See the dark world

+ Fun new laws to create chaos, and how we'll lose control of AI (#535)

David Bauer

11 Jul 2025 — 5 min read

This is David, your non-artificial general intelligence for finding things on the web that will make you go «Huh, I never thought of it this way!». You're reading issue 535 of the Weekly Filet. As every Friday, I'm here to help you make sense of what’s happening, and imagine what could be. Let's go.

1. See the dark world

An essays that doesn't just hit a nerve when you read it, but that lingers at the back of your mind and refuses to leave you. It's about that «certain type of darkness in the world that most people simply cannot see.» The author argues that we are perfectly able to see that the world is broken. However, most of us cannot see a world that is unacceptable. «Upon noticing that the world is broken, they reflexively list reasons why it is still tolerable.» Hence, a call to action: «So see the dark world. See everything intolerable. Let the urge to tolerify it build, but don't relent. Just live there in the intolerable world, refusing to tolerate it.»

And now the punchline: The essay is from 2015, when the world was in a state of broken we'd gladly take back.

2 AI 2027: How Experts Predict We'll Lose Control

A research paper turned into a captivating video. The scenario of how artificial intelligence can, over the next two years, turn into something truly scary. Not just because of misaligned technology, but because of the geopolitics involved. Think it's too far-fetched? Might well be. Then again, as alignment expert Helen Toner says: «Dismissing discussion of super intelligence as science fiction should be seen as a sign of total unseriousness.»

👉 More on AI in my collection Making Sense of Artificial Intelligence.

3 The Moral Imperative Of Clear Language

Three notable quotes from this notable piece:

«We have become a society of people who know exactly what’s happening but lack the linguistic courage to say so.»
«This is what we’re witnessing now. The systematic training of a population to see clearly but speak obliquely, to understand precisely but describe vaguely, to recognize authoritarianism but call it something else.»
«This is not just a linguistic choice—it’s a moral one. Every time we speak plainly about what we’re witnessing, we strike a blow against the forces that depend on confusion to operate.»

The Moral Imperative Of Clear Language

I need to say something that will make many of you deeply uncomfortable: your refusal to call fascism “fascism” is not sophistication—it’s complicity. When Donald Trump posts explicit ord…

TechdirtMike Brock

4. Breaking the Internet

Excellent new season (so far) of the Long Shadow podcast. It tells the story of the internet. How it promised to unite people across the globe. And how – driven by profits and power – it tore the world apart instead. And it all started with...the infamous white and gold dress (You think it was blue and black? See, that's why we can't have nice things.)

5. If I Ruled the World: Creating Chaos

Great fun to listen to. Trevor Noah and his two guests each propose and defend one law they would introduce if they ruled the world. 1. All countries in the world hold elections on the exact same day. 2. Everyone must live within 10 minutes walking distance of their workplace. 3. No one would know who their biological child is.

What else?

Instant-gratification links that make you go wow! or aha! the moment you click.

The Big Picture 2025 – some of our planet’s most breathtaking species and places.
Fun: A roadtrip in Google Street View where all visitors on the site vote where to drive next.
Furniture that looks like hand-drawn sketches of said furniture.
Bacteria look surprisingly beautiful under the microscope.
This week I learned about the «Lāhainā Noon», a phenomenon where the sun casts no shadow, making reality look like a video game.
«You don’t walk to fix the problem—you walk because you need space from it.» (from When in doubt, Go for a Walk)