iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Amanda Marcotte @amandamarcotte.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

The sci-fi fantasy that AI hucksters use to fool people into thinking there can be manmade intelligence is that it goes all the way back to 1818, with the publication of "Frankenstein." In the very first version of "AI," Mary Shelley got something fundamental about the desire to believe.

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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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Stellbound: Stellraiser II @antlervel.vet · 08/05/2026

Repost this if you’ve gone to the doctor or you’ve seen a dog. I’m a teacher trying to show my students that it’s possible to repost stuff under certain circumstances like if a post asks you to and you’ve gone to something or seen something

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Bethany Brookshire @beebrookshire.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

I'm just here to say I've been hating on the protein-maxxing phenomenon since before it was cool (you're not even getting to the gym twice a week what muscle are you building my guy you're just trying to make your smoothie manly) and HAH I WAS RIGHT. www.scientificamerican.com/article/eati...

scientificamerican.com

Eating less protein could help you live longer

While “protein maxxing” is all the rage, reducing your protein intake could add years to your life

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gregmulka.bsky.social @gregmulka.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Was not expecting a visit within bike distance

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Ken Liu @kyliu99.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

“We are like books. Most people only see our cover, the minority read only the introduction, many people believe the critics. Few will know our content.” ― Émile Zola

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gregmulka.bsky.social @gregmulka.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Marlin, Clarence, Francis, or Ralph Pine Nuts

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gregmulka.bsky.social @gregmulka.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

When someone writes a recipe, do they assume I will quadruple the garlic, or do they actually only use two cloves?

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gregmulka.bsky.social @gregmulka.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

So how many times has Adam Carolla, using his definition, "not raped" a partner?

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CZEdwards @czedwards.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

And this is SUCH a better way to judge the authenticity of the writing. Most writers have spite/inspo for every single thing, even the most obscure bits. Quin has an aversion/kryptonite reaction to strawberries because my spouse does, too. Quin IS NOT Spouse, but that quirk got me thinking.

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gregmulka.bsky.social @gregmulka.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

N.K. Jemisin Kameron Hurley Max Gladstone Dan Abnett Steven Brust

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gregmulka.bsky.social @gregmulka.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

I was today years old when I learned there were alternatives to knights of columbus

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Ran Blekhman @blekhman.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Just start writing. My new post: substack.com/home/post/p-...

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Annie Sexton @anniesexton.com · 04/05/2026

I launched an indie webcomic hosting platform several months ago that offered a free and a $4/mo paid plan. This was purely to cover the cost of the infrastructure. But in seeing it grow, I'm no longer worried about the cost. So yeah Webcomic Studio is now free. webcomic.studio

webcomic.studio

Webcomic Studio

Read & publish indie comics online

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Sarah Taber @sarahtaber.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

Yeah and if I'm not mistaken, they didn't even sell the farm. Just sold auctioned off the herd for a cash infusion. So they still have the property (e.g. most of their wealth) intact. And it's still cranking out passive income from the cell phone tower & frack lease.

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The Orion @gettheorion.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

Ai does not exist to innovate. Its sole purpose is to reproduce, en masse, exactly what already exists. It's designed to allow wealth to access talent without allowing talent to access wealth. *Art* is the conscious use of skill and creative imagination. There is no such thing as Ai art.

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gregmulka.bsky.social @gregmulka.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

That's $25 I'll save every month. Way to come out of losing the Warner's deal and immediately crawl into a sack of shit. Need to get the Emby or Jellyfin server built.

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Charles Johnson @charles.littlegreenfootballs.com · 30/03/2026

When I see Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren endorse Graham Platner, it doesn’t make me trust Platner, it makes me lose respect for Sanders and Warren.

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Warren Wells, AICP @warrenjwells.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

How can this go on for another 3 years?

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gregmulka.bsky.social @gregmulka.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

Guess I'm buying my socks directly from Darn Tough

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Garrett M. Graff @vermontgmg.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

When we talk about Baby Boomers not getting off the stage: In 1997, the US president was born in 1946. In 2007, the US president was born in 1946. In 2017, the US president was born in 1946. And next year in 2027? The US president will have been born in 1946.

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Upside Downie @adownie.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

For 40 years Bibi yearned to bomb little girls while Trump yearned to rape them.

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Sharon 🪳🌹 @sharonk.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

For those genuinely interested in logistics and sealift that would go into any Taiwan contingency, so far sealift capacity for the PRC is around 20k. In order for a successful invasion + occupation, you'd need somewhere between 300k-1M troops. Logistics! understandingwar.org/research/chi...

understandingwar.org

China & Taiwan Update, November 25, 2025

Reuters reported that PLA experimented with multiple types of civilian vessels in amphibious landing exercises in July and August 2025.

