#dystopian — Public Fediverse posts

Recorvia Episode 15

https://solaceem.wordpress.com/2026/09/06/recorvia-episode-15/

Recorvia Episode 15

https://solaceem.wordpress.com/2026/09/06/recorvia-episode-15/

Recorvia Episode 15

https://solaceem.wordpress.com/2026/09/06/recorvia-episode-15/

Recorvia Episode 15

https://solaceem.wordpress.com/2026/09/06/recorvia-episode-15/

Recorvia Episode 15

https://solaceem.wordpress.com/2026/09/06/recorvia-episode-15/

Free download codes:

Michael HERTER - GAMES. Vol. 4: Futuristic Synthetic Worlds

"Futuristic electronic and hybrid tracks for sci-fi games, cyberpunk worlds, and action trailers."

https://getmusic.fm/l/5XhBaw

#electronic #synthwave #soundtrack #cinematic #scifi #cyberpunk #dystopian #hybrid #futuristic #gaming #music

Free download codes:

Michael HERTER - GAMES. Vol. 4: Futuristic Synthetic Worlds

"Futuristic electronic and hybrid tracks for sci-fi games, cyberpunk worlds, and action trailers."

https://getmusic.fm/l/5XhBaw

#electronic #synthwave #soundtrack #cinematic #scifi #cyberpunk #dystopian #hybrid #futuristic #gaming #music

Free download codes:

Michael HERTER - GAMES. Vol. 4: Futuristic Synthetic Worlds

"Futuristic electronic and hybrid tracks for sci-fi games, cyberpunk worlds, and action trailers."

https://getmusic.fm/l/5XhBaw

#electronic #synthwave #soundtrack #cinematic #scifi #cyberpunk #dystopian #hybrid #futuristic #gaming #music

Free download codes:

Michael HERTER - GAMES. Vol. 4: Futuristic Synthetic Worlds

"Futuristic electronic and hybrid tracks for sci-fi games, cyberpunk worlds, and action trailers."

https://getmusic.fm/l/5XhBaw

#electronic #synthwave #soundtrack #cinematic #scifi #cyberpunk #dystopian #hybrid #futuristic #gaming #music

Imagine a future in which late-stage capitalism became able to scan cadavers' brains and transfer them into chatbots unless the deceased subscribes to a high-tier funerary services plan. Behold the ultimate wet dream of those who think Black Mirror is meant as an instruction manual: KadAIve®!

Alt-text contains important explanation about this absurdist art (such as, the deliberate mimicking of AI slop machine style and the hidden puns/messages within the text), but will likely end up truncated because it's way too lengthy (too many details that ought to be explained). Hell, it's even exceeds the 5000 character limit when I try to paste the alt-text here in the post.

#arsritualistemplii #meme #dystopian #scifiparody #mementomori

Imagine a future in which late-stage capitalism became able to scan cadavers' brains and transfer them into chatbots unless the deceased subscribes to a high-tier funerary services plan. Behold the ultimate wet dream of those who think Black Mirror is meant as an instruction manual: KadAIve®!

Alt-text contains important explanation about this absurdist art (such as, the deliberate mimicking of AI slop machine style and the hidden puns/messages within the text), but will likely end up truncated because it's way too lengthy (too many details that ought to be explained). Hell, it's even exceeds the 5000 character limit when I try to paste the alt-text here in the post.

#arsritualistemplii #meme #dystopian #scifiparody #mementomori

“Release” is a #dystopian #SciFi #MMRomance by Marie Sexton.

Misha grew up in the “trenches” of lower Davlova, where the poorest citizens scratch out a living without technology while the high-born “purebloods” live in electrified luxury behind the walls of the inner city on the hill. Misha gets taken in by one of the clans, criminal gangs that run all sorts of operations in the city. Over the years, Misha learned the fine art of pickpocketing. Sometimes he also turns tricks to see if a potential mark had a lot of money, and where he kept it.

One day, the clan leader offers Misha a new opportunity. One of the most powerful men in the city is looking for a new toy boy and wants someone “exotic.” The clan leader isn’t just asking Misha to prostitute himself. She wants him to gain the man’s confidence and learn his secrets. The information may provide the catalyst that starts a revolution.

https://michaeljoseph.info/blog/2023/review-release-marie-sexton/?ref=mastodon

“Release” is a #dystopian #SciFi #MMRomance by Marie Sexton.

Misha grew up in the “trenches” of lower Davlova, where the poorest citizens scratch out a living without technology while the high-born “purebloods” live in electrified luxury behind the walls of the inner city on the hill. Misha gets taken in by one of the clans, criminal gangs that run all sorts of operations in the city. Over the years, Misha learned the fine art of pickpocketing. Sometimes he also turns tricks to see if a potential mark had a lot of money, and where he kept it.

One day, the clan leader offers Misha a new opportunity. One of the most powerful men in the city is looking for a new toy boy and wants someone “exotic.” The clan leader isn’t just asking Misha to prostitute himself. She wants him to gain the man’s confidence and learn his secrets. The information may provide the catalyst that starts a revolution.

https://michaeljoseph.info/blog/2023/review-release-marie-sexton/?ref=mastodon

“Release” is a #dystopian #SciFi #MMRomance by Marie Sexton.

Misha grew up in the “trenches” of lower Davlova, where the poorest citizens scratch out a living without technology while the high-born “purebloods” live in electrified luxury behind the walls of the inner city on the hill. Misha gets taken in by one of the clans, criminal gangs that run all sorts of operations in the city. Over the years, Misha learned the fine art of pickpocketing. Sometimes he also turns tricks to see if a potential mark had a lot of money, and where he kept it.

One day, the clan leader offers Misha a new opportunity. One of the most powerful men in the city is looking for a new toy boy and wants someone “exotic.” The clan leader isn’t just asking Misha to prostitute himself. She wants him to gain the man’s confidence and learn his secrets. The information may provide the catalyst that starts a revolution.

https://michaeljoseph.info/blog/2023/review-release-marie-sexton/?ref=mastodon

“Release” is a #dystopian #SciFi #MMRomance by Marie Sexton.

Misha grew up in the “trenches” of lower Davlova, where the poorest citizens scratch out a living without technology while the high-born “purebloods” live in electrified luxury behind the walls of the inner city on the hill. Misha gets taken in by one of the clans, criminal gangs that run all sorts of operations in the city. Over the years, Misha learned the fine art of pickpocketing. Sometimes he also turns tricks to see if a potential mark had a lot of money, and where he kept it.

One day, the clan leader offers Misha a new opportunity. One of the most powerful men in the city is looking for a new toy boy and wants someone “exotic.” The clan leader isn’t just asking Misha to prostitute himself. She wants him to gain the man’s confidence and learn his secrets. The information may provide the catalyst that starts a revolution.

https://michaeljoseph.info/blog/2023/review-release-marie-sexton/?ref=mastodon

“Release” is a #dystopian #SciFi #MMRomance by Marie Sexton.

Misha grew up in the “trenches” of lower Davlova, where the poorest citizens scratch out a living without technology while the high-born “purebloods” live in electrified luxury behind the walls of the inner city on the hill. Misha gets taken in by one of the clans, criminal gangs that run all sorts of operations in the city. Over the years, Misha learned the fine art of pickpocketing. Sometimes he also turns tricks to see if a potential mark had a lot of money, and where he kept it.

