iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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At the end of #BannedBooksWeek I recommend ”Burning the Books” by @richove.bsky.social, an erudite and very readable book about book censorship and destruction through the ages. My favourite book of the year. And watch “The Librarians” film directed by Kim A. Snyder, about heroic librarians.

Cover of the book titled “Burning the Books” by Richard Ovenden.

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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 22h

Some of you were asking for a tomatillo update. Here is the update: he is very handsome

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Adam Hunt 🇨🇦 @gander22h.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

So I think this is a new thing for #Ottawa, we now have both serif and sans serif waste. #recycling #garbage

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Mary Grace @emgeekay.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Here’s a few more I finished reading recently. I’ve now read everything by Aline Templeton - great mysteries set in Scotland, and by Shari Lapena, a Canadian author whose books are economical and easy to read, and all the Jackson Brodie mysteries by Kate Atkinson, which are so well written! 2/2

Covers of three books: “Death At The Sign Of The Rook” by Kate Atkinson, “Not A Happy Family” by Shari Lapena, and “Blind Eye” by Aline Templeton.

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John Picacio @johnpicacio.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

🧵 Attention, Fellow SFF Artists and Authors -- here is my response to Must Read Magazines, after they presented an Asimov's art contract expecting me to waive all Moral Rights and Copyright to my art. And, I would strongly advise the following to my fellow pros…. 1/

John Picacio’s response to Must Read Magazine’s request for his waiver of all Moral Rights and Copyright of his commissioned art for an ASIMOV’S assignment. Short version — Picacio says a resounding NOPE.

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Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Interesting case of fraud by making automated songs then automated accounts to stream them, pocketing $8M in revenue. Few/no real listeners were diverted to listen to the GenAI songs, but the funds he pocketed drank from a zero sum revenue pool that meant real musicians were paid less.

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 17/08/2026

1. Recently I’ve received lots of emails from people I don’t know personally, asking for my feedback on their books or papers. They explain the connection between my work and theirs and ask me to take a look. The catch, of course, is that the emails are transparently, obviously, written by AI.

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Kevin Aiello @kevinaiello.com · 08/10/2026

Read my first piece of Elizabeth Bear fiction (“The Job”) in @clarkesworldmagazine.com issue 241, and you can immediately see why she’s such a respected SF writer: a captivating, imaginative, moving piece of work.

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Matt Binder @mattbinder.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

the tech industry is about to invent books

Andrew Yeung
@andruyeung
X.com
We created gyms because modern day work no
longer required physical activity. Without exercise,
our muscles atrophy.
I predict we'll need gyms for our brains too, once Al
starts doing our knowledge work.
10:53 PM • 10/4/26 • 1.3M Views

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Steve Mullis @stevemullis.net · 05/10/2026

[car dealership waiting room] Me: [chanting] knobs, knobs- Other car buyers: knobs, KNOBS Car salesman: [pounding desk] KNOBS, KNOBS, KNOBS!

forbes.com

Knobs Returning To Some Automakers’ Vehicles, To The Relief Of Many

Auto companies are listening to the complaints of consumers, who want their knobs and buttons back.

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Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

New YouGov. Trump unpopularity in Europe: Denmark: -91% Germany: -78% Italy: -76% UK: -75% Spain: -74% France: -67% And it’s getting worse.

Chart showing Trump unpopularity in Europe.

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Mark Harris @markharris.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I'm two episodes into East of Eden and this is the best limited series I've seen since Adolescence. It's real filmmaking, serious writing, and storytelling that has been carefully thought-through at every step.

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David Simon @audacityofdespair.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

The Jesus that I personally encountered -- and he was right where I expected, on the 3rd baseline, box seats, garbed in a Gunnar jersey, sipping a Natty -- looked like a Jewish rabbinical student, bookish, but with a keen grasp of how the infield-fly rule is necessary to bind together the universe.

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

New, deluxe Ace paperback of Neuromancer, released to ~ coincide with the upcoming Apple series. Very nice cover design by Adam Auerbach.

Photo of cover. Text runs vertically. Pink background. Man running.

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Tom R. Pike @tomrpike.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

A cool thing to do if you're anxious about AI is read "Conscience", which is about a planet-spanning AI brain that keeps people alive inside itself to act as its conscience. You can tell your therapist that, for some reason, you thought this would help

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Clarkesworld @clarkesworldmagazine.com · 01/10/2026

It all started on this day. Thank you for a wonderful twenty years.

