Dark Enlightenment Pt 3: Accelerating AI Apocalypse, Nick Land & the CCRU

Occultism at Cybernetic Culture Research Unit, HP Lovecraft & Accelerationism

Marc Andreessen’s “Techno-Optimist Manifesto” was published in October 2023 and it praised the transformative power of technology as the key to mankind’s progress, wealth and happiness. Thus, we should accelerate technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) instead of slowing it down with bloated bureaucracy and regulations.

From this we get into yet another philosophy of the Dark Enlightenment: Accelerationism…

Move Fast and Break Things

Accelerationism is a body of revolutionary ideas in far left and right ideologies calling for drastic intensification of capitalist growth, technological and social change to destabilize existing systems. The belief is that this will create radical social transformation and the conditions for a technological singularity- the point where technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible; because they want to usher in the next iteration of life- the Transhuman, a mix of AI digital consciousness and the human spirit. Ray Kurzweil would describe it as the point where humans merge with machines.

Nick Land is credited as the “Godfather of Accelerationism” which takes us back to the 1990s when he was a British philosopher who taught at Warwick University. He also participated in a group called the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit (CCRU). The CCRU was wild and we’ll get to that soon…

In 2017 Nick Land wrote an essay on Accelerationism called “A Quick and Dirty Introduction to Accelerationism” which suggested that acceleration is inevitable- a deterministic fate that supports all of the Golden Age and deteriorationist ideas we discussed way back on Part 1 of our journey. He argues that capitalism has a positive feedback loop that is unstoppable and will always adapt and evolve towards the inevitable collapse. He suggests that fighting against this accelerationism is futile and counterproductive so we may as well just lean into and embrace hypercapitalism and whatever outcome is coming. It’s a bit like surrendering to the chaos instead of having guardrails to minimize damage- regardless of any morals or ethics.

The early leftist-accelerationists believed technology could be harnessed to make our existence as the human species better (influences like Marshall McLuhan suggested it should be used to free up human time such that we could spend our time creating art versus repetitive capitalist tasks); but Nick Land’s view seems to say ‘let’s remove all attempts to manage technology and see where it ends up.’

Nick also wrote a book in 2022 called “The Dark Enlightenment” in which he advocates for a form of capitalist monarchism controlled by a CEO (*it’s that authoritarian Neocameralism talk that Curtis Yarvin said was instrumental in destroying the Cathedral of outdated institutions). The theory also disapproved of Democratic and Egalitarian policies because they only slow down the coveted acceleration into the technological singularity.

He blames the Left for slowing this down- calling them the brakes of “progress” (he calls it the “Great Work of the Left”- a curious freemasonic alchemy term).

Cybernetic Culture Research Unit

A collective called the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit (CCRU) was formed by Sadie Plant in 1995 at Warwick University in England. The goal of the group was to explore cybernetics, philosophy, technology and society. It started out focusing on cyberfeminist research and exploring ideas of using technology to break down traditional structures and empower women; until she allowed Nick Land to take charge in pursuing ideas of accelerating the end of mankind with attempts to accelerate and transcend via experiments into the occult and science fiction.

The CCRU was exploring demonology, numerology and esoteric ideas such as Hyperstition. Nick believed there exists a positive feedback loop with culture that reinforces its own self-fulfilling prophecies and spreads like a meme. It’s similar to charging up a sigil or Eliphas Levi’s magnetic chain. Symbols are transmitted to everyone in society via the Internet and causes changes in reality (e.g. Pepe the Frog). Nick saw capitalism as a force that is very sensitive to this idea because confidence creates the reality and sells the product.

Nick was influenced by a philosopher named Giles Deleuze and an idea called Virtuality- exploring ideas of space and time which is found in a variety of 1990s cyberspace film depictions such as Lawnmower Man, Disclosure and even The Matrix.

In an interview with Nick Land from 2009 (found on orphandriftarchive.com), he said that the thing that is hidden from us- the Occult; is an alien order of time which shows up as synchronicities. He also describes hyperstitionality as something that condenses our reality but comes from HP Lovecraft Old Ones; much like we see in John Carpenter’s Mouth of Madness film.

Other inspirations for CCRU explorations include HP Lovecraft, William Gibson, Friedrich Nietzsche, William S Burroughs and Carl Jung. They would draft up strange sigil-looking images called Numograms to try and convey this complex alien-time concept of Lemurian time-sorcery; a mystical understanding of time referring to a lost continent of Lemuria (similar to Atlantis). The intention is to demonstrate a transcendence beyond conventional time and space and the material constructs of our world (including the human body). Time is viewed as something a magician can manipulate through occult practices mixed with technology.

