iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

J. Alexander Cohen | Design and Fantasy @jalexandercohen.com · 6h

"Watson! Come here, I need you. The steam-powered sex toy has seized again."

000

Reposted by J. Alexander Cohen | Design and Fantasy

Steve Hugh Westenra 🕷️🧛‍♂️🏳️‍⚧️📚✒️ @stevewestenra.bsky.social · 23h

Having trans friends is really great and you should try it. 10/10 recommend

1328

Reposted by J. Alexander Cohen | Design and Fantasy

William C. Tracy @wctracy.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Who wants a free short story! Only 3 days left to back the Lesbians in Space Audiobook campaign, with narration by @maryrobinettekowal.com! We've already unlocked a new short story, so let's see if we can get to the stretch goal and a new tea flavor! www.backerkit.com/c/projects/s...

backerkit.com

Lesbians in Space Comes to Audiobook Pt 2!

Lesbians in Space: The Sapphics Strike Back is an anthology of sapphic stories in space! Now you can listen to these amazing stories as we bring the audiobooks to life!

1107

J. Alexander Cohen | Design and Fantasy @jalexandercohen.com · 29/09/2026

Every mountain is followed by a valley. But another mountain will always follow.

000

J. Alexander Cohen | Design and Fantasy @jalexandercohen.com · 28/09/2026

Coming up: Binary Bungalow Lucite Land Metaphor City Any others I'm missing?

010

J. Alexander Cohen | Design and Fantasy @jalexandercohen.com · 27/09/2026

The villagers aren't here to burn me at the stake, they want to prescribe me Ritalin.

000

Reposted by J. Alexander Cohen | Design and Fantasy

lauren @lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com · 24/09/2026

ME: So I can't put anything else on the scale? ANUBIS: No. Just your heart ME: No money, no good deeds? ANUBIS: No ME: What about steam points? I've got a ton of steam points ANUBIS: The point is to be lighter than the feather ME: I was just hoping to finally do something with the steam points

656090987

J. Alexander Cohen | Design and Fantasy @jalexandercohen.com · 24/09/2026

Silence can be a state of grace. So can kicking ass.

020

J. Alexander Cohen | Design and Fantasy @jalexandercohen.com · 24/09/2026

#AThoughtAboutProtesting No slogans. No screaming. No stunting. Step up. Name exactly what you see that's Not Right for you. Quietly. Agreeably. Firmly..and loudly. If the people around you can't defend the system's decisions, there's a big problem. Their silence is a big hint they already know.

010

J. Alexander Cohen | Design and Fantasy @jalexandercohen.com · 24/09/2026

#Usability #UI #UX #Demos #Theory #AI pitches feel like timeshares. They abstract away everything that makes us human. None of it appears in their vision. Sex, violence, bias, hate, joy, connection, fulfillment, healing: gone. `Indifferent to suffering; insensitive to joy.` `Network:Movie:1976`

[TV:The Simpsons:You Only Move Twice reference] Pandhandler turns into a mailbox

000

Reposted by J. Alexander Cohen | Design and Fantasy

weeder @weeder.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

God, grant me the courage to change the things I can and incredible new powers to change the things I can't.

63106512518

J. Alexander Cohen | Design and Fantasy @jalexandercohen.com · 24/09/2026

GIF functionality in Discord, I strike at thee with a limp noodle!

000

J. Alexander Cohen | Design and Fantasy @jalexandercohen.com · 24/09/2026

#Government as a structure: Government sucks. AND Government is the best we have. Why? As a voter, my ideal government looks different than yours...or we've got similar views. Compare any two people and you'll never get full consensus. The [Stupid Horsebrained Masses]! Love being one of them.

010

J. Alexander Cohen | Design and Fantasy @jalexandercohen.com · 24/09/2026

Why #infinity = ∞ It's a crossed-belt drive. Follow: A twisted rubber band around two axles. Turn one up, the other goes down. Axle = category. 'The lower the job rate, the higher the crime.' #notmybeliefs 'Lower job rate' = turn the job knob (!) down...and the crime knob [!!] goes up. In theory.

Still from a GIF of a crossed belt drive animation - two axles and a crossed loop around both of them.

000

Reposted by J. Alexander Cohen | Design and Fantasy

Mike Dyer-Evans @mikedewrites.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Happy Bisexual Visibility Day all! Continuing to do my part by putting as many bi characters into my books lol.

041

J. Alexander Cohen | Design and Fantasy @jalexandercohen.com · 23/09/2026

Computing as #stage: Visual affordances like icons? 🖨️ They're #spike-marks. Like the Xs on the stage some actors stand on. "Here there be #affordances."

