MUSIC IN PHASE SPACE

Tag: William Gibson

  • Cyberpunk

    Lately, I’ve been thinking about cyberpunk’s jagged grip on the collective id, its knack for haunting the edges of our digital decay like a rogue algorithm stuck on loop.  Cyberpunk isn’t just about dystopian futures—it’s about the failure of successive belief systems, each of which once promised order, progress, or salvation but collapsed under their…

  • Systems Thinking

    Most systems research, it’s a kind of digital voodoo, a techno-shaman dance around the void. They conjure up these phantoms of utility, these spectral promises of a better tomorrow, built on the bones of yesterday’s discarded dreams. It’s a leap into the black, a wager on the unknown, a bet that this particular configuration of…

  • Legacy Codebase

    In the labyrinthine back-alleys of the political machine, the policy codebase resembles a forgotten Commodore 64 program held together with spit and baling wire. Any attempt to implement new social programs or tweak economic levers results in cryptic error messages and a system crash. Yet, charismatic snake-oil salesmen, fluent in the dialect of buzzwords and empty promises, keep slithering into the…

  • Thinking About Rome

    In the flickering neon of late capitalism, we glimpse the mirrored chrome of a fallen giant. The Roman Republic, that sprawling, data-driven empire, its coliseum servers humming with gladiatorial content, serves as a stark historical prompt. Remember the burn Notice, the flickering scroll that announced the Empire’s terminal error? It wasn’t a barbarian horde at the gates, chums, it was a system crash. Reliance on a…

  • Architects of Permission

    Permission Structures Power wriggles like a parasitic worm, burrowing into definitions, twisting language into wet rags. “Apartheid,” “genocide” – words pulsing with meaning, then morphing into hollow husks, sucked dry by the leeches of justification. Bureaucrats with ink-stained fingers pronounce pronouncements dripping with legalese, not blood. A word virus infects minds through media, turning “apartheid”…

  • Tragic Flaws and Best Qualities

    This, my friend, is the truth. We are all walking contradictions, teetering on a knife-edge between brilliance and oblivion. The key is to remember, the ride is the point, not the destination. So, crank the dials, push the limits, but keep an eye on the flickering red lights on the control panel. This meat machine…

  • The Feedback Loop of Lesser Carnage: Revisited

    The neon vacancy signs of the American Dream Motel pulsed a seductive binary: red or blue, a tawdry choice flickering on the screens of our simulated reality. The air hung heavy with the stale pheromones of manufactured consent, a breeding ground for a peculiar political foreplay. The tired hologram of democracy played out on reality…

  • The Feedback Loop of Carnage: Lesser of two Evils

    The roach motel of American politics stretches out before you, neon vacancy signs flickering a binary choice: red or blue, Dem or Repub. A tired hologram, the duality of man repackaged for the flickering screens of reality TV. But the real game is rigged by invisible control. The corporations are the Yakuza of this dystopian…

  • The Permutation

    The flickering neon sign above the noodle bar cast the alley in a sickly green glow. Case, his mirrored shades reflecting the fractured cityscape, finished his bowl of ramen and pushed the empty plastic tray aside. He tapped the worn neural jack at his temple, a gesture that felt as familiar as breathing. “Alright, Chiba,”…

  • Bored Apes

    Casey “Click” McCloud, a man whose last successful social interaction predated the invention of dial-up, surveyed his latest haul. Not a warehouse full of Picassos, mind you, but a collection ofBored Ape Yacht Club NFTs flickering on his greasy monitor. These weren’t your grandpappy’s stolen goods, no sir. These were the latest status symbols for…