iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 16/10/2026

Just finished reading this. A gorgeous and vulnerable book. I can't recommend it highly enough.

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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Very excited to be going home to this furball in just a few hours.

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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Anyhow, don't listen to me. Turn off your phone, step away from screens, go out into the complicated world and touch grass. It's pretty nice out here.

Rocks, trees, grass, and bright mountains, with wispy clouds overhead.

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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

This is going to be rad af. Come see @ghostdoc2026.bsky.social at @oaklibrary.bsky.social on 11/14 with a discussion afterwards with @dellsystem.bsky.social, @alexhanna.bsky.social, @khari.bsky.social, @ihetz.bsky.social, & yours truly! Register here: oaklandlibrary.bibliocommons.com/events/6a82f...

Flyer for an event at the Oakland Public Library's Main Library on 11/14/26 at 2pm. Text of flyer reads "Film screening + panel discussion; Saturday, November 14, 2 PM – 5 PM, Main Library; Join us for a screening of Ghost in the Machine, a documentary directed by Valerie Veatch that explores how 'the untold origins of artificial intelligence lie not in machines but in power.' It is 'mandatory viewing for anyone thinking about or using AI.' Film screening will begin promptly at 2pm followed by a moderated panel discussion. Panelists listed are Khari Johnson (Tech reporter, CalMatters), Adam Becker (Author, More Everything Forever), Wendy Liu (Author, Abolish Silicon Valley), Dr. Alex Hanna (Director of Research, Distributed AI Research Institute, Co-author, The AI Con)."

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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Spotted this in Italy earlier this week.

Graffiti that says "GIORGIA M. GOVERNO GOLLUM"

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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

@aoc.bsky.social just put out a great statement on AI. Refreshing to see a major politician on the left nail this. "Silicon Valley billionaires want us to believe that Al robots will destroy humanity. But the biggest threat to humanity are the tech oligarchs themselves." 🎯

Charles,

Last weekend, Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, one of the largest Al companies in the world, publicly asked his industry to slow down Al development.

Shortly after, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAl, followed suit. Then Elon Musk.

This all came days after an Anthropic researcher quit, citing his belief that this technology could wipe out humanity and that Al companies are "gambling with our lives."

For years, people have warned that generative Al could slip out of our direct control.

Those safety concerns must be taken seriously.

And this is why I have advocated for strict safety standards on how Al is built and deployed, public oversight over this technology, and using existing laws to hold these companies accountable when they cause harm.

But I want to draw your attention to another reality: Right now, the U.S. economy and our financial futures are riding on Silicon Valley's bet that Al will soon be immensely profitable and pay off. And that bet isn't looking good.

The formula for a profitable business isn't complicated: make more money than you spend. But the biggest Al companies aren't doing that. They are spending hundreds of billions per year on data centers, chips, and other costs while their ability to make revenues that exceed their already-immense sunk costs are unclear. Experts estimate that these Al companies will require another $600 billion of debt just to finance

themselves in 2026 alone. That is more than the entire budgets of the U.S. Departments of Justice, Transportation, & Education combined.
Meanwhile, despite almost every single one of these companies not turning a profit & having sunk billions of investor dollars in development of data centers & other infrastructure, Al companies are also on a spending spree of hundreds of millions of dollars in lobbying & dark money in our elections.
It would be one thing if we were discussing a few private companies with a poor business model. But last year, virtually all stock market gains - 80% - rested entirely on just a handful of Al companies.
That tells us two things:
1. Nearly the entire U.S. economy outside the Al industry is relatively stagnating and faring poorly & the gains from these few companies are disguising it; &
2. Millions of people's retirements - including their pensions, 401ks, & investments - are potentially exposed to this risk.
That's why these Al companies' dubious financial positions matter to working people.
These companies argue that debt is necessary. They'll tell you that building transformative technologies requires upfront capital, & that massive borrowing today will pay off in generating unprecedented prosperity tomorrow.
But this is not the typical debt that startups take on while they build out a company. We are talking about billions going on trillions of dollars leveraged with no indication that these companies will be able to recoup these funds profitably. And they are increasingly looking to the government as their source of cash.
In an effort to hide their debt, tech companies have been relying on "circular financing" where tech giants like Google, Amazon, & Microsoft give billions to Al startups like OpenAl & Anthropic, only for those startups to hand that money right back to buy Al processing power.
In other words, these Al companies are luring in new investors by making it look like their financials are healthier than they really are.