Text in the center reads: 20 Years Oct. 2006 - Oct. 2026, clarkesworldmagazine.com

(right) Cover art for issue 241 by Marcel Deneuve is "Labyrinths of Azarax" and features a blue and white mechanical eye in a circular opening looking at a small, white, glowing humanoid figure standing on a large pipe in the tunnel. Many pipes line the walls, all heading out to the main room. Pipes are yellow and gray. Room beyond is blue.

(left) Cover art for issue 1 by Tomasz Pietrzyk is "The Town of the Towers" and features a surreal town of yellowy white distorted towers with reddish orange roofs that overhang the towers and rise to a point. Mishapen dark windows and doors are scattered about on the buildings. Orange sky gives the entire piece a warm tone.

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Amal El-Mohtar @amalelmohtar.com · 29/09/2026

John Wilson’s THE HISTORY OF CONCRETE is riveting & utterly wonderful & I feel like my brain’s spiderwebbed into sixteen different fascinations

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Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 29/09/2026

Reuters got some of the IPO docs. Anthropic is a total dog of a company. Spent $12.6bn to make $4.6bn in revenue in 2025, $7.33bn of which was compute costs. Operating loss of $8bn. Losses getting worse year over year. Amazing stuff www.reuters.com/business/fin...

Summary
Companies
• Anthropic IPO could value the company at more than $2
trillion
• Anthropic lost $42 billion in 2025
• Al lab spent $7.33 billion on compute and infrastructure last year
• Operating loss widened to $8.06 billion in 2025 from $2.98 billion in 2024
• Execs, industry analysts have expressed concerns over harms of Al tech
Sept 28 (Reuters) - Anthropic is making a massive bet that Al will transform the global economy more profoundly than industrialization, electricity and the internet, according to its IPO prospectus seen by Reuters.
But the cost to get there will be staggering. Anthropic reported a net loss of $42 billion in 2025, and plans to spend $518 billion on cloud, computing and infrastructure obligations in coming year, according to the
prospectus.

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Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 28/09/2026

The GFC, much like the AI bubble, was nothing to do with reality, but ever-twisting levels of speculation. Too much of our financial system is powered by number games dressed up as investment.

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R.S.A. Garcia (BUY THE NIGHTWARD) @rsagarcia.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I know I haven't updated in a while. There's been a lot going on. - My calcium levels are still worrying. - My eye scans aren't good. - I have to get a CT scan soon. I need help to pay for everything to be done privately. Any amount would be helpful. Thanks. www.gofundme.com/f/help-r-s-a...

gofundme.com

Donate to Help R. S. A. Garcia Pay for Cancer Expenses, organized by Arula Ratnakar

Hi everyone, I'm Rhonda, also known as R. S. A. Garcia, a speculative … Arula Ratnakar needs your support for Help R. S. A. Garcia Pay for Cancer Expenses

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Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

A couple of thoughtful #MindscapePodcast listeners have set up useful web pages for those who want to dig into the vast trove of past discussions. Summary here: www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll...

patreon.com

New Useful Web Pages | Sean Carroll

Listener Andy Jiang has thoughtfully set up a web site where anyone can search through all the AMAs: http://mindscapesear.ch/ Meanwhile Max

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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

This is extraordinarily well written.

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Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦 @dbcurren.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

“For #Habermas the deeper problem isn’t the resulting noise; it’s that heavy #platform use produces something smaller than a #public: semi-public spheres, self-enclosed, #silos whose members can no longer perceive the wider public sphere as inclusive at all …”

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Josh Gondelman @joshgondelman.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

This is one of those times when I really wish I was a people!!!

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Blake Leyh @earlofedgecombe.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

There's a big Nor'easter storm about to hit here in Westchester and the sky is INSANE!

Sunset over a suburban neighborhood. The sky is electric orange.

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Larry Anderson @larand.one · 25/09/2026

Just unfollowed someone in tech whom I’ve followed for years because he’s apparently turned into a shill for AI. I can only assume he’s suffered a brain injury, and wish him a speedy recovery.

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Solomon @solomonrmissouri.com · 24/09/2026

lol lol lol lol lol lol lol

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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Now in 16 US states, but not mine, so I’m getting one for the road. Bye for now, Canada, I’ll always come back.

