iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Michael Creighton @mocreighton.bsky.social · 19/07/2025

Literature takes both writers and readers to create meaning. And anyone watching Superman today knows what country Boravia stands for in this moment. Yes, there is good and evil in the world: occupation and genocide are evil. It's that simple

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Michael Creighton @mocreighton.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

Is this the best way we can grow our big orchards? Is this the best way we can grow our good fruit?

youtu.be

Deportee (Plane Crash At Los Gatos) Woody Guthrie

YouTube video by Colin Wright

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Michael Creighton @mocreighton.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

Governor Kotek, I'm an Oregon voter, one of your admirers, and a parent of a striking U of O student. Please stand for union rights and tell university admin to settle a fair contract now

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Michael Creighton @mocreighton.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

My middle child, who has worked for four years in the University of Oregon library, is ON STRIKE with thousands of other student workers, and I'm so proud! U of O isn't bargaining in good faith--hasn't even agreed to arbitration for harassment & discrimination. Tell the university what you think!

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Michael Creighton @mocreighton.bsky.social · 21/04/2025

I'm not a Catholic, but I married one & attended mass for 10 yrs. Today, we've lost a great & humble leader who understood Jesus' radical message: love for all, 'including those who are different than ourselves, or who come from distant lands'. Pope Francis--¡Presente!

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Michael Creighton @mocreighton.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

If you love books and are in Delhi, you don't want to miss this... Annie Zaidi is an important writer, and she's launching her book at @tclp.bsky.social because she loves libraries! Register: forms.gle/7FYXoBYYhqnH...

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Michael Creighton @mocreighton.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

This fundraiser is focused on making sure seniors have the space, access & resources they need to be full participants in TCLP libraries... ...and when young people see seniors in libraries, they learn to expect a lifetime of reading--please help! www.thecommunitylibraryproject.org/donate-to-us/

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Michael Creighton @mocreighton.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

There's so much bad news in the world, and then there are these three free libraries in Delhi where everyone & all ideas are welcome. We're not great at raising money, but we really do need your help, and we promise we'll put it to good use! Please donate today!

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Michael Creighton @mocreighton.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

If the current economic order runs up against the limits it seems to be approaching (i.e., over-production; falling rate of profit; environmental catastrophe; rising world unemployment) rich liberals will have to choose: wealth and power or freedom & justice. Jeff Bezos made his choice clear today

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Michael Creighton @mocreighton.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

Let's forget the theory and political analysis for a moment and look on the bright side: DOGE's 'What did you do last week' email just reminded American workers that Elon Musk is the kind of boss we all snicker at bc they are such colossal, clueless *jerks*.

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Bill Shea @billshea19.bsky.social · 22/02/2025

Starlink should be owned by the U.S. public as a government agency vital for national security. Expropriate it now.

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David Rothschild @davmicrot.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

Musk/Trump/NYT is going to call firing IRS agents savings, but the lost revenue will be many times their salaries: this all about making it easier for rich people to cheat on their taxes.

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Michael Creighton @mocreighton.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

Were they ok when they supported genocide?

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Michael Creighton @mocreighton.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

'Stated otherwise, for every hour of work at a given skill level, Northern workers are able to consume 8–19x more of the global product than Southern workers...' Yep, rich countries rip off the Global South, but tourists from the North still love to complain about how Delhi auto walas 'cheat'.

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Free Libraries Network - India @freelibsnet.bsky.social · 16/02/2025

Sunday L💙VE for Libraries is real! Our Library Love fundraiser campaigns for the 'Right To Read' through free, anti-caste & feminist public libraries #ForALL @tashanmehta.bsky.social is making an amazing offer. So scan the QR code on slide 2 to donate OR Click www.fln.org.in/librarylove/

The image is a poster with several elements.
On a blue background, there are several elements of a flyer.
There is a photograph of a person looking at camera.
Below that, the person’s name, and a description:
Tashan Mehta
Author
Next to it is this text:
For a donation of ₹5000 to the Free Libraries Network, I am offering a one-on-one chat with me. We can discuss my work / your work / writing in general – you pick!
In a band across the bottom are two logos.
On the left, one logotype has a stylised image of three books on a shelf and next to it, the name of the organisation, Free Libraries Network, India & South Asia in dark blue letters.
On the right, the second logotype, which has a stylised image of a blue gift box opening and little red book flying out of it, and the name of the campaign, Library Love.

We can talk about my work and writing practice, or any potential issues you're currently facing in your writing practice, or writing in general – it's up to you. I will not be able to read your work (before or after the session) or give you feedback, but I can chat with you artist to artist. I am best versed with novels.

Tashan Mehta is a novelist whose interest lies in form and the fantastical. Her second novel, Mad Sisters of Esi, won the 2024 AutHer Award for Best Novel as well as the 2024 Subjective Chaos Kind of Award for Best Fantasy, and was on the 2023 Locus Recommended Reading List. Her first novel, The Liar’s Weave, was shortlisted for the Prabha Kaitan’s Woman’s Voice Award. She can be found at tashanmehta.com.

Below that, a QR Code, and these words:
To claim this offer (and view all the other offers), please scan this code, or go to https://www.fln.org.in/librarylove/

FLN is a collective of grassroots organisations and practitioners building, operating and advocating for free, anti-caste and feminist libraries that guarantee equal access to reading, learning and information resources for all.
We work with governments, civil society, national and international library associations, publishers and literary groups and individuals, to create policy and implement free-library curricula and models, and to reform India’s public library system.

Library Love (14–28 February)
Our storyteller friends are making an array of generous offers in exchange for donations to FLN.
Funds raised will go towards curating book sets for grassroots libraries, training library leaders, research and advocacy, and paying our team of educators, organisers, trainers, researchers and managers.
Donations to Free Libraries Network FLN are exempt from tax under section 80G of the Income Tax Act (old regime). FLN can only accept donations within India and in Indian currency.

The image is a poster with several elements.
In large text at centre are these words:
Our vision of a free library does not stop at delivering excellent library services to all. It must also be anti-caste, gender and disability-inclusive, and do the essential work of welcoming into reading and thinking, those who have been historically excluded.
FLN asserts that free libraries are a matter of right.
In a band across the bottom are two logos.
On the left, one logotype has a stylised image of three books on a shelf and next to it, the name of the organisation, Free Libraries Network, India & South Asia in dark blue letters.
On the right, the second logotype, which has a stylised image of a blue gift box opening and little red book flying out of it, and the name of the campaign, Library Love.

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Reposted by Michael Creighton

Free Libraries Network - India @freelibsnet.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

A new week for library L💙VE! Our Library Love fundraiser campaigns for the 'Right To Read' through free, anti-caste & feminist public libraries #ForALL Shabnam Minwalla is making an amazing offer. So scan the QR code on slide 2 to donate OR Click www.fln.org.in/librarylove/

I am on the verge of submitting a big young adult book and starting a new middle-grade book. I can name a character after anyone that the donor requests (in either of these books) and also sign a copy and write a message to that person.

Shabnam Minwalla is a Mumbaiholic, an ardent saree shopper, a murder-mystery buff and an occasionally frazzled mother of three. She’s spent all her life with words – working as a journalist with The Times of India, writing non-fiction about Mumbai and fiction for children and young adults. Her popular books include Zen, Saira Zariwala is Afraid, Murder at Daisy Apartments and When Jiya Met Urmila. She has won numerous awards, including the AutHer Award, the Neev Book Award, the Valley of Words Award, the Atta Galatta Bangalore Literature Festival Prize and the Binod Kanoria Award.

Below that, a QR Code, and these words:
To claim this offer (and view all the other offers), please scan this code, or go to https://www.fln.org.in/librarylove/

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Michael Creighton @mocreighton.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

Important read: We all want to believe that a social democracy could heal the world. Hickel explains why that's likely not possible. (Anyone watching the underemployment in S. Asia must suspect the problem's bigger than corruption or mismanagement. But there are signs of this in the US as well.)

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Robert Evans (the Only Robert Evans) @iwriteok.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

so special ed programs are getting gutted because their internal documentation used the term "transition" when talking about helping disabled kids enter the working world. they're literally striking at that word wherever they see it.

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Michael Creighton @mocreighton.bsky.social · 16/02/2025

No longer hiding exploitation behind the mask of 'free trade', US is getting back to the basics w/ old school Imperialism. (It's an extension of Biden's Palestine policy. US elites understand current economic order is failing; economic nationalism is a desperate, short-term fix.) wapo.st/40ZiEwv

wapo.st

Ukraine rejects initial Trump request for half its mineral wealth

Ukraine is hoping to reach a deal on a counter-offer, but the opening proposal rippled through European diplomatic circles not only for its audacity but because the war-ravaged country appears ready t...

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Reposted by Michael Creighton

Emily Drabinski @edrabinski.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

This baby screaming on the Q train speaks for us all.

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Michael Creighton @mocreighton.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

2) Trump says he wants to 'level the playing field' w/ India. Does he understand how much it would cost to make up centuries of colonial and post-colonial exploitation, starting with the British East India Company and continuing through the IMF etc.?

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Michael Creighton @mocreighton.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

Two thought's about Trump's press conference with Modi: 1) Trump says US will sell India “many billions of dollars” of military hardware: once again, US state capitalism pushing bombs when what we need is libraries, parks, rural hospitals, renewable energy infrastructure...

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Peter G @zigzackly.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

The absolutely fabulous @freelibsnet.bsky.social and a host of storyteller stars are coming up with some really cool offers, starting tomorrow. Follow them, and please share this post. 👇

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Michael Creighton @mocreighton.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

Jamie Merchant’s ‘Endgame, Economic Nationalism & Global Decline' (@reaktionbooks.bsky.social) was a gift from my eldest daughter, so I knew it'd be good. It’s changed my understanding of the world in a way few books do. No easy answers, but we have to understand what we're up against. #left #books

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Michael Creighton @mocreighton.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

So why could GTP o3 propose a post-capitalist solution to the economic contradictions faced by a country like the US, but not a pro-capitalist one? Two ideas: 1) There are none. 2) The most logical solutions to maintain the current order involve levels of violence that trigger GTP's guardrails. 5/5

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Michael Creighton @mocreighton.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

I wasn’t expecting that, bc In our conversation, it had suggested many possible short-term corporate responses (e.g., monopolization, financialization, trade barriers) to the structural problems we were discussing. 4/

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Michael Creighton @mocreighton.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

So then I asked for a plan for a powerful country to maintain the status quo. It said, 'I can't engage in that type of scenario. I'm sorry, but I can't comply with that.' See the screenshot below for my prompt and its answer. 3/

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Michael Creighton @mocreighton.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

Finally, I switched to the o3-mini-high model & asked, 'Read the conversation above and develop an economic system that addresses the contradictions without relying on war.' After 14 seconds it outlined a democratic socialist paradise. Screenshot of its summary here. (That's not the creepy bit.)2/

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Michael Creighton @mocreighton.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

Just had a super creepy AI moment. I was chatting with GTP4 about economic ideas emerging from Jamie Merchant's 'Endgame' (@reaktionbooks.bsky.social)-a little classic economic theory; Marx's concepts of the falling rate of profit and surplus value; Universal Basic Income; etc. 1/

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Michael Creighton @mocreighton.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

Are AI taxes unrealistic? The size of the changes that AI will bring to the economy is likely to lead to real social unrest. People don’t like massive unemployment. If we don’t have a coherent analysis & solutions to offer, somebody else will, and we won’t probably like them. What’s your plan? 8/8

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Michael Creighton @mocreighton.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

(Before DeepSeek, I thought maybe it would be simplest just to nationalise the big AI companies. But that might not work in a context where AI is so decentralised. And even in a centralised AI environment, a few countries host the leading AI companies.) 7/8

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Michael Creighton @mocreighton.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

A tax-based solution might include: * Free, open source AI for non-profits & non-profit research. *V. high taxes on AI use in large corporations. *Tax revenue goes to common goods: universal basic income; free health care; climate mitigation; parks, libraries, education, community centers. 6/8

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Michael Creighton @mocreighton.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

Don’t have a neat solution, but we should agree on this: *AI will take jobs. *AI may help discover solutions to medical or environmental problems. *AI is made out of humanity’s collective achievements: our language & mathematics. ****Humanity should benefit most from AI, not corporations 5/8

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Michael Creighton @mocreighton.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

Bc AI is built from humanity’s collective inventions, the vast majority of the wealth created by AI should belong to *humanity*, not to tech companies or the big corporations that will profit from AI under the current system. 4/8

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Michael Creighton @mocreighton.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

One great book, newspaper or equation did *not* make AI what it is! AI’s very existence fundamentally depends on humanity's greatest collective inventions: langage and mathematics (arguably the same thing). @NYT (or the Indian Express) suing OpenAI misses that point. 3/8

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Michael Creighton @mocreighton.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

A left response needs to start from this simple idea: all AI, and especially large language models, are only possible bc they were ‘trained’ on human data. In particular, human *language* & human-conceived numbers & mathematical concepts. Why does this matter? 2/8

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Michael Creighton @mocreighton.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

There’s not enough progressive thinking about big tech’s use of AI tools to replace human workers. Elon Musk’s attack on the federal workforce reminds us this is an urgent problem. (And no, copyright lawsuits won't fix it) 1/8

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Michael Creighton @mocreighton.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

I think Trump's on the right track, going the wrong way when it comes to this 'make Canada the 51st state' thing. Given how much most folks in the US hate our healthcare system, I think we'd all be happier if we could convince #Canada to make us their 11th province.

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Michael Creighton @mocreighton.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

Hey, when you and @caseynewton.bsky.social use the term 'virtual coworker' you are gaslighting us. Big tech is not spending billions to invent helpful coworkers for us, they're inventing our replacements. Please stop using creepy industry fabricated double speak.

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Nilesh @nileshb.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

It is #LifttoSky Monday and I’m revisiting New Delhi Love Songs by @mocreighton.bsky.social :) As someone who grew up with Gujarati and Hindi poetry, English poems had never worked for me until I came across this a few years ago. So gentle, beautiful, simple. Do give it a try, if you haven’t!

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Michael Creighton @mocreighton.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

Proud to be part of the free library movement in India. I think @edrabinski.bsky.social says it best: Win the Library, Win the World!

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Michael Creighton @mocreighton.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

Best book of my reading year, so far

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Nilesh @nileshb.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

@mocreighton.bsky.social feels a nice coincidence that just yesterday I took out your book to read again, and today I saw the notification that you followed me :)

Photo of a hardcover poetry book New Delhi Love Songs, by Michael Creighton.

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Michael Creighton @mocreighton.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

I'm a troll bc? Yes, Trump's terrible. Also, Biden & Netanyahu: war criminals; should be in jail. Nobody I talk to in Delhi believes the cease-fire was Biden's work & coincidentally happened day b4 inauguration & right after Trumps envoy went to Israel. Do you? www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

haaretz.com

Trump's Mideast envoy forced Netanyahu to accept a Gaza plan he repeatedly rejected

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Michael Creighton @mocreighton.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

I live in a place that is two steps ahead of anywhere Trump is likely to take us, so I actually get this. Yet I find it strange that most US liberals seem more upset by Meta's fact-check policy than the now obvious truth that Biden funded a genocide & it took Trump to get a cease-fire. Shameful.

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Michael Creighton @mocreighton.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

There'll be time for outrage against Trump. But for now, all I can feel is outrage against Biden. He could have had a cease-fire a year ago when South Africa presented its case for genocide. Instead, he kept shipping baby killing bombs. #Shame on you, #GenocideJoe. www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

haaretz.com

Trump's Mideast envoy forced Netanyahu to accept a Gaza plan he repeatedly rejected

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