One day, the clan leader offers Misha a new opportunity. One of the most powerful men in the city is looking for a new toy boy and wants someone “exotic.” The clan leader isn’t just asking Misha to prostitute himself. She wants him to gain the man’s confidence and learn his secrets. The information may provide the catalyst that starts a revolution.

https://michaeljoseph.info/blog/2023/review-release-marie-sexton/?ref=mastodon

Facial Recognition is spiralling out of control in the UK and there are no clear laws in place to protect our privacy

https://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2026/07/facial-recognition-is-spiralling-out-of-control-in-the-uk-and-there-are-no-clear-laws-in-place-to-protect-our-privacy/

Good morning. 🌸🌸🌸

11 July 2026

I use my phone mostly as a pocket‑sized computer rather than a telephone, though I do occasionally make or answer a call. If I want to look something up—anytime, anywhere—I reach for my back pocket, pull out my iPhone, and the world opens. It’s amazing, really, and I know I’m not the only one who does this. But if I set my phone down while moving around and suddenly think of something I want to research, which happens often, I find myself scrambling. Where did I leave it? That moment of panic is unsettling. It’s strange to feel so tethered to an object. In a way, it’s like carrying around a genie everywhere I go—one that can answer any question or fetch almost anything with a tap. Aladdin’s lamp has nothing on this little slab of metal and glass; I get far more than three wishes.

It makes me wonder how I managed daily life for so long without a cell phone. Maybe it’s similar to what my grandparents must have felt when they looked back and asked how people lived without running water or electricity. Was there really life before the automobile? I suspect most of us today wouldn’t last long in that world.

Imagine the chaos if all the cell towers suddenly went dark. It’s not impossible. Then what? Payphones have vanished, and most homes have abandoned landlines. And that’s just the communication piece. If electricity and fuel stopped flowing, survival itself would be at stake.

It’s almost comical that misplacing my iPhone can spark visions of a dystopian future—but here we are.

“Technology is a useful servant but a dangerous master.” — Christian Lous Lange

“We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.” — Carl Sagan

“Big Brother is watching you.” - George Orwell, 1984

#photo #photography #photographer #photographylovers #nature #morning #technology #cellphones #flowers #dystopian #genie

WATCH: Why AI in the classroom is a catastrophe | Sophie Winkleman [ARC ...
https://youtube.com/watch?v=yFp5-i5fzyQ&si=qWZ4Ei-6j2_TdZbB #ai #education #schooling #dystopian

WATCH: Why AI in the classroom is a catastrophe | Sophie Winkleman [ARC ...
https://youtube.com/watch?v=yFp5-i5fzyQ&si=qWZ4Ei-6j2_TdZbB #ai #education #schooling #dystopian

WATCH: Why AI in the classroom is a catastrophe | Sophie Winkleman [ARC ...
https://youtube.com/watch?v=yFp5-i5fzyQ&si=qWZ4Ei-6j2_TdZbB #ai #education #schooling #dystopian

WATCH: Why AI in the classroom is a catastrophe | Sophie Winkleman [ARC ...
https://youtube.com/watch?v=yFp5-i5fzyQ&si=qWZ4Ei-6j2_TdZbB #ai #education #schooling #dystopian

WATCH: Why AI in the classroom is a catastrophe | Sophie Winkleman [ARC ...
https://youtube.com/watch?v=yFp5-i5fzyQ&si=qWZ4Ei-6j2_TdZbB #ai #education #schooling #dystopian

Mini data centers outside your home. Yeah… no thanks! https://youtu.be/ZoYeJwN7Rkw?si=xlBMS054F-uIQxHl

Ramblings of a #supervillain

#Palantir #manifesto claims #AI #weapons, cultural inferiority

#American technology corp Palantir raised controversy such as moral duty of tech companies in defence & implying some #cultures are inferior to others

The post was called a 22-point #manifesto that has generated backlash ...

#racism #CorporateTerrorism #BigData #greed #power #USAggression #USThreats #BoycottUSA #CorporateGovt #dystopian

[1/2]

Poll: What’s next?

#AndThen? And then #Mullvad was #censored in #UK

#UnitedKingdom is escalating its #censorship & mass #surveillance

When Mullvad tried to address this with #TV #ad “And Then?”, it was banned on British television

Outdoor ad campaign meant to criticise the TV ban was also largely halted

Here, you can watch the banned ads and explore the entire campaign

https://mullvad.net/en/and-then/uk

#authoritarian #Orwellian #dystopian #privacy #security #ToxicTories #ToxicLabour #KeirStalin #StarmerOut

The #US is dragging #Europe back to the days of white #supremacism. Our leaders are playing along

if we want to protect multiparty liberal #democracy and push back against the #FarRight, we should be far more wary not only of #toxic speeches from across the Atlantic but of #Trump’s close ties to Europe’s #xenophobic parties and the many ways in which the US’s #Maga politicians are legitimising far-right ideologies...

#fascism #Trump #authoritarianism #dictators #dystopian #oppression

[1/2]

I saw this on Mastodon and almost had a stroke.

@davidgerard wrote:

“Most of the AI coding claims are conveniently nondisprovable. What studies there are show it not helping coding at all, or making it worse

But SO MANY LOUD ANECDOTES! Trust me my friend, I am the most efficient coder in the land now. No, you can’t see it. No, I didn’t measure. But if you don’t believe me, you are clearly a fool.

These guys had one good experience with the bot, they got one-shotted, and now if you say “perhaps the bot is not all that” they act like you’re trying to take their cocaine away.”

First, the term is falsifiable, and proving propositions about algorithms (i.e., code) is part of what I do for a living. Mathematically human-written code and AI-written code can be tested, which means you can falsify propositions about them. You would test them the same way.

There is no intrinsic mathematical distinction between code written by a person and code produced by an AI system. In both cases, the result is a formal program made of logic and structure. In principle, the same testing techniques can be applied to each. If it were really nondisprovable, you could not test to see what is generated by a human and what is generated by AI. But you can test it. Studies have found that AI-generated code tends to exhibit a higher frequency of certain types of defects. So, reviewers and testers know what logic flaws and security weaknesses to look for. This would not be the case if it were nondisprovable.

You can study this from datasets where the source of the code is known. You can use open-source pull requests identified as AI-assisted versus those written without such tools. You then evaluate both groups using the same industry-standard analysis tools: static analyzers, complexity metrics, security scanners, and defect classification systems. These tools flag bugs, vulnerabilities, performance issues, and maintainability concerns. They do so in a consistent way across samples.

A widely cited analysis of 470 real pull requests reported that AI-generated contributions contained roughly 1.7 times as many issues on average as human-written ones. The difference included a higher number of critical and major defects. It also included more logic and security-related problems. Because these findings rely on standard measurement tools — counting defects, grading severity, and comparing issue rates — the results are grounded in observable data. Again, I am making a point here. It’s testable and therefore disproveable.

