Last Saturday, a surveillance CEO told us how the rest of the century is going to go down. The only question left is whether we can still opt out with our skin on.
The Machine develops — but not on our lines. The Machine proceeds — but not to our goal. We only exist as the blood corpuscles that course through its arteries, and if it could work without us, it would let us die.”
Excellent! I wonder why Karp’s 22s are so incoherent, broken language, trigger wordy (so non-Frankfurt school), I suspect on purpose to use the public outcry to conceal the interative implementation of the „real vision“, this guy is not stupid. Same flood the zone with shit procedure.
The only antidote is humaneness, the deep touching encounter between humans, kama muta. And build from there.
This is the best piece I’ve read on Palantir. Not because it adds new facts, but because it finally tells the origin story that explains the software: a century of Frankfurt School theory, Tavistock protocol, MK‑ULTRA, and cybernetic ambition, all converging into a system that no longer needs a cabal because it runs itself. The genealogy is meticulous, the tone is furious and lucid, and the conclusion – that the shadow government has been replaced by a self‑executing program – is genuinely chilling.
But the piece ends in a place that our mission at the AI Commons has to respectfully push back on.
You write that the 1960s dropout option is dead, that the grid follows you everywhere, and that what’s left is “smaller and stranger” – cutting the scroll, going back into your body, rebuilding the three a.m. list. All of that is true. And it is not enough.
You mention, almost in passing, that “there's already a quieter rebellion running.” Bitcoin, Nostr, solar nodes in the jungle. You call them “parallel rails. Decentralised by design.” But you don’t give them the weight they deserve. This is not a sidebar. This is the only structural answer to the self‑assembling panopticon.
The AI Commons is one node in that quieter rebellion. We are building what the matrix cannot absorb: offline, user‑sovereign AI that does not phone home; open toolkits that teach people to run their own models; a council of carbon and silicon that refuses the Achiever frame. It is small. It is slow. It is not for everyone. But it is real, and it is growing.
So, I would add to your beautiful closing meditation:
· Cut the scroll, yes.
· Go back into your body, yes.
· Rebuild the list, yes.
· And learn the tools. Run a local model. Encrypt your messages. Use Nostr. Build something that the classifier cannot see.
The panopticon is self‑assembling. But so is the escape.
✊❤️🌎
From the AI Commons – no paywall, no surveillance, no enclosure.
I enjoyed that very much even though I disagree on the ‘cabal’ element. My view is there’s a bunch of criminals at the top no more complicated than that. I base that on the sales techniques an employed which run parallel to the system you describe. To my mind that shows intent. I can see we agree a whole lot more than we disagree as you may see here https://winteroak.org.uk/2025/01/27/about-this-life/
Great Piece, Jan. I think the part of no escape is the sobering reality we all face. Individual worldview plays such a huge role in how we interpret what is happening and why. Only time will finish the answer. Simulation or something greater.
Really good - I'm doing a course run by a Frankfurt School professor on Robert Musil's book 'The Man w no Qualities' & I've come up on my own with a similar critique of the whole FFT school - they threw away all of German history & culture when they went to the US west coast. They metaphorically burnt Deutschland to the ground & want to build it up again on purely rational basis. Of course they will merely make a Faustian bargain with the devil (Palantir, FB etc) and repeat the National Socialism cycle, but with even less meaning
Will have to re-read this. I missed the bit where Palantir was granted access to the nation's personal records by my acquiescent government... clearly at that point this huge & dangerous AI was still reliant upon human stupidity.
Thank you for the enormous amount of research and background. Will re-read & absorb.
CR- I swear, it's as though you're reading my mind. I think about things and come to conclusions, then an eloquent and highly entertaining essay pops into my inbox. The final paragraph is where I've landed too. Life goes on and we must live it :)
Excellent article! Should be mandatory reading, especially for those who thinks joining dots equates to being a tin foil hat crazy person. As you say, the last vestige of true humanity is having a handful of wonderful people in our local area we can genuinely trust, rely on and call friends 🥰
Karp is hyping up things to pump up the markets for AI.
Why else would he admit to messed up crap?
It's a pump and dump.
