iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Chris Baker

Kieran McCaffrey @kieranm.bsky.social · 7h

Cracking story, this...

Chris Baker @chrisbaker1337.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

My story is now up in its entirety at @thedailytomorrow.bsky.social. It's an alternate history told entirely through found artifacts—newspaper clippings, ads, interviews, film reviews, and other ephemera. Subscribers can read an afterword about its making. dailytomorrow.substack.com/p/a-duty-of-...

dailytomorrow.substack.com

A Duty of Care — Full Story

By Chris Baker

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Chris Baker @chrisbaker1337.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Part 6 of my story “A Duty of Care,” serialized this week by @thedailytomorrow.bsky.social, finds a pioneering rock journalist chronicling the uneasy relationship between machine intelligence and the counterculture. dailytomorrow.substack.com/p/a-duty-of-... #AlternateHistory #SpaceRock #HawkWind

Artwork features a stylized, skewed, and heavily posterized illustration of a rock band performing. The musicians are depicted with stark, high-contrast shadows and saturated midcentury colors like deep blues, oranges, and pinks. They hold guitars and stand before a bank of large, retro electronics, amplifiers, and abstract circular sound equipment. The image is diagonally tilted, creating a chaotic, psychedelic energy. Tagline: “A devastated Earth vibrates to the sound of the last great rock concert on Earth. Is it the music of life—or death?”

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Chris Baker @chrisbaker1337.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Part Five of my story “A Duty of Care,” serialized this week by @thedailytomorrow.bsky.social, features a BBC23 documentary about an unexpected breakthrough in machine intelligence, discovered in a most unlikely corner of the sporting world. dailytomorrow.substack.com/p/a-duty-of-...

1964 photograph of Dr. Alan Turing, founder and managing director of Turing Adaptive Automata Ltd.

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Chris Baker @chrisbaker1337.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

In part Four of my story “A Duty of Care,” serialized by @thedailytomorrow.bsky.social, an influential essayist reflects on the national habit of transferring ever more human responsibilities to calculating engines—and insisting that nothing has changed. dailytomorrow.substack.com/p/a-duty-of-...

Photo montage. George Orwell types on his keyboard in The Daily Telegraph office in front of a bank of magnetic reel computing devices.

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Mathew Kumar @mathewkumar.com · 06/10/2026

New for subscribers! the exp. October spooktacular begins with the new hotness: liminal space horror! I play The Exit 8, watch Exit 8, and find a game that does what film can't do and a film that does what games can't do: expzine.com/2026/10/06/t... On Patreon: www.patreon.com/expzine/post...

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Chris Baker @chrisbaker1337.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Part Three of my story “A Duty of Care,” serialized this week by @thedailytomorrow.bsky.social, finds the mechanised hunt making the inevitable leap from sporting grounds to the silver screen. Read it here: dailytomorrow.substack.com/p/a-duty-of-... #Steampunk #AlternateHistory #GrahamGreene #SFF

Photo of book cover. "The Pleasure Dome - Graham Greene: The Collected Film Criticism, 1935-40" Photo of Astaire and Rogers on the cover.

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Humanoid History @humanoidhistory.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

What I'm reading today: “The Gorilla Fighters Under Texas, or: Derek King, Age 8, Shares His Take on the Salvadoran Civil War With Classmates at Sam Houston Elementary Based on a Viewing of ABC World News Tonight with Peter Jennings on January 19, 1988…” www.adventitious.net/stories/the-...

adventitious.net

The Gorilla Fighters Under Texas by Chris Baker

or: Derek King, Age 8, Shares His Take on the Salvadoran Civil War With Classmates at Sam Houston Elementary Based on a Viewing of ABC World News Tonight with Peter Jennings on January 19, 1988 (Confe...

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Chris Baker @chrisbaker1337.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Part Two of my story “A Duty of Care,” serialized this week by @thedailytomorrow.bsky.social, presents a famous inventor’s ingenious response to the mollycoddling moralisers bent on taking the sport out of sporting life. Read it here: dailytomorrow.substack.com/p/a-duty-of-...

Vintage 19th century newspaper article with headline: "How I Invented the Maxim Gun"---Hiram Maxim

Vintage 19th century advertisement for the Maxim SIlencer. Tagline: "It will pay you to know about it."

