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Culture War Roundup for the week of February 16, 2026

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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.

I think he and Musk are joking.

90s era Nick Land is spectacular, in all senses. And he's probably the most important philosopher-poet for the AI era. Meltdown:

http://www.ccru.net/swarm1/1_melt.htm

Nothing human makes it out of the near-future.

Not to toot my own horn, but a friend of mine turned Meltdown into an awesome song, and I made a crappy AI music video for it.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=UGq_B_C7_Ec?si=YzDgndmJ55OAnlvU

If there's any actually good AI animators out there that want to take a crack at it, LMK

That's pretty cool! I've subscribed. Do likewise if you don't mind: @champagnebulge1