What's even worse is that retirement & pension funds are key to supporting this illusion.
When the Al companies issue bonds to raise more money, your pension funds & retirement accounts are some of the biggest buyers. When Musk's Al business went public, it became part of index funds where millions of Americans invest our savings. Many Americans don't even know that their retirement investments are tied up in these companies at all.
From Big Tech's perspective, that's a feature, not a bug. By tying our futures to their reckless gambling, Al billionaires are trying to make themselves too big to fail. They think they can take such dangerous risks because we will bail them out if things go wrong.
Sound familiar? This scene is dangerously reminiscent of the rampant speculation, corruption, & broken incentives leading up to the 2008 financial crisis that plunged millions of working class Americans into financial chaos that we never fully recovered from.
It is no accident that these warnings from Altman & Amodei come months-if not weeks-before these companies were meant to go public.
When companies go public, they have to be more transparent about how they are doing financially. And after a waiting period, they typically have to let private investors-like their own employees-sell their shares.
The New York Times recently confirmed that OpenAl has postponed going public for this very reason. They are in no rush for the truth about their finances to come out.
But the moment these oligarchs began to seek our public tax dollars & public contracts while exposing their companies to public pension funds & investments, they opened themselves to public accountability & scrutiny.
Silicon Valley billionaires have rigged the game & are attempting to shift their financial risk to working people: If they're right about Al's potential, they reap the profits. If they're wrong & the bubble bursts, they are setting up the American people to pick up the tab.
Heads, they win; tails, we lose.

We can stop this, and we shouldn't play their game. Together we can address both the economic and safety threats of unrestricted Al development and prevent financial chaos and stabilize market risk.

We must make it clear now that should the Al bubble pop, Congress should not bail out Big Tech.

And across our federal agencies, we have the authorities and tools to hold Al companies and their leaders accountable for releasing dangerous, unvetted, and defective products. We must not wait.

Silicon Valley billionaires want us to believe that Al robots will destroy humanity.

But the biggest threat to humanity are the tech oligarchs themselves.

It's time we hold them accountable.

Thank you for reading.

In solidarity,

Alexandria

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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

The Korean edition of MORE EVERYTHING FOREVER just showed up!! First translation to hit the shelves!

A spread of copies of the same book, with a cover that's in orange, black, and while. They all something in Korean that I don't understand because I don't speak Korean, but the bottom of the books say "MORE EVERYTHING FOREVER"

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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

@davekarpf.bsky.social has a proposed solution to this, which I am wildly biased in favor of but I do still think is a good idea: davekarpf.beehiiv.com/p/book-revie...

A student of mine recently asked why I don’t assign the effective accelerationists or Curtis Yarvin in my History of the Digital Future class. And the basic answer is the same as why I don’t assign Balaji’s awful book: I like my students. I wouldn’t want to make them read Balaji et al. That would be, well, mean.

But I sure could have them read More Everything Forever. That would do the trick nicely, I think.

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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Or, you know, they'd spend *way more* time on the GOP association with Nazis than on Dems and the DSA, because Nazis are bad and the DSA isn't. (Also apparently this is just gonna become a @dril.bsky.social screenshot account.)

@dril, 5:52 PM, Jun 1, 2014:

the wise man bowed his head solemnly and spoke: "theres actually zero difference between good & bad things. you imbecile. you fucking moron"

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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

The Communi-Grater. COMMUNI-GRATER. WHY WOULD GOD NEED A COMMUNI-GRATER

The Le Creuset x Star Trek Communi-Grater, proof that we do not live in a world with a loving god

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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Apparently @annaleen.bsky.social and I have blown @davekarpf.bsky.social's mind with today's episode of @dreamingagainstthemachine.com. Not an easy thing to do.

Message from Dave Karpf, one hour ago:

YOU WERE SCIENCE ADVISOR ON FUTURE PF ANOTHER TIMELINE?!?!?

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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

last page some people believe its potential has yet to be fully realized huh

Yes, there is obscene material on the Internet. There is also obscene material in the corner grocery store. Life in cyberspace is an extension of real life: although many good, decent people can be found here, it has its share of idiots and creeps, too. If you approach your exploration of the Internet with enthusiasm and good faith, you are certain to meet others in cyberspace who share your desire to communicate and learn. At the very least, the Internet is a printing press, a tool for private and mass communication, and a storehouse of information. And at most? It's still so new that some people believe its poten-tial has yet to be fully realized. Enjoy the trip.

