iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Aaron Ross Powell @aaronrosspowell.com · 12m

The "play minecraft" thing with America.gov is weird in part because today Google bragged about Gemini powering it, but if you ask Gemini itself to play minecraft, it gives you a decidedly unweird answer.

120

Aaron Ross Powell @aaronrosspowell.com · 16m

Even if AI music becomes "good" somehow, I can't imagine many people at all will actually want to listen to it. www.aaronrosspowell.com/3mhyoj4qqr22p

aaronrosspowell.com

Who Is AI Music For?

Google's music-making AI makes songs. I just can't figure out why anyone would listen to them.

120

Reposted by Aaron Ross Powell

Craig Johnson @cajohnson-craig.bsky.social · 2h

these people think that culture is a product individuals stare at culture is a shared phenomenon! people watch shows because their friends are watching the shows! that has gotten more fragmented in the last few decades, but i don't think we'll end up in a fully bespoke AI landscape

2152

Reposted by Aaron Ross Powell

mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 12h

look, if you're worried about being remembered, don't try to pursue immortality or whatever, the smart move is to start selling substandard copper and then make sure anyone who complains deposits a physical copy of that complaint in a site that will later be archaeologically significant

17830105

Aaron Ross Powell @aaronrosspowell.com · 4h

If you're in DC, you should go to this. (There's a link to register in the first reply.) I can't make it, so my colleague Michael Brodrick is hosting the conversation, but @uncanonical.net and I recently talked with Berkowitz for my other show, and he was great, and his book an important one.

041

Reposted by Aaron Ross Powell

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 4h

MAGA is ideologically and psycho-politically incapable of moderating. It is a hysterical movement that exists in a constant state of imagined emergency. There is no room for compromise or restraint. Every crisis, every defeat only heightens their sense of being under siege.

17923

Reposted by Aaron Ross Powell

Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · 4h

I read this relationship not as proceeding from real facts about the economy, but as a sign that trads have been susceptible to the nostalgic but empirically quite shaky critique of global liberalization as having put an end to some golden age of male breadwinning.

cosm.aei.org

Young Men’s Earnings over the Long Run – An Update

Let me start with the chart: Median pre-tax earnings of men ages 25-29 rose 24...

0103

Reposted by Aaron Ross Powell

Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · 4h

"We find a significant and highly robust empirical relationship between gender conservatism and protectionism," since 2008, extending across parties and sexes and "robust to the inclusion of controls meant to isolate gender conservatism from other expressions of conservatism."

cambridge.org

Gender-Role Traditionalism and Opposition to Trade in the United States | PS: Political Science & Politics | Cambridge Core

Gender-Role Traditionalism and Opposition to Trade in the United States

2155

Aaron Ross Powell @aaronrosspowell.com · 5h

Can I just say "All of STP's Purple except Pretty Penny?"

161

Reposted by Aaron Ross Powell

Kat Tenbarge @kattenbarge.bsky.social · 15h

I believe fraternity hazing and military hazing and sports team hazing where men abuse each other is acclimating them into a broader culture of abuse where they will then believe it is their right to abuse other more vulnerable people. It’s so insidious. And that’s also why I think men defend it

312468440

Aaron Ross Powell @aaronrosspowell.com · 7h

I'm struck by how people keep making arguments against AI that are also arguments against, e.g., hiring a plumber or paying a mechanic to fix your car or using GPS to navigate across town.

5242

Reposted by Aaron Ross Powell

brendan @schlage.town · 20h

ha I feel this with @leaflet.pub as well! quick to get a fun doc editor / blog app; *big* lift to get close to google docs / substack parity …but on the flip side now we *are* close, for docs *and* blogging…which feels great! big shout out to @roomy.space for making so much progress here 🙌

meri.leaflet.pub

(Re)building Roomy in 6 months

A recap on my engineering and design process

051

Reposted by Aaron Ross Powell

lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 10h

This is the state of the subfield of ethics in analytic philosophy.

