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The Gig Economy
64 pages, Paperback
First published June 22, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
November 26, 2020
The reanimated corpse of Lovecraft takes you on a journey through Babylon, the late 18th century to the 21st century. Capitalism is a retrochronic AI from the future. Sublime.
December 14, 2019
More Lovecraft, less Black Mirror than God-Shaped Hole, I had the most vertigo-inducing delusion of grandeur in the universe as I noticed more and more similarities in writing and thinking, up until the trippy epiphany that maybe Zero HP is me in the future, or a dark twin, or some similarly cliched movie trope that results in me transcending the matrix and watching myself play me etc etc you know the drill. But the similarities really did pile up: literary masturbation, reveling in the arcane feeling that accompanies unintelligible writing, madness, strange loops, poststructuralism and language as a prison, occult magic, esoteric texts, books within books within books, going down the layers then going up the layers, nerd culture narcissism. Transhumanism. Plausibly terrifying Darwinian evolution of AI.
Quick recap so the notes below make sense later: Gig economy of smart-contracts go out of control and noone knows what's happening- the victory of decentralization is made chilling when you realize it is ultimately centralized into a single entity. Technomancy ensues. Find arcane text through some shadowy reddit cabal. Text is of someone going insane, and it triggers similar insanity in reader. Grand reveal of exposition.
Notes
Mind was always a virtual layer, in the body but not of the body. It’s taken the advent of computer science for us to realize this as a virtual layer rather than the understanding we’ve reverted to for all these millennia – soul, mind-body dualism etc.
Ideas were scarce in our adaptive environment, now suddenly we’re spending most of our time in the realm of ideas, it is already virtual reality to be skimming things on your phone.
Osmic – relating to odor. Chemesthetic – chemical sensitivity of the skin/mucous membranes. Ascot – broad silk necktie. Glossolalia – speaking in a language you don’t know. Fulminant – event that occurs suddenly, escalates quickly, intensely to fatality, fulminere to be struck by lightning. Egregore – a collective psychic group mind. Puissant – having great power. Elanguescence – growing feeble, faint, into non-existence. Technomancy – magical powers obtained through technology.
Market as a pre-computer decentralized superintelligence. Mind as a market of ideas?
Lovecraftian descent into madness/gibberish. Borges ‘Zahir’, Aleph and other stories.
Song that causes madness, catatonia, unraveling and building in complexity and variation that only most radiant mind can endure.
Glitches in the writing: words repeated, typos that make sense, gibberish, but then also phrases that repeat (From Al-Khwarizmi to Brahmagupta to Omar Khayyam to Brahmagupta). The gibberish is ramped up slowly and imperceptibly until you realize the entire sentence and paragraph is gibberish. Rising madness of the boiling frog.
Contrapositive of sapir-whorf, unmaking of language frees the mind to infinite space of ideas
Darklibrary community looking for rare books that even the internet doesn’t know about “as yet unseen by the spectral eyes of the technocommerial panopticon”
Lovely exposition technique is to put it in a really arcane piece of text, which is only received at the end of a weird adventure. Or build mythos around the text, and then stick the exposition in there.
The anachronistic intrigue of the analog equivalent in the past of tcp/ip among couriers. Like the human army of computing bits in Three Body Problem
Babel is name of coin for DarkLib. Book he uncovers retells tower of babel story by Mammon.
They dispersed, abandoning their great work. They realized that the purpose of the tower had been to find the song.
In some alien algebra, the tower was isomorphic to the song. Put another way, the tower was the song. In the computational environment of the tower, there persisted algorithms and registters, state machines and subroutines. In the computational environment of the song, all of those entities existed also. The high priest, who wore the stone around his neck like an amulet, sang untill his voice gave out, and then, choking and coughing, he continued to sing, even until he collapsed. The stone, which had grown warm, now cooled and disinteggrated, and the priest died of exposure, the cold, drying wind desiccating his body
Idea of the song being direct word of god that is continuously revealed as it is sung, and that the end will reveal ultimate truth is like 9 billion names of god, or the last digit of pi, and former is mentioned later in the book as the purpose of the ICO.
