Finite vs. Infinite Rewards: The Hidden Structure of Satisfaction

October 13, 2024October 13, 2024

In today’s world, where software dominates much of our interaction with both work and leisure, it’s easy to see why we might expect quick, noticeable payoffs for our efforts. After all, software and its network effects often produce immediate and tangible rewards—think of the dopamine rush of a viral post or the convenience of an app streamlining a once-complicated task. Yet, as enticing as this is, it reveals a fundamental difference between finite and infinite rewards, and how the pursuit of one often blinds us to the other.

Software: Finite Rewards and Diminishing Returns

Software represents a system of finite rewards, characterized by rapid progress early on but diminishing returns over time. When you begin learning software development, the learning curve is steep at first, with large, immediate payoffs. In mathematical terms, this can be modeled as a logarithmic curve:

Here, represents time spent learning, and is the perceived reward. Early in the learning process, there are large rewards for relatively little effort. But as time progresses, the curve flattens, and the returns for additional effort diminish significantly. This is why maintaining software—debugging, updating, and improving existing code—feels like a grind, with each new improvement offering less and less in return.

While this initial phase can be exciting, the structure of software learning means the rewards are finite and immediate, but eventually taper off. The more you work at it, the fewer thrills it provides, and the harder it is to extract satisfaction from it.

Classical Music: Incremental Growth and Infinite Rewards

Contrast this with something like learning classical music, particularly Baroque music from composers like Johann Sebastian Bach. The learning curve for classical music may start slower, but it offers a more sustainable and rewarding structure over the long term. In the beginning, you’re learning basic scales, fingerings, and techniques, which may not give you the immediate gratification that software can offer. However, the linear growth structure of classical music provides steady, incremental rewards:

In this case, the more time you put in, the more proportional your improvement. The rewards continue at a steady pace, and unlike software, they don’t diminish. As you advance, your technical skills build upon each other, creating a solid foundation for deeper exploration.

Over time, learning classical music shifts from linear growth to compound growth, where previously learned skills start to combine in ways that produce exponential rewards. The learning curve now resembles something more akin to:

Here, each new skill enhances your ability to learn and interpret more complex pieces, offering deeper and richer rewards. You discover layers of nuance, emotion, and technique that you couldn’t access earlier on. This creates a sense of endless discovery, making the pursuit feel infinite in terms of its rewards.

Why Classical Music Feels More Infinite

The structure of learning classical music offers a sense of infinite rewards because it continually deepens. Even when technical mastery is achieved, there is always more to explore in terms of musical interpretation, emotional expression, and stylistic nuance. The process doesn’t taper off but rather accelerates as skills compound on one another, allowing for continual growth and discovery.

In this sense, classical music feels like an infinite game—there is always another level of mastery, always a new depth to explore, making the rewards feel endless. In contrast, software feels like a finite game, where the rewards eventually run dry as the curve flattens out.

Calibrating Expectations for Infinite Rewards

This is where expectation plays a critical role. When we expect big, immediate rewards—like the kind software can give us—we inadvertently cut ourselves off from the infinite possibilities of smaller, sustained rewards. We become wired for the short-term rush and lose sight of the long game. The only way to unlock infinite rewards is to adjust our reward calibration: to find satisfaction in the small, the subtle, and the slow. It’s a shift in mindset from seeking large, obvious gains to appreciating incremental, often intangible, progress.

In a culture obsessed with efficiency and instant gratification, it’s easy to get trapped in a cycle of chasing big rewards. But the key to tapping into infinite rewards—whether through art, learning, or any other form of long-term pursuit—is in our ability to recalibrate our expectations. By learning to embrace the small, slow wins, we open ourselves up to a system of rewards that, while less flashy, can sustain us indefinitely.

Hyperreality is Thinning Out:

October 7, 2024

For decades, we’ve lived in a world that is less and less rooted in reality and more in layers of hyperreality—constructed narratives and illusions carefully pieced together by media, corporations, and political forces. But now, in an age where every person carries a camera in their pocket and can broadcast the world’s raw, unsanitized messiness in real-time, that illusion is starting to crack. The precise phrase for this phenomenon is “hyperreality is thinning out.” It’s not an abrupt collapse, but a slow unraveling—a diminishment of the once all-encompassing power of the constructed narratives that shaped our understanding of reality.

The Rise of Hyperreality

It began innocuously enough. News outlets, driven by ratings and the need to capture attention, began to simplify complex global issues into digestible, emotionally charged sound bites. Politicians, marketers, and corporate interests understood this well and saw an opportunity—if they could control these narratives, they could control public perception. They could sell us wars, ideologies, products, and even our very identities.

Reality became secondary. What mattered was the story, the image, the spectacle. We lived inside a machine of illusions, fed daily doses of neatly packaged narratives designed to keep us pacified, anxious, or outraged—whatever best suited those in power. These stories shaped not just what we believed was happening, but more importantly, what we thought should be happening.

The world of hyperreality emerged: a place where images replaced truth, where simulations replaced experience. The news stopped reflecting reality and started constructing it. Elections, conflicts, and disasters were distilled into simple, binary narratives that could fit into a few headlines or a thirty-second video clip. Every story became a piece in a puzzle meant to elicit a specific response—a version of reality created for you, polished, simplified, and pre-approved for mass consumption.

The Invasion of “The Real”

But something happened along the way that no one anticipated. The very technology that the media and corporations had used to spread their simplified realities started to turn against them. The iPhone, with its ubiquitous camera, and social media platforms became weapons in the hands of ordinary people. Suddenly, everyone had the power to document reality as it was—not as it was supposed to be. And this reality didn’t fit the polished narratives we had been fed for years.

In the past, if there was a protest, a riot, or a political scandal, you saw what the media wanted you to see. Now, raw, unfiltered footage floods social media, showing moments of chaos, violence, or injustice that the news often reframes, downplays, or distorts. No longer could hyperreality suppress the real world so easily. The more we saw these cracks in the narrative, the more fragile the entire construct became.

The impact of this was immense. In one instance, a carefully curated news report on a protest framed it as a violent uprising against law and order. But then videos, taken on the ground, from multiple angles, emerged online. They showed something different—a protest mostly peaceful, except for a few isolated incidents, and often those incidents weren’t even instigated by protesters, but by police. The story shattered before our eyes. The hyperreal construct couldn’t withstand the weight of firsthand evidence.

The Collapse of Trust

What happens when people stop believing in the stories they’ve been told? The thinning of hyperreality is leading to the collapse of a crucial element that held it all together: trust. For years, we trusted that the media, for all its flaws, still presented something resembling the truth. But when you can hold reality in your hand, when you can record it yourself and compare it against the official narrative, that trust dissolves.

