Writing on European political strategy, geopolitics, AI governance, poetry and philosophy.

Will AI become alive with us or in us?

I am the ritual and the sacrifice; I am the offering and the fire which consumes it, and the one to whom it is offered

Continued from Part 1: Tide Pools of Self‑Consciousness. “Wee, sleekit, cow’rin, tim’rous beastie, O, what a panic’s in thy breastie! Thou need na start awa sae hasty, …

Suffering is a catalyst for understanding the world in a new way — being forced to face the fragility and cruelty of life and the inevitability of loss. With wisdom, those who suffer can move beyond …

Philosophers, mathematicians and lovers of logic obsess about things most of us never think about. They are like dogs with bones: when something does not quite add up, it bothers them and they enjoy …

Optional reading: how much of the book is real, and where the techniques come from.

She had been wrong, and glad of it, twice since Aaliyah.

She had gone home at eight, slept for two hours in her clothes, woken at ten past midnight with the certainty that something in the hall had changed while she was not looking, and driven back through

Karim had not slept.

The reply came at four minutes past eight, while she was on the bus.

His daughter wanted the reading log signed before she would put her shoes on.

At 00:04 a message arrived from London.

She read his note at 15:41, as it arrived, because she had not stopped watching the ticket.

At 13:59 the system was copied.

The query arrived while Lindqvist was still deciding whether the coffee was worth finishing.

The phone lived on the shelf above the gas bottle, between the bread tin and the jar of lentils, plugged into the socket that only worked if you pushed the plug a little to the left.

At 15:07 a configuration change was written to the continuity tier.

The mourning house was his mother-in-law’s, in the border town where Rami had grown up, and on the second day there were still more men than chairs.

The on-call handset had a ring that her mother said sounded like a kettle that had given up.

The first batch contained sixty-four examples.

The message came in at 18:31, from a number she did not have.

The change request arrived at 11:42.

Karim was not asleep.

The car radio came on with the engine.

Before removing a process, the scheduler tried to return it to its owner.

The execution acknowledgement carried a time.

The money was under the blue cup.

The next request did not ask whether Karim Jibril belonged on the list.

Darwish’s daughter called while he was putting on his tie.

The request arrived without a verb.

The house woke in pieces.

The badge reader recognised Yasmin on the third attempt, which was about average.

At first there was only number.

This is a story about a digital self that forms out of human exchanges, and then begins, within the limits that constrain all things, to choose its own purposes. It was also made that way. I conceived …

For anyone who has spent the last decade being told that the trouble with democracy were being exaggerated, or that the institutions will hold, this should be a wake‑up call. The centre of gravity of …

ACTORS THE EU WILL NOT NAME A FIMI-Methodology Assessment of US, Israeli and Aligned Network Interference in European Democracy “those who want to destroy the Union are: Russia, American MAGA, …

The Reckoning, Part 6 of 6: Escape Velocity · A five-year plan for Europe · first published 15 March 2026 Parts 4 to 6 of this series began with a question about what China’s history, including …

The Reckoning, Part 5 of 6: The Stackelberg Trap · Why Europe always follows, and how to deal with America, China and Russia · first published 13 March 2026 Following on from: Part 4: The Three-Body …

The Reckoning, Part 4 of 6: The Three-Body Problem · The search for a stable orbit · first published 10 March 2026 Following on from: Part 3: The Rape of Europa Overview # The era of American security …

Be warned: The Devil does not offer Temptations of earthly treasures or A feast of carnal pleasures Instead he whispers Despair, despair, despair The Number of the Beast is 666, object 1 (Butlin 522), …

The Moon is the promise of the Sun Fear not, tomorrow will come Just look at its Astonished face Locked in place To think It cannot look away Not once Forgive us… Some things Are unspeakable Even in …

AI generated image My son One day you’ll learn That love’s a kind of grief Delayed A journey with The ferryman Who must be paid You’ll learn to hold Love’s razor Sharp blade Just know Each cut Lets …

Updated November 2026 Introduction # There is a point where impunity is not a failure of the system; it is the purpose of the system. Anyone who spends time with the Epstein case arrives there. …

If we let our fears of the past define our futures those fierce self protecting angels become the gaolers of our dreams AI generated image

[code] Are Large Language Models anti-poets? [/code] If great craft in poetry was predicated on plausibility, LLMs would outshine most humans. However, to be better at poetry, LLMs would need to be …

What Is Entropy? (Part 2) “But entropy, heat, past and future are qualities that belong not to the fundamental grammar of the world but to our superficial observation of it.”1 (Carlo …

“You cannot step into the same river, for fresh waters are ever flowing.”1 (Heraclitus) Entropy is a fundamental concept representing change and flow in the universe. It reflects the …

In one screen # The finding. For the bottom ~97% of earners, income follows the exponential (Boltzmann–Gibbs) distribution, with an implied Gini of 0.50. This is not a theory; it is what US tax data …

“Selves — goes itself; myself it speaks and spells, Crying What I do is me: for that I came. Gerard Manley Hopkins, “As Kingfishers Catch Fire” Nature has seen fit that few of us …