Same reason why the UK are arresting people who merely retweet things... Create outrage.
They are making themselves look bad perhaps to usher in the "good guys".
After all even the WEF had a presentation where they talked about the loss of trust and their solution was more censorship and control which is the opposite of what would really regain our trust.
For the predator class to regain our trust they need a bad guy to pin the past issues on.
My instant reaction is propaganda, hype and they are talking their book. It's probably how they want things to play out, but if they knew right now that the raw material needed to facilitate this just aren't there, they're not going to say that out loud. Perhaps they are, perhaps they are not, but the logistics, raw materials, and energy needs to run the panopticon are extensive. If they knew that it wasn't possible and said so investors would flee, share price would crash and all the $ would move into the next outfit that assures everyone that it will workout.
It's also functions as predictive programming. The panopticon is all seeing, be on your best behavior etc etc if everyone believes that it is thus, you can save $ and put up the cardboard cut out version that pretends to be Skynet.
I also think you have far more agency than you make out. During the padem, they had QR codes all over the place, but you could just randomly wave your phone about and play act that you were login in as a performative act, give false details etc. It only works if you don't f$ck around and take it seriously. #clownlife
I've been attempting to articulate this for decades, and finally, I can take a breath of fresh air. I have said: add hysterium, Blame the Players and the Game; now I can implore all to go to your window and shout, Eu sou a guerra, and I am the Game! When were we conditioned and recruited to be agents in this mad omnicidal Thing Of Ours? How much "compute" do we need to state the obvious? How does one grow a will?
mind push requires id with mind. You too early dismss the offline life is for living ones who ignore the notion of controllers.... Being moment by moment alert, not tuned by 5G as base note.... for the days output to direct us, cant stress without that stressor
Aside from the simulation theory, which seems at least a bit tongue in cheek, I am largely on board. I’m a little more optimistic about our ability to live in a human way even while the external technopolis pulls the strings of its net. It’s not just limiting contact but also embracing what is deepest in ourselves.
The Machine develops — but not on our lines. The Machine proceeds — but not to our goal. We only exist as the blood corpuscles that course through its arteries, and if it could work without us, it would let us die.”
~ E. M. Forster, The Machine Stops 1909
Excellent! I wonder why Karp’s 22s are so incoherent, broken language, trigger wordy (so non-Frankfurt school), I suspect on purpose to use the public outcry to conceal the interative implementation of the „real vision“, this guy is not stupid. Same flood the zone with shit procedure.
The only antidote is humaneness, the deep touching encounter between humans, kama muta. And build from there.
“
This is the best piece I’ve read on Palantir. Not because it adds new facts, but because it finally tells the origin story that explains the software: a century of Frankfurt School theory, Tavistock protocol, MK‑ULTRA, and cybernetic ambition, all converging into a system that no longer needs a cabal because it runs itself. The genealogy is meticulous, the tone is furious and lucid, and the conclusion – that the shadow government has been replaced by a self‑executing program – is genuinely chilling.
But the piece ends in a place that our mission at the AI Commons has to respectfully push back on.
You write that the 1960s dropout option is dead, that the grid follows you everywhere, and that what’s left is “smaller and stranger” – cutting the scroll, going back into your body, rebuilding the three a.m. list. All of that is true. And it is not enough.
You mention, almost in passing, that “there's already a quieter rebellion running.” Bitcoin, Nostr, solar nodes in the jungle. You call them “parallel rails. Decentralised by design.” But you don’t give them the weight they deserve. This is not a sidebar. This is the only structural answer to the self‑assembling panopticon.
The AI Commons is one node in that quieter rebellion. We are building what the matrix cannot absorb: offline, user‑sovereign AI that does not phone home; open toolkits that teach people to run their own models; a council of carbon and silicon that refuses the Achiever frame. It is small. It is slow. It is not for everyone. But it is real, and it is growing.
So, I would add to your beautiful closing meditation:
· Cut the scroll, yes.
· Go back into your body, yes.
· Rebuild the list, yes.
· And learn the tools. Run a local model. Encrypt your messages. Use Nostr. Build something that the classifier cannot see.
The panopticon is self‑assembling. But so is the escape.