410814

Aaron Ross Powell @aaronrosspowell.com · 29/09/2026

Now I want a 2028 presidential ticket of Eric Schmitt and Naomi Wolf

1100

Aaron Ross Powell @aaronrosspowell.com · 29/09/2026

I think this "you dream of labor" argument, common among some corners of leftism, is based on a confusion/conflating/equivocation between "labor" and "work." www.aaronrosspowell.com/3mrvmcx2gek2j

aaronrosspowell.com

Distinguishing Labor from Work

We should get rid of the former, if we can, but we should absolutely keep the latter.

282

Aaron Ross Powell @aaronrosspowell.com · 29/09/2026

Jet lag is dumb and there should be a single global time zone so I don't have to deal with it.

280

Reposted by Aaron Ross Powell

BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I would like media that only ever reinforces my ideological perceptions in the most tediously didactic way possible rather than seeking to either entertain or challenge me, and will pass this off as insightful criticism.

638038

Reposted by Aaron Ross Powell

Sharon 🪳🌹 @sharonk.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

a lot of people genuinely seem to think the point of fiction is to be didactic about their specific ideological worldview instead of telling a story which is fine, but not really something that mass market publishing works on

1827940

Reposted by Aaron Ross Powell

ae @aelkus.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

similarly, the most proximate cause of antisocial abuse on the Internet is the failure to punish antisocial abuse on the Internet, rather than any assumptions we make about the people doing the abusing bsky.app/profile/them...

2769

Reposted by Aaron Ross Powell

dame @dame.is · 28/09/2026

"their material conditions & lack of power caused them to send a death threat to a random stranger on the internet" that sounds smart and insightful but it's actually dumb and entirely speculative

435430

Reposted by Aaron Ross Powell

Kate Sills @katelynsills.com · 29/09/2026

Neither Conor nor Chris Rufo have anything to do with rationalists or post-rats as far as I know, but this is a pretty good example of the type of dynamic I'm talking about. Rationalist circles are full of Conor types who I genuinely believe are fundamentally incapable of keeping track of bad people

1176

Aaron Ross Powell @aaronrosspowell.com · 29/09/2026

Checked my bag to Munich, made it through security, am comfortably waiting at the gate to depart, and I'm quite certain now that I forgot to pack socks.

270

Reposted by Aaron Ross Powell

Jacob Grier @jacobgrier.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Delighted that my article makes a cameo in this claim that @liberalism.org is a conservative op. Yep, that's exactly why I left DC think tanks to spend nearly the past two decades in Portland, Oregon. Playing the long game.

092

Aaron Ross Powell @aaronrosspowell.com · 28/09/2026

This whole thread, if you know anything about me, is very funny.

1130

Reposted by Aaron Ross Powell

Noah Berlatsky @nberlat.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

if trump thought he'd rigged the midterms, he'd be saying things like, "we have rigged the midterms" because he pretty much can't shut up about it when he thinks he's done something clever.

212522

Reposted by Aaron Ross Powell

Mom for Gliberty @fakegreekgrill.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I've never even met a person that doesn't think the rise in identification was caused by the social influence of stigma decreasing over time. The disagreement is over whether the "ideal rate" is whatever happens with no social stigma, or whether Trumpian bigotry was required for some reason.

1375

Reposted by Aaron Ross Powell

Paul Gowder @gowder.io · 28/09/2026

Seriously though WHY. Meta isn't the VERY last company that I would trust to touch any serious aspect of my life, but that's only because Palantir exists.

411321

Reposted by Aaron Ross Powell

Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 28/09/2026

It really gives the game away when the anti trans orgs are calling the election of the neo nazi party in Germany a "glimmer of hope."

492503706

Aaron Ross Powell @aaronrosspowell.com · 28/09/2026

Grocery profit margins are razor thin. This policy will lead to an increase in grocery prices. Maybe people are okay with that to keep a particular kind of job around, but we should be clear that this is asking customers to pay more for their family's food to subsidize one small labor sector.

359120

Aaron Ross Powell @aaronrosspowell.com · 28/09/2026

Today on the show, @aselrod.bsky.social joined @uncanonical.net and me for a conversation about dirtbagism and how to do better.

051

Aaron Ross Powell @aaronrosspowell.com · 28/09/2026

Well this is sure to turn Malik Nabers around on my fantasy team.

