Forgotten Castles And Butlerian Jihad

The Forgotten Castles Of The Garamantes

Giulio Aprin | Wild Man Life | 4th May 2026

The Garamantes, an ancient Berber civilisation that flourished for nearly 16 centuries from 900 BC to 700 CE, went unremarked until satellite images showed the ruins of a hidden empire in a remote part of the Libyan Sahara. They were able to sustain entire cities in the unforgiving desert by digging subterranean channels called foggaras to mine fossil water sealed in aquifers from the time of a green Sahara (3,100 words)

Puzzle: Play Nomido, the Browser’s daily word game.

The Butlerian Jihad Has Begun

Charles McBryde | Syndekit | 29th May 2026

The growing anti-AI movement often references the Butlerian Jihad, coined by Frank Herbert in Dune as “a moment in the distant past — our future — when humans rose up and destroyed the ‘thinking machines’”. But popular discourse misreads the term, which is “not a parable about technology, but about domination”. “A properly conceived Butlerian Jihad must target technocracy, not technology” (3,100 words)