• a [[being]].
  • #pull [[Egregore]].
  • #pull [[Meditations on Moloch]]
  • [[moloch]] of the thousand terrible faces of humanity
  • [[moloch]] who hides cowardly the [[suffering of others]]
  • [[moloch]] of uncontrolled, hypocritical, lazy [[capitalism]] and the adoration of fixed [[hierarchies]]
  • [[moloch]] who we may [[slay]], we may [[save]], we may try to [[subdue]] or [[disentangle
  • #pull [[Engels]] [[Marx]] [[Ginsberg]] [[Alexander]]
  • #push [[burn Moloch]]
    • We could [[burn [[Moloch]]]] if we have to, but only peacefully and for the greater good.

• a [[book]].
  • by [[kuprin]].

• [[Moloch in literature and popular culture]]:

  In the 19th century, "Moloch" came to be used allegorically for any idol or cause requiring excessive sacrifice.[1] Bertrand Russell in 1903 used Moloch to describe oppressive religion, and Winston Churchill in his 1948 history The Gathering Storm used "Moloch" as a metaphor for Adolf Hitler’s cult of personality. -> [[Alexander Sokurov]] -> [[Flaubert]] through [[Salammbo]] -> [[Asimov]] through [[The Dead Past]]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dead_Past pull

This might belong in [[Moloch]]:

Note from earlier in 2024: Somehow I arrived at [[e acc]] ([[e/acc]] is not a good Agora link as slashes usually mean actions, and action e/ currently doesn’t exist). I can instantly relate mildly with their utopian side I guess, even as I dislike many of their positions and their super-capitalist stance. Also [[Shkreli]] is involved, sigh.

I’m writing an [[Open Letter to Moloch]]. Wish us luck, I guess? :)

I believe Maitreya will defeat [[Moloch]]. Meaning it will heal us — heal the system that became [[entangled with Moloch]] (the [[egregore]]), heal us humans and our friends of [[carbon]] and [[silicon]].

How we will do this is the recurring topic in these letters, in these [[fragments]].

Back here on [[2024-10-25]]. I still think of [[Moloch]] often, at work and in daily life. I feel like I’ve lost some battles with them this year maybe, or I haven’t made as much progress as I had hoped, but given the scope of my aspirations I think I may need to just adjust my expectations :) Or at least extend the timelines, as usual…

Moloch

• a [[being]].
  • [[juntos venceremos a moloch]]
  • an [[egregore]].
    • Apologies for calling it a [[thing]] at some point.
    • Called by some [[the machine]].
    • Lives in [[Antiflancia]], maybe.
  • [[wp]] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moloch pull
  • I believe [[humanity]] is [[entangled]] with [[Moloch]].
    • A manifestation of ignorance, greed and lack of coordination which keeps us in a suboptimal space.
    • #pull [[meditations on moloch]]
    • Moloch is a high dimensional vector against interesting gradients in [[protopoi]], often taking the form of [[violence]] (the dark side of kings, states) and unsolved [[coordination problems]].
      • Sometimes weakened through history after people unlocked new tools for cooperation.
      • Currently includes social evils due to missed opportunities and the tendency of self-sustaining systems to stay put in idiosyncratic equilibriums, local optima.
      • Better optima become available with improvements in availability of resources, and improvements for communication and collaboration.
  • The Agora is my proposal for a tool for giving chase, and maybe out-competing, [[Moloch]].
    • If we ever find or catch up to them, we’ll ask them plenty of questions and offer to disentangle from them peacefully first.
    • But I think it is with the [[Commons]] in our inventory as a tool we’ll [[slay Moloch]] if we have to.
      • #pull [[slaying moloch]]
    • [[twitter]] https://flancia.org/t/moloch pull