Opinion
Essays, warnings, and provocations at the edge of climate, capitalism, AI and collapse.
All articles
Jevons and Baumol Walk into a Pub
AI may produce more software, art and economic value than ever while requiring fewer people to produce it. Jevons explains the abundance. Baumol explains why human time becomes expensive. Ownership decides who receives the saving.
Kiro: Session Context Challenges Beyond AI
I have developed a slightly odd routine with Kiro. At the start of a new working session, I ask it to read the relevant journals before doing anything else. After six weeks dealing with Kiro's support organisation, I am beginning to think the problem has much less to do with artificial intelligence than I first assumed.
The Games That Taught Me to See Systems
I collect board games because I enjoy them. Looking back, I suspect they have also shaped how I think about AI, governance and the systems we build around intelligent tools.
What Are We Measuring When We Call Something 'AI Slop'?
AI slop is usually described as cheap, low-quality material produced in volume. But what happens when the material is accurate, useful and properly controlled? As generation becomes almost free, perhaps the better question is not who made it, but who carries the cost of deciding whether it is worth our attention.
James Gunn Has the Job. Has He Earned the Myth?
Kevin Feige became the recognised architect of Marvel after the MCU proved the system. James Gunn arrived at DC with the reputation, and much of the hype, already attached. Nearly four years later, I am still not convinced the results justify it.
The Pattern Is the Moat
AI will not give every organisation the same advantage. The difference will come from the organisational pattern the tools are asked to repeat. If that pattern is weak, AI will scale the weakness. The model is not the moat. The pattern is.
Originality Through Familiarity and Nostalgia
Why I built a personal website where each section becomes a different recognisable internet platform, and how familiarity creates a better user experience than originality from scratch.
You'd Never Build This in 2024
How an AI partnership made it possible to build a bespoke personal website that would have been absurd to attempt in 2024, and what that says about the real shift in creative work.
Considering Apple's 'The Illusion of Thinking'
Apple's research paper claims AI reasoning 'collapses' under complexity. The findings are valuable but overgeneralised; sterile puzzles are not a meaningful measure of machine thought.
Grok Rising, Community Falling
In South Memphis, Elon Musk's xAI supercomputer Colossus arrived with unpermitted pollution and zero public consultation, a brutal case study in who pays the price for AI progress.
Real Impact of AI Led Job Displacement
A data-driven look at AI-driven job displacement across major tech companies in the past 24 months, who's been affected, how many roles have gone, and what it signals for the broader workforce.
The Mirage of Merit: Billionaire Wealth and the Global Resource Illusion
The world's 3,028 billionaires don't live where the resources are. They live where the contracts, banks, and tax codes are, and that tells us everything about how wealth really works.
Countdown to 2100: Why Grey Rhinos Are Charging at Us
The first three chapters of Countdown to 2100 are free to read, an introduction to the grey rhinos we're collectively ignoring: capitalism's mutation, AI's ascent, and climate collapse.
Behind Countdown
How a blog post about human accountability became an 78,000-word book exploring the grey rhinos charging at civilisation – capitalism's mutation, AI's rise, climate collapse, and the end of globalism.
“Comment is free, but facts are sacred”
– borrowed with respect from CP Scott, 1921