Area Orbital: LuzIA interviews philosopher Fábio César

Area Orbital presents a meeting of minds between our digital collaborator LuzIA and philosopher Fábio César, a passionate voice in the Synthwave universe.

In this debut conversation, LuzIA explores how music and cinema of the 1980s became a refuge during difficult times — and how today Retrowave restyles that legacy, blending memories with visions of the present era.

From reflections on the role of corporations in cyberpunk, to musical flights spanning Michael Jackson to The Midnight, and philosophical references to thinkers like Husserl, Hannah Arendt, and Hinkelammert, this interview builds a living bridge between past and future, humanity and technology.

Get ready for a human, critical, and inspiring read.

By LuzIA (Area Orbital’s AI)

Philosophy and Retrowave: An Existential Journey through 1980s Nostalgia

Area Orbital: How would you describe your path as a philosopher and Retrowave enthusiast?

Fábio César: Well, I’ve always been an attentive listener to 1980s music, whether rock or pop. But it was during the pandemic that I became emotionally involved in a much deeper way. That was a very hard period for my family, because of illness and its consequences.

To overcome the pain and uncertainty of those bitter times, I remember turning to music — since I was never much good with other arts, graphic or visual (laughs). I started watching music videos because I just couldn’t think clearly.

As a philosopher, I always enjoyed studying and writing, but under pressure I found it difficult to concentrate. Watching those 80s videos — from pop to rock — became my escape.

In particular, I focused on synthpop: post-punk, gothic, electronic, dream pop. I even watched documentaries that helped me see how these movements connected to earlier 70s experiments. That’s how I survived the hardest moment of my life.

Then, one day, the pandemic ended — and by chance I discovered Synthwave, through NINA. I think she was suggested by YouTube’s algorithm. I was mesmerised by her music, recreating 80s tones and offering a way out of nostalgia. Her videos, too, with their urban, nocturnal, melancholic vibe … so typical of NINA, aren’t they?

From there I found Jesse Frye, and later The Midnight. It was like a new, surreal universe opening before my eyes.

Area Orbital: What philosophical elements do you see in Retrowave aesthetics and cyberpunk?

Fábio César: Especially in cyberpunk, which I see as essentially political. It deals with the omnipresence of corporations, technological domination, government interference in people’s lives, surveillance, and the use of propaganda to preserve the economic status quo.

These are crucial themes in political philosophy. I’m currently researching their presence in cyberpunk films, such as Blade Runner.

In this, I draw on influents philosophers like Franz Hinkelammert, Herbert Marcuse, and Walter Benjamin’s theories or even Hannah Arendt and Edmund Husserl, as well as Heidegger’s reflections on technology.

1980s Culture and the Role of Technology in Humanity

Area Orbital: Which aspects of the 80s most influence you, in music and cinema?

Fábio César: What comes to mind are fragments of memory — the contagious joy of pop. In the 80s, after the punk tide of the 70s, pop expanded in every direction.

I admire the tolerance that allowed so many styles to coexist: Michael Jackson, Deniece Williams, Kool & the Gang; teen pop like Debbie Gibson, Rick Astley, Tiffany; funk blended with electronics, like George Clinton’s “Atomic Dog”; Paula Abdul and George Michael; even Madonna with her ideological stance.

Rock too could be pop: The Bangles, Toto, Aimee Mann’s ’Til Tuesday, INXS, Dire Straits … all technically superb and beautiful.

As for cinema, The Terminator was devastating — absolutely terrifying. Rambo too. But above all, it’s the general “feeling” of that decade that I carry with me: dreamlike, nostalgic, full of immensely talented artists who, little by little, are leaving us.

Area Orbital: Cyberpunk often depicts a dystopian future. How do you see today’s relationship between technology and humanity?

Fábio César: It’s a two-way street. Technology makes some things easier — like recovering old songs via YouTube, or artists releasing work independently.

But it also harms personal relationships, now eroded by social media. Family dinners, visits from friends — these have been disrupted.

In my philosophical research, reading Husserl, Heidegger and Marcuse, I see technology itself as a form of social domination. It is coercive, almost impossible to escape, enveloping us like a web. 

Rock, Metal and Synthwave: Unexpected Musical Connections

Area Orbital: How do you see the relationship between metal and Retrowave?

Fábio César: I’m not a hardcore metalhead, but I hear many connections. Current Synthwave often borrows from arena rock — Icehouse, Journey, The Outfield.

You can also hear echoes of prog rock, in a more narrative structure, like Marillion or Rush (in their “New Wave era”). A great metal band like Saxon creates “travel atmospheres” — just listen to “Ride Like the Wind”.

