{"id":240867,"date":"2026-03-28T14:44:35","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T14:44:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/240867\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T14:44:35","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T14:44:35","slug":"inside-nick-lands-san-francisco-arrival-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/240867\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Nick Land\u2019s San Francisco \u2018Arrival Party\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cSo should I just\u2026 go over and talk to him?\u201d Grimes<\/a> asks her friend as she stares at tonight\u2019s guest of honor, Nick Land<\/a>, the father of accelerationism<\/a>. \u201cHe\u2019s surrounded.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow else? Come on,\u201d her friend prods, pushing her forward. \u201cOK,\u201d she exhales, then wades across the room, dodging tech-right scenesters and neoreactionary acolytes. Recognizing her, Land grins back, dispersing the bug-eyed crowd that has swarmed him, and clasps her hands as if greeting a daughter. \u201cIt\u2019s you!\u201d he beams.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yesterday, I had no notion that I\u2019d be witnessing a scene like this. I was at home in New York, lying by my window peering out at snow from the recent blizzard, when my friend Sam Venis, a network state researcher, texted me an invite link. It read \u201cNick Land Acknowledgement,\u201d an ironic, woke-baiting title, and in its description detailed a private celebration hosted by Wolf Tivy, the founder of the allegedly Peter Thiel-funded Palladium Magazine, welcoming the reclusive philosopher to San Francisco.<\/p>\n

\u201cFuck,\u201d I typed back.<\/p>\n

\u201cShould we go?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnastasia\u2019s going to be mad. We\u2019re supposed to fly to Puerto Vallarta tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBro\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

The next morning we got on a flight from Newark, and after checking into our Airbnb, were that evening in an Uber to a Mediterranean-style mansion in a ritzy San Francisco neighborhood. Pulling up, we saw a matte gray Cybertruck parked outside. \u201cThink this is the place?\u201d joked Sam. Approaching, we found two large bouncers managing a small line of people. I feared they might be spooked by my camera, but we were admitted quickly, passing into a paved courtyard with a palatial fountain.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The mansion, I was told, was owned by David Holz, the founder and CEO of Midjourney, the AI image-generation company who in the coming months will \u201cunveil a wide range of ambitious projects under the themes of\u2026 beauty and human flourishing.\u201d Yet upon entering, the first thing I saw were three blue balloons, each the shape of the number three. \u201c333\u201d was a symbol often linked with Land and his former Twitter avatar. Drawn from Aleister Crowley and Kenneth Grant\u2019s occult system, it represents Choronzon, the Demon of Dispersion: a chaotic, ego-destroying entity that scatters thought, identity, and structure into incoherence. In Landian thought, it serves as the perfect sigil, signaling that capitalism and technological acceleration are a destabilizing force propelling humanity into irrelevance. A blonde child was tugging on their strings, and had to be told to stop.<\/p>\n

To the left of the hallway were stairs to a room with a table of sushi and other assorted snacks. By the host\u2019s request, there was no alcohol or drugs. \u201cCertainly not by Land\u2019s request,\u201d Sam quipped. \u201cDon\u2019t worry man,\u201d I replied. \u201cI snuck us in some Hennessy.\u201d To the right was a massive living room, elegant but sparsely decorated, containing several white couches and a grand piano. I thought it resembled a Bond villain\u2019s lair.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite its size, the room was packed with partygoers. I recognized several familiar faces. By the windows stood Dagsen Love, a cherub-cheeked former Dimes Square it-boy, who once told my friend his goal was to DJ his way to Davos. Nearby was Max Novendstern, the co-founder, with Sam Altman, of Worldcoin, a cryptocurrency utilizing iris scans to exchange biometric data for crypto tokens, so as to prove digital identity. On the couch sat Levy 1929, a local e-girl friend and oft-viral comedian. She was relieved to see me. \u201cThank God,\u201d she said. \u201cI thought I noticed you on the list. It\u2019s so good to have an ally here. A lot of these people are annoying.\u201d And finally, leaning on a wall surrounded by admirers, was Land himself.<\/p>\n

From afar, he appeared unassuming, even subdued. Is this really the man, I asked myself, who\u2019s embraced the extinction of the human race? Who\u2019s claimed possession by demons and communed with interdimensional \u201clemurs,\u201d coined the term \u201chyperstition,\u201d who left academia after an amphetamine-induced meltdown? Who has predicted the rise of a new kind of post-racial \u201chyper-racism,\u201d where intelligent elites advance ahead and \u201cgenetic refuse\u201d is left behind? Who former CCRU colleague and apprentice-turned-antagonist, the late Mark Fisher, called \u201cour Nietzsche?\u201d He didn\u2019t seem terrifying enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese ideas, once the fringe premonitions of an early internet cyberpunk, have started influencing the policies of the most powerful people on Earth\u201d<\/p>\n