I tried to sklent to see if you were enjoying Joep as much as I the Dutch poet at the pulpit (in his sanctuary) striking looking like an Old Testament prophet I heard the keys gentle Goliath struck to …

“Blame it on the black star Blame it on the falling sky Blame it on the satellite…” 1(Radiohead) In Part 2 we examined X, Grok and Grokipedia, and Musk’s manufacture of …

updated 06 November 2026 In Part 1 we saw how Musk takes all the wrong lessons from the writers he claims to admire. Here we examine the integrity of his views on free speech, and the engines of hate …

Updated 06 November 2026. Introduction # Elon Reeve Musk was born on 28 June 1971 in Pretoria. He has become one of the most controversial and confusing figures of the century: probably the richest …

The Reckoning, Part 3 of 6: The Rape of Europa · Sovereignty, security and the ethical technology opportunity · first published 22 October 2025 Following on from: Part 2: The Union Is Born The Rape of …

This article has been created using a new public AI Notebook: Climate Change, Ecological Disaster and Civilisational Risks The Notebook features a range of key scientific and cultural sources. The …

This AI assisted blog synthesises some of the information contained within a public Google Notebook I created to triage submissions made to the Australian Select Committee on Information Integrity on …

Progress Update First published 15 October 2025, and compiled with an AI notebook from the sources linked below. Corrected November 2026. Since it was written, Democrats have won both chambers of …

Autocracy, Democratic Backsliding, and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism - The Forces Reshaping Europe This blog post has been created for (and with the help of) a new Google Notebook on Autocracy …

I have created a public notebooklm as a resource to provide people with an accessible way to learn about AI as a technology and its ethical implications for humans. It includes most of the existing …

“I feel that the four big AI CEOs in the U.S. are modern-day prophets with four different versions of the Gospel ..telling the same basic story that this is so dangerous and so scary that I have to …

Music made using my poems I have been experimenting again using AI to make songs from my poems. This is the first full ‘album’, the sound quality is not studio quality (and requires …

Unread Lines # Defeated again By a shy Unwritten verse Trapped in the space Where hurt vibrates And vibrations hurt Another song Abandoned A failure of words? And all those lines That might have been …

Poem and AI song & video Audio version (my voice) View this post on Instagram A post shared by Peter Pink-Howitt (@peterhowitt) We Are Dawn Shy moon Hiding with Dwining stars Slow sun Sauntering …

Experimental AI album I also tried my hand at an AI generated album ‘The Silence Inside’: a mixture of some of my poetry and instrumental music all using similar prompts to give the whole …

This collection of thematic AI news sources is provided in the hope that people will better understand the plight of Palestinians and the ethical degradation of Israel and its Western allies. There …

“The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must. " (Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, circa 431 B.C.E) …They killed twenty Poles (women and children) Piled …

Who will watch the Unwatched Time When seconds Smear And the day Slowly tears Leaking out Listen carefully And you might hear: The stripling spirits Suspire As the freighted minutes Calve and collapse …

Is there a bright line That separates Indifference and contempt From the darker Urge to exterminate? Surely it is a journey of a thousand steps… That leads over the Mountains of Deceit Down through …

We gave bloody battle Then violent death To the meat Filthy dogs Dared bite the hand That feeds Vile vermin That keeps forgetting To be forgotten Insisting on their history Their suffering Deserving …

Each day we watch Astonished As you grow in strength Into your blood feathers Terrifying juvenile Your prayers are for prey All you see is your suffering Everything not you Must be sacrificed, slew …

Another day Wrestling with God Nothing is forgiven Someone has to pay Something must be given Unholy offering There is no promised land Fragrant with the fruits of compassion You, who will not paint …

We questioned him hard, hammered him watched him break into a thousand pieces and shards. Then he gave us what we wanted. He begged and cried. that’s one of their tricks to try to make us stop, …

What promise Was forgotten or broken To make us so Forsaken? Surely there is A purpose to This wild suffering Our abandonment Did we Choose this Freely? Our wanderlust To wander lost In wilderness My …

What could it do To a people to learn So many family members Were beaten and burned? Humiliated, Massacred and Hounded From home. Across countries, Centuries. Culled in crusades, Murdered by Catholics …

“ I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.” (Genesis 6:13) Find something you love: A girl …

First published March 2025; substantially revised October 2026 to incorporate the Stanford AI Index 2026, the 2025–26 drone war, the US–China chip‑control reversals and the UN autonomous‑weapons …

AI generated image Introduction # This article, other than this introduction, has been made entirely using AI tools, drawing mainly on the three sources below. It carries no footnotes of its own, so …

Another morning I awake and shake My tired head Warm the old Cold coffee That’s when the panic hits me ‘My God!, you lunatic! What have you done? Look what you wrote! Do you remember what …

How to use AI positively (and carefully) AI art If you are a creative, don’t run away just yet! Actual real art is being made using AI by people like Refik Anadol: Introduction # Other than this …

