Soft Power

Burning Alone

Reflections on the philosophical spirit of Burning Man

Sep 16 • 

Ashley Zhang

17

August 2025

Decency, democracy, & the new Californian ideology

Soft Power-sanctioned reads

Aug 8 • 

Ashley Zhang

6

1

July 2025

Building better handles

What does empowerment really mean?

Jul 26 • 

Ashley Zhang

12

Aching muscles, aching minds

A defense of meaningful work in a world that dreams of automating it away

Jul 10 • 

Ashley Zhang

17

2

June 2025

What resists measure

What is lost when we flatten human worth to our intelligence?

Jun 21 • 

Ashley Zhang

14

1

Introducing Soft Power

Evolving the Luftmensch

Jun 10 • 

Ashley Zhang

24

3

April 2025

The persistence of memory

What happens to our minds when machines no longer forget?

Apr 28 • 

Ashley Zhang

31

1

Deus ex machina

Freedom and its discontents

Apr 19 • 

Ashley Zhang

39

2

August 2024

Intimations of immortality

Meditations on a WALL-E future

Aug 31, 2024 • 

Ashley Zhang

19

2

Ecologies of care

Reimagining relations beyond domination and subjugation

Aug 1, 2024 • 

Ashley Zhang

12

1

June 2024

Custodian of human enchantment

On AI and the human good — and what I'm working on

Jun 27, 2024 • 

Ashley Zhang

21

3

December 2023

Do something that won’t compute

On Wendell Berry and true liberation

Dec 1, 2023 • 

Ashley Zhang

33

3