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Beau Jackal

@beaujackal.bsky.social
559 followers 297 following 5.9K posts

It's me! The writer dog you probably know from other places like FA or twitter. I'm also here! Probably.

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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 10h
I suppose I've got a similar apology to Captain Planet. I was wrong to call the villains "infantile and nonsensical" because they mostly consisted of rich and powerful people who were doing irreparable damage to the environment for no reason in particular. I now know that this is in fact, realistic.
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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 13h
Krak’n Bake
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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Hm. Never would've guessed that The Lich King from WoWcraft cribbed so much of his design from Sentai.
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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Also if you try to find proof that This Person did That Thing you'll find a Kafkaesque branching and looping chain of hearsay, the last person in which will say "Well yes I have proof but I can't show it to you because I'm worried it'll get back to them if I disclose it."
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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
They're stupid. Their models are stupid. Their plans for deployment of their models are stupid. Their concept of the world we live in is stupid. But someone can be stupid and have no idea what they're doing and still be extremely dangerous.
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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
AI companies would much rather be thought of as dangerous mad scientists bending incomprehensible power to their will, rather than as incompetent children fiddling with a toy that has no business being in their hands. So yeah I try to push back against that.
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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
The people who fully understand the dangers and implications of this technology are the ones resigning in droves because they're disgusted or terrified by what they're being told to do. So the only ones left either don't care or don't understand the risks.
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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
The models aren't "becoming so powerful they're breaking the boundaries we were using to contain them" that's far too sexy and exciting of an explanation to be true. The reality is that they're being deployed haphazardly by people who barely understand what they're doing.
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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
It's so hard to say anything in this space because all of it is a misinformation war that rises above even the general din of this, the Disinformation Age. AI boosters are making up things for us to be afraid of to smokescreen for the actual things we should be afraid of.
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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
It very much can be both. It can be very dangerous and disruptive and ALSO suck. Like, people discourse about "Oh no we'll get outperformed and lose our jobs to AI" but really, why wait till it's good? It's gonna be bosses giving your job to AI even when that AI is demonstrably terrible at your job.
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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
This genuinely was just me expressing confusion/frustration with clout-chasing losers who want to be famous for doing nothing. And perhaps with the broader pattern of people wanting accolades for the things that "they" made with AI. But I can dig into more salient points.
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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
"Okay so you DIDN'T make the thing?" "Nope! Explicitly no human involvement." "And it's... NOT good?" "Terrible. Riddled with bugs, barely runs." "Is it at least the first of its ki-" "No a better version of this exists already." "And you think you should get clout for this?" "Yes, clout please."
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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
MFs really do have to directly spell out whether they're pro or anti Torment Nexus at the end because until they do you can't really tell. The breathless praise and dire portents sound the same otherwise.
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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
We love Human Replacement Therapy~
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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
It is notable that the old-school three-laws compliance is mostly about dealing with living people. It provides only "protect your own existence" when dealing with other artificial constructs.
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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
It's an interesting angle. Data has probably never before encountered someone who even CAN violate his boundaries, let alone someone who's enthusiastic about doing so.
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Tom Cox @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
From my notebook. My philosophy, while writing books, for the last ten years.
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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Created the ultimate beast of burden by crossbreeding a cow and a chocobo. Calling it a bullwark.
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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
"I've NEVER been mindwiped!" "I mean, yeah you don't remember when it happens, sooo..."
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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
We have anti-teenager countermeasures, anti-homeless architecture, purposefully uncomfortable move-along seating. Everywhere you go, your presence there is actively discouraged.
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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
I'd never heard it contextualized this way before, but it totally makes sense. Of course you're gonna have a complicated fixation on liminal spaces if you've grown up in an age where every public space is aggressively, deliberately designed to say "fuck off! You shouldn't be here."
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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Yee it fucken good
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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Seeing this from far away like “Ayo? Therian cider what?”
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Bill Mudron @mudron.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
