Tristan Palmgren
@tristanpalmgren.bsky.social
Author of Marvel Prose Novels (Domino: Strays, Outlaw: Relentless, Siege of X-41), and Quietus and Terminus, science fiction novels set during the Black Death. Newest: Twilight Imperium: Voice of One, out now! Somehow on Bluesky now. They/them.
Reposted by Tristan Palmgren
I think this is particularly acute; as we’ve seen from the attempts at communication in basic English in the Epstein files, we are not talking about people with a grasp of epistemology stronger than a ham sandwich left outside in the sun
much of the work on AI-generated misinformation focuses on regular users/communities, while ignoring how political and economic elites can seal themselves into a hermetic slop box -- a repeat of the same mistake we made with radicalization and conspiracism in the previous decade
oh this is absolutely what i think. i think they feed him fake polls and outright AI slop
November 26, 2025 at 3:45 PM
I think this is particularly acute; as we’ve seen from the attempts at communication in basic English in the Epstein files, we are not talking about people with a grasp of epistemology stronger than a ham sandwich left outside in the sun
Reposted by Tristan Palmgren
“Bullying” is bad by definition. It’s not a value neutral tool to be deployed positively toward good ends. It’s so fucked up that people want so badly to reclaim this thing, and are so eager to do it that they want to brand things that aren’t bullying as bullying.
"Some people deserve to be bullied" is always wild to see because it's so deliberately childish as to make it difficult to imagine the person saying it has the moral capacity of an adult human being.
November 26, 2025 at 1:50 PM
“Bullying” is bad by definition. It’s not a value neutral tool to be deployed positively toward good ends. It’s so fucked up that people want so badly to reclaim this thing, and are so eager to do it that they want to brand things that aren’t bullying as bullying.
Reposted by Tristan Palmgren
On Twitter the other day, Curtis Yarvin declared a speech by George Washington to be “fake communist history” because he asked Claude about it and the AI glazed him
November 26, 2025 at 3:27 PM
On Twitter the other day, Curtis Yarvin declared a speech by George Washington to be “fake communist history” because he asked Claude about it and the AI glazed him
Reposted by Tristan Palmgren
It is totally reasonable and rational for artists and writers, folks whose livelihood is affected by GenAI, to be wildly opposed to it. But most of the interesting parts of ML have very little to do with automated writing or art and to make it all about this is reductive too
November 26, 2025 at 3:24 PM
It is totally reasonable and rational for artists and writers, folks whose livelihood is affected by GenAI, to be wildly opposed to it. But most of the interesting parts of ML have very little to do with automated writing or art and to make it all about this is reductive too
Trump bragging about taking a cognitive decline test, and talking about it without any hint that he recognizes what it was or that it shouldn't be difficult, is one of those things he's been doing for years but the political press rarely remarks upon. He's been fixated on it since 2020.
Extremely calm president again bragging about "acing" a test meant to check if his brain is still on
November 26, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Trump bragging about taking a cognitive decline test, and talking about it without any hint that he recognizes what it was or that it shouldn't be difficult, is one of those things he's been doing for years but the political press rarely remarks upon. He's been fixated on it since 2020.
Reposted by Tristan Palmgren
[argument at thanksgiving dinner]
wife: *whispering to me* don’t start taking sides this time
me: why not? *sliding roast potatoes in pocket* they're too busy yelling to notice
wife: *whispering to me* don’t start taking sides this time
me: why not? *sliding roast potatoes in pocket* they're too busy yelling to notice
November 26, 2025 at 2:04 PM
[argument at thanksgiving dinner]
wife: *whispering to me* don’t start taking sides this time
me: why not? *sliding roast potatoes in pocket* they're too busy yelling to notice
wife: *whispering to me* don’t start taking sides this time
me: why not? *sliding roast potatoes in pocket* they're too busy yelling to notice
Reposted by Tristan Palmgren
Eeeeennnnmhhhh I was a little pedant as a child who spoke “too educated” AND I cried easily, AND I liked things that were”for babies” (eg cartoons coded younger than my actual age) and people argued I deserved it, I needed to be “more normal” but it only made me worse.
"Some people deserve to be bullied" is always wild to see because it's so deliberately childish as to make it difficult to imagine the person saying it has the moral capacity of an adult human being.
