Celebrity, human & divine

In a recent episode of the Allusionist podcast, Greg Jenner gave a 5-point definition of celebrity that resonates with what I said about it in a recent blog post, and supports the argument that tech celebrities can help one think about technology itself.

From the podcast, timecodes in square brackets

[2:15] It requires five boxes to be ticked. Box number one is you have to have unique charisma or a unique persona, something distinctively you. . . . The second thing is, your name needs to be disseminated widely, so that strangers know who you are. . . . The third thing is you need the involvement of the mass media . . . The celebrity can exist in multiple places at once, so they are reproduced and they are disseminated through these large technological infrastructure[s]. Fourth point is a really crucial one: you have to have a fascination with the private life of the individual. The celebrity is not just someone you recognize off the TV, ‘cause that can be renown – and renown is different. Renown is respect or notoriety that is positive or negative, that comes about from your work, from your career, from what you’ve achieved. . . . [4:20] So the fourth box check point is you’ve got to have a love or a curiosity for the personal. . . . [4:44] And the fifth point is the most important of all, probably, and that is, an economic marketplace attached to their fame. . . . Celebrity, for me, is when other people can make money from your fame. When there’s a parasitic economy attached to it. So, celebrity generates capital, it generates money, and profit, for an industry. (At the end of the podcast, Jenner notes that you can’t have celebrity without capitalism.

I wrote in Techies & Myth Part 2: Mythical entrepreneurs:

Why famous entrepreneurs? Because celebrity signifies. If someone’s persona becomes a focus of rapt communal attention, that persona points to something bigger than just the individual.

I think Elon Musk checks all Jenner’s celebrity boxes:

1. Unique charisma
2. Known widely, including to strangers
3. Involvement of mass media
4. Fascination with their private life
5. Marketplace attached to their fame

Steve Jobs comes close. There’s certainly Jobs merchandize, though I didn’t get the sense that the public is/was fascinated with his private life. Ditto for BillG. Once you get to Zuck and Bezos, the case gets iffy for #4 and #5 (though Jeff’s divorce certainly made news).

What’s reassuring is that all five work for ancient gods, too. (Pace Greg Jenner, who defines #5 so narrowly that you can’t have celebrity before capitalism; I don’t think marketplaces require capitalism.). To tick off the boxes for, say, Zeus:

1. Unique charisma – oh yes
2. Known widely, including to strangers – who doesn’t know him?
3. Involvement of mass media – all those bards…
4. Fascination with their private life – which nymph has he raped recently? How angry is Hera with him today?
5. Marketplace attached to their fame – merchants selling votive paraphernalia at every temple.

Marble votive relief with eyes, dedicated to Zeus (Pinterest)

I see this as further support for the thesis that one can use celebrities as a proxy to understand greater-than-human forces like technology.