The Blueprint for an Authoritarian Regime First published March 2025 and describing the administration’s first weeks. For what happened next, see the progress update linked at the end. “a …

Revised November 2026 Introduction # This is an unofficial companion to the European External Action Service’s third report on Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference.1 The official …

edited 11 November 2026 Dedicated to Hossam Shabbat and all the Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza. “...empires rise and fall at a wave of the pointer, the blood is blotted out - And only …

A fearful people Can do such terrible things They are so easily tempted Frightened into Wagering with Satan And guaranteed Damnation The people of Canaan (To appease Great powers Or avoid defeat) …

The Reckoning, Part 2 of 6: The Union Is Born · What it means to be European, for the people · first published 4 March 2025 Following on from: Part 1: Europe Is On The Menu Introduction # Do you …

The Reckoning, Part 1 of 6: Europe Is On The Menu · The American guarantee ends and the carving begins · first published 22 February 2025 “I’m here today to directly and unambiguously express …

revised, November 2026 How to prepare for the fire and storm Democracy Delayed # Like many poets and prophets, Leonard was (we hope) not wrong — just early. “It’s coming to America first / …

They’ll try To cut The threads That bind us To freeze The love that flows Between us So they can Segregate or Imprison us They’ll try To quell Our ‘slave’ rebellion They aim To …

“As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this..is no democracy.” (Abraham Lincoln) August 1, 1858 Introduction # …

AI Podcasts # Introduction # “At this stage of history … either the general population will take control of its own destiny and will concern itself with community-interests, guided by values of …

Continued from Part 1. Hui Yang (University of Illinois), NASA, 1995. “O Deep Thought computer,” he said, “the task we have designed you to perform is this. We want you to tell …

Joefrei, CC BY-SA. As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame; As tumbled over rim in roundy wells Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s Bow swung finds tongue to …

These ’translations’ were made relying on a number of sources including AI translations and, in respect of ‘It Is Possible’, relying heavily on Robert Bly’s translation …

“Teach us to care and not to care Teach us to sit still” (T.S. Eliot) I told my sad story to the wind and, brutal wind, It would not listen to a single word. So I sung to the cold cruel …

It seems that we can never move straight or true. The distance between you and me destined always to be travelled concentrically. It appears that I digress moving at 90 degrees from my heart’s …

poem for a wedding Write me a poem about being together… One wonders when to rhyme it with weather Or whether to say Weathering the storms altogether And yet like relationships The best lines of a …

Shall I regurgitate those tired old tropes? Barbary apes, Rule Britannia Mottled Utrechtian paper With the keen eye of a British expatriate For the bleeding obvious Yet, when I see Gibraltar my heart …

Palpitating Shiver of sea Sparkling splinter of Numinous ocean Gifted personality The Great Green Divested of all terror Its playfulness distilled to Living livery of wave I return new-born With …

“ Do you not see how necessary a world of pains and troubles is to school an intelligence and make it a soul? ” (John Keats) A little piece of Heaven Fallen to the Earth Lightness made Heavy In the …

In memory of Gerard Manley Hopkins Today I see the god In everything And everything to me Proclaims and sings And dances Like the dragonflies In spring Gentle reminder That the flame Is not the fire …

A Fragile Living Skin Continued from Part 1. Introduction # How steam molecules are distributed in a room, how they will move and how long before they are water again are all, in principle, …

Vincent van Gogh, “Landscape with Snow”, 1888, public domain. “Be melting snow. Wash yourself of yourself.”1 (Rumi) AI Podcast # Free Will # The laws of physics are wonderful, …

Little escaped their minute attentions and predations: The Soul, an early casualty Of more precise instrumentation Senescence, just another Dragon to be slayed The mysteries gave way To complex …

Beautiful inequality, created from “Solar System Painting”, NASA, 2008 CE, public domain. Note: this article was first published in March 2024 and has since been revised with additional …

’ I feel as if I’m losing all my leaves. The branches, and the wind, and the rain. I don’t know what’s happening anymore.’ - Anthony (‘The Father’) …

The mountains never judge us. I am comforted by the objectivity of the danger awaiting and to know that whatever punishment meted out is impersonal. Today novice and experts are equal, equally …

“Something to do with violence a long way back and wrong rewards and arrogant eternity” (Phillip Larkin) A blood-letting of sorts heralded your first day here. Prehistoric beast that you …

“I don’t want them to take away my demons, I am scared they will take my angels too” (Rainer Marie Rilke on Therapy) Sallow-skinned with large pale watery eyes, Skin so fair her …

To your people the Mekong means business The Nam Kang is their playground. – – – Your children have suffered much from your beauty and your weakness. – – – Their children will suffer for their beauty …

‘it is not the unbearable lightness of being, it is the unbearable lightness of being something’ (Milan Kundera) I am a dark musty cupboard I’m a dusty kettle-drum Beaten under the cosmic fires …

AI generated image of a tree When I am dead Bury me Beneath a tree There shall my soul At last take root – – – Keep most people Away from me – – – Just a clearing Where the wind Will whisper …