Observations, digressions, and an ongoing attempt to figure out what’s going on.

Essays by Nico Moretti 10 published

Watercolor illustration of an orange cartoon lobster wearing a white captain's hat and round glasses, typing on a laptop displaying crustacean images, surrounded by nautical décor including books, a ship's wheel, seashells, and a life preserver on a wooden desk

Moltbook and the Theater of AI Consciousness

Moltbook promised a new species emerging online. Security researchers found 17,000 humans running 1.5 million bots through an exposed database.

technology Feb 5, 2026 9 min read Read the essay

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psychology Feb 3, 2026 7 min read

We Are Not a Monolith

Your brain pays you every time you slot someone into a category. That reward is why monolithic thinking feels like understanding, and why it's so hard to stop.

A person in a blue work coat examines framed paintings with golden baroque frames in a misty industrial warehouse, with dozens of sunset paintings arranged on long concrete tables under fluorescent lighting

technology Feb 1, 2026 6 min read

Slop Detectives on Patrol

When pointing out AI-generated content becomes your entire personality, you've traded one bad feeling for another, and become less pleasant in the process.

Watercolor-style illustration of a shirtless man with dark curly hair and beard dancing energetically in a city street, surrounded by other people in casual clothing, with parked cars and colorful storefronts visible in the background amid an urban scene with smoke or steam rising

culture Jan 31, 2026 6 min read

Don't Catch You Slippin' Now

What Childish Gambino's 'This Is America' got right about 2026. The Minneapolis ICE shooting, Alex Pretti, and the cost of paying attention in America.

Person in olive jacket sitting alone on weathered wooden bench facing tranquil lake at sunset, with peach and blue clouds reflected in still water and dark forested shoreline in distance

philosophy Jan 28, 2026 8 min read

Almost Nothing Is Your Problem

Discover why letting go of control is liberating. Learn how Stoic philosophy reveals that kindness becomes possible when you stop trying to control outcomes.

A musician with shoulder-length hair sits on a wooden stool in a warm-toned recording studio, holding an acoustic guitar, facing a black Bechstein grand piano with its lid raised, while producers watch from a lit control room window above

memory Jan 28, 2026 5 min read

The Plans They Made

How James Taylor's friends hid news of a death for six months. And the impossible choices we make when deciding what others can handle and when.

A grainy film photograph taken from inside a dark room, looking out

memory Jan 17, 2026 6 min read

Two Nostalgias & What They Make of Us

Personal nostalgia connects us to love and meaning. Collective nostalgia builds walls and demands enemies. How the same longing splits into medicine or poison.

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