There Is No Antimemetics Division (2018)

May as well ask here: anyone know what this recent post is about?

https://qntm.org/back

Seems like a straightforward rephrasing of the classic tweet: "Kind of a bummer to have been born at the very end of the Fuck Around century just to live the rest of my life in the Find Out century."

I don't think it needs to relate to any _specific_ development of the recent past, which I assume is what you're asking.

I think it's just micro-fiction, a 1 sentence (2, if you count the comment) short horror story. The chain lift stops making noise right before the roller coaster car is about to drop. If humanity is on a roller coaster, "the drop" can be interpreted as either the civilizational collapse or as some kind of a Singularity event.

If you're unaware, it's in the format of Two-Sentence Horror:

https://old.reddit.com/r/TwoSentenceHorror/

Within the 48 hours before it was posted there were only two world events of note so unless qntm saw some general article about overshoot or global crises within the few days before then it was either a statement about general vibes or in reference to one of the two events with the implication that they were indicative of broader trends.

FWIW, the two notable world events were the deployment of French troops to the French Caledonian riots and the first successful Ukrainian attack on a Russian oil export facility. Were either of them indicative of a broader destabilization? Only time will tell.

Except that there's only 1 sentence.

There's another sentence in the discussion, from the author.

QNTM is very attune to the dystopian possibilities of future tech, obviously.

Rollercoaster is a clear give away they're talking about future acceleration.

I'd bet it's an ode to the possible dystopia coming with technological acceleration a la AGI.

"someone at the front of the train begins to scream"

X-Risk / "doomers"? They're screaming first, but the rest will soon too.

It was tweeted months before it became a post on the site, so I don't think it's referencing anything very recent.

It's still the same sentence, heh.

And it wasn't even there for ages - I only noticed it when I went to get this link to ask about it.

Oh, thanks, I hadn't realised that.

Or the author thinks we're about to have a great time on the roller coaster at the funfair. Wheeeee!