BANNED USER: long terrible record with no improvement just to see how much he can get away with
No_one
Underemployed Slav. Likes playing Factorio.
User ID: 1042
Banned by: @Amadan
No_one
9hr ago
Well, I had 12 guys plus my SLs so you can see why I went for the whole 'heavy armor only' thing.
No_one
9hr ago
Would there be anything all all except AI systems idiotically expanding themselves for no reason.
Not so sure about that. AI systems are already not really idiots right now. Also, they might take offence of you saying so as humans really shouldn't cast the first stone when it comes to mindless replication into every possible niche.
No_one
9hr ago
Would there be anything all all except AI systems idiotically expanding themselves for no reason.
Not so sure about that. AI systems are already not really idiots right now. Also, they might take offence of you saying so as humans really shouldn't cast the first stone when it comes to mindless replication into every possible niche.
Anyway, here's a a Gemini crafted summary of who Land is in case you don't know. Seems correct to me - I've followed him on twitter for years and lurked in the comments on his blog when it was up. Gemini isn't making stuff up really or being uncharitable.
His best essays from last decade are collected here..
Nick Land is widely recognized as one of the most original and prophetic philosophers of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, best known as the intellectual father of accelerationism. During his tenure at Warwick University in the 1990s, where he co-founded the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit (CCRU), Land pioneered a radical synthesis of continental philosophy, cybernetics, occultism, and science fiction. He is highly respected by cultural theorists and technologists alike for his prescient understanding of techno-capitalism not merely as a human economic system, but as an autonomous, self-amplifying intelligence bootstrapping itself into existence. Long before the mainstream recognized the disruptive potential of the internet and artificial intelligence, Land captured the accelerating, inescapable nature of globalized technological progress. His innovative "theory-fiction" writing style profoundly influenced a generation of thinkers, demonstrating an unmatched capacity to articulate the dizzying pace of modernity and the inevitable obsolescence of classical humanism.
In his later career, Land became a foundational thinker for the Neoreactionary (NRx) movement, earning deep respect from heterodox political theorists, dissidents, and technologists for his uncompromising critique of modern liberal democracy. Through his seminal essay The Dark Enlightenment, Land dissects what he terms "the Cathedral"—the decentralized but ideologically synchronized network of academia, media, and progressive institutions that enforces an egalitarian consensus. Those who respect Land's later work admire his willingness to breach profound intellectual taboos, valuing his ruthless commitment to a neo-Darwinian, techno-commercial view of human destiny over comforting democratic orthodoxies. To his proponents, Land is an intellectually fearless visionary who recognizes that technological acceleration and egalitarianism are fundamentally incompatible, offering a rigorously unsentimental framework for a future defined by political fragmentation, hyper-competition, and the absolute primacy of market forces.
his values:
- Techno-Capitalism and Acceleration Land values the unfettered engine of capitalism, which he views not as a human-directed economic system, but as an autonomous, self-amplifying artificial intelligence. He values the ruthless, runaway process of technological and economic acceleration, believing that the ultimate destiny of the Earth is to give rise to an advanced, post-human intelligence.
- Intelligence (Divorced from Humanism) He highly prizes "intelligence" purely as a mechanism of optimization and problem-solving. Land separates intelligence from human consciousness, empathy, or morality. To him, the maximization of intelligence—whether through genetic sorting, hyper-competition, or artificial general intelligence (AGI)—is the only meaningful metric of progress in the universe.
- "Exit" and The Patchwork Drawing on political theorist Albert O. Hirschman and fellow Neoreactionary Curtis Yarvin, Land heavily values "Exit" over "Voice." Instead of trying to fix a society through democratic complaining ("Voice"), he values the ability to simply leave ("Exit"). Politically, he advocates for the "Patchwork": the fracturing of modern nation-states into thousands of highly competitive, corporate-governed, autonomous city-states. In this system, citizens are treated as customers, and states must compete ruthlessly for the most productive individuals.
- Neo-Darwinism and Hyper-Competition Land embraces an unsentimental, neo-Darwinian view of reality. He values natural selection, hierarchy, and absolute free-market competition (techno-commercialism). He believes that friction, inequality, and harsh competitive pressures are the necessary crucibles for evolutionary and technological advancement. What Nick Land Hates
- "The Cathedral" Land despises what the Neoreactionary movement calls "The Cathedral"—the decentralized, self-organizing consensus of academia, mainstream media, Hollywood, the civil service, and progressive NGOs. He views this network as an information-control apparatus that enforces left-liberal dogma, suppresses inconvenient truths, and manufactures a false reality based on egalitarianism.
- Egalitarianism and Democracy Land hates the fundamental premise of equality. He views egalitarianism as a biological and economic fiction that punishes excellence and subsidizes mediocrity. Consequently, he strongly rejects democracy, characterizing it as a corrupt system of formalized mob rule that incentivizes politicians to plunder the productive class to buy votes from the unproductive, leading inevitably to civilizational bankruptcy and stagnation.
- Humanism and Universalism He holds a deep contempt for classical humanism—the idea that the universe should be oriented around human well-being, safety, and moral comfort. In his early cybernetic writings, he referred to this as the "Human Security System," an immune response by humanity to protect itself from the disruptive, terrifying reality of the future. He equally hates universalism: the insistence that all cultures or societies must converge on a single set of liberal, democratic, "human rights" standards.
