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Category: Modernity

  • Bidenomics? Neoliberalism worked pretty well, actually

    Article posted for reference and discussion, not approval.

    https://archive.ph/ZXP4P#selection-1205.0-1205.42

    Neoliberalism Worked Pretty Well, Actually​

    Yes, the market-driven economic policy of the last several decades left too many behind, but it also spurred historic growth.
    June 10, 2024 at 11:00 AM UTC
    By Allison Schrager
    Allison Schrager is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering economics. A senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, she is author of “An Economist Walks Into a Brothel: And Other Unexpected Places to Understand Risk.”

    Somehow it has become conventional wisdom that neoliberal economics was an abject failure. Like a lot of conventional wisdom, this is wrong. Not only has neoliberalism been a great success, but now is exactly the wrong time to reverse it.
    That hasn’t stopped the bipartisan consensus from forming. Noting that neoliberal economics “left many working Americans and their communities behind,” one of President Joe Biden’s top advisers claims that the administration is pioneering a new industrial policy defined by tariffs and subsidies. Donald Trump promises similar policies, and would even take them up a notch.

    The first problem with these critiques is definitional. Neoliberalism does not mean a strict adherence to free markets, the abolition of state intervention and a cult-like devotion to Milton Friedman. Yes, beginning in the 1970s, there was a general decrease in marginal tax rates, an increase in free-trade agreements, and easier flows of international capital. The so-called “ Washington consensus ,” fostered by institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, preached the benefits of less debt, more trade and reduced government intervention.

    (more…)

  • Vercel’s Proposed Agentic AI Cloud

    The web is becoming a sprawling hive mind of AI agents, and Vercel wants to build a cloud to host them

    The CEO of the cloud-based platform said in an interview published on TBPN Monday that “the world is going from pages to agents.”

    To prepare for that shift, Rauch said Vercel is building what he calls “the AI cloud.” That refers to infrastructure designed to host autonomous agents that can plan, reason, and act independently.

    “Every type of software will become AI native software, and the new primitive of the cloud will be the agent,” he said.

    Vercel is building new frameworks and developer tools to support this next wave of AI software, Rauch said. The company, which powers millions of web apps, raised $300 million at a $9.3 billion valuation in September to fuel that push.

    Many companies will bypass the digital transformation playbook and move directly to AI agents, Rauch said. He added that these agents are already changing how online infrastructure works.

    “Software is running for a lot longer, which is fascinating from a compute standpoint,” he said.

    “We’re seeing all of these new types of software that are just running, like thinking and producing, obviously demanding tokens, but running for minutes, hours, days.”

    Vercel’s chief operating officer, Jeanne DeWitt Grosser, told Business Insider in a report on Monday that the company is training AI agents on the work of its top performers.

    Grosser said Vercel’s “lead agent” handles the work that used to require multiple sales development reps, allowing the company to cut a 10-person team to just one person and a bot.

    Rauch did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

    The era of the agentic internet

    AI agents are poised to reshape the internet, automating everything from bookings to payments.

    The foundations for this new agentic web are being built as tech companies race to claim and establish the early infrastructure.

    OpenAI launched its ChatGPT-powered browser, Atlas, last week. The browser merges internet navigation with the capabilities of agentic AI, and can do basic tasks for users like booking appointments and filling grocery carts.

    In April, Google launched Agent2Agent, a protocol designed to let AI agents talk to one another, share data securely, and coordinate actions across different business systems.

    Anthropic, the maker of Claude, rolled out its Model Context Protocol, or MCP, last November. It links agents to backend systems like databases, pricing engines, and workflows, and replaces the patchwork of APIs and integrations that power most commerce online.

    Last month, Cloudflare said it plans to introduce NET Dollar, a US dollar-backed stablecoin meant to support secure transactions for the emerging agentic web.

  • Claude Desktop and the Weather

    So… it can hallucinate the weather, possibly correctly.

  • The Spack Eco-System

    High Throughput Computing (HTPC) and High Performance Computing (HPC) are not the same thing, computationally. Current business models are more focused on processing large volumes of data (‘Big Data’) rather than doing intense computations on them.

    AI tips this balance. This has implications all the way down the build chain to platforms, compilers, packaging systems, etc.

    Here are three slides that occur early for the tutorial on

    Spack Tutorial documentation

  • Peter Thiel on Orthodox Christianity and the Anti-Christ

    On Peter Thiel’s AntiChrist – by Brad DeLong

    Peter Thiel on AI, Orthodox Christianity, the Antichrist, and other topics (video) | TBC

  • Microsoft Has a Co-Pilot Problem

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/tech…s-of-each-will-clear-up-confusion/ar-AA1NJPww
    Over the past few years, Microsoft has doubled down on its generative AI efforts, especially after making a multibillion-dollar investment in OpenAI. More recently, CEO Satya Nadella indicated that the company was shifting focus from Bill Gates’ software factory vision, diversifying its portfolio into intelligence, integration, and AI.

    Not too long ago, our Executive Editor Jez Corden criticized Microsoft’s branding strategy, calling it poor and misguided, particularly highlighting the rebranding of Microsoft Office to Microsoft 365, and more recently, the introduction of Microsoft 365 Copilot.

