Welcome! This is the homepage of Daniel Nemenyi. Thanks for dropping by.

My research involves new readings of what the philosopher Gilles Deleuze called 'societies of control', the kind of social form that we live in today. My approach is to develop conceptual histories of the science at the foundation of control societies, cybernetics, which emerged in the 1940s and whch continues to shape the structure thought today. I'm currently working on the ancient Greek kubernétes, the helmsman after which cybernetics was named. My work is grounded in a reading of the founder of cybernetics, Norbert Wiener, as a post-Leibnizian philosopher who sets out a system of thought and an agonistic ontology whose ultimate expression is the internet itself. For an introduction, see my article 'Robot Makes Free: The Leibnizian cryptowar of Norbert Wiener' (PDF).

I completed my PhD in 2019 at the Centre for Modern European Philosophy (CRMEP), Kingston University, with a thesis entitled, 'What is an internet? Norbert Wiener and the Society of Control'. The book-form of this is on the way...

If you'd like to keep updated about my publications and talks, I put out an occasional newsletter.

Besides reading I enjoy drawing, cinema, photography, programming in Emacs Lisp.

Publications and academic writing

• Daniel Nemenyi, 'Cybernetics and Snake Coils', The Digital Revolution as Counter-Revolution, ed. Susanne Leeb and Joshua Simon (Berlin: b_books, forthcoming 2026).
• Daniel Nemenyi, 'Why I Map Concepts', LIAS Magazine 23/24, 2024, pp. 66–73. (PDF)
• Daniel Nemenyi, 'Robot Makes Free: The Leibnizian cryptowar of Norbert Wiener', Radical Philosophy 2.14, Spring 2023, 3–20. (PDF)
• Daniel Nemenyi, 'How we never became posthuman: Homeostasis as conflict from Claude Bernard to Norbert Wiener', Distributed Perception, ed. Natasha Lushetich and Iain Campbell (London: Routledge, 2021), 160-173. (PDF)
• Daniel Nemenyi, 'Position paper', Terra Critica, (July 2019). A reading of Alexandre Koyré's 'The Political Function of the Modern Lie' together with Stuart Hall's 'The Meaning of New Times'. (PDF)
• Daniel Nemenyi, What is an internet? Norbert Wiener and the society of control February 2019 PhD thesis supervised by Prof. Howard Caygill at CRMEP, Kingston University.
• Daniel Nemenyi, 'Submarine State: On secrets and leaks', Radical Philosophy, 193 (Sept/Oct 2015), 2-8. (PDF)
• Daniel Nemenyi, 'Rose-tinted lens', Radical Philosophy, 186 (Jul/Aug 2014). Review of Hannah Arendt, dir. Margarethe von Trotta, 60-63. (PDF)
• Daniel Nemenyi, The Remnant: A politico-Theological Critique (2012). MA dissertation supervised by Prof. Howard Caygill at CRMEP, Kingston University. Awarded the annual departmental prize for Outstanding Achievement in Modern European Philosophy.

Talks and papers

• The Bifurcation Operation: Forking Modernity (co-organiser with Erich Hörl), Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, 26-28.11.2025. (Info)
• 'Cybernetics and Snake Coils', Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, 24.06.2025. (Info)
• Discussion with Joshua Simon on cybernetics, information and AI. Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg, 06.06.2025.
• 'An Unrelated RAND Study: ARPANET and Nuclear Mythographies', Centre for Digital Cultures, Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, 27.11.2024. (Info)
• 'The Question Concerning Machines', The History of the Philosophy of Technology Conference, Maastricht University, 28-30.10.2024. (Info)
• Workshop: What is the University?, Centre for Humanities Research (CHR), University of Western Cape, Cape Town and Boschendal, 12--18.03.2023. (Info)
• 'Simulating Counterinsurgencies in the Sixties: The Case of Project CAM'. The Digital Revolution as Counter-Revolution, Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, 16-17.11.2023. (Info)
• Activating the Possibles: The Humanities and the Task of Social Potentialisation, Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, 6.06.2023. (Listen from 15:00)
• 'Splinternet and globalisation: Two early models of internet opposed', 4S Annual Meeting (167. Splinternets), University of Toronto / Online, 06.10.2021. (Info)
• 'The Conflicting Determinations of Norbert Weiner and Leibniz', Indeterminate Futures / The Future of Indeterminacy, University of Dundee, 13.11.2020. (Watch, info)
• 'Cybernetic Guerilla Warfare', Happy Packet Switching! 50 Years of Internet (co-organiser with Ashwin J. Mathew), King's College London, 06.11.2019. (Info)
• 'Back to Leibniz! The Internet and Norbert Wiener', Leibniz: legacy and impact, Manchester Metropolitan University, 05.11.2016.

Academic appointments

• 2024-2025 > Visiting researcher (Gastwissenschaftler) on the Disruptive Condition research project, Leuphana University Lüneburg.
• 2023-2024 > Research Fellow, Leuphana Institute of Advanced Studies (LIAS), Leuphana University Lüneburg. (Info.)
• 2022-2023 > Postdoctoral Research Assistant in Philosophy: The Pragmatic Genealogy of Concepts, La toupie folle [The Mad Spinning Top]: The Pragmatic Genealogy of Concepts, King's College London. Built a custom Zettelkasten website tool.
• 2022-2023 > Tutor in Philosophy at the Mary Ward Centre, London
• 2022-2023 > Lecturer in Ethics, University of Greenwich
• 2019-2021 > Lecturer in Big Data Methodologies and Technologies Education at the Department of Digital Humanities, King’s College London.
• 2014-2019 > Techne AHRC funded PhD in Philosophy to work on my project, 'What is the Internet? An Ontological Investigation', Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy, Kingston University. The final title of my thesis was, What is an internet? Norbert Wiener and the society of control.

Blog posts

1. An effort, often painful Writing beyond procrastination  >>  February 2021
2. Digging their own graves? HS2 Rebellion and the 'mad risk' of tunnel activism  >>  February 2021
3. Hello world! Launching my blog  >>  November 2020