Clive Thompson

if you believe in any form of free enterprise at all, the idea that the Pentagon can not only cut off your contract but designate you a supply chain risk and prevent other companies from buying from you just because you won't build killbots for the government should be terrifying

Post a pic you took, no context, to bring some zen to the feed.

Deadly insane incompetence, everywhere

Hey, so cool! Good to hear from you, and this looks amazing

woooo

there is a lot of wonderful art (and nonfiction essay-ing) in this field

Aha, right on!!

So glad you like that! One of my favorite pieces I’ve ever written about coding languages

@clivethompson.bsky.social wrote a *fascinating* primer on COBOL a few years back. I'm not an engineer, and it's a genuinely good read.

If you're wondering why people might be nervous about letting AI loose on this stuff, read it:

www.wealthsimple.com/en-ca/magazi...

So many options! Maybe you could start with Cory Doctorow’s “The Lost Cause” and Becky Chambers’ “A Psalm for the Wild-Built” — very different vibes, the former with more hard-science near-term sci fi (plus gripping politics), the latter dreamier and set in a distant future

Oh man

what a weird ass candy

“Ah Caramel” cakes by Vachon — available only in Canada I think, I’ve never seen them in the US

Delicious, nauseating, they feel like they belong to some Linnean taxonomy that distantly includes the Cadbury creme egg

Gypsum

Green crystal looking rock

The Gem Hall at LA’s Natural History Museum is full of big ass rocks that look like Superman’s Fortress of Solitude. 10/10 experience for mineralheads.

aha, terrific! Glad to bring it to your attention!

truly

yeah, it's gorgeous

oh yeah

🤘🤖

We’ve Been Fighting the Wrong Transportation Fight | Strong Towns It’s time to close the interstate construction era and redefine the federal role in transportation.

"It’s time to declare the Interstate mission complete"

this is a good way of thinking about how to seriously rethink the way the US spends transportation money: www.strongtowns.org/journal/2026...

Heh, yes

I would imagine they square that circle by arguing -- privately, for a long while, though increasingly they're just saying out loud -- that the problem is the "wrong" people globally are having Too Many Kids

Tired of dystopian sci-fi? You might like Solarpunk. A recent literary genre imagines what happens when our climate changes—and so do we.

hey yo

i wrote a reported culture essay for @motherjones.com about solarpunk

it was incredibly fun talking to a bunch of solarpunk thinkers and artists!

the magazine commissioned some lovely art for it too

le voila: www.motherjones.com/environment/...

'A good way of dealing with overpopulation': Epstein files reveal how the rich fuel climate denialism Jeffrey Epstein and his vast network of elite figures routinely traded in myths that undermine climate progress. Experts say it's not an accident.

An interesting piece here noting that in the Epstein files, quite a few of the rich elites insisted that climate change either a) wasn't happening or b) would be good because the mass deaths would help depopulate the world, a classic argument of ecofascism

www.fastcompany.com/91490280/eps...

Wooooo ♥️♥️

I hope John Roberts signed all his mortgage paperwork correctly

👀The federal judges in West Virginia, where ICE has been pulling over and detaining people on the freeway, are literally screaming about ICE's tactics.

"It is an assault on the constitutional order," Judge Goodwin says. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

"excuse me sir, there must be some mistake- i voted to create the camps, not live in the zone of interest" is like every trump voter

Child’s Play, by Sam Kriss Tech’s new generation and the end of thinking

This article was truly hilarious/disturbing & also, ratified one strong approach to tech journalism, which is, "go talk to the craziest, most quotable lunatics you can find" harpers.org/archive/2026...

In Tracy Letts’s “Bug,” Crazy Is Contagious A Broadway revival arrives at a moment when paranoia plots are everywhere.

Recent pieces: "Bug" www.newyorker.com/magazine/202..., "An Ark/Data" www.newyorker.com/magazine/202..., Take on Jane Kramer's 1970 piece The Founding Cadre www.newyorker.com/magazine/tak...; short on URS' Ulysses www.newyorker.com/culture/goin...; Marc Shaiman:: www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Tired of dystopian sci-fi? You might like Solarpunk. A recent literary genre imagines what happens when our climate changes—and so do we.

Sci-fi has always provided heady alternatives to everyday realities. But for the past few decades, a big chunk of sci-fi has gravitated toward dystopia, which, while valuable, can grow wearisome.

@clivethompson.bsky.social offers an exciting new literary genre to counter our despair.

truly -- the gnarly details are wild

Cool essay!