Meditations on Moloch by Scott Alexander

Shares rank 6 of 60 articles by recommenders

Recommended as a favorite essay on why systems produce bad outcomes; one critic says it excuses evil people of responsibility.

12 people gave an opinion

Each figure is one person. RecommendsCriticizes

The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works

The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.

Each mark is one comment

Praised as a favorite, great essay
“Meditations on Moloch (2014) is also an HN favorite...”
Comment from 18 Aug 2026 in “Pacing model development in an era of cyber-critical capabilities”
“Meditations on Moloch is a favourite of mine on this”
Comment from 31 Aug 2026 in “Marx, Keynes, and AI”
“There is a great essay called Meditations on Moloch”
Comment from 28 Nov 2025 in “How a French judge was digitally cut off by the USA”
- Comment from 23 Dec 2025 in “Jimmy Lai Is a Martyr for Freedom”
Useful, covers broader themes
“continues to be one of the most useful articles I’ve ever read”
Comment from 6 Sep 2026 in “An Alien Mind”
“Covers the broader themes.”
Comment from 7 May 2026 in “Programming Still Sucks”

9 of the 12 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.

“continues to be one of the most useful articles I’ve ever read”

RecommendsComment from 6 Sep 2026 in “An Alien Mind”

“uses a lot of words to do one thing: absolve the evil people of any responsibility”

CriticizesComment from 31 Aug 2026 in “Marx, Keynes, and AI”

“Meditations on Moloch is a favourite of mine on this”

RecommendsComment from 31 Aug 2026 in “Marx, Keynes, and AI”

“Meditations on Moloch (2014) is also an HN favorite...”

RecommendsComment from 18 Aug 2026 in “Pacing model development in an era of cyber-critical capabilities”

“explains why we ended up in this rat king of human misery rather than a utopia”

RecommendsComment from 28 May 2026 in “Can we have the day off?”

“Covers the broader themes.”

RecommendsComment from 7 May 2026 in “Programming Still Sucks”

“Instead of getting judgy about Google responses, read the original story.”

RecommendsComment from 11 Mar 2026 in “The dead Internet is not a theory anymore”

“You may find this marvelous piece enlightening”

RecommendsComment from 23 Dec 2025 in “Jimmy Lai Is a Martyr for Freedom”

“There is a great essay called Meditations on Moloch”

RecommendsComment from 28 Nov 2025 in “How a French judge was digitally cut off by the USA”

Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.

Product	Recommend	Criticize	Approval	Months	Owned	Badge
Programming as Theory Buildingby Peter Naur	32	0	100%	7	—	Approved
Ur-Fascismby Umberto Eco	18	2	90%	8	—	Approved
Politics and the English Languageby George Orwell	14	0	100%	5	—	Approved
The Grug Brained Developer by Carson Gross	13	1	93%	9	—	Approved
Meditations on Moloch by Scott AlexanderThis page	11	1	92%	6	—	Approved