A Weekly List

a list of 3's for the week of April 20th

What I’ve been thinking about:

1. Claude Mythos and "Project Glasswing”. From Gizmodo: “So to recap: Anthropic says it has the scariest AI model in the world, and for what it’s worth, a whole lot of powerful institutions seem to believe it. If we take Anthropic at its word, we’re all trusting it not to abuse this power that it and only it controls. However, some unknown entity has accessed this scary AI model, but if we take them at their word, they just used it for some vibe coding tests and they swear they’re not doing anything evil with it.”

2. The Imperial Boomerang - From Verso Books Blog: “the ‘imperial boomerang effect’ is a term for the way in which empires use their colonies as laboratories for methods of counter-insurgency, social control and repression, methods which can then be brought back to the imperial metropolis and deployed against the marginalised, subjugated and subaltern within. With weak moral and legal restrictions, empires are gifted a free hand to test new technologies and social hierarchies on colonised populations. Once honed, the circulation of personnel and knowledge through the empire spreads these repressive methods across colonies – and back into the domestic heartland.”

3. Solarpunk ~ “Solarpunk pushes against the bleak Blade Runner future of cyberpunk — a speculative genre centered on urban dystopias dominated by corporations and technology. Solarpunk provides a shining vision of a positive future, grounded in our existing world, one that emphasizes the need for environmental sustainability, self-governance, and social justice. Solarpunk imagines an inclusive, sustainable, possible future, where renewable technology meets ecological enlightenment. In solarpunk, mesh renewable grids might electrify permaculture cities, while kelp-farmers thrive on abandoned offshore oil platforms. It’s a DIY world of green tech, upcycled goods, and scrappy nature-based design. Ecological ethics in this future expands to wider social awareness and the dissolution of problematic social constructs.” from “A Future Dream:

   How solarpunk helped alleviate my existential dread” by Sage Agee in Earth Island Journal

Things I’ve been reading:

mostly working through the 10 books I’m reading simultaneously

1. The Junction by lio

2. The Protocols of Predation: Andrew Huberman, Sexual Abuse and the Wellness Industrial Complex by @Thewellnesstherapist

3. Writing against the rot by jeanette winterson

Things I’ve been watching:

1. Pride - Y’all, this movie is so good. I have different kinds of favorite movies, many of which are difficult to watch. This one isn’t - it’s the favorite movie that I watch almost yearly. The name puts some people off, but just ignore that if that’s you. It’s based on a true story and while it deals with difficult subjects it is SO HEARTWARMING. Also, the cast reads as a who’s who of brilliant British and Irish actors (but Bill Nighy, Andrew Scott, Jessica Dunning, and Dominic West are particularly excellent). Just go watch it.

2. Rental Family - I loved this movie so much. Again, heartwarming in a totally surprising way. I don’t know why it didn’t get more press. (Actually I do, the “press” is largely bullshit). I am very here for Brendan Fraser’s comeback, and I really loved being introduced to new and amazing actors I wasn’t familiar with.

3. Too many reels on Instagram about violence against women/femmes/trans people.

Things I’ve loved recently:

1. I took an awesome writing class with Minda Honey called How to Write Sex through Writing Workshops. Perhaps the only time I’ve followed a targeted ad on Instagram and felt incredibly lucky that I did. Minda is an amazing teacher, and it was so fun to share space with excellent writers. Here are some other classes she is teaching soon.

2. I hate (or just feel deep apathy toward?) Coachella, and I have never understood the appeal of Justin Bieber. And still, watching clips of him at the festival, singing to/with videos of his younger self touched me deeply and had me in tears. Music, and the shared experience of concerts, is the closest I come to what one might call a collective spiritual experience. And what he did was clearly personally transformational and I love that, even when its packaging/context is not for me.

3. I found myself accidentally listening to Alan Watts on my local radio station and it was one of those synchronistic moments where everything he was saying was applying to things I’d been contemplating. The Alan Watts Program on KGNU Radio.

Things I’ve Bought Recently:

I continue to realize that I buy things rarely. I think this section might disappear by next week. Maybe to pop up later when I’m traveling.

1. Lunch

2. Too many ONWYN protein drinks because I lift heavy weights and have a hard time eating enough protein to support it

3. Monarch Money (budgeting app) yearly subscription - here’s a promo if you want 50% off your first year

Tools:

1. The General Strike ~ We need a real, long term, general strike. I don’t think enough people are grasping how fucked we already are, as a country (and world). Ongoing propaganda has conditioned most Americans to think that unions are bad. They are not. But, as a result of neoliberalism and sophisticated propaganda, we have a serious lack of education and understanding about collective power and organized resistance. At this point, we are losing leverage at a terrifying rate. We need (myself included) to learn more about using organized ongoing strikes as a tool of resistance, before AI takes so many jobs that a strike will be less effective. Annnnnyway, May 1st is International Workers Day. A good time to learn about, and engage in, mutual aid and organizing. We need to fuck with the system (and by system, I mostly mean the oligarchs and billionaire class) and that means we have to organize. The number of people living their lives as if we are not already so far into societal collapse is making me feel like I’m losing my mind. Please understand that this is real - we are way past the disaster montage at the beginning of the dystopian movie. But, um, to (attempt to) pivot more optimistically - this is an opportunity to build something a lot better than this hellscape we feel trapped in.

2. Liberation Toolbox ~ In YK Hong’s own words: “This resource site delves into my life's work around Liberatory Strategy + Tech Justice. I have spent the past couple of decades working with organizations and communities around how we dismantle systems of oppression, strategize for liberatory pathways, and because I am a technologist, I also cover issues of tech justice and how they all come together.”

3. archive.today ~ If you can afford to pay or donate money to independent and principled media sources, please do! If you want to get behind paywalls and read almost any article, you can do so here.

Poem:

An Excerpt from “Natural Resources,” by Adrienne Rich

My heart is moved by all I cannot save:
so much has been destroyed

I have to cast my lot with those
who age after age, perversely,

with no extraordinary power,
reconstitute the world.

A passion to make, and make again
where such un-making reigns.
                               

Quote:

“Sanity is a cozy lie.” - Susan Sontag

Song:

I listen to Rammstein when I’m really angry, or just when I’m cleaning the house. I also love singing to music I don’t understand - but just realized that this song is about one of my favorite themes: time and its unrelenting passage.

Meme(or…tweet? or random photos from my iphone library):