Post #2765591
2026-04-16 14:38 UTC
At this point, especially with *Fall,* I think he just has a tendency to pick up and run with whatever cool idea techbros are into at the moment without any real regard for how seriously people take it as a belief, resulting in a bunch of conveniently packaged, reader-gratifying ideological vignettes for said techbros to latch onto as a coherent vision and complete the cycle. I don't think he ever meant to genuinely promote the metaverse or digital money laundering or acausal brain hell or space eugenics, but he seems chronically incapable of mounting a systemic critique of any of his subjects in a style that demands a good guy crypto billionaire, likably clueless cultist, or badass geneticist to outsmart the Islamic terrorists, alien special forces, and conniving cosmonauts and save the day.
I do still find it somewhat concerning how many of his plots come down to "80% of everyone are mindless sheeple enthralled by a higher power," though.
Replies (1)
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@mojala@mementomori.social 2026-04-16 14:59
[@it\_wasnt\_arson](https://awful.systems/u/it_wasnt_arson) Specifically Anathem was onpoint for describing AI as Artficial Inanity.