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Chris Hanson

@eschaton.bsky.social
58 followers 60 following 144 posts

I used to get paid work on software for people to write software. Since retiring I still kind of do, as open source. I’m also setting up a Museum of Technical and Advanced Computing motaac.org in downtown San José, CA. Proudly antifa.

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Reposted by Chris Hanson
Zoë “Baddie Proctor” Quinn @unburntwitch.com · 8h
wild how we're getting a socialized Faces of Death before healthcare, college, free school lunches, or first world public transit.
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Sentinel (🔞) @aftersentinel.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
I refuse to believe that this work isn’t possible without AI when there’s emulation projects out there that are done out of passion for reverse engineering and preservation. GenAI should not have a place in this scene when it fundamentally can’t be trusted to be legally clean of stolen/leaked code.
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Sentinel (🔞) @aftersentinel.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Dude, this is genuinely so fucking disappointing. Nearly all of the commits I’ve seen for PPSSPP involve generative AI from Claude in the past week alone, and their entire newest dev blog is almost entirely written by Claude. Almost half of the commits in the past 3 months use Claude for AI code.
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Parkscope Joe @parkscopejoe.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
This is insane.
Christopher Hale w @ChristopherHale
Follow
NEW: According to a bombshell report in the New York Times, Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah threatened to walk out of Pope Leo XIV's Al encyclical launch in May because the pope rejected the idea that machines can be conscious.
Olah's team then privately lobbied the pope's advisers "to take the possibility of model consciousness seriously." Pope Leo XIV held firm.
For months, Anthropic has wined and dined theologians and religious scholars under nondisclosure agreements, hoping they would bless the idea that Claude has moral standing.
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Os Keyes @okeyes.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Since we’re doing another round of “AI will destroy humanity” doom-hype, it’s a good time to announce a new paper myself and my postdoc advisor just had accepted by BioSocieties on just this. TL;DR: almost all the “AI can make bioweapons” literature comes ultimately from the Effective Altruists.
ironholds.org
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Chris Hanson @eschaton.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
What do they think should be done about people who actively work towards humanity’s extinction, I wonder? Wouldn’t that be exactly the sort of thing subject to universal jurisdiction under international law?
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Chris Hanson @eschaton.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Anthropic is saying that their products present an existential risk to humanity in their IPO prospectus. With a warning like that, it sounds to me like anyone who participates in promoting or enabling Anthropic or their products is acting as an enemy of the species. #butlerianjihad
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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I don’t want to be a dick. But having read a few things by this Yudkowsky guy and now seeing that he left school in middle school and didn’t go to high school or college I think I’m understanding the situation a lot better, or things at least seem to fit.
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shauna @goldengateblond.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
just say “groomer school,” this is taking forever
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Chris Hanson @eschaton.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
What classified sector? These companies’ technology may be used by defense contractors, but these companies aren’t defense contractors themselves. (Just like virtually every other tech company.)
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Faine Greenwood @faineg.com · 27/09/2026
The bizarre culture that’s sprung up around Silicon Valley AI companies - which overlaps hugely with rationalist and effective altruist circles - appears to be seriously pressuring some women into attending sex parties for the sake of networking. This is, needless to say, horrifying.
taco belle
@ animalologist
Multiple things can be true at once
22h
The purpose of SlutCon is to help ease men who are scared of approaching women, and for women who simply enjoy flirting to be in an environment where that happens a lot, since there's generally a dearth of that
At the same time, many - probably most! - women do Not want to be flirted with or propositioned by men they don't know. When a small scene only has a handful of large, well-known events, each one has disproportionate impact on everybody's ideas of acceptable behavior among other members of their milieu.
Attending the same events = specific shared context. Means
you're somewhat on the same page.
I suspect that the men who publicly raised concerns about SlutCon's impact on the scene are being megaphones for private objections and distresses they've heard from women in the scene who would NOT be comfortable at an event like that, but who don't voice it publicly because they suspect they'd suffer socially for doing so. That going to SlutCon to be flirted with gives women social cachet, and squirming at the idea means you're [not cool, can't get with the program, are probably a wokescold or a prude etc etc other pejoratives] and therefore, that you'll be excluded or held at a distance
Now, if this scene were purely a social scene, that'd be perfectly fine. Don't go to parties that don't suit you!! The issue arises because it's NOT purely a social scene. This scene is inarguably tied up with Al safety, research, and the SF tech scene in general.
