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Programmable Mutter
programmablemutter.com · Personal blog · on HN since 2023
Programmable Mutter is Henry Farrell's newsletter on the politics and political economy of technology, AI, and culture.
What HN saysHN commenters link it for its essays on AI and software, including one co-authored with Cosma Shalizi, and the author joined the discussion himself.
32HN people shared it
4linked it in comments
35stories submitted
310story points
3 months agolast shared
2023people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1What OpenAI Shares with Scientology3 people · 8 points · first shared 2023 · 1 comments on HN
- 2The Map Is Eating the Territory: The Political Economy of AI2 people · 13 points · first shared 2024 · discussion on HN
- 3The Village and the Sewer – Behind the "Blueskyism" Debate2 people · 8 points · first shared 2025 · 5 comments on HN
- 4Why did Silicon Valley turn right?2 people · 6 points · first shared 2024 · 2 comments on HN
- 5After software eats the world, what comes out the other end?2 people · 3 points · first shared 2024 · 1 comments on HN
- 6Shoggoths Amongst Us2 people · 1 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
- 7Brian Eno's Theory of Democracy1 people · 176 points · first shared 2025 · 244 comments on HN
- 8LLMs show cultural theory was right about the death of the author1 people · 20 points · first shared 2025 · 3 comments on HN
- 9How the Feds bounced Binance: Crypto isn't "incentive compatible"1 people · 10 points · first shared 2023 · 3 comments on HN
- 10We need to escape the Gernsback Continuum1 people · 9 points · first shared 2025 · discussion on HN
- 11Silicon Valley is an aristocratic culture1 people · 6 points · first shared 2024 · 18 comments on HN
- 12Weaponizing Financial Payments1 people · 5 points · first shared 2025 · 2 comments on HN
- 13Small yard, high fence: these four words conceal a mess1 people · 4 points · first shared 2024 · discussion on HN
- 14We're Getting the Social Media Crisis Wrong1 people · 4 points · first shared 2025 · 1 comments on HN
- 15When tech CEOs are like grumpy ducklings1 people · 4 points · first shared 2025 · discussion on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
internet_points · 2026-03-25
> You have to go read it yourself afterwards
^ this is important.
Otherwise you may very well be missing anything really surprising or novel.
See for example https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/after-software-eats-the-world-wha… , an experience report of NotebookLM where
> It was remarkable to see how many errors could be stuffed into 5 minutes of vacuous conversation. What was even more striking was that the errors systematically pointed in a particular direction. In every instance, the model took an argument that was at least notionally surprising, and yanked it hard in the direction of banality.
anigbrowl · 2023-12-25
'Every time an international relations professor wishes that their work was ‘policy relevant,’ another stubby, desiccated digit uncurls on the monkey’s paw.'
from https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/my-time-in-the-torment-nexus
henryfarrell · 2023-12-13
Original author here - this is a sister essay to an earlier Economist piece on LLMs co-authored with Cosma Shalizi, and there is a non-paywalled extended remix here - https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/shoggoths-amongst-us . Anything intelligent should be attributed to Cosma.
dinvlad · 2023-11-21
Well, that only shows that those 95% of folks are truly either religious fanatics or are just in it all for money [1]. No fucks given about moral principles.
(although there's or course a third possibility of them just being bright but too naive to STILL not see the sham that Sam has played for years and manipulated them into believing it)
[1] https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/look-at-scientology-to-understand