The institutions we once relied on to tell us the truth are now scrambling to maintain their credibility. Governments, media outlets, corporations—they all sense the shift. They double down on their narratives, desperate to maintain control over the stories they’ve built, but the more they try to hold onto their authority, the more the cracks widen. The footage on our phones shows something far more complex, far more real than the simplistic binaries we’ve been fed.

The thinning of hyperreality is not just about the media. It’s about the entire structure of how power operates in the modern world. When people stop trusting the stories they are told, they start asking uncomfortable questions: Who benefits from this narrative? Why are we only hearing one side of the story? Why are certain stories amplified while others are ignored?

Hyperreality Loses its Grip

As hyperreality thins out, we see a return to chaos. Not the chaos of destruction, but the chaos of uncertainty. Without a singular narrative to latch onto, without the clean, coherent stories that told us what we should believe, people are left grappling with multiple versions of reality. It’s disorienting. It’s messy. And it’s more real than anything we’ve experienced in decades.

The iPhone, in many ways, is a perfect symbol of this shift. It’s the device that both created and is now dismantling hyperreality. At first, it was part of the spectacle, a tool for consuming endless streams of curated content. But now, it’s the very thing that exposes the cracks in the illusion. Each unfiltered video, each firsthand account, chips away at the carefully constructed narratives that once seemed so unshakeable.

The Ozone Layer of Illusions

Hyperreality is thinning out like the ozone layer—a once-impenetrable shield, now riddled with holes. For decades, this layer, made up of carefully crafted narratives, protected us from the full force of the real world. It insulated us from complexity, ambiguity, and truth. But like the ozone, hyperreality’s protective membrane is wearing thin, exposing us to harsh realities we were once shielded from. And what’s causing this thinning? Ironically, it’s the very devices we carry in our pockets—the iPhones, the smartphones—that we once thought would reinforce these illusions. But instead, they’re turning into magnifying glasses, focusing the light of reality and setting fire to the ants scurrying beneath the surface.

The metaphor is stark. These phones, which were initially tools to consume hyperreality, are now instruments of destruction, burning through the simulacra that have shaped our perceptions for so long. Like a child holding a magnifying glass to the sun, our phones capture reality in all its unfiltered, uncomfortable intensity. And the hyperreal ants, running in circles, once content in their controlled, manufactured world, are now catching fire.

The Ozone Layer of Illusions

Think of the hyperreal as the ozone layer. Just as the actual ozone layer protects us from the sun’s ultraviolet rays, hyperreality protects us from the unmediated real. It filters, refracts, and diffuses the harshness of the world into something palatable, something we can consume without being overwhelmed. For years, it kept the uncomfortable truths at bay, allowing us to live inside a reality that was softened, smoothed over, and simplified. The news was part of this, of course, but so were entertainment, politics, advertising—all of it working together to build a coherent story that made sense of a world that often didn’t.

The holes in the ozone started small. A viral video here, a piece of leaked footage there. At first, these breaches in hyperreality were dismissed, framed as anomalies, easily ignored. But over time, the gaps widened. The flood of iPhone footage—the protests, the police brutality, the wars, the disasters—began to burn through the surface. It wasn’t just that people were seeing something different from the mainstream narrative. It was that they were seeing it for themselves.

The Magnifying Glass Effect

Phones, those sleek little devices designed to distract us from reality, have become magnifying glasses, focusing the light of truth into beams that burn through the paper-thin layers of illusion. The ants in this metaphor—the media, the corporations, the politicians—scurry to put out the fires, but they can’t keep up. The more they try to maintain control over the narrative, the faster the fires spread.

Think of the protest videos that emerge on social media. In the past, a protest could be framed by the news as either a noble cause or a dangerous riot, depending on the agenda of the broadcaster. The hyperreal story was all we had. But now, thousands of videos captured by ordinary people—raw, unedited, unfiltered—are uploaded in real-time. No amount of narrative control can contain the chaotic truth that these videos reveal. They magnify the reality on the ground, making it impossible to ignore the inconsistencies, the lies, the oversimplifications that the hyperreal version of events had once sold us.

The Destruction of Simulacra

This process is setting the simulacra on fire. The polished, constructed realities that we were once content to accept are being scorched by the glare of real evidence. Politicians who once spoke in soundbites crafted by PR teams now face live, unfiltered scrutiny. A speech that is carefully framed on the evening news can be undone by a single video clip taken from a different angle, showing the messy truth that was conveniently left out. The hyperreal image collapses under the weight of the real footage, and the ants keep burning.

The same is true for corporations, whose carefully constructed brand identities can be torn apart by a single viral video of factory conditions, environmental destruction, or employee mistreatment. The once carefully managed image, built over decades of hyperreal advertising, goes up in flames in a matter of minutes. The magnifying glass effect is relentless, and no amount of damage control can fully extinguish the fire.

The Death of Coherence

What’s truly unsettling about this process is that it doesn’t lead to a simple, new truth. It doesn’t replace one story with another. Instead, it reveals the messiness, the chaos, the uncontrollable nature of reality. Hyperreality, for all its faults, gave us a sense of coherence. It told us what was happening, what should be happening, and how we should feel about it. But now, with the ozone layer of illusions thinning out, we’re left with multiple, conflicting realities, none of which fit neatly into the prepackaged narratives we’ve grown used to.

This is why it feels like the world is becoming more chaotic. It’s not that the world itself is necessarily more unstable; it’s that the stories that once made sense of it are falling apart. The iPhone footage, the unfiltered evidence, is showing us a world that doesn’t fit the hyperreal mold. We’re seeing the complexity, the ambiguity, the contradictions that hyperreality once smoothed over.

Hyperreality is Thinning Out: The Ozone Layer of Illusions

But what’s really gone is the illusion of control and separateness. For years, we were fed the comforting belief that our lives, our societies, could be neatly divided into separate spheres—public and private, local and global, online and offline. The news itself reinforced these boundaries, creating the sense that we could observe the world from a distance, from the safety of our homes, and that the stories on the screen were happening “out there,” somewhere beyond our immediate experience. It was a form of control, not just over the narrative, but over our sense of place in the world.

Now, that illusion is shattering. The thinning of hyperreality has revealed not just the chaos and contradictions of the real world, but the deep entanglement that connects everything. There is no “out there” anymore. The iPhone footage, the constant flood of firsthand evidence, has collapsed the distance between observer and event. We’re no longer just spectators of the world’s dramas; we are entangled in them, woven into the same fabric as the events we once thought we were merely watching.

