Industrial Society and Its Future (Are Gonna Be Great!)

“Could the end of the AI hype cycle be in sight?” asked Tech Brew’s Patrick Kulp and precisely on time today here’s a doorstop of LinkedIn-brained crypto-(but-not-too-crypto)-fascism from Egg Andreessen titled “The Techno-Optimist Manifesto.” It’s very long, and you should absolutely not read it, but it’s useful for finally making explicit the fascist philosophy that people like Brad Johnson have long argued is growing steadily less implicit in Silicon Valley’s techno-triumphalism.

“Techno-Optimists believe that societies, like sharks, grow or die,” writes Egg, and Rose Eveleth was already like 🤔:

But before going fully mask-off, Andreessen has some crazy things to say about AI.

But AI can surely help us kill the right people in war much more efficiently, yes? Still, he needs to make a pseudo-moral case to keep pumping cash into the AI bubble, so we get this:

Got that, Untermenschen? Regulation == murder.

But let’s get to the good stuff, in the section titled “Becoming Technological Supermen” (I swear I’m not making this up).

This first two paragraphs here are just bonkers. He’s horny for trains? I guess he saw North By Northwest at an impressionable age. But that last paragraph contains the only quote in the whole piece that isn’t attributed to a specific source, and it turns out it’s not really a paraphrase, it’s a direct quote from Filippo Marinetti’s 1909 “Futurist Manifesto” with “technology” substituted for the original’s “poetry.” I wonder if Marinetti wrote any other famous manifestos?

In case we somehow still don’t get it, Andreessen specifies that “The Enemy” is “the ivory tower, the know-it-all credentialed expert worldview, indulging in abstract theories, luxury beliefs, social engineering, disconnected from the real world, delusional, unelected, and unaccountable…” and then drops an extended Nietzsche excerpt. You know who else hated the ivory tower and loved Nietzsche?

That’s right: Garfield. Less Marinetti and more marinara, Aidan Pollock interviewed GarfieldEATS impresario Nathen Mazri, and while you might go into this profile thinking: “who?” you’ll probably finish it thinking: “who?” but in a slightly different tone. There is still some Marinetti though:

Pollock does not choose to follow up on who, exactly, Mazri thinks is up there in the pyramid controlling this world. I guess we’ll never know.

In New York Magazine Theo Baker, a Stanford undergrad who recently won the Polk Award for investigative reporting that led to former Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne’s resignation for manipulating research data, took a look at the hot streak of fraud Stanford is on lately. I don’t know that anyone would struggle to explain it, given Silicon Valley’s philosopher king up there waving around his pocket Nietzsche but it’s a good summary of where tech culture is at these days.

Intern Meggie we seem to be stuck in an endless Garfield / AI loop today, please tell me you wrote about something else.

Halloween does not officially begin until haunted house daddy Mike Flanagan says it does. Flanagan has finished his rounds at Netflix to critical acclaim with The Fall of the House of Usher, a gothic Succession type series that follows the demise of a powerful family. Based on the Edgar Allen Poe short story, the eight episode arc centers around Roderick Usher, made powerful by seedy exploits in the healthcare industry and the consequences that come of his greed. Namely, the death of his children. One death (spoiler!) involves a face ripped off by a chimpanzee and I need everyone to know. Looks like SOMEONE in big pharma is finally “getting theirs.”

This final installation in the Flanagan universe marks the end of a very impressive six year Netflix run for Flanagan and his creative partner Trevor Macy. Pumping out works since 2018, their filmography includes family trauma masterpiece Haunting of Hill House, Emmy nominated Midnight Mass, and “wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole following a breakup” Haunting of Bly Manor, alongside Stephen King adaptations Gerald’s Game and Doctor Sleep. At Amazon, the duo hopes to finally adapt Stephen King’s Dark Tower series for me, personally.

If you’re looking for an entry point into Flanagan (a new FANagan?) start with Hill House. It is easily the scariest and under no circumstances should you watch it the same way I did (alone in my parent’s basement after being released from the psych ward). 

Happy oversharing Monday!

—Meggie Gates will not be taking any questions at this time. 

It’s an Usher song, get it? Look I really struggled with the Intern tab title. Who else is struggling? Well, Joyce Carol Oates posted hog on main. The Wall St. Journal is disputing a report “that Iran ‘helped plan’ last week’s attack by Hamas” which appeared in The Wall St. Journal. “George Santos Has Meltdown While Holding Mystery Baby.” I can’t even, you just have to read it. Taffy Brodesser-Akner struggled to explain what being a Taylor Swift fan is. After five years the Bad Art Friend lawsuit has ended in a 0-0 tie. And it’s almost exactly two years since that tab happened, so I think we’re all struggling with that.

And finally, it’s not particularly new but I struggled real bad with this "Antidepressant or Tolkien Character” quiz.

Today’s Song: Maximo Park, “Signal and Sign”

Happy Harper’s Ferry Day. Sorry the Tabs are so late, it’s because I wrote them late. Join me on Bluesky: bsky-social-leiip-gwmlc (limit one (1)). Thanks to Music Intern Sam. Come back tomorrow for hopefully 100% less fascism. Your paid subscription is the only thing standing between a smooth reading experience and more annoying interstitial begging so please subscribe while the begging is down here in the signoff, thank you.