Where Are We Going? Decay vs Circumvention
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Ben Landau-Taylor
Investigating power, society, and industry.
Latest episodes
You Can Just Do Things (For Your Friends' Projects)
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Don't Expect Any Gratitude For Fixing Society
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Historical Perspective Is An Antidote To Cope
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There Is No Steady State
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Parasite Load
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If You Build It, They Will Come
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The Fourth American Republic
America is going through a period of political dysfunction and decline.
Blood Without A Contract
When I read the political philosophers who originated modern liberal morality, Hobbes and Locke, I was struck by how they struggle to account for the family.
SNAP-to-Cash: How food assistance vouchers were traded for cash at the Heart of the City Farmers’ Market
At the Heart of the City Farmers Market, Jessica waits in line. She is slouched forward in the characteristic fentanyl fold, supporting her weight by leaning heavily on a wire pushcart. At the front of the line, she produces her Calfresh EBT card. The farmers market clerk charges her card $30 and gives her paper vouchers $30 in regular SNAP vouchers valid at the farmers market, plus an extra $60…
The Lifecycle of an Apocalypse
For as long as any of us have been alive, we have seen an ever-changing series of popular predictions for how industrial technology is about to destroy civilization.
Carroll Quigley on Western Ideology
The following is an abridged excerpt from Carroll Quigley s The Evolution of Civilizations. The whole book is worth reading, and regular readers know that it s a huge influence on my thinking.
The Archaeologist And The Oil Drop
Millikan measured the charge on an electron by an experiment with falling oil drops and got an answer which we now know not to be quite right.
Preserving Text For The Year 5000
My work these days is preserving our civilization s text on tempered glass tablets, to last for future historians thousands of years from now.
Why the New Leisure Class Enjoys Activism and Philanthropy
Full article at Palladium.
Military Revolts No Longer Work
Across the Western world, appointed administrators have gained power at the expense of elected legislators. More and more of the most consequential political decisions are made by bureaucrats and judges, while fewer are made by congresses and parliaments. This trend has been slowly underway since the World Wars, and especially in this millennium.
No, The Black Death Was Not Good For The Economy
People love repeating counterintuitive factoids. People do not love conducting deep historical research to check whether clever-sounding factoids are actually true. A common one is that the Black Death supercharged Europe s economy. This is false.
Why Do Victims of Massacres Go Quietly to Their Deaths?
I often hear that it s a moral imperative to learn from the great 20th century atrocities, that these events are a window into what humans are capable of, and we must find those impulses in ourselves to make sure we do not follow in their footsteps.
Will Future Civilizations Bother to Excavate Our Remains?
Full article in Palladium magazine.
Alignment Research and Intelligence Enhancement: Discussion on The Failed Strategy of Artificial Intelligence Doomers
The people I critiqued in my Palladium article The Failed Strategy of Artificial Intelligence Doomers have responded, and I ll reply to some of that here.