iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Stephen Lurie @luriethereal.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

It is such a friggin bummer to be listening to something about the fundamental human stuff — like Heavyweight — and hear AI ad after AI ad during the breaks. Those companies value the opposite of what you value!!!

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Stephen Lurie @luriethereal.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

a friend just sent me this absolutely incredible artifact in a Whole Foods

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OUR CORE VALUES WE CREATE WEALTH
- THROUGH
一
PROFITS & Growth

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Stephen Lurie @luriethereal.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

If Zohran fixes Exit 31, I’m pretty sure he could become lifetime mayor.

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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Tech industry is laser focused on solving the problem of humans enjoying each other’s company bsky.app/profile/down...

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Stephen Lurie @luriethereal.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

yes other subway systems experience delays, but only in the richest city in the history of humankind do we experience such an absolutely deranged variety of delays, for really no reason other than decades of institutional rot 😎😎😎

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Stephen Lurie @luriethereal.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

instead of using AI, could you ask a friend? luriethereal.substack.com/p/the-friend...

It is good for the bad people that the people interested in the quality of human life would rather do anything else than write and talk more about AI. I really do not want to be writing this - I have spent months avoiding writing this. But it seems I want, even more, some kind of clarity for myself and people-loving-people that the bad guys really hope we don't find. Up to this point the technofascists and AI evangelists have been very clear about their hopes for the total domination of automation over human life.
Most of the rest of us have acquired a queasiness to data centers - and then "asked" Claude about home remedies for nausea. 1

Part of the challenge of confronting a new technology is figuring out how
confrontational we ought to be. The poles of the issue here are clear — all Al is good to the powerful AI capitalists and all Al is bad for the powerless new luddites - but most of us are neither the masters of the economy nor looking to leave it. As individuals, and as the largest group, we have choices to make about how we want technology to change us.
And there hasn't been much by way of rules, categories, litmus tests, or typologies to guide us.
Without ways to distinguish what is good and bad, moral and immoral behavior, desirable and undesirable outcomes, it is hard to have a politics. And in the absence of an oppositional politics to Al specifically, the AI capitalists are blessed to advance their ideology against a field free of coherent opposition.

On the interpersonal level, however, we are already choosing, nearly everywhere at all times, to embrace Al or embrace the human.
These choices have seemed, for many, to be devilishly difficult. They appear to involve weighing the immediacy of individual convenience against a gamut of longer term or social effects. How should an average person act if they both think that life in the permanent underclass of the post-nuclear war oligarchy seems bad and they want to occasionally find a useful piece of travel advice? What's a normie to do if they don't want a beige world of Wall-E idiots, but also sometimes want to create a picture of their dog playing a wind instrument? How should one weigh the immediate convenience of an edited cover letter against eventual cognitive decline?

I do not have a comprehensive answer. But in these many months of avoiding this blog, I do believe I've figured out an urgent and useful idea for anyone considering yet another Al query:
Instead of using Al, could you ask a friend?
By friend, I mean friend - and also partner, family member, coworker, acquaintance or even barista, teller, neighbor, person next to you on the bus. Your actual friends may be easiest, but the principle applies to any real person that you could potentially ask for help.
I think this Friend Test is urgent because help is a vital social muscle, and one that's extremely vulnerable to atrophy. Asking for

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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.

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Stephen Lurie @luriethereal.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

came up with “one weird trick” to help normal people figure out their AI use — hope it helps!!! luriethereal.substack.com/p/the-friend...

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jon christian @jonchristian.net · 27/09/2026

babe wake up we're vaping B12s now

vegan-branded vapes that provide B12 vitamine? who even knows

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Stephen Lurie @luriethereal.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

A month ago while watching Furious (2026), I saw a post on here about a five person fight scene and thought “wow that’s an unexpected direction for this show!” and then, last night, I watched The Furious (2025) and reached enlightenment.

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Stephen Lurie @luriethereal.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I kept on reading this as an outlet grasping to break news, but no, this is an outlet referring to itself as a person who read another outlet

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Stephen Lurie @luriethereal.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Truly crazy how fast the “AI is actually good for people loving their best lives!!” talking points disappeared once the companies realizes they could just sell cost-cutting to bosses and slop to people

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Stephen Lurie @luriethereal.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Student Evil -> Resident Evil -> Fellow Evil -> Attending Evil

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Stephen Lurie @luriethereal.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

chat is cognitive surrender good

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Stephen Lurie @luriethereal.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

the mythical swing voter IS out there and is driving the Blue Lives Matter x Mental Health Matters Volkswagen

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Stephen Lurie @luriethereal.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

There is a truck (among many!) in my neighborhood that’s been illegally parked for ~6 months, half blocking bike lane. 311 reports & CM help goes nowhere — DSNY says truck is too big for them and refers to NYPD, who hasn’t removed. Anyone know how to solve this?? @transalt.org @nyc.streetsblog.org

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Stephen Lurie @luriethereal.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

starting a new philanthropy where we give microgrants to…millionaires…so that they…actually vote?

