@PaulGrahamRaven@assemblag.es
@PaulGrahamRaven@assemblag.es avatar

PaulGrahamRaven

@PaulGrahamRaven@assemblag.es

Science fiction writer turned tech critic turned STS/critical futures academic turned consulting critical foresight practitioner and worldbuilder-for-hire. Resident in (and aspiring citizen of) Malmö, Sweden.

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PaulGrahamRaven, to random
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Watching the discourse around geoengineering is kinda depressing, as the default response is increasingly "but it will buy us time!"

Because the thing is this: once it is established that time may be bought, those with the deepest pockets will buy as much time as they can.

Indeed, they're already doing it. The lake of money that's supporting consultancy reports on hydrogen ("green", "blue" or otherwise), on CCS, on geoengineering -- where'd you think it's coming from?

PaulGrahamRaven, to random
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Some uncomfortable but necessary reading, here, for the more hi-tech end of the wind- and solarpunk lobby. In a nutshell: how do we make the steel required to build out a renewables-based grid?

https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2024/03/how-to-escape-from-the-iron-age/

PaulGrahamRaven, to random
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Wow, hoooooly shit has Substack gotten super-thirsty.

Just signed up for someone's letter, what must be the first time in a good couple of months or more, and had to click through four pages of not-quite-dark-pattern attempts to get me to sign up for all sorts of other only marginally related bollocks...

I'll give it to the end of the year before they've gone full enshittification, as per @pluralistic

PaulGrahamRaven, to random
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'Effective altruism started to synergize with adjacent subcultures, like the transhumanists (wannabe cyborgs) and the rationalists (think “Mensa with orgies”).'

Standing ovation for those two lines. Rest of the piece is good, too.

https://www.wired.com/story/deaths-of-effective-altruism/

PaulGrahamRaven, to random
@PaulGrahamRaven@assemblag.es avatar

"Instead of engaging with people and organizations hurling weaponized messages at you, do anything else. Write a letter, sit in a garden, talk to a friend, play a game, listen to music, or seek out information that isn’t laced with lies and threats. We won’t end this culture war by manufacturing better weapons. We must refuse to fight. We must rebuild our public sphere, not nuke it from orbit."

Very wise words from @annaleen on life in a psyops-saturated culture.

PaulGrahamRaven,
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(That quote ganked from their latest newsletter, which you can find here: https://buttondown.email/thehypothesis/archive/how-to-recognize-a-psyop-in-three-easy-steps/

Finding it hard to articulate how much of a relief it is to hear someone make this argument. After two decades of ratchet-effect culture war bullshit, it's desperately needed, on this side of the Atlantic as much as t'other.)

PaulGrahamRaven, to random
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Quick question for anyone using Stripe to take payments online: are pay-outs sent as domestic transactions, i.e. wired to you from an instance of Stripe based in your own country of operations, or are they wired to you as a payment from overseas?

(Would appreciate some signal-boost on this query, because Stripe's FAQ is super opaque, and it turns out that their email-based customer service systems have been almost entirely turned over to LLMs... )

PaulGrahamRaven, to writing
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The Plastic Ocean Pirates ride again

The ToC dropped last week, so I figure I can safely announce that I have a story in Jared Shurin's Big Book of Cyberpunk, the USian edition of which is released on September 24th, with a UK edition to follow some time next year.

"Los Piratas del Mar de Plastico" was commissioned by Chairman Bruce for the 2014 Twelve Tomorrows antho from MIT Press, which was surp

https://www.velcro-city.co.uk/the-plastic-ocean-pirates-ride-again/

PaulGrahamRaven, to random
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Most economists agree that by the time you're 40, you should:

  • lie dead but dreaming in your house at R'lyeh

  • PH'NGLUI MGLW'NAFH CTHULHU R'LYEH WGAH'NAGL FHTAGN

PaulGrahamRaven, to random
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Your periodic reminder.

(It's ten years now, I think, because I ganked this version a year or so ago.)

PaulGrahamRaven, to general
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a general atmosphere in which a particular conclusion seems undeniable

https://www.velcro-city.co.uk/a-general-atmosphere-in-which-a-particular-conclusion-seems-undeniable/

PaulGrahamRaven, to random
@PaulGrahamRaven@assemblag.es avatar

OK, I have a new and very special loathing for people who have decided they're going to start calling that service "Chattie G". Take a fucking look at yourself, will you?

PaulGrahamRaven, to random
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For all the valid criticisms I could (and sometimes do) make of the United states, I greatly respect and value its decision to devote a national holiday to one of my favourite Soundgarden songs.

