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the thinking

essays on technology, culture and the systems shaping both

Vibes, Cash & Automation - How AI Is Rewriting Human Value

As artificial intelligence makes intelligence and technical skill increasingly accessible, the old meritocratic hierarchy begins to lose its organising logic. This essay explores what may replace it: a new system shaped by taste, capital, cultural fluency and the ability to direct intelligent machines.

Full read11 min read

Karl Lagerfeld - The Original Prompt Designer?

In a 2008 interview, Karl Lagerfeld described a way of working that now sounds strikingly familiar: the idea comes first, technical execution can be delegated, and creative authority rests with the person who knows what to ask for.

Full read4 min read

The Penthouse Saviours - The Politics of The Fantastic Four: First Steps

Reading The Fantastic Four: First Steps through the politics of the AI age, this essay examines how private technological power turns competence into authority. The film’s penthouse family becomes a model of supranational technocracy, while nation-states remain as territorial hosts, logistical partners and implementation layers for systems designed elsewhere.

Full read18 min read

The Western AI Discourse Is Strangely Self-Centered

Western debates about AI often present themselves as universal while reflecting distinctly Western anxieties about authorship, individuality and cultural identity. Elsewhere, the technology is frequently approached less as an existential threat than as a practical instrument of access, productivity and mobility.

Full read9 min read

A Game Without Exit - Last Samurai Standing and Procedural Competition

A systems reading of Last Samurai Standing, examining how Kodoku turns scarcity, consent, surveillance and competition into an engineered incentive environment. Using the series as an exaggerated thought experiment, the essay explores what happens when formal equality meets unequal capacity, exit becomes constrained, and elimination itself becomes a measure of progress.

Full read33 min read

[Satire] | Kraft, Power, Strength: A Cheaper Way to Scare Russia

Germany is preparing to spend more than €650 billion on defence through 2029. But if the real objective is deterrence, intimidation and strategic signalling, there may be a cheaper option: one million Jeremy Fragrance clones in white suits along the eastern border, synchronized under the doctrine of KRAFT! POWER! STRENGTH!

Full read10 min read