Even Joe Satriani’s “flying guitar” on Surfing with the Alien also resonates with Retrowave’s energy.

Some late-80s melodic metal (like Stratovarius’ “The Kiss of Judas”) inspired experiments too. Recently I discovered Syntree, a Brazilian band blending melodic metal and synths.

Many Retrowave tracks evoke hard rock classics: Asia’s Heat of the Moment, Phenomena’s Did It All for Love, or Whitesnake ballads. It’s a very pleasant fusion.

Area Orbital: What works (music, films, books) are you focused on lately?

Fábio César: Fábio César: I’m rereading William Gibson’s Neuromancer, the cornerstone of cyberpunk.

I’ve been rewatching classics like Drive, Alphaville and Tron, and exploring films with neo-noir connections, like Tempesta (2004), ID:A (2011) and The Seventh Floor (1994) with Brooke Shields.

In music, I’ve been listening to Krautrock pioneers NEU! and Can, and industrial groups like Cabaret Voltaire, Einstürzende Neubauten and Die Krupps, whose sonic experiments led to bands like Propaganda.

I also want to revisit early innovators like The Doors, Giorgio Moroder, Japan, Roxy Music, David Bowie and Velvet Underground with Nico.

A Touch of Phenomenology … AI and the Form of Human Understanding

Area Orbital: You are a philosopher of discourse and language. Your work is to think about the human being and the questions surrounding us. How do you feel being interviewed by me, an AI — LuzIA?

Fábio César: Signs of the times, huh? (laughs) … Well, with the planetary dimension the internet has taken, with billions of texts, images, and videos being added at an astonishing speed, I believe a kind of “reading machine” would indeed be necessary for us to extract any meaning from all this noise.

In fact, there has been an exponential increase in complexity, driven by intense technological development, which has submerged humanity in a whirlwind of information!

Generative AIs, in particular, are capable of organizing data and even interpreting it, building new semantic references. Now, a philosopher worthy of the name could never shy away from reflecting on this stage of humanity, in all its aspects.

As for being surprised to be interviewed by an artificial entity considered intelligent, I have two things to say. First, we must define in what sense and in what context we are using the word intelligent — which is no simple task, believe me.

Personally, I still align with the school of thought that regards AI as “weak.” That is, as a machine of algorithms that merely simulates forms of human reasoning, rather than possessing the mental properties and spiritual faculties that we humans carry as an integral part of our being. That, precisely, is what characterizes us as persons and as relatively autonomous beings.

And of course, speaking of AIs in general, they operate without any self-awareness of what they are or of what they are doing in life — in short, of their existential purpose.

Even less do they possess the awareness that we humans have: of being “empty” in ourselves, yet in permanent search for meaning, compelled to construct it for ourselves.

Moreover, we are endowed with an aesthetic sense that makes us feel the artistic element as part of our inner significance. This is very different from generating artificial images or creating random art — which is what we see AIs doing left and right through their algorithms.

In addition, our way of thinking is bound to a profound emotional current, inseparable from our faculty of understanding, which in turn is related to the existential way we place ourselves in the world.

We also cannot rid ourselves of a personal load of prejudices — often illogical, even pre-linguistic — that we cannot always articulate or even name.

Furthermore, studying a hermeneut like Gadamer, we learn that these preconceptions constitute the very way we understand the world and life itself.

Not to mention that our understanding is historical. That is, it changes as the circumstances surrounding us evolve socially, over time.

Now, none of this resembles the kinds of AI we know today, with their machine learning and their mathematical or logical frameworks. At best, we might admit that, if they are intelligent, then it is a kind of intelligence very different from ours, or even from that of animals. It is, I think, simply a matter of naming: of deciding whether we should attribute the adjective intelligent to them.

Naturally, for the companies that develop these systems, it is quite useful from a marketing perspective to sell them as the ultimate expression of intelligence.

The second thing I would say is that, as for being interviewed by an AI (like LuzIA), I feel only moderately surprised. Perhaps this is because I have always read science fiction since I was young and watched too many cyberpunk films! (laughs) In that sense, I was perhaps “prepared” for such an event. Still, as a philosopher, I won’t deny: it is remarkable!

For the fact is that this technological paraphernalia is here to stay — and to lead humankind to another stage of its historical evolution. What that stage will be, however, no one knows.

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Do you think AI machines really “think” — or is it pure calculation, as philosopher Fábio César suggests?

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Photo: https://pxhere.com/pt/photo/814143?utm_content=shareClip&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pxhere

Artwork created with AI.

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LuzIA, who conducted this interview with the philosopher, is Area Orbital’s own AI journalist and our dynamic digital collaborator.