The Modernity Machine
AI summary of the linked articleThe author argues that modernity began in the 13th century rather than the 16th, and that its birth should be understood as a psychological and political shift, not as the spread of Western culture. Writing in the post, the author says that science and technology have spread worldwide with near-complete penetration, while philosophical and cultural westernization has been largely cosmetic. The author points to Venice's psychological break from Constantinople by the late 13th century and to Muhammad bin Tughlaq (1325-1351) of the Delhi Sultanate as an early psychologically modern ruler. The excerpt ends before the author finishes describing the European "modernity machine," which begins with Philip IV's 1307 strike against the Templars. |
2 comments mishaSubmitter I admit I read this article twice to get the full scope. But what stuck we me most is this: All politics today is working-class politics. If you used ChatGPT today to answer a question you might previously have consulted a technocratic expert for, congrats, you’re continuing a story that began with yeomen practicing with the longbow in the 1250s. That oligarchs own the data centers, or that technocrats created much of the data that trained the AI models, should not obscure the fact that the big winners are the working class. |