@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

BBC News appear to be getting right behind the 5 dimensional chess theory www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Quick reminder that our next @birminghamsfgroup.bsky.social meeting is on Friday with James Brogden!

As our news gets steadily more gossipy, we are losing the ability to talk about the political options available to us weknow0.co.uk/?p=2469

JULY EVENT: We are very excited to welcome horror and dark fiction author @jamesbrogden.bsky.social as our guest for 11th July. Come and join us at the Warehouse, Birmingham Friends of the Earth, or join us online. Tickets available via Eventbrite: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1443683850259

@birminghamsfgroup.bsky.social welcomes James Brogden! All welcome. Date: 11 jul • 19:45 Location: 54-57 Allison Street, Birmingham, B5 5TH Entry £3 for members or £6 for non-members in the door. Online tickets can be purchased via Eventbrite: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bsfg-welco...

Our cognitive biases are making us sitting ducks for the psy-ops of the news media, weaponising our love of gossip against us weknow0.co.uk/?p=2454

Brilliant session tonight from Claire North at the @birminghamsfgroup.bsky.social discussing the Penelope Trilogy, hand waving solutions in Dr Who and meeting Douglas Adams as a child amongst much else!

Nigel Farage says abortion laws are “utterly ludicrous.” MPs are watching. We have days to show them: the public backs abortion rights. Join me and sign the petition now! you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/de...

Come and join us at @birminghamsfgroup.bsky.social at The Warehouse on Friday 13th at 7.45pm to meet Claire North discussing her new book Slow Gods. All welcome!

MAY EVENT: We are very excited to welcome back writer, editor and translator @xuetingni.bsky.social as our guest on Friday 9th May. Come and join us at the Warehouse, Birmingham Friends of the Earth, or join us online. Tickets available via Eventbrite: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1331184601979

Birmingham Science Fiction Group welcomes Xueting C. Ni Date: 9 May • 19:45 Location: Warehouse - Birmingham FoE, Allison Street, Birmingham, B5 5TH Online tickets (free for members) available at: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bsfg-welco...

Once we realise that some aspects of Trump’s behaviour merely belong to a period of international relations that we thought we had evolved beyond rather than being totally unprecedented, then we can understand it better and respond accordingly weknow0.co.uk/?p=2418

We are being stifled by the property rights of a tiny minority weknow0.co.uk/?p=1916

The Birmingham SF Group welcomes Wendy and Tim Aldiss to talk about their father the great Brian Aldiss in his centenary year. Everyone welcome! Date: 11 Apr • 19:45 Location: 54-57 Allison Street, Birmingham, B5 5TH Online tickets can be purchased at: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bsfg-welco...

The government's callousness in yesterday's Spring Statement doesn't even make sense economically weknow0.co.uk/?p=2423

Rather than worrying about what Trump and Musk will do next, you all need to be reading The Future by @naomialderman.bsky.social, which explores the Tech Bro possibilities in all of their ridiculousness. Science fiction that will make you feel better! weknow0.co.uk/?p=2406

FACTCHECK: Why Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch is wrong about UK's net-zero goal In which I take a look at the evidence contradicting Badenoch's speech, from the science on the 2050 target to fact gas is causing high electricity prices + much much more www.carbonbrief.org/...

I think this extract from the House of Commons Library indicates where we are in terms of bipartisan support for Israel's genocide in Gaza. This needs to end now

Allowing OBR forecasts to continue to underpin the Chancellor's spending decisions means constraining the Government to act as if all it knows is what the OBR knows. Which is precisely zero weknow0.co.uk/?p=2401

It seems we touched a nerve in the House of Lords yesterday for highlighting that peers get paid £361 a day, tax-free, just for attending. Sign our 'Nasty Petition' for a smaller, democratically elected House of Lords today. ers.tools/house-of-lords

Birmingham Science Fiction Group this Friday! Hope to see you there 😊

We need to be more resilient to the many ways that the current chaotic United States establishment can reach into our own politics and governance, and start to develop policies with broad support which can reduce our dependency on the United States. weknow0.co.uk/?p=2382

We need to get our heads up out of the onion rings and realise the US currently poses a serious risk to us all weknow0.co.uk/?p=2377

The government needs to be more Phoebe Buffay and just tell us what they do and don't want to spend money on instead of telling us that we can't afford things to avoid the discussion like an overbearing parent. Then we could have a proper family argument weknow0.co.uk/?p=2370

Next Birmingham Science Fiction Group event next week with Tom Dillon of the Science Fiction Foundation and Science Fiction Collections Curator at the University of Liverpool! Should be a great night

Hamilton Nolan on the massive miscalculation of businesses who voted for Trump because they thought he would lower their taxes open.substack.com/pub/howthing...

Between an Opposition still trying to disentangle themselves from the wreckage of Tufton Street, a Trumpian Reform Party and a Government which has no idea what it is doing, reality feels pretty radical. We need to be equally radical in our response to it weknow0.co.uk/?p=2363

@aptshadow.bsky.social is going on tour! Get ready to explore the world of #Shroud with these events -- if you think you could survive 👀 Get your ticket here: https://buff.ly/42xUbRt We hope to see you there 🪐

Fly Baby Fly is not going to get us anywhere we want to go weknow0.co.uk/?p=2351

"Whereas in 2007 it was Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs) today it's the 'synthetic leverage' in derivatives..." open.substack.com/pub/annpetti...

Well this didn't appear in my news feed! Starmer ducks another opportunity to confront technofeudalism pluralistic.net/2025/01/22/a...