Re: <nettime> House of Saud: Was the Iran War Caused by AI Psychosis?

[Sean Cubitt via nettime-l <nettime-l@lists.nettime.org>]

hey Patrice
comme d’habitude, entertaining and provoking. The problem with AI is not that it is too clever: it is that humans are too stupid. Or too clever by half. If the Oval Office had had the best intelligence in the world – human or otherwise – it would always have been subordinated to the priorities of its incumbents. To distract from Epstein and the fifty other lawsuits pending in Washington and Jerusalem. To pitch for another term in office (and suspension of the Constitution in the US instance). To precipitate Armageddon if you are as mad as crusader Hegseth and his unforgivable Xtian pastors suspending even the ‘laws’ of war. To blag access to Iranian oil for your corporate donors.

Operation Epic Tantrum was an accident begging for an excuse to happen.

seán

Latest book: Good (aesthetic politics 2): https://www.gold.ac.uk/goldsmiths-press/publications/good/


On 11 Apr 2026, at 11:00 am, nettime-l-request@lists.nettime.org wrote:

Send nettime-l mailing list submissions to
nettime-l@lists.nettime.org

To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
https://lists.servus.at/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l
or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
nettime-l-request@lists.nettime.org

You can reach the person managing the list at
nettime-l-owner@lists.nettime.org

When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
than "Re: Contents of nettime-l digest..."


Today's Topics:

  1. House of Saud: Was the Iran War Caused by AI Psychosis?
     (Patrice Riemens)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 2026 10:52:28 +0000 (UTC)
From: Patrice Riemens <patrice@puscii.nl>
To: "<nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets"
<nettime-l@lists.nettime.org>
Subject: <nettime> House of Saud: Was the Iran War Caused by AI
Psychosis?
Message-ID: <110071721.53249.1775818348946.JavaMail.zimbra@puscii.nl>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8


Ciao tutte.i,

I am not going to c+p this one, as I usually do. You will have to make the effort of opening the link. You will be intellectually rewarded, tho your already brutalised peace of mind might take a further hit.

https://houseofsaud.com/iran-war-ai-psychosis-sycophancy-rlhf

key sentence (immo):

"The irony at the centre of this story has the structure of a Greek tragedy." (and I may add, also its outcome)

Cheers, have a Spritz!

(bwo Virginie M, University of Amsterdam, with mitigated thanks ;-)


------------------------------

Subject: Digest Footer

--
# distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
# <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
# collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
# more info: https://www.nettime.org
# contact: nettime-l-owner@lists.nettime.org


------------------------------

End of nettime-l Digest, Vol 34, Issue 6
****************************************


-- 
# distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
# <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
# collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
# more info: https://www.nettime.org
# contact: nettime-l-owner@lists.nettime.org