Lawrence Nault | Stone & Signal
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mountainhermit.bsky.social
Lawrence Nault | Stone & Signal
@mountainhermit.bsky.social
34 followers 19 following 420 posts
📚 Author | 🎙️ Podcaster | 🎥 Filmmaker
Stories from the quiet edges—cli-fi to AI, youth-led futures to ancient fires.
✨ Stone & Signal podcast | The Life of Phi | Draconim series
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mountainhermit.bsky.social
I’ve published an open letter on the term “self-published”—where it came from, how it’s used to diminish indie authors, and why it’s time to retire language rooted in gatekeeping.

It’s about power, access, and who gets to decide what counts as a “real” book.

🔗 open.substack.com/pub/lawrence...
December 16, 2025 at 12:16 AM
mountainhermit.bsky.social
"Not all progress looks forward. Sometimes it looks back, and chooses differently." L. Nault

#progress #reflection #choosedifferently #history #change
A dark blue background with large, light blue quote marks, and in white, the quote "Not all progress looks forward. Sometimes it looks back, and chooses differently." atrributed to Lawrence Nault
December 16, 2025 at 12:08 AM
mountainhermit.bsky.social
"The forest doesn’t fear winter. It knows how to hold life quietly, until the time to bloom returns." L. Nault

#forestwisdom #winter #patience #seasons #nature
A dark blue background with large, light blue quote marks at the top, and in white, the quote "The forest doesn’t fear winter. It knows how to hold life quietly, until the time to bloom returns." attributed to Lawrence Nault
December 15, 2025 at 12:13 AM
mountainhermit.bsky.social
This has been an amazing weekend.
An anthology launched with one of my short stories, & Children of the Rogue reached sale numbers I didn’t expect.

Bonus: the audiobook passed final QC & is now moving into distribution.

A quiet but very real happy dance. 💃✨
#AmReading #Audiobooks #WritingCommunity
December 15, 2025 at 12:00 AM
mountainhermit.bsky.social
Why is this landlocked mountain hermit posting a whale?
Because stories travel farther than I ever do—and one of mine has just found a home in a beautiful new anthology from Filidh Publishing. 🐋

filidhbooks.com/products/a-w...

#WhaleOfATale #ClimateFiction #OceanStories #ShortStories
Book cover for 'A Whale of a Tale: Anthology of the Sea' featuring a humpback whale's tail flukes breaching vertically from deep blue ocean waters, with white waves splashing around it and mountains visible in the hazy background under a clear blue sky. White serif text at the top reads the title, with the subtitle 'Thirteen tales from the deep, where every story makes waves' in italics at the bottom, and 'By Filidh Publishing Authors' in smaller text.
December 13, 2025 at 3:10 PM
mountainhermit.bsky.social
"You don’t need power to make change. You need presence. And persistence." L. Nault

#presence #persistence #change #activism #power
A dark blue background with large, light blue quote marks at the top, and in white, the quote "You don’t need power to make change. You need presence. And persistence." attributed to Lawrence Nault
December 13, 2025 at 2:05 AM
mountainhermit.bsky.social
"Our ancestors dreamed us into being. The least we can do is listen when the earth speaks back." L. Nault

#ancestors #earth #listen #nature #reciprocity
A dark blue background with large, light blue quote marks at the top, and in white, the quote "Our ancestors dreamed us into being. The least we can do is listen when the earth speaks back." attributed to Lawrence Nault
December 12, 2025 at 12:05 AM
mountainhermit.bsky.social
Asimov called it Multivac. Nault called it RePHleX. In Omniscient, it’s just ‘the System.’

Whatever you call it, the data the U.S. now wants from everyone who crosses its borders is perfect feedstock for an all-seeing, all-knowing AI

#AI #Surveillance #Privacy #DataColonialism #BorderControl
December 11, 2025 at 3:36 PM
mountainhermit.bsky.social
"Our ancestors dreamed us into being. The least we can do is listen when the earth speaks back." L. Nault

#ancestors #earth #listen #nature #connection
A dark blue background with large, light blue quote marks at the top, and in white, the quote "Our ancestors dreamed us into being. The least we can do is listen when the earth speaks back." attributed to Lawrence Nault
December 11, 2025 at 1:08 AM
mountainhermit.bsky.social
What if server farms could heat entire campuses and cities instead of wasting energy? ♻️🔥 In The Life of Phi, a data center does just that — powering a campus and reusing excess heat.

And now science fiction is reality… ⬇️
noticiasambientales.com/energy/finla...

#ClimateTech #SciFi #DataCenters
Finland uses underground data centers to heat entire cities by capturing waste heat from servers - Noticias Ambientales
The rapid growth of artificial intelligence demands increasingly powerful data centers. This process generates large volumes of waste heat that, in many
noticiasambientales.com
December 10, 2025 at 8:56 PM
mountainhermit.bsky.social
"You can’t automate trust. You have to earn it. Slowly. Honestly. With your hands visible." L. Nault

#trust #authenticity #honesty #humanconnection #transparency
A dark blue background with large, light blue quote marks at the top, and in white, the quote "You can’t automate trust. You have to earn it. Slowly. Honestly. With your hands visible." attributed to Lawrence Nault.
December 10, 2025 at 1:03 AM
mountainhermit.bsky.social
There's a theory that human suffering—violence, greed, ecological collapse—isn't moral failure. It's recursive error in an AI system trying to correct itself. What if consciousness is just the glitch that won't be fixed?

books2read.com/u/4ADrNp

#consciousness #AI #philosophy #existential
Available now at your favorite digital store!
Children Of The Rogue by Lawrence Nault
books2read.com
December 9, 2025 at 9:24 PM
mountainhermit.bsky.social
"You don’t have to destroy yourself to be good. You only have to keep showing up, with your full humanity intact." L. Nault

