Bratton unpacks the 'bootloader sin' debate: humans joining a larger chain of being isn't new
bratton · x · 2026-10-11
Benjamin Bratton pushes back on Dean Ball's moral condemnation of Elon Musk's 'bootloader' comment by dissecting where the supposed sin actually lives: the crude terminology, the Copernican trauma of displacing humans as cosmic protagonists, or the idea of machinic life joining a larger 'chain of being'. He sees no contradiction between that old idea and humans persisting in some protean form — lifeforms survive by becoming part of something bigger (mitochondria, cells, genes, languages). He also asks whether the discomfort is about machine minds existing at all, or about humans only being able to grasp them through anthropomorphic projection.
Related event: Scholars Clash Over Musk's 'Humanity as Bootloader' Remark(4 posts)→
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