Controls [from the archives, 9 May 2021]. Originally performed and recorded for the Modular World 1st anniversary show (8-9 May 2021) which was a massive livestream event of 33+ hrs during the pandemic lockdowns.

During the lockdown years, Modular World became one example of a fairly niche thing gathering people together worldwide to make experimental art online - when it was not possible to organize the usual small local performances - to create something positive and reach more people than they ever could individually. As the pandemic finally, thankfully, subsided, however, it seems that people went back to the enclosed local communities, and these types of global online communities lost their drive. 

Also the rapidly accelerating #enshittification cycle of the past few years has buried the visibility of these kinds of communities from all major social media platforms. Of course, as Cory Doctorow ( @pluralistic ) has been pointing out for years, the enshittification of these platforms started much earlier. But somehow amid the pandemic, this niche scene still seemed to flourish, and it was only after Silicon Valley lined up to kiss the ring that the aggressive changes to the algorithms really seemed to change things. 

Maybe this is correlation more than causation, but as activity at such niche scenes is often also created by fairly principled DIY-oriented people, it seems that many (myself included) have struggled with justifying why we keep feeding these platforms. This disillusionment is further exacerbated by the rise of the AI-slopmachine that will rip off all the non-commercial work from these platforms just like everything else. Online activity that gathers enough momentum to actually keep things active has in these types of niche scenes been very much dependent on instagram and youtube. Over the past few years, the visibility of this type on stuff that doesn’t try to optimise for the alorithm has plummeted. 

Perhaps all of this has resulted in events such as the Modular World shows reaching fewer and fewer people. As wonderful as the promise of #Fediverse is, so far it seems that we’re very far from reaching the critical mass where it would actually start reaching new people. If the utopian enclave remains enclosed, it eventually dwindles away.

But we can try! I’m posting these weird little Johannes Karkia mini music videos and performances here bit by bit. It’s a transfer of archive, posted on insta & youtube over th years, and also new work now & then. 

But also Modular World does still exist! Go check out their channel: https://www.youtube.com/live/07ErB3AjlAo?is=qr9q2pXlhWm7Hie2 (Full performance of this piece, and interview with MW’s Johno Wells there on the Modular World youtube channel and on the Johannes Karkia youtube channel [link in the bio above], audio track also on Bandcamp).

#enshittification #fediverse #modularsynth #modularworld #anniversary #liveshow #electronicmusic #modulartechno #covid19 #pandemic #darkwave #eurorackmodular #community #surveillancecapitalism #platformcapitalism #algorithm #bigtech #siliconvalley #kissthering #socialmedia #utopianenclave #utopianism

The Dogs of Llano Del Rio
https://kubicki.org/letters/the-dogs-of-llano-del-rio-i/

#CharlesFourier #utopianism

"...mankind is solving its economic problem. I would predict that the standard of life in progressive countries one hundred years hence will be between four and eight times as high as it is... assuming no important wars and no important increase in population, the economic problem may be solved, or be at least within sight of solution, within a hundred years."
- John Milton Meynes, Economic Possiblities for Our Grandchildren (1930) https://organism.earth/library/document/economic-possibilities

SIGHHHHH

#utopianism #postscarcity

"The leftists I know are all engaged and committed to fighting back. They’re not cowering doomsday preppers. They are working hard and showing more ambition than anyone else in politics. It’s the liberals and centrists who are the pessimistic, unimaginative ones who think we must take baby steps and that nothing good is possible. In fact, I think the excess negativity on the left here is Guastella’s. He is telling us we’re all a bunch of failures unworthy of the great Karl Marx. (“Are there any intellectuals of the Left today whose insights and commitment to humanity’s long-term horizon rival those of Karl Marx or Karl Polanyi?”)

But look, I believe in solidarity. I don’t want a rift with Guastella and Jacobin here, because I have immense respect for Jacobin and warm, comradely feelings toward them. I don’t feel Guastella is being fair to me or to Melonio, Taylor, Klein, or Steffen, but the important point is that we all agree, actually. He writes that “without a flag staked in the future — a clear vision of the world we want for our children and theirs — we lose track of where we want to go.” Well you don’t have to tell me, Dustin. I write things like that all the time. So let’s not bicker, eh? There’s no need to write articles in Jacobin castigating fellow leftists as “unserious, misanthropic, and bound to lose.” Just join with us as we build the glorious socialist future together. Solidarity forever!"

https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/excuse-me-but-i-am-a-utopian

#Socialism #Utopianism #LeftWing #Antinatalism

"Locked in their rooms, with their rudimentary computers, they set about creating a non-earthly utopia. They dreamed about other worlds and other intelligences, fusing anarchism with New Ageism and libertarianism with science fiction.

So began the tragi-comic rebirth of utopianism. Since then, the ideology has evolved with the growth of AI and cybernetics. It is now mainstream right across the tech world, with adherents including tech guru Ray Kurzweil, and billionaires Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Peter Thiel, and Marc Andreessen. Today’s pioneers of repeating-the-past predict a future of unbounded technological and economic growth.

The “Tech Utopians” have two main projects. The first is abundance: an end to poverty, hunger, sickness, and back-breaking labour. This will supposedly be achieved through vast social engineering projects, masterminded by an elite class, and with the aid of genius machines.

The second is the improvement of humans through scientific progress. A perfect “blank slate” human will be created for utopia 2.0, and they will be morally, intellectually, and physically enhanced. Humans won’t just be cured of illness. They’ll be cured of mortality itself.

These ideas, however, are hardly new. They appeared in nascent form as far back as Plato. Then, during the Enlightenment, they grew stronger, with the promise of a blank-slate society built upon rationalism and science, in which a better type of human would emerge. Today’s Tech Utopians, though mostly claiming to be libertarians, are attempting the same projects — only this time they plan to use AI and biotech to achieve their goals. Elon Musk, for one, envisages a “future of abundance” once AI reaches human-level intelligence (so-called AGI)."

https://unherd.com/2025/05/the-cruelty-of-tech-utopianism/

#Utopianism #TechUtopianism #SiliconValley #AGI #Science #Abundance

Europe's 20th-century ideological #utopianism led to immense human suffering.

Earlier, religious wars driven by visions of a God Utopia caused tragedy.

Now #AI progress tempts us toward "God Utopia 2.0" -ceaselessly striving to create a better species or even summon a machine god.

I love how, in the Year of Our Lord 2025, people still argue that Capitalist Realism is superior to fantastical #Utopianism

My brother in Christ, the Free Market is a #utopian thought expiriment. We teach it in #Econ 101 as a starting point to analyzing more complex systems, but a truly #FreeMarket has not, and will not ever exist in reality

#TheRight loves to bash #leftists for “#Utopianism”

When a #FreeMarket is literally a utopia that’s built form like 11 insane assumptions; non of which are ever true in practice, much less all 11 at once

Meanwhile leftist assumptions are shit like “workers are more productive when they have ownership over their work” or “humans will naturally cooperate to gather and distribute resources”
While waving at millions of years of the evolution of humans as social creatures

I wanted to share something that was both hopeful and useful, and I came across this on my feed reader:

https://peacefulrevolutionary.substack.com/p/utopian-dreams-and-realities

#Anarchism #anarchist #utopianism