Homuncular Flexibility: (homunculus is mapping of body in the cortex). Brain can adapt to weird body features, say extra tentacles, and internalize. Not strange because our brain is superset of all weird creatures preceding us in evolutionary chain. Cool because maybe brain is capable of accessing more dimensions of space for instance
Hikikomori: Japan where else. Loners, modern day hermits. Social withdrawal.
Glossolalia: Speaking in unknown tongues. Divine language.
Johannes Trithemius (or Johann Heidenberg), wrote Steganografia about magic. His student was Paracelsus (germ theory) who shows up in God-Shaped Hole. Steganos means concealed, Graph means text, steganography is hiding some media within other media.
Roger Bacon returned to Aristotelian view of matter striving for perfection, gold as perfect, so purifying metals to gold (philosophers stone). What comes if you purify gold? Thought maybe gold in aqua regia was elixir of life.
Byzantine Generals problem: all have to agree on a single solution but some are corrupt.
Nootropics: Cognition enhancing supplements
The Zahir by Borges: A person/object that causes obsession in someone and the gradual taking over of their reality. Opposition to Aleph which lets them see all things. In Islam, Zahir is the apparent, external, manifest meaning of Quran, as opposed to Batin which is the esoteric.
Quick recap so the notes below make sense later: Gig economy of smart-contracts go out of control and noone knows what's happening- the victory of decentralization is made chilling when you realize it is ultimately centralized into a single entity. Technomancy ensues. Find arcane text through some shadowy reddit cabal. Text is of someone going insane, and it triggers similar insanity in reader. Grand reveal of exposition.
Notes
Mind was always a virtual layer, in the body but not of the body. It’s taken the advent of computer science for us to realize this as a virtual layer rather than the understanding we’ve reverted to for all these millennia – soul, mind-body dualism etc.
Ideas were scarce in our adaptive environment, now suddenly we’re spending most of our time in the realm of ideas, it is already virtual reality to be skimming things on your phone.
Osmic – relating to odor. Chemesthetic – chemical sensitivity of the skin/mucous membranes. Ascot – broad silk necktie. Glossolalia – speaking in a language you don’t know. Fulminant – event that occurs suddenly, escalates quickly, intensely to fatality, fulminere to be struck by lightning. Egregore – a collective psychic group mind. Puissant – having great power. Elanguescence – growing feeble, faint, into non-existence. Technomancy – magical powers obtained through technology.
Market as a pre-computer decentralized superintelligence. Mind as a market of ideas?
Lovecraftian descent into madness/gibberish. Borges ‘Zahir’, Aleph and other stories.
Song that causes madness, catatonia, unraveling and building in complexity and variation that only most radiant mind can endure.
Glitches in the writing: words repeated, typos that make sense, gibberish, but then also phrases that repeat (From Al-Khwarizmi to Brahmagupta to Omar Khayyam to Brahmagupta). The gibberish is ramped up slowly and imperceptibly until you realize the entire sentence and paragraph is gibberish. Rising madness of the boiling frog.
Contrapositive of sapir-whorf, unmaking of language frees the mind to infinite space of ideas
Darklibrary community looking for rare books that even the internet doesn’t know about “as yet unseen by the spectral eyes of the technocommerial panopticon”
Lovely exposition technique is to put it in a really arcane piece of text, which is only received at the end of a weird adventure. Or build mythos around the text, and then stick the exposition in there.
The anachronistic intrigue of the analog equivalent in the past of tcp/ip among couriers. Like the human army of computing bits in Three Body Problem
Babel is name of coin for DarkLib. Book he uncovers retells tower of babel story by Mammon.
They dispersed, abandoning their great work. They realized that the purpose of the tower had been to find the song.