This is a good paper that goes into it:

In this paper, we present a large-scale comparison of code authored by human developers and three state-of-the-art LLMs, i.e., ChatGPT, DeepSeek-Coder, and Qwen-Coder, on multiple dimensions of software quality: code defects, security vulnerabilities, and structural complexity. Our evaluation spans over 500k code samples in two widely used languages, Python and Java, classifying defects via Orthogonal Defect Classification and security vulnerabilities using the Common Weakness Enumeration. We find that AI-generated code is generally simpler and more repetitive, yet more prone to unused constructs and hardcoded debugging, while human-written code exhibits greater structural complexity and a higher concentration of maintainability issues. Notably, AI-generated code also contains more high-risk security vulnerabilities. These findings highlight the distinct defect profiles of AI- and human-authored code and underscore the need for specialized quality assurance practices in AI-assisted programming.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.21634

The big problem in discussions about AI in programming is the either-or thinking, when it’s not about using it everywhere or banning it entirely. Tools like AI have specific strengths and weaknesses. Saying ‘never’ or ‘always’ oversimplifies the issue and turns the narrative into propaganda that creates moral panic or shills AI. It’s a bit like saying you shouldn’t use a hammer just because it’s not good for brushing your teeth.

AI tends to produce code that’s simple, often a bit repetitive, and very verbose. It’s usually pretty easy to read and tweak. This helps with long-term maintenance. But AI doesn’t reason about code the way an experienced developer does. It makes mistakes that a human wouldn’t, potentially introducing security flaws. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t use for where it works well, which is not everywhere.

AI works well for certain tasks, especially when the scope is narrow and the risk is low. Examples include generating boilerplate code, internal utilities, or prototypes. In these cases, the tradeoff is manageable. However, it’s not suitable for critical code like kernels, operating systems, compilers, or cryptographic libraries. A small mistake memory safety or privilege separation can lead to major failures. Problems with synchronization, pointer management, or access control can cause major problems, too.

Other areas where AI should not be used include memory allocation handling, scheduling, process isolation, or device drivers. A lot of that depends on implicit assumptions in the system’s architecture. Generative models don’t grasp these nuances. Instead of carefully considering the design, AI tends to replicate code patterns that seem statistically likely, doing so without understanding the purpose behind them.

Yes, I’m aware that Microsoft is using AI to write code everywhere I said it should not be used. That is the problem. However, political pundits, lobbyists, and anti-tech talking heads are discussing something they have no understanding of and aren’t specifying what the problem actually is. This means they can’t possibly lead grassroots initiatives into actual laws that specify where AI should not be used, which is why we have this weird astroturfing bullshit.

They’re taking advantage of the reaction to Microsoft using AI-generated code where it shouldn’t be used to argue that AI shouldn’t be used anywhere at all in any generative context. AI is useful for tasks like writing documentation, generating tests, suggesting code improvements, or brainstorming alternative approaches. These ideas should then be thoroughly vetted by human developers.

Something I’ve started to notice about a lot of the content on social media platforms is that most of the posts people are liking, sharing, and memetically mutating—and then spreading virally—usually don’t include any citations, sources, or receipts. It’s often just some out-of-context screenshot with no reference link or actual sources.

A lot of the anti-AI content is not genuine critique. It’s often misinformation, but people who hate AI don’t question it or ask for sources because it aligns with their biases. The propaganda on social media has gotten so bad that anything other than heavily curated and vetted feeds is pretty much useless, and it’s filled with all sorts of memetic contagions with nasty hooks that are optimized for you algorithmically. I am at the point where I will disregard anything that is not followed up with a source. Period. It is all optimized to persuade, coerce, or piss you off. I am only writing about this because this I’m actually able to contribute genuine information about the topic.

That they said symbolic propositions written by AI agents (i.e., code) are non-disprovable because they were written by AI boggles my mind. It’s like saying that an article written in English by AI is not English because AI generated it. It might be a bad piece of text, but it’s syntactically, semantically, and grammatically English.

Basically, any string of data can be represented in a base-2 system, where it can be interpreted as bits (0s and 1s). Those bits can be used as the basis for symbolic reasoning. In formal propositional logic, a proposition is a sequence of symbols constructed according to strict syntax rules (atomic variables plus logical connectives). Under a given semantics, it is assigned exactly one truth value (true or false) in a two-valued logic system.

They are essentially saying that code written by AI is not binary, isn’t symbolically logical at all, and cannot be evaluated as true or false by implying it is nondisproveable. At the lowest level, compiled code consists of binary machine instructions that a processor executes. At higher levels, source code is written in symbolic syntax that humans and tools use to express logic and structure. You can also translate parts of code into formal logic expressions. For example, conditions and assertions in a program can be modeled as Boolean formulas. Tools like SAT/SMT solvers or symbolic execution engines check those formulas for satisfiability or correctness. It blows my mind how confidently people talk about things they do not understand.

Furthermore that they don’t realize the projection is wild to me.

@davidgerard wrote:

“But SO MANY LOUD ANECDOTES! Trust me my friend, I am the most efficient coder in the land now. No, you can’t see it. No, I didn’t measure. But if you don’t believe me, you are clearly a fool.”

They are presenting a story—i.e., saying that the studies are not disprovable—and accusing computer scientists of using anecdotal evidence without actually providing evidence to support this, while expecting people to take it prima facie. You’re doing what you are accusing others of doing.

It comes down to this: they feel that people ought not to use AI, so they are tacitly committed to a future in which people do not use AI. For example, a major argument against AI is the damage it is doing to resources, which is driving up the prices of computer components, as well as the ecological harm it causes. They feel justified in lying and misinforming others if it achieves the outcome they want—people not using AI because it is bad for the environment. That is a very strong point, but most people don’t care about that, which is why they lie about things people would care about.

It’s corrupt. And what’s really scary is that people don’t recognize when they are part of corruption or a corrupt conspiracy to misinform. Well, they recognize it when they see the other side doing it, that is. No one is more dangerous than people who feel righteous in what they are doing.

It’s wild to me that the idea that if you cannot persuade someone, it is okay to bully, coerce, harass them, or spread misinformation to get what you want—because your side is right—has become so normalized on the Internet that people can’t see why it is problematic.

That people think it is okay to hurt others to get them to agree is the most disturbing part of all of this. People have become so hateful. That is a large reason why I don’t interact with people on social media, really consume things from social media, or respond on social media and am writing a blog post about it instead of engaging with who prompted it.

I saw this on Mastodon and almost had a stroke.

@davidgerard wrote:

“Most of the AI coding claims are conveniently nondisprovable. What studies there are show it not helping coding at all, or making it worse

But SO MANY LOUD ANECDOTES! Trust me my friend, I am the most efficient coder in the land now. No, you can’t see it. No, I didn’t measure. But if you don’t believe me, you are clearly a fool.

These guys had one good experience with the bot, they got one-shotted, and now if you say “perhaps the bot is not all that” they act like you’re trying to take their cocaine away.”

First, the term is falsifiable, and proving propositions about algorithms (i.e., code) is part of what I do for a living. Mathematically human-written code and AI-written code can be tested, which means you can falsify propositions about them. You would test them the same way.

