The Nature of the Unnatural

Consider: we think of paper when made by human beings as an artificial substance – a relatively benign one, but artificial nonetheless – but when made by wasps for a nest, the paper is natural. Every building is artificial, but a beaver dam is clearly natural. A tool made by an octopus or a crow feels more “natural” than something made by a human.

Analysis, Written by: CameronCameron SummersDecember 16, 2020Ecology, Anti-Civilization, Bellamy Fitzpatrick, Bruce Sterling, tomorrow now, Cara Dagget, Petro-Masculinity, Masculinity, Essentialism, Mad Max: Fury Road, Adam Curtis, All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace, EpistemologyComment

The Dumb Cyberpunk Present (Time of Monsters #4)

Cyberpunk predicted in the early 1980s that people would one day live in a world that looked very much like the 1990s. Its authors – led by William Gibson – did this primarily by taking the temperature of the world around them and just predicting the worst non-apocalyptic future they could. It was also the most successfully predictive science fiction movement ever.

Analysis, Time of Monsters, Written by: CameronCameron SummersJuly 29, 2020Cyberpunk, Jobsian Minimalism, Futurism, Mike Pondsmith, Bruce Sterling, William Gibson, The Matrix, Twee, Warren Ellis, Transmetropolitan, PoliticsComment