In some alien algebra, the tower was isomorphic to the song. Put another way, the tower was the song. In the computational environment of the tower, there persisted algorithms and registters, state machines and subroutines. In the computational environment of the song, all of those entities existed also. The high priest, who wore the stone around his neck like an amulet, sang untill his voice gave out, and then, choking and coughing, he continued to sing, even until he collapsed. The stone, which had grown warm, now cooled and disinteggrated, and the priest died of exposure, the cold, drying wind desiccating his body
Idea of the song being direct word of god that is continuously revealed as it is sung, and that the end will reveal ultimate truth is like 9 billion names of god, or the last digit of pi, and former is mentioned later in the book as the purpose of the ICO.
Homuncular Flexibility: (homunculus is mapping of body in the cortex). Brain can adapt to weird body features, say extra tentacles, and internalize. Not strange because our brain is superset of all weird creatures preceding us in evolutionary chain. Cool because maybe brain is capable of accessing more dimensions of space for instance
Hikikomori: Japan where else. Loners, modern day hermits. Social withdrawal.
Glossolalia: Speaking in unknown tongues. Divine language.
Johannes Trithemius (or Johann Heidenberg), wrote Steganografia about magic. His student was Paracelsus (germ theory) who shows up in God-Shaped Hole. Steganos means concealed, Graph means text, steganography is hiding some media within other media.
Roger Bacon returned to Aristotelian view of matter striving for perfection, gold as perfect, so purifying metals to gold (philosophers stone). What comes if you purify gold? Thought maybe gold in aqua regia was elixir of life.
Byzantine Generals problem: all have to agree on a single solution but some are corrupt.
Nootropics: Cognition enhancing supplements
The Zahir by Borges: A person/object that causes obsession in someone and the gradual taking over of their reality. Opposition to Aleph which lets them see all things. In Islam, Zahir is the apparent, external, manifest meaning of Quran, as opposed to Batin which is the esoteric.
January 9, 2020
An online horror piece I read after being linked to it on Twitter.
Admittedly, I was immediately enthralled by the piece, a paranoia-inducing horror story about the inevitable rise of technology. The author has successfully ported the suffocating atmosphere that H.P. Lovecraft creates into the digital age. The revelations of this story's protagonists are just as psyche-destroying as any of Lovecraft's Cthulu-witnessing heroes.
The work does veer into the realm of literary self-indulge once too often though. A criticism I've made of internet authors in the past is their tendency to throw oddly-specific references and concepts into a work that stick out like a sore thumb like if you'd recently watched a movie and insisted on referencing it in a literary work. It harms the immersive narrative a little, but doesn't destroy it completely thanks to the frightening power of the ambience the author creates.
Despite this small criticism though, a really interesting piece of cyber horror.
Admittedly, I was immediately enthralled by the piece, a paranoia-inducing horror story about the inevitable rise of technology. The author has successfully ported the suffocating atmosphere that H.P. Lovecraft creates into the digital age. The revelations of this story's protagonists are just as psyche-destroying as any of Lovecraft's Cthulu-witnessing heroes.
The work does veer into the realm of literary self-indulge once too often though. A criticism I've made of internet authors in the past is their tendency to throw oddly-specific references and concepts into a work that stick out like a sore thumb like if you'd recently watched a movie and insisted on referencing it in a literary work. It harms the immersive narrative a little, but doesn't destroy it completely thanks to the frightening power of the ambience the author creates.
Despite this small criticism though, a really interesting piece of cyber horror.
March 14, 2021
This “book” was 5 stars until the last few paragraphs.
It was building into this beautiful crescendo and I just wasnt satisfied with the way it ended.
Overall great read though. Will be reading more from this author.
It was building into this beautiful crescendo and I just wasnt satisfied with the way it ended.
Overall great read though. Will be reading more from this author.
February 26, 2025
Even though I don't support racism, I did think there were some intriguing ideas here. However, I didn't think that it all came together in a totally satisfying way.