There is no intrinsic mathematical distinction between code written by a person and code produced by an AI system. In both cases, the result is a formal program made of logic and structure. In principle, the same testing techniques can be applied to each. If it were really nondisprovable, you could not test to see what is generated by a human and what is generated by AI. But you can test it. Studies have found that AI-generated code tends to exhibit a higher frequency of certain types of defects. So, reviewers and testers know what logic flaws and security weaknesses to look for. This would not be the case if it were nondisprovable.

You can study this from datasets where the source of the code is known. You can use open-source pull requests identified as AI-assisted versus those written without such tools. You then evaluate both groups using the same industry-standard analysis tools: static analyzers, complexity metrics, security scanners, and defect classification systems. These tools flag bugs, vulnerabilities, performance issues, and maintainability concerns. They do so in a consistent way across samples.

A widely cited analysis of 470 real pull requests reported that AI-generated contributions contained roughly 1.7 times as many issues on average as human-written ones. The difference included a higher number of critical and major defects. It also included more logic and security-related problems. Because these findings rely on standard measurement tools — counting defects, grading severity, and comparing issue rates — the results are grounded in observable data. Again, I am making a point here. It’s testable and therefore disproveable.

This is a good paper that goes into it:

In this paper, we present a large-scale comparison of code authored by human developers and three state-of-the-art LLMs, i.e., ChatGPT, DeepSeek-Coder, and Qwen-Coder, on multiple dimensions of software quality: code defects, security vulnerabilities, and structural complexity. Our evaluation spans over 500k code samples in two widely used languages, Python and Java, classifying defects via Orthogonal Defect Classification and security vulnerabilities using the Common Weakness Enumeration. We find that AI-generated code is generally simpler and more repetitive, yet more prone to unused constructs and hardcoded debugging, while human-written code exhibits greater structural complexity and a higher concentration of maintainability issues. Notably, AI-generated code also contains more high-risk security vulnerabilities. These findings highlight the distinct defect profiles of AI- and human-authored code and underscore the need for specialized quality assurance practices in AI-assisted programming.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.21634

Something I’ve started to notice about a lot of the content on social media platforms is that most of the posts people are liking, sharing, and memetically mutating—and then spreading virally—usually don’t include any citations, sources, or receipts. It’s often just some out-of-context screenshot with no reference link or actual sources.

A lot of the anti-AI content is not genuine critique. It’s often misinformation, but people who hate AI don’t question it or ask for sources because it aligns with their biases. The propaganda on social media has gotten so bad that anything other than heavily curated and vetted feeds is pretty much useless, and it’s filled with all sorts of memetic contagions with nasty hooks that are optimized for you algorithmically. I am at the point where I will disregard anything that is not followed up with a source. Period. It is all optimized to persuade, coerce, or piss you off. I am only writing about this because this I’m actually able to contribute genuine information about the topic.

That they said symbolic propositions written by AI agents (i.e., code) are non-disprovable because they were written by AI boggles my mind. It’s like saying that an article written in English by AI is not English because AI generated it. It might be a bad piece of text, but it’s syntactically, semantically, and grammatically English.

Basically, any string of data can be represented in a base-2 system, where it can be interpreted as bits (0s and 1s). Those bits can be used as the basis for symbolic reasoning. In formal propositional logic, a proposition is a sequence of symbols constructed according to strict syntax rules (atomic variables plus logical connectives). Under a given semantics, it is assigned exactly one truth value (true or false) in a two-valued logic system.

They are essentially saying that code written by AI is not binary, isn’t symbolically logical at all, and cannot be evaluated as true or false by implying it is nondisproveable. At the lowest level, compiled code consists of binary machine instructions that a processor executes. At higher levels, source code is written in symbolic syntax that humans and tools use to express logic and structure. You can also translate parts of code into formal logic expressions. For example, conditions and assertions in a program can be modeled as Boolean formulas. Tools like SAT/SMT solvers or symbolic execution engines check those formulas for satisfiability or correctness. It blows my mind how confidently people talk about things they do not understand.

Furthermore that they don’t realize the projection is wild to me.

@davidgerard wrote:

“But SO MANY LOUD ANECDOTES! Trust me my friend, I am the most efficient coder in the land now. No, you can’t see it. No, I didn’t measure. But if you don’t believe me, you are clearly a fool.”

They are presenting a story—i.e., saying that the studies are not disprovable—and accusing computer scientists of using anecdotal evidence without actually providing evidence to support this, while expecting people to take it prima facie. You’re doing what you are accusing others of doing.

It comes down to this: they feel that people ought not to use AI, so they are tacitly committed to a future in which people do not use AI. For example, a major argument against AI is the damage it is doing to resources, which is driving up the prices of computer components, as well as the ecological harm it causes. They feel justified in lying and misinforming others if it achieves the outcome they want—people not using AI because it is bad for the environment. That is a very strong point, but most people don’t care about that, which is why they lie about things people would care about.

It’s corrupt. And what’s really scary is that people don’t recognize when they are part of corruption or a corrupt conspiracy to misinform. Well, they recognize it when they see the other side doing it, that is. No one is more dangerous than people who feel righteous in what they are doing.

So, I am a Computational Biologist. Keep that in mind. I’m an actual scientist who works with ecological concepts, specifically the microbiome. One of the most insufferable reactions to the cyberpunk era we inhabit is the emergence of anti-science ideas from the left in response to techno-fascism. The strange part is that many people on the left do not even recognize them as anti-science, because they assume the left is aligned with science and the right opposed to it; ergo, if the left says it, it must be scientific. It is insane: washing your hands is technology. Medicine is technology.

I think, because the Internet has hijacked people’s brains, many conflate technology with electronics or machines. Anthropologically, technology consists of material objects, techniques, and organized practices through which humans intentionally intervene in their environments. Technology is culture, and human culture is technology. When someone learns a skill or a discipline from someone else, that is an extension of technology.

Technology encompasses craft traditions (blacksmithing), agriculture, and institutionalized processes of teaching and learning. Agriculture is one of the oldest forms of technology. Yes, farmers are tech workers. I write code, but I also spent a large amount of time on a farm, and I can tell you that many tech workers who pride themselves on writing code would not know what to do with farm equipment.

So, from that broad perspective, we can sum technology up in one word: education. A basic heuristic for determining if something is cultural or not is: can it be taught and learned? These words? I was taught English, and I am using an invented language to transmit knowledge to you; ergo, I am using technology to transmit cultural knowledge to you. Reading a book is thus using a piece of human technology. So, being anti-tech connotes being anti-education.

What got me thinking about this is a toot I read on Mastodon:

The truth is that society needs to develop ethically and ecologically more than it does technologically. That’s not to say that we should shun technology, but our development along other lines lags far behind our technological capacity.

↬ecoevo.social/@benlockwood/116052113455871454

Sounds valid, right? That is the distinct smell of bull shit.This is a clear example of what is called a platitude. Platitudes are memetically hijacking people’s brains. Memetics actually hijack your brain—they change it. It’s similar to how a retrovirus can alter the genome of its host. So, trying to have conversations with these people is pointless, which is why I avoid the chronically online Internet scene and arguing with them.

