Martin Robbins

New film out, on the extraordinary, 20-year saga of the Rainham Volcano.

For the Monday preppers

A quick Sunday morning rant on the borderline hysterical reaction from some quarters to basic adult advice. martinrobbins.substack.com/p/dont-panic...

A quick Sunday morning rant on the borderline hysterical reaction from some quarters to basic adult advice. martinrobbins.substack.com/p/dont-panic...

Been meaning to read this post for ages. It is extraordinarily good

Kneejerk response to this is nuts. My relative is alive because this summer, out of desperation, we keyed his symptoms (that had baffled NHS consultants) into Claude. It diagnosed a rare but simple inter-disciplinary issue. NHS docs swiftly did lifesaving surgery. AI is good at pattern recognition!

The out-of-touch public are on the wrong side of Martin opinion.

Working with Claude on production of the next film

Restore is such a weird mix of fascism and random mad boomer Facebook shit.

As expected, the Prime Minister's promise to sort out the mess of funding for Jodrell actually meant nothing - it seems the government would like it to be some sort of heritage theme park when you can go and see where we used to do science. 🔭

This is an excellent video on the consequences of years of state failure. A vast rubbish heap that regularly erupts in flames spewing toxic smoke which impacts nearby residents whilst the government, the council, the Environment Agency and the land owner squabble about who deals with it.

Shocking situation. (Good doc though.)

My friend @mjrobbins.com has produced an outstanding new video which is, in a very literal sense, a massive pile of garbage. It’s like You Can See Everything but with rampant methane and bureaucratic inertia instead of Nathan Fielder and Elizabeth Holmes. Behold the Rainham volcano!

If I were a designer who came up with this at Jaguar, the firm that made the E-Type, F-Type, XK, and about half a dozen other modern classics, I’d be ashamed to leave my house in the morning.

Not just the movie but specifically this shot, which was genius.

Ben Wheatley entering his documentary era is great.

This is essential viewing. Stop what you’re doing and watch:

Coming out this week, here's a trailer for my most ambitious film project to date, about the man-made volcano in London that's burning for six months of the year.

The "zionism is racism" motion that has just passed on the Green Party's conference floor is truly gross, and deeply racist. The party's MPs deserve some credit for opposing it, though they should've done so more stridently and sooner. This is now a millstone around the party's necks. Deservedly.

Get this - real GDP per head has grown by 1.1% over the first half of 2026. Excluding the swings caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, that's the largest increase since late 2017.

Happy birthday to my YIMBY Pod co-host and Britain’s youngest Jag owner, @mjrobbins.com!

Every private conversation in Westminster: "Well the triple lock obviously has to go at some point". Every commentator on Burnham: "completely mad to propose getting rid of triple lock - political suicide".

I've no idea why the Telegraph thinks the mine is being opened by Labour and not the companies that have worked hard over several years to develop it to this point, but this is very positive news for Cornwall and the UK.

How is he good at travelling if it takes him that long?

I could quote pretty much this entire article by @mjrobbins.com on the bizarre psychology of the AI apocalypse freaks, but you should just read it instead. Such a relief to see someone express my feelings so eloquently. martinrobbins.substack.com/p/the-ai-apo...

So good! By @mjrobbins.com

Hard to explain how gobsmacking this is. The government opened applications for farm subsidies this morning at 10. And closed it just before 4 because they'd run out of cash. Applying for your livelihood like it's Oasis tickets. defrafarming.blog.gov.uk/2026/09/22/s...

"I wonder to what extent these smart people are drawn to AI precisely because of its grandiosity; because fixing the boring problems of society like healthcare or inequality is beneath people as smart as them." Very interesting post from @mjrobbins.com: martinrobbins.substack.com/p/the-ai-apo...

ICYMI: my post on the sheer unhealthiness and groupthink of the culture around AI, "a community of would-be-martyrs, enmeshed in a deep paranoid fantasy that they alone can stave off the end of the world."

This is extremely good, though I am less certain than Martin that superintelligence (which I take to mean more intelligent than human) can't exist, given I don't think there is anything in the laws of physics that would prevent it

Far too many quotable bits in @mjrobbins.com latest piece about the AI apocalypse doomed, so you'll just have to go read the whole thing martinrobbins.substack.com/p/the-ai-apo...

Very much enjoyed @mjrobbins.com conversation-paced rant about the supposed threat of so-called superintelligent AI. martinrobbins.substack.com/p/the-ai-apo...

Obviously going to regret this when Claude starts a nuclear war on Monday.

Thinking a lot about this piece, and I think it’s crystallised for me why self driving cars are a terrible idea.

It's vastly more comforting to believe in an imminent robot apocalypse than the truth: the things that will destroy us are extensions of the unsexy but obvious problems all around us. We are not doomed in one grand way, but a thousand petty small ways.

Yeeees come to daddy. #lasagne #godtier

I do think anyone who wants us to take Elizer Yudkowsky seriously as an authority on AI armageddon should be forced to testify on video that they have read the entirety of his 660,000 word rationalist Harry Potter fan fiction – written aged 30–34 – and still thinks the world needs his take.

Fascinated by this thread of what parents gave their kids for dinner tonight, and how it compares to my childhood memories of Smash and tinned hot dog sausages or Findus Crispy Pancakes and Supernoodles: www.reddit.com/r/UKParentin...