Pre-History of an Encounter

A Guide to Using Cyberspace Effectively

Every so often I’m reminded that it’s actually a world-historical marvel of humanity that we have so much information at our finger tips, and, I realize…

Nov 4 • 

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October 2025

PHE Podcast Episode 2

Planning, Barter Taxes and Systems of signs

Oct 28 • 

Nicolas D Villarreal

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The Chinese Encounter

How China is Bringing an End to Neoliberalism

Oct 15 • 

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The Problem of Consciousness and AI as an Ethical Subject

After my last post on the nature of qualia, I had several long discussions with readers in the comments and on twitter which made it clear there were…

Oct 12 • 

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Materialist Semiotics and the Nature of Qualia

I recently read the essay by China Miéville “Beyond Folk Marxism: Mind, Metaphysics and Spooky Materialism” which is all about criticizing Marxism and…

Oct 8 • 

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Contra Capital as Abstract Domination

A review of “Mute Compulsion”

Oct 7 • 

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August 2025

An Economic Theory of Maximalist Risk Management

I’ve recently started reading “The Triumph of Broken Promises: The End of the Cold War and the Rise of Neoliberalism” by Fritz Bartel which sketches how…

Aug 24 • 

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July 2025

Superintelligence isn’t Approximated by a Rational Agent

(Thank you to Jessica Taylor and others who provided feedback on this essay)

Jul 24 • 

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Merely Language Machines?

A Review of "Language Machines" by Leif Weatherby

Jul 17 • 

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A Sketch of a Revision to Orthodoxy

Dynamics beyond class struggle in historical materialism

Jul 3 • 

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March 2025

A Soul of a New Type

My essay collection is out

Mar 22 • 

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February 2025

The Political Economy and Ideology of the Present Crisis

At the end of a political economy piece I published in September 2023, I noted that the long legacy of under-investment caused by neoliberalism seemed…

Feb 24 • 

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