It made me want to scream. As I mentioned earlier, technology is basically a set of things you learn from other humans—typically within a culture—that helps you do or make something. You know what else is learned within human society? A normative set of cultural values about how we ought to behave. So, both technology and culture emerge from the same thing simultaneously and mutually. You cannot have humans intervening in things to achieve ecological development, because that is technology, and you cannot educate humans on ethics without an invented language. It is literally an anti-education argument.

Ethics and technology arise together from the same human conditions and social processes. It makes little sense to claim that technology is “outpacing” ethics. The two do not develop independently. We form ethical norms in response to new capacities and circumstances. There would be no cultural norms about how to use the Internet if the Internet did not exist. And, there would be no ethical debates about AI if AI did not exist. Ethical reflection emerges alongside technological change because both are products of human culture.

As new problems create new technologies that create new problems, societies respond by negotiating norms, rules, and expectations appropriate to those contexts. The same pattern appears in politics. Politics concerns who gets what, when, and how—it is the negotiation of power, rights, and resources. Without resources or competing claims, there would be nothing to negotiate. Ethics and politics are not trailing behind technology because they are co-emergent responses to the same underlying realities.

@benlockwood

Your BlueSky Feed Is Porn You Didn’t Ask For Because Your Friends Are Gooners With a Severe Porn Addiction

A common complaint I see people make on Bluesky is: why am I being served so much porn or things I am not interested in? They will incorrectly believe that the algorithm is broken. It’s not broken. You didn’t know the people you knew as well as you thought you did. Porn addiction is a thing, and porn addiction is especially common with weebs. You’re seeing deranged shit because people you follow have porn addictions and are into deranged shit. So, though you may not be consuming porn, people in your network are. That activity kicks into your feeds.

The issue I have with that is that it essentially normalizes being sex pests in a space on the Internet. That sets the expectation that it is good—attractive, even—to act like that elsewhere. That expectation alienates relationships. Bluesky creates a cultural space that offers an unrealistic, bizarre representation of social relationships, which isolates and alienates the users who stay on there consuming erotica and porn like they do.

So, user repos in Bluesky have a property for likes. Bluesky’s underlying AT Protocol stores likes as first-class structured records in each user’s AT Protocol repository. In the AT Protocol lexicon, a like is an app.bsky.feed.like record type. Unlike a simple boolean flag on a post, it is its own record with a creation timestamp and a subject field that holds a strong reference to the liked record.

That strong reference is composed of an AT-URI and a CID. The AT-URI identifies the exact record in the network by DID, collection, and record key. The CID is a cryptographic content identifier that uniquely identifies the exact content of that liked record.

These like records exist under the app.bsky.feed.like namespace in the user’s repo. Bluesky’s repo model is built so that these repos are hosted on a user’s Personal Data Server and are publicly readable through the AT Protocol APIs. Because of that, the like record and its fields can be fetched, indexed, and used by any client or service that can query the protocol.

The protocol exposes operations like getLikes. This returns all of the like records tied to a particular subject’s AT-URI and CID. It also exposes getActorLikes. This returns all of the subject references a given actor has liked. Those API calls return structured like objects with timestamps and subject references directly from the public repository data.

Various feeds hosted by different PDSs use the likes property to construct the feeds that you see. Since the likes of people you follow are included in your social graph, along with your own likes, you’re going to get served the porn they are consuming. Because likes are public and anyone can write an algorithm to see everyone’s likes, you can clearly see just how much porn people are consuming.

Honestly, what started to turn my stomach about the people on Bluesky is how they behave across different contexts. If you look through the records of the posts they interact with, you’ll see them engaging with political posts in the replies like a normal person. Then, when you look through their AT Protocol records, you see hours and hours of them interacting with every kind of porn imaginable. I am not exaggerating. Hours of likes for porn posts within 1–10 minutes of each other. Am I sex-negative? A prude? No, this site is filled with furry, gay bara porn, lol. You can have a drink without being an alcoholic. The problem with these people is like people who can’t have one drink without drinking the whole fucking day; they can’t consume porn in healthy ways.

I think people assume that their feed is customized for them and based on their likes. No—feeds are generalized based on what everyone likes and then served to your subgraph. It’s not just about who you follow; it’s about who they follow. So if you follow someone who follows a lot of people with porn addictions, you will see porn. Bluesky isn’t weighting the algorithm to do this. Basically, it’s the people in your social network with furry, hentai, or trans porn addictions who are driving it.

BlueSky’s Solution To Moderating Is Moderating Without Moderating via Social Proximity

I have noticed a lot of people are confused about why some posts don’t show up on threads, though they are not labeled by the moderation layer. Bluesky has begun using what it calls social neighborhoods (or network proximity) as a ranking signal for replies in threads. Replies from people who are closer to you in the social graph, accounts you follow, interact with, or share mutual connections with, are prioritized and shown more prominently. Replies from accounts that are farther away in that network are down-ranked. They are pushed far down the thread or placed behind “hidden replies.”

Each person gets their own unique view of a thread based on their social graph. It creates the impression that replies from distant users simply don’t exist. This is true even though they’re still technically public and viewable if you expand the thread or adjust filters. Bluesky is explicitly using features of subgraphs to moderate without moderating. Their reasoning is that if you can’t see each other, you can’t harass each other. Ergo, there is nothing to moderate.

Bluesky mentions that here:

https://bsky.social/about/blog/10-31-2025-building-healthier-social-media-update

As a digression, I’m not going to lie: I really enjoyed working on software built on the AT protocol, but their fucking users are so goddamn weird. It’s sort of like enjoying building houses, but hating every single person who moves into them. But, you don’t have to deal with them because you’re just the contractor. That is how I feel about Bluesky. I hate the people. I really like the protocol and infrastructure.

I sort of am a sadist who does enjoy drama, so I do get schadenfreude from people with social media addictions and parasocial fixations who reply to random people on Bluesky, because they don’t realize their replies are disconnected from the author’s thread unless that person is within their network. They aren’t part of the conversation they think they are. They’re algorithmically isolated from everyone else. Their replies aren’t viewable from the author’s thread because of how Bluesky handles social neighborhoods.

Bluesky’s idea of social neighborhoods is about grouping users into overlapping clusters based on real interaction patterns rather than just the follow graph. Unlike Twitter, it does not treat the network as one big public square. Instead, it models networks of “social neighborhoods” made up of people you follow, people who follow you, people you frequently interact with, and people who are closely connected to those groups. They’re soft, probabilistic groupings rather than strict labels.

Everyone does not see the same replies. Bluesky is being a bit vague with “hidden.” Hidden means your reply is still anchored to the thread and can be expanded. There is another way Bluesky can handle this. Bluesky uses social neighborhoods to judge contextual relevance. Replies from people inside or near your social neighborhood are more likely to be shown inline with a thread, expanded by default, or served in feeds. Replies from outside your neighborhood are still public and still indexed, but they’re treated as lower-context contributions.

Basically, if you reply to a thread, you will see it anchored to the conversation, and everyone will see it in search results, as a hashtag, or from your profile, but it will not be accessible via the thread of the person you were replying to. It is like shadow-banning people from threads unless they are strongly networked.

