The Politics of Adaptation, from COVID-19 to AI: An Interview with Barbara Stiegler

Introduction

At the back of Café Utopy, a modern but charming woman-run establishment in a suburb of Bordeaux, France, I set the table for an interview with Barbara Stiegler. Beside the iPad equipped with OtterAI transcription software, I lay out her books, Nietzsche et la vie (2019) and Il faut s’adapter (2021), as well as her two popular tracts published by Gallimard that dissect with surgical precision the neoliberal program that managed the COVID-19 pandemic in France.

At ten minutes past our scheduled meeting time (a tardiness that is hardly alarming in France), the phone behind the counter rings. I watch as the manager picks up the wireless receiver, responds briefly to the person on the line, then walks over and extends the retro device in my direction.

“C’est Barbara,” she says with a smile. Indeed, Barbara is on the line, calling to inform me that another appointment has run long, and she will be 20 minutes late.