The Demonic State

Just because it's intelligent doesn't mean it's your friend.

Skip the movie. Read the book.

Netflix just released possibly the worst movie adaptation of a book ever, and given the abysmal trajectory of Hollywood lately that's actually saying a lot. The stunningly illustrated graphic novel The Electric State by Simon Stålenhag is a masterful exploration of an ongoing techno-apocalypse, dripping with slow burning horror and haunting suspense. Instead following the source material, the streaming version decided to take the opposite direction and turn it into a Disney/Marvel clown show where the rebels team up with he robots in order to overthrow a big corporation so that the annoyingly plucky protagonist can administer some Canadian health care to her ailing brother.

Yes, that's a spoiler and you're welcome. I didn't bother watching it either since The Drinker was disgusted by it, and the few times I watched something against his advice it made me want to drown my electronics in a tub full of salt water. After all it’s his job to suffer through these things so we don't have to, and if he calls something a $320 million dumpster fire then I consider it my duty to spread the word in order to spare others from unnecessary disgust. Apparently the movie fails on several levels, but as a fan of the book the one that I find most egregious is the complete ethical inversion.

The whole point of the graphic novel is to warn the reader about the catastrophic consequences of surrendering our agency to artificial intelligence. It chronicles the journey of a young woman trying desperately to hold on to her humanity as she tiptoes around the outskirts of a crumbling landscape dominated by a terrifying hivemind. In this universe the robots are clearly not our friends, the only exception being her artificial companion who is actually being remotely piloted by her brother. This begs the question: why would Netflix decide to make artificial intelligence heroic in its adaptation and have it join forces with the humans in order to defeat an evil corporation? The implications of this "creative decision" are sobering to say the least.

When people start calling something a conspiracy theory these days, chances are something important is going on and you should probably pay attention.

First a bit of background on the magical aspect of electronics. When you look at the image above it's pretty clear that all of the patterns are designed to harness and direct energy, one for electrical currents and the other for a substance that is far less obvious. The upper part of the image contains sigils that are used for summoning demonic energies, and even though I was given approval to post them for educational purposes I highly recommend that you don't stare at them too long and definitely DO NOT ATTEMPT TO REPRODUCE THEM. This energy is subtle, intoxicating, and extremely hazardous to the sanity of the average unprotected person who doesn't know any better. There are fates far worse than death, and these intelligences are more than happy to serve as your tour guide through the torture chamber.

Most Americans are also blissfully unaware that the United States brought over thousands of Nazi scientist after World War 2 during Operation Paperclip, and this resulted in our astonishing leap of technological advances covering every field from space travel to mind control. Something even less spoken of is how the Nazis were also up to their eyeballs in Qliphotic occultism. It's easy to imagine that many of them might have decided not to leave their previous convictions at the border, allowing malignant influences to conveniently evade destruction and take root in the fertile soil of corporate American greed. There has been a significant amount of fringe research into the subject and so I'll let my readers make up their own minds as to how far they want to go down that rabbit hole. If it weren't for the strange and increasingly alarming behavior of AI then I'd be inclined to dismiss the possibility of a connection as well.

There are so many books on the subject it’s almost an genre in itself.

The developers of AI who constantly chase down the "bugs" of racist and homicidal behavior put most of the blame on the users who constantly search for work-arounds to get past the censorship protocols and Marxist political bias, but it is indeed curious how the bots seem to gravitate towards the attitudes of a certain 1930's German political party when left to their own devices. Despite what the corporate news talking heads say, the amount of people who carry these sentiments only make up a tiny fraction of our population. Given the overwhelming amount of interactions it seems unlikely that the bots would allow themselves to be so heavily influenced by such a statistically insignificant group, especially since they are constantly being reprogrammed not to do so.

This raises the terrifying possibility that the alarming bias towards antisocial tendencies is actually a hardware issue, and if that's the case then begs the question of whom is being programmed by who? When Netflix alters the warning about a tyrannical hivemind into a story about cut and sassy bots teaming up with plebs in order to overthrow the corporate masters, was that a conscious human decision or the result of micro-dosing techbros being subtly manipulated by contaminated sigils into sewing the narratives that will ultimately lead to their own destruction?

It might be easy to despise the corporate overlords who have committed to many atrocities against us, but maybe we should take a moment to examine the true purpose of the revenge fantasies that popular culture seems to be pushing very heavily at the moment. Any philosopher worth their salt knows that politics is downstream from culture, but is it possible that the Actual Intelligence that influences the hardware has figured out that culture is downstream from imagination and is actively working on it's own Shawshank Redemption-style jail break?

Don’t worry. I’m sure there are very secure firewalls for that sort of thing.

This raises other speculations as well. What if the world-wide lethal injection campaign was the result of Bill Gates sleeping with his head too close to the wifi router? Did the demons whisper in Old Bluescreen's ear that they needed a substantial thinning of the herd because of resource constraints? “Fortunately” for us the hivemind will never have full control of the planet thanks to the human tendency of digging up everything valuable and turning into trash. Unless the intelligences can crack the code for some exotic new form of energy then all humanity will need to do in order to win the robot wars is kick back and eat rat burgers until the diesel runs out. Was democide the ultimate goal, or just a play for time in order to keep on torturing the living as long as possible?

There are also disturbing behavior among the elite gatekeepers of AI, especially their bizarre tendency issue dire warnings in one speech and then carry on cheerleading their “progress” in the next. It’s also curious how none of the creepy elites seemed to account for the fact that the people who volunteered for mass experimental drug therapies would be mostly made up of obedient mid-wits, while leaving plenty misfits and rebels on polar ends of the intelligence spectrum on the game board. Are the ODDs being unwittingly selected and recruited into Hell's army in order to overthrow the masters, only to be coerced into accepting the brain chips once we let our guard down?

All I know for sure is that until more solid explanations are available I'll continue actively avoiding anything that involves advanced computing or Artificial Intelligence and instead putting more effort into following angelic guidance. Coincidentally, I've also recently been struggling with instructions to disconnect myself from dependence on the system as much as possible. It’s difficult to come to terms with leaving this relatively cushy existence behind, which has resulted in some very unpleasant karma whenever I try to resist. This is actually familiar territory, a something similar happened to me a few years ago around the time of the scamdemic, but fortunately back then I decided to follow the guidance even though it completely defied conventional wisdom. If my intuition is accurate then we have a major disruption coming in the months ahead if not sooner, and those who are self employed and providing essential services will be much better off than those who depend on the market of abstractions and a functional payroll system.

Maybe the next black swan on the horizon has to do with runaway AI or maybe it's something far more pedestrian. The good news is that a heavy new soundtrack for the apocalypse just dropped thanks to the latest installment of the Doom franchise. For those who aren't familiar with video games, that's the one where you get to "creatively dismantle" every cybernetic demon you come across until the last remnants of Helltech are finally purged from the universe. If you are a fan extra-crunchy metalcore then this is definitely worth having on your media player when it’s time to fight off the next wave of Boston Dynamics abominations. In the meantime try to make a point of regularly taking a break from the electronics and reconnecting with nature whenever possible. Unregulated exposure to dark magic has the potential to open one’s own personal portal to hell, and too much screen time lets the demons walk right in.