Ryan Williamson
@rywilwrite.bsky.social
Speculative fiction that refuses to look away. US Army vet/Canadian expatriate/political heretic. It’s our scars that make us beautiful. 🏳️🌈
📝 ryanwilliamson.com
📝 ryanwilliamson.com
Pinned
Ryan Williamson
@rywilwrite.bsky.social
· Jan 17
"Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. It's a way of understanding it."
—Lloyd Alexander
—Lloyd Alexander
SecDef is apparently threatening to blacklist Anthropic because they won’t remove restrictions on mass surveillance of Americans and fully autonomous weapons.
OpenAI, Google, and xAI have been more accommodating…
OpenAI, Google, and xAI have been more accommodating…
From the ClaudeAI community on Reddit: Good job Anthropic 👏🏻 you just became the top closed Ai company in my books
Explore this post and more from the ClaudeAI community
www.reddit.com
February 17, 2026 at 6:47 PM
SecDef is apparently threatening to blacklist Anthropic because they won’t remove restrictions on mass surveillance of Americans and fully autonomous weapons.
OpenAI, Google, and xAI have been more accommodating…
OpenAI, Google, and xAI have been more accommodating…
Dark Dominion: Immortal Chapter 2.
Dark Dominion: Immortal (Chapter 2)
YouTube video by Ryan Williamson
youtu.be
February 17, 2026 at 3:52 AM
Dark Dominion: Immortal Chapter 2.
I’d be much happier with Ghost as a blogging platform if their mobile browser editor wasn’t a complete piece of crap.
That would be awesome.
That would be awesome.
February 16, 2026 at 12:53 AM
I’d be much happier with Ghost as a blogging platform if their mobile browser editor wasn’t a complete piece of crap.
That would be awesome.
That would be awesome.
Most space opera ends when the tyrant falls. Maybe there’s a coronation, definitely a kiss. But the real question isn’t whether you can overthrow a three-thousand-year theocracy. It’s what seventy trillion people with competing agendas do the morning after the god-emperor falls.
Dark Dominion: The Morning After
YouTube video by Ryan Williamson
youtu.be
February 15, 2026 at 11:40 PM
Most space opera ends when the tyrant falls. Maybe there’s a coronation, definitely a kiss. But the real question isn’t whether you can overthrow a three-thousand-year theocracy. It’s what seventy trillion people with competing agendas do the morning after the god-emperor falls.
Reposted by Ryan Williamson
A significant chunk of America is caught up in a pernicious case of oppositional-defiant disorder that has them risk the health and lives of their children just so they don’t have to admit that the libs could be right about something.
Measles is a bellwether. Because it’s the most contagious vaccine-preventable disease, when vaccination rates drop, it’s the first to start spreading.
Now we’ve got mumps rolling up.
Expect more.
This is just the beginning of RFK Jr.’s successful infectious disease reintroduction plan.
Now we’ve got mumps rolling up.
Expect more.
This is just the beginning of RFK Jr.’s successful infectious disease reintroduction plan.
Maryland health officials warn providers about an upsurge in mumps cases
Maryland health officials are warning about an uptick in cases of mumps.
www.thebanner.com
February 15, 2026 at 4:47 AM
A significant chunk of America is caught up in a pernicious case of oppositional-defiant disorder that has them risk the health and lives of their children just so they don’t have to admit that the libs could be right about something.
Immortals are taken as children, remade, and deployed as weapons.
This is what that process sounds like from the inside—not from the perspective of the institution, but from the voice that lives in every Immortal’s nervous system. The voice that raises them. The voice they trust most in the world.
This is what that process sounds like from the inside—not from the perspective of the institution, but from the voice that lives in every Immortal’s nervous system. The voice that raises them. The voice they trust most in the world.
The Anointed Path
Immortals are taken as children, remade, and deployed as weapons. This is what that process sounds like from the inside—not from the perspective of the institution, but from the voice that lives in ev...
www.ryanwilliamson.com
February 15, 2026 at 7:34 AM
Immortals are taken as children, remade, and deployed as weapons.
This is what that process sounds like from the inside—not from the perspective of the institution, but from the voice that lives in every Immortal’s nervous system. The voice that raises them. The voice they trust most in the world.
This is what that process sounds like from the inside—not from the perspective of the institution, but from the voice that lives in every Immortal’s nervous system. The voice that raises them. The voice they trust most in the world.
Sarai wakes on a desolate moon with no memory, severe injuries, and a pregnancy that shouldn’t exist. The child is the god-emperor’s. Her body is proof a three-thousand-year tyranny is a lie. Every faction wants her for what she represents. Only one person wants her for who she is.