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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

gotta learn about gopherspace, that will be important

Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

7

One INTRODUCTION

11

TWO ELECTRONIC MAIL

19

THREE NEWSGROUPS AND MAILING LISTS

29

FOUR GO FOR INFORMATION WITH GOPHER

47

FIVE

TAKING COMMAND OF GOPHERSPACE

63

SIX

MOVING FILES:

FILE TRANSFER PROTOCOL

79

SEVEN THE WORLD WIDE WEB

87

EIGHT

COLLABORATING THROUGH THE INTERNET

101

NINE

PUBLISHING WITH THE WORLD WIDE WEB

113

TEN

USING THE INTERNET FOR WRITTEN REPORTS

121

ELEVEN

PLAYING IT SAFE ON THE INTERNET

135

INTERNET RESOURCES

143

GLOSSARY

151

INDEX

157

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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

there's no doubt that the internet, or net, is an exciting new territory to explore

A Student's Guide to the internet

EXPLORING THE WORLD WIDE WEB, ELECTRONIC MAIL, GOPHERSPACE, AND MORE!

BY ELIZABETH L. MARSHALL

From getting the tour schedule of your favorite band to interviewing a renowned archaeologist to debating the pros and cons of vegetarianism, there's no doubt that the Internet, or Net, is an exciting new territory to explore. And besides the entertainment it can provide, the Net can be an excellent place to learn, do research, and connect with people who share your interests and experts who can provide you with valuable information for school projects.

A Student's Guide to the Internet explores the many ways of gathering information from the Net, such as using news groups, mailing lists, electronic mail, the World Wide Web, and more. Author Elizabeth L. Marshall provides insight into using the Internet's resources to select report topics and offers guidelines on conducting online research.

Here are tips on designing a home page for your school or organization on the World Wide Web. A resource list tells you how to connect with students across the country or around the world who want to collaborate on a variety of projects. Also included is a discussion of Internet safety that no Net surfer should be without.

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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

come on let's take a ride on the internet superhighway kids it's rad as hell you can tell from the fonts what's the worst that could happen

A book titled:
A Student's Guide to the
internet

EXPLORING
THE WORLD WIDE WEB
GOPHERSPACE
ELECTRONIC MAIL
AND MORE!

by Elizabeth L. Marshall

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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

Today I have been paid a visit by the Don't Wanna Iguana.

A large lizard lying on its stomach, arms at its sides, chin on the ground, contemplating its own lassitude

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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

A dear friend of mine received this spam text, and I feel like everyone needs to see it. That's so true, Rose. Thank you. I really have.

A text message that says:
Hi, I'm Rose. Many things are beyond our control. You've done your best.

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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

Some of my favorite reviews of the book: @jenszalai.bsky.social in the @nytimes.com: www.nytimes.com/2025/04/23/b... @himself.bsky.social in @lawfaremedia.org: www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-... @davekarpf.bsky.social's review: davekarpf.substack.com/p/book-revie... And this Goodreads review:

A five-star review from Goodreads user "Alder" that simply says "IT HAS THE SAUCE"

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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

Happy 4/20 everyone I am sorry to inform you that this appears to be real

Gudtrip
The first agentic cannabis device

Not just a vape. A connected earning device. Gudtrip combines premium cannabis, blockchain rewards, and AI-powered asset tools in one product

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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

@joshuamzeitz.bsky.social I hate to say I told you so, but um... www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

The results of tonight's special election in NJ-11, as displayed on the NYT. Analilia Mejia has been declared the winner of the race. She is ahead 61.3% to 38.3%, with 87% of the vote in, a margin of D+23. For comparison, the 2024 House margin in this district was D+15, and the presidential margin was D+8.

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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

Babka just jumped onto my shoulder, from the ground, and stayed there for half an hour. I didn't know that she could do that, nor that she wanted to...but it sorta seems like she knew what song was playing when she did. #cats #catsky

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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Babka wants you to listen to @dreamingagainstthemachine.com and support the show on Patreon so she can have more fish: www.patreon.com/cw/DreamingA...

A beautiful cat, half-illuminated by sunlight as she looks right at the camera with her green eyes.

