The Gathering Fire
Something beyond history happens in these topsy-turvy moments—a crack in time, a glimpse into another way of being human. The fire is a bridge.
Society featured
The Wild Chatbot
The only way to live in the world right now without touching AI is to rid yourself of all connection to the internet, and I don’t know how I would go about that, nor that I would want to. Given these conditions, it lifts my heart a little to see that there are those willing to try for a trickster move, a way to turn the machines against all of our expectations.
Root cellars vs. money
We are able to see why a root cellar is necessary. We are able to reimagine our path through life so that we are on the sustainable root cellar way, not the way of void following implosion.
Juice: Review
A major new entry to the Oz-pocalypse sub-genre was recently published, which may be one of the most profound works of cli-fi seen to date. This is the novel Juice (Tim Winton, Picador, 2024), which paints a vivid future history of a climate change-ravaged Australia, and wider world.
Rethinking Rank and Privilege in Human Societies
By applying a concept widely used in mathematics and computer science, Carole Crumley has radically changed the way anthropologists see and study societies.
Waste Not
When I talk about being an Earthling, I am not talking about symbolism. I am talking about work and care and the responsibility of being part of a healthy whole. This is what being part of the land means.
The World According to a Member of the Faceless Hoard: Reflections on Collapse, Resistance, and Art
We don’t do this because we believe we’ll win. We do it because survival is about more than resources—it’s about meaning. And meaning is what we leave behind.
After DeepSeek, AI developers are wrong that The Jevons Paradox will bail them out
The dramatic drop in the cost of AI demonstrated by Chinese upstart DeepSeek is great for buyers of AI tools, but very bad for the incumbent developers of those tools.
Learning New Ways of Becoming Human
As anticipated 50 years ago by the Club of Rome, tensions between our ever-expanding modes of exploitation and the finiteness of the planet’s resources have now become a critical factor in the evolution of human societies.
Simplicity and Complexity
But getting back to the matter of simplicity and complexity… the simpler, the more localized and embedded your life, the deeper and more extensive your relationships are.
Nursery Rhymes
Thus, I seek stories that teach humility, and how to live ecologically. The best avenue seems to be stories that come from the tried-and-true more-than-human world, not the self-flattering drivel we fabricate.
Responding to an age of rage
In At a Loss For Words: Conversation in an Age of Rage she breaks down the burning crisis of our time — the rise of authoritarian governments — and explains why we are letting it happen. Reading it, I find that she has helped me with my confusion and invigorated my weary mind.
