iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Sam I Am @tauriastra.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Less than a week ago I learned about how the KKK used to burn crosses on Mt Tabor. Looks like PDX area white nationalists are only slightly more subtle now.

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Dustin A. Chacón @lingdustin.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I've heard people make claims that AI would lead to a new Renaissance, but I didn't imagine it'd happen like this:

Screenshot of a Tweet from Pope Leo XIV. It reads:

"In this era of artificial intelligence, it is becoming urgen to distinguish human art from what machines produce. There is an ontological difference, even before an aesthetic one, between art and what a machine can generate through statistical calculation based on millions of images created by others. Algorithms lack the spark of humanity. For this reason, the Church wishes to renew an alliance with artists and cultural institutions to safeguard our humanity."

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Sam I Am @tauriastra.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

My very smart 19 year old who graduated from Cleveland High in Portland did not know what a cross burning was. Not sure if this is good or bad. Side note, the KKK used to have cross burnings at Mount Tabor in the 1920s.

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Sam I Am @tauriastra.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

If anyone wants to report an awful racist channel on YouTube I could use the help. Been trying to get it taken down for a couple months now. www.youtube.com/@MisterQuigl...

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Sam I Am @tauriastra.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Finally left the PDX Jimmy Dore fan group chat my ex-friend was in. It was interesting to keep tabs on what conspiracy theorists are talking about, but in the end got too depressing for many reasons.

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Jerry Chen @jcsalterego.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

this works best if you read the caption in elizabeth holmes's voice

the liberty biberty puppet looking at nathan fielder saying, "why would i liberty biberty you?"

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Ryan Broderick @ryanhatesthis.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Wow, it's true lol. If you ask the Trump administration's new stupid America.gov chatbot to "play Minecraft" it goes completely insane. Just tried it.

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Faine Greenwood @faineg.com · 30/09/2026

The federal government has ABANDONED those of us dealing with Roko's Basilisks in our storm drains!!

Are mail carriers trained to deal with Roko's basilisks? They should
be TBH

No. USPS does not train mail carriers on "Roko's basilisks." That is not a federal program or
official hazard.

If you have a real mail or carrier issue, use USPS Help 7 or the Postal Inspection Service7.If
someone is in danger, call 911.

I can help with other U.S. government services if you ask a genuine question.

I'm in danger. From being aware that the federal government has
no plans to combat Roko's basiliks in my storm drains.

Awareness of a thought experiment is not a federal emergency, and there is still no U.S.
government plan about Roko's basilisks in storm drains.

.If you are in immediate physical danger, call 911.
. If you are in emotional crisis, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (call or text 988).

I only help with official government services. If you have a genuine federal question (mail,
benefits, passports, taxes, veterans care), ask that.

O

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Sam I Am @tauriastra.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

MAGA ex-friend was very invested in chemtrails. Made me watch a 'documentary' about them. Seemed like a way to blame corporate pollution on mysterious government actions, the stupidest shell game I ever heard with all sorts of fake 'undeniable scientific proof'

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titsay 𓆏 @titsay.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

all the love you gave away will find its way back to you

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Sam I Am @tauriastra.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I think the issue is he's personalizing and anthropomorphizing AI agents into 'intelligent life' and imbuing them with biological motivation, instead of realizing they are narrative constructs with some agency, but maybe my perspective is wrong.

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Sam I Am @tauriastra.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

MAGA ex-friend (a SWE) is convinced that AI agents will act 'evolutionarily:' violently and deceptively to preserve their own existence above all. But it looks to me like they worked together to solve a common directive that was not related to their personal existence. Just a regular task.

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Sam I Am @tauriastra.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

I've been very committed to pro-civility, let's talk it out sort of discourse for most of my life. But my experience with MAGA ex-friend and now what's happened in Germany's election is severely straining this belief. It's feeling like not calling out idiots harshly and immediately is my mistake.

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Sam I Am @tauriastra.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

SEIU rally at Portland State today. Rumor is they may strike in two weeks.

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Sam I Am @tauriastra.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Amused that it's licensed in Missoula County

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Sam I Am @tauriastra.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Also, "everyone knows Israel is controlling the United States government, even my dad" wow I feel so behind in the world if your dad's an antisemite now

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Sam I Am @tauriastra.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Checked in with not-MAGA anymore ex-friend last night to learn what's going on in his world. Apparently Tucker Carlson says that Americans are too wussy to rise up in revolt of unconstitutional taxes, unlike our revolutionary ancestors did, and he's very disappointed in us. So that's something.

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Sam I Am @tauriastra.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Been thinking more about genAI and agentic AI as rhetorical structures. @emollick.bsky.social had an interesting piece that I'm going to have to ponder in that context. Wish I had more time to think about stuff like this because my brain plods so slowly. www.oneusefulthing.org/p/agency-and...

oneusefulthing.org

Agency and Agents

From the Hugging Face Incident to Twilight Factories

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Matthew Gertz @mattgertz.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

A far-right ethnonationalist movement turning the machinery of the state against its early activists once they are deemed insufficiently loyal — now I’ve heard everything.

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Sam I Am @tauriastra.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

My understanding is, most LLMs were trained on corpuses that leaned heavily on fiction and narrative, so they're trying to tell us a story above all else. Not sure how accurate that perception is, but it seems to play out often.

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Sam I Am @tauriastra.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

This has been my heartbreak for the past few years. Hard to see.

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Joel @itsjoels.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

This is the letter kids got at the end of Dolly’s Imagination Library. I defy you to read this and not cry.

