Aaron Helton
@aaronhelton.com
He/Him
Library systems dev @ UN Library
en/es
TTRPGs, ♾️ DM
Reader. Writer. Digital Humanist in training @ CUNY GC. William Blake stan.
Queens, NY
www.aaronhelton.com and blog.hilltown.studio
Likes/Reposts ≠ endorsements.
Library systems dev @ UN Library
en/es
TTRPGs, ♾️ DM
Reader. Writer. Digital Humanist in training @ CUNY GC. William Blake stan.
Queens, NY
www.aaronhelton.com and blog.hilltown.studio
Likes/Reposts ≠ endorsements.
Pinned
Aaron Helton
@aaronhelton.com
· Jun 27
Dead I Am the Rat by hilltown
A Mausritter adventure about defeating the cat lord.
hilltown.itch.io
At the beginning of the year I made myself a goal of publishing a TTRPG adventure, which I've never done before. After making a last push on writing, then learning layout and making my own art, here's the result!
Dead I Am the Rat: Play as rat zombies to defeat the cat lord!
#mausritter #osr
Dead I Am the Rat: Play as rat zombies to defeat the cat lord!
#mausritter #osr
Reposted by Aaron Helton
🤖 “We’re about to unleash something incredibly human… that isn’t human at all.”
Zeynep Tufekci breaks down why AI sounds so human and what that means for our future.
🎥 Watch the full “AI and The Future of Work” talk on the CUNY Graduate Center YouTube channel. youtu.be/McYBgZrORi4?...
#CUNY #AI
Zeynep Tufekci breaks down why AI sounds so human and what that means for our future.
🎥 Watch the full “AI and The Future of Work” talk on the CUNY Graduate Center YouTube channel. youtu.be/McYBgZrORi4?...
#CUNY #AI
November 17, 2025 at 4:23 PM
🤖 “We’re about to unleash something incredibly human… that isn’t human at all.”
Zeynep Tufekci breaks down why AI sounds so human and what that means for our future.
🎥 Watch the full “AI and The Future of Work” talk on the CUNY Graduate Center YouTube channel. youtu.be/McYBgZrORi4?...
#CUNY #AI
Zeynep Tufekci breaks down why AI sounds so human and what that means for our future.
🎥 Watch the full “AI and The Future of Work” talk on the CUNY Graduate Center YouTube channel. youtu.be/McYBgZrORi4?...
#CUNY #AI
I keep trying to assemble the parts I snuck home from the gun factory, but all I seem to be able to make with them is a bad metaphor.
“From his mouth the bullet theoretical launched the bullet possible.“
guys.
November 17, 2025 at 8:57 PM
I keep trying to assemble the parts I snuck home from the gun factory, but all I seem to be able to make with them is a bad metaphor.
Oh, wow, I hate Zoom. Why does it hide the mute button while you're sharing something?
Sure, I guess I'll just cough over here audibly for everyone instead of muting myself.
Sure, I guess I'll just cough over here audibly for everyone instead of muting myself.
November 17, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Oh, wow, I hate Zoom. Why does it hide the mute button while you're sharing something?
Sure, I guess I'll just cough over here audibly for everyone instead of muting myself.
Sure, I guess I'll just cough over here audibly for everyone instead of muting myself.
Reposted by Aaron Helton
Ladies & Gentlemen, without further ado, let us present to you the 550 year old Arbour Oak in Wollaton Park, Nottingham
November 17, 2025 at 7:59 AM
Ladies & Gentlemen, without further ado, let us present to you the 550 year old Arbour Oak in Wollaton Park, Nottingham
Reposted by Aaron Helton
On this day in 2019, NASA astronaut Christina Koch made the first edit to a Wikipedia article from outer space 🚀
Koch corrected details in the description of the spacewalk tasks in the "List of spacewalks 2015–2024" article (titled "List of spacewalks since 2015" at the time).
Koch corrected details in the description of the spacewalk tasks in the "List of spacewalks 2015–2024" article (titled "List of spacewalks since 2015" at the time).
November 17, 2025 at 10:04 AM
On this day in 2019, NASA astronaut Christina Koch made the first edit to a Wikipedia article from outer space 🚀
Koch corrected details in the description of the spacewalk tasks in the "List of spacewalks 2015–2024" article (titled "List of spacewalks since 2015" at the time).
Koch corrected details in the description of the spacewalk tasks in the "List of spacewalks 2015–2024" article (titled "List of spacewalks since 2015" at the time).