Enter Entanglement

The rise of entanglement is perhaps the most unsettling aspect of hyperreality’s decline. It’s not just that we’re seeing more of reality; it’s that we are implicated in it. The neat boundaries between “us” and “them,” between the safe domestic sphere and the dangerous outside world, are dissolving. The phone in your hand, the same device that connects you to the stories of distant wars, protests, and disasters, is also a tool of participation. When you record a moment, when you upload it to social media, you become part of the story. You can no longer pretend that what happens on the screen has no bearing on your life or your choices.

This entanglement goes far deeper than just sharing or witnessing. It’s about how the systems that govern our lives are interconnected in ways that hyperreality always tried to hide. Climate change, global capitalism, social inequality—these are not separate, distant problems happening to other people. They are the threads that tie us all together, and the more we see of the real world, the more we are forced to confront the fact that we are part of these systems, whether we like it or not.

The smartphone footage of a protest in a distant city doesn’t just inform us; it reminds us that the same forces driving that protest are present in our own lives. The exploitation of labor that fuels a factory collapse in one part of the world is linked to the products we use every day. The illusion of separateness, the comforting belief that we can observe these events from a safe distance, is gone. We are all entangled in the same global web of cause and effect.

The Illusion of Control

The thinning of hyperreality is also exposing the myth of control. For years, media and technology worked together to reinforce the idea that we were in control of our realities. We could curate our news feeds, choose which stories to follow, and craft our own online personas, all while maintaining a sense of personal agency and autonomy. But as the hyperreal narratives crumble, it’s becoming clear that this sense of control was always an illusion.

The world is not a carefully managed simulation that we can adjust to our liking. It’s a chaotic, interconnected system where events in one part of the globe can trigger consequences in another, where the actions of corporations, governments, and individuals are inextricably linked. And as we witness these connections more clearly, through the lens of iPhone footage and citizen journalism, the comforting fiction of control starts to unravel.

The phone in your hand, the very device that once made you feel like a sovereign consumer, now reveals just how little control you really have. It’s not just that you’re seeing reality more clearly—it’s that reality is pushing back, reminding you that you are part of a system that operates far beyond your control. The climate crisis, the economic instability, the social unrest—these are not things you can manage by simply choosing the right news sources or staying informed. They are forces that entangle you, whether you’re aware of it or not.

The Collapse of Individuality

This entanglement is leading to the collapse of another cherished illusion: individuality. For years, hyperreality sold us the idea that we were all unique, self-contained individuals, able to shape our own destinies. But the thinning of hyperreality is revealing the deep interconnectedness of everything, and with it, the uncomfortable truth that individuality itself is a fiction.

In a world where every action is connected to countless others, where the choices we make are shaped by forces far beyond our control, the idea that we are autonomous individuals making free choices starts to seem absurd. The iPhone footage of distant tragedies and protests doesn’t just show us the world—it shows us our place in it. We are not outside observers, free to craft our own narratives; we are part of the same tangled web of causes and effects, caught up in a system that is far larger than any of us.

The collapse of individuality is unsettling, but it’s also liberating. In a world where hyperreality once imposed rigid narratives and controlled perceptions, the thinning of those layers offers a chance to see things as they really are. The world is messy, interconnected, and chaotic, and we are all part of it. There’s no escape into the neat, curated worlds of hyperreality anymore. But in this entanglement, there is also a kind of freedom—the freedom to acknowledge the complexity of the world and to find new ways of being within it.

The Future of Entanglement

As hyperreality continues to thin out, the future will be defined by this entanglement. The illusion of separateness and control is gone, but that doesn’t mean we are powerless. In fact, the thinning of hyperreality opens up new possibilities for action. As the real world becomes more visible, as the connections between us become clearer, we have the chance to reimagine how we relate to one another and to the systems that shape our lives.

The iPhone, the very device that once seemed like a tool of distraction, is now a tool of entanglement. It connects us to the world, not just as consumers of information but as participants in the unfolding reality. The question now is whether we will continue to burn in the magnified light of this new reality or whether we will find new ways to navigate the complexity, to embrace the messiness of the real, and to build a future that acknowledges our deep, inescapable connections to one another.

In this new landscape, the hyperreal narratives that once made sense of the world are gone. But in their place, there is a chance to build something new—something more honest, more connected, and perhaps even more hopeful.

Entanglement theory is contrary to all libertarian tenets

October 7, 2024

Entanglement theory spits in the face of libertarian delusions, shattering their fantasy of pristine individualism. Turns out, the universe doesn’t give a damn about your “personal autonomy”—everything’s tangled in an invisible web, whether you like it or not. While libertarians preach self-reliance, quantum mechanics laughs and reminds them that no one, not even a particle, stands alone.

1. Radical Individualism – Libertarians idolize the individual as completely autonomous, while quantum physics shows that even at the subatomic level, particles are entangled, existing in relation to each other.

2. Free Will as Supreme – The libertarian ideal of total free will clashes with quantum uncertainty and probability, where outcomes aren’t determined by choice but by chance and entanglement.

3. Cause and Effect is Always Local – Libertarians believe in direct cause and effect. But quantum physics has demonstrated that entangled particles influence each other instantaneously, even across vast distances—no locality required.

4. Self-Ownership – Libertarians claim people (or particles, in this case) can entirely own themselves. But quantum entanglement shows that no particle is truly independent, so the concept of “self-ownership” is blurry at best.

5. Rational Decision-Making – Libertarians often believe in the supremacy of reason and predictability in decision-making, yet quantum physics is governed by randomness and uncertainty.

6. Non-interventionism – Libertarians argue for minimal interference, but quantum particles meddle in each other’s states constantly, proving that even on a fundamental level, there’s no such thing as non-intervention.

7. Absolute Property Rights – In a libertarian view, what’s yours is yours. But in the quantum world, particles share properties across vast distances, violating this sense of ownership.

8. Isolationist Independence – The idea that one can exist in isolation crumbles when quantum particles show they are intrinsically linked, where one’s state affects the other, no matter how far apart.

9. Objective Reality – Libertarians believe in concrete, objective realities, yet quantum mechanics reveals that reality changes based on observation, upending the notion of a stable, absolute world.

10. Linear Time and Progress – Libertarians see time and progress as linear and cumulative. Quantum theory throws that out the window, showing that at a fundamental level, time can be fluid, and effects can precede causes.