The Dark Dominion Sequence
Sarai izt Kviokhi wakes on a desolate moon with no memory, severe injuries, and a pregnancy that shouldn’t exist. The child growing inside her belongs to The Name—the immortal god-emperor who has rule...
www.ryanwilliamson.com
February 14, 2026 at 1:23 AM
Sarai wakes on a desolate moon with no memory, severe injuries, and a pregnancy that shouldn’t exist. The child is the god-emperor’s. Her body is proof a three-thousand-year tyranny is a lie. Every faction wants her for what she represents. Only one person wants her for who she is.
Morgan Freeman voice: No, they do not understand.
As a German, I'll never fully understand the Third Reich worship of the American far right.
They do understand that the Third Reich *lost*, right? That the tough, belligerent, ethnically pure master race got thoroughly defeated and its country conquered by a diverse multi-ethnic coalition?
They do understand that the Third Reich *lost*, right? That the tough, belligerent, ethnically pure master race got thoroughly defeated and its country conquered by a diverse multi-ethnic coalition?
there's a strict duology of young right wing physiognomy
if you're a young up and coming fascist, you will either be
1. rosy cheeked cartoon BBQ pig mascot
2. grimacing possessed howdy doody puppet
if you're a young up and coming fascist, you will either be
1. rosy cheeked cartoon BBQ pig mascot
2. grimacing possessed howdy doody puppet
February 12, 2026 at 10:32 PM
Morgan Freeman voice: No, they do not understand.
Mikhael was engineered to be the Dominion’s perfect weapon—a super-soldier who can teleport through combat and heal from anything. When they sent him to kill a rogue operative, he made a different choice: he saved her instead.
Love in the Wasteland: Mikhael and the Art of Gentle Defiance
Mikhael was engineered to be the Dominion’s perfect weapon—a super-soldier who can teleport through combat and heal from anything. When they sent him to kill a rogue operative, he made a different cho...
www.ryanwilliamson.com
February 12, 2026 at 8:02 PM
Mikhael was engineered to be the Dominion’s perfect weapon—a super-soldier who can teleport through combat and heal from anything. When they sent him to kill a rogue operative, he made a different choice: he saved her instead.
The whole “alpha wolf” framework was debunked by David Mech, the same researcher who originally popularized it. He spent decades trying to correct the record: wolf packs are family units, and the “alphas” are just… the parents.
And lone wolves who fail to start a new pack starve or are killed.
And lone wolves who fail to start a new pack starve or are killed.
February 12, 2026 at 4:50 PM
The whole “alpha wolf” framework was debunked by David Mech, the same researcher who originally popularized it. He spent decades trying to correct the record: wolf packs are family units, and the “alphas” are just… the parents.
And lone wolves who fail to start a new pack starve or are killed.
And lone wolves who fail to start a new pack starve or are killed.
No, this isn’t satire. It’s the NYT.
February 12, 2026 at 4:21 PM
No, this isn’t satire. It’s the NYT.
Welp, probably not going to get any fiction writing done tonight. Might crack open a book that’s been on my TBR pile forever. Or not. I like to be unpredictable.
February 12, 2026 at 4:00 AM
Welp, probably not going to get any fiction writing done tonight. Might crack open a book that’s been on my TBR pile forever. Or not. I like to be unpredictable.
Absolutely, we should absolutely be talking about stock prices instead of… checks notes… child sex trafficking.
February 11, 2026 at 6:34 PM
Absolutely, we should absolutely be talking about stock prices instead of… checks notes… child sex trafficking.
Today is Gus’s Gotcha Day! One whole year and he’s still peeing on the carpets. (But otherwise he’s a great dog.)
February 11, 2026 at 5:22 PM
Today is Gus’s Gotcha Day! One whole year and he’s still peeing on the carpets. (But otherwise he’s a great dog.)
Stanford and Caltech just published a comprehensive taxonomy of why LLMs fail at reasoning. It maps almost perfectly onto experiments I’ve run testing AI against creative writing. And the writing community is making policy based on misunderstanding both while ignoring the real threat to authors.
SFWA Banned AI from the Nebulas While Stanford Was Cataloguing Why It Could Never Win One
A new Caltech/Stanford survey paper just systematically catalogued how and why large language models fail at reasoning—fundamental architectural failures, unfaithful reasoning, robustness breakdown…
theannex.blog
February 11, 2026 at 7:12 AM
Stanford and Caltech just published a comprehensive taxonomy of why LLMs fail at reasoning. It maps almost perfectly onto experiments I’ve run testing AI against creative writing. And the writing community is making policy based on misunderstanding both while ignoring the real threat to authors.
