The Technological Body of Evil
Jasun Horsley’s new book Big Mother: The Technological Body of Evil comes out 10/31 👻 and is available for pre-order.
Context
Despite the volume of mainstream AI chatter, few think deeply about our relationship with technology. We have lots of debate on the meaning and feasbility of AGI, on the nature of consciousness and on the projected economic impact of radical automation. Much speculation and a conspicuous lack of discussion of spiritual ramifications.
A first step in the right direction is to regard technology as an entity in its own right. Singling out a system and declaring it sentient is something different. What this really means is to ask: which archetypes does tech embody? And what drives tech if tech drives us?
A further step is to ask if our relationship with this entity is healthy and Big Mother makes an argument that it is Oedipal.
The Big Mother Thesis (BMT)
Are we building an artificial womb so that we can disappear into it? This is BMT. There is more to it than that, but the why1 of BMT gets weird fast. This book is a masterpiece of shamanic paranoia. That is not dismissive; it is brimming over with difficult observations (collected through decades of sperging by the author) of the sort you probably were conditioned to balk at.
It is hard to dispute the core claim of BMT, reading writers in the tech vein. Most are direct about their yearnings. Some are (unwittingly?) oblique: Anglin, who believes in souls and God, envisions lab-grown space marine expansionism. But eradicating women is another infantile regression to basking in safety2, unmolested by the Female Gaze.
If Big Mother is right, particularly about receiver-transmitters, then I must shut up and code because that is my way back into the body.
And if Big Mother is wrong, particularly about the driving force of tech, then I must shut up and code because our way out is through.
That is all that I am able to say about it right now. This is Jasun’s signal and I hope that you will tune in to his transmission.