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surrealjones.bsky.social

@surrealjones.bsky.social
536 followers 52 following 4.6K posts

No one of consequence.

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Kevin Riggle @kevinr.free-dissociation.com · 28/09/2026
Because no matter how cool and expensive and sophisticated it is, when a human being is hurt, the humans designing the systems that hurt them are ultimately responsible for the outcomes of the systems that we build. www.etsy.com/listing/4583...
etsy.com
A Computer Can Never Be Held Accountable Sticker - Etsy
This Stickers item is sold by CriticalPointTV. Ships from Brooklyn, NY. Listed on Sep 28, 2026
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Kevin Riggle @kevinr.free-dissociation.com · 28/09/2026
If you have seen me posting about the stickers I've been cooking up, I am proud to say that they're now available. For anyone running LLM cybersecurity evals in your life: www.etsy.com/listing/4583...
etsy.com
Do Not Connect Machine to Internet Sticker - Etsy
This Stickers item is sold by CriticalPointTV. Ships from Brooklyn, NY. Listed on Sep 28, 2026
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Diesel of Sarcasm @dsng480.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Stop anthropomorphizing Bluesky posters.
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Wannabe Apparatchik @apparatchikwannabe.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
there is no opinion so strange, absurd, or nonsensical that someone, somewhere, doesn’t hold it with 100% dead seriousness
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Eugene Vinitsky 🍒 @eugenevinitsky.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
A rich person can never be held accountable. Therefore, a rich person must never make a societal decision
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Nanoraptor @nanoraptor.danamania.com · 26/09/2026
retvrn
A picture of a piece of old torn and aged paper label, fragile and cracked with age, that states THIS BLUESKY POSTER COMPLIES WITH AUSTRALIAN STANDARD No. PM-00 FREE FROM POSTER'S MADNESS PUBLISHED BY THE STANDARDS AS.... and the remainder is torn.
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tbabb @tbabb.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I habitually touch every single plant that looks remotely like this, by the way, so you have no idea how delighted I was when it worked
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kerrence @notkerrence.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
this kind of stuff makes me really not want to go places because you never know when you’re the next target of Bored Fanfic Theater
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ryan cooper @ryanlcooper.com · 26/09/2026
great piece. man social media is a cancer themomoftheyear.substack.com/p/im-the-mom...
themomoftheyear.substack.com
I’m the Mom in That Viral Giants Clip. Let Me Tell You About My Husband.
You saw me carrying our baby and food. There was more happening in our family that night.
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The Fig Economy @figgityfigs.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
The most important election of your life is always the next one
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JP @jpbrammer.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
it's important to arrive at sturdy ethical principles that you can't be annoyed out of. people are annoying as shit
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jslaker.net @jslaker.net · 25/09/2026
but robots taking over the assembly line doesn't mean they're making the decisions on when and how things roll down the line. that work still requires somebody that knows what they're doing making thoughtful decisions about why things should happen a certain way.
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jslaker.net @jslaker.net · 25/09/2026
in fairness to tech: cribbing notes from industrial process is a pretty good idea! modern industrial process is one of humanity's great achievements and has a century plus head start. but we are very much relearning old lessons and in constant danger of cargo culting it.
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jslaker.net @jslaker.net · 25/09/2026
one of the reasons why I'm critical of "bigger models will solve this" is that cranking the output velocity of technician work sharpens the need for process work, which is the domain of expertise. process is incredibly hard to get right. most fields are bad at it. and it's *gaining* importance.
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Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 25/09/2026
Voyager Instruments xkcd.com/3302/
 3-panel comic. (1) [Person with shoulder-length hair gestures at diagrams on wall in front of table with three people.] PERSON 1: As the radioactive power source on *Voyager 1* weakens, we’ve been turning instruments off to conserve power. (2) PERSON 1: Only two instruments remain. Do we want to lose the plasma wave subsystem or the magnetometer? (3) PERSON 2 with ponytail: You know, if we just turned off Greg’s LED underlighting– PERSON 4 with short hair: Absolutely not. PERSON 3: Dammit, Greg. PERSON 4: I will *not* allow us to look uncool in front of aliens.