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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

I'm incredibly excited to announce that my new podcast, Dreaming Against the Machine, is launching next week with @multitude.productions! Join me for conversations about what a better future could look like. Available wherever you get your podcasts! Here's the trailer for the show:

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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

Oh wow! They do look very similar! What's her name? She's gorgeous!

Babka, a cat, stares out the window, contemplating the world.

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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

Sometimes a cat looks like a planet.

Babka, a cat with long hair, with a close up on her face and the whorls of her undercoat

The whorls of Jupiter's clouds, as seen by Juno

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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

Babka has a think about the world and then needs to rest, a play in two acts

Babka, a cat, gazes out the window with an intense stare

Babka, still a cat, lies on her back with her eyes closed and her legs splayed as I pet her

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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

Close, but it's more like this

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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

Ok nm this museum is real and it's pretty great

A large concrete column surrounded by wood-paneled walls with paintings on them

A gallery filled with paintings and a bust.

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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

Spotted this sign in front of an empty lot with a dumpster in it, and I can't recall ever seeing a prestigious university put an entire nation's art on blast like this.

A low concrete wall with metal letters on it that say "Yale Center for British Art," with no building behind the wall and the top of a dumpster peeking out from behind the upper right portion of the wall.

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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

If you're anywhere near New Haven, come see me speak at Yale on Tuesday night! It'll be a particularly fun one, I think. Also they made a great poster for it! frankeprogram.yale.edu/event/more-e...

The Franke Program in Science and the Humanities
More Everything Forever
AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley's Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity
Talk by Adam Becker
Author and Astrophysicist
Click for Details
Tuesday
March 31, 2026
5:30 PM
HQ LO1
320 York Street
Co-sponsored by the Poynter Fellowship in Journalism

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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

Darth! Meet Babka. She is a fierce hunter.

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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

Hey @aedwardslevy.bsky.social, what do you make of this poll? manhattan.institute/article/the-... I ask because it's the source of this terrifying statistic that showed up in the NYT today, and I want to know how seriously I should take it. (NYT article is here: www.nytimes.com/2026/03/12/o...)

Fishback is tapping into an increasingly radicalized generation of Republicans. In December, the conservative Manhattan Institute found that 31 percent of Republicans under 50 identify their own views as racist, and 25 percent say their views are antisemitic. For those over 50, it’s only 4 percent for each. The same survey showed that a majority of Republican men under 50 think that the Holocaust either didn’t happen or was exaggerated.

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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

The question I get asked more than almost any other is "how do you write & talk about These Fucking People all the time without going crazy?" The answer is that I go for hikes, talk with friends, & touch grass. But (as of a couple weeks ago) there's another answer as well. This is Babka. #caturday

A gorgeous cat on her back looking up at the camera.

A stunning cat with a blep looking at the camera.

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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

🎶You do it to yourself, you do And that's what really hurts You do it to yourself, just you You and no one else🎶

A tweet from Elon Musk saying "Whoever said 'money can't buy happiness' really knew what they were talking about 😣"

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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

Have fun with that, Elon. A city on the Moon in ten years is somewhat less absurd than a city on Mars in twenty, but neither one is going to happen. The tone here is interesting, though. Almost as if he heard someone criticizing his Mars plans recently…I wonder how that might have happened? 😁

A tweet from Elon Musk, posted yesterday:

For those unaware, SpaceX has already shifted focus to building a self-growing city on the Moon, as we can potentially achieve that in less than 10 years, whereas Mars would take 20+ years.

The mission of SpaceX remains the same: extend consciousness and life as we know it to the stars.

It is only possible to travel to Mars when the planets align every 26 months (six month trip time), whereas we can launch to the Moon every 10 days (2 day trip time). This means we can iterate much faster to complete a Moon city than a Mars city.

That said, SpaceX will also strive to build a Mars city and begin doing so in about 5 to 7 years, but the overriding priority is securing the future of civilization and the Moon is faster.

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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 08/02/2026

🙄 It's so interesting to me that people like this always say I'm being "pessimistic" rather than making any kind of actual case for living off this planet. What's pessimistic about acknowledging the reality that Earth is a wonderful place where we get to live out our future?

An email with the subject line "Stop being so pessimistic," filed under Haters.
It reads:
"No thanks for ruining my weekend saying you can't build data centres in space. I'm going to Mars with Elon and creating a safe world for aspie Christian nerds! You lefties can have planet earth haha. This planet should not be our prison."

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