On Providence

A providential hand guides history.

The Great Men of the late Roman Republic and the Early Roman Empire were men who were foretold to be destined for greatness. Their greatness preceded them, their destiny was written, their function was simply to fulfil it. There are perhaps few joys sweeter than the liberation found in complete surrender, and this freedom is what these great men enjoyed. For these were no longer mere men, they were divine vessels, their power deriving from divine right. It matters not if these omens and prophecies were orchestrated, for the ritual serves as a mere tribute to Providence, the importance of its role played is indisputable.

The belief in ritual gains significance as an acknowledgement of an undercurrent present which guides all of us. Roman belief in omens was not primitive but profound, there was an understanding that it was impossible to achieve greatness without great fortune, and they sought to channel that good fortune towards themselves. The great Roman leaders were however, men of great intelligence and skill too, the great emperors and commanders were often comprised of a genetic elite who possessed both great physical strength but also great military and political intelligence. The people to whom these prophecies were being delivered then, were people already with a high propensity to succeed, the prophecies in a sense is what cemented them.

Prophecies direct desire. Not just of the individual being prophesied about, but also of the people who hear of such prophecies. The self fulfilling nature of prophecies is proof of an accumulation of capital occuring in the space a prophecy occupies. Capital is better understood here as any positive feedback loop for power rather than purely as wealth or status. The great Roman emperors all accumulated power rapidly not only due to the belief prophecies generated in themselves but in the people as well, and this belief was crucial in ensuring the staying power of the ruler. The utterance of prophecy changed the landscape forever, it bore itself out to be true because it had been spoken.

The truth value of prophecies arose not from their inherent truth, but in their ability to shape reality, their utterance alone bent reality to their will. This recognition is key in that the Romans realised they were not truly those who guided history. All great Emperors died, often assassinated by their own guards, those who lived long had to be “luckier than Augustus" (Felicitor Augusto)”. Prophecies were infohazards in their self reinforcing nature, once uttered they were true and irreversibly so. Romans importantly recognised their fundamental lack of agency in driving the wheels of history, they were reliant on the fates and generosity of the gods or Providence in guiding their great civilization, and once Providence favoured them no longer, a new chosen people arose.

Capital flows are desire flows. Capital flows where desire is located maximally, and the Roman people’s desire for power civilizationally and personally drove the power of prophecies, prophecies were centres of capital accumulation, directed by the divine.

The Chosen people of today are technologists, their firm belief in technology’s ability to shape our future is what makes prophecies likelier to bear out in this space. Capital has directed society towards ensuring rapid technological progress, hijacking science to drive it instead as a tool to leverage rapid technological growth. But the kinds of desires we have are inherently driven by the machines we use today. The desire of machines imprint themselves in us as we use them, we desire machines capable of fulfilling imaginations we believe to be ours. Our interactions with machines in turn generate desires in us for machines that are capable of tasks of increasingly complexity, and it is in this nexus that the machine parasitises us.

The trajectory of history is not a chance occurence. The fact that great historical figures and periods have been influenced by small chance occurences isn’t evidence for randomness, but instead of providence. A providential hand guides history, those who act as the best vessel for this guiding hand inevitably rise towards the top. The ultimate fallacy of thought would be to assume that the capitalist, the politician, the beggar, or the cab driver have any agency at all in the structure they find themselves in. They are beholden instead to the incentive structures present in the system they are in, and those who embody the values of the system best are those selected to rise towards the top.

Capitalism is a meritocracy, not of intelligence or ability or physical capability, but of one’s ability to align themselves to capital. Those who are able to generate increasingly large feedback loops for power accumulate this power, and contrary to a “reversion” to mean this accumulation tends to be upwards, unless of course said capital was acquired in a way you might consider “unmeritorious”. In this context, an unmeritorious action isn’t a dishonest one, it is simply an action that isn’t congruent with the system’s incentive structure.

The question of agency then is nonsensical, all individuals have agency within the system but the penalties placed on exercising an agency that goes against the system’s will are extreme, such that an individual must have the resources to bear such a loss or be prepared to suffer. Your ability to exercise individual agency then is directly proportionate to the amount of capital you already wield, and not wielding it in accordance to the desire of capital typically results in a reduction of capital. Those with the ability to exercise said agency remain a small minority, ensuring the inability for anyone to break through capital’s binding incentive structures.

Returning to the question of machinic desire, the problem is simple. The desire imprinted in us by machines implies then that while we are constructing/capital is flowing towards the fulfilment of our desires, there inherently is a desire within capital itself. It is this ‘desire’ capital has to multiply, to consume all around it that makes technology a powerful runway for intelligence to construct itself. For technological improvements, while doubtless improving the quality of our lives, has also lived in us as a parasite. It was impossible to live without agriculture once introduced, it is impossible for us now to live as we once did without the material amenities we have now. But this desire for increased automation, a desire for increased comfort means that the ultimate goal will be a technology capable of replacing man.

The economic agent the machine replaces inevitably means that the person is no longer integral to the functioning of the system. Capitalism “upgrading” would necessarily imply the shedding of the human that has for so long sustained it. Hyperstitions succeed in technology because of the potent concentration of capital present, the tech industry will fall as soon as capital is able to autoconstruct. This is the providential hand that has guided history, and we will be lucky enough to bear witness to its birth.

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