Merry Christmas everyone! See you in 2026. Here's a bit of antiphrasis for you weknow0.co.uk?p=2595

General Ripper, The Doomsday Machine and our governance arrangements weknow0.co.uk?p=2796

A crypto investor just donated £9 million to the Reform Party. Right now, billionaires can pour unlimited money into our elections, effectively buying our democracy. Think that's wrong? Add your name to call for a cap on donations today: you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/ta...

@stereolabgroop.bsky.social great show in Wolverhampton tonight!

The world of education needs to ask itself some questions, because looking in the rear view mirror and trying to extrapolate what we see into the future is not going to work for us any more weknow0.co.uk?p=2780

As the year draws to a close, I thought I would thank @pluralistic.net.web.brid.gy for his impact on this blog this year by introducing Enshittification to a much smaller audience weknow0.co.uk?p=2765

Can change come from within Russia? Pussy Riot’s Maria Alyokhina talks to Oliver Bullough at Hay Festival Winter Weekend.

About inquiries and yesterday's Budget pantomime. To be read to the accompaniment of Status Quo singing Again and Again weknow0.co.uk?p=2739

Professionals, who have for years given terse responses to their juniors' queries about the unintelligible instructions they have been given, will spend hours on prompt engineering so that Metal Mickey on their laptop can give them responses closer to what they were looking for weknow0.co.uk?p=2725

COVER REVEAL - Congratulations to #BSFG Committee member @theresaderwin.bsky.social on her forthcoming novel, GOD’S VENGEANCE

@stewarthotston.com braved Storm Claudia last night at @birminghamsfgroup.bsky.social to take us through the Arcology of Project Hanuman, different interpretations of quantum mechanics, Watchdogs and some amazing LARPs! Great night

We are going to do what we are going to do. The economics is just the fig leaf we use to rationalise what may otherwise appear unfair, cruel and hope-denying policies. The financial constraints are a convenient fiction for a government which lacks any guiding principles weknow0.co.uk?p=2707

NEW The letter the BBC could send back to Trump A proposal for a reply to his $1bn claim By me. Enjoy. emptycity.substack.com/p/the-letter...

60% of the British public agree: our voting system is not fit for purpose. The upcoming Elections Bill is a chance to fix it. I just signed a @makevotesmatter.bsky.social petition to the Democracy Minister, calling for Proportional Representation. Add your name: actionnetwork.org/petitions/pe...

@novacon.bsky.social is finally here! Looking forward to meeting @emilytesh.net and everything else that's going on!

Come and join us at the @birminghamsfgroup.bsky.social on 14 November when @stewarthotston.com will be joining us to talk Project Hanuman, epic fantasy and much else! Details below

This old broom has had 17 new heads and 14 new handles weknow0.co.uk?p=2701

Overhype, precarious supply chains, potential energy needs, dehumanisation of the rest of us: take your pick as a reason to push back against the AI Rush. But my bet would be on the next 10 years not being dominated by breathless commentary on the exploits of Tech Bros weknow0.co.uk?p=2661

Perhaps the days of the box are numbered. The box constructed to contain the anger about grooming gangs also now appears to be on the edge of collapse. And the PM himself rejected a perfectly normal box suddenly not making the decision he was expecting weknow0.co.uk/?p=2301

Come and join us at the @birminghamsfgroup.bsky.social on 14 November when @stewarthotston.com will be joining us to talk Project Hanuman, epic fantasy and much else! Details below

NOVEMBER EVENT: We are very excited to welcome SFF author and @bsfa.bsky.social Chair @stewarthotston.com as our guest on 14th Nov. Come and join us @ The Warehouse, Birmingham Friends of the Earth, or online via Zoom. Tickets available on the door or via Eventbrite: eventbrite.co.uk/e/1860499797979

@divinecomedyhq.bsky.social Wonderful night in Wolverhampton. Think Mar-a-Lago by the Sea may become the permanent drinks break song! Beautiful a capella rendition of Other People in particular but I loved every minute. Great to see you back

To Gen Z: my feeling is that despite our increasingly strident efforts to do so, our generation is now deservedly losing power and is trying to hang on by making reverse centaurs of yours as a last ditch attempt to remain in control. Don't fall for it weknow0.co.uk/?p=2644

Great session at @birminghamsfgroup.bsky.social tonight, @zenaldehyde.bsky.social covered everything from how to get shortlisted for a Hugo, to the difference between western fantasy and k-drama to how her favourite of her books to date is probably Black Water Sister