When consistently being invited to the right parties is professionally advantageous, and when SlutCon itself **is** going to be an excellent networking opportunity for people in those fields, it's not neutral that {sexual proclivities} are the filtering mechanism that determines who's in the room. It means that promiscuity & forwardness is explicitly professionally advantageous.
And, if the norms of SlutCon influence the norms of that milieu outside of the e…My suspicion is that men come out of the event more bold, more forward, and with the expectation that events attended by former flirt-girls are fair game for SlutCon-style forwardness. This creates a hostile environment for women who just want to socialize and work with these men, without being propositioned. And without pretending that they're cool with being sexualized for the sake of their inclusion in the scene.
I don't think we have solutions yet, but it's important that we can talk about it, at least.
Jakeup • @ myhandle
Sep 25
the purpose of SlutCon is to help men who are scared of women to start liking women, by putting them in proximity to women who like men and aren't scared of men
I'm not attending or involved in any way, but this is very aligned to my own mission and I'm rooting for their success
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Faine Greenwood @faineg.com · 27/09/2026
Women trying to succeed in Silicon Valley AI and effective altruist spaces are reporting feeling serious social pressure to attend sex parties - where people have reported being sexually assaulted, like below. Events like Aella’s “Slutcon,” which is happening again this weekend.
Ann Pierce
@itsannpierce
20h
I am disheartened by this as well. I already lost a bunch of followers for agreeing with @tautologer, but it's saddening to see local nerdy women being caricatured as Karen-like outsiders and getting pushed out of the scene. This is exactly why you hear so few concrete, names-attached stories of sexual harrassment and assault. I'm told there is a history of discrediting these because the "slut normalization" thing is top priority and these stories get inconveniently in the way of spreading this ideology.
I got roped into attending last year's Saturday Slutcon party because so many local and out-of-town friends were there (to echo sentiments @tautologer expressed about "slut events becoming central to the larger scenes). Mostly I hung out with people I knew and that was great. But in the course of my 3-ish hours there, there were 2 times my "no" was not accepted by a man I didn't know, and I was physically pushing a huge guy off of me who was rubbing his penis on me, who continued to do it despite my physical force against him, and after I finally wriggled away from him, told him I wanted to dance alone etc., he came back and did it again.
This was scary and bad, but it didn't even cross my mind to report this because one of the other people who didn't accept my "no" earlier in the night was the bartender (an officially sanctioned authority at the event), and I knew the event was organized exclusively by women into CNC (who are vocal about how rapey behavior turns them on), so I figured this sort of thing would just get me laughed at. And anyway, I heard there were a lot of other incidents like it. Later though, someone encouraged me to report this story to the organizers, and despite my embarrassment I did, so *they know* that this and other incidents happened. This is why they cut the Saturday night party this year and created a larger training program for the flirt girls - *because* of things like this last year. Yet the narrative bein…People who haven't been to Slutcon are saying "it's just group therapy," "it's just innocent flirting." But the environment is much like a sex party in that many people are nude, there is making out and sex acts happening out in the open. I think it's pretty unreasonable to expect that every nerdy girl who likes rationalist bloggers or is into EA/AI safety should automatically be comfortable with this! That if she's not, there's something wrong with her, we don't want her in our scenes, etc.
Not to mention, it's explictly an event *for men*, where men are the clients and the "flirt girls" are the product. Last year I overheard an exchange where a man felt "led on" by a flirt girl and was trying to get her punished/kicked out. (A dynamic that seems inevitable in this context!)
Anyway- it does sound like they've upped their consent education a lot this year, are more organized, and that's good! As I've told my friends who are attending: I hope they have fun!
I heard several accounts last year of women who had no problems and really enjoyed the event. That's great!
Just... can we live in reality about this? There are real reasons why male-female sexual dynamics are tricky.
Encouraging autistic men who can't yet read body language to go around asking to see womens' boobs is maybe a bit ill-advised. Maybe not everyone should be/identify as a slut; maybe it's not for everyone.