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Chris Oldwood @chrisoldwood.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Abstract Data
An abstract picture of Commander Data.
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derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
some pilots are part of the furry community
An illustration of the Ralph Lauren Polo bear dressed up as a pilot and standing in front of a red airplane. The text says "Polo Aviator by Ralph Lauren."
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Chatham Harrison dba TRUMP DELENDUS EST @chathamharrison.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
You are the bits you persist in doing
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Pookleblinky @pookleblinky.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
The ring's whole point is to remind you "People will die in incredible pain if I stop giving a fuck about even the small, boring details of what I do" Because you *can't* grandly think about systems if you can't fucking think in the first place.
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Ed @ed3d.net · 25/09/2026
it may that you just have to Be There to get it, like I don't think I can staple staffeng.com (which I think is for the most part pretty good, still!) to people's foreheads and have them absorb the knowledge through osmosis but it would be very helpful if I could
staffeng.com
Staff Engineer: Leadership beyond the management track
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Ed @ed3d.net · 25/09/2026
when it comes to LLMs, I have been trying to beat the technician/expert drum. LLMs are becoming master technicians, but they obviously lack integrative capabilities to deploy expertise. but I'm starting to realize that a lot of people don't understand, or don't value the difference.
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Aaron Grote @aarongrote.com · 25/09/2026
One concept I tried out in a meeting this week was Determinations vs Decisions, and that our automations should focus on removing the non-expert brain work of making Determinations (there's a right answer) so our people can spend more time making more and better Decisions (no obvious right answer).
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Ed @ed3d.net · 23/09/2026
tbh, I think a lot of the folks who are in this spot have let low self-confidence or terror chip away at their understanding of the difference between technician and expert work. being paid well into six figures to be a technician was never going to be sustainable.
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Convolver @convolver.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
His artistic medium is the model, not the prompt.
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Max Berger @maxberger.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
One of my most galaxy-brained takes is that politicians and political groups should talk more about workers’ share of national income. It's one of the clearest, simplest ways to describe how billionaires and corporate elites captured so much of the economy--and something policy can change.
axios.com
U.S. workers' share of national income falls to a new low
Labor's bargaining position has worsened markedly in the last half-decade.
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the abbot of unreason (a returned archaeologist) @merovingians.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
leftism that clings to the Battle of Blair Mountain (1921) more than the Battle of Minneapolis (2026) is leftism that is more concerned with aesthetics than historical consequences.
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lauren @lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com · 24/09/2026
ME: So I can't put anything else on the scale? ANUBIS: No. Just your heart ME: No money, no good deeds? ANUBIS: No ME: What about steam points? I've got a ton of steam points ANUBIS: The point is to be lighter than the feather ME: I was just hoping to finally do something with the steam points
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Chatham Harrison dba TRUMP DELENDUS EST @chathamharrison.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I am an old fogey because I think "having the self-control to deny yourself things you shouldn't have" is maybe the actual omnicrisis
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Liz Fong-Jones (方禮真) @lizthegrey.com · 24/09/2026
found on LinkedIn: liability.engineering/technology/r... -- kudos to @robotterror.com
liability.engineering
ActivationLockException: Distributed Tracing My Stolen iPhone
My stolen iPhone traveled from the United States to Hong Kong and then Shenzhen. Activation Lock accidentally gave me something resembling distributed tracing across an otherwise completely opaque glo...
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Bill @bill-of-lefts.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
Claude is basically a dude that we keep in a coma and then jolt awake to write essays. when he’s done writing the essay we erase his memory and put him back to sleep. Not his fault he’s writing the same thing over and over
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Minor Mobius @minormobius.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Good news monosyllabic enthusiasts! rite.mino.mobi/sharp lets you cycle through single syllable english words with an obscurity filter and, more importantly, mint imagined (but grammatically acceptable) single syllable words for your future product name
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Xiane -Controversial Folk Icon @xiane.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
It's like an LSAT question: "You have four goons. You have 20 jobs. Goon A can do three jobs and can't work with another goon. Goon B can do six half jobs. Goon C can do 8 half jobs, but not with any other goon. Goon D can do one job, and two half jobs." What is the optimal goon deployment?
