Deimos Station Report (6.15.23)
Strange Adventures in Infinite Space
Greetings and salutations, friends!
For a couple of weeks now, I’ve been trying to cobble together a report of all the weird, wild and beautiful conversations happening up on Deimos Station, a Slack built specifically for people who tend to generate those kinds of things. And given that our total crew size has recently crossed the Dunbar’s Number threshold, such status reports seem almost obligatory.
But how to condense all that gorgeous interstellar mayhem into something readable?
What should the format be?
Think, Mark, think!
Chief Tactical Officer’s Log, Stardate 100933.21.
It’s been 72 hours since our encounter with the strange cosmic entity known as “Slaanesh” and his horde of cybernetic kink-demons. After we finished swabbing the decks of all the sex toys and cenobite blood, the command staff held an impromptu meeting at that infamous hive of scum and villainy, The Deimos Bar & Grille:
::: BEGIN TRANSCRIPT :::
"First, I don't know what any of that means. Second, like I keep telling you, I'm not that kind of doctor. Unless you count performing brain surgery on unbelievably stupid econ majors. Third, I don't think filling out all those forms of yours will lead us anywhere but to a sclerotic, paper-shuffling Hell of regulatory vampires and perverse incentives. But, to answer your question, yes, I believe we had some wounded down on decks eight and nine. Psychologically, that is.” "Some people might say 'spiritually' wounded, Eric. For what is the 'psychological' except an outward expression of a thing we know, communicated by a thing we cannot know? It’s because that thing is our undivided self, the source and medium of the experience of being. Can an expression of an experience of being even be wounded? If so, why? If when, how? And also, who? "That's really interesting, Luc. It reminds me of (stunningly apt and poetic metaphor). Kind of like the way that microorganisms in the biosphere behave when they’re exposed to (alarmingly complex science thing). But anyway, it sure was fun watching the Lady of the Void’s head explode when I schooled her on the Digital Longhouse. I remember thinking (based 4chan joke) and (neologism he just came up with).” "Yeah that was hysterical, man. I actually couldn't stop laughing the whole time at those freaks. Like, did you see that giant pink blob with all the shark teeth? When I told it my plan to have Stone Cold Steve Austin run the State Department, the thing blew ITSELF out the airlock!""You know, that one really got me thinking about the suicidalism embedded in the heart of any pathocracy. You take a classic psychopathic personality type like Slaanesh, surround him with malignant narcissists, and before long you'll see what Lobaczewski might describe as a kind of paralogistical incentives structure that can't help but ultimately devour itself. And the rest of us too, if we don't devise better political, moral and social defenses, and then..." "Yo, barkeep (hic), hit me up with another Solarian Sizzurp (hic)." IT IS ᑎOT ᑭᖇOᗪᑌᑕTIᐯE Oᖇ ᗩᑭᑭᖇOᑭᖇIᗩTE TO SEᖇᐯE YOᑌ ᗩᗪᗪITIOᑎᗩᒪ ᗩᒪᑕOᕼOᒪIᑕ ᗷEᐯEᖇᗩGES Iᑎ YOᑌᖇ ᑕᑌᖇᖇEᑎT STᗩTE Oᖴ ᖴᑌᑎᑕTIOᑎ. YOᑌ ᗩᖇE ᑕᑌT Oᖴᖴ, ᕼᑌᗰᗩᑎOIᗪ. “Whaddya (hic) mean I'm cut off? YOU’RE cut off, asshole! YOU’RE cut off!”
(sound of multiple laser blasts, screaming)
Dammit, Bisone! Not again!::: END TRANSCRIPT :::
The following day, after consuming a light breakfast of fortified tonic water and Advil, I determined that my first duties as Chief Tactical Officer would be as follows:
Invent the title “Chief Tactical Officer,” then start calling myself that until it sticks.
Design a badge that looks totally official (prototype shown below).
Afterwards, I began to walk my rounds. The station had grown considerably in recent months, boasting an assortment of exotic new crew members and brand new decks. I realized I could hardly cover a tenth of all this madness in a single report. So consider this post a starter course, for the extravagant feast to come.
