Radicals – with Jamie Bartlett
12 September 2017 | LIBRARY London, London, UK
Virtual Futures presents Jamie Bartlett in coversation on his new book, Radicals: Outsiders Changing the World.
In the last few years the world has changed in unexpected ways. Growing numbers of people are dissatisfied with modern politics and are rejecting the way we live now. The power of radical groups and ideas is growing. What was once considered extreme is now the mainstream. But what is the real power of radicals? And what does the future hold?
Radicals is an exploration of the individuals, groups and movements rejecting the way we live now, and are attempting to find alternatives. In it, Jamie Bartlett, one of the world’s leading thinkers on radical politics and technology, takes us inside the strange and exciting worlds of the innovators, disruptors, idealists and extremists who think society is broken, and believe they know how. From dawn raids into open mines to the darkest recesses of the internet, Radicals introduces us to some of the most secretive and influential movements today: techno-futurists questing for immortality, far-right groups seeking to close the borders, militant environmentalists striving to save the planet’s natural reserves by any means possible, libertarian movements founding new countries, autonomous cooperatives in self-sustaining micro-societies, and psychedelic pioneers attempting to heal society with the help of powerful hallucinogens.
As well as a fascinating glimpse at the people and ideas driving these groups, Radicals also presents a startling argument: radicals are not only the symptoms of a deep unrest with the world today, but might also provide the most plausible models for our future.
Jamie Bartlett is the Director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at the think tank Demos, where he specialises in online social movements and the impact of technology on society. He is the author of The Dark Net and Orwell Versus the Terrorists.
In coversation with Luke Robert Mason (Director, Virtual Futures).