And yeah, filtering the Bay Area Al safety scene down to only women who are super comfy with this eliminates *most* women - including many of the really smart, nerdy, weird women who've been in the larger scenes for years. What a loss for humanity.
I absolutely understand why people with a minority sexuality would want to create belonging, would want to create spaces for people like themselves. But why do it like this/at this cost?
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Chris Hanson @eschaton.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
There’s a sad piece to Eli’s supervillain origin story that’s not very talked about, and that’s when his brother was senselessly murdered during a mugging. He was already well on his way to becoming who he is, but it seemed to turn his transhumanist bent up to 11.
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economymedicine.bsky.social @economymedicine.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
The vibes are West Coast JD Vance
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Chris Hanson @eschaton.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Don’t, Moshe isn’t that great a guy, though we have plenty of mutual friends who might disagree with me about that.
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Faine Greenwood @faineg.com · 26/09/2026
This is another great, approachable explainer on “the rationalist wackos who have managed to take over much of the AI industry, and who now have tons of money and political power.” www.iankduncan.com/personal/202...
iankduncan.com
Sex, AI, and the Apocalypse - Ian Duncan
How a community devoted to thinking clearly incubated salvation stories, abusive experiments, race science, and an affection for autocracy, and why that history matters now that its alumni are asking ...
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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
So much of schools "responding to rape" is preventing the legal system from doing so. This is a report on seven adults who committed serious felonies for which there is a legal system to remind them and their pals that they are felonies.
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Mike Masnick @masnick.com · 25/09/2026
Um. Wow?
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En Buen Ora @enbuenora.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
It helps the case of being suspicious of these people who keep telling us they know it all and are 28th century geniuses and we should let them command absolutely every aspect of our lives to show that they're actually bonkers creepanoids.
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Faine Greenwood @faineg.com · 18/09/2026
Why talk about how nuts the AI rationalist sex cult is, and not just focus on the (very real) risks and harms of AI? Well, when we're discussing "who should get to regulate AI, and how," I think it's VERY relevant to talk about the antisocial, unsettling ways many people running US AI think.
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dorian @doriantaylor.com · 17/09/2026
tmnt logo: harry potter fanfic sex cult
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SK Winnicki, PhD 🏳️‍⚧️ @skwinnicki.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
at some point you have to wonder for which side such advisers actually work
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Uzza @uzzamodea.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Important reporting here on an aspect of accelerationist organizing: Atomwaffen Division clones. @svartflagg.bsky.social follows a recent incarnation of one these small copy cat groups & how they have joined a small international alliance in an attempt to create a new branch of far-right terror.
Atomwaffen's legacy: the organization has disappeared, but the template has remained available for anyone willing to pick it up.
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Chris Hanson @eschaton.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Hey, for all the people who said that LLMs are transformative fair use of the intellectual property they ingest during training? Yeah, doesn't seem like that's what even the LLM providers think…
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Colin @colin-fraser.net · 27/03/2026
There’s a move I’ve coined the “Black Mirror Gambit” which works by presenting your company as the villain in a Black Mirror episode to soak up this mid-2020s-era investor demand for, well, evil plots. That’s the playbook.
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Faine Greenwood @faineg.com · 15/09/2026
Yes, the American AI industry is massively intertwined with the people who brought you Aella’s birthday gangbang. Because they are a millenarian AI-worshipping sex cult who now have billions of dollars. knowyourmeme.com/sensitive/me...
knowyourmeme.com
Aella's Birthday Gangbang | Know Your Meme
Aella's Birthday Gangbang is a gangbang that will be hosted by OnlyFans model Aella in mid-to-late February 2024 in celebration of her 32nd birthday. In De
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Faine Greenwood @faineg.com · 15/09/2026
The people who are running the massively powerful and lucrative US AI industry pretty much all know about this chart, and quite a few directly participated in the proceedings. Speaking of the rationalist sex cult who regard a Harry Potter fanfic as their Bible, and who also have tons of money.
Aellas birthday gangbang
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Anna E. Cook @annaecook.com · 16/09/2026
No one believes me when I tell them about the billionaire AI sex cult and how they’re destroying democracy
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Faine Greenwood @faineg.com · 16/09/2026
Like you will not be able to fully understand how dangerous the leaders of the US AI industry really are without engaging with this cursed lore, unfortunately.