An orange spike mark (X shape on the ground) created with spike tape.

000

J. Alexander Cohen | Design and Fantasy @jalexandercohen.com · 23/09/2026

#LOA = Levels of abstraction. Metahumor in a jugular vein.

Batman slapping Robin meme. Robin: What if you... Batman: Stop doing LOA work in the Batcave

010

J. Alexander Cohen | Design and Fantasy @jalexandercohen.com · 23/09/2026

There is Work, and there is Play, but they are both Tasks. Thus: 'taskflow' instead of workflow. Don't get me started on 'playflow'...all I hear when I look at the word is 300-baud carrier tone from my TRS-80 Model 100.

050

J. Alexander Cohen | Design and Fantasy @jalexandercohen.com · 23/09/2026

Regardless of how much we read, a lot of us seem to love Belle's library. Why? Because the things that matter to her are laid out in front of her with that greased ladder for cherishing them. Beauty and the Information Architect.

Disney's 1991 animated classic Beauty and the Beast: Belle rides a horizontally sliding ladder fast enough to billow her dress, and outstretches her left hand.

020

J. Alexander Cohen | Design and Fantasy @jalexandercohen.com · 23/09/2026

Babbage knew how to get the cabbage. @williamgibson.bsky.social and @bruces.bsky.social, thanks! It's been a long while, but I remember the flippers and the wry turn at the end. ... Okay, I admit the thank-you was so I could use the Babbage/cabbage pun I came up with). #worthit

Steampunk-styled scifi book cover: The Difference Engine, with the authors listed: Wililam Gibson, Bruce Sterling.

010

J. Alexander Cohen | Design and Fantasy @jalexandercohen.com · 21/09/2026

First night spent alone, knowing I'm alone, in 23.5 years. No Mom. No Dad. No Chris. Even Michelle is downstairs in the guest suite. No listening for Mom in the condo and being ready to leap into action at a moment's notice. to smooth her path. The Yahrzeit candle went out tonight. It's time.

Photo by Nothing Ahead: https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-of-burning-candles-8564625/

Close-up of two candles, one going out.

070

J. Alexander Cohen | Design and Fantasy @jalexandercohen.com · 21/09/2026

#justrealized ***Blathers from #AnimalCrossing = Hari Seldon from the Foundation novels.*** Consider: both appear occasionally to blather on about their interests (insects vs. interstellar politics). It's Urkel and Mr. Smithers/Alien all over again. Every Friday night.

000

J. Alexander Cohen | Design and Fantasy @jalexandercohen.com · 20/09/2026

#sundaythoughts: 1990s theories of #dynamicUI design WERE both right and wrong, as were the critics. That's not mealy-mouthed casuistry, either. Looking at why each side was right and wrong simultaneously explains the flaw in the use of Dynamic UI.

001

J. Alexander Cohen | Design and Fantasy @jalexandercohen.com · 20/09/2026

Oh great, I designed an empathy box cf. #PKD and Mercerism). As they said in #BloomCounty: "Did you at least keep the receipt?!"

000

J. Alexander Cohen | Design and Fantasy @jalexandercohen.com · 20/09/2026

"All I have to do is..." Folks sure must have said that a lot before slaughters happened.

020

Reposted by J. Alexander Cohen | Design and Fantasy

William C. Tracy @wctracy.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I'm set up right beside Godzilla at the Carolina Theatre in Durham for the Page to Picture festival! Come see some great movies and get some fascinating books from local authors! #indie #books #movies

A stand of 70 different queer sci-fi and fantasy books, and a Godzilla standee!

0172

J. Alexander Cohen | Design and Fantasy @jalexandercohen.com · 18/09/2026

#ColorBlindness is a difference, not a flaw. Just because it's not the default doesn't mean it's bad. Extend metaphor as necessary....

021

Reposted by J. Alexander Cohen | Design and Fantasy

Millie Abecassis @millieabecassis.com · 18/09/2026

Hello fellow humans, this is your reminder that I run a FREE quarterly newsletter for upcoming SFFH books published by small presses. The next one drops in two weeks, so don't forget to: - Subscribe to get it directly in your inbox! - Submit your (eligible) upcoming books so I don't miss a release.

smallpitch.org

#SmallBooks

Small Press New Releases Subscribe and receive all the lists of quarterly new releases in your inbox Have an upcoming small press SFFH book? Fill out the form. For now, we only list science fiction…

2129

J. Alexander Cohen | Design and Fantasy @jalexandercohen.com · 17/09/2026

#agents #writers #querytracker #querying #yiddish Anyone else read the weekly QueryTracker updates as avidly as obituaries and the society column and Yiddish-flavored gossip? "Julie's reopened to queries? Dotz nize."

