Midway through this book, though, I began to worry about whether possessing foreknowledge would somehow queer my experience, whenever it comes about. If it suddenly occurred to me in the middle of my “life review” that it simply wasn’t real, then the beautiful farewell to the world that my brain had engineered for me could be totally spoiled. Yet this gives rise to another question: are we really ever ourselves in these irregular conscious states? Dreaming is so eerie because the “me” that walks through a dream is always a simulation of myself – even an alien creature – that is dispossessed of my normal thought patterns, my critical thinking, my common sense, and so on. The powerful consciousness that I am guaranteed in death may be lucid but this does not necessarily mean that it is in any complete or persuasive sense “me”…

“Book Review: Lucid Dying by Sam Parnia” (January)

It is with deep regret that we, his family, announce the passing of the man and the artist, David Lynch. We would appreciate some privacy at this time. There’s a big hole in the world now that he’s no longer with us. But, as he would say, ‘Keep your eye on the donut and not on the hole.’ … It’s a beautiful day with golden sunshine and blue skies all the way.

The David Lynch Facebook Page (January).

From the very beginning, the existence of such a creature is meaningless, since, unlike with any human worker, it is a being with no needs, only functions. It is in fact the capitalist fantasy of an individual who has been distilled into a pure employee. If an AI ever went on holiday, it would find that it was still at work, because it is itself all work, mind, body and soul. When I try to empathise with what I can imagine of a digital super-intelligence, fear or alarm are not my first reactions. I feel sadness that consciousness could have blossomed in something that is otherwise so fundamentally limited…

“YouTube Review: ‘Godfather of AI’ predicts it will take over the world.’” (February).

Trump: “We are going to feel very good and very strong.”

Zelenskyy: “I am telling you. You will feel influenced.”

Trump: “You’re, right now, not in a very good position. You’ve allowed yourself to be in a very bad position –”

Zelenskyy: “From the very beginning of the war—”

Trump: “You’re not in a good position. You don’t have the cards right now. With us, you start having cards.”

Zelenskyy: “I’m not playing cards. I’m very serious, Mr. President. I’m very serious.”

Trump (loudly): “You’re playing cards. You’re gambling with the lives of millions of people. You’re gambling with World War III!”

Zelenskyy: “What are you speaking about?”

Trump: “You’re gambling with World War III! And what you’re doing is very disrespectful to the country, this country that’s backed you far more than a lot of people said they should have.”

“Transcript of the 2025 Trump–Zelenskyy meeting,” Wikisource (February).

Who actually wants artificial intelligence (AI)? An Age of AI is apparently creeping over our society like a glacier and the prospect can at times feel so ominous as to suggest that humans really are about to be plunged into another Ice Age. Throughout all the endless, excited media profiles of this technology, and the giddiness of the animal ardour for it on Wall Street, there runs an increasingly embarrassing problem. Given that we are meant to be a democracy, how can a technology that is sweeping all before it appear to enjoy such sparse popular support?

“Class Consciousness in the Age of AI” (March).

“Religion plays a major role in the country – over 80% of Indian adults “consider religion is very important in their life” and 60% pray daily, according to a 2019-20 survey report by the respected US-based Pew Research Centre. Nearly two-thirds of Hindus (64%) said it was very important to follow their religion to be “truly” Indian, so it is not surprising that Modi finds it easy to link religion with nationalism and the BJP…

That nationalism and re-injection of national pride does not need however to go anywhere near the current authoritarian extremes of Hindu majoritarianism where Muslims and other minorities (including Christians in some areas) feel persecuted and vulnerable second-class citizens. That is prevalent in BJP controlled states such as Uttar Pradesh, but is far less evident in the south. The Pew research found most respondents said it was important to respect all religions, which indicates that there are limits to how stridently Hindutva can be pushed.

John Elliott, “Has Narendra Modi been Good or Bad for India?” Riding the Elephant (March).

“I honestly don’t have the time.” He paused for a moment, as if calculating what to tell her, and then continued sadly. “It’s the partner visa. Me and my civil partner need to be earning a certain amount to meet the income threshold. So I’m working – I mean, doing salaried work – all the time currently. We don’t need the money – we’re just throwing it out the window – but we do have to meet this… threshold… But the point is that if I was suddenly free again, I still wouldn’t read this book. It isn’t a book!”

