Original CCRU member's new media theory - Anna Greenspan on Wave Theory, Megacities, and China!

Provenance

Self-transcribed from the recording's audio/video with Whisper ASR, then drawn from the frozen curation of the CCRU oral archive. The identifiers below fingerprint the exact source transcript files.

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Adjudicated APPROVED 2026-07-11 (basis: stage-1 acceptance ruling — lane open-web-talk approved for opus-only hosting; mp3 tier deferred pending a disk volume). Series: standalone. Source: audio original (.mp3).

Timestamped map

These jump targets come from timestamps preserved in the source transcript, so they work as navigational anchors rather than editorially invented section labels. Timings are approximate — they mark where a passage begins, not exact word timing.

• 00:00:00

  What you're about to see was recorded a couple of months ago at this point. It is now being released as a standalone episode on the Theory Underground podcast, as well as here on the YouTube channel. I wanted to say a couple words up front, and that is that in our attempt to map the contours of the existing theory…

• 00:09:31

  And I think that's what I'm trying to get at. Infrastructure. And these waves, which we can't easily perceive, we can only perceive through mediated instruments, through our cell phones or through our technologies, right? I was interested in that. And I'm always also interested in this issue about how to think about…

• 00:21:37

  Is it going to, what's it going to do? And so they're concerned now that everybody feels on this concrete level, even in a warehouse, that we're in this new wave to talk in that, in that terminology. And so everybody's in this looming sense of, is AI going to wipe out all our jobs? How are we going to have, how will…

• 00:33:21

  And this fundamentally alters the way we experience, interpret, perceive, right? Experience, uh, the reality. Um, and I'm wondering if this is, is this the way you're using the term media? And if so, then how does the wave actually, uh, this fifth wave, how is it changing things for humans now at the level…

• 00:43:53

  So I think the sense in China about. It's. Own capacities to like. You know, the future. And. You know, the. Sort of. Optimistic. Sense of the future has been wildly. Tamed by the COVID experience. So who knows what the future will, you know, the economy now is so. Following this way. Like the economy…

• 00:55:56

  So it's been a long time since I thought about the ontological status of the lemurs. So I really appreciate that you're talking about that and thinking about that. Uh, I think like your, your description seems like a good one. I mean, again, I guess, um, I, so I'm obviously just influenced by China and Chinese modes…

• 01:05:00

  But, uh, uh, the last thing I'll say just, um, and ask you, um, you're in a unique position to answer this question. And this is something we're all interested in again, like as underground theorists and what we're doing. Can you tell us again, unique position you have where you've done? You've you've philosophized…

• 01:13:09

  Check out the Patreon. Finally, just stay tuned for more information on the tour in Europe during the month of May 2024. And the conference in Mexico during the last weekend of October 2024. If you want to be there, hit me up. ASAP. Let's get talking. Because it's happening very soon. All right. Bye bye. Special shout…