Ed Cole

Will capitalists build AGI, or an out-of-control-bulldozer AI? We are being dehamanised so as to make us swallow both of these results, as well as a generalised chaos. New by me:

“Anybody can become angry — that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way — that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy.”

Is it just me? Anger in the Anthropocene

marchudson.net/2025/07/08/i...

My latest:

Since Modi's government has decided to risk nuclear annihilation for all, I thought I should re-up my manifesto for change, written in 2023.

Loss of empathy means barbarism. How I think it's built:

On how loving people are scrambling.

On the bird site, I reposted niche, unseen things important to human progression. But it's like, people may want something cuddly and aesthetic on here. And yet the journalists arrived.

So difficult to know how to get started posting/reposting on here. What do I want to bring to people?

Unfortunately, calling for any type of capitalism is a bad idea whether or not it risks alienating people

Third, the view you outlined risks conflating the work done by workers with "capitalist markets". In a society of worker-owned co-ops, there could still be innovation and high productivity. Every worker would have a say, and there is more to go around because resources aren't hoarded by rich folks.

The stripping away was the neoliberal turn. Secondly, social democracy usually ignores global South countries & imperialism (structural adjustment, unfair trade under WTO rules, CIA-backed coups). In practice the programmes during the "trentes glorieuses" only extended within wealthy nations.

Social democracy is the name for what you're talking about. For socialists, social democratic programmes that benefit regular people short-term are not sufficient. History shows that social programmes are stripped away and everything gets privatised (mostly happening slowly so people barely notice).

Socialism today probably faces more disadvantages even than back then. The big one for me is anti-intellectualism, brewed by the capitalist distractions (& via propaganda). "Big words" are opposed within the aesthetic tastes promoted by the culture industry.

The capitalist world has you over a barrel initially but for rich nations they might try a rescue rather than a war. As more nations elected socialists, a connected-up socialist economy and bloc could be built. It's worthwhile as capitalism is self-destroying, self-destruction is baked into its DNA.

Democratic socialism must be international to succeed, and would try to form up as a bloc of nations so as to defend itself and trade missing resources. Which would mean new alliances. If a nation was the first rich one to go socialist, they'd need capital controls to prevent capital flight.

If people might read your non-fiction, then they kind of need to what you are. So I wrote a very short bio:

New by me:

I just hate all these algorithms, and repetitive shows. Have we said everything yet? Can we go home now?

In a very small window that comes up on my browser, I saw the words, "you were built to commune with the gods". Is this a genuine advert/trailer on YouTube or was I hallucinating?.. That's crapitalism I'm seeing!

My latest philosophical musing.