Magic is releasing a set based on the Hobbit and my desire to drop a Tom Bomb-adil on someone is matched only by my desire to see them troll the fanbase by not including him at all.

Every day I’m more and more convinced that Science Fiction was a mistake.

Django Wexler@djangowexler.bsky.social · 4h ago

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

I’d say this is gonna be a hell of a GOP civil war but honestly it seems equally likely that everyone just abandons Vance because of how deeply unlikeable he is. Hell I could see Trump stumping for Tucker based purely on Trump’s track record regarding loyalty to his VPs.

hannah gais@hannahgais.bsky.social · 5h ago

This feels like the very predictable outcome of Tucker Carlson's anti-Trump pivot: he's doing it to run in 2028.

another day guarding the river you can't go into twice. everyone keeps asking me if they can go into the river again. buddy, you aren't the same man.

This headline feels pretty misleading. I’d bet most people who read the headline will interpret it to mean they used the AI to assist in writing the pieces, but that isn’t the case for any of the examples described.

Yonette Joseph@sugarcane99.bsky.social · 2d ago

A record-breaking eight Pulitzer awardees disclosed AI use this year www.niemanlab.org/2026/08/a-re...

I'm finding this discussion about the potential rights of an artificial intelligence really interesting. Would an AI deserve welfare if it only had AGENCY? What about SENTIENCE? And then what about CONSCIOUSNESS? Where should we draw the line?

Embrace the Void@etvpod.bsky.social · last wk.

New ETV out for everyone! I'm joined by Jeff Sebo for another fun round of "who has moral status?". This time we're talking AI welfare, whether consciousnessness is required for moral status, and why this is a conversation worth having now. Enjoy!

I’ve got a piece coming out in The UK Skeptic eventually where I talk about the need to get a handle on the reflexive “is this AI” response before it deprives us of any chance of an authentic experience.

Jonathan Jarry@jonathanjarry.bsky.social · 2d ago

Everyone is on high alert for AI contamination of their favourite artistic medium. I have to wonder how the arts will survive this looming crisis of confidence. (h/t @etvpod.bsky.social)

I would be extremely nervous believing this without some pretty solid evidence. It strikes me as one of those takes that feels good if you’re anti-ai but is likely to promote overconfidence that could cause harm in various ways.

Jared Yates Sexton@jysexton.bsky.social · 2d ago

The truth about AI-generated content and writing is that, if you're actually paying attention and are actively engaged, you can tell the difference. AI only works in a society where people are dissociating and distracted and unengaged. That's the point of it. To just forward an unlived life.

::taps evergreen meme::

Gillian Branstetter@gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 2d ago

An initiative on the ballot in Washington state in November would require all athletes seeking to play girl's sports from kindergarten to high school to undergo "genetic screening, a testosterone-levels test, or an examination of their reproductive anatomy" before they can play

I can accept the premise of a magic powerful enough to turn a wicker basket into Alexander Skarsgård. But I can’t buy that a poor fishmonger has access to sufficient lube to make that a good lay.

Just endless highly predictable blood on so many hands.

Brittany Page@brittanyepage.bsky.social · 3d ago

When RFK asks, "Can you show me one study?" it's important to note that he doesn't care about studies. He has nothing but contempt for the scientific process. He's a conspiracy theorist who profits from his anti-vaccine activism, and it is a fucking tragedy that he is in a position of power.

I’m now convinced this is the first ever academic viral marketing campaign.

Joseph Rezek@rezekjoe.bsky.social · 4d ago

SUSAN ORLEAN HAS JOINED THE ENEMY IN THE ODYSSEY WARS

Building an unprecedented epistemic commons and then just defiling the fuck out of it for clicks.

Joseph Cox@josephcox.bsky.social · 5d ago

New from 404 Media: Google Earth has introduced an AI feature that lets anyone fabricate completely bullshit satellite images. In our own tests, we added a “bomb blast and crater” to an area of Los Angeles. This is a misinformation time bomb, will 100% be abused www.404media.co/google-earth...

New ETV out for everyone! I'm joined by Jeff Sebo for another fun round of "who has moral status?". This time we're talking AI welfare, whether consciousnessness is required for moral status, and why this is a conversation worth having now. Enjoy!

AI Welfare with Jeff Sebo — Embrace The Void

My returning guest this week is Jeff Sebo, associate professor of Environmental Studies, Affiliated Professor of Bioethics, Medical Ethics, Philosophy, and Law, Director of the&nbs...

voidpod.com

Ross Douthat is terrible in a really banal sort of way and the amount of attention he garners tells us everything we need to know about the bench of right-wing intellectuals. It’s so shallow if it turned sideways it would vanish.