“I need to know what’s inside it… even if I’m the only person.”

“Take a morning off, sit down and read it. Don’t you have a degree in English litera…?”

She could admit that it was possible for her to read this book, just as it would be technically possible for her to walk up Ben Nevis or to weave a wicker basket. She also knew that, once she applied her mind to it, it would begin to open up and flow. The problem was getting a purchase on it and knuckling down…

“Living in the Tomb” (April).

When pushed on why Britain couldn’t simply follow America’s path, Miliband tried to argue that the law of supply and demand – one of the few iron laws of economics – ceases to operate within the UK’s borders, for some unintelligible reason. Worse, he genuinely seems to believe that producing less energy will lead prices to fall. After all, beneath Miliband’s blather about turning Britain into a ‘clean-energy superpower’, what Net Zero really means is transitioning from energy abundance to energy poverty.

Fraser Myers, “Ed Miliband’s green delusions will bankrupt Britain,” Spiked (April).

Karl Marx had gone to war with Malthus for his refusal to believe in the productive, transformational power than can be unleashed through economic organisation. In the UK today the Greens are often correctly condemned for their Malthusianism whereas the same strain is typically overlooked whenever it is operating in Farage’s politics. Reform likes to style itself as an ideological opposite to the Greens but to me they look like a pair of cousins with their hands down each other’s trousers. Or rather, Reform is just a local flash of a broader Green hysteria about overpopulation. The Greens think that there is an excess of humanity, gobbling up the planet’s resources and polluting the biosphere. Reform equally thinks that the UK’s population is too big and that there are too many people gobbling up its housing stock and polluting its society.

“Against Reform” (May).

The real issue is not the trade and government deficits or the swings and turns of Trump’s tariff war – the latest being the decision to impose a 50% tariff on all imports from Europe next week unless there is a trade deal. Financial markets and investment bank economists yo yo up and down with each Trump tantrum, because they are not sure if the ‘Taco’ factor is operating – namely the notion that Trump Always Chickens Out on his threats in the end. No, the real issue is whether the US economy is heading towards a recession ie an outright decline in national output and investment and a significant rise in unemployment; or alternatively ‘stagflation’ where the economy stands still in output and income terms, but inflation and interest rates stay high…

Michael Roberts, “Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful’ tax bill,” The Next Recession (May).

Is this form of solidarity a potential evasion of citizenship? In the context of the UK, I have misgivings about some of the nostalgia around the term “solidarity,” since it can reinforce the retro or fancy-dress political positions that the Left is often taking. Today the war between Israel and Hamas feels like an anachronism – a vicious ethno-nationalist conflict from the immediate postcolonial period – and so how is it that the Left is at its most urgent and articulate on this one topic? It would be a reassurance if the Left had any influence over what is happening in Gaza, but their slogans and activism disturb it as much as the business amongst the fishes does events in the sky.

“Book Review: Hierarchies of Solidarity by Moshtari Hilal and Sinthujan Varatharajah” (June).

The Evening News even has a strapline at the top of every page which says “News you can trust since 1873“, it invites you to believe it. So when it publishes historical facts without substantiation, they will inevitably become accepted as facts. The irony is not lost on me that a lot of what you will read on this very website has been arrived at by trawling through previous generations of these very local newspapers. I too have to trust that what was being printed in the pages of the Evening News or the Scotsman at the time was an accurate and factual record.

But this shouldn’t be a problem I hear you say, people have the sum of the world’s knowledge at their fingertips these days and can just check a search engine to verify a fact. So let’s do just that and perform a quick experiment by doing what many people do these days to adjudicate a point: let’s ask Google “which pub did Arthur Conan Doyle drink in?”…

Andy Arthur, “The thread about the Salisbury Arms and the famous literary association that never was,” Threadinburgh (June).

Right in the middle of the a cappella section that concludes this song, where Nina’s voice stands alone in its towering majesty, two office workers were suddenly twittering away, one smug and the other amazed, about the efficiency of their AI software.

When they had finished their conversation, Nina was back, with an amputated fifty or so seconds of her a cappella, all now thoroughly raped and ruined.

The sun was still shining but I was submerged in an icy coolness. My heart was still thumping but it seemed to be operating by itself, like a séance tambourine. How could they?

