Hemlock #32: Machines of Loving Grace - Palantir, Alex Karp, Alchemy and Science, Brute Force Mimetic Objects, Atomic Poetry, the Automation of Violence, and the Endless Empire of Perpetual Advantage

Everything becomes its opposite.

cw: animal harm, general doom.

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"All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace" (1967) by Richard Brautigan

I like to think (and
the sooner the better!)
of a cybernetic meadow
where mammals and computers
live together in mutually
programming harmony
like pure water
touching clear sky. 
I like to think
(right now, please!)
of a cybernetic forest
filled with pines and electronics
where deer stroll peacefully
past computers
as if they were flowers
with spinning blossoms. 
I like to think
(it has to be!)
of a cybernetic ecology
where we are free of our labors
and joined back to nature,
returned to our mammal
brothers and sisters,
and all watched over
by machines of loving grace.

Poem: Batter my heart, three-person'd God by John Donne

Credits:

Richard Brautigan Reading "All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace"

Palantir CEO Alex Karp Speaking in February 2025 in New York (End of Episode)

Rachmaninoff, Prelude Op. 3 No. 2 in C-sharp Minor performed by Mr. Forte (Creative Commons)

George Kennan, Memo PPS23, February 24th 1948. Declassified in June 1974.

Books:

The Assassination Complex by Jeremy Scahill and the Staff of The Intercept

The Power Elite by C. Wright Mills