Writing that fails at its purpose isn’t good writing regardless of how clean the sentences are.
I hate a lot of “literature” because performing competence and control in a scene that demands the opposite is a lie, and polished craft in service of a victimized child’s lived truth is masturbation.
I hate a lot of “literature” because performing competence and control in a scene that demands the opposite is a lie, and polished craft in service of a victimized child’s lived truth is masturbation.
The Most Advanced LLM on the Planet Still Can’t Write a Fourteen-Year-Old
Anthropic’s Opus 4.6—arguably the most advanced LLM on the planet—wrote a scene from my YA space opera manuscript. The prose was clean, the structure was sound, the emotional beats landed. Then I f…
theannex.blog
February 11, 2026 at 6:18 AM
Writing that fails at its purpose isn’t good writing regardless of how clean the sentences are.
I hate a lot of “literature” because performing competence and control in a scene that demands the opposite is a lie, and polished craft in service of a victimized child’s lived truth is masturbation.
I hate a lot of “literature” because performing competence and control in a scene that demands the opposite is a lie, and polished craft in service of a victimized child’s lived truth is masturbation.
Reposted by Ryan Williamson
K-Pop Superbowl Halftime next year. Let's keep the assholes angry.
February 9, 2026 at 6:23 PM
K-Pop Superbowl Halftime next year. Let's keep the assholes angry.
Every sacred thing Mormonism claims to have restored and locks behind a paywall has been standard equipment in Catholicism for two thousand years. I spent years interrogating priests, waiting for one to say “no, we don’t have that one.”
They never did.
They never did.
It’s Just Tuesday for Catholics
YouTube video by Ryan Williamson
youtu.be
February 9, 2026 at 3:12 AM
Every sacred thing Mormonism claims to have restored and locks behind a paywall has been standard equipment in Catholicism for two thousand years. I spent years interrogating priests, waiting for one to say “no, we don’t have that one.”
They never did.
They never did.
I have Claude exceptionally well calibrated now.
February 8, 2026 at 4:52 AM
I have Claude exceptionally well calibrated now.
Republican are slowly beginning to wake up and even groggily push back on Trump’s fascism.
Day late and a dollar short, buckos.
You’re still dead to me.
Day late and a dollar short, buckos.
You’re still dead to me.
February 8, 2026 at 2:35 AM
Republican are slowly beginning to wake up and even groggily push back on Trump’s fascism.
Day late and a dollar short, buckos.
You’re still dead to me.
Day late and a dollar short, buckos.
You’re still dead to me.
Oh, and fuck ICE.
From “ICE After Minneapolis” by Nick Miroff, The Atlantic
February 8, 2026 at 2:32 AM
Oh, and fuck ICE.
From “ICE After Minneapolis” by Nick Miroff, The Atlantic
February 8, 2026 at 2:31 AM
From “ICE After Minneapolis” by Nick Miroff, The Atlantic
In Minneapolis, ordinary people are outside schools in subzero temperatures watching for ICE vehicles so parents can safely pick up their kids. A nurse is standing as a human shield between agents and immigrants. And Trump has ordered DHS to pull back. Good men and women doing something still works.
Good Men Doing Something
In Minneapolis, ordinary people are standing outside schools in subzero temperatures watching for ICE vehicles so parents can pick up their kids safely. Coffee shops are handing out whistles so peo…
theannex.blog
February 7, 2026 at 6:13 AM
In Minneapolis, ordinary people are outside schools in subzero temperatures watching for ICE vehicles so parents can safely pick up their kids. A nurse is standing as a human shield between agents and immigrants. And Trump has ordered DHS to pull back. Good men and women doing something still works.
Somewhere along the way “I think women are hot and also complete human beings” became a position too nuanced for either political tribe.
Not sure when that happened.
Not sure when that happened.
February 6, 2026 at 10:40 PM
Somewhere along the way “I think women are hot and also complete human beings” became a position too nuanced for either political tribe.
Not sure when that happened.
Not sure when that happened.
Had to sign a legal document today in pen and ink. I asked if they wanted a wax seal with my sigil too.
Do I return the signed document by raven?
Do I return the signed document by raven?
February 6, 2026 at 10:23 PM
Had to sign a legal document today in pen and ink. I asked if they wanted a wax seal with my sigil too.
Do I return the signed document by raven?
Do I return the signed document by raven?