Photo of a bag of Tim Hortons and iced coffee at the airport

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Shaily Patel @vox-magica.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

i hate that i can’t enjoy cute animal videos without wondering if they’re AI. i’m getting better at checking, but damn, way to ruin one of the few good things on the internet.

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David Sirota @davidsirota.com · 23/09/2026

I found the ultimate enshittification scheme: My cellphone carrier Xfinity Mobile is suddenly now allowing 30+ spam calls to my cell phone, and is offering a spam-call filter…for an extra fee. They are literally making a business out of enshittifying basic cellphone service.

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Dan Margolies @danmargolies.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Just finished @lkatfield.bsky.social's superb _Furious Minds_. Nuanced & engaged deep exploration of the post-liberalism, theocratic lunacy, and (in a great and accurate phrasing) the "Schmittian filth" of the Trumpist intellectuals who are laboring to destroy democracy here.

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Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 22/09/2026

As discussed a few weeks ago, SoftBank portfolio company SB Energy has signed $439 billion in business with SoftBank portfolio company OpenAI, which is also an investor in SB Energy, as well as its largest (and only real) client. It has now pulled its IPO. www.wheresyoured.at/premium-the-...

https://www.wheresyoured.at/premium-the-haters-guide-to-circular-financing-part-two/#:~:text=To%20summarize%2C%20SoftBank

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Caryn Rose @carynrose.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

No one wants to use your fucking AI and putting it first so someone hits it by accident doesn’t count

The new layout on insta when you go to add a story to your feed now has the fucking ai that none of us want to use in the first spot instead of add to story

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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

The Coltrane estate advertised this on their instagram account. Couldn’t resist. Edited by Ravi Coltrane.

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J. Elvis Weinstein @jelvisweinstein.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I had a couple walk out early in my show on Saturday night because, according to the manager, the guy said "I'm not going to watch some fucking Jew." Fair enough, but to be that anti-semitic yet still buying a ticket to see a guy named J. Elvis Weinstein just seems like bush league hate.

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Amal El-Mohtar @amalelmohtar.com · 21/09/2026

this has honestly made my day!

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Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

The world’s largest battery-electric aircraft flew for the first time on the 12th of August, a 27-minute test flight over upstate New York that cost about five dollars in electricity. Heart Aerospace’s 30-seat prototype is a big step toward a commercial version. buff.ly/i3f0PhR #ShareGoodNewsToo

techspot.com

The largest all-electric plane ever flew for 27 minutes, on $5 of electricity

Heart's X1 demonstrator flew for 27 minutes from a regional airport in upstate New York, running on battery power the entire time. The aircraft reached 1,100 feet...

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William Gibson @greatdismal.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Wild Thing, I think I love you

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 19/09/2026

we eatin

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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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Lukas Hermsmeier @lukashermsmeier.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

happy birthday, occupy wall street! i wasnt there but i owe you my being

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Gil Durán @gilduran.com · 18/09/2026

Welp, now we know who their other clients are. As I've been saying, the tech fascists are buying up Democratic consultants by the bushel. They have enough money to *BUY BOTH SIDES* Time to burn out the rot and build a party that serves the people, not the billionaires.

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Stephen Boisvert 🇨🇦 🟦⭐⭐⭐⭐🟦 @srboisvert.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I've been saying for a while that we have actually invented a new form of pollution. We had epistemological pollution before AI but now it is self-propagating, well camouflaged, evasive and worst of all welcomed and beloved by the rich and the stupid.

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🏳️‍🌈 Rye 💚 @ryedog.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

It takes a million good people to make positive societal change and three awful people with a million dollars to destroy it

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Kevin Aiello @kevinaiello.com · 18/09/2026

An incredible piece about awful AI slop; just horrendous stuff going on, as detailed in the article.

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Daniel Abraham @abraham.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

One of the great lessons I have learned is that status ladders are largely illusions. Someone can objectively reach the absolute commanding heights of power, fame, and authority and still be a total fucking loser. Someone can be firmly among the despised and still be a class act.

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Zach Weinersmith @zachweinersmith.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Today was the first time I've seen people claim they uprated their belief in the supernatural *in response* to current machine learning tech. I continue to wonder if we are in a time when brand new ideologies and religions will be formed. The strange bedfellows in ai doom fears are perhaps prologue.

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