121

J. Alexander Cohen | Design and Fantasy @jalexandercohen.com · 17/09/2026

Just starting out in all the thinky stuff at a late age. So I mix up a lot of terms (modal/modeless) or use them in the wrong domain because they're similar. 1987, G13 Physics: End of a unit on light. Last class before the final, and I still wasn't sure: "Mr. X, is [forgot] N or M?" He blanched.

100

J. Alexander Cohen | Design and Fantasy @jalexandercohen.com · 17/09/2026

#thesimpsons #humor #camp #johnwaters #doh John (Waters): You know, camp! The ludicrously-tragic? The tragically-ludicrous? Homer: Oh, like when a clown dies. ANALYSIS: Humor through abstraction mismatch. That blur when you get far enough that two things look the same. Picture the somatic feeling.

A calm John Waters eyes a nervous Homer Simpson in front of a wall of pop culture memorabilia in this still from "Homer's Phobia" of the show The Simpsons.

111

J. Alexander Cohen | Design and Fantasy @jalexandercohen.com · 17/09/2026

#airytheories #psychology #talktherapy #onlyidlethoughts Maybe coherency between the starting worldviews of the therapist and the client, and the design principles behind the modality's worldview itself, would benefit clients.

110

J. Alexander Cohen | Design and Fantasy @jalexandercohen.com · 17/09/2026

#thoughts One way to think about #levelsofabstraction is text manipulation in apps like Canva. The text can be manipulated as a clump of stuff together, or at the letter-and-space-and-word level. Those are two adjacent levels of abstraction (in my view). Let me know if I should go on a bit.

010

J. Alexander Cohen | Design and Fantasy @jalexandercohen.com · 17/09/2026

We should always strive for quality. But... It's healthy to revel in a shitty outcome that you KNEW was coming. Consider aiming your laughter at the cyclical absurdity. Not at humans downstream from the shit. #perspectives #empathythoughts

010

J. Alexander Cohen | Design and Fantasy @jalexandercohen.com · 16/09/2026

The consistent symbols on playing cards (number, optional face, suit, card boundaries) are fiducial markers. #ar #cards

000

J. Alexander Cohen | Design and Fantasy @jalexandercohen.com · 16/09/2026

I love Heinlein's cheery 1950s consumerist utopia fantasy, The Door Into Summer (minus the problem parts We All Know About). Heinlein doesn't worry about any second-order effects (employment?) in his shiny worlds of 1970 and 2000. Progress solved every problem in time and that was that.

100

J. Alexander Cohen | Design and Fantasy @jalexandercohen.com · 16/09/2026

#UI and #UX in @mikejudge.bsky.social's 2006 Idiocracy. The ultimate modeless interface: a grid of icons that each tell a story and draw a boundary around the condition in a one-color-on-white still image. Without words. Diegetically designed for humans working with low cognitive overhead.

Glyph keyboard of amusing Emergency mishaps.

110

J. Alexander Cohen | Design and Fantasy @jalexandercohen.com · 15/09/2026

Failure in #productdesign: Homer is working in my so-called 'Play Space,' but his support team (not shown, stressed out) thinks a sketch is detailed desired reality. #playspace

Homer Simpson sternly pointing to a crude drawing of a futuristic, silly car.

Homer driving his self-designed impractical 'car of the future' while his brother Herb looks askance.

020

J. Alexander Cohen | Design and Fantasy @jalexandercohen.com · 15/09/2026

Wondering if: The proper place for 'what if' (constraint/assumption removal) in the brainstorming process is not as a metal icebreaker exercise. It involves thinking-to-response-exhaustion on the problem, one constraint and assumption at a time.

110

J. Alexander Cohen | Design and Fantasy @jalexandercohen.com · 15/09/2026

An #affordance I added to the ability to manually organize section names in OneNote. You can try it too: Analysis: Freedom of placement -> I can alphabetize manually. -> Adopt as manual standard. A non-alphabetized section names means intent. Consider how you arrange a hand in Gin Rummy. #ui #ux

110

J. Alexander Cohen | Design and Fantasy @jalexandercohen.com · 15/09/2026

Starting to fill in the gaps by reading about #gametheory and #play. First up: Homo Ludens (Johan Huizinga, 1938). My existing random thoughts on play going in: At any age, play involves moving through different levels of abstraction (LOA), levels of detail (LOD). #levelsofabstraction #lod

110