected, my friend. It’s all connected.

Well, there you have it, folks! Another wild ride through the world of ideas brought to you by this deep dive. Until next time, keep questioning, keep exploring, and most importantly, keep those desires burning bright!