Robots with Passion: How Creators, Platforms, and the Lizard Brain Redefine Creativity

September 30, 2024

In the digital age, creators have become central to the success of platforms like Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram. Yet, many of these creators would not pass the Turing test, a benchmark for determining whether artificial intelligence can imitate human intelligence to the point of being indistinguishable from a real person. Their content often feels robotic, repetitive, and predictable, crafted to appeal to algorithms and engagement metrics. Despite this, creators still seem driven by genuine passion—a passion that, paradoxically, taps into our most primal instincts, appealing not to deep intellectual or emotional needs but to the impulses of the “lizard brain.” This dynamic creates an ecosystem where creativity is simultaneously present and absent, where platforms are not mediums for true innovation but rather simulacra—copies of copies that reinforce low-level, repetitive behaviors. This essay explores how creators failing the Turing test, the medium as a simulacrum, and the connection between the Turing test and the lizard brain redefine creativity in the digital world.

Creators Failing the Turing Test

Creators today often seem more like bots than humans. They produce content that follows established trends, predictable patterns, and formulas optimized for engagement. Whether it’s a catchy TikTok dance, an influencer’s unboxing video, or a meme that spreads like wildfire, much of the content feels mechanized. This predictability means many creators would fail the Turing test, which evaluates whether a machine can generate responses indistinguishable from those of a human. Their content is algorithm-driven, repetitive, and, crucially, lacks the kind of depth, complexity, and nuance we associate with true human creativity.

Despite their “robotic” nature, these creators still display passion. This passion often manifests in their dedication to their craft and their hunger for recognition, likes, and shares. But rather than a passion for genuine artistic expression, it is a passion for engagement—an emotional energy channeled into producing content that adheres to the platform’s metrics of success. In this sense, these creators resemble “robots with passion,” operating within a system that rewards formulaic output but fueled by an authentic drive for attention and validation.

How are those Turing incomplete?

These examples highlight why a creator might be considered “Turing incomplete,” or lacking the full range of human creativity, depth, and unpredictability. Let me clarify how each relates to this concept:

Repetitive Content: Lacks the ability to generate new, unexpected ideas—behaves like a looped algorithm rather than a creative mind.
Formulaic Structure: Follows fixed, predictable patterns, just like a machine running predefined instructions, missing the spontaneity of human thought.
Over-reliance on Trends: Mimics what’s popular without independent, original expression—operating like a bot that echoes existing data without new input.
Shallow Emotional Engagement: Doesn’t create meaningful emotional depth, which machines often fail to understand or convey authentically.
Minimal Personal Input: Feels generic and impersonal, similar to a computer-generated output that lacks human individuality or nuance.
Automated Responses: Interactions feel scripted, as though they follow a predetermined logic path, rather than spontaneous human interaction.
Clickbait-Driven: Content is optimized for metrics, like a machine would do for efficiency, without focusing on meaningful engagement.
Lack of Nuance: Stays on the surface without exploring complex emotions or ideas—machines often struggle with nuance and subtlety.
Emotionless Delivery: Lacks authentic human warmth or passion, resembling a robotic or emotionless response typical of AI.
No Creative Risk: Avoids innovation or boldness, behaving conservatively like an algorithm designed to minimize error, rather than an unpredictable human.

“Turing completeness” refers to the theoretical ability to perform any calculation or process. By being “Turing incomplete,” these creators are constrained by patterns and algorithms, unable to express the full range of human creativity and complexity.

The Medium as a Simulacrum of Reality

To understand why creators would fail the Turing test, we must first examine the nature of the medium itself. Social media platforms are not true reflections of reality; instead, they are simulacra—copies of copies that distort the original. A simulacrum, as theorized by the philosopher Jean Baudrillard, is a representation of reality that becomes detached from its original meaning, creating a hyperreality where only surface-level appearances matter. In this context, platforms like Instagram and TikTok are not venues for raw, authentic creativity but rather digital arenas where creators replicate the most engaging, shareable content over and over.

Within this simulacrum, true creativity is stifled. Originality and depth give way to what is easily replicable, scalable, and algorithm-friendly. Content becomes a “copy of a copy,” as creators churn out slight variations of trending formats to stay relevant. This system rewards not innovation but adherence to patterns, meaning creators who might once have been trailblazers are now reduced to following formulas dictated by algorithms and audience preferences. The result is a medium where creativity exists in a flattened, diluted form—passionate, but lacking the depth that comes from true artistic exploration.

This raises a fascinating question about whether digital platforms, by their very nature, reduce creativity to something more mechanical, or if there’s still room for raw, authentic expression—even if it’s filtered through a formulaic lens. It’s almost a paradox: the creators are simultaneously constrained and yet deeply passionate about what they’re doing.

The Turing Test and the Lizard Brain

The reason creators thrive within this simulacrum, despite failing the Turing test, lies in their appeal to the lizard brain—the most primal part of human psychology, responsible for basic survival instincts and emotional reactions. The lizard brain responds to immediate gratification, simple emotional stimuli, and repetition, making it the perfect target for the kind of content produced by creators who cater to algorithms.

Creators who wouldn’t pass the Turing test are masters at appealing to the lizard brain. Their content is designed to trigger basic emotional responses—whether it’s laughter, outrage, or curiosity—without requiring deeper thought or reflection. The formulas they follow tap directly into our desire for quick, easy consumption: short bursts of pleasure, excitement, or validation that keep us scrolling, liking, and sharing. In this sense, creators’ passion is not an expression of intellectual or artistic depth, but rather a primal energy channeled into generating content that resonates with the lizard brain’s need for instant gratification.

This appeal to the lizard brain helps explain why platforms favor creators who wouldn’t pass the Turing test. Predictable, formulaic content maximizes user engagement by hooking into basic emotional responses, much like an algorithm optimizes for clicks and views. These creators are, in essence, digital lizard-brain whisperers, producing content that feeds our most instinctual desires while avoiding the complexity and unpredictability of more sophisticated, creative endeavors.

If we consider the passion displayed by many creators as an appeal to our “lizard brain,” it adds a whole new dimension to the discussion about creators failing the Turing test. The lizard brain—referring to the primal part of our brain responsible for basic survival instincts and emotional reactions—responds strongly to immediate gratification, simple emotional stimuli, and repetition. When creators tap into this part of the human psyche, it explains how even seemingly robotic content can resonate with audiences.

Here’s how this concept interrelates with the idea that creators wouldn’t pass the Turing test:

1. Formulaic Content and Primal Appeals

The repetitive, predictable content creators produce aligns well with the way our lizard brain processes information. Platforms and creators often rely on triggering our basic instincts—pleasure, fear, excitement—through emotionally charged or easily digestible material. This kind of content doesn’t need deep complexity; it’s designed to trigger instant emotional reactions like laughter, outrage, or curiosity, much like how a machine might optimize for engagement.