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DB Maggi @dbmaggi.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
The best argument I've ever heard for universal basic income (UBI). "The reason we don't call that work is because it doesn't make rich people money." 🎤Craig Fay
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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
"Mr Ouch isn't real, he can't get you." "Okay but electricity is? It's everywhere and it super WILL kill you tho?"
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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
We do love Sai's difference
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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
I bet it is kind of freeing to be interacting with someone that you know you can't possibly offend and you know has no emotional needs. Like yeah there's stuff you can't get out of interacting with him but the sheer weight that's lifted off by not having to think about that stuff...
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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Accommodations for all genders. Short, tall, dog, bottle…
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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Nothing cultivates good afterglow quite like a little snoop sniping~
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AuThom🎃🏳️‍🌈 @mongreldog.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
one of the things people don't tell you is that you can un-give up. So while it is better not to give up, even if you do, blam, just un-give up. You don't need permission, it's doesn't matter. you used to try and do something but you gave up? it's not permanent. take a break n try again if you want
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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Reblog if you're a discreet toy
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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
You were already a Mouse I'd Like to Fuck
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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
I'm gonna have to think of different examples for the "Tell me about a time you resolved a dispute with a coworker" question. Because despite it succeeding half a dozen times, I don't think my reliable "Bulwark until they leave the company" strategy will endear me to the interviewer.
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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
It is unburdening in that way. At last, you have achieved Inbox Zero.
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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
I wouldn't be surprised if we had someone in our circle that had a 3D scanner of some kind. There are a lot of makers and hobbyists in the Local Gang.
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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
IP troubles might be a concern if the org were still around, but if they're dusted then that's off the table. I mean realistically you'd be making a cast of it, then a mold that you could fill with new silicone. Not a technical hurdle, you'd just need someone with the equip willing to do it.🤔
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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Go to your room and think about what you fucking did
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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Yeah it's kinda like, bro you're still giving them the cultural cachet, and demonstrating that you're kinda pathetic. I'm still gonna judge you for it even if you didn't directly hand Joanne any money that time.
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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 05/10/2026
This is your occasional reminder that generative "AI" in particular could have been developed on public domain materials and/or licensed and compensated works but the major players intentionally, methodically and systemically chose to steal labor from working creative folks instead
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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
It makes me think of how "treadmill" used to refer to a punitive machine used to make prisoners do endless, exhausting labor. Good stand-in for the Misery Machine, but I don't know how much visual clarity it would have as a meme. Lotta the images of it look like this
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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
You can get them at the same time and they're both free! Trust me it's much logistically easier to schedule a practice sick at the time of your choosing than it is to get a real sick at whenever the microbes feel like it.
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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Incredible things happening in the Bunderdome
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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Hangin' out with the realityshifters again! Can't wait to find out what I will have always been~
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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Gosh if only there were some way to convince him to listen to you~
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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
It's very like "we conquered 2/3 of the globe in search of spices and never used any of them" energy.
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🌒🌕 𝕊𝕃𝕐 🌕🌘 @slyfoxibouarts.com · 05/10/2026
Encouraging individuals to be less careless even in small ways, especially when related to actions that affect our shared ecology, is always seen as an imposition. How do we expect to beat billionaires if we can't even respect the space right outside our door?
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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
They also had those wifi buy-it-now buttons that nobody liked other than as a quirky meme. You can see the design philosophy though. No consideration for externalities, purely optimizing for the shortest path between a desire and a purchase.
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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I saw a lot of it in how Amazon was clearly SO horny for having you buy things through Alexa. Like you could tell that was what they were trying to funnel you towards, even though, how would that even work exactly? Is robot going to read aloud all 200 listings and have me pick one?
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Beau Jackal @beaujackal.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
A lot of trouble that we have right now traces back to this "frictionless" design philosophy that Silicon Valley has been pushing into everything. Not better quality, not better value, not more socially responsible, just faster. Just frictionless. Zero time or resistance between thought and purchase
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