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Transhumanism is Occultism
Recently, I have been taking the time to study a variety of occult movements, and I have been struck by the similarity between occult literature and transhumanist theory. On some reflection, I believe that transhumanism can be classified as an occult system of belief. First, what does it mean for something to be an occult… — read more
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Rewilding – A Short Story
My boss got de-domesticated. It’s all bullshit, of course. Just alpha male marketing spin, like nootropics and boner pills, for guys who are insecure. I figured that I couldn’t judge too much, back then. I got my face chopped up in my teens, around the same time I got top surgery. We all do what… — read more
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Alternate Singularities
I’ve been thinking a little bit about the idea of the singularity, recently. It’s a common tech idea, dating back to at least the 80s. The general premise is that computers make research faster, which lets people make faster computers, which makes research faster, until the process starts automating itself with artificial intelligence and then… — read more
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The Holiday – A Short Story
My boss thought that the office needed a morale activity. I don’t know why, and I was in a bad mood after he told us that it was mandatory and that it was happening on Saturday. When he stood in the middle of the office and announced it, things got quiet for a bit,… — read more
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The Broadening of Cyberpunk
I recently read the 2023 novel The Blighted Stars by Megan E. O’Keefe, and I found it moderately enjoyable. It’s somewhere between a zombie horror story, a (very contemporary) romance novel, and a space opera, but it also has most of the characteristics of cyberpunk. So do a lot of novels, these days. In The… — read more
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The Economics of Mixed-Species Societies
Have you ever thought about the problems with doing business with an alien? A friend of mine recently watched the sequel to Zootopia, and he pointed out to me that the economics of Zootopia have to be very strange indeed. The movie is about animal people who all live together in one large metropolis, that… — read more
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Sci-Fi Fiat
I recently read Michael Z. Williamson’s The Weapon, which I discovered after finishing is actually the second book in a series of libertarian military science fiction stories. It had some very interesting elements but was overall fairly typical for that genre, and one thing that the author discussed was the economics of the world that… — read more
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The Philosophy of Fictional Apocalypse Survivors
I am quite fond of apocalyptic fiction, which are works that include the end of the world as a key element. There are lots of these, and they range in severity and details. In some ways, it is one of the classic topics of science fiction. Robert Heinlein covered the topic in his novel, Farnham’s… — read more
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US and Soviet Research in ESP, Psychic Powers, and Psychotronics
I, personally, do not believe in psychic powers. Although there have been a few odd studies that seemed to show evidence of telepathy or ESP, there is no serious evidence that people are able to read each other’s minds, send their thoughts, look at far-away phenomena, or control the actions of others. Except in the… — read more
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Stupid Advertising
Have you ever thought about ad space? We’re advertised to all the time. It feels sort of inescapable. But I think it could go further. Recently, I logged into a WiFi network in a friend’s apartment that was provided by the building. The password to the WiFi was the name of the internet service provider.… — read more
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J. E. Landau 