Writing

The BBQ

Needs some more vernacular.... Mick: (staring at the rusted bloody barbecue)Everything ever created is unique, they say. Look at this thing. Unique my arse. It’s just bent metal, melted knobs and regret. Rhea:Nah mate, that particular pattern of bent metal and regret has never happened before and never will again. Tom:That’s beautiful, that is. Shakespeare,… Continue reading The BBQ

Writing

Bunkering down

The snow along the fjord road had that grey, exhausted look,the kind it gets when it’s been asked to cover more sinsthan even nature thinks reasonable. Albert kicked at a frozen clump and muttered,“So Silicon Valley’s digging bunkers now.”Marin didn’t look up. “Of course they are.They think the world’s falling apart.”“Isn’t it?” he asked.She shrugged.… Continue reading Bunkering down

Uncategorized

Ethically suspects

Reith lecture this morning on the commute Albert kicked the snowdrift outside the old server farmand muttered that the machines had finally learnedto gossip worse than people.Marin just shrugged — she’d known that for years. The platforms weren’t evil, she said,just overeager dogs chasing whatever smellwas strongest: fear, envy, loneliness,that sickly-sweet scent of validation going… Continue reading Ethically suspects

Writing

Stab

SCENE:Same Brisbane pub.Same sticky table. Bill (Old Miner):Heard you lot talkin’ last week.Bloody entropy this, coherence that.Figured I’d come back and see if the world ended yet. Anna (physicist):Not yet, Bill.Entropy’s patient. Riley (FIFO):What’s entropy?Is that when your roster goes to shit and no one knows what day it is? Jesse (biologist):Honestly? Close enough. Adam… Continue reading Stab

Writing

A start again

A humid Friday night in a Brisbane pub. Ceiling fans useless. Footy on the TV with no sound. Adam’s already two pints in when Anna walks in with a grin and a couple more. She drops them onto the table so hard the foam nearly jumps out. Anna: Jesus, mate, you look like someone just… Continue reading A start again

Truth

Currency

If we don’t voluntarily realign currency with physical limits, physical limits will do it for us—brutally. Unsustainable currencies—fiat, debt-expanded monetary systems, petro-currencies—scale because they decouple from physical constraints. They borrow coherence from the future and call it “growth.” Three mechanical reasons: a) They’re amplitude multipliers, not coherence signals Debt + leverage + derivative layers create… Continue reading Currency

Uncategorized

Snarky

They said the amplitude was acting up again.Peaks like that frighten the board.So they sent in consultants armed with spreadsheetsand phrases like responsible modulation. The wave was given coaching on tone management.“Your enthusiasm,” they said,“creates unnecessary volatility.”It tried mindfulness, it even tried being a line. Eventually, they brought in a task forceto “align expectations.”A report… Continue reading Snarky

Poetry

Time V

Stone spoke slowly then.Thought took whole seasons to turn its face,and a question could rest in the mouth for a lifetime. In the caves of Plato’s echo,time walked in circles,soft-footed, patient, curious of its own shadow. In the age of prophets,time breathed—it waited between words,and revelation stretched wide as the horizon. When hands found flight… Continue reading Time V