Technology & Statecraft
Welcome to the home page for the Summer 2025 Technology & Statecraft series. Below you will find details on the location, schedule and syllabus, as well as links to the reading material.
Reach out to us at founders@parnassus.house if you have any questions.
Location
Highland City Club
885 Arapahoe Ave.
Boulder, CO 80305
Parking is available on-site, in the lot off of 9th St. between Arapahoe and Canyon, but it is sometimes limited. We suggest trying to arrive a few minutes early to secure a spot.
Schedule and Syllabus
We will meet 12:00pm-1:45pm on Tuesdays. The first 15-20 minutes we will enjoy lunch. Then, as people are finishing lunch, we will begin the seminar, which will last approximately 90 minutes.
July 22 – Innovation vs. Stability
- Plato, Phaedrus (pp. 2-6 in the Technology & Statecraft PDF)
- Plato, Protagoras (pp. 7-15)
- Aristotle, Politics (pp. 16-19)
- Plutarch, Life of Marcellus (pp. 20-27) – optional
July 29 – Enhancement vs. Dependence
- Aristotle, Politics (pp. 16-19 in the Technology & Statecraft PDF)
- J.J. Rousseau, Second Discourse (pp. 28-31)
- Neil Postman, Technopoly (pp. 32-34)
August 5 – Industry vs. Decadence
- Plato, Republic (pp. 35-45 in the Technology & Statecraft PDF)
- John Locke, Second Treatise (pp. 46-55)
August 12 – Adaptation vs. Domestication
- Charles Darwin, Descent of Man (pp. 56-70 in the Technology & Statecraft PDF)
- Matt Ridley, The Rational Optimist (pp. 71-76)
- Christopher Ryan, Civilized to Death (pp. 77-83)
August 19 – Spontaneous Order vs. Centralized Control
- Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (pp. 84-96 in the Technology & Statecraft PDF)
- F.A. Hayek, "The Use of Knowledge in Society" (pp. 97-106)
- J.D. Davidson and W. Rees-Mogg, The Sovereign Individual (pp. 107-122) – optional
August 26 – Social Technology and Civilizational Collapse
- Samo Burja, "Social Technology" (pp. 123-130 in the Technology & Statecraft PDF)
- Samo Burja, "Intellectual Dark Matter" (pp. 131-137)
September 2 – Francis Bacon, The New Atlantis
- Francis Bacon, Wisdom of the Ancients (pp. 138-139 in the Technology & Statecraft PDF)
- Francis Bacon, The New Atlantis
September 9 – Francis Bacon, The New Atlantis
- Francis Bacon, The New Atlantis (cont'd)
September 16 – The Future of Western Civilization: Progress or Return?
- Ross Douthat, "The Age of Extinction" (pp. 140-144 in the Technology & Statecraft PDF)
- Marc Andreessen, "The Techno-Optimist Manifesto" (pp. 145-158)
Reading material
The page numbers above reference the Technology & Statecraft collected readings. Download that PDF here:
For the seminars in September on Francis Bacon's The New Atlantis, we ask that you acquire a copy of the Weinberger edition, which you can find here:
Below are some of the full texts, which we've excerpted for the series. We encourage you to return to these, in their entirety, at some point in the future!