The anti-gospel (of TESCREAL + “AI”) // I’ve been trying to write something about the “TESCREAL bundle” but it’s such a weirdly traumatizing thing to think about, no I wrote that wrong, what it is, is triggering. So far the thing I’ve written is very long and weird and if I end up posting it, everybody is... thevalleybelow.id

@lzbth I had missed all of this TESCREAL stuff, but it all makes disturbing and depressing sense.

@davidmarsden i had a friend/colleague c. 2006 who began identifying as transhumanist and talking about sex robots. In retrospect he also started to id as involuntary celibate, indicating early overlap between TESCREAL and "manosphere" stuff. I used to talk to him, trying to pick it apart. Back then it was hard to take seriously.

@lzbth there's a lot to unpack. I can't help thinking it's not the tech itself that necessarily is the problem (although not to deny that it is problematic), but much more deep-rooted and general cultural issues with oppressive western thinking and systems. Not helped right now, of course, by having tower and rocket building "empathy is the problem" manchildren in charge.

@davidmarsden I feel like my whole blog is trying to unpack this question. I agree, "the" problem is a human one, involving the cultural valences you mention. But tech is an ubiquitous expression and enabler of western civ that amplifies effects without (necessarily) cultivating (wholesome) ends, so it calls for special critical attention?

My response got long, (as happens), so it might turn into a post. I hope it doesn't turn into a rant, just know that I'm not ranting at you!

@lzbth well, I'm guilty as charged in many ways, but I am open to learning and improvement!

I don't know, but suspect that "tech" (and maybe "science" also) has almost a free pass from critical attention. It's so very seductive and appealing, no matter how long we have to wait for our promised jetpacks...

I suppose it's the same as when tobacco companies were telling everyone publicly that smoking was good for your health and style, and oil companies were sitting on their knowledge of devastating climate projections.

@davidmarsden I’m guilty too, I don't mean to pin blame. Technology serves us, at its most basic, which is inherently seductive (or useful). But we’ve also been educated to serve it, at the expense of other things... Not just by prioritizing STEM in school and pumping money into innovation, but also e.g. standardized testing to measure children's worth.

Not by accident, TESCREALists are v. interested in standardized intelligence metrics, often related to race. It's not clear to me that race-based eugenics per se is a priority, as it is for "more traditional" fascism. What "the tech" desires is control. (Not for nothing, this is Grimes in the midst of her affair with M-sk. It was a TESCREAL reference that brought them together.) Standardized metrics for everything and everyone provide a basis for AI governance. Algorithmic social media plus "AI" rapidly transform that from a theoretical into a practical basis.

Fossil fuels and plastics pollution could be understood as more examples of serving tech at the expense of (including human) nature. As I interpret it, this is the disturbing essence of TESCREAL, that what many of us see on the horizon as collapse and possible extinction, TESCREAL conceives as technology's progress toward singularity.

@lzbth Thanks for explaining all of that.

Btw, I wasn't going to shoulder all the blame myself!

We're going through SATs now with our eldest and I'm struck by how much of what he struggles with in maths is not the actual maths, but comprehending the structure and context of the questions - many of which appear designed to confuse and trick.

All very upper/middle class, middle aged, white man clever stuff that's very effective at making my bright mixed race boy feel stupid and worthless.

@lzbth agree totally and thanks. Tbh, I wouldn't mind so much if he also learns to do what he's told sometimes!