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Nice roundup, thank you.

You wrote, "For one, why has South Korea, with all its advancement, started to commit demographic suicide?"

Technology/wealth and fertility rates of a country are inversely related. You might enjoy this post on Lee Kuan Yew and Singapore which discusses this point: https://neofeudalreview.substack.com/p/lee-kuan-yew-and-singapore-a-knife

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Thanks for the data point. I will check it out.

Are you familiar with Nick Land or Spandrell? They've been arguing since 2015 at least, that Singapore and similar cities are IQ shredders / population sinks.

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Hi Alex, yes, the IQ shredder concept is discussed in the post and Nick Land is sub-linked to within the thread via a link to a P.D. Mangan post. I don't quote Spandrell within the article, but I reference his bioleninism idea extensively throughout my writing generally.

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Terrific round up. I was talking to Lisa recently and we were bemoaning the realization that it is not *just* the elites who see other people as objects to be used to their own ends. This point of view is being adopted (or perhaps "aped") by many people in our society. Both of us are often reached out to by people pretending to hold out the hand of friendship only to find that there is a hidden agenda (often not even thinly disguised). We seem to be running into a "I'm gonna get mine" and to heck with everyone else mindset.

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It would seem to be a recurring motif in civlizations that are undergoing decay. Loss of in-group cohesion can come from a variety of sources. In the case of the modern West, seems to be the product of Enlightenment philosophy.

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No doubt it was inspired or exacerbated by that. But, I'll bet when Rome was in its decline that the same attitude was prevalent.

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Agreed.

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Good picks, Alex. And my congratulations to you!

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Thank you, Luke! Much appreciated

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Oh and also, congratulations on the engagement, my friend! It sounds like it came out of the blue. The world still has potential for surprises of the pleasant kind, it seems.

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Thank you John! Yes, it would appear that way

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This was great.

On architecture, indeed I think Agnostic is onto something. If he's right, then the coming multipolar order will also see a return to more aesthetically pleasing, visually engaging architecture - rococo, baroque, gothic, but with modern industrial technology. What kind of ornamentation can be achieved with 3D printing and CAD? I think about this a lot.

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The frustrating thing about modern architecture is that we finally have the tools to implement the wildest (unrealized) designs from yesteryear but somehow have deluded ourselves into thinking that our built environment should be flat and sleek like an Apple store.

You know what? I blame Star Trek for this sad state of affairs.

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The Great Flattening isn't just in architecture. You also see it in product design, corporate logos, public art, interior design. The stripping away of detail, decoration, color, and flourish is everywhere.

Star Trek definitely embodied this, but you see the same kind of thing in all sorts of 70s-era utopian sci-fi. In fact, the only sci-fi options are generally industrial brutalist dystopia or the clean, shiny white surfaces of utopia. A future that looks like e.g. the Fin de Siecle is never visualized.

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Funny how that happened.

On a somewhat related note, it might explain why I'm attracted to the gothic aesthetic of Warhammer 40,000. Ornate battle cathedrals sailing around in space shooting lasers at heretics and xenos abominations? Skulls and double-headed aquilae on every surface? Sign me up!

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It is an extremely based aesthetic. Far better than Trek Wars. Although personally I'd like to see an Art Nouveau future.

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That sounds delightful + based

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