Andrei Stoica

Entrepreneurs, businessmen and politicians often met in coffee houses. They were pretty tribal in their loyalties too, with specific political parties or trades sticking to particular venues.

They believed, that instead of trying to change the world outside. The new radicalism should try to change what was inside people’s heads. And the way to do this, was through self-expression. Not collective action.

— Hypernormalisation

This idea clearly spread and maintained to the present day. Where putting a graphic on a hat or shirt is “impacting... See more

Another part of what Johnson preaches is staying alive to witness the miracles of the future. Johnson has a long-running love-hate relationship with artificial intelligence. He both fears it and is interested in its power. (Join the club.) He argues that many humans currently walking around Earth will have the chance to live, if not forever, then... See more

In Part III, they continue to work through the ideas of philosophers Martin Heidegger and René Girard, exploring the metaphysics of both technology and desire. “For both thinkers, salvation doesn’t come from technology itself but from a transcendent outside,” they posit. They then cite Nick Land, the father of accelerationism, whose ideas have... See more

There’s a joke around “the best minds of my generation were tasked with getting people to click on ads”. At least you can attribute those ads to powering free global communications, information networks, and technical research.

I’d argue that the most creative minds of my generation were told to believe that creating yet another self-satisfying... See more