Worldbuilding takes place in all fiction whether it is set in our world in the present, in the future or past of our world, in an alternate version of our world, or in a secondary (not Earth) world. The author makes decisions whether consciously or unexamined about how the foundational system works

World building imo is creating a foundational system (shallow or deep) for a narrative that has some internal consistency. This is primarily achieved by thinking of it as a series of connections & relationships between nodes in which nodes may be objects, places, characters, cultural touchstones etc

Christina Orlando@cxorlando.bsky.social · 16h ago

y'all worldbuilding is so much work why do we do this

This is an excellent worldbuilding thread.

Ann Leckie@annleckie.com · 15h ago

Yeah, you don't gotta work out the nitty gritty of meteorology or agriculture before you start writing. You just need a few things that have connections, or you start with a few things and connect them.

Also btw not working out every detail in advance has the virtue of giving you flexibility as you write. You won't ever be in a position to mourn the months of careful worldbuilding work you did before you started, that now you have to toss or change significantly.

Ann Leckie@annleckie.com · 15h ago

Yeah, you don't gotta work out the nitty gritty of meteorology or agriculture before you start writing. You just need a few things that have connections, or you start with a few things and connect them.

We've got more Republicans peeling away and endorsing Democrats here in Florida. I've been saying for a while that I thought something important was happening with the environmental coalitions people built to fight DeSantis' state park golf course fiasco, and it looks like it's shaking up politics.

David Jolly introduces Republican supporters, including former 2026 candidate Bobby Williams

'This campaign has room for all Floridians, regardless of their political background.'

floridapolitics.com

It’s hard to convey how much the Talarico/trans discourse on here is an inversion of what’s actually happening in TX. Paxton is relentlessly running anti-trans ads. He’s all in on attacking trans ppl to win. Talarico is the pro-trans candidate and a Paxton win will validate his anti-trans campaign

Not surprised to see dogs swinging Republican in polls, what with so many of them having family members who are cops.

Chise@sailorrooscout.bsky.social · 20h ago

May I remind everyone that there is currently NO cure for rabies. May I also remind everyone there is absolutely NO scientific proof connecting ANY vaccine that we produce today with autism. This is true regarding vaccination in both humans AND in dogs. Vaccinate your pets please.

sorry I can't hear you over the sound of my hysterical laughter "they changed her REAL NAME!!!" my brother in Christ (pejorative), are you under the impression that "La Conquistadora" is what it says on her driver's license? there are a million "Our Lady of ___" and they're all made up! it's fine!

Sleepaway Champ@sleepawaychamp.bsky.social · 17h ago

Santa Fe is doing some amazing things with Catholicism right now. Here's the rightwing guy who keeps running for mayor and he's so angry about the Mary "La Conquistadora" statue being renamed that he's about to invent protestantism.

The fun thing about living under a common law legal system is having to explain to people that we don’t have set laws that you just look up, we just have an overarching series of contradictory narrative fallacies that are all semi-load bearing.

And you get two of my stories as well, including an Itch exclusive collection!

Indie Book Spotlight@bookspotlight.bsky.social · yesterday

If you like dragons, get on this incredible book bundle! We've only had two sales for it thus far, so please do check it out! Just 15 dollars for 20 great dragon-centric reads!!! itch.io/b/3897/the-b... [ #booksky ]

Friedman’s ghost says we should let everyone buy the education they can afford, which, says the free market, is the education they deserve. It will be better for everyone if they just accept the status, the tier, the class to which they rightfully belong. curmudgucation.substack.com/p/milton-fri...

Milton Friedman's Ghost

We’ve discussed, many times (e.g.

curmudgucation.substack.com

The only thing I'm going to say about this day: A lot of people who didn't deserve to die were murdered 25 years ago. Then other immoral people used them as an excuse to murder many more innocent people under the guise of freedom. None of those people deserved to die.

A new exclusive-to-Itch collection of my dragon short stories is one of my two books in this bundle, along with the new version of Klone's Stronghold. Check it out! itch.io/b/3897/the-b...

It’s obviously powerful and powerfully destructive technology with huge unintended consequences and we’re seeing them play out. The models are OBVIOUSLY getting much better. At a minimum you’re building something that will be the most potent cyber security threat that has ever existed.