Because people have not been working with the AT Protocol like I have, they assume they are shadow-banned across the entire Bluesky app view. No—everyone is automatically shadow-banned from everyone else unless they are within the same social neighborhood. In other words, you are not part of the conversation you think you are joining because you are not part of their social group.

Your replies will appear in profiles, hashtag feeds, or search results without being visually anchored to the full thread. Discovery impressions are neighborhood-agnostic: they serve content because it matches a query, tag, or activity stream. Once the reply is shown, the app then decides whether it’s worth pulling in the rest of the conversation for you. If the original author and most participants fall outside your neighborhood, Bluesky often chooses not to expand that context automatically.

Bluesky really is trying to avoid having to moderate, so this is their solution. Instead of banning or issuing takedown labels to DIDs, the system lets replies exist everywhere, but not in that particular instance of the thread.

I find this ironic because a large reason why many people are staying on Bluesky and not moving to the fediverse—thank God, because I do not want them there—is discoverability, virality, and engagement.

In case anyone is asking how I know so much about how these algorithms work: I was a consultant on a lot of these types of algorithms, so I certainly hope I’d know how they work, lol. No, you get no more details about the work I’ve done. I have no hand in the algorithm Bluesky is using, but I have proposed and implemented that type of algorithm before.

I have an interest in noetics and the noosphere. A large amount of my ontological work is an extension of my attempts to model domains that have no spatial or temporal coordinates. The question is how do you generalize a metric space that has no physically, spatial properties. I went to school to try to formalize those ideas. Turns out they’re rather useful for digital social networks, too. The ontological analog to spatial distance, when you have no space, is a graph of similarities.

Astroturfing Is Pretty Pointless When Social Subgraphs Are Fragmented (e.g., the Fediverse)

I am seeing astroturfing in the fediverse again, by AT Protocol developers implicitly trying to shill their products. I think it is stochastic behavior by developers with too much time on their hands. Honestly, I do not care. I like the people on ActivityPub more, but I like the AT Protocol better, and I have developed for both. Astroturfing on ActivityPub networks is fascinating to me because it is so pointless.

I am actually a Computational Biologist and Computer Scientist whose specialty is combinatorics, social graphs, graph theory, etc. Specifically, I use this to create epidemiological models for the memetic layer of human behaviors that act as vectors for diseases, using the SIRS model. I do not just study germs; I study human behaviors.

The models I construct extend into a “memetic layer,” in which beliefs, norms, and behaviors (such as risk-taking, compliance with public health measures, or susceptibility to misinformation) spread contagiously through social networks. These behaviors function as vectors that modulate biological transmission rates. As a result, the spread of ideas can accelerate, dampen, or reshape the spread of disease. By running computational simulations and agent-based models on these graphs, I study how network structure, influential nodes, clustering, and platform-specific dynamics affect behavioral contagion. I also examine how these factors influence epidemiological outcomes.

To say it very concisely, I study how the spread of bat-shit insane beliefs, shit posts, and memes influences whether or not there is a measles outbreak in Texas. Ironically, this is an evolution of my studying semiotics, memetics, and chaos magick in high school. I got a job where I can use occult, anarchist techniques professionally.

I think a large reason why I do not care about astroturfing in the fediverse is that it’s so pointless, lol. Astroturfing to manipulate the narrative would actually work better on Bluesky to keep people there than trying to recruit from the fediverse. Furthermore, big instances are relatively small. Some people on Bluesky have follower lists larger than an entire large instance in the fediverse.

Within ActivityPub networks, astroturfing rarely propagates far, because whether information spreads depends on properties of the social graph itself. Dense connectivity, short paths between communities, and a sufficient number of cross-cutting ties support diffusion. ActivityPub’s architecture tends to produce graphs that are fragmented and highly modular. This limits the reach of coordinated activity.

ActivityPub is a system where each instance maintains its own local user graph and exchanges activities through inboxes and outboxes. This makes it autonomous and decentralized. The network consists of loosely connected subgraphs. Cross-instance edges appear only through explicit follow relationships. The ActivityPub protocol does not provide a shared or complete view of the network. Measurements of the fediverse consistently show uneven connectivity between instances, clustering at the instance level, and relatively long effective path lengths across the network. Under these conditions, large cascades are uncommon.

Instance-level clustering means that in ActivityPub networks, users interact much more with others on the same server than with users on different servers. Because each instance has its own local timeline, culture, and moderation, connections form densely within instances and only sparsely across them through explicit follow relationships. This creates a network made up of tightly connected local communities linked by relatively few cross-instance ties, which slows the spread of information beyond its point of origin.

However, with the AT Protocol, global indexing and aggregation are explicitly supported. Relays and indexers can assemble near-complete views of the social graph. Applications built on top of this infrastructure operate over a graph that is denser and easier to traverse. There are fewer structural barriers between communities. The diffusion dynamics change substantially when content can move across the graph without relying on narrow federated paths.

Astroturfing depends on coordinated amplification, typically through tightly synchronized clusters of accounts intended to manufacture visibility. Work on coordinated inauthentic behavior shows that these tactics gain traction when they intersect highly connected regions of the graph or bridge otherwise separate communities. In networks with strong modularity, coordination remains local. ActivityPub’s federation model produces this kind of modularity by default. Coordinated clusters stand out clearly within instances. Their effects remain confined to those local neighborhoods.

Astroturfing on ActivityPub therefore tends to stall on its own because of the underlying graph topology. Without dense inter-instance connectivity or any form of global indexing, coordinated campaigns have a hard time moving beyond the immediate regions where they originate. Systems built on globally indexable social graphs, including those enabled by the AT Protocol, expose a much larger surface for viral spread. Network structure and connectivity account for the divergence where that is independent of moderation, cultural norms, ideology, or intent.

It’s just really funny to me how these stochastic techbro groups waste so many resources. I personally don’t want to go viral, which is why I avoid platforms where I can. The fact that it’s harder to achieve high virality on ActivityPub is exactly why I prefer the fediverse over the Atmosphere. One way to think about it is that you can change the ‘genetics’ of a system with a retrovirus, where memetic entities act as cultural retroviruses to reprogram the cultural loci of a space. That is their end goal. They are trying to hijack cultures memetically. You see this a lot with culture jamming.

Basically, the astroturfing on ActivityPub networks is designed to jam and subvert the culture. But, as I have already said, the topological structure makes memetic virality stall. They cannot achieve that kind of viral spread in the fediverse, which is why I cannot understand why they do this every year.

BlueSky Is A Platform For Attention Whores With No Standards

I’m convinced that Bluesky is the platform for attention-whores who perform and humiliate themselves for validation and affirmation. It’s really sad. I don’t feel bad when bad things happen to them as a consequence because they were already warned, yet they prioritize fitting into a culture and refuse to deal with their feelings of inadequacy. The reason they stay is that the bar is low for meaningful engagement, allowing them to indulge in their obsessions and compulsions while being rewarded for self-destructive behavior. It truly is quite pathetic.

