Top all-time · #2488
Dave Karpf
Personal blog · davekarpf.substack.comaipolitics
Dave Karpf writes The Future, Now and Then, a personal blog at davekarpf.substack.com about ai and politics. Since 2022, 31 different Hacker News readers have linked it 33 times, most often “Elon Musk and the Infinity Rebuy”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-03-03, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (4) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Dave Karpf's Substack essays critiquing tech billionaires, techno-optimism, longtermism and network states. HN commenters link them as critiques of Silicon Valley ideology and related politics.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 4 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
A newsletter that mixes insights from the history of the digital future (#WIREDarchive) with observations and rants about the state of politics today. Basically a blog for your inbox.
Most-linked posts?
- Elon Musk and the Infinity Rebuy4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2023-09-27
- Paul Graham and the Cult of the Founder3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2024-09-13
- Why can't our tech billionaires learn anything new?3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2023-10-18
What Hacker News says?
This is a good takedown I read [1] My own take: Andreesen doesn't get that politics/law/society also has "software", i.e. rules that advance and get complex as civilization gets complex. In a sense there is human/social "technology" as well that has to evolve and advance as well. Hard Tech needs Soft Tech, they are not "enemies". [1] https://davekarpf.substack.com/p/why-cant-our-tech-billionai...
Comment linking /p/why-cant-our-tech-billionaires-learn
on “Marc Andreessen Is Wrong About Everything”Submitted Paul Graham and the Cult of the Founder as a story · 38 points
HN discussionAlso this one https://davekarpf.substack.com/p/why-cant-our-tech-billionai...
Comment linking /p/why-cant-our-tech-billionaires-learn
on “Two Kinds of Techno-Optimism”Submitted Paul Graham and the Cult of the Founder as a story · 20 points
HN discussionInteresting that the Long Now foundation is apparently separate from the EA "Longtermism" movement (though both share the same cultish vibes IMO) https://davekarpf.substack.com/p/against-jackpot-longtermism
Comment linking /p/against-jackpot-longtermism
on “The Heresy of Decline”Submitted What Elon Musk's favorite game tells us about him as a story · 15 points
HN discussionBrian Chau, the creator of Effort News, is a "Founding Faculty" member ( https://www.fromthenew.world/about ) of Balaji Srinivasan’s Network School, and has lived in its Singapore-based compound. Srinivasan's Network School is part of his long-term goal of creating "Network States" -- essentially an aspiration of corporate feudalism ( https://davekarpf.substack.com/p/the-tech-barons-have-a-blue... ) See: https://new…
Comment linking /p/the-tech-barons-have-a-blueprint
on “The 19th-Century Family Fortunes Funding Degrowth”Submitted The Hollow Core of Kevin Kelly's "Thousand True Fans" Theory as a story · 11 points
HN discussionSubmitted On Substack Nazis, laissez-faire tech regulation, and mouse-poop-in-cereal-boxes as a story · 9 points
HN discussionSubmitted Paul Graham and the Cult of the Founder as a story · 8 points
HN discussionSubmitted Web3's fake version of Web history as a story · 8 points
HN discussionSubmitted Elon Musk and the Infinity Rebuy as a story · 6 points
HN discussionSubmitted Are LLMs on the trajectory of word processors or digital advertising? as a story · 6 points
HN discussionSubmitted It's Giving Enron: On the AI bubble, and the various echoes of the dotcom crash as a story · 5 points
HN discussionSubmitted How long does Twitter have left? as a story · 5 points
HN discussionSubmitted Mark Zuckerberg's Phantom-Friend-Future as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Elon Musk and the Infinite Rebuy as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Staring Down the Twitterpocalypse as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Tech Futurism's Blind Spot as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted The AI economy is full of financial gimmicks as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Five things [Dave Karpf believes] about actually-existing AI today as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Giant piles of cash, and their origins as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Silicon Valley Runs on Futurity as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The trajectory of any emerging technology bends toward money as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted On OpenAI: Let Them Fight as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Why can't our tech billionaires learn anything new? as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted What has been missing from most depictions of the digital future as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted We are all going to regret Kalshi and Polymarket as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Bullet Points: Techbros-telling-stories edition as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted What Elections Are For as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
