iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Moonrise over downtown Seattle imaged from Alki Beach

Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

"Computers can't think" Okay, and container ships can't "swim," but who cares? If I want my 10,000 TEU container units delivered across the Pacific, I'm not going to hire a human to do that just because the human has a better breaststroke.

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Uh huh. And you think the people who (wrongly) insisted that photographs and video games weren't Art knew they were in a reactionary moral panic? Of course not! They thought their criticisms were as definitional and artistically valid as you seem to think criticism of AI-generated art is now.

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I can completelly see why someone in the 1800's would say a human *didn't* make a photograph (the camera did). Especially when your point of reference is painting. But that was ultimately wrong and silly. So too will it be about people who insist that artists who use AI aren't actually artists.

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

*We* see photographers as making creative decisions *now*. That wasn't necessarily true ~200 years ago. Well, artists today don't seem to think that the artists who use AI to create art are actually making creative artistic decisions (even though, just like photographers, they very much are)

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

That's almost exactly what people were saying a ~200 years ago about why photography can't be art. "Oh you took a photo? What artistic decission did you make? How to set up the camera? How long to open the lens? [Scoff] That's not creativity, that's the camera doing the work for you" 🙄

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

If you get the joke, congratulations, it means that...

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

This as a tattoo for my right hand would *rule*.

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

You really need a resin printer for something like this.

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Took my first ride in a #Waymo . It was remarkably unremarkable. Which is the whole point of good automation!

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

True, but there was probably an element of a strategic bluff to this idea. Even if studies showed nuclear missiles on the moon aren't the optimal use of defense funds, there is value in showing the soviets that we were even *thinking* about it, and forcing them to factor that into their plans.

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Nobody told me the Space Needle was a ⚽️ now!

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

"One must imagine Sisyphus with a civil engineering degree."

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Unironically, paintings like this by Bryan Larsen is how I feel about engineering sometimes: Confronting the arbitrary limits and punishments that petty people/gods have placed upon humanity, and saying "Oh, that? Yeah, we fixed that." www.bryanlarsenart.com

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

There is nothing scientific about whatever chain of reasoning is getting you from "Climate change is bad and we should fix it" to "Let's firebomb a datacenter"

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

While you're firebombing a building, could you also smash some of those newfangled looms all the kids are talking about? That will be just as helpful. 🙄

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Flying around Mt. St. Helens. I don't think enough people realize that the lakes here are *still* filled with dead trees from the explosion 46 years ago. Stuff's just got nowhere to go!

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Not free, and not magic. Just good engineering. And not carbon negative, just carbon neutral.

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

I know this isn't how it seems in the BlueSky bubble, but AI use also not really a "tech bro" thing. Globally, there are about as many AI users as iPhone users. You may not *like* AI, and that's fine. But it's a very normal thing now, and you shouldn't dismiss that.

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Retire and replace them. SpaceX has been doing that for years with Starlink.

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Not really. Not a lot of people willing to buy sequestered carbon as a service. But cheap methane that also just happens to be carbon neutral? That's a market.

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Nope. Earth is amazing! And it gets more amazing the more humans there are with access to more tools and more power to do more amazing things with it.

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

I don't feel that way. I think the internet is amazing, and the infrastructure that supports it is a modern miracle. But I acknowledge that you don't feel that way, and that a lot of other people don't. That's why so many of us are trying to make the engineering work for space based datacenters.

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

That image is a simulation of a hypothetical constelation spread out over a wide range of inclinations. In reality, the vast majority of these proposed satellites are in the 6AM-6PM sun synchronous orbit, and won't even be visible to surveys that can't work until after astronomical twilight.

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

The question isn't "good or bad?". There are only tradeoffs here. Forecasts call for needing to ~100x our planet's total compute in the next decade. We can only build so many mega-datacenters on the ground so fast before people object. But in orbit? One approval authority, ~unlimited scaling.

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

1 million satellites actually. And that is awesome! A glimmering circle of compute at sunrise and sunset.

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

Common misconception. bsky.app/profile/maxf...

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

Funny you should mention that...

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

Space is cooling ~10,000 of these satellites right now.

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

I promise you, the people who built and operate ~10,000 of these satellites understand 4th grade science just fine. College and graduate-level science too.

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

JWST and Spitzer have to work at around -200 °C. These proposed satellites can work at 60-80 °C. Radiator efficiency goes up with T^4 This can and does work.

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

No. Where did you hear that?

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

Our crew. We get to meet *our crew*. 6 years ago, I started this new job because I missed the challenge of human spaceflight. Of engineering for our crew. *Our* crew. And we get to meet them in an hour!!!!

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

We've been over this Mike. Drop the "lol, you can't cool stuff in space" like it's some sort of dunk. There are pleanty of good reasons to be skeptical of datacenters in space, but this just isn't one of them. bsky.app/profile/maxf...

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

Fyi, on almost all spacecraft, solar panels are their own radiators. They radiate the unconverted insolation from their own backplane.

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Eh, still more actionable than "follow your dreams".

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

Come on down and find me at #AlaskaAviation day at SeaTac today! We've got planes! PLANES! MOAR PLANES!

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Again: It's fine to be skeptical of AI. I know I am. But if your AI skepticism is anchored in how AI is portrayed in science fiction, then you are basically calibrating your fears based on page rankings on TV Tropes. Science fiction is *not* science precedent.

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Back of the envelope, what fraction of AI fears are built on science fiction tropes, rather than an informed understanding of the actual tech? Science fiction is not science precedent. HAL goes bad in 2001 for the same reason Athena saves humanity in A Time Odyssey: It makes for a good story.

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Nah. We already solved that threat. It's called Google Translate.

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Huh. Claude has figured out that I don't want it to be flattering and affirming. That conclusion is accurate. But also very... flattering and affirming 😅

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

"No no, I don't think you quite understand. I said 'Tower', not 'Meower'. And no, I don't think the FAA would approve of doing that with a laser pointer. Also, I don't think you are taking this flight briefing very seriously."

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

The perfect iPad space wallpaper does not exi...

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

Where we came from and where we're going, together in the sky. What a time to be alive. 🌓🌍

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

This weird looking object Orion is pointing at is an International Docking System Standard Centerline Docking Target (IDSS CDT), Rev E. It's not just cool looking, there is a lot of information embedded in the geometry that a pilot can use. Print your own here! www.printables.com/model/143055...

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Max Fagin @maxfagin.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

The LROC Quickmap website exists, is free, and anyone can use it to make pretty much any map that you would want of any dataset covering any portion of the lunar surface. quickmap.lroc.im-ldi.com

quickmap.lroc.im-ldi.com

QuickMap

LROC QuickMap, a powerful map interface to browse Lunar data from NASA/LRO and other missions. Explore the Moon in both 2D and 3D. Developed by Applied Coherent Technology and customized for the LROC ...

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