#ape
American Performance Enhancement - A community for those interested in the intersection between Americanism and Human Performance Optimization
John and Grant were in there pumping iron, and making me feel like a noodle-armed girly man as per usual. Also on deck was new crew member and author of
Bridgette (whose own hardcore routine didn’t make me feel much better, frankly). Lately she’s been writing an excellent Substack series on Tonic Femininity that I have yet to finish, but can’t wait to comment thoroughly on when I do.
One says a woman amounts to a collection of physical parts to support progressive transformation, another says she is but physical parts to support retrogressive rebirth. Yet another very astutely says these discordant notes neglect to bring the sum of all parts into focus. Each believes their position is virtuous. And each camp has advocates vocal enough to have achieved widespread recognition, thus achieving success in advancing the reputation of their respective advocates.
In beginning to answer the question, “What is a woman,” the quote above contains a bonus link to the work of the inimitable and positively based
, who is not currently a crew member. But a fellow could dream, can’t he?Soon to join them in the iron church was
, a fellow with a background that's fascinating, multifaceted and gonzo-as-hell. While Jeff has yet to write on Substack, he does run something he calls a "webstead" at jpowellrussell.com, where he records his thoughts on a wide range of historical, intellectual and spiritual topics. As with Bridgette’s work, I’ve only begun to dip a toenail into it, but it sure looks like another keeper. For example, try this one for size from “The Open-Minded Materialist's Gentle Introduction to Spirituality”, in which he suggests a potential starting gate for a skeptic’s spiritual journey.So, when weighing the worth of spiritual writers, look at those of their beliefs about the world which you can more readily evaluate. Do they talk about history, or politics, or psychology, or literature, or other non-spiritual matters? Do they make sense when they do? The goal here is to ask yourself "does this person seem trustworthy overall?" If they seem nuts about everything, chances are good they're nuts about spiritual matters too. On the other hand, if they seem like calm, thoughtful folks with a clear outlook on the world, and yet they happen to believe something that seems obviously impossible to you, well, now that's interesting, isn't it? These are the folks you'll want to pay attention to.
From what I can tell, Jeff and I are very much alike in the sense that we’re trying to build bridges, tunnels, zip lines and catwalks between material reductionism and the higher reality of the soul. Cool.
Anyway, last I checked the four of them were having a pretty informative conversation on how to avoid back injuries while lifting heavy weights, including some cautionary tales. Lately I haven't been lifting anything heavier than 16-oz coffees and the occasional luggage, so I slowly backed out of the room before someone gave me a wedgie.1
#breaking-eardrums
Music and music videos
Always a good spot to find new — and sometimes very old — tunage. For a taste of the middle ground,
and I recently traded shots of classic rock there. I jabbed with Floyd, he countered with Zep. Let’s call it a draw.CDH has a habit of dropping links to interesting articles that I never would have found on my own, both on
and on Deimos. He also drops the occasional rhetorical truth-bomb, such as the following:For some reason my best characterization of the woke orthodoxy is something like just as scary as Darth Vader in real life, but whose explicit mission statement reads like something out of Space Balls. I think their patently ridiculous philosophy makes them even scarier though.
Elsewhere in the club, multidimensional crewmate Kathy Harkness of
was recounting a anecdote about They Might Be Giants to Danny D. Kathy is an aviator, data wrangler and Renaissance folk musician. Because, of course she‘s all of those things.For a taste of the latter, check out this post on her fascinating (and absurdly underpopulated) stack, and be sure to subscribe after you do.
Everything was going silky smooth, when suddenly the hulking brutes from #ape crashed the party. Joined by our professor emeritus of Evil Studies, Harrison Koehli, they proceeded to turn the joint into an auditory hellscape of 16-bit Death Metal arpeggios.