November 26, 2025 at 3:47 AM
Eeeeennnnmhhhh I was a little pedant as a child who spoke “too educated” AND I cried easily, AND I liked things that were”for babies” (eg cartoons coded younger than my actual age) and people argued I deserved it, I needed to be “more normal” but it only made me worse.
On the Internet, nobody knows you're a p-zombie.
November 25, 2025 at 10:59 PM
On the Internet, nobody knows you're a p-zombie.
The only reboots allowed are Muppet versions.
If you were a despotic president, what movie would you force Hollywood to make? I want to see Quentin's Star Trek movie or maybe Kill Bill Vol 3.
November 25, 2025 at 8:56 PM
The only reboots allowed are Muppet versions.
Reposted by Tristan Palmgren
This is called “chain refoulment” and it’s illegal under both U.S. and international law. And the State Department and ICE know very well what Ghana is doing and simply don’t care.
ICE deported a woman who owned a home in the US for 30 years. A judge banned ICE from deporting her to Sierra Leone where she had been tortured, so it deported her to Ghana, which kidnapped her and sent her back Sierra Leone anyway. ICE is part of this illegal conspiracy.
November 25, 2025 at 7:30 PM
This is called “chain refoulment” and it’s illegal under both U.S. and international law. And the State Department and ICE know very well what Ghana is doing and simply don’t care.
The old Google algorithm does not seem like it could have coped with an Internet increasingly centralized around Facebook/instagram, Twitterlikes, Discord, YouTube, and other forms of infinitely-scrolling social media.
Ok, I intensely dislike Google’s AI overviews and many of their recent product changes.
But also… I really don’t think you could transplant the old Google search algorithm to today’s Internet and have it do nearly as well. The information environment itself has gotten a lot harder to search.
But also… I really don’t think you could transplant the old Google search algorithm to today’s Internet and have it do nearly as well. The information environment itself has gotten a lot harder to search.
Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to “you didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea
November 25, 2025 at 4:31 PM
The old Google algorithm does not seem like it could have coped with an Internet increasingly centralized around Facebook/instagram, Twitterlikes, Discord, YouTube, and other forms of infinitely-scrolling social media.
Last Christmas
I fed you your heart
I got carried away
I told you you'd pay
This year
I live in great fear
I'll strike again and like it
I fed you your heart
I got carried away
I told you you'd pay
This year
I live in great fear
I'll strike again and like it
Last Christmas
I gave you my heart
Not really my heart
Just somebody's heart
This year
If the cops should appear
Please tell them that you don't know me
I gave you my heart
Not really my heart
Just somebody's heart
This year
If the cops should appear
Please tell them that you don't know me
November 25, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Last Christmas
I fed you your heart
I got carried away
I told you you'd pay
This year
I live in great fear
I'll strike again and like it
I fed you your heart
I got carried away
I told you you'd pay
This year
I live in great fear
I'll strike again and like it
Reposted by Tristan Palmgren
arrested at the little league game for fighting yoda
November 25, 2025 at 2:50 PM
arrested at the little league game for fighting yoda
The Earth is a big ball of magma that's scabbed over.
Today's volcano Hayli Gubbi (Ethiopia) eruption seen from space
November 25, 2025 at 3:52 AM
The Earth is a big ball of magma that's scabbed over.
Reposted by Tristan Palmgren
This is heartbreakingly cruel and hypocritical. The same admin that has redefined refugee status to cover white South Africans is now going to drown thousands of refugees already approved for their status in red tape, potentially even seeking to strip some of their status and deport them.
Trump Admin planning a rule to re-decide whether *every* refugee who entered under Biden meets their criteria for a refugee. That’s 230,000 people! And no appeals!
www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...
www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...
www.reuters.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:46 AM
This is heartbreakingly cruel and hypocritical. The same admin that has redefined refugee status to cover white South Africans is now going to drown thousands of refugees already approved for their status in red tape, potentially even seeking to strip some of their status and deport them.
Reposted by Tristan Palmgren
maybe i am going insane
November 24, 2025 at 6:49 PM
maybe i am going insane
Social media is generally unhealthy but every once in a while someone will post the most correct thing I have ever read.
the best possible remake of Rogue One would be a third season of Andor which is just Rogue One
rogue one is bad folks. i have believed this since i saw it in theaters and no subsequent rewatch has changed my mind. basically a chop job until the final sequence, which is good (for star wars)
November 24, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Social media is generally unhealthy but every once in a while someone will post the most correct thing I have ever read.
