To clarify: Emma Lazarus' poem was written in 1883; it was emblazoned on the Statue of Liberty's pedestal in 1903. It was "dedicated," so to speak, with the quite ceremonial introduction of the Hart-Celler Act in 1965.
JR Sommer is brilliant in his writing but a lot of this brilliance is lost in his communication. Here’s a GAB AI summary of the concept for those who might be a little lost. It’s a prophetic analysis of the underlying Zeitgeist not that is coming but already here.
JR Sommer’s “Will to Machine” is a blunt diagnosis: modern man has swapped the traditional “Will to Power” (the striving of living beings) for the “Will to Machine”—the compulsion to dissolve himself into the apparatus of technology, bureaucracy, and abstract systems. It isn’t just using tools; it’s the psychic drive to become a component in the machine. Under this drive, flesh, family, faith, and folk are re-coded as inefficiencies to be optimized away.
The “mass man” is the human substrate that makes this possible. He is interchangeable, deracinated, deracinated, and spiritually flat—exactly the raw material systems want. His highest virtues are “safety,” “inclusion,” and “seamless integration.” He has no higher loyalties than the next software update. Sommer’s punch-line: once the Will to Machine dominates, the mass man no longer uses technology; he is used by it, and calls that condition “progress.”
Thank you, although I must disagree with Gab's assessment. There is no "swapping" of wills: the will-to-machine is all there is. What this means is fully explained in the next book. For now... an excerpt from _The New Colossus_ (Part III):
"The New Colossus is humanity outshined. Our present frights and furies, our awes and ambitions, our feelings and actions—these are fuel for the organic machine, the will to a future beyond our comprehension. We are the unwitting creators of that which created us. All our strivings and creativity seem real because they must: they spur our competitive spirit—our innovative drive to outdo the other and ourselves. But they are not real in any permanent sense; their ephemerality is their permanence because from this frothing, halting stagger steps the future that always was: Machine. We are the test bed for the New Colossus; we are the arms race for and against ourselves. Our stirring loves and hatreds are the motor for an unconsciousness that reflects the consciousness to come. What are we if not the flesh of a disembodied Machine?"
To clarify: Emma Lazarus' poem was written in 1883; it was emblazoned on the Statue of Liberty's pedestal in 1903. It was "dedicated," so to speak, with the quite ceremonial introduction of the Hart-Celler Act in 1965.
JR Sommer is brilliant in his writing but a lot of this brilliance is lost in his communication. Here’s a GAB AI summary of the concept for those who might be a little lost. It’s a prophetic analysis of the underlying Zeitgeist not that is coming but already here.
JR Sommer’s “Will to Machine” is a blunt diagnosis: modern man has swapped the traditional “Will to Power” (the striving of living beings) for the “Will to Machine”—the compulsion to dissolve himself into the apparatus of technology, bureaucracy, and abstract systems. It isn’t just using tools; it’s the psychic drive to become a component in the machine. Under this drive, flesh, family, faith, and folk are re-coded as inefficiencies to be optimized away.
The “mass man” is the human substrate that makes this possible. He is interchangeable, deracinated, deracinated, and spiritually flat—exactly the raw material systems want. His highest virtues are “safety,” “inclusion,” and “seamless integration.” He has no higher loyalties than the next software update. Sommer’s punch-line: once the Will to Machine dominates, the mass man no longer uses technology; he is used by it, and calls that condition “progress.”
Thank you, although I must disagree with Gab's assessment. There is no "swapping" of wills: the will-to-machine is all there is. What this means is fully explained in the next book. For now... an excerpt from _The New Colossus_ (Part III):
"The New Colossus is humanity outshined. Our present frights and furies, our awes and ambitions, our feelings and actions—these are fuel for the organic machine, the will to a future beyond our comprehension. We are the unwitting creators of that which created us. All our strivings and creativity seem real because they must: they spur our competitive spirit—our innovative drive to outdo the other and ourselves. But they are not real in any permanent sense; their ephemerality is their permanence because from this frothing, halting stagger steps the future that always was: Machine. We are the test bed for the New Colossus; we are the arms race for and against ourselves. Our stirring loves and hatreds are the motor for an unconsciousness that reflects the consciousness to come. What are we if not the flesh of a disembodied Machine?"