LAS VEGAS — There is something unstable at the most basic level about any space with too much capitalism happening in it. The air is all wrong, there’s simultaneously too much in it and not enough of it. Everyone I spoke to about the Consumer Electronics Show before I went to it earlier this month […]

by Delphi Carstens. Hyperstition is a neologism that combines the words 'hyper' and 'superstition' to describe the action of successful ideas in the arena of culture. Akin to neo-Darwinist Richard Dawkins' concept of memes, hyperstitions work at the deeper evolutionary level of social organisation in that they influence the course taken by cultural evolution. Unlike memes, however, hyperstitions describe a specific category of ideas. Coined by renegade academics, the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit (CCRU), hyperstition describes both the effects and the mechanisms of apocalyptic postmodern 'phase out' or 'meltdown' culture.

Half a century ago, Lewis Mumford developed a concept that explains why we trade autonomy for convenience

ChatGPT, Claude and other language models have dominated the mainstream discussions and use. However the future of AI lies in models outside of language.

Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, and business professionals.

Buried in the 8000 words I wrote last week was a worrying story — that Microsoft considered drastic measures to free up  capacity in its US-based servers for GPUs to power the AI boom. In an email shared with me by a source from earlier this year, Microsoft's senior leadership team

Workers, including children, labor in harsh and dangerous conditions to meet the world’s soaring demand for cobalt, a mineral essential to powering electric vehicles, laptops, and smartphones, according to an investigation by The Washington Post.

Or a glimpse into post-entertainment society (it's not pretty)

It's all driven by who gets what

Explore philosopher Daniel Williams' perspective on the multifaceted nature of misinformation as a symptom of a larger societal issue, challenging the notion that debunking and censorship alone can provide a comprehensive solution to this pressing concern.

Silicon Valley has its own ascendant political ideology. It’s past time we call it what it is.

Tesla cars are shoddily built pieces of shit liable to fall apart and malfunction in dangerous ways at inopportune moments. No, this is not a blog from 2012! It is also not a blog from 2015 or 2018 or 2022. It is not even a blog from two weeks ago about Tesla’s self-driving systems killing […]

A Very Niche Foresight Report

Tech's center of gravity has shifted a lot over the past thirty years

Programming Note: Summer Lightning will be on a break till the new year. Thanks to everyone who has supported my writing in the last year. This is the 57th and last edition of the newsletter for 2023. I will pause paid subscriptions, which will resume in January 2024. You can find the archive of posts

Tech billionaires are using faith to solidify their power

archived 12 Dec 2023 14:44:32 UTC

Sam Altman’s weekend of shock and drama began a year ago, with the release of ChatGPT.

OpenAI, Microsoft, and the OpenOffspring

We are told that technology is on the brink of ruining everything. But we are being lied to, and the truth is so much better. Marc Andreessen presents his techno-optimist vision for the future.

The technology has resulted in a host of cutting-edge AI applications — but its real power lies beyond text generation

Technology can realize greatly intensified forms of continuous democratic participation, but such applications must be openly developed and publicly owned.

AI developments that made us spin