iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

J.E. Tobal @jetobal.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

"Writing is a job for people who like to punch themselves in the face, I'm pretty sure." - Warren Ellis

Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 18/01/2026

Reposted by J.E. Tobal

Córy Doctorow with another verbal bullseye: pluralistic.net/2026/01/13/n...

I'm sorry. As a technology writer, I'm supposed to be telling you that this bet will some day pay off, because one day we will have shoveled so many words into the word-guessing program that it wakes up and learns how to actually do the jobs it is failing spectacularly at today. This is a proposition akin to the idea that if we keep breeding horses to run faster and faster, one of them will give birth to a locomotive. Humans possess intelligence, and machines do not. The difference between a human and a word-guessing program isn't how many words the human knows.

I'm sorry. I know that when we talk about "digital sovereignty," we're obliged to talk about how we can build more data-centres that we can fill up with money-losing chips from American silicon monopolists in the hopes of destroying as many jobs as possible while blowing through our clean energy goals and enshittifying as much of our potable water as possible.

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J.E. Tobal @jetobal.bsky.social · 20/09/2025

Beastie Boys - License to Ill

J.E. Tobal @jetobal.bsky.social · 29/05/2025

Boomers: No one wants to work anymore. Also boomers: I will use a piece of software that is wrong with every other sentence it creates to do my job rather than do my own work. Also also boomers: I will pay triple for this software than I would pay an actual person.

J.E. Tobal @jetobal.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

I like that the guy who said "trade wars are easy to win" has never won a trade war.

J.E. Tobal @jetobal.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

New restaurant idea: A Greek restaurant with live acoustic music. Call it Guitar Gyro.

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J.E. Tobal @jetobal.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

Nice reference to classic sci-fi, Alex. Solid work here.

J.E. Tobal @jetobal.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

"He's very patient with you. You must really know how to pull his strings." *rim shot*

J.E. Tobal @jetobal.bsky.social · 17/05/2025

I've been driving over the Triborough for years to go visit my daughter who's been in school in NJ. This is how I know traffic on the bridge is worse. So, just FYI, you don't have to be a condescending prick to strangers on the Internet. It's not a prerequisite.

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J.E. Tobal @jetobal.bsky.social · 17/05/2025

Traffic outside the zone being "not worse" is a cartoonish lie. It takes 30 min to go over the Triborough.

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J.E. Tobal @jetobal.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

These people shouldn't be allowed to use indoor toilets.

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J.E. Tobal @jetobal.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

Let's even set aside the fact that these Snyder dudes have never read a comic and this Krypto is comic accurate, but why on Earth would Superman have a 'roided out Pitbull? Do they think Superman moonlights as an ICE agent?

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J.E. Tobal @jetobal.bsky.social · 10/05/2025

without downloading any new pictures, what is your mental state?

J.E. Tobal @jetobal.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

"Da new Pope is the now officially da greatest man to ever come out of Chicago....second only to, of course, da great Mike Ditka." SNL, you've got an easy layup this weekend. Don't blow it.

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J.E. Tobal @jetobal.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

I mean this exists with novels in spades. When my novel came out, I got solicited by so many paid review services and I'd check their reviews and nothing was below a 3/5. I always passed on them.

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J.E. Tobal @jetobal.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

Hey @zoethorogood.bsky.social you've got two books on this list, just FYI

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I'm thinking his vision of teaching civic values in schools looks very similar to a Hitler Youth organization.

Danny DeVito in a full scale action role; but more like Die Hard where he just has a lot of guns and gets the shit kicked out of him, not like something where he needs to be athletic. I also think there's a really good, super heinous villain role for Dan Levy out there somewhere.

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Did they learn nothing from what happened with Ruth Bader Ginsburg? If you don't pass on the torch, you risk destroying everything you spent your life working for. The arrogance of "no one can do this job but me" when they're in their 80s is batshit.

I dream of the day when the court cases are finally over and LLMs are sued into oblivion.

J.E. Tobal @jetobal.bsky.social · 28/04/2025

I mean, obviously. Just like how everyone knows that California barbecue is way better than anything from the South or Midwest.

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Clem Fandango remains one of the best fictional names ever conceived of.

J.E. Tobal @jetobal.bsky.social · 26/04/2025

I'd like to go on the record and say that "the algorithm" in all its forms (social media, music apps, television, etc) is the single worst technological development of the last 40 years. The amount of destruction that it's caused is going to take decades for civilization to understand and undo.

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J.E. Tobal @jetobal.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

I've been arguing exactly this for years. I think there's a great episodic, Firefly-esque series to be made about a crew just pulling odd jobs in the outer planets for money. Lucas built a big sandbox. Disney's gotta leave the Skywalker corner alone and go play in the rest of it.

J.E. Tobal @jetobal.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

I am far from perfect, but I'm happy to say I've never used Spotify and just so buy albums like I did for the first 20+ years of my life.

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J.E. Tobal @jetobal.bsky.social · 12/04/2025

Jim Henson died at 53 from bacterial pneumonia. He was perfectly healthy before he wasn't.

J.E. Tobal @jetobal.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

I always found Signal to be one of Gaiman & McKean's unsung, gorgeous collaborations. The line, "The world is always ending for someone" has stuck with me for decades.

J.E. Tobal @jetobal.bsky.social · 23/03/2025

The sequel about how he falls in love with a depressed dendrologist is obviously called Weeping Willow.

J.E. Tobal @jetobal.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

It's batshit that the man who just reposted that Hitler never killed anyone (his proxies did) is now asking why everyone hates him even though he's never killed anyone. He's just such an Internet troll that he can only imagine a reality where everyone hates him for his breathtaking genius.

J.E. Tobal @jetobal.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

What you mean, "was a time"?

J.E. Tobal @jetobal.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

My father is from Buenos Aires and any time in the last several decades anyone has ever said "well in Argentina they're doing xyz..." I'm always like, "yeah well, they're economy was a dumpster fire on a good day, so maybe let's not use them as a good example." Still holds true.

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J.E. Tobal @jetobal.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

Pantheon is the single most unappreciated and underrated sci-fi show so far of the 2020's. I'm not trying to say that it's the best and that there's nothing out there better than it, but it's absolutely not watched by enough people who would fall in love with it.