Aging is No Blessing: “Twentieth-century science doubled the life expectancy of Homo sapiens, but our health still declines at nearly the same age today as it did in 300 BC. We’ve learned to keep chronically ill adults alive, and made some welcome progress in maintaining health. But in 2024, we’re about as likely to develop the diseases of aging—like cancers—if…
Tag: America
ẅ̴͍é̷̞̲͐e̵̺̊͜ķ̷̥́̃e̸͎̣̼͂n̴̬̄d̸̡̈́ ̴̯̲̠̈́̾ĺ̸̯͎̯̈́i̷̻̼̚n̸̰̲̽̈̍k̴̖͆̊s̴̤̓̄: feral rampage, joyous apocalypticism, Texas
Are People Really Fleeing Texas? “…this story needs spicing up. I’d suggest working in some details about millions of feral hogs on the rampage out west, while hunters strafe them with machine guns from their private helicopters flying overhead. ” Avant Garde at the End of the American Empire: “Miami is itself a kind of symbol…
weekend links: the bone orchard, war as divination, punishing wickedness
Don’t Waste a Good Crisis: “If you want to know what might come next, read the memoir of ‘White’ Russian general Pyotr Wrangel, Always with Honor, about the Russian Civil War. I’m not joking.” Godzilla: “A highlight of Heisei period Godzilla movies is Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah. It’s mostly a highlight for being completely bonkers Japanese nationalism. The…
ẅ̷̷̢̟͇͈̒ę̷̵̧̖̫̗̆̊ę̷̵̧̖̫̗̆̊k̶̸͙̭̹͆͟ę̷̵̧̖̫̗̆̊n̷̶̯͉̊̽̐ͦ͘d̸̡̩͍̔ͥ͜ ḻ̸͈ͧ͑̓̓̀͡i̵͓͙̱͚̎͟n̷̶̯͉̊̽̐ͦ͘k̶̸͙̭̹͆͟s̩͙͖̋͛͟: Hyper-Dimensional Perception, When Duty & Instinct are Incompatible, and the Neo-Medieval World Order
Cancel the Election: “Democracy isn’t pretty; make sure the old whore’s syphilis scars are on full display as she gracelessly expires.” Concrete and Glass: “Do you want to know why [JG] Ballard’s late 1960s and 1970s output is based? Because it’s all about unstoppable civilisational decline, and the chances of thriving, despite everything, in the…
ШЭԐԞЭИD LЇЙҚS: Engines of Wrath, Human Violence, De-Extinction, and the Lost Wilds of Earth
AI Pluralism: “We’ve seen in real life, in both legacy institutions and AI, that institutions tend to be captured by ideologies far more irrational, delusional, misinformed, and power-hungry than the average person. The technical details of AI make it so that it is asymmetrically easy to fight for AI to be open to customization and…
ẅ̷̷̢̟͇͈̒ę̷̵̧̖̫̗̆̊ę̷̵̧̖̫̗̆̊k̶̸͙̭̹͆͟ę̷̵̧̖̫̗̆̊n̷̶̯͉̊̽̐ͦ͘d̸̡̩͍̔ͥ͜ ḻ̸͈ͧ͑̓̓̀͡i̵͓͙̱͚̎͟n̷̶̯͉̊̽̐ͦ͘k̶̸͙̭̹͆͟s̩͙͖̋͛͟
2#: Notes on the Desertification of Signs and Men (Some Private Diagonal) After America, Baudrillard often returns to this theme of banalisation. With his Stateside serenity having vanished, he frames the unstoppable advance of the desert of banality in increasingly bleak terms. He speaks often of loss – of the Westerner having ‘lost his alterity’, or sometimes ‘his…
w̴̫̫̬͎̘̻͍̜͉̥̪͇̃̾̑̅̅ȩ̵͚̝̜̣̖͍͈̞̹̼̭̼̯̟̍̃͋̚ȩ̷̦̦̫͉̃̎͒̉̉̊̎̊͠͝͠k̷̡̛̛̯̲͍͉̤̯̦̪̫̳̪͎̦͒̍̂̍̈́́͌́̇̈́̐̈́͜e̸̲̖̝̝͉͈̽̈́ņ̷͈̻̱͙̱̺̣̘̼̰́͊̀͠ͅd̸̰̲̯̤͙̰̮͔̼̯̈́̊͊̀̋͗͠ ̴̠͉̯̗̀̀̓͗̀̍̃̀̋̍̀̈́͒̏͝l̷̢̡̛̟̱͈̰̼̟̜̝͍̝̫̣͔̒̓͘ǐ̴̧̦̝̤̟̙̘͔̼̙͚͌̐͐̔̀̅̈́̕͝n̴̨̦͍̟̺̲̣̻̱̦̥̺̠̜̑̀͌͗͑͌̌̀̽͑́̚ķ̶̡̲͓̪̱̬͇̯͎͈̎͜s̶̩͙̗̆̾̃̑̔̉̾
All Tomorrows Parties: “…What we are catching glimpses of is what [Jacques] Vallée, and indeed [William S.] Burroughs—the greatest American philosopher since William James—described as Control or the Control System (which, as per Burroughs, needs ‘words,’ ‘time’ and ‘opposition’ to unfold).” Covidian Aesthetics ——— Girard and Digital Technology: “The public mainstreaming of runaway social psychosis may…
weekend links
Age of the Corporate Drone: “(Trotskyist James) Burnham…supported what in International Relations is known as rollback, the opposite strategy of promoting regime change which failed in Korea (1950) and Cuba (1961). This attitude was not meant to counter socialism with capitalism, as he considered the latter’s demise a fact. Instead, Burnham believed that the product of capitalist…
w-e-e-k-e-n-d_l-i-n-k-s
America: “The day of the wolf is over. This is the day of the coyote. Small cunning packs that fragment and spread. The wolf was law and order. Tradition obedience and hierarchy. We honor the wolf because he’s dead. The coyote looks up from eating your trash to eyefuck you. He survives.” Delicious Tacos Bayesian…
w͓̽e͓̽e͓̽k͓̽e͓̽n͓̽d͓̽ l͓̽i͓̽n͓̽k͓̽s͓̽
Aesthetic Signals & the Best Aesthetic: “Aesthetics can be seen as a combination of signals, a combination of memes. you need many signals to create a new meta signal, that of which can be defined as a aesthetic. It is mostly praxis based. With things that are action based, you need to convey your signal,…
??????? ?????
Cities and the Balance of Power: “Cities are like massive information-processing units, with real-estate markets revealing the value of being able to access the networks involved. People put a dollar value on physical colocation and proximity to others who have similarly paid a high price to access density. This implicit sorting lies at the heart of…