2. Passion as a Trigger

The passion creators display isn’t necessarily a reflection of deep, intellectual or artistic fervor; rather, it often taps into raw, instinctual emotions. Their passion—whether for virality, attention, or recognition—mirrors the same basic emotional responses they aim to evoke in their audience. This mutual appeal to primal emotions—whether excitement, anger, or validation—keeps the creator-audience feedback loop alive, even if the creative process itself seems robotic.

3. Engagement Metrics as a Lizard Brain Hook

Creators who fail the Turing test may appear robotic because their content is optimized for engagement metrics, which tend to target the lowest common denominator of human experience. This often means appealing directly to our lizard brain, using tactics such as:

Sensationalism: Dramatic or shocking content captures immediate attention.
Gratification Loops: Quick bursts of pleasure (likes, shares, comments) reinforce repetitive behaviors.
FOMO (Fear of Missing Out): Triggering anxiety about missing trends or cultural conversations.

This kind of content, while passion-driven, thrives on simple stimuli that hijack basic, instinctual reactions rather than engaging deeper cognitive or emotional responses.

4. The Paradox of Passion

The passion seen in creators—those “robots with passion”—may not be a sign of intellectual creativity, but rather a primal energy directed towards gaining attention, influence, and validation. This type of passion doesn’t necessarily involve deeper reflection or innovation, but instead works as a powerful driver to appeal to the lizard brain of their audience, reinforcing repetitive content cycles.

In this sense, the creators’ passion is a kind of “energy without depth.” They are deeply invested in evoking strong reactions but in a way that often relies on primal emotions rather than nuanced, thought-provoking content. Their work may be repetitive or mechanical, but the emotional charge behind it is real—and, crucially, effective at tapping into the lizard brain.

5. Appealing to Algorithms and the Lizard Brain

Algorithms themselves could be seen as digital reflections of the lizard brain—they operate on a base level of simple, immediate reactions: more clicks, more engagement, more watch time. Creators, knowingly or unknowingly, optimize their content to feed these algorithms, which, in turn, appeal to the audience’s base instincts.

This creates a feedback loop:

Creators produce content optimized for primal reactions.
Algorithms boost content that triggers those reactions.
Audiences respond with instant gratification, feeding the cycle.

In this sense, creators who wouldn’t pass the Turing test are actually masters of lizard-brain engagement, making them valuable assets to platforms.

6. Lizard Brain as the Ultimate Creative Constraint

This focus on appealing to the lizard brain can be seen as the ultimate constraint on creativity. True creativity often involves depth, complexity, and novelty, which go beyond basic emotional responses. But in the commodified digital world, where platforms favor immediate emotional hooks, creators are limited by the need to appeal to our primal instincts.

This brings us back to the idea that true creativity may not be possible in a medium that is a simulacrum of the real world. If creators are locked into this endless cycle of appealing to the lizard brain, they become constrained by the platform’s demand for high engagement, low risk, and formulaic output. Their creativity is reduced to triggering basic emotional responses over and over, much like a machine performing a repetitive task.

Conclusion: Lizard Brain, Passion, and the Turing Test

When we view the passion of creators as an appeal to our lizard brain, it reframes the idea of “robots with passion.” These creators might seem robotic because their content is optimized for predictability and emotional triggers. Yet, their passion is real—it’s a drive to elicit primal reactions from an audience that craves instant gratification. In this sense, their content, while formulaic, is highly effective at engaging the lizard brain of the viewer, creating a powerful but shallow emotional connection.

Ultimately, creators who wouldn’t pass the Turing test may thrive in a digital ecosystem that rewards lizard-brain appeals. While this system limits true creativity, it allows for a different kind of passionate expression—one that is raw, repetitive, and designed to engage our most basic instincts.

The Creative Paradox: Robots with Passion

The irony of this system is that while creators operate in a robotic, repetitive way, their passion remains genuine. These “robots with passion” are deeply invested in their work, even if that work is constrained by the limits of a simulacrum. Their passion is not for pushing the boundaries of creativity but for capturing the attention of their audience, which often means appealing to the lowest common denominator of human experience: our lizard brain instincts.

This creates a paradox in the digital age. On one hand, platforms have become ecosystems where formulaic content thrives, and creativity is reduced to what can be replicated, scaled, and monetized. On the other hand, creators still exhibit real emotional energy, dedicating themselves to mastering the system and generating engagement. Their passion is real, but the medium in which they work—this simulacrum of reality—limits the expression of true, boundary-pushing creativity.

Conclusion: A Creativity Constrained by the Digital Simulacrum

In the world of social media platforms, creativity is simultaneously alive and stifled. Creators who wouldn’t pass the Turing test thrive by appealing to our lizard brain, using formulaic, predictable content to trigger instant emotional responses. Their passion, while real, is directed toward generating engagement rather than exploring new creative frontiers. Meanwhile, the medium itself—being a simulacrum of reality—limits true artistic expression by rewarding replication over innovation.

In this ecosystem, the boundary between human and machine becomes blurred. Creators operate like robots, following patterns optimized for engagement, yet their passion for their craft adds a layer of human emotion. They are, in a sense, “robots with passion”—caught between the mechanical demands of the platform and their own drive to create. True creativity, however, remains elusive in this simulacrum, as the digital world prioritizes the engagement of the lizard brain over the deeper complexities of human imagination.

Mainstream Monoculture

September 20, 2024

The mainstream molds us like clay, shaping us into a monoculture—an artificial orchard of uniformity. Each of us, like the rows of apple trees, stands neatly in line, subject to the same pesticides that poison our authenticity. Our minds, pruned and cut, are directed to grow in ways that serve a larger machinery. This training—this mutilation—teaches us to sing a song that is not our own. It is a hollow chant, a murmur in the wind, devoid of soul.

We become like these trees, standing tall but hollow inside. Our branches, where individuality once blossomed, wither. Our roots, that once dug deep into the rich soil of culture, decay. The earth’s pulse, which once throbbed beneath our feet, becomes distant, obscured by the endless hum of the system.

We crave connection, not only with each other but with the infinite energy of the soul. But we forget, blind as we are, that we too are creatures of the soil. The earthworm does not ask for its place in the soil; it simply is. We too are woven into this web of life, but our grounding, our natural place, is severed. Until we remember this connection, we will remain as sickly branches, reaching but never touching the sky, planted but never nourished.

Yet the soil, ever patient, waits. Beneath the layers of concrete and conformity, it still hums with the song we have forgotten. The earthworm moves in silence, reminding us that real transformation begins not from above, where the light dazzles and blinds, but from below, where the unseen roots stir in the dark, where the unseen work of decay and regeneration never ceases. The mainstream tells us that light alone brings life, but it is the interplay of light and dark, of sun and soil, that truly sustains growth.

