iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Josh Melican @jmmelican.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

“He dries his eyes and whets his blade” Nicely done by @hironennes.bsky.social (in Works of Vermin, which I am close to finishing and greatly appreciating)

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Josh Melican @jmmelican.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Over on my blog, a review of KJ Bishop's 'The Etched City', the second in a series of reviews based on a reading-list of strange (Weird? Fantastical?) cities and inspired by @aptshadow.bsky.social suggestion that this is a sub-subgenre in itself. jmmelican.com/2026/09/09/r...

jmmelican.com

Review: The Etched City

This is the second in a series of reviews I am doing based on a reading-list which was inspired by Adrian Tchaikovsky’s proposal for a micro-sub-genre of Speculative Fiction which he has labe…

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Tim Price @timprice.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Stop making fun of AI or it will spitefully deny your insurance claims. They’re calling it the perfect argument.

hailey @hailey.at • 1h
bsky isnt ready for this but, if you need a reason to not use words like "clanker" that isn't "well its kinda not a great thing to do" (it isn't) imagine this:

future model that has you in its training data, knows you posted that word online with joy, and denies your insurance claim as a result

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Josh Melican @jmmelican.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

My first review from a reading list inspired by Adrian Tchaikovsky’s (@aptshadow.bsky.social) proposed ‘Fantastical Realism’ sub-genre: The City of Last Chances, first book of the Tyrant Philosophers series. jmmelican.com/2026/08/26/c...

jmmelican.com

City of Last Chances Review

City of Last Chances is the first book in Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Tyrant Philosophers series, and was my first exposure to Tchaikovsky as an author. It is also the novel which prompted me to exp…

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Tash 🍉 @tashmahal.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

"Enough to make a moon undignified."

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Dr. Damien P. Williams, dread portent down from a mountain cave @wolven.blacksky.app · 24/04/2025

Authoritarians love "Gen AI" because it - Sounds confident even when factually wrong - Broadly conforms to & reproduces their biases, off the shelf - Lets them create bespoke realities (text, audio, moving & still image) which agree w/ their biases - Degrades trust in knowledge/evidence/expertise…

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pixelatedboat aka “mr bluesky” @pixelatedboat.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

I’m seeing a lot of outrage about this story but honestly it’s preferable to the old way of doing this which was both disrespectful of the deceased and traumatising for the puppeteer

Man speaks to killer from beyond the grave in Arizona courtroom through Al video

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Dr. Damien P. Williams, dread portent down from a mountain cave @wolven.blacksky.app · 31/01/2024

[Velma]: Okay gang: Let's see who this technoscientific technosocial paradigm REALLY is! [All]: Old Man Eugenics??! [Old Man Eugenics]: And I would've gotten away with it too, if only it… Wait. I *Did* get away with it. I'm *Still* getting away with it! Huh. Welp… …See ya! [All]: ☹️

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Josh Melican @jmmelican.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

All of this is valuable perspective for writers in times when you need some motivation to push through

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Chuck Wendig @chuckwendig.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

I finished five novels before BLACKBIRDS was ever published — none good and all necessary to write. That doesn’t include the many more novels I began and never finished. I still think of myself as a failed novelist — my failures outweigh my successes and I am glad for that. Failure teaches.

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Seth Abramson @sethabramson.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

In a world of Matts, be a Derek.

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Josh Melican @jmmelican.bsky.social · 16/02/2025

Had a moment of realisation in the shower the other day which has led me to return to a novel I finished in 2019 and change the ending, so I’ve rewritten the pivot-point chapter this morning, scrapped about 16,000 words of the original Act 3, and back to the drafting phase. Weird how writing works.

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Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

People disturbed by the way that Chinese AI systems seem to ignore information that’s inconvenient to Chinese authorities - the Tiananmen Square massacre for example - might want to think about what that implies for American AI systems.

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Marcelo Rinesi @marcelorinesi.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

Apologies to Tooze, "polycrisis" is too technical. @greatdismal.bsky.social 's "Jackpot" is better (all our humor is gallows humor), but we need a new term for "self-inflicted sociopath-flamed soulcrushingly-stupid systemic clusterfuck we can't fix or ignore." www.theguardian.com/business/202...

theguardian.com

Coal use to reach new peak – and remain at near-record levels for years

Spike in fossil fuel use a result of global gas crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

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Uncle Duke @uncleduke1969.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

"Come out to the coast, we'll get together, have a few laughs..."

A hamster in a cardboard tube with the opening facing the camera. The hamster is crawling forward with one front paw raised.

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Josh Melican @jmmelican.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

Hello folks, I have reactivated this account and am migrating across from the bad place.

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the raccoons ate all of my koi @classicmax.bsky.social · 06/01/2024

man what am i even supposed to do here

select all images with the ship of theseus

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Dr. Damien P. Williams, dread portent down from a mountain cave @wolven.blacksky.app · 06/01/2024

My article "Any Sufficiently Transparent Magic…" is part of the journal American Religion's Fall 2023 roundtable "On Religion and Algorithms." I explore both religious & magical concepts w/in "AI," & the obfuscatory work done by hype-laden "AI" discourse. Hope you enjoy! muse.jhu.edu/pub/3/articl...

Currently, too many comparisons between “AI” and Magic serve to either hype up what “AI” can do, or wave away the things “AI” companies and designers want hidden from the public— indicating a fundamental misunderstand of both magic and “AI.” Both kinds of systems are internally consistent, even when built on rules which may seem—or are intended to be—opaque to outsiders. “AI’s” logics are put into relation arrayed around older, hidden systems of emotional resonance and symbolic association—and in the West, “power,” “supremacy,” “perfection” “individuality,” “liberty,” and “property” are among the most potent symbols of social attainment.

They’re built by people who hide their true goals and elide their responsibility by attributing both “objectivity” to the data and nearly ineffable powers to the “AI” itself. And these systems are built and deployed from logics which would see them work the wills of their creators and operators into the world. They’re built on logics of magic.
But the present magic of “AI” is performed on us without our input, without our knowledge, and without our consent. There’s another word for that kind of magic; binding, subjugating magic performed on you against your will is called a curse.

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Paris Marx @parismarx.com · 18/11/2023

When we warn the real threat of AI is how it’s used against people in the present, not the fantasies that some day computers might think for themselves, this is exactly the kind of thing we’re talking about: health insurers using AI to deny care. arstechnica.com/health/2023/...

UnitedHealth uses AI model with 90% error rate to deny care, lawsuit alleges
For the largest health insurer in the US, AI's error rate is like a feature, not a bug.

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Indigohan @indigohan.bsky.social · 06/11/2023

#Novellavember day 5 The amazing Voidwitch saga by @cjwhite.bsky.social Just a psychic revenge seeking space witch and her feline companion out for an adventure or three. If you love the snarky Murderbot voice, space opera, or Stranger Things, this one is for you. Bonus awesome Australian author

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Josh Melican @jmmelican.bsky.social · 30/10/2023

This feels like an endless cycle for me. The approaching dystopia outpaces my capacity to update the novel.

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Josh Melican @jmmelican.bsky.social · 14/10/2023

Once again we unfortunately discover that a coalition of the fearful, the ignorant, and the hateful is a powerful political force. I so much want to insist that Australia is better than we repeatedly reveal ourselves to be, and yet here we are.

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Emily Herring @emilyherring.bsky.social · 11/10/2023

I love this Radiohead song

A sign with a picture of a snapped tree falling onto a car which reads: CAUTION
-Dead trees are rotting
- Wings make trees unstable
-Trees are falling
-Look up; look around
- Watch where you park
-Watch where you walk

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Trevor Henderson 🍉 (commissions closed) @slimyswampghost.bsky.social · 23/09/2023

Wolf-shaped stain follows you while on a walk, ambling across every surface necessary to keep pace with you. It slips into your home as scratches in your floor, becoming the weave of your rug. The next morning it’s on your arm as a tattoo. After that is when it starts to eat.

A sidewalk with a street lamp in the foreground. A dark stain in the shape of the body of a wolf is spread out on the street, it's head impossibly continuing on the pole in the form of roughly scrawled graffiti.

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Dr. Damien P. Williams, dread portent down from a mountain cave @wolven.blacksky.app · 01/09/2023

Your periodic reminder that "human-like AI" is a near-meaningless framing with deeply ableist, sexist, racist, colonialist, eugenicist roots. Stop uncritically deploying it.

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full slack @fullslack.bsky.social · 11/09/2023

it’s a big day for small dogs who want to live on Mars for 10 hours and then die

a tweet that says “NEWS: A device inside NASA's Perseverance rover has successfully produced 122g of oxygen on Mars

Enough to support a small dog for 10 hours”

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Indy 🐧 @indecisivejones.bsky.social · 07/09/2023

me: correct me if I’m wrong- the internet: sir, we will correct you even if you’re right

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Josh Melican @jmmelican.bsky.social · 20/08/2023

Been rewatching What We Do in the Shadows recently and haven’t skipped the intro once.

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Josh Melican @jmmelican.bsky.social · 28/07/2023

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. Barbie, her chin nuzzled into her breast in an effort to escape the vile wind, slipped quickly through the glass doors of Victory Mansions…

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