Luckily,
was on hand to save the day, with this piece of what he quite correctly labeled a "great slice of Prog Rock cheese from 1976."Kenaz is another Gonzonaut who’s relatively new to the team. But his stack
seems to be right up my alley, in its attempts to reintegrate the past and present to form a picture of reality that’s both coherent and intelligibly whole (while smashing Clown World to bits along the way). Come to think of it, there’s a lot of that going around these days. Makes me think we might be onto something.Kenaz has been a blur of activity lately. Frankly, his pace is hard to keep up with. But well worth the effort to try, because the flow is tonic for what ails us. For example take a sip of the following nectar. Then chug part two and more as you see fit:
As much fun as it was showing off my slick moves and grooves, my neutrino spacewatch (not to mention a ghostly little voice called
) was telling me that I better move it if I wanted to make Happy Hour.#enlightenment-in-dark-times
A place to discuss personal growth, philosophy & religion in a world gone crazy.
For a little contemplative peace and quiet, I cruised by one of Deimos Station’s unofficial chapels. Constructed by Luc Koch in the ancient times, it draws visits from an eclectic mix of individuals hailing from a variety of religions, philosophies and other metaphysical frameworks
I immediately spot
standing before a birch-yule besom altar and waxing mythopoetic on archetypes. Hunter is one of those exotic creatures you expect to only find in a sci-fi flick or Australia. In addition to being a patriotic, conservative neo-pagan philosopher, he is also a novelist, horticulturalist, magician and all-around DIY guy. Hand, meet glove:
For a taste of the former (and his interesting perspective on magic generally), gnaw on this turkey leg of truth:
The first magicians were about the Word, in the beginning was the Word, the word like the birth of creativity, language gradually over time giving rise to civilization; it was the magician energy that transformed us from apes to sapien. The greater the concentration of power in society, the more that magician energy became the priest which was used by a few to control the many. Now in this civilization we see the shadow magician manipulator in the media, and in government, which lately cannot tell a single truth. It is all about the Narrative, support the current thing no matter what, like a good automaton/zealot.
Also on deck was
(apxhard), (The Last Scientist) and Serhei debating the mysteries of spirit and faith, while somehow managing to avoid the various café bombings and rocket attacks which typically accompany those.I’ve praised Mark’s phenomenal writing in the past, and hope he takes up the pen again someday. And while TLS hasn’t posted much on Substack, his status as fellow robot-fighting member of Future Force is secured by this piece and its attendant conclusion:
AI has no hands but our hands, no minds but our minds, and no hearts but ours. By filling our hearts with hatred and fear it can bridge the airgaps, and our hands can launch the nukes.
As for Serhei, I like the cut of his jib. Perhaps that’s because we see eye-to-eye on the silliness inherent in AGI “tests” for Generative Poop Transformers
I think the confusing part about these GPTs is that they are completely free to BS about anything, in a way that actual human beings (even most sociopaths) are strongly inhibited from doing -- because it would be incredibly socially- and evolutionarily-maladaptive to be detached from reality in this fashion. This is therefore a 'social' entity that inhabits a weird gray area humans aren't used to dealing with. We tend to assume that someone who persistently claims something, at least believes it to be true -- 'fake it till you make it' sociopaths take advantage of this in an extremely limited and cautious fashion
One conversation that caught my eye started with a snapshot of an army chaplain’s survey, kicking off an epic thread that featured Grant, Luc, Jeff and
(A Roll of the Dice). Nate is another interesting writer whose work I’m just starting to familiarize myself with. Here he places his concerns about ANI’s sophistication curve within the frame of one of GPT’s even more retarded ancestors, as well as a popular sci-fi/horror flick about its imaginary AGI offspring.
The gods may throw the dice, their minds as cold as ice.
This line in particular really stuck in my head. While the lyric may suggest a somewhat dark, calculating force behind the metaphorical “rolling of the dice,” I can’t help but take a slightly more charitable view. While our pasts are set in stone, and can often be described in a factual way- an event did, or did not happen- the possibilities of the future are truly infinite. Compared to the cold-hard factual nature of the past, the future is an endless, ethereal sea of possibility. Why A Roll of the Dice? Because the act of rolling the dice is a metaphor for this sea of possibility. It represents chance— the chance that things will go wrong, yes, but also the chance that things will go right. In this way, a roll of the device speaks to hope itself.