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Chris Hanson @eschaton.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
This is entirely possible, if we have the will to create it.
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Chris Hanson @eschaton.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
One that guarantees not just political rights like free speech, free association, privacy, and fair jury trials, but also the rights to not starve or thirst, to not die of treatable illness or injury, to safety from the elements, to live where one wants, and to choose one’s own path in life.
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Chris Hanson @eschaton.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
The society I want to live in is a pluralistic, democratic United Earth whose top priority is safeguarding the fundamental rights of all people.
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Chris Hanson @eschaton.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Looks like I’ll be putting away my Daring Fireball and Accidental Tech Podcast shirts for a while. It’s a pity, they were comfy shirts and I thought I was supporting good people with them. eschatologist.net/blog/?p=496
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Chris Hanson @eschaton.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
With an LLM you may as well ask it to explain its reasoning, it’ll be just as hallucinated as any other output from the LLM.
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Chris Hanson @eschaton.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Not only is “chain of thought” not a thing with LLMs, the LLM companies are completely untrustworthy if they claim to provide such things. With symbolic AI like Cyc, on the other hand, you can actually get a log of the inferences that were involved in processing any input and producing any output.
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Chris Hanson @eschaton.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Sounds like a failure of imagination to me.
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Chris Hanson @eschaton.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
What’s insane is that with a system like Cyc there’s *actual traceability* so you can see what the system was doing at any point, but with an LLM? Nada. It’s a pile of bullshit.
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Chris Hanson @eschaton.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
It’s really fucking stupid that Apple lets Facebook decide whether I get to use the Instagram and Threads apps on my Mac.
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big bleat from badsville @djepelgesh.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
thank you The New York Post for what may be the funniest image of all time
a picture from the NY Post titled "	today’s leftists are possessed by the spirit of France’s 18th-century guillotine-loving revolutionaries" (way too long) that shows Mamdani (the specter haunting Europe) smiling in the sky as a bunch of French people goof around
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Chris Hanson @eschaton.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Everyone can clearly see that the Q are the Federation’s descendants, right?
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Walker Bragman @walkerbragman.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
This is genocidal rhetoric from the president of the United States. Trump explicitly stated that if Dems win the midterms, “Transgender will never end.” The stated goal of the president of the United States and his party is to make transgender people “end.”
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utopia deferred @utopia-defer.red · 05/09/2026
if anyone wants some inside ball on why the news is choosing to fixate on eg Piker while attacking the DSA (relative to the nazis in power, etc) I just found out that our county’s democrat caucus is pushing out a very progressive and experienced women of color for her association with our chapter
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Chris Hanson @eschaton.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
And it must.
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alex䷰trismegistus @technihilism.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
"explain why you picked these things" IT STOCHASTICALLY ASSEMBLED THEM BASED ON STASTICAL ANALYSIS JUST LIKE IT'S GOING TO DO WITH ITS EXPLANATION IT ISN'T SAYING ANYTHING THERE IS NO YOU IT MADE NO DECISIONS
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Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Hasan Piker isn't part of the Abdul El-Sayed campaign. Lorenzo Sewell is a member of the Mike Rogers campaign. And he's a proper extremist and bigot who the media isn't covering. I brought receipts in the Guardian today: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
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Chris Hanson @eschaton.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
One might notice quite a difference there from Corbin…
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Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
"Keir Starmer Is Why Everyone Hates Politicians" The former PM misled his way to the top and now he’s walking away from politics altogether. His decision to quit Parliament so quickly is a reminder he was only ever interested in power. From Zeteo UK:
zeteo.uk
Keir Starmer Is Why Everyone Hates Politicians
The former PM misled his way to the top and now he’s walking away from politics altogether. His decision to quit Parliament so quickly is a reminder he was only ever interested in power and ambition.
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Chris Hanson @eschaton.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
I propose we call the coming period of worldwide civil strife “the Eugenics Wars” because even without Khaaasaaan! it’s basically eugenics obsessed rich weirdos against everyone else.
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SE Gyges @segyges.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Objecting to the destruction of USAID is a pretty clean litmus test for being a serious person and not evil a surprising number of otherwise bad people pass this test, and a shocking number of people who pretend to care do not
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