Brad deLong on AI and H.P. Lovecraft

I am very impressed by Brad DeLong's essay Shoggoths among us. I've been going through my inbox, and except for all the great astrophysics material, this discussion of the horror writer H.P. Lovecraft and the Singularity was by far the best. When I was in university (ca 1970), I like my fannish friends read H.P. Lovecraft. We all read as much SF and fantasy as we could get our hands on. Young readers today probably can't imagine how little of such material there was. I was not impressed by Lovecraft (except for At the Mountains of Madness .) Too creepy.

But Brad got more out of it. One result is this sensible (!) essay on AI, modernity, democracy, autocracy, and industrial revolutions.,

/p And monsters.

Highly recommended.

Fandom

Back in the late 1960s and 70s, I self-identified as a science fiction fan.  Back then, fandom meant books and magazine fiction and amateur "zines" which played some of the role of social media today, though for a much smaller audience.

For some years now both Phil Paine and I have marvelled how this very fringy sub-culture has evolved into a very central part of contemporary culture.  It's much more associated with movies and comics -- cons are largely comic oriented-- than with science fiction, at least more serious "sf"based on ideas that come out of an appreciation of real science.  It feels odd to us that so much that originated in that tiny hobby is now a common currency.

I don't know how much of this has been discussed and analyzed but the recent Hollywood Reporter has a meaty article about one aspect of fandom today.  Have a look at What Happens When Fandom Doesn't Grow Up?