It's a way of avoiding idealism and materialism at the same time, without thinking that the essence of things is identifiable by some proprietary human observation. It's a brand new thang, and I'm proud to be inhabiting it!
The paper I wrote for the IJZS conference in May is all about this, and I hadn't even read Graham's new book yet, so I didn't use the word. But in a recent interview, right after the conference, he said he wanted to abolish matter: I still hadn't gotten the book, but I crowed in delight.
Down with matter! Long live the object-body!
In other news, the paper is currently being considered for publication in the IJZS special edited book, and it's now called Things, Not Stuff. I'll probably upload it to https://www.academia.edu soon here, if I can get a few other writing projects done sooner.
Speaking of uploading things, I recorded a not-too-bad track of Graham's talk at the conference, and now here it is on archive.org! I think it's one of his best that I've heard. I don't think the digital sound processing does it justice at all, but you get used to the compression if you listen for a couple minutes.
Another thing! Another thing! The magnificent people who set up the conference are doing it again in two years, and they're thinking of having it in the clubs in Athens, GA...salon style!!!
Every time I get low on how miserable and hopeless our predicament is, I want to remember things like this. Just when I thought those folks couldn't get any cooler...
