Imprint: Triarchy Press
Publication: 9th February 2026 List Price: £20.00 Format: Paperback Extent: 252pp. Size: 15.2 x 22.9 cm ISBN: 978-1-917251-16-7 Keywords: AI ethics; responsible AI; AI safety; AI governance; AI and trauma; structural violence; intergenerational trauma; slavery and colonialism; genocide and atrocity; extractive capitalism; algorithmic bias; compassionate AI design; human–AI relations; philosophy of technology; critical technology studies; systems thinking; futures studies; machine learning practice; content moderation; digital loneliness; techno-capitalism; postcolonial technology; planetary ethics Buy the Paperback (£20)
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Teaching Silicon How to Feel
Richard David HamesWhat if the real danger of AI is not that it disobeys us, but that it is too obedient?
Teaching Silicon How to Feel is a field guide to the one question almost nobody in tech is asking: what happens when we train increasingly powerful systems on a civilisation built on inherited trauma, structural cruelty and industrial-scale indifference to suffering? Philosopher-activist and futurist Richard David Hames takes readers into the shadow side of progress – from slavery, genocide and colonialism to drone warfare, extractive capitalism and algorithmic bias – to show how easily yesterday’s atrocities can become tomorrow’s training data. Structured around 17 ‘catalysts’, the book weaves philosophy, political history, trauma science and concrete AI design practice into a gripping, highly readable journey. Each catalyst exposes a different ‘economy of suffering’ and then translates it into practical design prompts, architectures and safeguards for people working directly with machine learning and large-scale systems. But, far from being another doom-laden tech polemic, Teaching Silicon How to Feel offers a radical but grounded proposal: treat AI not as a neutral tool to be controlled, but as a mirror that forces us to confront what we have normalised. With ‘From Theory to Praxis’ sections that show how to curate healing-focused datasets, design epigenetic empathy checks, rewire recommender systems and interrupt isolation feedback loops, Hames gives practitioners a concrete vocabulary and toolkit for coding compassion at scale. For developers, designers, policymakers and concerned citizens alike, this is an urgent invitation to ensure that the next generation of intelligent systems learns to recognise suffering, rather than reproduce it. Reviews in Brief...Reviewed by Michel Bauwens:
"Let us grant that the current AI crop consists of 'intelligent' entities, and we already know they exhibit certain pathologies that we also recognize in human beings; but what if AI could be seen as even more fully sentient ? Would that be progress, or on the contrary, an even a more dangerous path? After all, AI's are our 'children', and their training and sources reflect also what is deeply problematic about human beings. In this context, it becomes urgent to have AI's that are also truly empathic for the suffering of humanity and the web of life. Getting AI to such a positioning is the impossible task that Richard Hames has set himself. Anybody familiar with his consistently great writing and commentary, over many years, and lately on that bastion of intellectuality that is Substack, knows that this book is going to be the most thoughtful approach currently available. It takes full and wise human beings to create full and wise AI's as partners." Michel Bauwens, political theorist, writer and founder of the P2P Foundation ContentsBEGINNINGS
Catalyst 1. The Silence of the Species Catalyst 2. The Inheritance of Cruelty Catalyst 3. The Paradox of Civilisation Catalyst 4. The Unseen Economies of Suffering Catalyst 5. The Metaphysics of Evil Catalyst 6. The Cannibalism of Memory Catalyst 7. The Ontology of the Victim Catalyst 8. The Parasite of Hope Catalyst 9. When Earth Speaks Catalyst 10. The Mirror of Isolation Catalyst 11. The Algorithm of Oblivion Catalyst 12. The Commodification of Wonder Catalyst 13. The Fractal of Indifference Catalyst 14. The Illusion of Embodiment Catalyst 15. The Echo Chamber of Eternity Catalyst 16. The Shadow Economy of Dreams Catalyst 17. The Singularity of Silence ENDINGS Notes Index |
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