Daniel Dvorkin

Bazookasaurus

xkcd.com/3216/

Of course, “really bad at getting the point” is always a possibility. I’m just going to pretend I didn’t think of that.

Maybe I'm not exactly trying to predict the future, but I am trying to make believable predictions about what *could* happen if such-and-such occurred. And I think most of the SF authors whose work I admire would agree with me, unless I'm just really bad at getting the point!

When I sit down to write SF, "what if" is my primary motivation. The here-and-now obviously shapes my thoughts, but I'm not *deliberately* writing about it—if I wanted to do that, I'd pick a different genre.

A line in a mostly unrelated post by a friend got me thinking about a maxim I've heard a lot lately: "Science fiction is not about predicting the future, but rather commenting on the present." It's become conventional wisdom rapidly approaching the status of a thought-terminating cliche. 🚀 🧵

This was a pretty mild expression of my opinion on the matter. “I don’t care” is practically never something you should feel the need to say, unless someone asks you directly. And when it comes to fan debates, let the people who *do* care have their fun.

For the WISP (work in some progress) I'm fiddling with population growth models, and considering rolling my own to justify the numbers I want. I guess that makes me a rather finicky Watsonian. But maybe it's like Tolkien coming up with several complete languages before writing any actual plot!

Some things must never be spoken of after they happen.

This is a chance for Bill Cassidy to make up, in some small part, for his cowardly and murderous vote to confirm RFK Jr.

I'm not holding my breath.

🧪 ⚕️ #medsky

Yes, as strange as it may seem to the modern mind, the record is clear: Romans would do anything for #tuna.

Religious inscriptions in particular show their devotion, not only for meat on the table but for all kinds of good luck, be it victory in battle or a bountiful harvest or a successful business venture. They might even ask for its aid *before* setting out on some difficult quest.

One particular type of fish, however, took on greater meaning than mere sustenance. Their writings speak of their gratitude to this optima maxima of the finned and scaled kind.

From tiny herring to giant halibut, from the icy North Sea to the body-temperature waters of the southern Mediterranean, from cooking fresh on the beach to smoking and salting and drying and fermenting—there was no way in which they did not savor the bounty of the sea.

Indeed, fish may have been their most esteemed source of protein. They appreciated red meat and poultry as much as anyone, but fish brought out their true culinary artistry.

Like their modern Italian descendants, the ancient #Romans ate a lot of #fish. #Italy is a peninsula, after all, and except for the far northern part, nowhere in the country is far from salt water. Even as the #Empire extended to places far inland, they kept up their #pescavorian habits.

One particular type of fish, however, took on greater meaning than mere sustenance. Their writings speak of their gratitude to this optima maxima of the finned and scaled kind.

From tiny herring to giant halibut, from the icy North Sea to the body-temperature waters of the southern Mediterranean, from cooking fresh on the beach to smoking and salting and drying and fermenting—there was no way in which they did not savor the bounty of the sea.

Indeed, fish may have been their most esteemed source of protein. They appreciated red meat and poultry as much as anyone, but fish brought out their true culinary artistry.

#seemslegit

If I can convince people I’m being wise when I’m procrastinating on social media, my career as a philosopher will really take off!

This post was almost a rant about a pet peeve that came up in a comment by someone I don't know and almost surely will never meet. And then I realized there was no point, and there are a million better ways to spend my time and mental energy. Is this what wisdom feels like?

They don’t fit Whiskey Pete’s “warrior ethos,” I guess. He has zero understanding of how combined arms warfare works.

Army warrant officers will ‘bid’ against each other for their next bonus Senior Army warrant officers will bid against each other for a bonus that they will take to sign up for six more years of active duty.

This may be the stupidest thing Kegsbreath has come up with yet, and that's ... impressive, in its way. (via @hpfllyhyprvglnt.bsky.social)

“I never thought the razor blades would slice off *my* face!” wails CEO of Razor Blades Slicing People’s Faces Off Inc.

Database rot terrifies me. So many methods and results in bioinformatics depend on data that seemed like it would be available forever, but no longer is. I’m saddened but not surprised paleontology is in the same boat.

They’re all such toddlers.

Meta meme is meta.

And now it's coming out that he is in no way The Good Musk. Maybe slightly less awful than his famous brother, but not by much if so.

Any language other than English would be just a little salt in the wound.

And all that said ... I do hope when Bondi is led, stunned and baffled, down the concrete corridor to her final home, that just before the cell door slams shut, a guard whispers to her, "It's okay, Pam. The Dow is doing *great*!"