Waiting for Godot: The Hunt for Godot is the recently announced newest installment of the Godotverse. The long awaited sidequel follows Godot's adventures during the events of the original play.

This is so important, and speaks to bigger issues about work generally. Technologies don't stand alone in a vacuum - they tap into deep-seated feelings about value and engagement. So if we're doing 'slop', and thinking 'that's fine,' the questions shouldn't be focused on AI. hbr.org/2025/09/ai-g...

That fateful night in October of 1982:

Reading papers is a basic skill (and dare I say duty?) of scientists, and I include medical doctors in that group. Keeping abreast of the literature is a foundational part of our professions. There aren’t good shortcuts. In any case, reading papers regularly is fun. arstechnica.com/ai/2025/09/s...

Parallel tougher fines for motorcyclists, constantly breaking laws with speeding, super-aggressive riding and noise pollution? Oh yes, forgot, as one PC explained to a community meeting recently, 'it's hard to stop motorbikes, so it's easier to focus on cyclists.' 🤷‍♂️ www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Fantastic event. Real privilege to be a part of.

The gods of small things. Interesting to see this come to pass (and further post on how AI has basically now consumed everything so… what next?) - something I talk about in my book, God-like: a 500-Year History of AI www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=god-like...

Oi, Martin Daubney. Get your tanks off Partridge's lawn.

So much talk about Reform voters, but I'm yet to read much about their lives beyond tropes and excuses ('legitimate concerns'). I've been back in the midlands to interview people and learn more. Here's my piece on them and Reform's attempts to present itself as a community-minded, pro-worker party:

“One day everyone will have always been against this” www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

This is how Britain is welcoming Trump for his state visit at Windsor Castle where he will meet King Charles tomorrow morning. Quality work, @ledbydonkeys.org.

Larry Tesler, inventor of the cut, copy, and paste commands, dies at 74 Larry Tesler, inventor of the cut, copy, and paste commands, dies at 74

This whole series - Rise / War / Downfall / Manhunt - is superb. Much wisdom on how horror could have been avoidable. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

Empathy is the only thing that withers fascism on its bitter vine. Almost every problem we face is a problem rooted in fear of The Other.

Killing. Fascists. Does. Not. Kill. Fascism.

‘In an age like ours, when everyone, to gain attention, walks on their hands, the individual who stands on their own two feet will be taken for an acrobat.’ So loved doing this podcast with the #BeMorePirate crew. And that #Kundera quote does good heavy lifting :) open.spotify.com/episode/0hFJ...

Talking of #piracy and #Mutiny...

Wonderful to have recorded an episode of #BeMorePirate with the excellent Alex Barker and @samconniff.bsky.social. Peter Pan, Luke Skywalker, Rosa Parks... really great to be able to revisit the material in #Mutiny in the light of Trump, Putin and Musk et al: open.spotify.com/episode/0hFJ...

Before you comment, read the full letter from Sir Laurie Magnus. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c0...

On the same day in the Telegraph:

This is vile. Local guy speaks to Sky News about the impact of asylum seekers protests. Watch what happens and share widely

Jimi Hendrix opens with a cover of the opening track of Sergeant Pepper just a few days after it’s released… McCartney somewhere in the crowd. youtu.be/tZoIxlRC32k?...

“The technology is producing a generation of eternal novices, unable to think or perform for themselves.”

Can't even... been the soundtrack to my life each week for so many of those years. Truly incredible legacy. Science, history, mathematics, religion, literature... Best free education on the planet. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

On one hand, reducing car use reduces urban pollution. But on the other, everyone likes it and cities become more livable

love when the BBC archive pulls up something almost incomprehensible youtu.be/3XCl9H2J0AQ?...

Creation Lake gets better the deeper you swim.

This is incredible. Robert Putnam, author of Bowling Alone, recounts meeting #Facebook engineers who explain that they know how to support more face-to-face interaction / community-building, but won't do so because...it'd mean less anger, and thus fewer clicks/income. www.youtube.com/live/H7MfmA9...

All of Barthes’s A Lover’s Discourse is summed up on this train intercom:

«Reactionary nostalgia, a desire to return to a fake past or a time when you were young and things were better, is part of why the world is so fucked right now. It is, literally, the basis of MAGA.» #ArtificialNostalgia #PlatformRealism #AISlop www.404media.co/80s-nostalgi...

We may have reached…

AI is just like....IT. There was a study a while back that showed that tech integration only succeeded where management quality was sufficient. It seems it's the same with AI. Productivity gains are likely to take some time. fortune.com/2025/08/18/m...

Saving a Life, or “Pikuach Nefesh,” is the principle in Jewish law that the preservation of human life overrides nearly every other religious rule in Judaism.

Five out of six Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Gaza were civilians as of May, according to Israel's own military intelligence. "In Gaza we are talking about a campaign of targeted assassinations, really, rather than battles, and they are carried out with no concern for civilians.”

'It was said in the gospels, "the sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath." And the same is true of technology. Technology was made for man, not man for technology. Sadly, we are living in a world where this is not true.' Aldous Huxley, in 1961. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCOG...

Desperately sad story. Meta designed this. They deployed it. It performed according to their most recent strategy. In short: this is AI acting like a virus, encoded to bind tight to our human frailties so it can propagate. www.reuters.com/investigates...

Of all the crappy AI deployments out there, Strava’s ‘Athlete Intelligence’ is the crappiest. About as useful as the ELIZA chatbot, but with the Rogerian responses scripted by Roger Melly. Rule of thumb: if it burns loads of extra carbon, but doesn’t do anything useful, just turn it off.

Wow Sally Rooney. Fair play. ‘I feel obliged to state once more that… I too support Palestine Action. … If the British state considers this "terrorism", then perhaps it should investigate the shady organisations that continue to promote my work and fund my activities, such as WH Smith and the BBC.’

Two paper-hawking communists outside my local station, debating the ethics of buying at £1 per copy, and selling on for £2.50. ‘At the end of the day, everyone gotta make some money’ I think the revolution is still some way off.

Montaigne was only half right: "to philosophise is to learn how to die". But it is also - with this shadow always in front of and behind us - also to learn how to love.

“The Lancet found that spending by USAID from 2001 to 2021 had saved roughly 92mn lives, 30mn of them children. It predicted that, unless the abrupt funding cuts were reversed, roughly 14mn additional people would die in the five years to 2030, “a staggering number of avoidable deaths”.”

‘The Met said the operation was in response to concerns from residents and businesses that high-value vehicles were "causing a nuisance" in central and west London.’ It’s almost as if cheaper cars driven obnoxiously in poorer boroughs aren’t worth the bother. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Resonates strongly with some new writing I've been doing, following on from God-like, thinking about how we need a 're-encounter culture' to resist full mediation of our experience - individual and social - by the Big Other of big data.

Come to Oberkampf, Paris, for the boujee bars. Stay because free, free Palestine.

This is a very clear historical and current summary, and utterly damning. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

And the colonial practice of testing plans/technologies in poor communities is alive and well

Our short story prize is open for submissions again! Please share this widely - and please send us your stories: www.galleybeggar.co.uk/prize Closing date 8 November!

Not been posting much on socials generally means I'm doing more writing :) Some non-fiction and fiction pieces I'm really excited about. As the AI spectre continues to haunt, been doing a LOT of thinking on follow-on from God-like... Not read it yet? Grab a copy: www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=kester+b...

The Economist offers an accurate overview of key forces shaping the development of AI today: the risks of the race toward AGI and ASI, the challenges posed by open-sourcing frontier models, the deep uncertainty revealed by ongoing scientific debates and much more ⬇️ www.economist.com/briefing/202...