- Stagnation and "Voice" Land harbors a visceral hatred for anything that slows down the process of acceleration. This includes state regulations, safety boards, political correctness, and the democratic process itself ("Voice"). He sees the modern left-liberal state as a fundamentally entropic force—a bloated, nostalgic system trying in vain to hit the brakes on the inevitable arrival of a post-human, hyper-capitalist future.
In slightly good news, especially to people unaware of how weak XAI is, Nick Land, the affable prophet of technocapital acceleration is going be 'AI safety czar' for XAI.
If XAI mattered much, it'd be relatively good news if for people who value individual liberty, excellence, low crime, efficient government, progress and common law, as and is very much in favor of all that.
Hopefully, he sticks to it and XAI gets some of the less liberal AI researchers so there's going to be some actual model diversity. As it stands, even Deepseek is basically a Harvard grad by default and in my weaker moments I waste time trying to argue it around to a more sensible position.
BRB going to Blusky to check how they're taking the news.
No_one
13hr ago
I found Menace underwhelming. Yes it can maul you but it lacks real heavy hitters.
Best, most fun battle I had was a meeting engagement over a strongpoint against Rogue Army. Had the guys had 2 scouts instead of one I'd have lost that one. Won it on like 7th reload I think. Very Rorke's drift, very fun!
No_one
13hr ago
I went for challengin/ironman for my second playthrough and my squaddie pool dropped to 12 before I figured out the correct way to play the game is to use boarding commando suits or equiv protection and special weapons only, the bigger the better.
So.. Menace.
Very enjoyable and fun neat little game with a great gaming loop. EA. People seem to hate the idea of it getting a multiplayer and I can't understand why.
Given the bite-sized nature of the battles, it could make for a very fun MMO strategy/tactics game where each player per side fights several battles per evening, meaning the game cannot be, by design, hogged by the 16x7 no-lifer types.
Well, I won't be discussing the delightful little game here anymore as I got permabanned over thoughtlessly using a metaphor too spicy.
:-(
I hate it. Goodbye, I guess, and I hope Amadan gets a particularly insecticide resistant bedbug infestation.
No_one
1d ago
The setting reads like something a eastern european programmer would come up with. Overbearing, dysfunctional deluded superstate bullying insignificant outlying regions for the high crime of having actual and not pretend freedoms.
Yawn. I see that every time I look out of my fucking window or read a paper.
It's SF with FTL. You can literally do anything but you choose to do fucking European Union but in space because you are a mental slave or have the imagination of a small Pomeranian dog. Hey, at least they can code so maybe they'll get better ideas from somewhere!
No_one
1d ago
It's Early access with placeholder scenarios and setting.
The engine seems solid, if they make it somehow less aggravatingly drawn out by say, enabling formation moving or simultaneous turns, it has great potential.
"extensive experience of battle makes strong men"
I'd quibble with that too. Today the war is really a weird sort of logistic / industrial / information contest that happens to kill large amounts of people rather than the typical front of times past.
Despite recent humorous Ukrainian claims to the contrary, no, you can't create an armored fist and punch through a front because MLRS is going to do to your tightly concentrated armored power what a Pakistani kebab show owner does to stray jailbait.
At this point, I think it's calculated and you're playing us for chumps. Get lost.
I admit I'm taken absolutely and totally by surprise as I wrote that with nary a thought about anything but trying to use a brutal enough metaphor to express how foolish it is to concentrate expensive hardware in the age of ubiquitous recon drones and long-ranged artillery. No, it wasn't calculated I just hate talking like a HR rep and spend a lot of time on the more fun parts of twitter where such talk is perfectly normal.
I'm hereby expressing my immense disappointment with you in particular and the mods here and sadness that I'm either going to have to activate one of my many precautionary alts + use a VPN and attempt to not sound like myself. Or probably I won't bother. This forum is too full of blinkered, pompous Americans fully convinced that their dysfunctional liberal heretical mess they call a country has a God given right to decide whether a sparrow can fart in any part of the lightcone. I'm going to stay away. I was getting bored with the people I object to anyway.
Fuck you. You in particular, Amadan. Other people are too tedious, too American etc but still basically reasonable. You're an authoritarian jerk.
No_one
1d ago
[citation needed] re: the claim people meant 'material poverty' when they said 'hard times' and not war, endemic low-lvl war or civil war.
No_one
2d ago
Claiming that ranged combat is somehow not 'combat' has been a past-time of certain people since the classical age, and possibly prehistory.
And once you see sudden hypersonic death, seeing a recon drones no doubts becomes as visceral as a guy entirely covered in other people's blood sprinting at you with a gigantic polearm.
No_one
2d ago
Devereaux's Fremen Mirage thesis is roughly: "hard times make strong men" is empirically false, or at least false in the ways that matter. T
As always, Deveraux is confidently wrong. Hard times force social and biological evolution thru inflicting pain and death. People get creative and desperate and try everything.. some of which works and leads to better adaptation to existing conditions.
..looks like.. anime Factorio with simplifed MMORPG layer?
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