chthulucene (12. 874)

Having recently revisited the designation of the Anthropocene Age in the midst of the COP30 climate summit and we enjoyed this alternate heuristic, courtesy of Clive Thompson’s latest Linkfest, for not only understanding the era in which we live but also as way to put into perspective an appreciation for the concept of deep time (see also here and here) that underpins geology and evolution and even our accelerated moment of anthropogenic climate change. Though premised and predicated on gradual change over aeons which outlives any observer, thinkers like Charles Darwin and contemporaries failed to grasp the timescales that they were invoking and not much better equipped to fully comprehend its enormity and depth than us who deal with far cruder and protracted cycles. Not the Elder Gods of H P Lovecraft (the sudden-death round of links below features another allegorical Lovecraftian entity in the shoggoth, a meme to describe the unknowable and formless horror when AI becomes unhinged and reveals its true nature) but rather in the sense of chthonic powers—earthly forces of volcanos and seismic quakes and tidal waves deified in a host of underworld heroes and horrors unleashed by Mother Earth through our own prospecting and extraction.

synchronoptica

one year ago: from 2016 SNL mourns Leonard Cohen, Trump victory (with synchronopticæ), a national treasure of rare, modest and enduring interest plus more the Frankfurt Model Kitchen

thirteen years ago: thrift shops and overconsumption 

fourteen years ago: myth and monetary policy 

fifteen years ago: Esszett now an allowable character in domain names