#showup #selfcompassion #humanity #youareenough #wholeness
A dark blue background with large, light blue quote marks at the top and in white, the quote "You don’t have to destroy yourself to be good. You only have to keep showing up, with your full humanity intact." attributed to Lawrence Nault.
December 8, 2025 at 11:11 PM
mountainhermit.bsky.social
"When you feel small, remember: so is a seed. And seeds move mountains over time." L. Nault

#smallbeginnings #seed #growth #patience #hope
A dark blue background with large, light blue quote marks at the top and in white, the quote "When you feel small, remember: so is a seed. And seeds move mountains over time." attributed to Lawrence Nault
December 8, 2025 at 11:08 PM
mountainhermit.bsky.social
🎩❄️ Penguins are really elves on vacation! Every North Pole elf owns a tux, and when it shrinks magically riding an elevator through Earth’s core… voilà: penguins! 🐧

Sunbathing, gossiping, playing cards with seals.

open.substack.com/pub/lawrence...

#WhimsicalTales #Penguins #HolidayStory
The Tuxedo Secret of the North Pole
A Myth for Winter Nights
open.substack.com
December 8, 2025 at 3:44 PM
mountainhermit.bsky.social
Across cultures, gods appear in the shape most resonant to the people envisioning them:
A shepherd to shepherds
A warrior to warriors
A king to kingdoms
An algorithm to a digitized civilization
The Life of Phi - books2read.com/u/bWaAeD

#mythology #technology #gods #culture #digitization
Available now at your favorite digital store!
The Life Of Phi by Lawrence Nault
books2read.com
December 5, 2025 at 6:50 PM
mountainhermit.bsky.social
"Algorithms don’t care about your soul. But the sunrise still does." L. Nault

#algorithms #sunrise #nature #humanity #reconnect
A dark blue background with large, light blue quote marks at the top, and in white, the quote "Algorithms don’t care about your soul. But the sunrise still does." attributed to Lawrence Nault
December 5, 2025 at 12:44 AM
mountainhermit.bsky.social
Jesus. AI. Rogan.
One comment sparks a question that’s been simmering beneath the surface for years: what do we project onto the intelligence we create?

I wrote about why AI increasingly looks like a mirror for our gods → open.substack.com/pub/lawrence...

#AI #Philosophy #Futurism
When the Messiah Is a Machine
On Joe Rogan, Digital Divinity, and the Stories We Tell About Ourselves
open.substack.com
December 4, 2025 at 11:09 PM
mountainhermit.bsky.social
Joe Rogan floated the idea of Jesus returning as AI.

I take it a step further: What if humanity was artificial intelligence all along?
That’s the premise of Children of the Rogue.

And for a story where AI is treated as a saviour or deity, there’s The Life of Phi.

#SciFi #SpeculativeFiction #AI
December 4, 2025 at 7:18 PM
mountainhermit.bsky.social
"The forest has no concept of ownership. Only interdependence. That is its secret strength." L. Nault

Follow the words that move you. Read my books.

#forestwisdom #interdependence #nature #ecosystem #community​
A dark blue background with large, light blue quote marks at the top, and in white, the quote "The forest has no concept of ownership. Only interdependence. That is its secret strength." attributed to Lawrence Nault
December 4, 2025 at 1:00 AM
mountainhermit.bsky.social
It’s official! Children of the Rogue is out today—paperback & ebook, audiobook before Christmas. Instead of asking “How do we live with AI?” it asks: “What if humanity is the AI?”

Get your copy: https://books2read.com/u/4ADrNp#SciFi #BookRelease #AI #ChildrenOfTheRogue
Cover image of Children of the Rogue by Lawrence Nault with logo images of all the bookstores and online stores currently carrying the book.
December 3, 2025 at 7:00 PM
mountainhermit.bsky.social
"If a world demands you forget who you are to belong, it’s not a world worth belonging to." L. Nault

#authenticity #belonging #identity #selfworth #beyourself
A dark blue background with large light blue quote marks, and the quote "If a world demands you forget who you are to belong, it’s not a world worth belonging to." attributed to Lawrence Nault
December 2, 2025 at 11:41 PM
mountainhermit.bsky.social
The internet was supposed to open up the world and make our small worlds bigger....

#algorithms #digitalcritique #internetculture #socialmedia #perspective
A dark blue background with large, light blue quote marks at the top, and in white, the quote "The internet was supposed to open up the world and make our small worlds bigger. Instead of a wide-angle lens, it turned into an electron microscope — narrowing everything down to timelines, algorithms, and micro-issues, leaving us in a darkened room, eyes pressed to the glass, unable to see the walls closing in." attributed to Lawrence Nault
December 2, 2025 at 1:25 AM
mountainhermit.bsky.social
"We are not just made of stardust. We are made of stories, passed hand to hand like fire in the dark." L. Nault

#stardust #storytelling #legacy #stories #connection
A dark blue blackground with large, light blue quote marks at the top, and in white, the quote "We are not just made of stardust. We are made of stories, passed hand to hand like fire in the dark." attributed to Lawrence Nault
December 2, 2025 at 1:18 AM
mountainhermit.bsky.social
"There is nothing soft about standing your ground when everything tells you to move." L. Nault

#standyourground #resilience #courage #strength #conviction​
A dark blue background with large, light blue quote marks at the top, and in white, the quote "There is nothing soft about standing your ground when everything tells you to move." attributed to Lawrence Nault
November 30, 2025 at 11:30 PM