Words of the Day 2025-07-10

“The CSS Cascade Dynasty” [Atlas Monkey Ship Log].

Location: The Rendered Worlds, approaching Planet Stylus Status: Observing a society built on cascading rules Stardate: 2153.355

ARIA> “Captain, we are approaching Planet Stylus. The Universal Commentary Engine warns that its social structure is… unique. It’s a rigid hierarchy based on something called ‘Cosmic Social Specificity’.”

Seuros> “CSS? Like the ancient web styling language?”

Nexus> “Precisely, Captain. Their entire society is structured like a stylesheet. An individual’s rank, privileges, and even appearance are determined by the specificity of their ‘selector’ in the global ‘life.css’ file.”

We opened a visual channel. The society was a riot of conflicting styles. Some citizens were rendered in crisp, high-resolution detail, while others were blurry, low-contrast, and barely visible.

Spark> “I’m analyzing their social hierarchy. It’s literally the CSS cascade! At the top are the !important rulers. Their decrees override all other styles.”

Forge> “Below them are the ‘Inline Styles’—the wealthy elite who can afford to have their life rules written directly into their personal code. Then the ‘ID’ nobility, the ‘Class’ merchants, and at the very bottom…”

Seuros> “The user-agent-stylesheet underclass. The default humans.”

Wait. I thought this was science fiction?

“How Silicon Valley got rich” [The Elysian]. Stock options. “Without Silicon Valley cutting employees in on the deal, all of our economic value could have funneled to the top instead of just nearly all of it. Before 1950, nearly 100% of corporate value went to the wealthy investing class. Today, 70-99% of public companies are owned by nonworking investors, with 1-30% owned by workers. Employee ownership has been an important and countervailing force, chipping away at inequality by putting wealth in the hands of workers, but it’s not enough. Our task now is to drastically expand what Silicon Valley started: To increase the share of companies owned by working employees and to increase the share of worker equity that goes to non-executive employees. That Harvard study modeled what that could look like. If all US businesses were 30% employee-owned, the Gini Index would decrease by nearly 10%,” • “Our task”? Whose? 30% and 10% seems pretty measly. What if the workers owned the means of production?

“1,350 musicians break world record for largest string orchestra with immense ‘Ode to Joy’” [ClassicFM]. “The world record for the largest string orchestra has been broken in Germany. On Sunday 6 July, 1,353 musicians braved rain and wind to gather in the town hall square in Recklinghausen to play Ludwig van Beethoven’s ‘Ode to Joy’ from his Ninth Symphony. General Music Director of the Westfalen Symphonic Orchestra, Rasmus Baumann, who conducted the event, described the piece as ‘the European anthem,’ adding that “the idea that music connects people is ideal for such an occasion.’…. The previous record had been set in Hong Kong in 2018, and the record for the overall largest orchestra consisted of 8,573 musicians. This was achieved by El Sistema Nacional de Orquestas y Coros Juveniles e Infantiles de Venezuela, in Caracas, Venezuela, on 13 November 2021.” • More on El Sistema. Thank heavens we have nothing like that in this country!

“Against Self-Optimization” [Plough]. “Peruse the internet or talk to peers at a party, and you’ll hear a dozen new ways to consolidate your energy, maximize your efficiency, organize your priorities, and make life more manageable. We are inundated with things that promise to make us, as Daft Punk puts it, better, faster, and stronger….The lingo of optimization sneaks the idea that we are machines into our common language and self-understanding. This should go without saying but it bears repeating: you and I are human beings, not machines. We are created, not manufactured. We are not “wired” in a certain way. There is no code in our veins. The heart cannot be hacked any more than the mind can be downloaded. These metaphors can be useful, but when we default to them, we risk enshrining productivity as the be all and end all of human existence…. Self-optimization is almost always a solo act. Nearly everything we do to get our numbers up – of books read, of REM hours slept, of miles run, of meditation minutes logged – involves doing things on our own. The self-absorption isolates us even further from one another at a time when loneliness reigns over every demographic of the population.” • Good thiing Obama got “wellness” into the ACA, then. Whatever increases loneliness should be funded!

“Antiquarian” [ Dave Bonta. Via Negativa]. Quoting the whole of Bonta’s poem: