Zopf ahoi!

To be alive and explore nature now is to read by the light of a library as it burns.

The only way to make things better is to make things worse. That's what one form of accelerationism says: It’s futile to try to oppose or reform capitalism; instead, we have to stomp on the gas pedal until the engine explodes.

Is the enshrinement of free will the massive blunder of liberalism?

Diamonds are neither scarce nor do they have much innate value. Yet advertisers have managed to turn them into totems of wealth. We could use the power of storytelling just as well to turn things around: You don't need shiny things to be happy.

For ages, we’ve assumed that people are selfish, that we’re beasts, or worse. Considering the most recent evidence of science, we can only conclude that this view of humankind is utterly unrealistic.

Do you own your smartphone or does it own you?