I initially joined Bluesky for the sexual content because people on Mastodon have little interest in sex and much more elaborate norms around sexuality. Contrary to what people think of me, I don’t actually use social media in the conventional way most people do. I view it on an abstract, non-algorithmically served layer via my network analysis tools, and I interact with YouTube in a very constrained way. So, I wasn’t aware of how bad things were until I started using Bluesky conventionally. The men on Bluesky are just plain repulsive to me. Desperation, neediness, lack of independence, and obsessively posting about a single topic (like sex, religion, or politics), instead of developing a genuine hobby that demonstrates skill, progress, and mastery, are major turn-offs. I find a lack of standards absolutely disgusting.

For example, if someone abhorrent gives you a compliment, you don’t accept it. If an abhorrent person follows you, you block them. Yet what I see are men posting sexual content and seeking attention and validation from anyone, regardless of who it’s coming from. If I look through someone’s activity and see nothing but low-effort posts interacting with nothing but sexual content or obsessive engagement with that type of content, I lose interest immediately.

A reason why my husband has held my attention for over a decade is that there is always something new with him. He is always randomly looking into developing a new skill. One day, he started randomly speaking Mandarin to me, which I did not know he knew how to speak. He had told me he had been learning Mandarin. Yes, my husband is neurodivergent and his interests are cars, but that doesn’t displace all other things. Another reason why my husband holds my attention is that he can keep a conversation going and match anyone’s changes. It’s not one ritualistic or compulsive thing every single fucking day.

A very real consequence of the lack of standards in gay sexual spaces, especially given that many misogynistic, homophobic far-right men suppress their homosexual attractions, is that many of the fetishes in gay sexual spaces are reminiscent of manosphere content. Because of what I do for a living, I have access to audience segmentation metrics and social embeddings of how content is served. Manosphere content clusters with homoerotic content that men consume. At some point, obsession became so normalized that people stopped realizing it was problematic.

Unless gay men set boundaries and tell manosphere bros, “we’re not having that,” you’ll see what I see on Bluesky. I’m actually very sexual myself, and I frequently go to bathhouses—those that have very explicit rules—sex parties, and orgies.

The funny thing is that I have had plenty of really deep philosophical conversations sitting in the hot tub of a bathhouse with naked gay men. Because of health codes and all that, you can’t do sexual things in the pool or the hot tub, so those areas were places for genuine play and conversation, while spots like the saunas were the fuck spots. I recall a particularly interesting conversation I had with an older gay man who had been going to that bathhouse since the ’80s. He explained to me the social context of the HIV epidemic and how, basically, no one knew it was sexually transmitted, so everyone was still barebacking at that exact same bathhouse we were in.

The issue here is people who fuck and sexually perform for awful people who want to murder them because they have absolutely no fucking standards and are so emotionally needy that they forgo all forms of self-preservation. I’m a computer scientist, so I have access to a lot of data tools. I can tell you for a fact that there is a strong correlation between men who want to murder gay men and trans people and the ones liking, engaging in parasocial dynamics with, and commenting in their replies. You’re willing to take sexual attention from people who want to kill you, and that blows my mind.

In their minds, Bluesky is better if it is not a Nazi strip bar but a Nazi BDSM-furry-kink club? What the ever-loving fuck?! Honestly, I watch a lot of feminist content that rips manosphere content apart, so much so that I can instantly recognize coded things. The “fuck no!” moment for me is when I saw manosphere-coded things being fetishized in the ego networks of large gay adult content creators and OnlyFans creators in social network embeddings. It’s not like it is insidious. If I see it, everyone else sees it; they are just ignoring it because they are prioritizing sexual validation and their obsessions.

BlueSky Is A Platform For Attention Whores With No Standards

I’m convinced that Bluesky is the platform for attention-whores who perform and humiliate themselves for validation and affirmation. It’s really sad. I don’t feel bad when bad things happen to them as a consequence because they were already warned, yet they prioritize fitting into a culture and refuse to deal with their feelings of inadequacy. The reason they stay is that the bar is low for meaningful engagement, allowing them to indulge in their obsessions and compulsions while being rewarded for self-destructive behavior. It truly is quite pathetic.

I initially joined Bluesky for the sexual content because people on Mastodon have little interest in sex and much more elaborate norms around sexuality. Contrary to what people think of me, I don’t actually use social media in the conventional way most people do. I view it on an abstract, non-algorithmically served layer via my network analysis tools, and I interact with YouTube in a very constrained way. So, I wasn’t aware of how bad things were until I started using Bluesky conventionally. The men on Bluesky are just plain repulsive to me. Desperation, neediness, lack of independence, and obsessively posting about a single topic (like sex, religion, or politics), instead of developing a genuine hobby that demonstrates skill, progress, and mastery, are major turn-offs. I find a lack of standards absolutely disgusting.

For example, if someone abhorrent gives you a compliment, you don’t accept it. If an abhorrent person follows you, you block them. Yet what I see are men posting sexual content and seeking attention and validation from anyone, regardless of who it’s coming from. If I look through someone’s activity and see nothing but low-effort posts interacting with nothing but sexual content or obsessive engagement with that type of content, I lose interest immediately.

A reason why my husband has held my attention for over a decade is that there is always something new with him. He is always randomly looking into developing a new skill. One day, he started randomly speaking Mandarin to me, which I did not know he knew how to speak. He had told me he had been learning Mandarin. Yes, my husband is neurodivergent and his interests are cars, but that doesn’t displace all other things. Another reason why my husband holds my attention is that he can keep a conversation going and match anyone’s changes. It’s not one ritualistic or compulsive thing every single fucking day.

A very real consequence of the lack of standards in gay sexual spaces, especially given that many misogynistic, homophobic far-right men suppress their homosexual attractions, is that many of the fetishes in gay sexual spaces are reminiscent of manosphere content. Because of what I do for a living, I have access to audience segmentation metrics and social embeddings of how content is served. Manosphere content clusters with homoerotic content that men consume. At some point, obsession became so normalized that people stopped realizing it was problematic.

Unless gay men set boundaries and tell manosphere bros, “we’re not having that,” you’ll see what I see on Bluesky. I’m actually very sexual myself, and I frequently go to bathhouses—those that have very explicit rules—sex parties, and orgies.

The funny thing is that I have had plenty of really deep philosophical conversations sitting in the hot tub of a bathhouse with naked gay men. Because of health codes and all that, you can’t do sexual things in the pool or the hot tub, so those areas were places for genuine play and conversation, while spots like the saunas were the fuck spots. I recall a particularly interesting conversation I had with an older gay man who had been going to that bathhouse since the ’80s. He explained to me the social context of the HIV epidemic and how, basically, no one knew it was sexually transmitted, so everyone was still barebacking at that exact same bathhouse we were in.

The issue here is people who fuck and sexually perform for awful people who want to murder them because they have absolutely no fucking standards and are so emotionally needy that they forgo all forms of self-preservation. I’m a computer scientist, so I have access to a lot of data tools. I can tell you for a fact that there is a strong correlation between men who want to murder gay men and trans people and the ones liking, engaging in parasocial dynamics with, and commenting in their replies. You’re willing to take sexual attention from people who want to kill you, and that blows my mind.

In their minds, Bluesky is better if it is not a Nazi strip bar but a Nazi BDSM-furry-kink club? What the ever-loving fuck?! Honestly, I watch a lot of feminist content that rips manosphere content apart, so much so that I can instantly recognize coded things. The “fuck no!” moment for me is when I saw manosphere-coded things being fetishized in the ego networks of large gay adult content creators and OnlyFans creators in social network embeddings. It’s not like it is insidious. If I see it, everyone else sees it; they are just ignoring it because they are prioritizing sexual validation and their obsessions.