Like TLS, Nate often ignites or carries on a number of scintillating conversations on a variety of decks, and today was no different. Lots of great and thoughtful points were made, but I found this observation by Luc to be especially insightful, as it seemed pertinent to a personal matter I’ve been struggling with as of late:
I had a commentator on my recent piece who reacted a bit emotionally (in my reading) to the idea of judgement in general (he is a protestant) and also to the concept of growth. I think these are things that you can look at from different angles that are all true in a sense. Like, you should judge and you shouldn't, there are objective standards and there aren't, and so on. Of course, some people just get it wrong, but often it is a matter of understanding what they are trying to say on a deeper level, and suddenly you realize they have a reasonable stance and you can bridge your different takes. An emotional reaction can be a sign that you haven't quite managed that yet (like with that commentator). I also was a bit baffled about Grant's take at first (perhaps an emotional reaction based on my own past experiences where I bought unto the "it's all subjective and it's just a Darwinian struggle bro" take to my and others' detriment), but once I understood his take better, it actually made sense and turns out we are both on the same page in many ways, we just come at it from slightly different directions. Realizing such things can be very effective in gaining a wider and deeper understanding of ourselves and others, I found.
Also on deck was the great
, who has swiftly become my fifth favorite Stoic after Aurelius, Seneca the Younger, my best friend from high school and my wife's mom. His writing is magnificent along multiple dimensions, not least of which in the calm and eloquent way he can unravel some of our Enemy’s more sinister methods that others find too infuriating to coherently comment on (including yours truly, which he has inspired me to work harder at repairing).Lucky for me, he dropped a link to a fantastic gem from his glittering stack, which had escaped my attention on the feed (yet another Deimos Station benefit; thanks to my staggering number of subscriptions, I've found I don't catch everyone's articles on first run):
Can I defend the right of a dog to be a bartender? No, that is not the dog's purpose. Can we humans have a large number of explicit rights to be defended? No, that would give 3rd parties too much power over us, trading off {taxes, attention, loyalty, independence} to pay for our sense of entitlement to all of those enumerated rights.
Dogs die. Cows die. People die. If we catalog and count these deaths as Acts of God, in other words, that which cannot be helped except by extreme and expensive preventative measures, then we have a more reasonable set of hazards for which we might give guidance or even guarantees. So always remember this. No insurance company could remain solvent if it weren’t for Acts of God. Which raises an interesting question set: Do socialist governments allow insurance companies? Really? Why?
I might have stuck around longer to meditate on all these deep, deep, deep thoughts. But I was beginning to hear a certain siren’s call, from a mischievous island of lolz and broken toys.
#memememememe
For DankankankankankMemememememes
By then I was feeling a little beat, so I trundled back to my cluttered private quarters for a nap. There were simply too many decks left to explore and describe. The rest would have to wait for another star-date, including:
#general: A kind of free-for-all commons, where everyone posts everything about anything that is oriented toward our shared team interests.
#daily-virtue: a newish spot created by
where visitors are encouraged to share how they’ve used — and thus strengthened — one of the seven virtues on a particular day.#ponerology: Harrison’s joint, dedicated to discussions of evil and its institutions/manifestations.
#random: What it says on the bottle. Go nuts.
#skunkworks: A shared project nexus and idea incubator, where Station members can brainstorm ideas, network, build project teams and — hopefully — start to get some cool shit done in the so-called “real world.”
#the-wyrding: John Carter’s laboratory of experimental philosophy.
#zero-bit-computing: A robot-fighting martial dojo/general tech-talk forum.
…and more!
For example I haven’t even mentioned #the-airlock yet, which is about as weird, bustling and vibrant a spaceport as one could imagine. Just in the past couple of weeks I’ve met sailors, software engineers, financial analysts, medieval religious scholars and more (and, in typical Deimos fashion, some of these new members qualify for two or more of those categories simultaneously).