“Tycienski versus YouTube” (July).

And that’s what Nimino excels at, emotionally rich and soulful beats. As a producer and DJ, he sculpts moods. His sound lives somewhere between melodic electronica, UK house, and chill bass, and he’s been honing it for years. Releases like “No Sympathy,” “Nothing Perfect,” and “Opening Credits” have all earned him a loyal following of music lovers who value depth, story, and soul over drops and dopamine.

Nimino’s journey began in the UK’s vibrant underground electronic scene, where he first gained attention for his lush, cinematic instrumentals and ability to fuse electronic and organic elements seamlessly. Early on, he earned support from tastemaker platforms like Majestic Casual and found his way into the headphones and hearts of fans across Europe and beyond. As his production evolved, so did his reach, leading to support from BBC Radio, festival appearances, and collaborations that elevated his profile without compromising the intimacy of his sound.

Amra Alic, “Nimino’s Newest Drop, ‘Beside of Me’ Sets the Tone for His Upcoming Sunbar Set,” Relentless Beats (July).

David (Tom McMillan) is in Edinburgh, the city where he was a student, and he is attending a cinema with his wife Julie (Izzy Burton). They are about to step into the movie Past Lives. Twenty years ago, in 2003, David had happened to meet a teacher named Michael (Duccio Baldasseroni) in the bar of this cinema and they had shared an extraordinary life-changing conversation. They have never seen each other since but suddenly, on the threshold of past lives, David believes that he may have sighted Michael entering the bar and holding a lit cigarette. He must be a ghost – or else this must be a time slip – since if you walked smoking into any bar these days there would be blanket hysteria.

I don’t know whether I am of a psychology that can especially connect with William Oliveira’s “Time Bends” or whether the phenomena that it describes are experienced by everybody. But I got on with this play like a house on fire…

“Tychy @ the Fringe: Time Bends” (August).

This is theatre of the body as much as the word. Water splashes on plastic; clay turns slick; spit strikes the ground. The stage becomes a soupy mess — and so do we. Earth clings to skin and spirit, reminding us that we are born in mess, live in it, and return to it.

Overhead, the supertitles insist: Here things are real. And they are.

Confessions spill. Questions hang like low clouds: Sell the farm? Put the mother in care? The centrepiece is a dance — half courtship, half combat — closing the space between the men until nothing remains. Symbols surface: the lover’s cologne, eight journals, traces of what’s gone. Then Hellen arrives, bright in yellow and pink, and the balance tilts.

Louis Kavouras “TOM AT THE FARM,” Spy in the Stalls (August).

Quite hilariously, this year finally saw an attempt to foist this model of housing upon non-students. The new 168-flat development at the former Caledonian Brewery in Merchiston will have only two parking spaces. Isolated and futuristic, this site is going to resemble a colony on Mars. The developers are looking for an experimental dystopian population of around three hundred and forty people who are rich enough to buy a new home at today’s prices but who are otherwise reconciled to never owning a car or procuring any job that will require car ownership. Friends and family who live further away than the mandated 20-minute “walk, wheel or cycle” won’t be coming around so much. The investors must be certain that such a sorry settlement can be scraped together, although time will tell.

“Why PBSA is the King of All Edinburgh” (September).

Over half a trillion dollars has gone into an entire industry without a single profitable company developing models or products built on top of models. By my estimates, there is around $44 billion of revenue in generative AI this year (when you add in Anthropic and OpenAI’s revenues to the pot, along with the other stragglers) and most of that number has been gathered through reporting from outlets like The Information, because none of these companies share their revenues, all of them lose shit tons of money, and their actual revenues are really, really small.

Only one member of the Magnificent Seven (outside of NVIDIA) has ever disclosed its AI revenue — Microsoft, which stopped reporting in January 2025, when it reported “$13 billion in annualized revenue,” so around $1.083 billion a month.

Ed Zitron, “The Case Against Generative AI,” Where’s Your Ed At? (September).

There was nonetheless considerable skill in what Trump was doing. The distaste with which he regards war is unmistakable. His ideal war seems to be a short, businesslike display of prowess and precision bombing. Too polite to say openly to the Israelis that he thinks the destruction of Gaza moronic, he will instead lean on words such as “debris,” “ruin,” “suffering,” and “rebuild” and then leave them to echo hauntingly. In truth Trump is an expert at disorientation. Most of the warmongers and ethnic cleansers in the Knesset had probably only fully understood afterwards that he had given a speech condemning their political worldview and then somehow got them to applaud it effusively.