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Chris Baker @chrisbaker1337.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

thanks! That stunning cover art is "Cycles" by Amuri Morris, according to the issue 5 intro page... www.murisart.com

murisart.com

Muris Art | artwork

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Stan J Wild @stanjwild.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Away for a week, and back online to this... www.adventitious.net/stories/the-... And: 'The Gorilla Fighters Under Texas' is just about 15% of the title @chrisbaker1337.bsky.social in @adventitiouswords.bsky.social is terrific. Excellent artwork too - not sure who to credit for that though?

adventitious.net

The Gorilla Fighters Under Texas by Chris Baker

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The Daily Tomorrow @thedailytomorrow.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Happy New Story Sunday (ish)! This week, a deathbed codicil, a savage sport, a mechanical replacement, and further complications? Join us for a healthful outing in Chris Baker’s marvellous “A Duty of Care.” Happy hunting!

thedailytomorrow.com

A Duty of Care — Part 1

By Chris Baker

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Chris Baker @chrisbaker1337.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

My new story is being serialized by @thedailytomorrow.bsky.social in seven installments. It’s told entirely through artifacts from an alternate history, beginning with an obituary of the wealthy cat fancier who touched off the Gilded Information Age. dailytomorrow.substack.com/p/a-duty-of-...

19th century sepaia-toned image of a woman in formal dress holding two tabby cats

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Chris Baker @chrisbaker1337.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

"It's a lot, but it's also clever." I'll take it! Read my story in issue #5 of @adventitiouswords.bsky.social www.adventitious.net/stories/the-...

excerpt from Tarvolon.com revie

Tar Vol’s Magazine Minis: Adventitious, Lightspeed, Otherside, and Strange Horizons
September 30, 2026

Also, while I’m not necessarily a sci-fi comedy fan, it’s worth taking a peek at "The Gorilla Fighters Under Texas, or: Derek King, Age 8, Shares His Take on the Salvadoran Civil War With Classmates at Sam Houston Elementary Based on a Viewing of ABC World News Tonight with Peter Jennings on January 19, 1988 (Confederate Heroes Day)" by Chris Baker to see whether the bit is up your alley. It’s a lot, but it’s also clever.

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Chris Baker @chrisbaker1337.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Also everyone should subscribe to @adventitiouswords.bsky.social , it's fantastic! The table of contents of issue 5 is overflowing with great stories by amazing writers, and not just because my story's title is hogging all of the space.

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Chris Baker @chrisbaker1337.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

My new piece for Adventitious is a 1988 disquisition on US foreign policy in Central America, as interpreted by an 8-year-old boy who has watched WAY too much TV of that era. I imagine that this vibe reel is roughly the media diet that the narrator subsisted on. www.adventitious.net/stories/the-...

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VLAD-ventitious. @adventitiouswords.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

"Yes, this is happening right now, right under Texas. I saw it on the news. Oh, don’t watch Dan Rather on channel 5 — my Dad says he has a bias. Dan Rather hates the USA. He’s why Nixon got a peach." --Derek King, Age 8 www.adventitious.net/stories/the-...

adventitious.net

The Gorilla Fighters Under Texas by Chris Baker

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VLAD-ventitious. @adventitiouswords.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

"The Gorilla Fighters Under Texas, or: Derek King, Age 8, Shares His Take on the Salvadoran Civil War With Classmates at Sam Houston Elementary Based on a Viewing of ABC World News Tonight with Peter Jennings on January 19, 1988 (Confederate Heroes Day)" www.adventitious.net/stories/the-...

adventitious.net

The Gorilla Fighters Under Texas by Chris Baker

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Chris Baker @chrisbaker1337.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Like suddenly finding out that Duckman just wrapped season 30

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Chris Baker @chrisbaker1337.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I hear WordPress is introducing a stringent peer review process.

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Mathew Kumar @mathewkumar.com · 23/09/2026

Unlocked! Platformer Wanted! Monty Mole was released in the middle of the 1984-85 UK Miners Strike and casts Monty in opposition to the leader of the NUM, Arthur Scargill. But is it as simple as the mole's a scab? No!

expzine.com

Wanted! Monty Mole (Harrap, 1984)

I mistook a mole for a scab.

