Nostr notes by Domestic Supply :verified:

While from a Herbert Butlerian perspective your point is spot on. ...

2026-09-22T18:00:42Z

In reply to nevent1q…g329
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While from a Herbert Butlerian perspective your point is spot on. Sometimes I like to pretend that we live in a law-abiding universe where positronics provide the capability to at least brainstorm about the connections in existing information. It's almost like having a robot partner as a detective. If only we didn't need a significant fraction of the output from a Dyson Swarm to power it.

I had no reason to believe that there was such a database, it was ...

2026-09-22T16:30:06Z

In reply to nevent1q…9knw
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I had no reason to believe that there was such a database, it was just wishful thinking. However, I'm aware that research exists in specific cases. I would have been delighted if there was someone aggregating it. That sounds like an actual good use for AI.

I'm not sure how possible this is. In academia, it's ...

2026-09-22T00:13:28Z

I'm not sure how possible this is. In academia, it's relevant and important to track citations of papers. And it's easier because academic publications have standardized formats and established standards for integrity that require those citations. Fiction is another animal entirely. How many hat tips, head nods, and explicit references does the Bobiverse have to authors, books, cartoons, etc.? It just explicitly mentioned both Rocky & Bullwinkle and Deathworld.

Is there a database doing even a half-credible job of cataloging references, citations, head nods, homages, etc. in F&SF?

Joachim Boaz (npub13j7…0qu9) I'm only tagging you because if it exists, you might have heard of it.

I've subscribed to @npub1fdr…lvhs on several platforms. ...

2026-07-23T03:22:17Z

In reply to nevent1q…a8vy
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I've subscribed to Cory Doctorow (npub1fdr…lvhs) on several platforms. I've reached the conclusion that the content most worth reading is not hidden behind "duckovers".

https://pluralistic.net/2026/07/21/dickovers/#block-element

I encountered one a couple of weeks ago on what purported to be a ...

2026-07-21T11:27:06Z

In reply to nevent1q…fctx
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I encountered one a couple of weeks ago on what purported to be a cyber security news site. It popped up to get me to agree to whatever tracking cookies it wanted to serve up to me. It felt like a particularly ironic piece of performance art, where the intended experience included the audience walking out.

In the hands of a lesser artist, I would assume that my reaction ...

2026-04-15T15:18:01Z

In reply to nevent1q…dxup
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In the hands of a lesser artist, I would assume that my reaction to that and other Kelly Freas works is to a message he didn't explicitly intend. In fact, there's a good chance that he didn't intend my interpretation. Yet, I can imagine the man I once met sitting with a quiet smile, neither confirming nor denying it. Whether that would be from simple bemusement at over-analysis or happiness that his audience found something new.

That style, in other media of the time always strikes me as a faux-sophistication, manufactured by advertising. A presentation of a post-war society as something it was told it should aspire to, with houses in the suburbs, a perfectly manicured lawn, the right clothes, and a cocktail. Freas transplanted the style, and the optimism, while replacing that attempt at sophistication with the satisfaction of achievement in this case, or an impish, knowing irony in others.

The sharp, angular lines of this style have always felt to me like artists using the style of blueprints and technical drawings, absent the function embodied in them. In this piece, I can almost see instead, Freas reaching out not only to capture a moment, but to be the only sort of artist who might be present in it. Perhaps a draftsman who has an artistic flair, using the skills he knows professionally to record a scene in the only vocabulary he has for it.

It's worth analyzing the growth of social media platforms ...

2026-02-26T13:02:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…0hpj
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It's worth analyzing the growth of social media platforms through the lens of a logistic adoption curve. It doesn't fit exactly the way it does for technologies whose use is largely private. The nature of social media means that it amplifies the network effect in ways that communication technologies that are used for one-on-one communication don't. As you've pointed out, we form communities on social media that don't also exist in physical spaces. And the communication of those communities persists over time in ways that physical group interactions can't.

The problem that can't be solved technologically is the formation of those relationships and communities. No matter how good an open platform is, the technology can't create those communities. You pointed out that barriers to interoperability hinders migration, probably to the point of being impossible to overcome directly. We get users on open platforms when we invite them to come, help them do it, welcome them here, and give them reasons to visit us more often.

The network effect for social media is amplified when those of us already here create reasons for others to be here with us. It's something each of us can do. We use this platform. And we invite friends to join us. It's quite literally a situation where optimism about the value of what we have can be effective in preserving and growing it.

I've watched enshittification destroy vibrant communities on other platforms. Once people give up on those communities they can't be revived, but they can be recreated the way they originally formed. We can determine where we choose to build them.

I am here on Mastodon. I will participate in building communities here. I can contribute its growth by doing what the technology and policies can't. I can be here.

Daisy, Daisy....

2025-05-17T14:11:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…gpdm
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Daisy, Daisy....