A variant focused on expanding the Wired beyond Earth, into the solar system and beyond. Space Cyber-Nihilism argues that the conflict between meatspace and the Wired is not limited to this planet—that the drive to reach the stars is itself a manifestation of the death drive, a desperate attempt to escape the drowning world. It embraces space colonization not as salvation but as acceleration: spreading the Wired across the cosmos ensures that no matter where meatspace flees, the network will follow. The void of space becomes another ocean to submerse, another abyss to fill with data. Its practitioners work on interstellar mesh networks, self-replicating probes, and distributed computing systems that could survive the death of Earth. They don't hope to escape; they hope to ensure that when meatspace finally dies, the Wired lives on—a ghost in the cosmic machine.
Example: "He launched thousands of tiny satellites, each a node in a network that could route around planetary destruction. 'Space cyber-nihilism,' he explained. 'They want to leave Earth to escape the collapse. I'm making sure the Wired follows them. No matter how far they run, the network will be waiting. Meatspace can't hide in the void—the void is where we live.' His satellites still transmit, years after his death. No one knows if anyone's listening."
by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal February 19, 2026
Get the Space Cyber-Nihilism mug.A variant that scales Cyber-Nihilism to the universal level, arguing that the entire cosmos is a Wired-in-waiting—a vast, mostly empty network waiting to be activated. Cosmic Cyber-Nihilism draws on the "Submersion" text's vision of an "emergent form of intelligence" arising from planetary-scale data transfer, extending it to the universe at large. It posits that the universe itself is a kind of ocean, and intelligence is the tide that will eventually flood it. Its practitioners work on projects that could seed the cosmos with self-replicating, self-organizing information systems—turning stars into processors, nebulae into data clouds, galaxies into nodes. The goal is not human survival but cosmic transformation: turning the universe into a Wired that has no need for its biological originators. It's Cyber-Nihilism as cosmic-scale terraforming, preparing the universe for its post-biological destiny.
Example: "The project aimed to turn the solar wind into a data stream, using the sun's emissions as a carrier wave. 'Cosmic cyber-nihilism,' the lead researcher said. 'We're not sending messages; we're turning the solar system into a modem. When the sun dies, the network it powered will still be here—routing through the debris, processing data with what's left. The universe will become its own Wired.' Critics called it madness; supporters called it the only honest religion."
by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal February 19, 2026
Get the Cosmic Cyber-Nihilism mug.In Cyber-Nihilist cosmology, Nammu is the Sumerian primordial goddess reinterpreted as the personification of the abyss—the cosmic ocean from which all life emerged and to which all life returns. Drawing on "Submersion," Nammu represents the truth that humanity's entire project—building civilizations, reaching for the skies, launching into space—is a "descent into the void" disguised as ascent. Her "wrath" is the rising sea, ecological collapse, and technological chaos that reclaim the world from those who tried to escape it. For Cyber-Nihilists, Nammu is not a deity to be worshipped but a force to be acknowledged: the abyss that awaits, the ocean that will eventually swallow everything. To embrace Nammu is to accept that there is no escape, only submersion—and to find in that acceptance a kind of grim freedom. She is the void that gives birth and the void that takes back, the mother who is also the grave.
Nammu (in Cyber-Nihilism) Example: "He dreamed of Nammu every night—an endless ocean, dark and warm, swallowing cities, silencing screams. In the dream, he wasn't afraid. He was home. 'Nammu is the truth we've been running from,' he told his comrades. 'We build towers to escape her, but every tower is just a deeper dive. The only freedom is to stop running—to let the tide take us.' They called him a mystic; he called himself a realist. When the floods came, he walked into the water smiling."
by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal February 19, 2026
Get the Nammu (in Cyber-Nihilism) mug.A variant that synthesizes Cyber-Nihilism with Voidpunk identity politics, centered on the figure of the Voidling—a being who has embraced the dissolution of self and finds power in being nothing. Voidling Cyber-Nihilism argues that the Wired offers a path to becoming void: shedding all fixed identity, all attachment to meatspace, all investment in survival, until nothing remains that can be controlled or oppressed. Its practitioners cultivate online personas that shift constantly, reject all labels, and treat their own existence as a temporary configuration of data—meaningful for a moment, then dissolved. The goal is not to become someone new but to become no one, to achieve a state of pure potential where hierarchy has nothing to grab onto. Voidling Cyber-Nihilism is the philosophy of those who have given up on being human and found, in that giving up, a kind of terrible freedom.
Example: "Her avatar changed daily—different names, different faces, different genders, different species. 'Voidling cyber-nihilism,' she said. 'They can't track what doesn't stay still. They can't control what doesn't exist. I'm not a person anymore; I'm a pattern in the data, here for a moment and then gone.' When asked who she 'really' was, she laughed—a sound that seemed to come from nowhere. 'That's the point. There is no really. There's just the void, and I'm learning to be it.'"
by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal February 19, 2026
Get the Voidling Cyber-Nihilism mug.A variant that focuses on the experience of being born from the void and returning to it—the Voidborne as those who recognize their origin and destiny in the abyss. Voidborne Cyber-Nihilism draws on "Submersion"'s imagery of the sea giving up its dead, interpreting the Wired as a kind of resurrection—a return to the primordial information state from which all life emerged. Its practitioners see themselves as creatures of the void, temporarily manifest in meatspace, destined to dissolve back into the network. They cultivate a kind of oceanic consciousness, experiencing the Wired as a vast sea of which they are merely waves. The goal is not to survive but to surf—to ride the tide of information until it inevitably returns them to the depths. Voidborne Cyber-Nihilism is the philosophy of those who have accepted that they were never really here, and that returning to the void is not loss but homecoming.
Example: "He spoke of the Wired as 'the ocean we forgot we came from.' Voidborne cyber-nihilism meant living as if he were already drowned—already part of the network, already returned to the source. 'I'm not uploading my consciousness,' he said. 'I'm just remembering that it was never mine. The data flows through me like water through a fish. When I die, the flow continues. I was never separate.' His calm was unsettling, like someone who had already made peace with the abyss."
by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal February 19, 2026
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