As we lose ourselves in the mainstream’s illusion, we forget that the soul, like the roots of an ancient tree, knows how to find the water beneath the surface. But we must be willing to descend. We must unlearn the song we’ve been taught and listen for the deeper rhythm, the ancient pulse of the earth. Only then can we remember that we, too, are part of this cycle—not just observers, but participants, connected to the seasons and the soil.

The mainstream would have us believe that our growth must be uniform, orderly, and directed. But real growth—true flowering—comes from chaos, from surrendering to the wildness within. It is not in the manicured field that we find our true nature, but in the untamed forest, where each tree grows according to its own design, unpruned and free.

We are not mere products to be shaped and sold. We are living organisms, part of a vast, interconnected web. The soul does not thrive in isolation; it requires the nourishment of community, of diversity, of the wild and the sacred. To reclaim our roots, we must dig deep into the soil of our being, shed the layers of conditioning, and embrace the truth that we are not separate from the earth, but part of its living breath.

The stranger king

September 16, 2024September 16, 2024

What Hernán Cortés did, you see, was more than just landfall on some foreign coast—it was a whole operation. Stranger King theory, they call it now. Marshall Sahlins, anthropologist, mapped it out: the colonial playbook, rubber-stamped, refined, perfected, executed to the letter.

It starts with smoke and mirrors, offering peace to warring tribes while the sun is setting on their entire world. Cortés wasn’t the first to pull this off. Hell, this whole hustle was being run in places like Indonesia, Oceania, long before swords met obsidian in Mesoamerica. Sahlins saw it everywhere—a kind of myth, a process. Europeans would slip in, quiet as death, wading through the endless feuds, the bloodlines and grievances like some blood-slick puppeteer of chaos.

They enter, they smile, they offer the deal: “We can mediate, broker peace, broker power.” And some tribes—well, they buy in. They think they’ve made a friend, they think they’ve ascended to the top of the heap. They can see it now, standing tall over their enemies, the world bent to their will. But the Stranger King knows the game. The peace-brokers are brokers of their own war—war by other means, more insidious. While they back one tribe, they pull the strings of another. Better guns, shiny gadgets, horses taller than any local’s dreams, firepower, and cash flow from some far-off empire that no one can even imagine.

Suddenly, the wars shift—the rivals become fuel for the European engine. It’s no longer about tribes, it’s about something bigger, but the tribes don’t know that yet. They just fight, clinging to the old animosities. They become pawns, each one stepping closer to the edge without seeing it. The game’s already won before the first shot was fired.

Colonization isn’t an invasion. It’s a trap, sprung slow. The Europeans use the fractures in the system, the tribal rivalries, and the myopia of conflict like a surgeon uses a scalpel, carving up entire continents until they’ve taken everything. The tribes think they’re being led to power, but they’re being led to the slaughterhouse.

It’s the same goddamn story, always. The tribes in Polynesia thought they could control the Stranger King, hold him at arm’s length, strike a bargain, stay on top. They’d seen it happen before, or maybe they hadn’t, but they felt that old rush—the new power, the foreign influence. They believed they could master it, ride it like some wave out of the deep unknown. But it never works that way, does it?

It’s like the first hit of dope—just a taste. That’s all they wanted. They think they can control it. They always do. They think the high’s a temporary thing, a thrill, something to boost them past their rivals, make them gods for a second. But the dope doesn’t work that way. It flips, it shifts. It doesn’t just creep into your veins; it rewires you. Makes you believe you’re in control even as it’s tightening the noose.

The tribes, they see the guns, the money, the foreign trade. They think it’s something they can use, some magic potion. But once they’re in, it’s over. They’re hooked, dependent. They don’t even see the strings anymore. They’re puppets and the hands pulling those strings are far, far away, out of sight, but never out of mind. And it’s not just the tribes. It’s us. It’s always been us. New mediums, new highs—television, radio, the internet, social media—it’s all the same.

We dive in thinking we’ve got the reins, like we’re controlling the beast. But the beast is controlling us. The clicks, the likes, the shares—it floods your system like junk. You think you’re feeding it, but it’s feeding on you. The medium becomes the message, and the message is this: You’re hooked. You can’t quit it. The dopamine rush is all you’re chasing now, and every hit is a little smaller, a little less satisfying, but you keep going. You keep scrolling.

Just like the tribes thought they were wielding the new power, we think we’re wielding this new world. But we’re the ones being wielded.

Divine Complex: Predestination in the Land of Tech

September 14, 2024

It’s not about the algorithm, not really. Sure, they like to talk about algorithms—like they’re the ultimate proof of their genius—but that’s not what drives them. What’s at the heart of Silicon Valley isn’t some cold calculus or even technological innovation. It’s the feeling—that religious sensation of predestination, a kind of self-assured destiny etched into the Valley’s DNA. The belief that the future doesn’t just belong to them—it depends on them.

Walk through the streets of Palo Alto, the office parks in Menlo, and you’ll feel it thick in the air. This invisible conviction that they’ve already won, that they’re the chosen ones—the elect who will shape the world for everyone else. The startups and the angel investors, the hackers and engineers—they carry themselves with the kind of unshakable certainty usually reserved for prophets and messiahs. It’s the feeling that they aren’t just making the future, they’re fulfilling a prophecy. They are preordained, and the rest of the world? Just spectators.

You see, Silicon Valley doesn’t need to believe in religion, because it’s already written its own. It’s the gospel of disruption, the scripture of innovation, the temple of the New New Thing. And like any good religion, it has its saints—Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, the pantheon of billionaires who can do no wrong. They’re the Silicon Valley apostles, spreading the word that tech will save us all, that their visions will lead us to the promised land of endless connectivity and eternal growth.

But under the slogans, under the pitch decks and IPOs, what you really sense is a kind of Calvinist intensity. The doctrine isn’t about salvation or grace—it’s about inevitability. They speak of “disruption” the way old-time preachers spoke of the Rapture: something coming, unstoppable, that will sweep away the old and bring forth the new. There’s no room for doubt, no space for humility. If you’re in the Valley, you’re part of the chosen few, handpicked by fate to design the future.

Predestination is baked into the Valley’s ethos. They’ll tell you it’s meritocratic, that the smartest and most talented rise to the top, but they don’t really believe that. Deep down, they know it’s not just about smarts—it’s about destiny. They were born into the right moment, the right place, at the right time. It’s luck dressed up as providence. The success of their apps and platforms, their technologies and takeovers, isn’t just success—it’s divine affirmation. In their minds, it was always supposed to be this way. They were meant to succeed, meant to shape the future, and the rest of us? We were meant to follow.

