Today at 1 PM EDT a very special live edition of Tankie Group Therapy

This is the issue with theoretical work these days. Data isn't collected as means unto itself unless we've lost the point of experiment & observation. Without explicit theory to house data it's meaningless. Duhem-Quine, underdetermination of theory of by data is lost on people.
olivia.science/theory

The FT's weekend essay agrees things will be badly broken (already are broken, not fully felt in USA yet, but unstoppable).

Gift article:
The coming global food crisis - giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Strait of Hormuz Live Tracker — Shipping Disruption Dashboard Real-time ship transit data, oil prices, carrier status, insurance, and supply chain impact.

One moment, we're told by western media the Strait is open and the next, that it's closed. As always, words are no match for material reality. Here is the Hormuz tracker; contradictory statements should be ignored, only look at traffic: www.hormuztracker.com

Understanding Key Nodal Points Introductory videos and other references about key areas of the world oil system

A reminder that, as we seem to be rapidly approaching an unprecedented fuel crisis, brought on by the US' violent death throes, I've created a downloadable Padlet listing key information I suggest we all study to understand what will be broken: padlet.com/verdigris21/...

Beneath the Strait: Iran Could Threaten Gulf Data Centers, Undersea Cables • Stimson Center The conflict with Iran has exposed tech infrastructure to new acute threats, with Iranian drones striking data centers in Bahrain and the UAE.

Apropos of my recent conversation with @jaybeware.bsky.social who brought this to my attention (via Ali Kadri). The tech industry, as we've known it, may soon end: www.stimson.org/2026/beneath...

Title reads: "Nothing Will Go Back To What It Was Like Before" with Dr. Setareh Sadeqi; makc logo; in the background "The gathering of the people of Isfahan province for unity and empathy and response to the orders of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei was held today, Tuesday, January 6, in Imam Hossein Square." Credit for background image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_large_gathering_of_the_people_of_Isfahan_for_unity_and_empathy_3_(2025)_esfahanzibaonline.ir.jpg

Today at 11:30 AM EDT / 7 PM in Iran
Iran, Anti-Imperialism, and Justice for the Oppressed with Dr. Setareh Sadeqi
youtu.be/XZvb48r9oy4

The Key Nodal Points of the Capital System with Dwayne Monroe YouTube video by Millennials Are Killing Capitalism Live!

In this conversation, @jaybeware.bsky.social and I discuss the likely impact of oil supply constriction on the tech industry: www.youtube.com/live/lBML_4s...

Understanding Capitalism's Heart Attack; image of the Strait of Hormuz; image of Dwayne Monroe (our guest); MAKC logo

Friday at 10 AM EDT
The Key Nodal Points of the Capital System with Dwayne Monroe (@cloudquistador.bsky.social)
www.youtube.com/live/lBML_4s...

The question, for the 'Americans' is if they are willing (or even able) to commit piracy. Are they ready to face a coalition that could send the rusty fleet to the depths?

LLM based spambots are watching for certain combinations of keywords to jump into the replies. I've suddenly got four of these things in the past hour, so I suspect one of the things they're watching for is threads talking about quote "AI" unquote.

Reminder if you support us to sign and share if you can! ✍🏻

We're coming up to a year since I sent this letter to my executive board and I will resend it on or close to the year mark with even more international and national support against AI.

Thank you!

openletter.earth/open-letter-...

Predictions are generally risky but some are safer than others. With that preamble out of the way: I predict that not one data center will be built or server rack filled by the 'AI' shoe company. After a stock bump and cash out, it will disintegrate, like a sunbathing vampire

Diagram showing the links between data centres, the heart of tech industry power, and oil-dependent supply chain flows. It depicts a circle with the image of a data center and circles around this for energy, plastic, transport computer chip and plastic manufacturing

In this graphic, I visualise the likely impacts of oil shortages, caused by US/Israeli aggression, on the tech industry. The 'AI' bubble may pop for geopolitical and material, rather than purely financial reasons. The financial markets can pretend but supply chains cannot be fooled

