Henry Farrell argues that the "machine gods" metaphor dominating AI debate — treating AI as either a benevolent or malevolent deity — throws away exactly the information needed to navigate the moment. He places Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nick Land as the two most influential policy intellectuals in the US conversation, and argues this is not a good thing. The essay proposes an alternative framing of AI as a social and cultural technology rather than a godlike entity.
Why I recommend it: The author acknowledges his own dog in the fight — he and co-authors developed the competing "AI as social and cultural technology" approach the essay advocates for. Programmable Mutter is a Substack newsletter; some posts may be for paying subscribers, but this one is free.
Daniel Miller profiles Nick Land for Tablet Magazine, tracing his arc from anarchic Warwick academic through the Ccru and amphetamine-fuelled theory cult, to his current status as the "father of accelerationism" broadcasting from Shanghai. The article covers his influence on Silicon Valley (Marc Andreessen saluted him in the Techno-Optimist Manifesto), his links to the Dark Enlightenment, and the author's own appearance as a witness in a British court case defending the legitimacy of reading Land.
Why I recommend it: Tablet Magazine is a Jewish magazine of politics and culture; the author is a staff critic. The article is descriptive of Land's influence and does not endorse his views. Some of Land's positions are extremist and anti-democratic.
A curated, uncommercial public archive of the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit (CCRU) and adjacent theory — Nick Land, accelerationism, hyperstition, and 1990s Warwick philosophy. The public reference layer is free; full corpus metadata is available for download.
From the site: An editorial introduction to the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit: what it was, why it keeps returning, and how to move from orientation to evidence without…
