Interview – Intuition, Predictive Technologies, and Esoteric Practices

In a short interview for Affective Societies, FU Berlin, Carolyn Pedwell reflects on the deep entanglements among intuition, predictive technologies and so-called esoteric practices.

In response to the question ‘why, in an age of cutting-edge technologies like machine learning and weather forecasting algorithms – or even AI tools like ChatGPT – are so many of us turning to astrology, tarot, and numerology to make sense of the future?’, Carolyn traces the cultural and political history of our longing to anticipate the future – from algorithmic logics to gut feelings, from statistical data to embodied intuition – and explores what this means in our current moment of crisis, precarity, and emotional overload.

See the a video of the interview, which draws on themes from the Affective Societies Annual Conference, Mobilizing Affect – Affective Mobilization, held in Berlin, Germany from May 21-23 2025.