At Changi Airport trying to get reconnected. Try my UF_blog twitter — won’t let me without entering a code, sent to my work email, which is a nightmare to get into outside the office, and simply impossible from here. Never mind, Outsideness will work. Of course, no. Security code sent to my hotmail account this time — which is a little better. Manage to enter my ccru00@hotmail.com id and password OK, after some fat finger aggravation. “Strange activity alert — to confirm your identity enter the code we sent to your gmail account.” What unspeakable cybureaucratic Kafkatatrophism is this?

Thanks to the incomprehensible virtual wizardry of Mr Archenemy, Outside in now has permalinks attached to comments* (among some other wondrous stuff yet to be explored). The function of this blog as a Micro-Neocameral Cyberstate thus enters a new phase. (Anybody operating a theme-compatible multinational enterprise from the comments section here can confidently anticipate the world’s most competitive tax rates.)

* Nested comments still resist the new regime at this stage.

There’s a seemingly irrepressible enthusiasm to discuss Outside in speech codes, so let’s do it here (please). For the precursor exchanges on the topic, see here, and here.

I only became a methodical Moldbug reader in 2011, so I cannot pretend to have followed the degeneration of the Unqualified Reservations comments section in real time. What I did see, making my way back through this blog, was the rapid collapse of its comment threads into an open cultural gutter of no conceivable interest to anybody with a three digit IQ — a situation that hit nadir and remained there. We are talking about what — even inactive — remains arguably the most important blog in the history of the medium. If anyone wants to suggest that its accrued commentary is a model to be emulated, they are encouraged to make the case, for the entertainment value alone.

At the other extreme of cognitive ambition, is 4chan/pol/, a veritable sewer of senselessness, where the idea of an intelligent conversation is an absurdity from the start. This is a discussion forum that revels in its own crass vulgarity. It too is a negative model, to be deeply appreciated for the lesson in degeneracy it provides.

My default assumption is that everything tends to ruin, unless actively tended. UR shows what a naked laissez-faire policy leads to, if crudely interpreted as confidence in self-correcting bohemianism. Spontaneous order requires dynamic entropy dissipation merely to survive.

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(Formatted as a series, in case it turns into one. ‘Pet’ denotes nothing beyond detached affection.)

@pjebleak @Recursive_idiot @UF_blog But of course. Stephanie Meyers is the gateway drug. http://t.co/jboJSuhqQj

— Laboria Cuboniks 0.2 (@nervemeter) August 5, 2014

.@nervemeter @pjebleak @Recursive_idiot @UF_blog Quick, someone start a band: Too Late For Tricia

— Mr. Archenemy (@mr_archenemy) August 5, 2014

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For anything other than this (which can accumulate there).

What are the high-priority topics that should be under discussion right now? If ‘high-priority’ is taken to mean hard, long-term, and ultimately decisive (so we should be pushing on with them as soon as possible),  so much the better.

ADDED: CP#13 Topic Summary:
— Academic background of NRx
— Linguists are strongly represented
— “Isn’t the death of the mad scientist one of NRX’s chief criticisms of the Cathedral?” [In certain quarters …]
— What are NRx economics?
— What is to be done with the adminstrators?
— “Toxic memetic outbreaks have been ended quite stably with atrocities.” (Qin Shi Huang)
— “Of Iron and gold and silicon is the metalic god assembling itself, flesh is just burning fuel.”
— The paradox of popularity. (Is it one?)
— “Has Xenosystems run its course?” (Handle pats this weary nag gently on the nose and puts in a call to the glue factory.)
— Pedophilia
— Let’s talk about the Jews.
— Democratic secessionism in Europe
— The return to metaphysics
— “It’s important to make the failures of progressivism stop seeming normal.” (Imaginative fiction has a role.)
— Super-normal stimuli and the exacerbation of vice (a capitalist horror story)
— “How does Cthulhu (god of memes) work and what exactly is it?”
— Sovereignty and ethics
— Action!

Unplugged in Gulang Yu (involuntarily). Normal service to be resumed ASAP. Here‘s some soft jungle to be going on with.

… Damn, POS pseudo-connection can‘t even manage that.

(Have they hung Bryce yet?)

ADDED: Looks like it’s possible (finally) to put up a few tropical retreat snaps (and seems like they’re clickable):

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There’s enough fizzing chaos at the moment to justify one of these, isn’t there?

Special merit badges for anybody who can link at least three of these topics into a coherent insight point: nerds, Piketty (+), Thai micro-media, alien signal, killer robots, democratic crisis, and heavy whining …

(For anyone unfamiliar with local traditions: it’s an open thread.)

ADDED: “I used to think that such people were blowing smoke, deliberately lying to make a point, but I am increasingly willing to consider the possibility that they’re just stupid.” (Discuss.)

ADDED:

I dreamed I saw Samo last night Alive as you and me Says I "But Samo you're ten years dead" "You're just mindkilled" said he

— St. Rev. Dr. Rev (@St_Rev) May 26, 2014

ADDED: Cthulhoid kickstarter. (Via @PuzzlePrivateer)

Time for one of these, I’m told …

(Launch topic — Entryism.)

ADDED: Anyone applying for retro-entryist special ops from our side has first to pass one simple test. Re-phrase the following statement briefly in your own words, without sacrificing any of its intellectual rigor:

gender binary is rooted in white supremacist, anti-Black and colonial logics

— Che G. (@chegossett) April 20, 2014

Once you’ve completed the exercise, you’re ready for this. ADDED: … but this was supposed to be about Project Idaho. So a little prodding — Continue Reading

I’m back in the Chinese West, this time with the family (nuclear plus mother-in-law). As I write I’m on the train from Lanzhou to Dunhuang, fabulously renowned for its Buddhist caves. It’s re-bonding-with-the-tablet time, then, which is a mechanical challenge – mostly due to incredibly dysfunctional cursor control, which I know everyone is on tenterhooks to hear more about …

… so, 24-hours later, there’s not much in the way of gripping travel news to report. We’re heading to the Mogao Caves tomorrow, which should be worth talking about. Up to now it’s been desert and donkey-meat and the general weirdness of the Chinese West, but with a mind oozing uselessly like gritty mud, it doesn’t add up to anything remotely profound. Perhaps later.

The thing I want to introduce tentatively here, because it has to be re-introduced more thoroughly quite soon, is hyperstition, and in particular; hyperstitional method. I’m getting the strong sense that there are things it simply won’t be possible to do otherwise. (I’ll try to explain.)

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I’m seconds away from embarking upon True Detective — highly psyched. [First episode was — indeed — awesome. So far, in the running for the best TV show ever.]

Much other chaos (including shoggoth, crypto-currencies, and child management).

So Chaos Patch …

ADDED: How about telling me what we’re not talking about enough?

ADDED: Among the things provoking thought at my end right now, are shoggothic modernity, and block-chain governance. (I’m trying to keep them from running into each other too much, too quickly.)

ADDED: Hugely enjoyed butting in on the PAF event — not a vast amount of shoggothism, but a delightful opportunity to chat with some thoughtful people about time, capital, artificial intelligence, and what the hell is this neoreaction bullshit (?).