The Modernity Machine

The rise of AI is perhaps best understood as a working-class positive singularity, as centuries of accumulated technocratic knowledge, in one fell swoop, is gifted to the working classes. It might be compared to the introduction of longbows in our reference period. The models that have been open-sourced are already good enough to permanently weaken... See more

Though the arc is new, the secular trends look like they’re pointed in the same direction — towards continued devolution and decentralization of power. Despite apparent (and mostly unsupported by empirical data) swings back towards hierarchy and centralization, we can expect that in the longer term, the secular trends will reassert themselves, lead... See more

Reactionary tendencies are at a peak now, as they were through much of the birth of modernity, 1200-1400. Many events during that period could be interpreted as attempts by incumbent powers to restore patterns of societal organization from early medieval era or antiquity. Then as now, these tendencies scored several notable victories and temporary ... See more

Monarch-Technocracy : Philip IV’s move against the Templars, who had steadily gained power through the Crusades as a monastic order protecting pilgrims, but had begun to grown independently powerful and wealthy by 1300, was the defining moment for two reasons. First, it acknowledged that political power could arise from codified knowledge (of milit... See more

The main elements of the modernity machine (European edition) are:

1. A secularly shifting balance-of-power configuration of political actors governed by negotiated contractual relationships that systematically favored previously weaker parties, rather than theological axioms


2. The beginnings of what we’d call a technocracy in the form of the culture of

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