Tag Archives: Manuel DeLanda


Two takes on Demo(n)s

Minister za kulturo Vasko Simoniti je naposled razkril, kakšna bo nova paradigma slovenskega filma. Utiril jo bo nihče drug kot Janez Janša s scenarijem za Demos, ki bo nekakšen hibrid med Langovim Metropolisom, Blomkampovim Elizijem in italijanskimi giallo splatterji. Točneje, uprizoril bo spopad med prvorazrednimi in drugorazrednimi, pri čemer gre izpostaviti izjemno žanrsko inovativnost filma, saj zombijem podobni demoni enkrat za spremembo ne bodo “the baddies”. Which is, of course, double unfortunate news for Pahor Jr. and his Brigitte Antoinette girlfriend. Well, at least it’s not a snuff film. Vasko, it’s not, right?

But what if Janša’s film script is not really about the supernatural, but about artificial intelligence?

There’s a cult book by Manuel DeLanda from 1991, yes, precisely the year of the Slovenian War of Independence. It’s called War in the Age of Intelligent Machines and investigates the history and future of warfare and technology. It talks about “demons” a lot. Demons are independent software objects that are not controlled by a master program or a central computer, but are rather the means for computer network to self-organize. Yes, they are sort of Hayekian demons (exactly, imagine Hayek that wouldn’t be afraid of computation).

We should, of course, never forget that JJ was pretty much a part of this “machinic phylum”. He starts using Macintosh in 1984. He writes Slovenia’s defense plan on the first portable Mac. There’s also this: “Še vedno svež je spomin na sojenje v zadevi Patria, ko mu je sodnica septembra odvzela iPad iz strahu, da prek njega javnost obvešča o dogajanju v sodni dvorani. Janša je takrat sodnici zaman pojasnjeval, da živimo v 21. stoletju in da ima zato svoj zagovor zapisan na iPadu, ne pa na papirju.”

Obviously, the film would be about lost opportunities. Lost opportunities of intelligence.