    Microsoft 365 itself was an absurdist idea, throwing away decades of cultural muscle memory for what feels like an ideological effort rather than one based on good sense. Calling it Microsoft 365 Copilot, before Copilot is even really a thing, again strikes me as completely odd.
    Exec Editor at Windows Central, Jez Corden

    “Copilot isn’t ready for the prime time in my view, operating as a basic web wrapper for ChatGPT with painfully limited system-level integration, features, and capabilities,” added Corden. And as it now seems, Microsoft seems to share similar sentiments and could potentially be in the process of addressing its over-the-top Copilot branding across its tech stack.

    Right now, two Copilot apps are available across mobile app stores. The first was built by Microsoft from the ground up to meet consumer needs, while the other is a simple rebrand of the Microsoft Office app.

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  • Dugin: War is Ahead of Us

    Alexander Dugin warns that the new multipolar world order is not set in stone and is unlikely to be peacefully accepted, but rather is bound to be shaped through escalated conflict, recalling how historic shifts are decided through the unpredictable unfolding of war. 

    War is Ahead of Us – by Alexander Dugin and Arktos Journal

    A shift in world order usually occurs through war. Very rarely are those who wield global power willing to relinquish it voluntarily. They hold on until the very end, until they are destroyed and reduced to ruins. The same is undoubtedly true today.

    Different twists and turns happen in history, of course. Therefore, one could only hypothetically expect, hope, or at least wish that Western leaders will voluntarily relinquish their hegemony. But something tells me that this is unlikely to happen. And if it does not happen, then there will be war. This war is already underway: the war in Ukraine, the wars in the Middle East. But it is not yet in full force. So far, it is only a harbinger of the huge, fundamental war that will be fought over the redistribution of real sovereignty between the forces that are being demarcated today.

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  • From Fanged Noumenon to Conservative Revolution: Land and Dugin in Dialogue this Sunday

    By Alexander Dugin
    Awaiting the conversation with Nick Land through the mediation of Auron McIntyre I revisit NRx data. The label “Cathedral” seems to me totally inappropriate as term “Empire” by Negri/Hardt or Soral. Great concept of “a degenerative ratchet” is better to call “Republic”.

    Republic is a system of irreversible corruption. Cathedral or Empire can always escape to the Heaven, hide in the spirit, eternity.Essentially immanent Republic can only rot and rot more and more. Enlightenment in no way is medieval Cathedral. Something catholic. Contrary.

    Modernity is essentially anti-Empire and anti-Cathedral. It is Cromwellian ratchet community destined to exalt its small case rationality to the pure repressive Irrationality. The essence of communism is capitalism.

    The will for Republic, the will to rot until the last consequence. The capitalism is totalitarian from very beginning. French Revolution, English Revolution, American Revolution are driven by the will to Republic.

    Republic is political expression of liberalism and democracy, as well as capitalism and socialism (they are just two sides if the same coin). Thus the highest form of “a degenerative ratchet”. I certainly like this idea. Ratchet is right notion. No way back. Fully agree.

    The invitation to unite ethno-nationalists (agent of Deep State) and Ayn Rand style ultracapitalists (libertarians) discredits whole ideology but correctly describes MAGA. They are so limited that any dialogue with them is compromised from the very beginning.

    The traditionalists (theonomists) is something different. Only they really share “a degenerative ratchet” concept. But if they really do, how can they hope for the return? They don’t hope. Consequent traditionalist is much more futuristic as you presume.

    The Eternity is much closer if we move straits ahead than if we try to get back (impossible). Eschatology is essential to traditionalism and fundamental conservatism. Conservative Revolution is the other name. Anglo-Saxons disregard European continental tradition. It is bad.

    Nick Land was very persuasive in Fanged Noumenon. Most advanced OOO thinker. I don’t see the traces of it in Xenosystems. It is pity. I hope in our conversation we could evoke Cthelll, geotrauma, Old Ones, gods-idiots and other illuminated concepts.

    – 30 –

    Nice shout-out to Christian Theonomy.

  • Green Wizardry

    Via: The Autodidact | The Saturnalia | Macrobius | Substack

    https://macrobius.substack.com/p/green-wizardry-vol-1-no-1

    Green Wizardry, Vol. 1, No. 2 – by Macrobius

    Green Wizardry, Vol. 1, No. 3 – by Macrobius

    No. 4 TBD

    Green Wizardry, Vol. 1, No. 5 – by Macrobius

    No. 6-8 forthcoming

  • The Subcultures of Collapse

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/mit-warns-society-could-collapse-by-2040-and-the-signs-are-already-here/ss-AA1LevRc (Limits to Growth)

    https://thephora.net/phoranova/index.php?threads/subcultures-of-collapse.2091 (Discussion of Bendell article below)

    Subcultures of collapse – will there be a convergence?

    My comment:

    Omits, in no particular order: 1/ modernity (everything after A.D. 1000 more or less) is causing its own collapse; 2/ It’s the Jews; 3/ It’s the Communists; 4/ It’s really the Catholics or the British Empire or the Guelphs at fault; 5/ Nothing ever happens. There is no collapse and Everything’s Fine; 6/ It’s happened before. Here we go again; 7/ Trust the Plan.

    But it’s getting there.