For the Digitally Native
A space for young thinkers to critically examine digital life—where technology is understood as both remedy and poison, and where care for attention becomes possible.
Our Mission
We live immersed in digital systems that shape how we think, relate, and attend to the world. The Pharmakon Institute proposes a third path beyond technophobia and techno-optimism—one that takes seriously Bernard Stiegler's insight that technology is neither simply good nor bad, but always both. For those aged 18–28, the first generation with no memory of life before platforms, this framework is especially urgent.
"To take care of our technical milieu is to take care of ourselves."— Bernard Stiegler, The Re-Enchantment of the World
The Concept
An Ancient Greek word that can mean either "remedy" or "poison," depending on the context in which it is used.
For Bernard Stiegler, the pharmakon expresses a fundamental ambivalence built into modern technology: technology can have either positive or negative effects, depending on how it is used.
— Wark & Soncul, "A Media-Theoretical Armamentarium" (2022)
A concept developed across:
Because it refuses the false choice. You don't have to be a Luddite who thinks screens are destroying civilization. You don't have to be a techno-optimist who thinks every innovation is progress. The pharmakon gives you a third position: the same technology can heal or harm depending on how it's cared for.
This isn't relativism—it's precision. It lets you critique specific platform designs, business models, and attention economies without condemning technology as such. It's the difference between "social media is toxic" and "this particular architecture of engagement extracts value from attention in ways that undermine collective individuation."
Because the first generation raised entirely within platform capitalism is coming of age—and the intellectual tools available to them are inadequate. Tech criticism oscillates between hand-wringing and boosterism. Academic theory remains locked behind paywalls and jargon. Meanwhile, the systems that shape attention, memory, and relation grow more sophisticated by the quarter.
We believe that young people who can think pharmacologically—who can critique digital life pragmatically, humbly, and firmly—will be the most influential voices in shaping what comes next. We're building a community to develop that capacity.
Who We Are
Pharmakon Institute is a think tank, publishing outlet, and learning community dedicated to bringing critical perspectives on digital life to young people aged 18–28.
We publish essays and host conversations through our Substack, New Pharmacologies. We convene webinars and courses that make continental philosophy accessible without dumbing it down. And we're building a network of emerging thinkers who want to do more than consume critique—they want to produce it.
Our work draws on the pharmacological tradition from Plato through Derrida to Stiegler, but we're not an academic journal. We're a space for people who want to think seriously about their relationship to technology and to develop the intellectual tools to intervene in how digital systems are designed, governed, and lived.
Original research and analysis on platform governance, attention economies, and digital life
Essays, interviews, and event transcripts via New Pharmacologies on Substack
Webinars, courses, and a network of emerging critics and practitioners
Our Publication
Our Substack brings Stiegler's pharmacological framework—and the broader tradition of thinking technology critically—to a new generation. Each essay asks what it means to cultivate care, attention, and knowledge in an age of cognitive capitalism and platform capture.
New Pharmacologies publishes essays, interviews, and event transcripts exploring digital life, attention, care, and the possibility of new forms of knowledge in the algorithmic age.
Subscribe on Substack →What does it mean that we've outsourced the care of our attention to systems designed to capture it? Stiegler's concept of "pharmacology" gives us tools to think this question—not as Luddites, but as people who want to live deliberately within our technical condition...
Learning Together
Live conversations with scholars, practitioners, and thinkers working on the questions that matter. Each session is designed to be accessible to newcomers while rewarding deeper engagement.
Coming Soon
A beginner-friendly introduction to Stiegler's core concepts: pharmakon, tertiary retention, and the question of care.
In Development
How platforms extract value from attention and what Stiegler meant by the "proletarianization" of knowledge.
In Development
Examining the philosophical assumptions embedded in tech discourse—and what alternatives might look like.
Get Involved
Receive essays from New Pharmacologies, invitations to upcoming webinars, and occasional reflections on thinking technology critically. No spam, no engagement optimization—just thought worth attending to.