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Stephen Lurie @luriethereal.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

In light of this week’s news @jewishcurrents.bsky.social that some Jewish schools are sending their students to protest the mayor, I’ve updated the chart. You’ll be surprised to hear, however, they didn’t protest Eric Adams! jewishcurrents.org/jewish-high-...

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Stephen Lurie @luriethereal.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

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Stephen Lurie @luriethereal.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

🎶 So we put our hands up 🎶 Like Ed Sheeran can’t hold us 🎶 Like Ed Sheeran can’t hold us

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Stephen Lurie @luriethereal.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

pretty wild that in a society that otherwise idealizes law enforcement we’ve also completely normalized a vast counterintelligence operation against the enforcement of law!

Police ahead notification on Google Maps

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David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

It's Monday, so a deeply compromised Kirsten Gillibrand is trying to enable Trump fraud www.politico.com/live-updates...

politico.com

Gillibrand privately urges Dems to advance crypto bill

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's posture on the legislation puts her at odds with progressives in her party.

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Stephen Lurie @luriethereal.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I’m at the data center I’m at my newly renovated home I’m at the combination — wait you’re telling me I live in a partitioned square of a windowless warehouse

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Stephen Lurie @luriethereal.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

For every +1 decade of age, the earliest hour of Texting With the Fellas* reduces by -1 *gender neutral

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Stephen Lurie @luriethereal.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

the left (derogatory) vs. liberals (also derogatory)

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Stephen Lurie @luriethereal.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

much more mundane is the very real, present, terrible effect of AI stopping people from asking their friends for help

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Stephen Lurie @luriethereal.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

if “wokeness” is maligned as persnickety, doctrinaire commitment to a myth in the face of the real world around us…well that’s a pretty good description of Trump Worship!

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William Lawrence @wewill2026.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

We’re doing politics differently—and that doesn’t change after election day. My priority is putting the people of Mid Michigan first, and @nytimes.com captured me in the district doing that. Our campaign is about making life better for Michiganders, not enriching politicians and billionaires.

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Stephen Lurie @luriethereal.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

we bandy about “humiliation ritual” but using the coaching teams at the US Open as billboards for dog food/mattresses/AI grifts is truly humbling stuff

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Stephen Lurie @luriethereal.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Should Christian Politicians Attend Thanksgiving Day Parades? A Violent History Raises Questions

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Stephen Lurie @luriethereal.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

the fella personality test is which combination of these apps you have — RaRe (nepo hedonist), SuSt (tech optimizer), RaSu (adjunct prof), ReStRa (gen z), etc.

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Stephen Lurie @luriethereal.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

people saying “sending all my love”… like … shouldn’t you keep some in the strategic reserve?

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Stephen Lurie @luriethereal.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

The Content Industrial Complex has gravely injured serendipity

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Stephen Lurie @luriethereal.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

yea sure make up the whole thing who the fuck cares what’s the point of living even

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Stephen Lurie @luriethereal.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

had no idea “highbrow” was literally about brows as in race science of head shapes

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Stephen Lurie @luriethereal.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

no one who uses the phrase “looking for my partner in crime” has ever engaged in a criminal conspiracy smdh how do they think that works

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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

It's bizarre but telling that the media pushes the "Dem candidates have an antisemitism problem" when Republican candidates are unironically doing the "my grandad died in world war 2 he fell out of a guard tower" joke.

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Stephen Lurie @luriethereal.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

whom amongst us can stop barack obama from posting on linkedin

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Stephen Lurie @luriethereal.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

I think we should all get credit for thinking about chores in the same way that congresspeople get credit for introducing bills

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Eli Valley @elivalley.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

The Simon Wiesenthal Center *literally blessed* Donald Trump while he was ushering Nazis into the government. The organization condemned anti-fascist Jews for using a Yiddish anti-fascist slogan. To pretend they represent anything but a fascist fringe is absurd.

Variety
@Variety
Mark Ruffalo Called Out Over 'Extremist and Antisemitic Messaging' by Simon Wiesenthal Center, Creative Communities For Peace
From variety.com
4:24 PM · Aug 23, 2026
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Stephen Lurie @luriethereal.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Excited to announce I am bringing back the 90s newsletter — produced in the original WordPerfect and printed on trifold orange, purple, or green paper. Chock-full of local happenings of minimal importance. You can only get it at the book fair or front desk or, this time, by paying me $30/month.

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Stephen Lurie @luriethereal.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Q: What’s the term in India for when a cyclist is experiencing an equipment problem? . . . . . . . . A: Sag Pannier

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