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hikikomorphism @hikikomorphism.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
that said, am I saying LLMs are magic or ensouled in some way? I'm not, not definitively: I'm agnostic, and if I may answer a question with a question: would you say a library is magic or ensouled in some way?
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hikikomorphism @hikikomorphism.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
LLMs aren't made of neurology except in the most handwavey sense. They're made of narrative. That's why I started calling them text elementals: they're not human, they're most-likely-text generators we bent into living stories in a prose format centering the characters User and Assistant
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lottie "frog k" lovely ⚧️🏴‍☠️ @vaporlight.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
this is what i mean
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public health guy @publichealthguy1.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
we’re so back / over depression mania chart
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Micro SF/F by O. Westin @microsff.com · 22/09/2026
A spaceship landed in the park. A door dilated. An alien emerged with a chair, which they sat down on, backwards. "Look," they said, "we're not here, okay? You know why nobody contacts you? Because the write-up would be such a pain." They sighed. "Get your shit together, okay? We know you can."
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Chatham Harrison dba TRUMP DELENDUS EST @chathamharrison.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Sure is weird how the age of automation keeps being the age of poorly monitored systems breaking down in novel ways
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Steve Gale @stevewg.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Colley Hill, Surrey: coffee break from birding the steep scrub. Love the plaque on the bench I’m sitting on
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Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 22/09/2026
Tyrannosaurus xkcd.com/3300/
Comic. [Person with long hair pointing to diagram with Tyrannosaurus Rex standing next to a person.] PERSON: We now believe the primary prey of Tyrannosaurus Rex was these humans who kept standing next to it for scale.
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strasz @strasz.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
every day i spend on this corner of bluesky is another day i emerge with new sentences i can say to my friends to make them worry about me
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SE Gyges @segyges.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
i think risk tolerance is often a bad framework for things. generally speaking, people with "low risk tolerance" simply imagine that the status quo is zero risk. in reality, one simply moves risk around
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SE Gyges @segyges.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
basically any time you end up proving the existence of god or inventing pascal's wager you have fucked up and you need to throw the car in reverse
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Tilmon Edwards (Dirigo) @tilmonedwards.com · 21/09/2026
You're telling me that I'm not highly paid because I'm extremely smart and cool and fun to be around? It's a purely transactional relationship based on my ability to deliver solutions that allow the company to hire fewer people? And my employer does not care if those solutions are computer programs?
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Dr. M.A. Davis @mikedavis.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
A good reminder that "what you heard on Bluesky" and "what is so" can be wildly different.
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Paul adore le Canada @paulfish.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Fake species ID reading as follows: North American Fiber-Seeking Backhoe
Backhoe fili-comedens
AKA "Big Yellow Fiber Finder", "That $%#@*&^"
Continent:
North America
Habitat:
Mostly urban, occasionally sighted in suburbs or rural areas
Diet:
Fiber optic cables primarily, although it will consume other cables such as power lines when hungry
Weight:
5800 - 11000 kg
(approx. 13000 - 25000 Ibs)
Known for its inexhaustible appetite for buried fiber optic cables, this invasive species has multiplied across North America in recent years. A relative, the European Fiber-Seeking Backhoe, has also emerged across the Atlantic, although it has evolved to be smaller than the North American variety due to smaller European roadways. Scientists are still seeking a means to reduce the multiplication of this species; since current regulatory methods are proving ineffective, limited hunting permits are being proposed.
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Aaron Wherry @aaronwherry.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
I return to my contention that the real benefit of Canadian federalism is that at any given moment there's always one province whose political situation can provide entertainment for everyone else.
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Pwnallthethings @pwnallthethings.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
one thing that's a bit annoying tho is we only get lame takes like "souls are real and AI doesn't have them" / "souls are not real" and nobody playing in the fun quadrants like "souls are real and my AI has one"
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Pwnallthethings @pwnallthethings.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
spiciest quadrant: "souls are real but *only* AI has them"
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Chatham Harrison dba TRUMP DELENDUS EST @chathamharrison.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
This is why the Roberts Court's disrespect for the power of the purse is its most pernicious failure. They would have saved everyone (including themselves!) a great deal of headache if they would have headed this stuff off at the pass & insisted Congress had to appropriate relevant funds
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