My February 2023 paper, A Species-level Taxonomic Treatment of the Phalse Prophets with Hypotheses on their Origin and Evolution, sparked a flurry of research activity and a whole new area of scholarship, known as Phalse Prophet Studies. This research, which was covered in season 5 of Crazy Town, a popular podcast produced by my colleagues at Post Carbon Institute (PCI), has shone a spotlight on the absurd and often bewildering behavior encountered daily during this penultimate stage of modernity.
To support the continued advancement of this crucial field, PCI is proud to announce a new program: Transdisciplinary Institute for Phalse Prophet Studies and Education (TIPPSE). And I am thrilled with my new role as the TIPPSE Program Director. The relevance of what we do at TIPPSE was recently made clear by the publication of Cyborgian Marc Andreesen’s The Techno-Optimist Manifesto. Our work countering this manifesto, and many others produced by Phalse Prophets, are an example of Brandolini’s Law, which states: The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it. Given that Marc Andreesen runs a $35 billion venture capital fund, I told the PCI board that my fundraising goal for TIPPSE is $350 billion.
We at TIPPSE have a great challenge, and a tremendous opportunity as we strive to reach our program’s potential. How can those of us who believe in the cautious, plodding process of producing scholarship in the great tradition of honest science compete with bombastic narcissists who share their “insights” with 100% confidence? We understand that in a boxing match between a judicious, peer-reviewed academic treatise and a sensationalistic, authoritative dung heap of wishful thinking, the academic paper gets KOed in the arena of public uptake. So what can we do?
A recently published paper, A Novel Method to Construct a Consilience Manifesto, showcases how TIPPSE is rising up to the challenge of Brandolini’s Law. This was our attempt to mimic the tone, tenor, lilt, and harmonics that typify Phalse Prophet writing, but with a prosocial/non-sociopathic orientation. The goal was to write the perfect (and thus final) manifesto, so that nobody ever needs to write one again. Please, thank you, goodnight, and god bless.
To see this manifesto, read the paper, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Insanis Civitatem, and give us your feedback. Did the experiment work? We love to hear from supporters, who are some of the most clever, wise, quasi-sane, and good-looking people we are aware of. Let us know, how are we doing so far at TIPPSE? Do you have any ideas on what we should do next?
And, most importantly, send us money, preferably lots of it, or put us in your will or donate your car. Or maybe you happen to have oodles in NFTs, cryptocurrency, or virtual real estate that you can put toward the cause? We are far from reaching our fundraising goal, not because we are out of ideas – oh no, money-making ideas are easy to come up with. It is just that every one of them has been rejected both for being highly fundable by venture capital companies and for being unable to help humanity escape its overshoot predicament. Welcome to Crazy Town, where a high score on the Dark Triad test reveals your potential of achieving the life of a “winner” as a billionaire tech-overlord.
Reality break: For more silliness (and maybe an insight or two), be on the lookout for a soon-to-be-released episode of the Crazy Town podcast that explores the Techno-Optimist Manifesto.