151

Reposted by Aaron Ross Powell

Zack Beauchamp @zackbeauchamp.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Nobody seems to bat an eye that Rufo's podcast partner is a longtime anonymous troll who called gays "f*ggots," referred to Asians as "mongoloids," and explicitly sees his partnership with Rufo as a strategy of normalizing what most of us would see as bigotry www.vox.com/politics/368...

vox.com

An inside look at how the far right is mainstreaming itself

An radical troll got unmasked — and then spilled the beans.

14588186

Reposted by Aaron Ross Powell

Matthew 8647 ❌👑 @authoridad.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Everything is gender, a continuing series

031

Reposted by Aaron Ross Powell

Julian Sanchez @normative.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Stuff like this makes me pessimistic about the near term prospects of turning the Republicans back into any kind of basically normal political party. The whole next generation has been essentially selected for bigotry & derangement.

527739

Reposted by Aaron Ross Powell

Wil (He/Him) @rivetgeek.aggregatecognizance.com · 28/09/2026

Can't wait to dive into this. I loved The Gaming Outpost.

062

Aaron Ross Powell @aaronrosspowell.com · 28/09/2026

Much as my Colorado-native wife tries to convince me otherwise, I am not convinced the Denver Broncos are good at the game of football.

3110

Reposted by Aaron Ross Powell

Julie S. Lalonde @julieslalonde.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

- Social media brain rot where we've failed to see that we are human beings connected to other unique human beings and therefore, just because something doesn't reflect my experience, it doesn't mean it's wrong or "bad" or something you can't still read/watch/play, etc.

21762114

Reposted by Aaron Ross Powell

Julie S. Lalonde @julieslalonde.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

- À la carte living conditions where everything is hyper personalized and you get what YOU want delivered to YOU when YOU want it. And therefore, you don't have to think beyond yourself, so you assume everything is either for you *specifically* or it's wrong.

92219171

Reposted by Aaron Ross Powell

Julie S. Lalonde @julieslalonde.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

These are not fully formed ideas but what I am sensing is a toxic combination of: - So few people reading quality fiction where you have to put yourself in someone else's shoes & actually pay attention, rather than reading passively. This results in lacking basic reading skills.

81956126

Aaron Ross Powell @aaronrosspowell.com · 28/09/2026

What are the chances the Ravens and Cowboys end up giving Brazilian fans a soccer culture familiar tie?

240

Reposted by Aaron Ross Powell

Zeb Larson @zeblarson.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

One thing that I’m just very tired of is this attitude that being angry and hurt isn’t an emotion but a righteous state of being. The right and the left both traffic in it, and while the right deploys it more destructively it’s still an enormous set of blinders that doesn’t do you any good.

1123

Aaron Ross Powell @aaronrosspowell.com · 28/09/2026

It's important to recognize that if you think Bluesky is nothing but politics, you're missing the vast majority of Bluesky.

13410

Aaron Ross Powell @aaronrosspowell.com · 27/09/2026

If you were into TTRPGs in the late 90s and early 2000s, you might remember a website I ran called the Gaming Outpost. It was, for a time, the biggest TTRPG site out there, was the birthplace of indie RPGs, and the early home of several now prominent designers. It went offline 20 years ago.

gamingoutpost.com

The Gaming Outpost

Articles, reviews, and forums from the Gaming Outpost.

3269

Reposted by Aaron Ross Powell

ajdecon @ajdecon.org · 27/09/2026

Entirely separate from the quotes on general liberal arts, I’m really sad about how little science/eng degrees teach the history of the fields themselves. The histories of fields like physics, computing, structural engineering, genetics, and so on are all fascinating!

1102

Aaron Ross Powell @aaronrosspowell.com · 27/09/2026

This is how I feel about people who claim to have never heard IfIHadAHiFi's "Gremlins on Demand"

010

Reposted by Aaron Ross Powell

Andrew Parker @andrewparker.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

One of the reasons I hate the “super genius who doesn’t have time for social conventions” archetype is that I recognize it’s a power fantasy for guys exactly like who I was when I was the shittiest person I’ve ever been.

521344