Nick also explored “The Outside”- a concept of a nonhuman, chaotic, destructive force inherent to capitalism and technology. This force will melt down all human values and reason as it takes us down its path.

In a three-hour interview on Scott Mannion’s Metalore in Sept 2023; Nick Land described the CCRU’s engagement with magick and entities from The Outside. He also confirms that the Kabbalistic numerological expression of CCRU was equivalent to the number 666!

Manly P Hall believed the number 666 represented man in its fallen state of the material world and the lower aspects of the self which can only be transcended through spiritual enlightenment. The number 666 represents man’s struggle to ascend spiritually. I point this out because I find it interesting that Nick Land believes in man’s transcendence through the guidance of entities from The Outside and pursuing an accelerationism philosophy to push us into the technological singularity which promises to bring an end to the material realm for mankind.

The spiritual transcendence starts with an initiate understanding the world through a gnostic lens- a material prison of hell created by a false god. From this we can argue that Silicon Valley’s belief in a simulation theory isn’t far from the ideas of CCRU.

*I’m currently reading through the hundreds of pages of CCRU writings from 1997-2003 and it’s extremely concerning and the connections into the occult are much deeper than I originally anticipated. I plan on doing a full podcast episode on the subject so be sure to stay subscribed to my podcast Occult Symbolism and Pop Culture with Isaac Weishaupt.

Nick Land’s work inspired artists Jake and Dinos Chapman (who were members of CCRU). They’ve continued that CCRU perspective by continuously exploring Accelerationism and collaborations with Nick Land. They also collaborated with Balenciaga which takes us into much darker territory…

If you want more on this specific aspect of the Dark Enlightenment please check out my podcast series- Part 2 in particular covers this topic in-depth:

Dark Enlightenment Pt 2: Nick Land, Accelerationism, Hyperstition, CCRU, Crowley & AI Gods! https://illuminatiwatcher.com/dark-enlightenment-pt-2-nick-land-accelerationism-hyperstition-ccru-crowley-ai-gods/

Stay subscribed to my Substack for the full Dark Enlightenment series!

Index of articles:

• Dark Enlightenment Part 1: https://open.substack.com/pub/illuminatiwatcher/p/what-is-the-dark-enlightenment-conspiracy?r=br4gm&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

• Dark Enlightenment Part 2: https://open.substack.com/pub/illuminatiwatcher/p/dark-enlightenment-pt-2-conspiracy?r=br4gm&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

*This is part of a podcast series exploring the Dark Enlightenment, if you want to listen to the full series please check out my podcast on all platforms: Occult Symbolism and Pop Culture with Isaac Weishaupt.

The first episode of the podcast is also available to stream here:

What is Dark Enlightenment Pt 1: USA New World Order, Magick, Angry Nerds & Curtis Yarvin! https://illuminatiwatcher.com/what-is-dark-enlightenment-pt-1-usa-new-world-order-magick-angry-nerds-curtis-yarvin/

Website publisher of IlluminatiWatcher.com and author of THE DARK PATH; Isaac Weishaupt has been on the leading edge of theories surrounding the elusive “Illuminati” and its infiltration of the entertainment industry. Using examples of familiar pop culture and works of entertainment, Isaac has been speaking and writing about the occult from a unique perspective that seeks to understand the big agenda while helping others along the way.

Isaac hosts the Occult Symbolism and Pop Culture podcast (supported by the premium feeds on Patreon) and “Breaking Social Norms.” He has been a featured guest on Coast to Coast AM, Tin Foil Hat podcast (honorary member of Mount Crushmore), Eddie Bravo’s “Look Into It,” Ground Zero with Clyde Lewis, Chris Jericho’s “Talk is Jericho” podcast, Richard Syrett’s “Strange Planet,” “Those Conspiracy Guys,” Dave Navarro’s “Dark Matter Radio,” Richard C. Hoagland’s “Other Side of Midnight”, SIRIUS/XM’s The All Out Show, The HigherSide Chats, BLACKOUT Radio, Freeman Fly’s “The Free Zone”, Mark Devlin’s “Good Vibrations”, VICE, COMPLEX magazine, Esquire, Newsweek, The Atlantic and many more radio shows and podcasts. His fresh perspective and openly admitted imperfections promotes the rational approach to exploring these taboo subjects and theories.

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