Indeed. In an evil system, there's money to be made by betting on evil. I wonder however, at what point the super profits derived from constriction, or even collapse, provide no benefit to the financial markets. For example, I propose that energy restriction will kill data center speculation

The money is guaranteed but none of us should care. The evil always make money. The real issue is the impact supply constriction will have on our lives and the thinking of millions who will realize they're being cheated by their gov in a way that prevents the usual activities... maybe even eating

The Persian Gulf Between Markets And Reality The widening delta in three (plus) charts

All eyes should be on oil. In this essay, Indica, one of the co-hosts of the Resistance is Fertile podcast (resistanceisfertilepodcast.substack.com) describes the divergence between market belief and material reality: indi.ca/widening-del...

'We are building intelligence!' They scream. A sensible person asks: 'ok mate, what's intelligence, what are you building?' 'Super-intelligence, AGI!! You don't know how it works!' They shout, spittle issuing from their mouths. What they mean is: I am a very smart mayonaise jar of white nonsense

It may seem like a distant possibility now but, people's consciousness, shaped by conditions, will eventually catch up. By 'catch up' I mean, the reformist impulse will wither and other options will be pursued of necessity.

Return of the Old Gods In Greek mythology, the titans were the original gods, directly tied to the universe’s primordial forces, who preceded the Olympians people once learned about in school and that are still depicted …

In this essay, I discuss the impending eclipse of the tech industry by a change of material conditions: monroelab.com/2026/04/14/r...

Understanding Key Nodal Points Introductory videos about key areas of the world system

As we prepare for energy and global supply chain shocks, it's important to have at least a basic understanding of what the US is breaking. In this Padlet, I provide links to good introductions to the global system. More links/resources are welcome: padlet.com/verdigris21/...

Six-panel composite figure. Caption: Interactive artifacts always rely on people’s interpretive and interactional practices. Rowwise from top left to bottom right: A. Aegeus consults the oracle at Delphi (cup from Vulci, 440-430 BCE). B. Byzantine mosaic depicting the zodiac, from the floor of the 6th century CE Beth Alpha synagogue. C. One-sided sense-making in an experimental psychotherapy session, (McHugh 1968). D. Still from a BBC documentary showing a person interacting with ELIZA via a computer terminal, late 1960s. E. Researchers interacting with the PARC copier (Suchman 2007 [1987]). F. Screenshot of large language model chat interface, 2026.

New! Interactional foundations for critical AI literacies doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

Why do Anthropic engineers talk to Claude as a witch-doctor to his potions? How is prompt engineering like spider divination? Can one reason without reasons?

ft. Lovelace, Adorno, Suchman, Weizenbaum & many more ☺️

Yes indeed and people in the US are among the world's champion know nothings (thus making it fertile ground)

Thanks! I'll check this out

Alkmi DRM Structured Dialogue Two YouTube video by Dialectical House Party

In this conversation, part two of a series with comrade Alkmi, we continue describing the category pairs of Materialist Dialectics: youtu.be/LsTyw8Rb1j8

maybe people have been talking about this, but i haven't been seeing it discussed much on here; i would really like to see an investigation into whoever at apple was involved in the decision to erase villages from southern lebanon in apple maps recently.

And speaking of wrong answers: futurism.com/artificial-i...

This is, essentially a course designed to rob one of the ability to write *and* encourage the acceptance of wrong answers; anti-literary and anti-science. To paraphrase Cicero, 'when, O Cataline, will you cease abusing our patience?'

Dialectical House Party Here, you'll find readings from the books we're studying in our group (starting with the Vietnamese school of thought). The readings start with the book, 'Curriculum of the Basic Principles of Marxism...

I'll be doing selective readings from the book at: youtube.com/@dialectical...

About this, I suggest the book, 'The Accumulation of Waste' by Ali Kadri. Kadri's thesis is that death is commodified by and key to capitalism. Yudkowsky is saying this out loud