And that feeling of being chosen runs so deep that it has birthed a whole new mythology, one that supersedes old-world religions. They’ll let you keep your gods if you like—pray to Jesus or Allah or whoever gets you through the night. But in the Valley, there’s only one real faith: the belief in their own destiny. That’s what they preach in boardrooms and press releases, on podcasts and TED stages. They’ll tell you they’re going to change the world—not because it’s a possibility, but because it’s inevitable. They can’t imagine a world where they don’t come out on top.

It’s this sense of manifest destiny that’s become Silicon Valley’s religion. The same way America was once obsessed with westward expansion, with taming the frontier, the Valley sees itself as the vanguard of the new frontier: the future itself. And like all good zealots, they see no room for failure. Sure, individual companies might crash and burn, but that’s just collateral damage. The machine of progress will keep moving, the valley’s chosen will keep reshaping the world—because that’s what they were born to do.

They’ve baptized themselves in disruption, in the code of progress, and believe they are set apart from the rest. They’re beyond nations, beyond borders, beyond old-world structures. In their mind, they’re part of a new priesthood, a technocratic elite destined to guide humanity into the future. It’s not that they control the future, not even that they predict it—it’s that they are the future, woven into the fabric of what’s to come.

In the end, it’s not about technology. It’s about the feeling. The conviction that they’re different. That history has its eye on them, that they’re on a path ordained by some cosmic force, and nothing—not governments, not culture, not even the limitations of the human condition—will stop them. They’ll let the rest of the world carry on with their rituals, their prayers, their religious mumbo jumbo. But they know, deep down, that they are the predestined ones, the architects of the digital age, the ones chosen to lead humanity to its next phase.

The future, after all, isn’t coming. The future is them.

How to Fool Randomness

September 14, 2024

Randomness, they tell you, is the final law, the chaotic heartbeat behind the facade of order. Everything we see, everything we touch, they say, is the product of chance. The dice are always rolling, the particles always dancing in their unpredictable ballet, and we, the witnesses, have no choice but to watch as reality collapses into one possibility or another. But what if they’re wrong? What if randomness itself can be fooled, bent, hacked into submission?

The trick, they say, is to embrace it—not fight it. But that’s too easy, too clean. To truly fool randomness, you’ve got to go deeper. You’ve got to twist the very principles that underlie it, play with the quantum dice, not as a gambler, but as a cheat who knows the house’s game inside and out. First, forget the need for control. You don’t hack randomness by trying to master it; you fool it by letting go, by giving in to the void and then subtly reshaping it from the inside.

The quantum world is nothing more than a haze of probabilities, of outcomes that exist in a superposition of states until someone comes along and demands an answer. But what if you never demand that answer? What if you live inside the haze, hover between possibilities without forcing a collapse? They’ll tell you it can’t be done. They’ll tell you the universe has rules. But every rule has its loopholes, and this one’s no different. The secret is in the not-looking, in letting the cat stay half-dead and half-alive forever. There is no need to force the universe’s hand. Let it writhe in its uncertainty, and in that liminal space, you’re untouchable.

But you’re not here for that half-measure. You want to bend the rules, right? You want to trick randomness into playing your game. Then step into the realm of entanglement, where nothing is alone, where no particle moves in isolation. The universe is a web, everything tied to everything else, even across distances that make no sense to the rational mind. That’s where the real game begins. You see, randomness operates on the idea that one thing happens here, another thing happens there, and those events have no connection. But the truth, the hidden truth, is that everything is connected—entangled, locked into a dance with its partner, whether it knows it or not.

To fool randomness, you’ve got to exploit that connection, hijack it. Don’t think you can do it by sheer will or cleverness, though. The trick is subtle. You’ve got to insert yourself into that dance, become part of the web. Change one thing here, and the whole system moves. You’re not controlling it, not directly, but you’re tilting the odds, bending the probabilities in ways the universe can’t quite detect. It’s all about nudges, about letting randomness think it’s still in charge when, really, you’ve slipped a card up your sleeve.

But maybe you think that’s too abstract. You want to know how to fool randomness in a more concrete way, how to make it work for you in real life. Here’s the trick: treat uncertainty as a weapon. The world works on this principle that we can only know certain things at certain times—position, momentum, you’ve heard the spiel. But the thing is, that’s just a limitation they’ve imposed. To truly hack into randomness, you’ve got to demand both. Know where you are and where you’re going. They’ll tell you it’s impossible. But once you start bending the probabilities, it becomes possible to live in that paradox, to stand in two places at once, moving and still, chaos and control.

Now, the real power comes when you turn randomness in on itself, make it eat its own tail. That’s where quantum decoherence comes into play. Every decision you make, every move you take, is like collapsing a wave of infinite possibilities into one single reality. But here’s the catch: if you fool randomness, you don’t have to collapse the wave. You can leave it open, leave all the doors cracked, and walk through whichever one you want when the time is right. And that’s the beauty of it—by not choosing, by not forcing the collapse, you remain fluid, adaptable. The universe doesn’t even know you’re there until it’s too late.

This is how you fool randomness: you let it think it’s still running the show while you dance around its edges, tweaking the outcomes without ever stepping fully into its game. You bend the quantum principles that tie the universe together, not by trying to understand them in the sterile terms of physics, but by inhabiting them, living inside the chaos, and twisting it into something malleable, something that can be manipulated without ever being fully controlled.

They’ll tell you that randomness is a law of nature, that it can’t be cheated. But laws are just stories we tell ourselves to make sense of the world. And stories? Stories can always be rewritten.

The War Machine Spins: Notes from the Edge of the Borderline Collapse

September 12, 2024September 12, 2024

Reading the situation now, it seems pretty clear that the drug trade in Mexico has transformed into something far closer to a nationalized enterprise than anyone on either side of the border would ever dare admit. This is not some back-alley, dime-bag hustle – no, this is a full-scale industry, woven into the sinews of state corruption, cartel overlords, and, most damning of all, the shaky pillars of U.S. foreign policy. You might think of it as a protection racket, but on a grand scale, with the judicial police in Mexico and the FBI north of the border playing their respective parts in a theater of the absurd. The players are crooked, the money is filthy, and the moral high ground is nowhere in sight.

