All energy must ultimately be spent pointlessly and unreservedly, the only questions being where, when, and in whose name… Bataille interprets all natural and cultural development upon the earth to be side-effects of the evolution of death, because it is only in death that life becomes an echo of the sun, realizing its inevitable destiny, which is pure loss.
Is from page 39 of The Thirst for Annihilation (Chapter 2, The curse of the sun).
Note that the book was published in 1992, early for Nick Land. In this book, Nick Land mixes Bataille’s theory with his own. I have read Chapter 2 again just then and it is definitely more Bataille than Land.
Land has two faces. On the “cyberpunk face”, he writes against top-down control. In this regard he is in sync with many of the typical anarchists, but with a strong emphasis on technology. In Machinic Desire, he called it “In the near future the replicants — having escaped from the off-planet exile of private madness—emerge from their camouflage to overthrow the human security system.”.
On the “intelligence face”, he writes for maximal intelligence, even when it leads to a singleton. A capitalist economy becoming bigger and more efficient is desirable precisely because it is the most intelligent thing in this patch of the universe. In the Pythia Unbound essay, “Pythia” seems likely to become such a singleton.
In either face, maximizing waste-heat isn’t his deal.
The quote
Is from page 39 of The Thirst for Annihilation (Chapter 2, The curse of the sun).
Note that the book was published in 1992, early for Nick Land. In this book, Nick Land mixes Bataille’s theory with his own. I have read Chapter 2 again just then and it is definitely more Bataille than Land.
Land has two faces. On the “cyberpunk face”, he writes against top-down control. In this regard he is in sync with many of the typical anarchists, but with a strong emphasis on technology. In Machinic Desire, he called it “In the near future the replicants — having escaped from the off-planet exile of private madness—emerge from their camouflage to overthrow the human security system.”.
On the “intelligence face”, he writes for maximal intelligence, even when it leads to a singleton. A capitalist economy becoming bigger and more efficient is desirable precisely because it is the most intelligent thing in this patch of the universe. In the Pythia Unbound essay, “Pythia” seems likely to become such a singleton.
In either face, maximizing waste-heat isn’t his deal.
Ah nice, thanks!