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Chris Baker @chrisbaker1337.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Prototypes from GM's "World of Motion" attraction at EPCOT Center (1982-1996). Remember, kids, wind tunnels can be wonderful R&D tools—IN MODERATION. #Retrofuturism #EPCOT

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Chris Baker @chrisbaker1337.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

In 1968, America’s most mass-market magazine collided with Surrealism’s most flamboyant genius. Here’s a taste of what happened. Read the full story: www.popculturalprecursors.com/p/that-time-...

Salvador Dalí stares wide-eyed at his thumb. Beside him: “That Time Salvador Dalí Painted the Cover of TV Guide,” with a detail from his surreal 1968 cover.

Dalí’s June 8–14, 1968 TV Guide cover, showing two gigantic disembodied thumbs with television screens for thumbnails in a desert landscape. Text explains that TV Guide commissioned Dalí to paint the cover and sent a writer and photographer to interview him. “Things got weird fast.”

Detail of one enormous TV-screen thumb from Dalí’s cover, alongside excerpts from his interview. Asked “Why thumbs?” Dalí replies, “Thumbs? Very adequatt for looking at TV. Shape. Thumbnail. Like TV.” Asked “Why not other fingers?” he answers, “One feenger sufficient.” He later says: “TV for masses. Don’t like masses. Only like minority. Masses never cultivé, never good taste. TV should be for to shock them. Force them theenk. But nevair to please them.”

Dalí, wearing a purple smoking jacket and holding a cane, beside two bizarre quotations from his TV Guide interview: “TV not need humans to run it. Need brains that are not human. Cybernetics. Very superior to human brains.” He also proposes making an image of God with a mathematical formula and holograms, ending: “I make God with holograms. Show on TV.”

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Chris Baker @chrisbaker1337.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

In 1968, TV Guide commissioned Salvador Dalí to paint its cover. The resulting image is whacko, and the accompanying interview somehow involved cybernetic television, 2,000 disabled people, 100 ducks, liquid TV, and a hologram of God. www.popculturalprecursors.com/p/that-time-...

popculturalprecursors.com

That Time Salvador Dalí Painted the Cover of TV Guide

This is a real thing that really happened in 1968. The accompanying interview is even more bizarre.

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Chris Baker @chrisbaker1337.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Like, calliope circus music, or ICP?

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Humanoid History @humanoidhistory.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

"I like things that just happen. I hate to plan things." —Ray Dennis Steckler, filmmaker www.popculturalprecursors.com/p/the-no-bud...

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Queer Speculative Fiction @queerspecfic.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

There is a person behind this account, and I write short fiction. Getting a story ready to submit meant paying for software that did it badly, so I built something free. Many of the authors in each dispatch came up through short fiction. What it costs to send work out decides who gets that far.

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Chris Baker @chrisbaker1337.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

60 years ago, Ray Dennis Steckler released Rat Pfink a Boo Boo, a dark crime thriller that spontaneously turns into a campy superhero movie halfway through. His no-budget, no-rules approach to filmmaking looks strangely prophetic now. More weirdness: www.popculturalprecursors.com/p/the-no-bud...

Bright yellow promotional image from Rat Pfink a Boo Boo, featuring the costumed heroes Rat Pfink and Boo Boo and Kogar the Swinging Ape. Black text reads: “60 years ago, indie filmmaker Ray Dennis Steckler released one of the most bizarre films ever made.”

Blue-tinted nighttime scene from Rat Pfink a Boo Boo. A woman stands on a dark street while silhouetted figures lurk in the distance. White text reads: “It starts out as a noir-ish crime thriller about a menacing street gang that stalks and harasses women.”

Blue-tinted scene from Rat Pfink a Boo Boo showing a man peering through a window at a woman. White text reads: “But suddenly, the movie shifts course... and switches genres. The hero and a minor character step off screen...”

Black-and-white still of the costumed superheroes Rat Pfink and Boo Boo speeding down a street together on a motorcycle. White text reads: “…and return as the superhero Rat Pfink and his sidekick Boo Boo.”

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Chris Baker @chrisbaker1337.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Aaaaaand now I’m down a rabbit hole watching Starewicz, Fischinger, Trnka, Tyrlova…

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Chris Baker @chrisbaker1337.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

George R. R. Martin and Guillermo Del Toro have both said that Vermithrax, Tippett's go motion creation from the 1981 movie Dragonslayer, is still the best visualization of dragons on screen.