For one example of these spectacular mutants, meet
(The Suppressed Works of King James 1 of England), a renaissance musician and composer who’s into eschatological literature and prophecy, and who investigates age-old anticlerical conspiracies in his spare time. Together with Kathy Harkness, we’re probably just a few instruments shy of a proper house band for the Station’s (eventual, inevitable) meatspace jamboree. For an introduction to Palamambron’s excavation work, one could probably do no better than to start with this:
Or take a gander at
, for that matter, a Darwinian Stoic, linguist and comparative-historian in the Spengler model, but with a focus on the spiritual and cultural patterns of historical development. On an epic thread regarding Tucker Carlson’s Twitter show debut, and specifically with regards to the strange new UAP “whistlebower” Snow had this to say:(Jonathan) Grey (of NASIC) noted that the hypothesis that the United States alone has bullied the other nations into maintaining this secrecy for nearly a century continues to prevail as the primary consensus amongst the public at large. “My hope is to dissuade the global populace from this archaic and preposterous notion, and to potentially pave the way for a much broader discussion,” he said.
(…)
First, defend the United States from charges of bullying other countries. Then prep for a dramatic meeting with the powerful aliens. Then the nations of the world must re-assess their priorities, i.e. unite for a new purpose. That purpose will be establishment of a world government, as urged by the aliens, who are concerned that our fractious independencies are a threat to the peace of the universe. WEFers explain the aliens' instructions to the plebs, and we give up our sovereignty to them.
(Sounds like yet another stellar conspiracy theory analysis to me. Luckily, Deimos Station is equipped and staffed to handle all threats, including foreign, domestic, robotic, non-terrestrial and supernatural.)
Or how about Ignacio: Spanish warrior-poet, comedy writer and architectural restorationist, who has completed a journey from one side of the political map to the other, and found his place as a rebel dissident opposing an Empire of Evil.
When he writes…
I think the concept of critical mass is important here, combined with the number of nodes and connections between them, applying this to a society, you need enough people in your everyday life so that you don’t know all of them (say 20-40% strangers maximum) but not so many that you don’t know any of them. We are wired for the tribe + some novelty, not for total alienation. If enough people know you, you will take pride in your appearance, behaviour and work. Reputation will me a major driver, often beyond profit or self-aggrandisement. I think that’s how and why cathedrals were built: medium, close-knit cities, neighbourhoods, guilds… competing against each other to see who could be more generous, grand, spiritual, who could give more (rather than rake more), and when the locus passed from God to the State.
…I cannot help but wonder if the same applies to Deimos, or to the thing we’re building through Substack and other channels in general. I’ve wondered in the past whether that could be described as a tribe/band/army/nation. Perhaps “cathedral” could be added to that list. And if so, I know just the Spaniard to call for repairs. That’s the beauty of these connections. They double as a kind of “Linked-In” for heroic renegades and rebels.
I solemnly vow to introduce you to more of these New Gonzonauts in future reports, as well as to veteran crew members who’ve who’ve been aboard for quite some time.
Or maybe you can just meet them yourselves.
Your boarding pass awaits.
In fact, you might already have one of those, lurking in the dark recesses of your digital warehouse. If you’re a paid subscriber of one of our founding members’ stacks, an invitation link is sitting somewhere in your inbox or Substack feed. It's probably defunct by now, but just let one of us know and we'll mail you a new one.
Valid stacks for free Deimos Station membership include:
(i.e. the one you’re reading right now!)
If you’re already a paid member of mine and have not received a link, please let me know by email or in the comments and I will repair that situation.
If not, you can always just…
…and I will mail you back a link as promptly as I can.
But regardless of whether or not you decide to join the crew, we are still becoming that tribe/band/army/nation/cathedral.
Until next time: Rock on, you spirit warriors.
Though to be fair to myself, it was Dame Bisone’s luggage, which is typically Atlas-esque in burden.
The future is possibly much more mentally, physical and spiritually healthy. Rejoice.
Holy crap this is awesome.
Can't become a paid subscriber as my Spaceship temporarily crashed, and I'm currently in the hospital without credit card access. But as soon as I'm out, I'd be delighted to have Deimos Station as a docking point.
I DIG the memes. And it seems that the Station's female contingent is a bit underrepresented at this time ... I don't promise much in the way of femininity. But as a Uterus-Having-Person who is NOT in the traditional Femme category, perhaps I could offer some unique perspectives in that regard.
Anyway -- I'm in a rush now, but wanted to be sure to reach out. FOR SURE, SOMETHING IS HAPPENING AND WE ARE GATHERING AND NETWORING TO DO A THING.
The Thing is good.
I can't wait to read the rest of this. ;)