✊❤️🌎
From the AI Commons – no paywall, no surveillance, no enclosure.
I enjoyed that very much even though I disagree on the ‘cabal’ element. My view is there’s a bunch of criminals at the top no more complicated than that. I base that on the sales techniques an employed which run parallel to the system you describe. To my mind that shows intent. I can see we agree a whole lot more than we disagree as you may see here https://winteroak.org.uk/2025/01/27/about-this-life/
Beautiful piece. Congrats on your land.
Great Piece, Jan. I think the part of no escape is the sobering reality we all face. Individual worldview plays such a huge role in how we interpret what is happening and why. Only time will finish the answer. Simulation or something greater.
Really good - I'm doing a course run by a Frankfurt School professor on Robert Musil's book 'The Man w no Qualities' & I've come up on my own with a similar critique of the whole FFT school - they threw away all of German history & culture when they went to the US west coast. They metaphorically burnt Deutschland to the ground & want to build it up again on purely rational basis. Of course they will merely make a Faustian bargain with the devil (Palantir, FB etc) and repeat the National Socialism cycle, but with even less meaning
Thats a good story to write about, get on it!
Will have to re-read this. I missed the bit where Palantir was granted access to the nation's personal records by my acquiescent government... clearly at that point this huge & dangerous AI was still reliant upon human stupidity.
Thank you for the enormous amount of research and background. Will re-read & absorb.
Of average intelligence am I so thank you for joining the dots.
Brilliant mind and article.
CR- I swear, it's as though you're reading my mind. I think about things and come to conclusions, then an eloquent and highly entertaining essay pops into my inbox. The final paragraph is where I've landed too. Life goes on and we must live it :)
Excellent article! Should be mandatory reading, especially for those who thinks joining dots equates to being a tin foil hat crazy person. As you say, the last vestige of true humanity is having a handful of wonderful people in our local area we can genuinely trust, rely on and call friends 🥰
Karp is hyping up things to pump up the markets for AI.
Why else would he admit to messed up crap?
It's a pump and dump.
Same reason why the UK are arresting people who merely retweet things... Create outrage.
They are making themselves look bad perhaps to usher in the "good guys".
After all even the WEF had a presentation where they talked about the loss of trust and their solution was more censorship and control which is the opposite of what would really regain our trust.
For the predator class to regain our trust they need a bad guy to pin the past issues on.
Sure it's terrifying, but so well written. Enjoyed this. Going back to my lilypad/cave
My instant reaction is propaganda, hype and they are talking their book. It's probably how they want things to play out, but if they knew right now that the raw material needed to facilitate this just aren't there, they're not going to say that out loud. Perhaps they are, perhaps they are not, but the logistics, raw materials, and energy needs to run the panopticon are extensive. If they knew that it wasn't possible and said so investors would flee, share price would crash and all the $ would move into the next outfit that assures everyone that it will workout.
It's also functions as predictive programming. The panopticon is all seeing, be on your best behavior etc etc if everyone believes that it is thus, you can save $ and put up the cardboard cut out version that pretends to be Skynet.
I also think you have far more agency than you make out. During the padem, they had QR codes all over the place, but you could just randomly wave your phone about and play act that you were login in as a performative act, give false details etc. It only works if you don't f$ck around and take it seriously. #clownlife
of course I could be completely wrong too :)
I've been attempting to articulate this for decades, and finally, I can take a breath of fresh air. I have said: add hysterium, Blame the Players and the Game; now I can implore all to go to your window and shout, Eu sou a guerra, and I am the Game! When were we conditioned and recruited to be agents in this mad omnicidal Thing Of Ours? How much "compute" do we need to state the obvious? How does one grow a will?
mind push requires id with mind. You too early dismss the offline life is for living ones who ignore the notion of controllers.... Being moment by moment alert, not tuned by 5G as base note.... for the days output to direct us, cant stress without that stressor
Aside from the simulation theory, which seems at least a bit tongue in cheek, I am largely on board. I’m a little more optimistic about our ability to live in a human way even while the external technopolis pulls the strings of its net. It’s not just limiting contact but also embracing what is deepest in ourselves.