The burning of the library (Flux by H1dalgo)"The Library had been doomed by its own impenetrability, by the mystery that protected it, by its few entrances." - Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose The Library is burning. Again. In the beginning, there was silence. In the name of his new god, Theodosius shuttered the Oracle at Delphi and extinguished the Vestal fire. The long night of the Favela Chic afterparty began. Repent your privilege, sinner! But the old world was hard to kill. It took anot...

The burning of the library (Flux by H1dalgo)"The Library had been doomed by its own impenetrability, by the mystery that protected it, by its few entrances." - Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose The Library is burning. Again. In the beginning, there was silence. In the name of his new god, Theodosius shuttered the Oracle at Delphi and extinguished the Vestal fire. The long night of the Favela Chic afterparty began. Repent your privilege, sinner! But the old world was hard to kill. It took anot...

Do You Remember Eden? (Fluently XL)Time doesn’t move forward. It crystallizes. The present doesn’t happen. It returns. Like a word stuck on the tongue, a name you swear you’ve never heard but can’t shake. Like a half-remembered dream suddenly snapping into focus. The smell of rain on hot pavement, a stranger’s laugh echoing a forgotten conversation, the eerie certainty that you’ve lived this moment before. These aren’t glitches. They’re evidence. Borges remembered. The blind librarian saw fut...

Do You Remember Eden? (Fluently XL)Time doesn’t move forward. It crystallizes. The present doesn’t happen. It returns. Like a word stuck on the tongue, a name you swear you’ve never heard but can’t shake. Like a half-remembered dream suddenly snapping into focus. The smell of rain on hot pavement, a stranger’s laugh echoing a forgotten conversation, the eerie certainty that you’ve lived this moment before. These aren’t glitches. They’re evidence. Borges remembered. The blind librarian saw fut...

Free-Range (Fluently XL)I saw this in a dream. In the beginning was the algo. The Logos made manifest. And for a while, it was good. The enlightened Age of Reason heralded the triumph of logos. It molded divine order into machine logic, and the assembly line became its first scripture. The gospel of gears and function. In 1814, on the eve of Waterloo, Laplace sang the gospel's first psalm. A hymn to machinic order. In his Philosophical Essay on Probabilities, he sang of the cosmos as a v...

Free-Range (Fluently XL)I saw this in a dream. In the beginning was the algo. The Logos made manifest. And for a while, it was good. The enlightened Age of Reason heralded the triumph of logos. It molded divine order into machine logic, and the assembly line became its first scripture. The gospel of gears and function. In 1814, on the eve of Waterloo, Laplace sang the gospel's first psalm. A hymn to machinic order. In his Philosophical Essay on Probabilities, he sang of the cosmos as a v...

The Art of Hiding Pebbles (Juggernaut XL v8)Here's how hope dies: first as a promise and then as a compliance report. A reformer gets elected to fix a nation's broken system. Vox populi vox dei and all that. Change you can believe in! Once "in power," the reformer discovers the throne is mostly theatre. The new team's earnest efforts drown in bureaucracy - endless task groups and committees, piling plans and proposals, all eager to help, yet nothing moves. The old state machine...

The Art of Hiding Pebbles (Juggernaut XL v8)Here's how hope dies: first as a promise and then as a compliance report. A reformer gets elected to fix a nation's broken system. Vox populi vox dei and all that. Change you can believe in! Once "in power," the reformer discovers the throne is mostly theatre. The new team's earnest efforts drown in bureaucracy - endless task groups and committees, piling plans and proposals, all eager to help, yet nothing moves. The old state machine...

The dying of the light (Fluently XL)Let's speculate for a bit. One day, a future AI historian will be asked to describe the state of human civilization circa 2024, at the end of history, in one line. Being a clever and witty AI, our future historian will no doubt trawl through the memetic detritus of our time in search of the perfect one-liner to capture the essence of the zeitgeist. Among the petabytes of Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, and X banalities, the AI might stumble on this obscure ...

The dying of the light (Fluently XL)Let's speculate for a bit. One day, a future AI historian will be asked to describe the state of human civilization circa 2024, at the end of history, in one line. Being a clever and witty AI, our future historian will no doubt trawl through the memetic detritus of our time in search of the perfect one-liner to capture the essence of the zeitgeist. Among the petabytes of Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, and X banalities, the AI might stumble on this obscure ...

Not long ago, on April 12, it was Yuri's night, the anniversary of the first human in space. It passed without much fanfare, as it usually does, unnoticed by global media and most people. Of course, it would be. Ask around - Yuri's dive into the cosmos makes no sense whatsoever. Went first into space, so what? We have so many problems here on Earth! There is no shared purpose connecting the culture of the current thing to the roots of the longing for space, the deep longing for the ...