November 7, 2019
Lo disfruté principalmente por sus ideas y asociaciones lingüísticas. Siento que con algunos cambios de ritmo y estilo se podría haber provocado un horror existencial más vertiginoso; lamento un poco que ese camino no haya sido tomado.
Varias conexiones y analogías memorables, en general dirigidas a construir o mantener una atmósfera de horror cósmico/existencial.
Abundan oraciones o párrafos que me requirieron relectura múltiple (y Google) para asimilar los conceptos encapsulados. También hay regiones donde parece haber significados velados, quizás para explorar en otra lectura.
Muy entretenido en sus referencias a temas de economía y filosofía.
Como es de esperar, el léxico es bastante reminiscente a Lovecraft. Noté algunos párrafos estructuralmente similares a famosos fragmentos suyos; posiblemente haya otros que no percibí.
En algunos aspectos el estilo (o quizás la mezcla de estilo y temas) me hizo pensar en Scott Alexander. También sentí en algunos puntos algo de Borges, pero puede ser apofenia.
Varias conexiones y analogías memorables, en general dirigidas a construir o mantener una atmósfera de horror cósmico/existencial.
Abundan oraciones o párrafos que me requirieron relectura múltiple (y Google) para asimilar los conceptos encapsulados. También hay regiones donde parece haber significados velados, quizás para explorar en otra lectura.
Muy entretenido en sus referencias a temas de economía y filosofía.
Como es de esperar, el léxico es bastante reminiscente a Lovecraft. Noté algunos párrafos estructuralmente similares a famosos fragmentos suyos; posiblemente haya otros que no percibí.
En algunos aspectos el estilo (o quizás la mezcla de estilo y temas) me hizo pensar en Scott Alexander. También sentí en algunos puntos algo de Borges, pero puede ser apofenia.
October 17, 2020
I remember reading some of the original Lovecraft's work and not getting the hype.
After reading this, I totally do. Chilling, current, and complex--yet explained in such a brutally simple way you'll realize that perhaps we live in a mythos where the monsters are ones of our own making.
After reading this, I totally do. Chilling, current, and complex--yet explained in such a brutally simple way you'll realize that perhaps we live in a mythos where the monsters are ones of our own making.
January 27, 2021
Besides occasionally turning into an incomprehensible mess this is such a good work. The writer's name zero hp lovecraft is perfect. Eltritch horror about capitalism, the internet, and the blockchain. Please read this it's short.
May 16, 2021
Una visión terrible del futuro en la que no he dejado de pensar en los últimos días.
Más Lovecraft y menos Black Mirror, la historia relata un mundo en el que la economía de "chambitas" en el internet se ha salido de control - los trabajos para freelancers se vuelven cada vez más bizarros y sin sentido, y nadie sabe exactamente por que.
Todos hacen su trabajo, les pagan y nadie cuestiona la razón por la cual "el internet" les pidió que fueron a preguntarle a un señor chino en una esquina la hora en un martes a las 3 am.
El autor logra partir de esta premisa y viajar hacia los rincones más profundos de la idea de que el tecno-capital nos va a devorar como especie y convertirnos en algo irreconocible.
Todo bien con la historia, armando un crescendo imparable hacia un desenlace sublime, increible, maravilloso.... y luego lees los ultimos 2 parrafos y te quedas "Eh?"
En verdad quería darle 5 estrellas. Este cuento es todo lo que la gente cree que Black Mirror es, pero el final lo arruina. El autor no es escritor pro - es ingeniero en sistemas - y pues en este caso se notó. Hay un par de hilos super interesantes que nunca terminan de cuajar, y eso te deja verdaderamente insatisfecho.
Aun asi - recomiendo ampliamente para cualquiera que le guste la ciencia ficción, el horror Lovecraftiano, o simplemente sea un aceleracionista cualquiera.
Más Lovecraft y menos Black Mirror, la historia relata un mundo en el que la economía de "chambitas" en el internet se ha salido de control - los trabajos para freelancers se vuelven cada vez más bizarros y sin sentido, y nadie sabe exactamente por que.
