Hacking State cover art

Hacking State

Hacking State

Written by: Alex Murshak
Listen for free

About this listen

Exploring how technology changes our relationship to power, each other, and ourselves. Making sense of the techno-acceleration, Alex Murshak conducts in-depth interviews on the philosophy of technology. Hacking State is about doing more with less, pushing limitations, and finding gainful exploits at every level of the human operating system; from minds, to bodies, to tools, organizations, governments, and higher order social systems. Heidegger describes the nature of technology as a kind of revealing. It remains to be seen where and whether technology gives us Nietzschean will-to-power-like mastery over nature and ourselves or, as Plato warns, we are liable to be lead astray by novel ideas. Our capacity to harness nature has never been greater. Science and technology have unlocked immense power. Yet the human animal remains remarkably similar across millennia. In such a situation, discernment is our greatest asset. It is our relationship to ourselves, our systems, and one another, that will determine our future.Copyright 2025. All rights reserved. Art Philosophy Science Social Sciences
Episodes
  • 56 - The Machine that Makes the Machine with Matt Parlmer
    Jan 13 2026

    Matt Parlmer is the founder and CEO of General Fabrication Company, a self-reproducing factory company.

    We cover the origins of Gen Fab in the realization that we now have the tools to build machines that build themselves (see: The Von Neumann Constructor), the possibilities created by small modular manufacturing in electronics, robotic wet labs, and more; building a vertically integrated industrial company, light industrial parts farms, the need for American industrial policy to include civilian industry in re-industrialization strategy, levers for re-shoring American manufacturing, the unexpected passing of our good friend, Nick Simmons, and the future of General Fabrication.

    Links:

    • Support Nick Simmons' wife and family's GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/honoring-nick-simmons-life-and-legacy
    • Matt Parlmer's memorial post for Nick Simmons: https://mattparlmer.substack.com/p/remembering-nick-simmons
    • General Fabrication website: https://www.genfab.co/
    • Matt Parlmer on X: https://x.com/mattparlmer
    • General Fabrication on X: https://x.com/genfabco

    SIGN UP for the Hacking State newsletter: https://hackingstate.substack.com/subscribe

    If you enjoyed this talk, please leave a review on Spotify/iTunes.

    Listen on:

    Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@alexmurshak

    Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hacking-state/id1689677076

    Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1XB9XYULrAY4dp0qIJVvCg

    RSS: https://feed.podbean.com/hackingstate/feed.xml

    Show More Show Less
    2 hrs and 4 mins
  • 55 - Aneil Mallavarapu: Why AI Cannot Have Consciousness
    Jul 8 2025

    Aneil Mallavarapu is a biochemist, award winning computer scientist, and Managing Partner at Humain Ventures; investing in early stage life science and health tech startups.

    We talk about his pioneering work in systems biology at Harvard that led to the creation of Little b, a programming language for modeling biological systems with modularity and abstraction, the phenomenology of consciousness, the “hard problem” of consciousness, taking consciousness as fundamental, the limits of radical materialism, why our brains are not like classical computers, reconciling theories of consciousness with physics, the computational intractability of consciousness, the specter of AI civil rights, and Austin as the epicenter of the emerging science of the mind.

    Aneil on X: https://x.com/aneilbaboo

    His paper, "Programming with models: Modularity and abstraction provide powerful capabilities for systems biology"

    Subscribe to my newsletter: https://hackingstate.substack.com/subscribe

    If you enjoyed this talk, please leave a review on Spotify/iTunes.

    Listen on:

    Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@alexmurshak

    Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hacking-state/id1689677076

    Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1XB9XYULrAY4dp0qIJVvCg

    RSS: https://feed.podbean.com/hackingstate/feed.xml

    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 51 mins
  • 54 - Kyle Housley: The Right to Bear Arms and the Wrong Way to Think About Love
    Jun 26 2025

    Kyle Housley is a writer and co-host of a new podcast, Horizons Review, with longtime friend of the show, Cody Moser, exploring neglected intellectual texts and thinkers. We discuss the pathologization of normal relationship dynamics through misused psychological terminology, and extensively examine Second Amendment jurisprudence, particularly Kyle's disagreement with the Heller case on original meaning grounds.

    Kyle critiques how terms like "narcissism" and "transactional relationships" are misapplied to pathologize healthy interpersonal expectations and natural give-and-take in friendships and romantic partnerships. He argues this reflects broader cultural problems with dismissing relational obligations in favor of personal convenience.

    The majority of our conversation focuses on Kyle's disagreement with the 2008 Heller case. He argues that the core holding identifying self-defense as the primary protected right is wrong on original meaning grounds. Instead, he contends the amendment's original purpose was to protect citizens' right to bear arms most useful in military service to maintain effective militias, not individual self-defense which was already protected under common law.

    Kyle provides extensive historical context on the founders' deep concerns about standing armies versus citizen soldiers, heavily influenced by Roman Republic history and fears that professional armies would lead to the same factional civil wars that destroyed Rome. We explore the distinction between a "right to rebellion" versus organized resistance, the founders' view of standing armies as mercenaries, and how the militia clause connects to republican virtue and citizenship.

    We conclude by examining modern challenges to Second Amendment interpretation, including 3D-printed guns and drone warfare, and how technological advances create new questions about effective citizen militia capability in the 21st century.

    SIGN UP for the Hacking State newsletter: https://hackingstate.substack.com/subscribe

    If you enjoyed this talk, please leave a review on Spotify/iTunes.

    Listen on:

    Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@alexmurshak

    Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hacking-state/id1689677076

    Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1XB9XYULrAY4dp0qIJVvCg

    RSS: https://feed.podbean.com/hackingstate/feed.xml

    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 5 mins
No reviews yet