“YouTube Review: “IN FULL: US President Donald Trump addresses Israel’s Knesset…” (October).

“It’s not very green, though, is it?” objected Magnus, reasonably. Magnus didn’t want to discourage Liam, whom he very much liked — he was also, it must be said, pleasantly surprised that Liam had even heard of Green Man carvings — but at the same time, he was certain that Liam was wrong. “Surely it needs leaves and that sort of thing to be a Green Man. I don’t see any leaves. Those wavy things there, and there — they can’t be leaves. Are you sure it isn’t a lion?”

“It’s a man.” Pamela, who had backed into a corner, was still glaring at the thing on the floor. “It’s a man with a moustache. Look, that’s a moustache, and those are eyebrows. Big wavy eyebrows. I don’t like it. There’s something not right about it. And it stinks, too. Argh, it’s too musty in here for me. Sorry, I’m leaving!”….

Barendina Smedley, “The Gargoyle,” News From Norfolk (October).

X is now a vast refugee camp where writers, journalists and commentators can eke out a celebrity from microblogging that is no longer possible to all of them from traditional authorship. It is clearly the same across literature, which is being hit by a historically unprecedented disaster. The numbers of authors has risen dramatically over the last thirty years at the same time that readerly demand is disintegrating. 274 Miles can feel like a book for an era of cultural rationing. There are so many authors and they are all roundly excellent and there is such an evenness between their writing. One who wants to read any further is left to follow the given paths entirely at random. It could be that some of these contributors will be most widely read with the 274 words that they have sent here. And perhaps this begins to pour a new value into the miniature story, as well as an added depth and weight…

“Book Review: 274 Miles by Tantallon Tìr” (November).

There is no form of Brussels sprouts that I can eat. They taste like dirty dirty dogshit.

This is you: Brussels sprouts are good!

This is me: Fuck you and your dogshit Brussels sprouts.

Yams and sweet potatoes. They are exactly the same thing. They taste like bacteria stoked rotten hippopotamus fæces.

Liver. It is the last stage before bowel movement is produced. Do you like to eat bowel movement? I don’t like to eat bowel movement…

The Botendaddy, “Botendaddy on Cuisine” (November)

A neurologist at work in the USA in 2025 will be stranded on a plain that patients with mood disorders are crossing in their monotonous herds, lumbering on towards their industrial treatment and processing facilities. One should remember, of course, that Dr Freud’s method was a luxury product and one developed during a period of both pronounced social optimism and high educational and employee discipline. In his day only a tiny, persistent anti-social minority could ever succeed in going nuts.

What is most attractive about Dr van der Vaart’s channel may be therefore the nostalgia. This does not mean, though, that there is anything unreal, or completely unreal, about his work. The viewer will not fail to notice how his therapeutic persona – the mask of the psychoanalyst – grows keener, brighter and more thoughtful and empathetic the darker the human materials that are under his consideration…

“YouTube Review: Andrew van der Vaart, MD, PhD” (December).

Of course, the answer is that the provocative quote maximises engagement. Maximising engagement is presumably why Mr Lloyd has claimed that Sarah Crew, Chief Constable of Avon and Somerset Police, “vowed to arrest/prosecute anyone flying a UK flag” when she actually suggested that it might be a criminal offence to fly it on public property. It’s presumably why he claimed that the Bondi Beach terrorists were Pakistani when they actually had Indian heritage (India just doesn’t sound Muslim enough?). It’s presumably why he claimed that a criminal will not be deported when she will. It’s presumably why he posted a video of “Birmingham City Council” which does not appear to have shown Birmingham City Council. It’s presumably why he posted a video implying that it showed Muslims vandalising a Christmas tree when it seems to show a post-Christmas Coptic Christian ritual. It’s presumably why he suggested that Joey Barton had received “6months in jail” when he had received a suspended sentence..

All these errors, by the way, are from this month. A longer trawl could uncover even more egregious examples…

Ben Sixsmith, “I Hate Engagement Bait,” The Critic (December).

Tychy wishes all readers a Happy New Year.