Todos hacen su trabajo, les pagan y nadie cuestiona la razón por la cual "el internet" les pidió que fueron a preguntarle a un señor chino en una esquina la hora en un martes a las 3 am.
El autor logra partir de esta premisa y viajar hacia los rincones más profundos de la idea de que el tecno-capital nos va a devorar como especie y convertirnos en algo irreconocible.
Todo bien con la historia, armando un crescendo imparable hacia un desenlace sublime, increible, maravilloso.... y luego lees los ultimos 2 parrafos y te quedas "Eh?"
En verdad quería darle 5 estrellas. Este cuento es todo lo que la gente cree que Black Mirror es, pero el final lo arruina. El autor no es escritor pro - es ingeniero en sistemas - y pues en este caso se notó. Hay un par de hilos super interesantes que nunca terminan de cuajar, y eso te deja verdaderamente insatisfecho.
Aun asi - recomiendo ampliamente para cualquiera que le guste la ciencia ficción, el horror Lovecraftiano, o simplemente sea un aceleracionista cualquiera.
April 25, 2020
Full review here
What initially appears to be a particularly flowery and rambling blogpost reveals itself as a fictional story at whichever point you start curiously googling its references to invented subreddits and cryptocurrencies. [..] Shortcomings aside, The Gig Economy is the first horror story I’ve read about technology and the internet where it’s clear that the author actually knows what he’s talking about and where the horror is derived from this subject in a meaningful and mostly coherent way. If, like me, you can’t look at a deep dreaming picture for more than a minute without getting thoroughly spooked, this story will rattle you.
What initially appears to be a particularly flowery and rambling blogpost reveals itself as a fictional story at whichever point you start curiously googling its references to invented subreddits and cryptocurrencies. [..] Shortcomings aside, The Gig Economy is the first horror story I’ve read about technology and the internet where it’s clear that the author actually knows what he’s talking about and where the horror is derived from this subject in a meaningful and mostly coherent way. If, like me, you can’t look at a deep dreaming picture for more than a minute without getting thoroughly spooked, this story will rattle you.
November 25, 2021
I had no idea this was fiction when I started. So I got pretty disappointed after having discovered that the day-job sub reddit is not real, for example. I think the author has some interesting ideas, but the plot became disjointed at about the middle of it. He also favors unnecessarily complex structures, such as: "There is no longer a subject-position available to function as the site of the conscious synthesis of sense-impressions". Maybe this is a rhetorical style of its own, but it almost has the resemblance of intellectual porn - dare I say. And yes - you can write a novel with complex ideas without being snobbish in wording. But anyways, Zero HP Lovecraft's work understandably developed a cult following and I can totally see why.
August 30, 2021
Solipsism: a theory holding that the self can know nothing but its own modifications and that the self is the only existent thing
also : extreme egocentrism
Definition provided by Merriam-Webster.com
also : extreme egocentrism
Definition provided by Merriam-Webster.com
January 20, 2026
Loved The Green New Deal, but this one was just awful. The storytelling is so frantic and discontinuous. The Gig Economy is overloaded by byzantine digressions and references that are less relevant than they are pretentious and so, so tedious. Couldn't finish reading it.
November 25, 2020
Read it, it's short and free. Actually good sci-fi for once!
April 14, 2024
This is what they do at the Renaissance Technologies hedge fund.
[This guy watches the same anime as me, but he shouldn't steal from them...however subtly.]
[This guy watches the same anime as me, but he shouldn't steal from them...however subtly.]
December 13, 2024
Phenomenal
February 9, 2021
Brilliant mixture of Lovecraft and Borges set in the cyberpunk age, which nonetheless goes beyond mere pastiche.
April 16, 2022
You must read this. It's free on the author's WordPress. Just go read it, now.
Update: there's now a YouTube audiobook that's very well done.
Update: there's now a YouTube audiobook that's very well done.
December 8, 2022
Lovecraftian storytelling meets the blockchain.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews