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Paul M. Cray

@pmc.bsky.social
2.5K followers 6.5K following 6.2K posts

'A plain, unvarnished Preston man.' Permanent resident alien in Seattle, Wash. Writer, AGI researcher, wine industry professional. Interests: books, futurology, historiographic metafiction, sf, technoeconomic paradigm shifts, the Technological Singularity

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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
I thought this very interesting indeed on many topics, but not least the the description of the (technically pre-CCRU) of the May 1995 University of Warwick Virtual Futures Cyberevolution Conference and the relationship between Alan Moore, who presented a piece at the conference, and Nick Land
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Look what arrived! My copy of the Definitive Edition of 'Ars Magica'! @beijingpalmer.bsky.social
My copy of the Definitive Edition of 'Ars Magica', which arrived in West Seattle today, Saturday, 2026 August 22. You can see my legs and feet and my copies of Kevin Kelly's 'Cool Tools','Empire of the Air' and 'Window to the Future'My copy of the DE of AM showing a typical interior spread, the first two pages of Part VI Covenants
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Here we see my copies of 'MFA vs NYC' and 'The Program Era' nestling up together on my West Seattle shelves
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
And people say AI has no uses!
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Anyone else remember this, the 'Sunday Times' Magazine for 23 December 1979? It made a huge impact on the 11-year old me. The issue also included an Eddie Braben script (putatively) of the unmade M&W 1979 Christmas special
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
Advertise your BlueSky account with a Simpsons GIF
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
For the Heptobrot Set, we get a hexagonal fort embedded in a field of objects with 7-fold structure
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
Has strictly heptagonal symmetry. In fact, the got always has one less lobe than the degree of the Multibrot as we see here in these images of the Octobrot Set
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
I like an Eccles cake, but I prefer a Chorley cake
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Look what arrived! @orbitalstudies.com
A photograph of the cover of 'Orbital Studies', No. 0, Ways of Seeing the Living World, showing a wireframe image of something that might be a cell membrane or soap bubble
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
Might be of interest to some in this bailiwick: "Ursula is inspired by science fiction books from the photocomposition era" typewest.letterformarchive.org/2025/#/flora...
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 14/02/2026
I *think* it's behind the books on one of the shelves
Overfull bookshelves, Seattle, Washington, 2026 February 14
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 31/12/2025
What my study looks like right now
Bookshelves in my study, West Seattle, Washington, 2025 December 30Bookshelves in my study, West Seattle, Washington, 2025 December 30Bookshelves in my study, West Seattle, Washington, 2025 December 30
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 31/12/2025
What I mostly did today
Some IKEA Ivar shelving filled with books, West Seattle, Washington, 2025 December 30
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
Look what arrived! My wife ordered a trampoline from Dick's and needed an additional to get the order over the value for free shipping. I immediately suggested a cricket ball
A Gray-Nicolls Mystery Ball on a desk in West Seattle, 2025 December 16
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
These two "New Worlds" cover just about sum up my overall Weltanschauung
Cover of "New Worlds" 183 via https://www.coverbrowser.com/covers/new-worlds/4Cover of "New Worlds" 198 via https://www.coverbrowser.com/covers/new-worlds/4
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
Look what arrived today! @patrickmccray.bsky.social
The cover of W. Patrick McCray's: "README: A Bookish History of Computing from Electronic Brains to Everything Machines"
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
And people say AI has no uses
An ultraphotorealistic picture of an anthropomorphic ginger cat, dressed in vacc suit battle armour standing on the desolate landscape of a alien moon, a ringed gas giant hanging above him in the sky, holding aloft a plasma rifle in his right paw with the words from "From My Cold, Dead Paw" written across the sky in a sans serif fount
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
I lived in 9 Bev 2, 1988-9
Restored Bevington Road houses, St Anne's College
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
It's not quite there. but it's almost there
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
Look what arrived!
US hardback edition of Thomas Pynchon's "Shadow Ticket", 2025 October 7
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
How was I unaware that this had finally actually been published? And, seemingly, at the end of last year
"The Moon and Serpent Bumper Book of Magic" by Alan Moore and Steve Moore, cover design by John Coulthart, seen in the Phenomena section of the Elliott Bay Book Company, Seattle, Washington, 2025 September 22
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
I've only had the chance to open a few of the boxes of my books that arrived in Seattle and then only to explore the topmost books, but already many lost treasures have resurfaced including this one that might be of particular interest to @celestialweasel.bsky.social and @nicholasroyle.bsky.social
The cover of the 1973 Picador UK paperback edition of "real time... a catalogue of ideas and information", edited by John Brockman and Ed Rosenfeld
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 20/09/2025
I am pretty sure I bought this in Brighton, so it must have been some time between the summer of 2010 and October 2014 when I did the @arvonfoundation.bsky.social sf course at Totleigh Barton
The front cover of my copy of the 1997 paperback edition of "A Book of Two Halves New Football Short Stories" (1996) edited by @nicholasroyle.bsky.social, cover by my old mucker, Chris Moore
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
Ma bibliothèque est arrivée
Boxes of my books from the UK now in my basement in Seattle, 2025 September 5
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 23/08/2025
I love me a remote archipelago! The scale on the map is 50 m, but make that 50 km or 500 km and you have yourself the perfect fantasy or sf map!
Map of the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 09/08/2025
And people say GenAI has no uses
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 05/08/2025
"I, for one, welcome our shiny space squirrel overlords..."
A shiny mirror-coated space squirrel in space
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 05/08/2025
I beg to differ
A shinny, mirror-coated space squirrel in a Seattle backyard
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 12/07/2025
And people say AI has no uses!
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
From April
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
Quote a record that you found in your parents’ collection when you were young
The album cover of "The World of Val Doonican"
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
Commodore PET 2001 at school. The "chiclet" keyboard seemed very futuristic and had lots of symbols that didn't become standard
Commodore PET 2001 computer. On display at the Musée Bolo, EPFL, Lausanne. Photograph by Rama, Wikimedia Commons, Cc-by-sa-2.0-fr, CC BY-SA 2.0 fr, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17129317
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
Look what finally arrived!
A unboxed Nvidia Jetson Orin Nano DEveloper Kit, Seattle, Washington, 2025 May 1
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 24/04/2025
Gemini Deep Research with 2.5 Pro wrote me a 40-page essay "Divergent Trajectories: A Comparative Analysis of Artificial Intelligence and Drexlerian Molecular Nanotechnology" including this useful table showing Comparative Analysis of AI and Drexlerian MNT Development
Comparative Analysis of AI and Drexlerian MNT Development
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
From @wired.com, August 1995: www.wired.com/1995/08/real...
Table from the August 1995 issue of "Wired" magazine showing the (sadly mostly hilariously wrong) predictions of various nanotechnology experts as to when certain applications of (True Drexlerian) Molecular Nanotechnology might become available
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 15/04/2025
Yes, this is the edition I have and it has an extra disc with various episodes of similar shows from the time plus a highly informative booklet by @outonbluesix.bsky.social, I believe
Cover of the 2012 Network DVD release of "The Children of the Stones"
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 15/04/2025
100% canon for both "Doctor Who" and "The Archers" (read the ALT text...)
A still from "Stargazy on Zummerdown" showing the Doctor and her companion, a Dr Evelyn Smythe-type character, or, possibly, a Jim Lloyd-type character from "The Archers" checking his order for Borchester Blue with a Helen Archer-type character (it's her birthday tomorrow; all the best people are born on 16 April - yes, she's a fictional member of the Glubb Club!)
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
I was aware of the Soviet maps, but not that there's a 1:10,000 scale street map of Preston from 1976. This is better that the black and white Geographica one we had. You can see our house: s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/mapshow/Pres...
1976 Soviet 1:10,000 scale map of Preston showing our house in Cadley, Fulwood
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
Yes, definitely looks like it could be the Irwell !
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
Yes, foundation models are definitely nothing at all like human brains in terms of either hardware or software. It would be interesting to revisit John von Neumann's 1958 book "The Computer and the Brain" in light of current developments. I read that book back in ~2000, but it's in my Brentford unit
Cover of the second (2000) edition of John von Neumann's "The Computer and the Brain", originally published in 1958
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
Jesus expels the cryptocoin miners from the Temple
Jesus expels the cryptocoin miners from the Temple
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 21/02/2025
Look what just arrived!
Boxed Kurt Vonnegut GHQ game
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 21/02/2025
Jeff Bezos creating the new James Bond, as though he is Frankenstein. “No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to star in a series of increasingly bland spinoffs and TV shows that have significant viewership decline after the first episode.” Cartoon by Ellis Rosen @newyorker.com
Jeff Bezos creating the new James Bond, as though he is Frankenstein.
Cartoon by Ellis Rosen

“No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to star in a series of increasingly bland spinoffs and TV shows that have significant viewership decline after the first episode.”
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 26/01/2025
Homemade haggis for Burns Night supper, Seattle, Washington, 2025 January 25
Homemade haggis for Burns Night dinner, Seattle, Washington, 2025 January 25
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 16/01/2025
Another wow! (THanks to my old mucker, Del Cotter, for the link) Wolf Moon Engulfs Mars Image Credit & Copyright: Imran Sultan
Wolf Moon Engulfs Mars
Image Credit & Copyright: Imran Sultan
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Paul M. Cray @pmc.bsky.social · 16/01/2025
Wow! M83: The Southern Pinwheel Image Credit: CTIO, NOIRLab, DOE, NSF, AURA; Processing: T. A. Rector (U. Alaska Anchorage/NOIRLab), D. de Martin & M. Zamani (NOIRLab)
M83: The Southern Pinwheel
Image Credit: CTIO, NOIRLab, DOE, NSF, AURA;
Processing: T. A. Rector (U. Alaska Anchorage/NOIRLab), D. de Martin & M. Zamani (NOIRLab)
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