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gregmulka.bsky.social @gregmulka.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

So this looks like they didn't tell the authors who actually make Black Library work

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gregmulka.bsky.social @gregmulka.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

Rise of Skywalker made me retroactively dislike the original trilogy

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gregmulka.bsky.social @gregmulka.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

I hate that I know every one of these fuckers names and companies. That's why we need to tax them back into only obscene wealth so I don't have to know who they are.

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Kate McKean @katemckean.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

Over on threads someone just use ai;dr and we all need to adopt that right quick

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gregmulka.bsky.social @gregmulka.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

Freya Fluff-Butt is showing a strong left ear bias.

A red-tri color Australian shepherd puppy with brown eyes has head tilted to the right and left ear partially raised. She is the most adorable dog ever and I will fight you about this.

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rahaeli @rahaeli.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

OMFG Green's is now available online for free

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gregmulka.bsky.social @gregmulka.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

Each time I start to believe I can almost spin out an exceptional phrase the real prose pros put me in my place. 😆

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rahaeli @rahaeli.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

Woohooooo, here we go! Episcopal consecration without permission is a "latae sententiae" excommunication, ie, the excommunication is automatic and at the instant the offense is committed. www.vatican.va/archive/cod-...

vatican.va

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Sharon 🪳🌹 @sharonk.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

i'm not giving grok access to a dyson sphere

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Popehat @kenwhite.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

Forgive me, Jesus, because I genuinely deeply enjoy how perpetually unhappy and desolate these losers are.

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Kyle Reardon @kylereardon.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

Don’t worry guys, everything is very cool and normal at the Wegman’s parking lot!

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🗽LOLGOP🗽 @lolgop.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

When I see what MAGA has done to America, I think men probably aren't lonely enough.

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gregmulka.bsky.social @gregmulka.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

You can now live in a Kirkland Unit. This is great

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Jay Hulme @jayhulmepoet.bsky.social · 29/12/2025

Just watched the new Knives Out and I think it's really important you know that the scene in the Seminary's Gym is filmed in the same place Rick Astley filmed the music video for Never Gonna Give You Up. I saw the window tracery and immediately made my friends pause the film so I could tell them.

A screenshot from Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give you up music video

A photograph of the seminary gym in knives out. It has the same window.

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Tom Snarsky @tomsnarsky.bsky.social · 26/12/2025

Baudelaire for the end of the year

XII
GET DRUNK!

One should always be drunk. That's all that matters; that's our one imperative need. So as not to feel Time's horrible burden that breaks your shoulders and bows you down, you must get drunk without ceasing.
But what with? With wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you choose. But get drunk.
And if, at some time, on the steps of a palace, in the green grass of a ditch, in the bleak solitude of your room, you are waking up when drunkenness has already abated, ask the wind, the wave, a star, the clock, all that which flees, all that which groans, all that which rolls, all that which sings, all that which speaks, ask them what time it is; and the wind, the wave, the star, the bird, the clock will reply: 'It is time to get drunk! So that you may not be the martyred slaves of Time, get drunk; get drunk, and never pause for rest! With wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you choose!'

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gregmulka.bsky.social @gregmulka.bsky.social · 25/12/2025

This is the greatest nerd day of my life

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azteclady @azteclady.bsky.social · 24/12/2025

It's plagiarism at scale, and boy, do I resent having liked something that was plagiarized from someone else's work.

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Robert Evans (the Only Robert Evans) @iwriteok.bsky.social · 20/12/2025

wow, seeing Jake Paul get beaten half to death, true terror in his eyes, really improved my whole outlook on life

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Butch Curry @zombiebutch.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

These lazy motherfuckers should read one of Alan Moore's comic scripts. Generate slop instead of typing, my ass.

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Sheryl Weikal says Prosecute ICE @leftistlawyer.com · 13/12/2025

The problem with asking abolitionists how to prevent violent and sexual crimes is that it presupposes that the current system actually addresses sexual or violent crimes when it categorically does not. The United States has the lowest clearance rates for violent crimes in the developed world.

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𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝙲. 𝙼𝚊𝚗𝚗 @charlescmann.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

In 1924, Calvin Coolidge's 16-yr-old son played tennis on the White House grounds w/o wearing socks. He got a blister and was dead from infection a week later. This is unthinkable today—which is why I wrote this series. Cuz the systems that save us from this kind of fate are in urgent need of care.

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