Michael Zapata
@michaelzapata.bsky.social
Author of the novel THE LOST BOOK OF ADANA MOREAU. Faculty at StoryStudio Chicago & Northwestern University. Descended from Andean farmers, poets, and union organizers. michaelzapata.com
Reading AI produced text for research is a form of illiteracy. It flattens syntax, prose, research insights, the idiosyncratic nature of human voice and reasoning. You will miss out on accidental discovery in your own research. You will start mimicking its logic and language to the same effect.
Have you ever wanted your own personal writing mentor? This program is for you! Our next Intensive Coaching Cohort begins August 20, with writer @michaelzapata.bsky.social. This is a six-month online program designed to help you kick your project into high gear. Register now: buff.ly/5jmuPOH
The Internet kind of sucks. This will be one of its junky legacies after it’s gone.
Britt Lundgren@brittlundgren.bsky.social · 2w agoA few months ago I gave a public talk about satellites at a local brewery & afterwards one of the attendees asked me if I'd like to collaborate on an OpEd to spread the word about the growing problem of space junk. Long story short, today it's on the front page of the digital WaPo: wapo.st/4yqgbLn
ChatGPT is a tool specifically created to make you illiterate and illegible.
Aparna Nair@disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 3w ago
Happening now in Chicago: community members and activists are in the La Villita/Little Village neighborhood to demonstrate against continued ICE violence in across the country. In just the last two weeks, ICE agents have killed 2 men. A 3rd died running from agents, and a 4th died in ICE custody.
Antifascism looks like Pedro Pascal. It looks like Alex Pretti and AOC. It looks like 600 priests, imams, and rabbis in the cold streets of winter Minneapolis. Antifascism is gorgeous.
PEIPolitical 🇨🇦@peipolitical.bsky.social · 3w agoMiller: "It's not a coincidence that when you look at these violent Antifa demonstrations not one of the people that is demonstrating looks like a normal person. Not one looks normal. They're all deformed in some way in their appearance, in their dress, in their mannerism." #cdnpoli
do not use ChatGPT as a search engine. it is not a search engine.
Holden Thorp@holdenthorp.bsky.social · 3w agoHi, this is Holden emerging from my Bluesky hiatus to tell everyone that when checking the links in the piece, I used ChatGPT as my search engine (does anyone use Google anymore?). The piece was written by me and edited by humans. So all the links were checked by me and again by our copyeditors.
A horse never stole my novel. But I would read a novel about a horse stealing a novel, written by a human. www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ju...
George Lucas likens AI sceptics to luddites clinging to horses and carts
Star Wars director calls AI technology ‘the future’ of film-making and says ‘there’s nothing you can do about it’
theguardian.com
The Nazis lost. They are losers. Their ideology, though, still lives on in the minds of losers.
Gillian Branstetter@gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 3w agoRFK Jr. asked the National Institute of Health to dedicate $5 billion (!) to finding a link between vaccines and autism. "That would have dedicated more than a tenth of the NIH’s annual budget to investigating a hypothesis already refuted by scientists worldwide."
Our next 6-month Intensive Coaching Cohort with @michaelzapata.bsky.social starts in August! This online program is for writers looking for a personal writing mentor and a small group of like-minded writers. More information and to join now is available here: buff.ly/sH2aE01 #writingcommunity
At its core LLMs are a type of zombie technology. Its rampant spread is a sure sign the Internet has died.
I’ll never really understand why teens use social media, even with all the nefarious marketing and math. They see their parents and grandparents on it. It’s the epitome of not cool. What is youth without making fun of your elders?
Read Don Quixote and Clarice Lispector. Drink a café con leche at 1AM and write a prose poem about sentient spiders, nuclear fallout. Stare at a spider. Ask it about sentience. Send an email to your favorite living writer. This is key- NEVER USE AI. You will be kings and queens of the job market.
Lauri Donahue@lauridonahue.bsky.social · last mo.futurism.com/future-socie... lol
Bravo!
Tom Richmond@tom-richmond.com · last mo."Norway is imposing a near ban on the use of generative AI tools by elementary school pupils while also restricting their use in the education of older children to prevent a negative impact on learning" Sometimes, good policymaking is incredibly simple. www.reuters.com/technology/n...
I'm working on more stories in my "Toltec Wuxia" cycle. Both Western & Eastern sword & sorcery tropes fit nicely in the chaotic period after Quetzalcoatl's incarnation was forced off the imperial throne by dark mages and went into exile. The 1st, "Whispering Shards," was in a recent anthology. 1/
Latin American Shared Stories - Flame Tree Publishing
This vibrant anthology presents a curated selection of speculative stories and fascinating essays highlighting the many voices, mythologies, folklore,
flametreepublishing.com
250 years and we still don’t have siestas. It’s true. We are a failed state after all.
This is also what I tell myself when gazing into the abyss of my boys’ bedrooms.
NPR@npr.org · last mo.The Art Institute of Chicago's miniature rooms are cleaned at least twice a year, demanding patience, precision and a meditative state of mind.
Have you ever wanted your own personal writing mentor? Our next Intensive Coaching Cohort with writer @michaelzapata.bsky.social kicks off in August. This six-month program is designed for writers looking for a small cohort and plenty of one-on-one instruction. More info: buff.ly/30I3KSk #writers
Intensive Coaching Cohorts at StoryStudio Chicago - StoryStudio Chicago
INTENSIVE COACHING COHORTS Have you ever wanted to join an intimate – yet highly dedicated – creative writing group where the leader can give you intensive one-on-one mentorship and feedback?…
buff.ly
Democrats are mobilizing against working people. Nothing new. What IS new (to them) is that working people are winning! www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
washingtonpost.com
Literally manifesting a united front against the will of their own constiuency with a swiftness and vigor they could not muster to even feign resistance to open fascism
Truthout@truthout.org · last mo.Centrist Democrats are gearing up to organize against progressives and democratic socialists, who have been racking up victories over the last two years by presenting themselves as an alternative to a failed status quo that lost the 2024 election to President Donald Trump.
Dems have to run on this hard. Do not let the RFK types try to spin what his own party just signed off on here. Actual Monsanto, the comic book villain of Adbusters days, was shielded from liability over poisoning Americans. I don't care if it's slopulism: this Supreme Court wants you dead.
Kyle Griffin@kylegriffin1.bsky.social · last mo.Reuters: U.S. SUPREME COURT RULES IN FAVOR OF BAYER'S BID TO LIMIT LAWSUITS IN STATE COURT CLAIMING ITS ROUNDUP WEEDKILLER CAUSES CANCER
In 300 years, people will know more about the 1700s than the 21st century. AI is not only anti-human, its anti-history.
Josh Shepperd@joshshepperd.bsky.social · 2mo agoAI has started blocking the Wayback Machine from chronicling the web. Considering that nearly 40% of websites disappear after 10 years, this will enforce a giant loss in collective memory.