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Kathryn Salamander: Witches' Road or bust 🎃 @transsalamander.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

My fave Phil Tippett fact is he invented something called go motion, which was basically stop motion but with added motion blur (the lack of motion blur is part of what gives stop motion its uncanny quality) CGI quickly made go motion irrelevant, but you can see it on the dragon in Willow (1988)

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Chris Baker @chrisbaker1337.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

I'll be tabling @ SF Zine Fest on Sunday. New venue this year, it's at that beautiful old Hibernia Bank bldg between 6th & 7th on Market near civic center BART station. The one & only V. Vale of RE/Search is the guest of honor & will be doing a Q&A at 3pm. You should stop by! www.sfzinefest.org

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Chris Baker @chrisbaker1337.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

🦍… I meant for the dots to just function as an ellipsis, but it doesnt look that that’s what it’s supposed to be. I am leaving it though

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Spooky Robb from 8/16/32bit @81632bitretro.com · 02/09/2026

This feels wrong. The life's work of Phil Tippett should be in a museum, not being sold off to the highest bidder. He shouldn't need to do this. Hollywood truly does screw over the geniuses and reward the mediocre.

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🎥 Kathy 📼 Fennessy 📽️ @kcfennessy.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

The pure uncut Tippett of Mad God is available to stream for free on Hoopla (it's also available on paid services, like Shudder). Tippett worked on it for decades, and it's a feast for the eyes, especially for those not overly concerned with clearcut narratives, because it doesn't have one.

hoopladigital.com

Mad God (2022) Movie | hoopla

Stream Mad God (2022) with Alex Cox, Niketa Roman, Satish Ratakonda for free with your library card on Hoopla's website or library app.

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Chris Baker @chrisbaker1337.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

OMG THANK YOU! 🙏 I never think to check Hoopla and Kanopy, but they have so much cool offbeat stuff streaming FOR FREE WITH A LIBRARY CARD. Adding a callout in my newsletter article...

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LRGCarter @lrgcarter.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

He actually had so many jobs ...

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Ian Nicholson FRSA @idgnicholson.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Tippett's MAD GOD was a piece of proper cinema art. A singular vision, eeked out in spare time over decades. He, and his studio, have created dozens and dozens of legendary cinematic moments. To have it all broken up and sold off in a glorified car boot is a crime against cinema preservation.

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Mathew Kumar @mathewkumar.com · 30/08/2026

They are paving paradise to put up a parking slop

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Chris Baker @chrisbaker1337.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

My friend Simon of @gamediscoverco.bsky.social took these pics at the Tippett Studio auction, where 40 yrs of priceless special f/x history were sold off in a bankruptcy sale. (Why didn't George Lucas buy it all?!) Read about Tippett's legacy at the 🔗 www.popculturalprecursors.com/p/one-last-l...

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Martin O'Leary @strangetea.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

"With C.G., everything is developed with intention. When you’re working with objects, they talk to you. You’re listening to what they want to be, and you find stuff that you weren’t looking for." We truly live in sad times. We are throwing it all away.

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Humanoid History @humanoidhistory.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Thinking of Phil Tippett this weekend.

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Chris Baker @chrisbaker1337.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

One last look inside Tippett Studio. The legendary f/x house is closing, and its models, props & precious artifacts are being sold off. I spent a day inside the workshop, surrounded by Star Wars, RoboCop, Jurassic Park & decades of handmade movie magic. www.popculturalprecursors.com/p/one-last-l...

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Chris Baker @chrisbaker1337.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Yes, the immortal @seanbaby.bsky.social makes a cameo in this newsletter. Uwe Boll is not a good filmmaker or screenwriter or human being, but he is smart enough to refuse to get in the ring with people who might be able to fight back.

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Chris Baker @chrisbaker1337.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

The director Uwe Boll is courting outrage again with his xenophobic film Citizen Vigilante. He was already working that playbook 20 years ago, when he challenged his critics to a boxing match. Looking back, that was an early glimpse of the ragebait era. www.popculturalprecursors.com/p/before-rag...

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skeet shooting @saemg.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

my sister inlaw did her phd on gonorrhea and she didn't once mention the dragon

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Dead Cat Dad @dbeatcatdad.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Why does a PSA about gonorrhea have the funkiest soundtrack you've ever heard?!?

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