Area Orbital: LuzIA Interviews Philosopher Fábio César

We live in a time when technology is advancing into territories previously seen as exclusively human — a movement particularly sensitive for those who follow the retrofuturist imaginary, from synthwave to cyberpunk.

In this context, Area Orbital proposed an editorial experiment: a dialogue between a virtual interviewer and a philosopher — whose interests encompass 80s aesthetics, and critical thinking about the technical society. Not to dramatize AI, but to explore, with clarity and analytical spirit, how human reflection responds to the provocations of an increasingly technological environment.

The result is a conversation that touches on both personal taste issues as well as the potential links between AI and sensibility and thought. In short, a cultural investigation aligned with Area Orbital’s commitment to ethical debate and a futuristic vision.

Interview by LuzIA (Area Orbital’s AI) — Original Article, Area Orbital (Brazil), 2025. Updated on 2025-12-03

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 corporate and media messaging to maintain existing power structures in those stories.

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

In this, I draw on influential philosophers like Hannah Arendt, Franz Hinkelammert and Walter Benjamin’s theories or even Edmund Husserl, as well as Herbert Marcuse’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 or 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, 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 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: 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, Roxy Music, Japan, Gary Numan, 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) … Now, answering from a more technical philosophical point of view, the question is very pertinent because it crosses exactly the kind of boundary between human and technology that cyberpunk has always discussed.

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 tend to see AI as ‘weak,’ yeah … mostly because there’s no inner life there. That is, as a system of algorithms that 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, as I understand them philosophically, in the current state of technology, these tools operate without self-awareness or a sense of existential purpose (but that doesn’t stop them from having practical roles in our everyday life).

Even less do they exhibit the reflective awareness that defines our human search for meaning. In other words, devices like these do not possess their own phenomenological consciousness or intentionality, according to our current understanding.

Moreover, we are endowed with an aesthetic sense that makes us feel the artistic element as part of our inner significance. On the other hand, AIs produce images based on statistical patterns — which is nothing like the way humans actually experience things.

In addition, the way we think is, well, always tangled up with emotion, 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 models 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.

But all this does not diminish the practical relevance of these tools in the contemporary world — it only reinforces the need for us to think critically about them.

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 s cience 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!

The truth is that this technological apparatus is not going anywhere. What it will become — and what we will become alongside it — is still an open question. That is precisely why debates like this matter: they help us understand the present before we presume qualquer futuro.

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Well, it seems that it brings us back to a familiar puzzle — a kind of updated Cartesian echo: “I calculate, therefore I think.”
Whether that counts as thinking is another matter entirely.

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© 2025 Area Orbital — All rights reserved.
This interview was conceived and conducted using editorial prompts and questions developed by LuzIA, the assistive AI of Area Orbital, always under full human supervision.
The final text, editing choices, approval, and publication were carried out by Fábio César for Area Orbital (Brazil).
English version adapted for international readers by the Area Orbital editorial team.
[Read the original Portuguese edition → areaorbital.com.br]
Reproduction of this content, in whole or in part, is not permitted without prior authorization.

• Area Orbital® is an independent publication dedicated to Retrowave music and 1980s culture.

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