I think the political left should be the loudest voice calling for an AI model development pause, frontier pacing, and mandatory third party audits right now. Put aside the doomer stuff (though I think it’s plausible), we just found out that OpenAI’s agents committed a pretty major felony!

RT if you've never had a tab of ChatGPT open, period.

Kelly McCullough@kellydmcc.bsky.social · 6d ago

RT if you've never had a tab of ChatGPT open, period.

This is what LLMs really are.

Ben Collins@bencollins.bsky.social · 6d ago

It's also not magic beans. It's a word predictor. It's really fast at it and it's even learned to pick the next line in code to make the code do what you want it to, most of the time. (This tends to flatten all art and make it worse, but that's another thing.) But it isn't magic and it's not alive.

Nods.

Ben Collins@bencollins.bsky.social · 6d ago

I see a lot of people actively losing their minds about the AI stuff and I'm honestly starting to feel bad for them. But it's blinding them to the real problems. These things are not your girlfriend, but they're probably going to smash-and-grab passwords and attack bank or government data.

Trump is hell bent on crashing the economy for a quick market sugar high, even if it destroys everything and everyone around him, both domestically and globally. This is why he needs a bunker to hide out in. He expects the crash to come after the election.

Trump says he will cease trading with top partners unless Fed lowers rates | CNN Business

President Donald Trump threatened on Friday to prevent the US from trading with many nations unless the Federal Reserve lowers interest rates.

cnn.com

I cannot begin to articulate the cultural, financial, and social damage the cod moratorium did to every single Newfoundlander, either directly or indirectly. I truly never believed I would live to see this day.

UBC Oceans@ubcoceans.bsky.social · 7d ago

For the first time in over 30 years, Newfoundland and Labrador’s Northern cod stock has been deemed “healthy” by Ottawa. www.canadianaffairs.news/2026/09/05/i...

Same here.

Indie Book Spotlight@bookspotlight.bsky.social · last wk.

[ side eyes the two former indie authors turned best sellers who got film and show adaptations of their previously self published books and now shill for gen ai and shouldn’t we all just get over it ]

The villain in this story is not subtle, but frankly, that seems accurate to our current experience. /jb Amazon: www.amazon.com/Mrs-M... Apple: itunes.apple.com/us/... Nook: www.barnesandnoble.c... Google: play.google.com/stor...

why am i like this lol 🥲 yes, that is in fact 3 events in one weekend! lmao anyway, if you're in KW, come to bestival and indigo waterloo (conestoga mall). and if you're in hamilton, see you at pagan pride! wheeeeeee

there’s a lot more nuance to it but as a basic principle you could do a lot worse than unions good, billionaires bad happy Labor Day, everyone

This is freakily vindicating my contention that most every op-ed writer fails the Inverse Turing Test and should be considered as just ChatGPT in a meatsuit churning out slop to a prompt without any actual sapience going on inside.

Eric Harvey@ericdharvey.com · last wk.

Nathan Fielder treated Elizabeth Holmes' brain like it was ChatGPT, which it seems to be

Worth remembering this Labor Day: Manufactured exhaustion is a political weapon used by fascists to wear down public opposition and promote learned helplessness. Fatigue and sense of hopelessness in the current environment are not personal failings. Rest and community care are resistance.

Does AI Tutoring Help? curmudgucation.substack.com/p/does-ai-tu...

Does AI Tutoring Help?

There’s a whole wing of the edu-wonk world pre-occupied with “high-impact tutoring,” whatever that is presumed to be.

curmudgucation.substack.com

One week later, I have an official response from #LACon #Worldcon! I thought all of you should see the entire thing: "Summary: Walking participants only Action Taken: Noted by Listeners team Current Status: CLOSED"

Mari Ness, writer of things@mariness.bsky.social · 2w ago

....the ongoing delights of being both a Hugo finalist and a wheelchair user. "The backstage is for walking participants," said directly to my face, as a wheelchair user.

save the date and buy canadian! just in time for the holidays ✨ www.eventbrite.ca/e/buy-canadi...

This is the level of bullshit that's happening right now with AI. Just imagine how much worse it's gonna get! I feel like Frank Herbert showed us how this story goes, and it ain't pretty.

Justin Carter@gigawattconduit.blacksky.app · last wk.

*incredibly ugly wheezing sound* Jee-sus christ theplaylist.net/paul-schrade...