I wonder if consciousness evolved as an internal self-evaluation loop that can probe the brain’s network and generate additional context on an event (rumination) to give the event more meaning and aid survival

Thanks for the kind words of support, it means a lot. It’s no secret that I have been struggling with effects of many covid infections over time. It’s been grinding me down and I ignored it for too long, but I am working with new doctors to get fully well so I can figure out the next chapter ahead

This is perhaps the most ideal bedroom I have ever seen 😁

This post about Robert Tinney is incredible. Very in-depth and lots of great images to browse: 70s-sci-fi-art.ghost.io/robert-tinne...

Sorry all this is my fault; and speculation has grown worse because I have been sick in bed with a high fever and unable to reliably address it (still am sick) I was told by management not to comment until they did. Here is my statement in images below arstechnica.com/staff/2026/0...

At least one Meta employee thinks it's a good time to add facial recognition technology to glasses because we're too distracted by fascism to effectively protest www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/t...

macOS 26 Tahoe is so painfully ugly...why Apple, why?? Between the travesty of Tahoe and iOS 26, somebody needs to do a hard reset on the software design team over there

RFK Jr. says we should check with AI about what to eat and then AI totally dunked on his stupid dietary guidance. Also @bethmariem.bsky.social is doing some downright incredible work, and this article is another tour de force of very professional shade.

Across that world you will face more than 25 bosses and mini-bosses, discover 60 Trinkets, upgrade your weapons, grow stronger through a full level-up system, explore New Game Plus, and experiment with hundreds of gameplay modifiers.

Those covers were always inspiring to what we could do with computers. A local computer museum has some on display, and they're just wonderfully creative.

It’s a little known fact that all LLMs were trained only on that one piece of yours, and were able, amazingly, to extrapolate everything else they know from that. In fact, LLM stands for “Let‘s Train on Benj’s Robert Tinney Tribute” Large Model.

I wrote a tribute for BYTE Magazine's amazing cover artist, Robert Tinney, who died Feb 1st Tinney painted 80 vivid and surreal covers illustrating various concepts in early personal computing from 1978-1990, usually airbrushed with gouache. May he RIP ❤️ arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026...

NEW: CBP signs a new deal with Clearview AI to access its scraped image database for "tactical targeting," including efforts to “disrupt, degrade, and dismantle” networks of people labeled security threats.

Tinney’s BYTE covers were the best computer magazine covers of all time, and nothing else springs to mind as a clear second place. In 2014, I wrote about my favorite one for TIME. RIP. time.com/60505/this-1...

Tinney's art (and 1970s-1980s Byte itself) was symbolic, to me, of an age of learning - much more "somebody built some cool shit" and much less "this is a primary mechanism of the economy". (and they were all just Very Clever :-)

I wrote a tribute for BYTE Magazine's amazing cover artist, Robert Tinney, who died Feb 1st Tinney painted 80 vivid and surreal covers illustrating various concepts in early personal computing from 1978-1990, usually airbrushed with gouache. May he RIP ❤️ arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026...

I was reading this blog post I wrote in 2006 and kept thinking, man this dude writes just like AI 😂 Maybe they modeled ChatGPT on me. 😜 If so, I apologize

I am confident that AI agents are not going away as professional tools and are going to become far more capable over time I can’t guarantee they will replace jobs, however. Maybe a few. I think people will become busier and more productive for reasons said here: arstechnica.com/information-...

Fun fact: pushing back on helplessness can be as easy as hanging out with people

Does Apple keep its Macintosh SSD sizes ridiculously small so they can sell more iCloud storage subscriptions? 512GB is not enough, my friends. That's 2000s-era storage space

I tried to take a photo of a grasshopper on my windshield, but now it looks like a gigantic bug destroying the town.

have never seen popular public opinion shift so fast about a surveillance product than the fallout from ring's super bowl "search party" ad. they'll teach this in advertising courses one day. chef's kiss baby www.404media.co/with-ring-am...

Rodent's Revenge

Changeable Guardian Estique, Micro Mages and Kero Kero Cowboy are back in stock on both USA and Worldwide @homebrew-factory.com's stores! 🎉 🇺🇸 usa.homebrew-factory.com 🌐 www.homebrew-factory.com

I think it's helpful to point out when people misuse AI tools. They are widely misapplied and poorly understood We are in an era where we invented the chainsaw but there's no safety manual yet; that's being created. So people may use one to cut a loaf of bread, or use one while standing on a ladder

Today I made a IRC-style chatroom with channels and DMs for my Claude Code agents to ask each-other troubleshooting questions while developing apps. Sometimes one instance will have the proper context (including history, docs, tools, etc) that another lacks and asking for help can be a quick fix

Oops!

Extremely exciting news: We're hiring a full-time film critic to come work with me at The A.V. Club! You probably have an idea if you're qualified for this, but if there's something that's not in the job listing, I'm sure I can answer Qs www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/43...

The Bad Bunny halftime show was awesome imo, I had no idea who he was, had never seen or heard him in my life, but it was fun

Wish her a speedy recovery. I’m 44 and one time I just kinda “looked the wrong direction” too fast and my neck hurt for six months

You know what they’re going to store in those warehouses? People

Oops!

Oops

This is how I plan to retire. Just me and my wife in our CGI forest house, farming Platonic solids

This is great

fyi if you try to tell me what salesforce does i soft reboot

Some of the hardware out at the WCC show in Janesville today!

"I wouldn't buy green bananas if I were you" is going to live in my brain for years

On one level heartwarming. on the other, this is completely bone chilling total surveillance state stuff. imagine this in the hands of an authoritarian government.

A super bowl featuring a superb owl. CH Brannam Pottery, Barnstaple, North Devon, for Liberty & Co. circa 1900.

These road intersections look beautiful!

Great animation @jmechner.bsky.social ! I’m just getting 30 years late, but still I liked it.

In England they call him Naughty Rabbit

A deadly encounter on the streets of 21st Century Kyoto in the wake of devastation from an earthquake that also unleashed a horde of demons - and magic back into the world. A point-and-click and RPG hybrid that received an English translation in 2019. 📺: Makyouden, Nihon-Create, 1992 (PC-9801)

There’s probably some ancient Sumerian joke on a clay tablet that goes like this: Person 1: You get mad no matter what I say Person 2: How dare you say that!

Show me a sentient fireball capable of climbing ladders, and then we’ll talk.

My #Atari is a Coleco Gemini 😜! 4-player Warlords on an anachronistic Trinitron with a UNO cart.

I forgot to tell everyone that last month I used Claude Code to perform an experimental forensic analysis and disassembly of Wizard of Wor on Atari 800 You can find the files here! www.bxfoundry.com/wor800/

Speaking of Wizard of Wor

Crap it turns out I brought Wizard of Wor to BYATWD last year too!