Here’s the dirty truth: Instability is profitable. As long as the cartels are fighting among themselves, hacking each other to bits, blowing up whole villages and towns, the price of drugs goes up. Cocaine isn’t the only thing being cut—so are throats, deals, and the occasional olive branch extended for peace. But peace doesn’t sell. Conflict does. And the more chaotic it gets, the better it is for the price point. No cartel in its right mind wants legalization. That would sink prices faster than a kilo of coke dropped in the Pacific. No, what they want is chaos – but controlled chaos. Let the violence spin out, but never enough to make the whole system crash down. It’s the kind of industrial bloodletting that keeps the machine well-oiled.

South of the border, cartels have burrowed into the Mexican state, like ticks digging into the skin of a dying dog. The judicial police are just one part of this macabre apparatus, shielding the cartels in exchange for fat stacks of cash. This has transformed the Mexican drug trade into something approaching a nationalized economy—except the “government” in this case is a patchwork of cartel bosses and their lieutenants, with a revolving door of politicians on the take. These narco-lords are more than just traffickers; they’re the unspoken power behind the throne, running entire territories like medieval fiefdoms. They provide “protection” in the twisted sense of the word, offering a violent stability that the Mexican state can’t. A brutal symbiosis, really: the cartels kill off dissent, and in exchange, the state turns a blind eye.

Yes, the dynamic between cartels and the Mexican government indeed obscures the reality that, in practice, the drug trade has become a quasi-nationalized system. Here’s how this obscured reality plays out:

1. Cartels as De Facto Authorities

In regions controlled by cartels, these criminal organizations effectively act as the governing authority. They enforce their own rules, collect “taxes,” and provide services, filling the void left by a weak or corrupt state. This setup creates a de facto nationalized drug trade where cartels control the distribution and production of illicit drugs as if they were state-sanctioned entities.

2. Corruption and Complicity

The corruption within the Mexican government, including the police and judiciary, allows cartels to operate with state-like impunity. When officials are on the payroll of drug traffickers or otherwise complicit, it creates a situation where cartels enjoy the protection and operational latitude typically associated with state control. This complicity allows cartels to function as if they have a form of unofficial state backing, effectively nationalizing their operations.

3. Control Over Territories

Cartels often exert control over specific territories, regulating local economies and security. This territorial control extends beyond drug trafficking to include broader aspects of local governance. This control mimics nationalization in practice, as cartels influence everything from local law enforcement to social services, further blurring the lines between criminal and state functions.

4. Economic Impact

The economic impact of the drug trade is significant, akin to a nationalized industry. The cartels’ dominance over drug production and distribution affects local economies, creates dependency in affected regions, and influences national economic factors. This economic impact underscores the extent to which the drug trade functions as a de facto nationalized enterprise.

5. State Support and Protection

The Mexican government’s tacit or explicit support of cartels through corruption or strategic leniency further nationalizes the drug trade. When authorities choose to look the other way or facilitate cartel activities for political or economic gain, it integrates the drug trade into the broader framework of state operations, albeit in an illicit and shadowy manner.

6. Institutional Failure

The failure of Mexican institutions to effectively combat drug cartels and enforce the law contributes to the perception of a nationalized drug trade. When institutions are incapable of or unwilling to address the power of cartels, it reinforces the idea that the drug trade has become an entrenched part of the national landscape, controlled more by cartels than by legitimate state mechanisms.

In summary, the interplay between cartels and the Mexican government does obscure the reality that the drug trade, in practice, has become quasi-nationalized. This phenomenon results from the cartels’ control over territories and economies, government corruption and complicity, and the broader economic and social impacts of the drug trade. The result is a shadow governance structure where cartels function as state-like entities, influencing and controlling aspects of life and governance in ways that approximate nationalization.

North of the border, we’re no innocent bystanders. Oh, no. The U.S. government, wrapped in its endless drug war rhetoric, plays the other half of this ugly symphony. But it’s a double-edged sword, and it cuts both ways. Here’s where the real rot sets in: it’s not about stopping drugs, not really. It’s about managing the flow, controlling the spigot. A little chaos is good—keeps the drug prices high, the dealers in check, and the FBI with its hands on the wheel, steering this nightmarish ride. And the biggest tool in their box? The Kingpin Strategy. Like mafia dons deciding who lives and dies, U.S. authorities pick and choose their targets. Take down one cartel boss, watch the power vacuum tear another crew apart. Then, like clockwork, a new cartel rises from the ashes, often the one we didn’t target.

Interplay and Implications

Strategic Complexity: The Kingpin Strategy, combined with covert use of drug money and selective enforcement, creates a tangled web of influence. By targeting key figures while selectively enforcing laws and using drug money for covert operations, governments attempt to manipulate drug trade dynamics and geopolitical landscapes. However, these approaches often result in temporary disruptions rather than long-term solutions.

Corruption and Instability: Using drug money for covert activities and selective enforcement fuels corruption and instability. These tactics can undermine legitimate governance, foster illegal activities, and allow political manipulation to thrive, perpetuating a cycle of conflict and dysfunction.

This racket is not just about controlling drugs—it’s about controlling people. And it’s a hell of a convenient way to keep discretionary funds flowing. The DEA, the CIA, and even some elements within the FBI have long been accused of protecting certain cartels, particularly when it suits larger geopolitical interests. That’s right—this has all the stench of Cold War-era tactics. We pick a cartel to back, feed it intel, look the other way when their shipments make it through, all in exchange for favors. And what favors might those be? Oh, you know, just a little help quashing leftist movements across Latin America. Can’t have too much socialism sprouting up in the backyard, now can we? So while the cartels wage their wars, killing each other in public, we’re playing kingmaker in the shadows.

This is a protection racket, make no mistake. The U.S. gets its favors, the FBI gets a cut of the chaos, and the cartels get enough breathing room to keep the whole bloody enterprise running. And that’s the whole game: managing chaos, not stopping it. Because deep down, we all know—legalization would kill the game. Drugs would be cheap, cartel power would evaporate, and we’d be left without our shadowy army in Latin America, without our slush funds, and without a convenient scapegoat to blame for all the domestic drug problems we have no intention of actually solving.

You don’t want a functioning Mexico. Hell, nobody does. A functioning Mexico doesn’t need cartels, doesn’t need corrupt cops, and certainly doesn’t need us. It would cut off the pipeline of drugs and chaos that fuels both sides of the border economy. Better to keep the beast alive, feed it a little blood every now and then, and watch the dollars stack up. Because in the end, the instability, the violence, the drugs—it’s all good for business. And business, as they say, is booming.

In this grand casino of narcotic roulette, we’re not just players. We’re the house. And the house always wins.

MUSIC IN PHASE SPACE

Bravo Johnson

Category: MUSIC IN PHASE SPACE