Facing him, I felt uneasy, unsure how best to approach. I had first encountered Land\u2019s ideas in another life, while teaching in Shanghai. In the years since, his work\u2014which exalts production ahead of people, dismissing humans as meat puppets waiting to be discarded to make way for the alien intelligence that will become the true protagonist of history\u2014has haunted my days and dreams. After learning we shared a city, I often wondered if we\u2019d ever cross paths. In the intervening years, these ideas, once the fringe premonitions of an early internet cyberpunk, have started influencing the policies of the most powerful people on Earth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I walk over and introduce myself. \u201cNice to meet you,\u201d he says, holding my gaze. He\u2019s genial but there\u2019s an intensity to him, and sheepishly, not knowing what else to say, I ask if I can take his picture. I line up my Sony, but whiff on the first shot, dousing his face in harsh flash. Thinking I\u2019ve fucked my chance, I panic, but he agrees to a second try.<\/p>\n

\"\"Nick Land<\/p>\n

Not long after, Tivy takes the stage, announcing that the Q+A will begin shortly, and suggests the attendees take their seats.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I sit next to Levy. \u201cDo you actually like philosophy?\u201d she asks me, yawning.<\/p>\n

I shrug my shoulders. \u201cWell, I minored in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cReally? It\u2019s so boring.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Finally, Tivy brings Land on stage. \u201cSan Francisco!\u201d the compere shouts. \u201cIt\u2019s been a long time coming, but now, finally, let\u2019s say a proper Nick Land acknowledgement!\u201d The crowd bursts into applause at this repeated joke, while several small children crawl around the guest, happy and giggling. Land, unaffected, takes questions from the audience, speaking densely and extemporaneously about Gnostic Calvinism, simulation theory, the inevitability of human death, the nature of cosmic despair. After about an hour, Tivy turns to the audience, and announces that a surprise guest will be joining proceedings.<\/p>\n

Chest puffed and in aviators, Curtis Yarvin, that other would-be rock star of the neoreactionary scene, emerges from the crowd. \u201cFor the record, I\u2019m not wearing these because I\u2019m trying to be cool,\u201d he clarifies from the stage in his distinctive monotone. \u201cI\u2019m wearing them because I lost my prescription.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCurtis is looking good,\u201d I hear someone whisper. \u201cHe must be back on Ozempic.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the first time that the two men have met. Yarvin emerged first under his blogger pseudonym Mencius Moldbug, critiquing modern democracy as a failed system distributively controlled by a leftist \u201cCathedral\u201d comprised of media, academia, and the bureaucracy, and proposing a CEO-monarch supplant it and take the reigns of power instead. Land wrote admiringly of Yarvin\u2019s work in his 2012 book, The Dark Enlightenment, and ever since, the two have been grouped together, Land serving as a Kant-type underpinning the movement\u2019s cosmological structure, with Yarvin the reactionary Rousseau articulating their political project.<\/p>\n

\"\"NICK LAND WITH CURTIS YARVIN<\/p>\n

Yarvin, true to his reputation for rambling, does most of the talking, while Land gives short one- or two-sentence answers, or simply nods in quiet affirmation. One questioner asks if the pair still believes, even now, in this time of rightist triumph, that \u201cCthulhu always swims left,\u201d an old neoreactionary meme contending that society inevitably becomes more progressive over time, a kind of \u201cbased\u201d reimagining of Martin Luther King\u2019s famous \u201carc-of-justice\u201d line. Land simply says no, and that he never said that, while Yarvin launches into a long-winded, discursive answer, explaining the conditions under which it\u2019s both true and false, but clarifying that it\u2019s mostly, usually, true, in an argument that touches upon the late Roman Republic and why it\u2019s really incredible that in 1970s China you had different factions of Red Guards killing people in the streets, just a bloody, undeclared civil war, especially now that China is very depoliticized\u2014in fact, one of the most depoliticized nations in history, they\u2019ve barely any thoughts on politics at all\u2014and that in Rome, after the transition to Empire, elections would be like Monty Python, a pathetic farce, and that it\u2019s all, like, entropy, or a rusted car, or a car that needs to rust more, something like that, but that really, he\u2019s just very, very curious about the Chinese. \u201cWhat\u2019s your take, Nick?\u201d he turns and asks. \u201cWell\u2026 There\u2019s a lot of stuff there\u2026\u201d Land muses. Many in the crowd sigh.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy is Curtis like this?\u201d A young man whispers to his girlfriend. \u201cWhy can\u2019t he stop talking? We want to hear from Nick!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI know,\u201d she replies. \u201cIt\u2019s giving Toy Story Woody and Buzz.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eventually, the audience grows restless, and their phones come out. Levy\u2019s eyes glaze over. Sensing a loss of energy, Wolf signals that it\u2019s time for one final question, and a torrent of hands shoots up. Sam\u2019s is among them.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth of you are on stage because you created the Dark Enlightenment,\u201d he says, pausing as he collects his thoughts. \u201cAn ideology which was very potent at a certain moment. Now, though, I\u2019m not sure if that moment has passed, but it\u2019s changed. How, then, do you both feel the concept has evolved, and how do you see it evolving further?\u201d<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, Yarvin responds first. \u201cThe Dark Enlightenment,\u201d he says, \u201cwas responding to a set of different utopias\u2014maybe it\u2019s a conservative utopia, maybe it\u2019s a liberal utopia, but it\u2019s all the same teleology, this dream of a place that we\u2019re going, and these progressive movements have, of course, moments of disillusionment, such as with the George Floyd hangover, or with Occupy Wall Street. These people had a millenarian view of the world that failed, and even on the right, there were all these fantasies of, like, restoring the 18th century, and that they were the second Tea Party\u2014never mind that the original Tea Party was basically Antifa\u2014and then their whole dream turned into the shitshow that was January 6th. What we see now is that these visions of the future have become nullified, and rather than history ending in the Fukuyama sense, instead nobody has any clear idea of where we\u2019re going, and that inevitably allows for more interesting, more radical, ideas to spread.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Land nods. \u201cI agree with a lot of what Curtis said. But really, I still firmly believe that the Unqualified Reservations model of government [a neocameralist system that treats government as a sovereign corporation owned by shareholders] is completely unsurpassed, and it would be absolutely fantastic to have this world shattered into a patchwork of microstates, and to have new modes of geopolitical experimentation open up. But I don\u2019t think, in the short term, anyone is seeing that now.\u201d<\/p>\n