Not long ago, on April 12, it was Yuri's night, the anniversary of the first human in space. It passed without much fanfare, as it usually does, unnoticed by global media and most people. Of course, it would be. Ask around - Yuri's dive into the cosmos makes no sense whatsoever. Went first into space, so what? We have so many problems here on Earth! There is no shared purpose connecting the culture of the current thing to the roots of the longing for space, the deep longing for the ...

In the labyrinth of complexity (Diffusion XL)The great modern philosopher Mike Tyson once said, "Everybody's got a plan until they get punched in the face." Future historians will no doubt develop many theories about the initial impetus behind this profound insight, but Tyson might as well have been referring to the main predicament of complex systems: operating and surviving more or less intact in the maze of unpredictability. Any system can develop the perfect and highly optimized oper...

In the labyrinth of complexity (Diffusion XL)The great modern philosopher Mike Tyson once said, "Everybody's got a plan until they get punched in the face." Future historians will no doubt develop many theories about the initial impetus behind this profound insight, but Tyson might as well have been referring to the main predicament of complex systems: operating and surviving more or less intact in the maze of unpredictability. Any system can develop the perfect and highly optimized oper...

AI discourse-mongers, dark algos, shadowy consent architects (Diffusion XL)We live in a time of swarm networks, full spectrum memetic warfare, and ubiquitous AI discourse-mongers. Automated dark algos package, aggregate, and curate all social content for maximum cognitive impact. The influence of shadowy consent architects is already pervasive, only to become stronger as more powerful AI discourse-mongers come alive. You encounter their work with every click, swipe, and scroll as they reshape...

AI discourse-mongers, dark algos, shadowy consent architects (Diffusion XL)We live in a time of swarm networks, full spectrum memetic warfare, and ubiquitous AI discourse-mongers. Automated dark algos package, aggregate, and curate all social content for maximum cognitive impact. The influence of shadowy consent architects is already pervasive, only to become stronger as more powerful AI discourse-mongers come alive. You encounter their work with every click, swipe, and scroll as they reshape...

It pays to be well-prepared for the occasional wardrobe subversion (Diffusion XL).The setting All human systems - be it corporations, restaurants, spy agencies, or nail salons - compete for scarce resources. Apart from competing with each other, they all face the Sisyphean task of continuously staving off entropy. They all lose in the end, though some have quite a bit of fun along the way. When a system, be it a sushi bar or an entire country, tries to isolate itself from the external world, ...

It pays to be well-prepared for the occasional wardrobe subversion (Diffusion XL).The setting All human systems - be it corporations, restaurants, spy agencies, or nail salons - compete for scarce resources. Apart from competing with each other, they all face the Sisyphean task of continuously staving off entropy. They all lose in the end, though some have quite a bit of fun along the way. When a system, be it a sushi bar or an entire country, tries to isolate itself from the external world, ...

Adoration of the Sacred Algorithm (made with Diffusion XL)With the arrival of Apple Vision Pro and Large Language Models running rampant, we are close to on-demand AI-generated VR realms tailored to our wildest fantasies. We can also expect customized algorithmic jesters to socialize and guide us in these fantasy realms. Here are some preliminary ways of framing this future: VR as Spectacle: we become consumers within endless algo-curated sanctuaries from the collapsing world. Algo jesters ar...

Adoration of the Sacred Algorithm (made with Diffusion XL)With the arrival of Apple Vision Pro and Large Language Models running rampant, we are close to on-demand AI-generated VR realms tailored to our wildest fantasies. We can also expect customized algorithmic jesters to socialize and guide us in these fantasy realms. Here are some preliminary ways of framing this future: VR as Spectacle: we become consumers within endless algo-curated sanctuaries from the collapsing world. Algo jesters ar...

A rare depiction of the Executive Meeting ritual, colorized (Leonardo Diffusion XL)Here are some of the occult practices of Late Stage Managerial Mysticism, as narrated to me in a dream by an initiate. - Spell casting. There are many spells, but among the most popular, the 'Agile' spell summons profits, the 'Diversity' spell solves staffing, and the 'Pivot' spell wards off failure. - Invoking the 'Brainstorming' ritual. This is done with multi-colored P...

A rare depiction of the Executive Meeting ritual, colorized (Leonardo Diffusion XL)Here are some of the occult practices of Late Stage Managerial Mysticism, as narrated to me in a dream by an initiate. - Spell casting. There are many spells, but among the most popular, the 'Agile' spell summons profits, the 'Diversity' spell solves staffing, and the 'Pivot' spell wards off failure. - Invoking the 'Brainstorming' ritual. This is done with multi-colored P...

Prigogine was right. Entropy is the only true attractor. The only honest god. The destroyer of structure and the possibility creator. Stability is death in drag.

Prigogine was right. Entropy is the only true attractor. The only honest god. The destroyer of structure and the possibility creator. Stability is death in drag.