Hello everyone. I hope you’re enjoying the ‘summer.’ I put the word in inverted commas because in Ireland we haven’t really had one. It’s been mostly cold, grey and wet here; unusually so even for the wild Atlantic west. But perhaps I shouldn’t complain, given that much of continental Europe is currently on fire, literally or metaphorically. The latest news from France is that officials are worried about people collapsing from heatstroke during the Paris Olympics. Possibly this may be something to do with the climate change that lots of people are still strenuously pretending isn’t happening.
I’m going away on holiday myself later this week, until early July. When I get back, I’m planning to write something here about nature and our relationship with it: a retrospective of sorts from the place I find myself in now, looking back on my Dark Mountain days. There’s something to be said about what I’ve taken to calling ‘the theology of the wild’, and it’s likely to dominate the future as the Machine continues to hit the buffers and denial becomes impossible even for the true believers.
But more on that later in the summer. For now, this is your monthly opportunity to open a conversation about anything you like. Before we get going, here are a few bits of news from me:
I had a conversation with Jonathan Pageau on his Youtube channel The Symbolic World a few weeks back, about technology, God, nature and the deep need for stories. I always enjoy talking to Jonathan. You can watch our conflab above.
Also available on my own Youtube channel now is a film of my recent talk to the Aldous Huxley Society in Estonia, in which I examined how close to the Brave New World our Machine society is, and also what the differences are from Huxley’s century-old vision. You can watch it here:
Finally, my friend Ragan Sutterfield, an Episcopalian priest in Arkansas, has a new book out which speaks to that theology of creation. His book is called The Art of Being a Creature, and it’s about the relationship between the Christian virtue of humility, and our relationship with nature. I can recommend it: Ragan is a good writer and he digs, quite literally, into the heart of the matter here. You can read more about it (and get a discount) on Ragan’s Substack.
With that, it’s over to you ….
Arundhati Roy has finally, formally been targeted for imminent political imprisonment. Let this be a lesson to any mouthy artist/activist who won't get with the authoritarian program. Empathy is over, and your Booker Prize, celebrated literary prowess, and sense of humor don't give you license to tell the truth about anything:
https://news.sky.com/story/amp/booker-prize-winning-author-arundhati-roy-to-be-prosecuted-in-india-for-kashmir-comments-13153545
Have been watching the goings-on at the bleeding edge of Machine culture and noting some significant things. First, there were murmurings a few years back of trying to impose a ban on AI for military use in things like battlefield drones and robots, but those quaint notions from a bygone era before World War III became so sexy have been thrown aside in favor of a full-on AI and robotics arms race. Chinese robodogs can now reliably put a bullet into your eyeball 98 percent of the time, exceeding human marksmen:
https://youtu.be/tLA6zAGKciA?feature=shared
The US, meanwhile, is planning to overwhelm any Chinese attempt to retake Taiwan with a "hellscape" of swarms of nightmarish AI-driven creatures emerging from the sea to kill as many Chinese as possible. The US has long been world leader in the creation of nightmarish hellscapes so underestimate it at your peril:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/top-us-commander-outlines-hellscape-response-if-china-invades-taiwan/ar-BB1nXHHQ
AI itself is quickly disappearing into the spooky realms of the "security state" and increasingly looks like it will be allowed only to bleed jobs from the last remnants of the working class, but slowly enough to indefinitely defray calls for UBI or other measures that might serve to make life less precarious and miserable for humans trying and failing to out-compete intelligent machines:
https://fortune.com/2024/06/14/edward-snowden-eviscerates-openai-paul-nakasone-board-directors-decision/
Overall, and despite the glossy AI/robotics cutting-edge patina, the Machine wants what it has always wanted: power, control, money, and war without end. And now that the "intelligent robots" have at last arrived, no puny humans will be allowed to get in the way of that agenda any longer.
I just got back from Dublin (happy late Bloomsday) and I was thrilled by the rain and cool weather. But I live in Denver where it's been 99 F and high ozone warnings so....