PaulGrahamRaven, to philosophy
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merely directions which allow the chauffeur to park the limousine

https://www.velcro-city.co.uk/merely-directions-which-allow-the-chauffeur-to-park-the-limousine/

PaulGrahamRaven, to random
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Another morning, another first-hand reminder that many of the more notable architects of the technological peak two decades previous appear to have a conceptualisation of technology's relation to the social fabric so naive as to be terrifying.

PaulGrahamRaven, to random
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There should be a special place in hell for organisations that use an RSS-capable CMS for their website but actively and deliberately disable it. Well, screw you, then---I just won't bother reading at all. And no, I don't want to subscribe to your f¤%&ing newsletter.

PaulGrahamRaven, to random
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Man, but @pluralistic's openers are getting to be positively pugilistic -- and I gotta say, I am here for it.

https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/112139854458454540

(I'm old enough and ugly enough to remember adding variations of "buy a Mac" to the blog comments blacklist at Futurismic, because there was always a very special species of reply-guy that came with that particular bit of advice all the fuggin' time, often on posts with a totally unrelated topic.)

PaulGrahamRaven, to worldbuilding
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Oh, hey: if you're in or near the Greater Copenhagen area on Thursday 25th April, and you fancy catching me giving a public lecture on , well, you're in luck!

Click through for the full blurb, time'n'date and other details, plus sign-up.

https://greensolutions.ku.dk/events/worldbuilding-imagining-hopeful-futures-in-a-changing-climate/

Loukas, to random
@Loukas@mastodon.nu avatar

A Swedish acquaintance of mine has written a zombie submarine novel called "The Hunt for Dead October."

PaulGrahamRaven,
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@Loukas ... OK, I'm kinda jealous of that title. That's some serious pun skills.

PaulGrahamRaven, to random
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Just spent a few hours dungeon-crawling the world of Obsidian user advice, and I conclude that a) I'm nowhere near as much of a nerd as I once thought, b) there are some incredibly clever and organised people in the world, and c) there's a subset thereof who have incredibly intricate Obsidian vaults that contain little else but structured guidance on how to build incredibly intricate Obsidian vaults that contain little else but structured guidance on how to build incredibly intricate Obsidian...

urlyman, to random
@urlyman@mastodon.social avatar

Portsmouth has reopened another section of its new seafront defences, the bit that goes round Southsea Castle.

The second pic shows a granite groyne which mitigates the long shore drift that Southsea beach is vulnerable to.

Looking perpendicular to the seafront along a granite groyne. In the distance, an enormous container ship heads towards Southampton.

PaulGrahamRaven,
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@urlyman Been a long time since I last cycled up and down that stretch of seafront. Looks like they've made a passing decent job of it.

Loukas, to random
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The UK Conservatives are set to get only 20% of the vote and 100-150 seats in July.

This would be a defeat of epic and unprecedented proportions.

Their previous worst results were 1906, with 150 seats and 43% of the vote and 1997 with 165 seats and 30% of the vote.

PaulGrahamRaven,
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@Loukas Yeah, something big is changing, for sure. But to folk looking forward to a Tory wipeout, I extend a warning: what comes to to take their place could actually be worse.

(That's no reason not to vote them into oblivion, mind you. More a warning against the inevitable complacency of a huge Labour majority.)

bruces, to random
@bruces@mastodon.social avatar

*The Ibizan tot has discovered press-on tattoos

PaulGrahamRaven,
@PaulGrahamRaven@assemblag.es avatar

@bruces The Cephalopods are surely the toughest of the Balearic pirate crews, so you picked a good faction

pluralistic, to random
@pluralistic@mamot.fr avatar

Presidential cigarettes

PaulGrahamRaven,
@PaulGrahamRaven@assemblag.es avatar

@pluralistic Come To Where The Favour Is

Loukas, to random
@Loukas@mastodon.nu avatar

The UK parliament calls for an immediate ceasefire by Israel - and the BBC basically ignores this development, and instead reports nonstop on 'what does this mean for the future of the Speaker of the Commons.'

It's a sad sign of how inward-looking and cautious UK politics journalists have become.

This is a huge development but I had to search and search again to confirm that the Commons had indeed called for ak immediate ceasefire.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-68366512

PaulGrahamRaven,
@PaulGrahamRaven@assemblag.es avatar

@Loukas Also classic exceptionalism at work. You know: "Fog in Channel; continent isolated".

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