Podcast: The Engagement-Maximization Presidency

In my latest podcast (MP3), I read my May, 2018 Locus column, "The Engagement-Maximization Presidency," where I propose a theory to explain the political phenomenon of Donald Trump: we live in a world in which communications platforms amplify anything that gets engagement and provides feedback on just how much your message has been amplified so you can tune and re-tune for maximum amplification.

Peter Wattss 2002 novel Maelstrom illustrates a beautiful, terrifying example of this, in which a mindless, self-modifying computer virus turns itself into a chatbot that impersonates patient zero in a world-destroying pandemic; even though the virus doesnt understand what its doing or how its doing it, its able to use feedback to refine its strategies, gaining control over more resources with which to try more strategies.

Its a powerful metaphor for the kind of cold reading we see Trump engaging in at his rallies, and for the presidency itself. I think it also explains why getting Trump of Twitter is impossible: its his primary feedback tool, and without it, he wouldnt know what kinds of rhetoric to double down on and what to quietly sideline.

Maelstrom is concerned with a pandemic that is started by its protagonist, Lenie Clark, who returns from a deep ocean rift bearing an ancient, devastating pathogen that burns its way through the human race, felling people by the millions.

As Clark walks across the world on a mission of her own, her presence in a message or news story becomes a signal of the utmost urgency.