01.31 | imagining futures against oligarchies

I think hard times are coming, when we will be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now and can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine some real grounds for hope. We will need writers who can remember freedom. Poets, visionaries — the realists of a larger reality.
– Ursula K. LeGuin

✉️ letter #53

While doing my weekly scour of the RSS feeds for those regular doses of environmental (and other interesting) breaking news, I came across Mother Jones’ major reporting project on oligarchies. The issue, which consists of 18 or so separate pieces about American oligarchs and their insidious reach into almost all aspects of our society, is well worth a read if you needed some astute reminders on how unequal our current system has become.

One particular section caught my eye though – the one about how billionaires are now trying to cheat death and take their fortunes with them into an immortal future. As Mother Jones puts it:

Four decades of nerds hitting the jackpot has brought about a gruesome parade of zillionaire techies intent on cheating the grim reaper. OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Jeff Bezos, Larry Ellison, and Peter Thiel are among the would-be immortals sinking hundreds of millions of dollars into startups and research based on the notion, as fellow tech bro Peter Diamandis put it, that “aging is a disease” that “can be slowed, stopped, and perhaps even reversed.” Another tech founder, Bryan Johnson, famously transfused himself with the blood of fit young people, including his teenage son, for six months last year—an act of depravity he hoped would help cure the disease. “Discontinuing therapy…no benefits detected,” he tweeted in July.

So. Powerful people going to fantastical lengths to try and stay in power has been a theme since the dawn of recorded time. Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, was famously said to have poisoned himself to death with quicksilver while searching for the “elixir of life.”

I suppose what’s a little unnerving now is that life science is advancing quick enough that obsessively rich scoundrels like Peter Thiel could have a real chance of achieving a prolonged, if not forever, existence - thereby robbing all of us for the chance to live in a world without Peter Thiel.

And what are we plebs here on the ground, aging normally, supposed to do?

Well, we can start by keeping an eye on strengthening some laws that “rule against perpetuities” - basically caps that determine how long fortunes can be beholden to the exact instructions a dead grantor gave. Most states used to cap that at 90 years, now those caps are being chipped away by wealth protection lobbyists.

But I’m not going to pretend like the world is filled with folks who like to spend their free time fighting vested interests that barely have to do with their day-to-day lives.

Instead, I propose this somewhat easier task: normalize fables about futures where rich people CAN’T keep their wealth eternally, because we as a society don’t let them.

When I read the billionaires-wanting-to-be-literal-vampires article, the first thing it brought to mind was a writing exercise I created in reaction to watching the 2018 tv series Altered Carbon. Dismayed by yet another cyberpunk tale that took dystopia for granted, I decided to write my own prompts for sci-fi stories that could be realistic but still hopeful.

This prompt, especially, seemed on theme:

With the digitization of human brains has come laws governing their ownership of property past a certain age. At 120, every material good in their name is put into a pool and redistributed across the realm. Most digital consciousnesses choose to retire into VR Paradise, do pro-bono consulting in the fields they were most proficient in, or happily realize an end to their stories and shut themselves down.

But of course, there are the megalomaniacs who bristle at the idea of giving anything up. And in their sociopathy, look for ways to overturn the structures that keep them from amassing wealth forever.

Sandra Bay is one of the top conspiracy investigators of the UN, tasked with uncovering the myriad of schemes these people undertake because they can’t let go.

I don't know how I came up with the name Sandra Bay. It seemed appropriately CBS and I'd probably been watching a lot of Person of Interest at the time. I'm open to changing it depending on what mass audience we want to go after.

But, please, let's go after a mass audience. Let's remind people, through novels and television shows and movies and all other types of media that there are worlds we can imagine where we naturally, as a matter of course, don't let tech overlords be overlords forever.

🎼 the soundtrack | Bling Bang Bang Born - Creepy Nuts

Good god. Ever since this bonkers little masterpiece entered my life, I have been absolutely unable to think about any other music. I will be walking on the street, minding my own business, and suddenly be overcome by the urge to do the bling bang bang bling bang bang dance.

It's taken control of my head, so now I'm shoving it into yours too.

🌱 the green light | an eco-focused newsreel

How do otters protect salt marshes from erosion? Shellfishly. (Did I choose this as my main headline because of the pun? Yes. Anyway, basically otters act as erosion control by feasting on shore crabs, which then protects all those salt-marsh banks in California.) [Nature]
Newly unearthed documents have found that the fossil fuel industry has known about climate danger as early as 1954. [The Guardian]
Since the early 2000s, an Australian epidemiologist has been counting up how many people have been "killed by climate change." His estimate is around 166,000 lives lost a year. [Grist]
In the last two years, Sicily has recorded the hottest temperatures ever seen in Europe (48.8C or 119.8F). [Associated Press]

🪢assorted | food for thought from around the internet

There are so many horrifying dimensions to the ongoing Gaza debacle, and I hope nobody takes it as me not caring about other aspects when I pull focus onto an industry that tends to be a little closer to my area of expertise: journalism. Namely how Western nations are failing journalism.

Not only are we turning a blind eye to the now nearly 100 journalists killed while reporting in Gaza, countries like the U.S. and U.K. have been minimizing the significant actions by other nations to hold Israel to account over its very obvious human rights abuses. Even Canada, as The Walrus reports, has been deliberately missing a Palestinian perspective on the narrative. [The Walrus]

All you ever needed to know about the "Stop Cop City" movement in New York. [n+1]
Governments could save millions of lives and trillions of dollars by making these changes to how we produce food. [Eater]
"What in god’s name is a Zyn, and why can’t American politicians stop fighting about it?" Vox breaks down the controversy behind this weird little nicotine pouch. [Vox]
A nuclear winter could reduce global calorie production by as much as 90%. But vast kelp farms could help save 1.2 billion lives until temperatures recover. [LiveScience]

✨enjoying: one final piece of pop culture fun

Even though I am going nuts over that Bling Bang Bang Born song, I can't really recommend the anime it's attached to. Mashle is a One Punch Man meets Harry Potter satire show - the basic concept is that a kid is so dedicated to improving his muscles that he is able to overpower all magic in the world through physical prowess. It's got very funny moments - but through the manga and adapted into anime form, that's a one-note joke that never gets much deeper.

So watch it if you like, maybe you'll enjoy it more than I did. What I have enjoyed tied to the Bling Bang Bang Born song though has been the dance adaptations. Most of what I've seen has been on TikTok and I have been enjoying my endless scroll through there. Youtube is easier to embed on this newsletter though, so here's one I found on that platform:

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