Reposted by Aaron Helton
Folks, I did it. I made the Cooks Illustrated competing pear crisps, and then I made my friends judge them blind.
November 17, 2025 at 4:02 AM
Folks, I did it. I made the Cooks Illustrated competing pear crisps, and then I made my friends judge them blind.
Reposted by Aaron Helton
Are you fucking kidding me
November 16, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Are you fucking kidding me
Reposted by Aaron Helton
Help us build a syllabus for City Hall. 📚🏛️
We’re curating community recommendations for the Mayor-Elect, and we want your favorite articles, toolkits, and case studies on people-centered technology and government.
Dive in and share your resources:
🔗 www.beta.nyc/newsletter-w...
We’re curating community recommendations for the Mayor-Elect, and we want your favorite articles, toolkits, and case studies on people-centered technology and government.
Dive in and share your resources:
🔗 www.beta.nyc/newsletter-w...
November 16, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Help us build a syllabus for City Hall. 📚🏛️
We’re curating community recommendations for the Mayor-Elect, and we want your favorite articles, toolkits, and case studies on people-centered technology and government.
Dive in and share your resources:
🔗 www.beta.nyc/newsletter-w...
We’re curating community recommendations for the Mayor-Elect, and we want your favorite articles, toolkits, and case studies on people-centered technology and government.
Dive in and share your resources:
🔗 www.beta.nyc/newsletter-w...
Reposted by Aaron Helton
Left anti YIMBYism starts from the assumption that middle class people do not have moral standing to make policy demands of urban governments and do not have the right to engage in political action to improve their material circumstances.
November 16, 2025 at 7:02 PM
Left anti YIMBYism starts from the assumption that middle class people do not have moral standing to make policy demands of urban governments and do not have the right to engage in political action to improve their material circumstances.
Reposted by Aaron Helton
Why were there so many sculptures (36 marbles and 16 bronzes) in the Antikythera wreck (70-50 BCE)? A great new, open access article by Brian Martens for ABSA argues they were for a gymnasion. www.cambridge.org/core/journal... A really interesting take 125 years after this monumental discovery.
November 16, 2025 at 12:49 PM
Why were there so many sculptures (36 marbles and 16 bronzes) in the Antikythera wreck (70-50 BCE)? A great new, open access article by Brian Martens for ABSA argues they were for a gymnasion. www.cambridge.org/core/journal... A really interesting take 125 years after this monumental discovery.
Reposted by Aaron Helton
I think this is *the* licensing issue of our time.
Whether it's prohibiting fascist uses or stopping AI training, liberal open licenses are falling down.
I still like CC BY-SA, forcing to share derivatives, but am not sure a license change is the technical solution to this social problem.
Whether it's prohibiting fascist uses or stopping AI training, liberal open licenses are falling down.
I still like CC BY-SA, forcing to share derivatives, but am not sure a license change is the technical solution to this social problem.
"That's a problem for me. You see, I wanna make my software freely available to everyone in the world except those guys specifically. That very particular bunch of autocratic corpo-states are actively destroying the world I'm trying to pro-socially enrich as a commoner."
Open Source Power
We have to talk about open source licensing.
blog.muni.town
November 16, 2025 at 11:24 AM
I think this is *the* licensing issue of our time.
Whether it's prohibiting fascist uses or stopping AI training, liberal open licenses are falling down.
I still like CC BY-SA, forcing to share derivatives, but am not sure a license change is the technical solution to this social problem.
Whether it's prohibiting fascist uses or stopping AI training, liberal open licenses are falling down.
I still like CC BY-SA, forcing to share derivatives, but am not sure a license change is the technical solution to this social problem.
Reposted by Aaron Helton
"That's a problem for me. You see, I wanna make my software freely available to everyone in the world except those guys specifically. That very particular bunch of autocratic corpo-states are actively destroying the world I'm trying to pro-socially enrich as a commoner."
Open Source Power
We have to talk about open source licensing.
blog.muni.town
November 16, 2025 at 7:28 AM
"That's a problem for me. You see, I wanna make my software freely available to everyone in the world except those guys specifically. That very particular bunch of autocratic corpo-states are actively destroying the world I'm trying to pro-socially enrich as a commoner."
Reposted by Aaron Helton
I think a lot about “default” expectations in our time — how often they are of very recent construction. (We have dates for when umpires were introduced to kriegsspiel)
If I do my job right, my students don’t assume roleplaying games have a “master” — any more than that games have a win condition.
If I do my job right, my students don’t assume roleplaying games have a “master” — any more than that games have a win condition.