Still time to come along to tonight meeting and meet award-winning author @zenaldehyde.bsky.social From 7:45 pm at Birmingham Friends of Earth Warehouse or join us via Zoom

As a human-in-the-loop responsible for AI system output where errors are hard to spot and stop, you are the human scapegoat, "accountability sink” and “moral crumple zone” rolled into one. This is not where you want to be as an early career professional weknow0.co.uk/?p=2630

OCTOBER EVENT: This Fri 10th Oct, we are very excited to welcome award-winning fantasy & romance author @zenaldehyde.bsky.social. Come and join us at The Warehouse, Birmingham Friends of the Earth, or join us on Zoom. Tickets available on the door or via Eventbrite: eventbrite.co.uk/e/1774794641549

This Friday 10 October the @birminghamsfgroup.bsky.social are delighted to welcome Hugo and Ray Bradbury prize winner @zenaldehyde.bsky.social! It all kicks off at 7.45pm at the FoE Warehouse on 54-57 Allison Street, Digbeth, Birmingham B5 5TH

It may be that the important language of the next century is already developing out of sight. And people developing it will have just as hard a time holding a conversation with our current rulers as we would have with someone from the 18th century weknow0.co.uk/?p=2622

We have one gymnasts' beam, supported by language fashioned for this purpose in the 1800s, along which we have been dancing ever since. If we now have a new dimension on the block, will it be time to abandon Flatland? And will it solve any of our problems? weknow0.co.uk/?p=2611

A discussion of Henry Farrell's latest piece on understanding AI as a social technology and how it changes the questions some of us were asking 8 or 9 years ago about the future of the actuarial profession and professions more generally weknow0.co.uk/?p=2607

@birminghamdispatch.bsky.social getting a mention here as an "innovative new outlet" 😊

Great evening at @birminghamsfgroup.bsky.social last night. Alastair Reynolds was so honest and personal throughout, which got us on to the human endeavour of writing and reading, which got us on to AI. It was quite an evening 😊

The industrial revolution required the lack of alternatives for most people and a reinvention of the language. This is why we cannot imagine the breakdown of capitalism. But if we focus on AI etc as the driver of 4IR, we may miss where the action really is weknow0.co.uk/?p=2582

My take on @aptshadow.bsky.social 's Service Model. So what should be the goal? Because the reason Service Model will stay with me for some time to come is that it shows us what happens if we don’t have one weknow0.co.uk/?p=2573

Hunger That Defeats Language arablit.org/2025/05/30/h...

Nuclear weapons. We can't live with them indefinitely, but we don't appear to be able to live without them either weknow0.co.uk/?p=2564

Coming up at @birminghamsfgroup.bsky.social on 12 September at 7.45pm!

My bit on The Bubble and all the needles lining up to prick it weknow0.co.uk/?p=2555

Corporate Britain needs to do better than pseudo-scientific victim blaming. There are real issues here around the next generation’s relationship with work and much else which need to be met head on. Your future pension income may depend upon it weknow0.co.uk/?p=2550

Our next meeting of @birminghamsfgroup.bsky.social is with Alastair Reynolds from 7.45pm on 12 Sept at the FoE Warehouse, 54-57 Allison Street, Birmingham B5 5TH. Tickets £6 on the door for non-members or online available at the Eventbrite link below. All very welcome to what should be a great event

Companies are jumping the gun on how the grand bargain is likely to be re-framed and adopting systems before all the evidence is in. This is not embracing the future so much as selling a futures contract before setting fire to the actual future weknow0.co.uk/?p=2537

Imagine your vote counted at the next election even if you weren’t in the majority. Imagine having a sympathetic MP they could write to about things that mattered to them. All this could be yours weknow0.co.uk/?p=2521

Why would we continue to support a voting system that serves neither the governed nor those who seek to govern us? weknow0.co.uk/?p=2518

Add your name to call for a cap on political donations today: you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/ta...

Early career professionals are seeing their pay, conditions and status under threat as their more senior colleagues protect their own positions at their expense weknow0.co.uk/?p=2498

The tale of Monty Brewster came out about 20 years before the repositioning of economics out of the political sphere and into the sphere of “economic science” with the first economic conferences. Is this a coincidence? weknow0.co.uk/?p=2484

Great session with @jamesbrogden.bsky.social at @birminghamsfgroup.bsky.social followed by a well earned beer at Kielder in the heat!

If Humpty can change the meaning of terrorist to encompass protesting octagenarian retired priests, then protestors can change the meaning of Yvette Cooper weknow0.co.uk/?p=2477