Makes sense…

Oliver Darcy@oliverdarcy.bsky.social · last wk.

Scoop: I’m told that Ross Douthat is exiting The NYT and is expected to take a role at “60 Minutes.” News expected to be announced soon.

It definitely read as “I tried hard to remove the academic snark and this is as far as I got.”

Casey Stegman@caseystegman.com · last wk.

People who think Emily Wilson is being mean have clearly never presented a paper at an academic conference

Great thread about the challenges of promoting a book dealing with a subject popularized by Nazis and other lovers of racist pseudohistory.

The Sian from Atlantis@parthenoid.bsky.social · last wk.

Sooo my publisher is pretty good at passing on requests for interviews. Generally if you've got a podcast, and you fancy a chat about Atlantis, Crossed Crow have you. The other week, I got an email from them saying, "You NEED to get on this, QUICKLY." It was for... a radio show. 1/

And yet!

Dorian Lynskey@dorianlynskey.bsky.social · 2w ago

Many left-wing writers are still on X. I think if you’d asked them five years ago if they’d stay if the owner was a white supremacist who advocated race war and the murder of people who opposed mass deportations they would have said no of course not, that’s crazy. And yet

Please never stop calling this Nazi shit what it really is. Fucking Nazi shit.

Quinn Slobodian@quinnslobodian.com · 2w ago

Wow "traitor to the west," strong words, Elon, who are we talking about here... ah the editor-in-chief of The Economist

Besides being a really fun writing exercise that I highly recommend to other academics, this piece turned out to be hilariously, horrifyingly prophetic.😅

@lastpositivist.bsky.social · 2w ago

Strongly encourage everyone to buy this because it'll probably be dope but more importantly because it's the first academic book to been teased in a 40K fanfiction. Check it out! sherdenpact.neocities.org/GuestPostLuck

My book officially has a cover! I'm so excited to watch it materialize. Next stop, pre-orders!

Luckily, Mamdani democrats favor funding social services to meet the needs of the politically homeless until such time as they no longer need that aid to be flourishing members of the body politic.

Luke O'Neil@lukeoneil47.bsky.social · 2w ago

“This is a group of people who are not far left and mostly feel politically homeless,” Guttman said. “They see the mayor’s office and they don’t really identify as that Democrat,” she added, referring to New York City’s democratic socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani.

Elon: We should build the fully automated super-trans luxury space communism from Ian Banks’s famous series “Check out this awesome fully automated super-trans luxury space communism”. This never stops being funny.

Metal Gear Solidarity@mgearsolidarity.bsky.social · 2w ago

'From that point on, it was all downhill for Musk. He suggested that everyone read Iain Banks for a vision of the future, and Beddoes pointed out that Banks was a socialist. Musk insisted he wasn’t." He's either never read his "favourite" books or he's too stupid to understand them.

This is just the part of Brooklyn 99 where Jake goes to jail and makes friends with cannibal Tim Meadows.

Adam Parkhomenko@adamparkhomenko.bsky.social · 2w ago

Good

Solved a 30 year conjecture by telling the AI to lock in. Shit is gonna get so weird y’all.

mr. TIM@timkellogg.me · 2w ago

the Dinitz-Garg-Goemans conjecture, a graph theory problem that’s gone unsolved for 30 years, was solved with this prompt

It remains wild that the richest person alive is a Nazi incel.

Toby Buckle@polphilpod.bsky.social · 2w ago

the new right makes men *undisguiseably* repellent then frames that as women's fault

Great piece about how meritocracy is bad and we should burn it with fire. My only feedback would be they’re still using “deserve” and don’t realize it’s the concept at the heart of the problem and so also needs to be carved out and replaced with “need”.

TrooperBari@trooperbari.bsky.social · 2w ago

@etvpod.bsky.social Luckpilling discourse detected. Thought this might be of interest. Naturally, the comments are full of people falling over themselves to come up with reasons why this is invalid and/or better things aren't possible. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Finally got my new tattoo in honor of my forthcoming book (Luckpilled, April 13th!). It’s an analemma in reference to the book Anathem. To me it means “the truth is worth dying for”.

A subset of we should ban online gambling.

shauna@goldengateblond.bsky.social · 3w ago

yeah we’re gonna have to ban prediction markets