Replace cigarettes with lollipops. In the future, when cinema wants to code a character as cool, they should be taking big drags of a Charms.
You know how science invented vaping, for people who want the hit of smoking a cigarette while looking like an absolute dweeb? When will science invent a cigarette for people who don't want to smoke but do want to kid themselves that they are Paul Heinreid in 'Now Voyager'?
November 24, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Replace cigarettes with lollipops. In the future, when cinema wants to code a character as cool, they should be taking big drags of a Charms.
Reposted by Tristan Palmgren
really is incredible how often "men are having a problem, let's fix it using someone else's entire life" comes up. does the institute for family studies understand that children are whole complete human beings whose existence cannot be used as a coping mechanism for their fathers' anxieties? (no)
November 24, 2025 at 2:55 PM
really is incredible how often "men are having a problem, let's fix it using someone else's entire life" comes up. does the institute for family studies understand that children are whole complete human beings whose existence cannot be used as a coping mechanism for their fathers' anxieties? (no)
I may be writing subtext, but that doesn't mean the subtext can't be all caps sometimes.
This is me at some point in revision with every novel:
Me: you know the shadow story running in the background of the novel-on-the-page
Also me: go on
Me: what if you let the reader in on at least some of that
Also me: I dunno, feels like cheating
Me: you know the shadow story running in the background of the novel-on-the-page
Also me: go on
Me: what if you let the reader in on at least some of that
Also me: I dunno, feels like cheating
November 23, 2025 at 7:39 PM
I may be writing subtext, but that doesn't mean the subtext can't be all caps sometimes.
Reposted by Tristan Palmgren
I know this is rhetorical but my stab at a real answer: because they are trying to get funding from VC people who are ideologues like Peter Thiel and Thiel doesn’t want us to have libraries
Why is startup culture always “I am inventing a coffeeproof phone you can put in your coffee cup to keep it warm with cell radiation” and never “I’m inventing a new library wholesaler to replace the single company that is shutting down and sending libraries into crisis”
November 22, 2025 at 5:07 PM
I know this is rhetorical but my stab at a real answer: because they are trying to get funding from VC people who are ideologues like Peter Thiel and Thiel doesn’t want us to have libraries
Reposted by Tristan Palmgren
I saw a lot of people send the original article my way, which i did not share because it seemed like obvious bullshit. Now that has been shown to be true. I know people are worried about AI stuff, but try to be a bit more careful about what's real and what's not.
If you have been sharing that Malwarebytes article on the Gmail thing, you should note the giant correction up top.
www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/20...
www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/20...
November 22, 2025 at 10:46 PM
I saw a lot of people send the original article my way, which i did not share because it seemed like obvious bullshit. Now that has been shown to be true. I know people are worried about AI stuff, but try to be a bit more careful about what's real and what's not.
Reposted by Tristan Palmgren
since the "google is now training gemini on your email contents" thing keeps bumping around here: it's _not happening_. I say this not to defend google but because I know a lot of people that have broken their filtering and made their lives much more annoying from sheer misinformation.
The malwarebytes Google opting-your-emails-into-ai-training thing is not true. The post is based on one bad tweet.
I know anti-tech lamenting is a Bluesky core principle, but please use the same judgement you would for any other clickbait.
www.theverge.com/news/826902/...
I know anti-tech lamenting is a Bluesky core principle, but please use the same judgement you would for any other clickbait.
www.theverge.com/news/826902/...
Google denies ‘misleading’ reports of Gmail using your emails to train AI
Google says “we do not use your Gmail content for training our Gemini AI model.”
www.theverge.com
November 22, 2025 at 9:30 PM
since the "google is now training gemini on your email contents" thing keeps bumping around here: it's _not happening_. I say this not to defend google but because I know a lot of people that have broken their filtering and made their lives much more annoying from sheer misinformation.
Reposted by Tristan Palmgren
watching your husband’s phone light up like a Christmas tree and knowing it’s President Donald J Trump
November 22, 2025 at 5:06 AM
watching your husband’s phone light up like a Christmas tree and knowing it’s President Donald J Trump