Generations of game designers tried their best but the only word they could muster was “GMless”
November 15, 2025 at 6:49 PM
I think a lot about “default” expectations in our time — how often they are of very recent construction. (We have dates for when umpires were introduced to kriegsspiel)
If I do my job right, my students don’t assume roleplaying games have a “master” — any more than that games have a win condition.
If I do my job right, my students don’t assume roleplaying games have a “master” — any more than that games have a win condition.
Reposted by Aaron Helton
Some inspiring words on cinema in the streaming era from the Pope.
Yes, THAT Pope.
Yes, THAT Pope.
November 15, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Some inspiring words on cinema in the streaming era from the Pope.
Yes, THAT Pope.
Yes, THAT Pope.
Reposted by Aaron Helton
An interesting example of how it's easy to get trapped in "doing things for the sake of doing them" in gamedev how this thread showcases complex game desgin being done to allow this sort of thing but little examination of how that possibility space affects the world and the player's psychology
Hive mind.. whats the general thoughts on allowing players to brick their games by letting them kill NPCs? Are folk ok with that? any smart examples where it is recoverable?
November 15, 2025 at 7:46 PM
An interesting example of how it's easy to get trapped in "doing things for the sake of doing them" in gamedev how this thread showcases complex game desgin being done to allow this sort of thing but little examination of how that possibility space affects the world and the player's psychology
Reposted by Aaron Helton
Another new publication! Thrilled to receive my contributor copy of Númenor, the Frail and Mighty reach print, also featuring @clarelmoore.bsky.social, @mercuryreads.bsky.social, @aranelparmadil.bsky.social, @putriprihatini.bsky.social, and more. Mazel Tov to editor @willsherwood.bsky.social too!
November 15, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Another new publication! Thrilled to receive my contributor copy of Númenor, the Frail and Mighty reach print, also featuring @clarelmoore.bsky.social, @mercuryreads.bsky.social, @aranelparmadil.bsky.social, @putriprihatini.bsky.social, and more. Mazel Tov to editor @willsherwood.bsky.social too!
Reposted by Aaron Helton
‘We don’t even know all of what we have.’ Howard University fights to preserve Black newspapers. www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/... Last year, during a move, workers found two whole boxes of Frederick Douglass’s’ The North Star’s first year of publication.
‘We don’t even know all of what we have.’ Howard fights to preserve Black newspapers.
Across the United States, scholars are working to preserve the history of the Black press before the brittle pages are lost forever. In a basement at Howard University, uncovered treasures have includ...
www.csmonitor.com
November 15, 2025 at 12:58 PM
‘We don’t even know all of what we have.’ Howard University fights to preserve Black newspapers. www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/... Last year, during a move, workers found two whole boxes of Frederick Douglass’s’ The North Star’s first year of publication.
Reposted by Aaron Helton
niht-ēage, adj: able to see at night (lit. ‘night-eye’). (NI’HT-AY-ah-yuh / ˈnɪxt-ˌeːa-jə)
Image: Aberdeen Bestiary; England, c. 1200; @aberdeenunilib.bsky.social MS 24, f. 50r.
#OldEnglish #WOTD
Image: Aberdeen Bestiary; England, c. 1200; @aberdeenunilib.bsky.social MS 24, f. 50r.
#OldEnglish #WOTD
November 15, 2025 at 8:00 AM
niht-ēage, adj: able to see at night (lit. ‘night-eye’). (NI’HT-AY-ah-yuh / ˈnɪxt-ˌeːa-jə)
Image: Aberdeen Bestiary; England, c. 1200; @aberdeenunilib.bsky.social MS 24, f. 50r.
#OldEnglish #WOTD
Image: Aberdeen Bestiary; England, c. 1200; @aberdeenunilib.bsky.social MS 24, f. 50r.
