iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dan Bennett @comic-sans-soleil.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I want to read that novel. probably Tom McCarthy has written it.

Dan Bennett @comic-sans-soleil.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Sure vacations from work are great, but have you ever tried a holiday from the ceaseless imperative to will and desire 🫥

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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 24/08/2026

what does @tonychemero.bsky.social's new book 'Intertwined Creatures' have to offer to the “AI consciousness” debate? here is my take on it www.nature.com/articles/d41...

nature.com

Can AI ever be conscious? The question stems from a misconception

A book outlines how the fields of artificial intelligence, psychology and philosophy have neglected a key aspect of consciousness: the body.

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Dan Bennett @comic-sans-soleil.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

September keeping memory and desire separate on the plate, like your pre-diagnosis-era uncle with his gravy and peas.

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Dan Bennett @comic-sans-soleil.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Yeah, I'd say this Gagne is not at all espressoey. I guess people distinguish percolation from immersion, but this is filter-coffee-ey to me. Moving repeatedly has killed my wish to own gear - otherwise I'd have a weird kettle etc. I'm sure.

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Dan Bennett @comic-sans-soleil.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

bg: I am not Good At Pourover, I don't want to acquire fancy kettles etc. (Prismo was small and on sale)

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Dan Bennett @comic-sans-soleil.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Basically: prismo attachment, paper and metal filter, grind v fine, pour boiling water, stir back and forth, plunger in, wait. All the aromatics, balanced, not astringent. Faintly disappointing in that I know I probably can't do much better, so that's coffee solved for me.

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Dan Bennett @comic-sans-soleil.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Tired: Replaced by AI Wired*: replaced by a plastic tube. Johnathan Gagne's low intervention 10 min Aeropress recipe craps on all my V60 faffing. (* lit.) (Guy in Computer Science dept. in "is tedious about coffee" shock)

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Ben Hanowell @hanowell.me · 06/08/2026

Does anyone in #computerscience or #electricalengineering know the origin of the term "latency" as in "lag" as it is used in the industry today? I ask because I am writing an essay where I'm discussing the etymology of the term "latent" in scientific parlance.

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Dan Bennett @comic-sans-soleil.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

I used to have nightmares about recursion and infinity. One about "the old woman who swallowed a fly", but getting faster and faster. Another where I set up a company that bought shipping containers in a way that enabled it to buy more shipping containers until it ran out of control.

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Elizabeth Nolan Brown @enbrown.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

My 4-year/old just learned about the concept of infinity and is now throwing a tantrum over it. “It’s weird! I don’t like it. I just want numbers to stop!”

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Dan Bennett @comic-sans-soleil.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

I don't have a take on it so far, so much as a lot of observations and questions, which I take as a good sign. It's formally very interesting, vividly observed, and ambiguous/awkward in the right places.

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Dan Bennett @comic-sans-soleil.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Just finished Transcription by Ben Lerner. First Lerner I've read but probably the best fiction I've read this year. People called it a "technology novel", which suggests it's a slightly polemical "issue" piece. It's not. It does capture the pandemic better than other writing & films I've seen.

cover of the book Transcription by Ben Lerner. Red circle centre bottom, like a recording light. Title and author at top in white bold caps sans serfi

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Dan Bennett @comic-sans-soleil.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Guaranteed way out of all the parenting car pools tho.

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Dan Bennett @comic-sans-soleil.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Picked this up today. From a quick skim I haven't been so interested to read an unfamiliar author in quite a while. Tempted to post summaries as I go. Missing research discussion I guess.

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Fovea Hex @foveahex.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

One of the truest and most heart-stoppingly beautiful voices I ever heard..... three years gone today. Unforgettable.

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Dan Bennett @comic-sans-soleil.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

I was delighted and horrified to discover the word "slorch". Mostly I try to pretend I'm reading Burroughs.

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Dan Bennett @comic-sans-soleil.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Author fam. Yr prose is extremely oxidised, no cap. Aura is very Linkedin. Giving hydroxyl radicals, cellular damage. Man needs to get off that Claude stack. Slorch some Goffman ASAP. Seriously fam, get on some Suchman, Hofstadter even, Vuong

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Dan Bennett @comic-sans-soleil.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Every time I play Pat Metheny's smooth jazz classic Phase Dance, I remember the time I put it on as chill background sound while setting up for a lecture (weird dead room), and a student came in horrified and said "whoa! this is a bit intense". www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xwk...

youtube.com

Phase Dance

YouTube video by Pat Metheny Group - Topic

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Dan Bennett @comic-sans-soleil.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Accepted @ #chiplay2026 w @elisamekler.bsky.social & Roosa Piitulainen Can gamepad input tell you about skill-challenge balance? Our results say yes! Points to scalable methods for game adaptation & player-experience research osf.io/preprints/ps...

