This episode is Part I of a two-part interview with Aurora Apolito and William Gillis, two of the lead contributors to our summer symposium on Decentralization and Economic Coordination.

Listen to Part II here. 

Aurora Apolito is a mathematician and theoretical physicist. She studied physics in Italy and mathematics in Chicago, and later worked for various scientific institutions in the US, Canada, and Germany. She also works on mathematical linguistics, and on mathematical models for neuroscience and has authored six books on various aspects of this work. I should also note that Aurora Apolito is a pen name meant to differentiate this research from her work in other fields.

Our other guest is someone most listeners will be familiar with, William Gillis. Will currently acts as technology coordinator at C4SS and was formerly our coordinating director. Will is a second-generation anarchist who’s worked as an activist in countless projects and capacities since getting involved in the lead-up to N30 (also known as the “Battle in Seattle”). Gillis studies high energy physics and has held a deep fascination with the egalitarian potential of markets since 2003. Their writing can be found at C4SS.org and humaniterations.net.

Here are both Will & Aurora’s essays in the summer Symposium: 

• The Problem of Scale in Anarchism and the Case for Cybernetic Communism, Aurora Apolito
• Action Is Sometimes Clearer Than Talk: Why We Will Always Need Trade, William Gillis
• Centrifugal Tendencies in Information & Wealth, William Gillis