After their talk concludes, a group of us, including Sam and Levy, shuffle out into the courtyard to smoke. Sam looks particularly satisfied with himself. \u201cThey took my suggestion,\u201d he brags.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d I ask.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Land-Yarvin conversation. That wasn\u2019t on their agenda. I told Wolf they should do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was you?\u201d Levy interrupts, angrily glaring at him. \u201cJesus. You were almost the reason for my suicide note. That was awful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGod, everything used to be so much worse, and now look where we are. We\u2019ve got AI! We\u2019ve got crypto! We\u2019ve got power! The siege mentality is over! Woke is dead and gone!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014Justin Murphy<\/p>\n

\u201cI agree,\u201d says a voice from behind us. \u201cI don\u2019t get why they were so solemn.\u201d We turn, and sitting on the fountain smoking a wood pipe is Justin Murphy, host of the Other Life podcast and author of Based Deleuze, which reinterprets the French philosopher\u2019s beliefs as a \u201creactionary leftism\u201d laced with anti-egalitarian ideas. In 2020, it was Murphy who hosted the first event with Yarvin since his public doxxing and unofficial banishment from Silicon Valley, in many ways shepherding the arrival of the Dark Enlightenment into public discourse.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey confuse me,\u201d he continues. \u201cThey\u2019re always so negative. God, everything used to be so much worse, and now look where we are. We\u2019ve got AI! We\u2019ve got crypto! We\u2019ve got power! The siege mentality is over! Woke is dead and gone! In fact,\u201d he smiles and blows smoke, \u201cTonight probably marks the end of the \u2018dissident\u2019 right.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you mean by that?\u201d Sam asks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, what more is there?\u201d He replies. \u201cWe\u2019ve done everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

I consider what he\u2019s saying, and whether it\u2019s he or I who is living in a bubble.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We linger outside talking for a little longer, and upon coming inside, notice that many of the guests have disappeared. A short man with round glasses tells us that they\u2019ve mostly migrated downstairs to the back terrace, where Land and Grimes are having an impromptu conversation and fielding questions. We walk down the stairs to join them, and find the crowd clustered around a cackling fire pit overlooking the Bay.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I take a seat and observe the discussion, taking pictures of the scene. A raven-haired girl comes over and offers me ketamine, boasting she smuggled it in, and soon, the party starts to fade out.<\/p>\n

\"\"grimes (left) with nick land (second right)<\/p>\n

The next day, Sam left to be in Mexico with his girlfriend, and I crossed the Bay to visit my father at my childhood home in Livermore. He was drinking a Coors in his recliner as I lay on our couch, recounting the strange events of the previous night. The hockey was on TV, and San Jose was down late in the third to Colorado. He was shaking his head. He\u2019d never heard of accelerationism, Nick Land, or the Dark Enlightenment. \u201cYeah, I don\u2019t like this,\u201d he said, sipping his beer. \u201cI believe in the human spirit. We should\u2019ve just frozen technology 20 years ago. That\u2019d have been perfect.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019d have been nice,\u201d I replied.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cUnless\u2026 Wait\u2026 Did we have flat screens then?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think?\u201d But I couldn\u2019t remember.<\/p>\n

\u201cOkay, good, then that\u2019s fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

And together we watched the Sharks score one last goal, futile, yet valiant, as they fell 4-2 to the Avalanche.<\/p>\n

@manabovetown<\/a><\/p>\n