Public Announcement: Help Oceania 2084 Break Through
The No Dice Unrolled Peoples Choice Awards are happening right now, and voting closes this Sunday.
If you believe in bold, anti‑authoritarian storytelling and want more people to discover a TTRPG that pushes back against broligarchs, technocrats, and oppressive power structures, this is a meaningful moment to show your support.
Cast your vote for Oceania 2084 here:

https://www.nodiceunrolled.com/ndu_awards/

Oceania 2084 is more than a game. It is a political statement presented through a dystopian, player‑driven experience. It confronts systems of control and the people who profit from them, and every vote helps it reach new players who resonate with that message.
A vote from you would also be a personal signal that the work matters. It tells me two important things:

* That I have created something good.
* That I should continue developing work that challenges authority and uplifts resistance.

You can find Oceania 2084 here:
https://jochergames.itch.io/oceania-2084

#TTRPG #award #antiauthoritarian #fuckice #roleplaying #rolePlayingGames #tabletopGames #orwell #orwellian #dystopian #resistance #resistanceAndHope

What happens when morality survives only as performance? In Simulacra, Chapter 26 of Propensity, three teenagers discover that right and wrong are just old lines the species keeps rehearsing.

👉https://ridleypark.blog/2025/11/01/simulacra-when-the-camera-becomes-the-conscience/?utm_source=masto&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=propensity

#Simulacra #RidleyPark #Propensity #Baudrillard #SpeculativeFiction #Philosophy #Dystopian #Fiction #CinematicWriting #Ethics #Podcast #blog #Reading #Writing #Fiction #HumanCondition #books

Magical Realism. Shamanism. Post-apocalyptic survival. Coming of age. Found Family.

All of that and more in a short adventure in future Oregon after the great Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquakes have ravaged the west.

Meet Rodney, a seven year old boy who can see the spirits of the dead. Meet Justin, a mostly-absent father who still wishes the best for his son. Meet AJ, the bridge between them and commander of the militia forces sent to liberate the community of Sutherlin from their evil overlords.

https://mybook.to/1stKnightShmnKindle

#bookstodon #fantasy #Dystopian #dystopianreads #shamanism #woke #spiritguides #spiritworld #gaia #EarthMagic #MMBookstodon #lgbtq #LGBTQBookstodon

Magical Realism. Shamanism. Post-apocalyptic survival. Coming of age. Found Family.

All of that and more in a short adventure in future Oregon after the great Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquakes have ravaged the west.

Meet Rodney, a seven year old boy who can see the spirits of the dead. Meet Justin, a mostly-absent father who still wishes the best for his son. Meet AJ, the bridge between them and commander of the militia forces sent to liberate the community of Sutherlin from their evil overlords.

https://mybook.to/1stKnightShmnKindle

#bookstodon #fantasy #Dystopian #dystopianreads #shamanism #woke #spiritguides #spiritworld #gaia #EarthMagic #MMBookstodon #lgbtq #LGBTQBookstodon

Magical Realism. Shamanism. Post-apocalyptic survival. Coming of age. Found Family.

All of that and more in a short adventure in future Oregon after the great Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquakes have ravaged the west.

Meet Rodney, a seven year old boy who can see the spirits of the dead. Meet Justin, a mostly-absent father who still wishes the best for his son. Meet AJ, the bridge between them and commander of the militia forces sent to liberate the community of Sutherlin from their evil overlords.

https://mybook.to/1stKnightShmnKindle

#bookstodon #fantasy #Dystopian #dystopianreads #shamanism #woke #spiritguides #spiritworld #gaia #EarthMagic #MMBookstodon #lgbtq #LGBTQBookstodon

It’s Weekend, Let’s Read: Anthony Trollope’s Sci-Fi #Victober #ProjectGutenberg

I’m reading through Anthony Trollope’s six volumes of the Chronicles of Barsetshire – you can check the links to the ebooks in my last year’s post here – and loving it, but for Victober I thought I would pick a more shorter, standalone book from the same author.

I came across The Fixed Period, which he wrote later in life and is considered a satirical dystopian novel. And this is so different from what he usually wrote that I got really curious and decided to pick it up. I’m still in the introduction, but I thought I would share the link to Project Gutenberg, where you can download the book. (No luck in finding it in a physical format, so thank you even more to Gutenberg volunteers!).

Also, although a satirical dystopian work, you may want to check your trigger content warnings.

The Fixed Period – Anthony Trollope can be downloaded here.

#AnthonyTrollope #books #Classics #Dystopian #OldBooks #ProjectGutenberg #publicDomain #reading #readings #satiricalBooks #SciFi #ScientificFiction #Victober #Victober2025

Free download codes:

Rhyot - Consequences

"CONSEQUENCES is a grinding classique dark electro single from Toronto based artists Rhyot & Phil Gonzo"

https://getmusic.fm/l/cuz69C

#electronic #industrial #electro #darkwave #ebm #cyberpunk #darkelectronic #darkelectro #dystopian #analog #frenchcore #analogue #cyberdark #darkedm #harsh #atmosphericelectonicmusic #dystopia #distopian #canada #basshouse #music

₳§ᗐM̶R̳ – [MEMORY-OVERLOAD]
#BogusCollective #Experimental #ambienttech #atmospheric #computergaze #cyberpunk #dystopian #futurism #postinternet #techwave #vaportech #vaporwave #Savusavu
CC BY (#CreativeCommons Attribution) #ccmusic
https://boguscollective.bandcamp.com/album/memory-overload

Check out the author's suggested reading order for the world of Paradigm Lost!

The world of Paradigm Lost has grown since it was first conceived ten years ago. When first published, the goal was to complete a trilogy, The Jamari and the Manhood Rites Trilogy was complete three years later.

Now, well now there are multiple novels spanning thousands of years in the world and one could be forgiven if one didn't know where to start.

I've fixed that! Here is the author's suggested reading order to give the best introduction to characters, plots, themes, and overall joy in the experience.

Remember to turn off your adult screening if you want to see some of the other, more explicit, novels in the world!
https://www.amazon.com/stores/R.-Roderick-Rowe/author/B01B6Y2TV6

#fantasybookseries #fantasy #fantasyreads #gaia #shamanism #spiritworld #spiritguides #woke #elves #cernunnos #Dystopian #dystopianreads #lgbtqcommunity #epicfantasybooks #epicfantasynovels

In the World of Paradigm Lost are three great ages. First was the Founder's Age where the Elk Creek Tribe came to be in the tumult of cataclysmic eruptions. Then comes the Age of Jamari, where the tribe begins to find some stabilization after decades of war and famine. Then came the Age of the Church.
Learn here of the Age of Jamari and how he came to be.

https://www.amazon.com/.../R.-Roderick.../author/B01B6Y2TV6

#fantasy #fantasybookseries #dystopian #postapocalypse #LGBTQBooks #LGBTQBookstodon #shamanism #spiritworld #spiritguides #gaia #portalfantasy #woke