#OldEnglish #WOTD
Reposted by Aaron Helton
your dead AI mother loves you so much ❤️
November 15, 2025 at 12:50 AM
your dead AI mother loves you so much ❤️
Reposted by Aaron Helton
![4-panel vertical comic. (1) 100 Years Ago [two people standing next to bicycle with small car nearby] PERSON 1: It’s too dangerous riding a bike with these cars around. I should get a car, too. (2) 50 Years Ago [two people between smaller car and bigger car] PERSON 2 with short hair: Small cars are less safe in collisions with larger vehicles, so I should get a bigger one. (3) Today [two people between big car and even bigger car] PERSON 1: Everyone has huge SUVs now. If I don’t get the biggest one, I’m putting my family at risk. (4) Soon [two people next to large armored car with spiked clubs attached] PERSON 2: If I don’t install more whirling spike clubs, I’ll be destroyed by all the other drivers who...](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cz73r7iyiqn26upot4jtjdhk/bafkreiby6can6k76yzfmv2czxs4pu2l7zie7bqbrpswi7h3ifmiadkuqvu@jpeg)
Reposted by Aaron Helton
lol these things are actually a great analogy for chatbot-as-a-service products:
• ONE particular productization
• of ONE particular technology
• WAY overpowered for its application class
• no thought whatsoever to harms
• which industry groups downplayed and victim-blamed
• ONE particular productization
• of ONE particular technology
• WAY overpowered for its application class
• no thought whatsoever to harms
• which industry groups downplayed and victim-blamed
like when i look at the suite of chatbot products on the market, my mind goes to radium pills or these things en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoe-fi...
like why would you spend any effort in any kind of institutional design around ONE particular configuration of a particular leaf-node technology
like why would you spend any effort in any kind of institutional design around ONE particular configuration of a particular leaf-node technology
Shoe-fitting fluoroscope - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
November 14, 2025 at 7:46 PM
lol these things are actually a great analogy for chatbot-as-a-service products:
• ONE particular productization
• of ONE particular technology
• WAY overpowered for its application class
• no thought whatsoever to harms
• which industry groups downplayed and victim-blamed
• ONE particular productization
• of ONE particular technology
• WAY overpowered for its application class
• no thought whatsoever to harms
• which industry groups downplayed and victim-blamed
Reposted by Aaron Helton
Hooray! @authorsabb.bsky.social is *OFFICIALLY* a nonprofit, and is now open for donations!
For the last two years we've been doing all this w free tools, or paying out of pocket, & we were STILL able to get SO MUCH DONE.
Imagine what we could do with $$$
www.authorsagainstbookbans.com/donate/
For the last two years we've been doing all this w free tools, or paying out of pocket, & we were STILL able to get SO MUCH DONE.
Imagine what we could do with $$$
www.authorsagainstbookbans.com/donate/
Donate - Authors Against Book Bans
Thank you for donating to Authors Against Book Bans. Your donation directly supports the freedom to read by powering our work with our partner organizations, bringing the author muscle to the fight to...
www.authorsagainstbookbans.com
November 14, 2025 at 5:47 PM
Hooray! @authorsabb.bsky.social is *OFFICIALLY* a nonprofit, and is now open for donations!
For the last two years we've been doing all this w free tools, or paying out of pocket, & we were STILL able to get SO MUCH DONE.
Imagine what we could do with $$$
www.authorsagainstbookbans.com/donate/
For the last two years we've been doing all this w free tools, or paying out of pocket, & we were STILL able to get SO MUCH DONE.
Imagine what we could do with $$$
www.authorsagainstbookbans.com/donate/
Reposted by Aaron Helton
In the US, the only leverage many academics have is threatening to leave. That leverage is growing weaker and weaker as jobs disappear. At this point, beyond a few superstars, it’s effectively nil. There are, of course, other forms of leverage, but they require working in concert.
November 14, 2025 at 2:38 PM
In the US, the only leverage many academics have is threatening to leave. That leverage is growing weaker and weaker as jobs disappear. At this point, beyond a few superstars, it’s effectively nil. There are, of course, other forms of leverage, but they require working in concert.
Reposted by Aaron Helton
Several years ago, we put a whole bunch of data from a project into Wikidata. Now, as a result, some people who we had no more info for aside from a name or could not disambiguate are actually identifiable. LOD FTW.
November 14, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Several years ago, we put a whole bunch of data from a project into Wikidata. Now, as a result, some people who we had no more info for aside from a name or could not disambiguate are actually identifiable. LOD FTW.
Reposted by Aaron Helton
‘Father’ and ‘dad’ are synonyms.
‘Figure’ and ‘bod’ are synonyms.
But, a ‘father figure’ and a ‘dad bod’ aren’t exactly the same thing…
‘Figure’ and ‘bod’ are synonyms.
But, a ‘father figure’ and a ‘dad bod’ aren’t exactly the same thing…
November 14, 2025 at 3:09 PM
‘Father’ and ‘dad’ are synonyms.
‘Figure’ and ‘bod’ are synonyms.
But, a ‘father figure’ and a ‘dad bod’ aren’t exactly the same thing…
‘Figure’ and ‘bod’ are synonyms.
But, a ‘father figure’ and a ‘dad bod’ aren’t exactly the same thing…