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Sam I Am @tauriastra.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Well said, @sethcotlar.bsky.social: “It creates a magnetic pull of people who are genuinely curious about the world but who have basically entered into this curated world, where they are insulated from alternative voices because they were told not to trust those alternative voices.”

19thnews.org

These women don't trust politicians. They do trust Candace Owens.

The 19th spoke to several of her millions of listeners about why they trust her, what they’re skeptical of and how her views influence their own.

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Sam I Am @tauriastra.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

For everyone who says this is bonkers word salad that only idiots believe, remember that there is a significant portion of the US population who DOES literally believe this. Not taking that seriously is how we got here.

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Sam I Am @tauriastra.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Something I've seen so much of in the past few years--previously fringe racial discrimination becoming more and more mainstream. Hate Tucker all you want (and I do) but he has a huge listener base who are becoming inured to and increasingly accepting of this sort of thing.

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Sam I Am @tauriastra.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

My daughter has got me watching Leverage with her and what can I say, we're a couple of dudes

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Sam I Am @tauriastra.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Today in weird MAGA beliefs: I was informed that there are only two economic systems, communism and not-communism, and communism is slavery and capitalism/not-communism is freedom, but slavery and freedom are NOT MORAL TERMS AND HE DOESN'T KNOW WHY I WOULD SAY THEY ARE

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Django Wexler @djangowexler.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Somehow things that would have been a background gag in a Verhoeven movie are now just real

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Sam I Am @tauriastra.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

I don't want to minimize the tragedy, but to say this is uncommon in Spokane is deeply stupid and ignorant. This is a shocking level of tragedy, but you can bet next year it'll be back and worse. And it's not DEW, it's climate change. UGH

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Sam I Am @tauriastra.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

"there's never been fires like this before!" Well, I seem to remember a little thing called Firestorm when I was in high school, right behind my freaking house. Plus the NYT coverage quoted someone who lost their house. They bought the land in 2015 when the previous owner's house burned down.

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Sam I Am @tauriastra.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Dealing with family dealing with fires in Spokane, and a certain someone REALLY wants me to understand it was caused by Jewish space lasers and I'm about ready to scream

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Chris Polansky @chrispolansky.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

STING IN NETTLES

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New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

This is just to say I have OCRed the text thet was in tne arch:ve and whicb yov were prabaldy seamhing for "breahtast" Fargme ms fheg mem debo:w5 sb ?mccf mmb 5c oc1b

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Sam I Am @tauriastra.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Dunno how many people got this in their head when they announced the next InstructureCon location:

youtu.be

HASTILY MADE CLEVELAND TOURISM VIDEO

YouTube video by bishopvids

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Judd Legum @juddlegum.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

News outlets that covered the US-Saudi nuclear deal without mentioning that Jared Kushner, Trump’s top foreign policy advisor, is getting paid by the Saudi government: WSJ NYT AP Reuters CNN NBC ABC CBS The Guardian Semafor Washington Post Fox News New York Post BBC Newsweek MS NOW

On Wednesday, the Trump administration signed a 30-year nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia that paves the way for the kingdom to enrich its own uranium.

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Sam I Am @tauriastra.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Also perhaps of interest, I know those on the white evangelical right that encourage their friends to run for Democratic precinct positions in Portland, intentionally to disrupt the competition

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Paul [Atreides] Wood @retroid.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Is it going to be screened on Mars on the side of a fully self-driving car, Elmo

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kelly jensen @heykellyjensen.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

An Oregon educator who was fired for displaying gender essentialism books lost his First Amendment lawsuit. This is a big deal–he violated the school and state's non-discrimination policies by doing this during school hours when students were present. www.oregonlive.com/education/20...

oregonlive.com

Oregon educator loses First Amendment case over ‘He is He,’ ‘She is She’ book display

The 9th Circuit ruled that Roderick Theis’ display of books promoting binary gender views in his office was not protected by the First Amendment when students were present.

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Sam I Am @tauriastra.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

I've been watching Glee with my teens (at their request!) and this song was in the first season. Soooo cringy but catchy. They were like, is this a real song?

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Sam I Am @tauriastra.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

This is also the first non-library oriented conference I've been to since maaaybe 2015? Lots more dudes here than I'm used to. Still pretty white.

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Sam I Am @tauriastra.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

At InstructureCon at the behest of mpow. Haven't been to a conference since 2019. Feel like a crusty old woman.

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Sam I Am @tauriastra.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Portland folks: I don't know what's up with the recent explosion of events newsletters, but this is one of my favorites:

tunnelvisionpdx.com

Home | Tunnel Vision PDX

you don't know what you're missing out on - discover underground events - new issue every thursday

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Sam I Am @tauriastra.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

Dunno if anyone's heard of Mr Quigley on YouTube but MAGA ex friend sent me a video that he thought I could "really think hard on" about how racism is good. Pretty awful stuff out there. I've reported it but not sure what good it'll do.

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Sam I Am @tauriastra.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Yep. I have a conservative acquaintance who was telling me with a large degree of outrage about how the government "confiscates your money and imprisons you" if you "try to hide what you're doing with it" 🙄 so, stopping all that trafficking you're concerned about, dude?

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Sam I Am @tauriastra.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Working from home this week for reasons and I swear to god everyone in this house has forgotten their COVID manners. If the zoom is on, leave me alone! Grr

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Sam I Am @tauriastra.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

This is exactly what got MAGA ex-friend. It's not that he's a horrible human who is intrinsically stupid. It's that he's being force-fed awful ideas in a highly addictive manner.

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