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Dan Bennett @comic-sans-soleil.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

Such a great book, I had no idea there could be so many different approaches to observing John Berger.

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Bill McKay @mckay4senate.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Why does BlueSky keep centering American and more broadly Western voices whenever we do AI discourse?

Polling showing that Americans lead many other countries in negativity about AI. The US is the country with the highest net share of people who say AI is making society worse, while Nigeria, Vietnam, India, Brazil, Mexico, and Indonesia are above 40% net AI is making society better.

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Dan Bennett @comic-sans-soleil.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

I swear coffee is basically just a caffeinated videogame, it's difficult to reproduce precisely but always somewhat satisfying, and when you get close enough you can always try a different build and it's hard again.

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👻 🎃 🦇 Boola Lughosti's Dad 🏳️‍⚧️ 🇵🇸 @belalugosisdad.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

Fantastic turnout for this last night. Despite having only 24hours notice, @bristolantifascist.bsky.social and other antifascists mobilised around 200 people. The fash, meanwhile, either too disorganised, or intimidated by the numbers, managed only 5 people. Bristol is always antifascist.

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William Gibson @greatdismal.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

Nigel Cabourn’s peculiar visionary turn, directed at tattered racks of surplus and workwear, had nothing whatever to do with fashion — in the most admirable possible way!

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Dan Bennett @comic-sans-soleil.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

worse than that, I think they built Lacan's Big Other.

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Dan Bennett @comic-sans-soleil.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Will do. I already did some Carl Stone and feel a bit more in balance.

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Dan Bennett @comic-sans-soleil.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

JDB added to my watchlist for the Wednesday bike commute.

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Dan Bennett @comic-sans-soleil.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Dem Bow variant + fart guitar. Simpler times.

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Byline Times @bylinetimes.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

🔴 BREAKING: “My Personal Pride and Joy”: Mandelson’s UK Palantir Deal The former US Ambassador considered a £750m MOD deal with the US tech company his landmark achievement. But how was it achieved?

bylinetimes.com

“My Personal Pride and Joy”: Mandelson’s UK Palantir Deal

The former US Ambassador considered a £750m MOD deal with the US tech company his landmark achievement. But how was it achieved?

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Dan Bennett @comic-sans-soleil.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

I just hit City Life, and it is an abomination. Cringing incredibly hard at the car alarm section. Nobody should have given Steve that Casio FZ-1

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Dan Bennett @comic-sans-soleil.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

I love 18 musicians. Wouldn't strongly defend anything else. You'd be horrified. This week has been this, Einstein on the Beach, Steely Dan's Aja, and a bunch of ECM. Basically what a middlebrow academic dude woulda listened to c 2000. Fantasising about impossible tenure I think.

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Dan Bennett @comic-sans-soleil.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Listening back now, Proverb might be the start of Reich cringe. The secular portentiousness, Great Man quote, and reduced materials = Niles Crane-core. I still llike it. It's not Three Tales (Steve & Beryl, Awesome Show, Great Job!).

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Dan Bennett @comic-sans-soleil.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Today I listened to Music for 18 Musicians and Proverb for the first time in about 20 years. M418 is clearly the great work, but Proverb was the first piece of modern classical I really listened to properly, and I Stan'd Ludwig. Big deal. Weird to hear it again. www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5lg...

youtube.com

Steve Reich - Proverb

YouTube video by eternal feedback loop

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Dan Bennett @comic-sans-soleil.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

There is a deep motivational gulf at the heart of the post-AI web, and thereby at the heart of most future cultural production.

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Dan Bennett @comic-sans-soleil.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Note that chefs get paid also. Payment on the web is via advertising. Nobody is going to pay to advertise to a bot, so writers will be paid neither in money, esteem, nor personal connection.

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Dan Bennett @comic-sans-soleil.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

"“searching the web” will increasingly be performed by AI agents rather than humans." Who will want to write anything under those conditions? Would a chef cook well for someone who gets someone to blends all their food then reconstitute it? techcrunch.com/2026/05/19/g...

techcrunch.com

Google Search as you know it is over | TechCrunch

Google is transforming Search from a list of links into an AI-powered experience filled with conversational answers, autonomous agents, and interactive interfaces — a shift that could further reduce t...

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Dan Bennett @comic-sans-soleil.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

He's obviously spinning BS to protect himself, I think. The point is more, why would anyone buy it?

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Dan Bennett @comic-sans-soleil.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

When they stand to benefit from Nigel's misrule and deregulation, and lose from a stable UK govt, why hack and leak him? Especially when it distracts from Labour being chaotic and embarrassing themselves?

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Seán Clancy @seanlclancy.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

New album was out last week… give it a shot this weekend. You might like it… seanclancy.bandcamp.com/album/se-n-c...

seanclancy.bandcamp.com

Seán Clancy: Where the Paths End, by Sean Clancy

10 track album

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