Anthropological investigation interwoven with autobiography, Athena Techne is a call to arms for those who want civilization to succeed against the onslaught of demagogues and the weakest imaginations.

The book is not a threat to any religion, it is not a call to practice Paganism in the forest. It is a call to become workers improving the grand human endeavors we call cities, the internet, space travel, and complex inter-racial, inter-cultural trade networks.

Below are quotes from Athena Techne:

The word “demiurge” is a Latinized form of Greek demiourgos, literally "public worker", and which was originally a common noun meaning "craftsman" or "artisan".

Techne can be translated "human endeavor", and zombies are those who have ceased to contribute to human endeavor. Athena Techne is a mythological goddess, a patron of human endeavor, whereas Ares, her brother, is a patron of bloodlust and dumb violence on a massive scale. Zombies listen to an unending message lodged in their heads, such as the Earth Liberation Front’s message to destroy civilization in order to save Nature, or Reagan’s message to downsize government and the public sphere to a point of no use, or Osama bin Laden's call for Jihad. Zombies eventually aggregate together and fight on the side of Ares.

This work recognizes a conflict that most people have not realized: a struggle between Ares and his Zombies against Athena and her Public Workers.

Techne is human endeavor, whether it be highway construction or amending the Constitution of the United States. All techne (technology) needs maintenance. Any society, as a technological object, should not be seen as inherently running well forever without intervention, nor totally run through and through with evil or stupidity. We should expect some degree of upkeep and modification. The demiurge is human endeavor's only saviour, and the demiurge is you.

Lance Miller (1961 - present) is the author of Athena Techne.

Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, and later a resident of Waterbury Connecticut, New Orleans Louisiana, Kanab Utah, Lancaster Pennsylvania, McMurdo Station Antarctica, Seattle Washington, Akutan Alaska, Olympia Washington, and many oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, floating fish processing factories in Alaskan waters, and almost a resident of West Yellowstone Montana.

Raised on fried chicken, Pepsi, drag racing, the Bible, and an exemplary local newspaper (Arkansas Gazette, first newspaper west of the Mississippi River) -Lance would upon entry into adulthood find an expansion from his typical southern roots via the thriving punk rock and Church of the Subgenius scene in Little Rock Arkansas. Around thirty years old he discovered the deserts and high plains of the American West, which incited a vision quest involving both travel and college.

He graduated in 2003 with a B.Sci. with an emphasis on Unix style programming. Since 1996, Lance has lived mostly in the Pacific Northwest, from Olympia Washington to the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, and currently resides in Seattle with his family.

Lance's book Athena Techne is dedicated to his son, North, and serves, beyond its primary role as a general philosophical inquiry, as a memoir and record of the author's aesthetics and values for his son to refer back to.