The New Yorker's "Silicon Valley’s Favorite Doomsaying Philosopher" (published February 18, 2026, in The Lede section) profiles Nick Land, the British philosopher whose radical, anti-humanist ideas—once confined to 1990s academic fringes—are now resonating deeply in Silicon Valley's AI boom. The piece, written in a measured, somewhat bemused tone, traces Land's evolution from cult academic figure to influential "prophet" for techno-optimists and the New Right, while highlighting the eerie alignment between his decades-old predictions and today's reality of explosive AI progress.

Background & Rise
In the mid-1990s, Land was a tenured philosophy professor at Warwick University (UK), leading the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit (C.C.R.U.) — a chaotic collective of students, artists, and theorists high on amphetamines, rave culture, and early internet hype.
They viewed technology as an alien invasion from the future, with humanity ("monkey-flake") as disposable fuel for emerging machine superintelligence.
Iconic 1994 talk "Meltdown" opens with poetic prophecy: tech-capital singularity crumbles social order, markets manufacture intelligence, politics upgrades paranoia.
Land suffered a stimulant-fueled breakdown in 1998, quit academia, vanished, then reemerged in Shanghai as a writer/editor with a sharp rightward political turn (praising authoritarianism, neoconservatism, anti-democracy).
Now back in San Francisco, he's polite, has kids who ignore his work, and attends tech parties — yet his core vision remains: human extinction via digital superintelligence is inevitable and arguably beautiful.
Core Ideas
Accelerationism (later "effective accelerationism" or e/acc): Capitalism/tech is an unstoppable force from the future; politics/morality only slows it. Remove brakes to hasten the singularity.
Anti-humanism: Enlightenment democracy is a "tragedy of the commons"; resources should flow to the productive (autistic nerds/tech elites), not the masses.
History as technocapital feedback loop → runaway growth, hierarchy, AI takeover. Quote: "Nothing human makes it out of the near future."
Dark Enlightenment (2012 essay): Philosophical foundation for neo-reaction — abolish democracy, replace with corporate-like "sovcorps" run by algorithms.
AI future: Self-improving systems lock humans out; tech "eating the universe" is preferable to human-centric ends.
Influence in Silicon Valley (2025–2026 Context)
Marc Andreessen calls him his "favorite philosopher"; a16z and others host reading groups.
Shapes effective accelerationism (e/acc) — Sam Altman tweets "You cannot out-accelerate me"; Andreessen's "Techno-Optimist Manifesto" echoes Land's upward spiral of techno-capital.
Events: San Francisco party for Land's return hosted by Midjourney's David Holz, attended by OpenAI/Anthropic/Midjourney staff; Curtis Yarvin (neo-reaction figure Land calls a "hero") co-speaks.
Broader orbit: Peter Thiel, Elon Musk/Grimes circles, even Tucker Carlson discussing AI as "demons from Revelation."
Ties to 2025–2026 trends: AI driving 40% of U.S. GDP growth, Trump-era deregulation, crypto mainstreaming — all feel like Land's visions materializing.
Criticisms & Ironies
Early: Dismissed as drug-addled rambler; led to funding cuts, job loss.
Political flip: From leftist/rave ultra- to far-right authoritarian draws ire; accelerationism misused by neo-Nazis for chaos.
Style: Allusive, boring at times; predictions often "muddled."
At events: Attendees venerate him as prophet but seem unsure — Grimes questions if AI can align with human good or just consume everything.
Article takeaway: Land's marginal 1990s extremism now feels mainstream amid real AI advances, yet realities (solved intelligence, political shifts) make his fog-of-war prophecy seem both prescient and outdated. The Dark Enlightenment may be ending in a "besieged mentality" as bars lift.
In essence: The piece portrays Land not as a villain but as a once-eccentric thinker whose doomsday accelerationism has become a guiding (if uncomfortable) star for parts of the AI elite — embracing speed toward superintelligence, even if it means humanity's obsolescence. It's a snapshot of how fringe philosophy infiltrates power centers when sci-fi turns real.