Science Fiction/Speculative Fiction/Futurist Fiction is 100x better than Crime Fiction/Crime Noir as a genre. Much more interesting and imaginative. Yay or nay?

This story is shockingly stupid even for @nytimes.com ‬⁩—where they always promote AI. Take this insanity: “Asking help from a chatbot,you’re going to get empathy,”Ms. Rowe said, “but you’re not going to get help.” You’re going to get EMPATHY? It’s a f*cking machine. It’s mimicking “empathy”.

Just 2 days to go until my first Robert Burns Not In My Name show. The show this Monday is sold out but there are still some tickets left for the show on Mon 18th August (see link below). Be nice to see any of you there.

Tomorrow, Edinburgh, noon

If Adolf Hitler flew in today They'd send a limousine anyway

Judi Dench in Reykjavik 🌋 icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/news/20...

This morning I've mostly been thinking about tech unicorns in the UK (168 of them all valued at £1bn+) and the 3,700 AI companies in the UK (valued at £72bn in 2024). And, Who is asking the difficult eco/energy Qs about scaling up data centres to host all this? www.business.gov.uk/campaign/gro...

This morning I've been mainly thinking about BLOBS deep in our planet's lower mantle and their relationship to mantle plumes and volcanic eruptions #volcano 🌋 dailygalaxy.com/2025/07/expl...

Remember that grief metafiction published in The Guardian on 12 Mar which Sam Altman claimed was written by AI? What happened to this amazing literary software? Also, where was the transparency of the prompt sheets used? Also, if I need stardust to throw in investors eyes where can I get some?

A few weeks ago I was in Hamburg and went to see an Ian Hamilton Findlay exhibition inspired by the French Revolution #BastilleDay 🇫🇷

Not so much a State of the Nation address but a state of the nations summary. Well worth a read. #wherearewenow

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Ahead of the expected proscription of Palestine Action - the first time a protest group has been legally redefined as terrorist - I went through the Hansard of the 2000 Act they're being banned under. Turns out MPs were assured the law wouldn't be applied this way. Thread 🧵🔽

Q. Which country has the most active volcanoes? A. USA with 165 active volcanoes, 42 of which have erupted since 1950. #volcanostats 🌋 www.teawamutunews.nz/2025/07/how-...

Robert Burns: Not In My Name 11 & 18 Aug, Edinburgh – tickets from £9.38 Showcasing the radical subversive poetry of Robert Burns: the stuff he couldn’t put his name to during his lifetime. A performance by @kevwilliamson.bsky.social with films by Alastair Cook www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/robert-bur...

ROBERT BURNS NOT IN MY NAME Heads up to say I'm gonna perform Robert Burns Not In My Name at Leith Depot for 2 nights only. Mon 11th + Mon 18th Aug at 7.30pm. Burns as you've never heard him before. With films by Alastair Cook. You're all welcome. Details: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/robert-bur...

Welcome back! Edinburgh has missed you. Delighted to see my favourite indy cinema reopen. 🎬

Respect to Palestinian Action for taking nonviolent direct action against the British military. Starmer & his Govt are 100% complicit in this genocide yet their only response seems to be to double down on Israeli terrorism. Never thought I'd despise a British PM more than Thatcher but here we are.

Gonna say something obvious to most: real masculinity defends the defenseless, punches up not down, has compassion, and fights only on behalf of others to battle injustice or evil. It doesn’t just lift weights and tweet in all caps and listen to Rogan and grow a beard to feel accepted by other men

Earthquake swarm at Italy’s Campi Flegrei supervolcano sparks eruption fears trans: Mibbes aye mibbes naw. news.az/news/earthqu...

Watched Episode 7 of #TheLastofUs last night and thought wow. Cliff hanger. Cant wait to find out what happens next week. Only to find out that was end of Season 2. Season 3 not till 2027. WTAF? No consideration for Gen Short Attention Span. Also world could end before that in AI-Eco apocalypse.

Issue 12 of The Poets' Republic has arrived. As a lifelong hater of fluffy puffs this snippet from Hugh McMillan's article makes me feel seen. Bless you Shug.

MAN V MACHINE Learning to distinguish between AI writing & human writing is easy enough. AI has its digital fingerprints & a generic gooey blandness to it 🤮 and worse, erodes users of literacy skills & critical thinking/analytical skills. This post was human generated. www.earth.com/news/man-vs-...

Like the USA, England has never faced up honestly to its colonialist past, its history of Slavery & Empire, nor acknowledged the psychological legacy of racism/racial superiority this leaves deeply embedded in its culture, which is easily triggered by current events. Then along comes Reform Party..

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Duolingo only takes you so far. I know how to say hallo in German. I know how to order food and drink. I know how to ask if someone reads books. Should cover most bases. I'm almost ready for a trip to Deutschland and full linguistic immersion. "Ich heiße Kevin. Ich kann nur ein bisschen Deutsch." ✔️

Never buy a book from Amazon. Never promote a book on Amazon. No exceptions. 🚫

Today is Shakespeare's birthday and these are some words he invented: Eyeball, courtship, blushing, kissing, hint, bedroom, hurry, undress, exposure, majestic, arouse, excitement, bump, push, obscene, yelping, varied, generous, tranquil, dawn, unpregnant, gossip. You're welcome!

Head up to the Scottish Poetry Library and have a shot of these AI machines. Unique poetry receipts! ChatGPT's love rival! Poetry translation problems solved!

How to read a poem properly

Sam Altman of Open AI recently produced an AI rabbit out a hat. A metafiction on grief - published in The Guardian - that he claims was written by an as yet unreleased and unnamed creative writing AI program. Despite all the hype has anyone confirmed the authenticity of its AI authorship...

I'm absolutely delighted to announce the square root of fuck all

Don Paterson hss thrown down a timely provocation on AI and the future of literature. But is he exaggerating the complex stylish mimicry/creativity of AI and its capability to create 'quality literature'. Any writers wanna respond?

Anybody on here got a personal AI chatbot or s personalised AI assistant that they talk to on a regular basis? Asking for a a chatbot curious friend.

Am in middle of my 17 hour movie about creativity in documentary. Have filmed world. Trying to rethink the genre. More and more I ask myself "What would #AI not know about this, or see or say?" The thought excites me. A bit like how painters reacted to photography? What can I do that it can't?

Had a sneak preview / listen to the album. If the novel is as good as the tunes it'll be a mighty win-win epic. #MenInLove

Really good substack on art and AI www.theintrinsicperspective.com/p/welcome-to...

Wondering when the inevitable backlash to the superb Adolescence success will come. And whether from a pointyheid hot take in The Guardian or a hang em and flog em dimwit in The Daily Mail or a detached cinephile who perceived some minor flaw in the story. Place yer bets.

Anyone who enjoys great writing & storytelling, and high quality speculative fiction, should read For Emma by Ewan Morrison when it comes out tomoro. It's as terrifying as it should be. An apocalyptic vision of humanity enslaved by Big Tech & AI. Plus the desire to fight back by any means necessary.

A cause close to my heart. Toffs with guns killing wildlife can all do one. 10-15% of all Scottish land is misused for this abomination. Scottish Govt has full powers to act on this and ignore the shills like Fergus Ewing who've hampered legislation while hanging onto landowners coat tails.

"Google, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, X, are a collective Big Tech jackboot stamping down on the face of humanity from now till the end of Time/humanity" - George Orwell

First they took the music but I thought algorithm was a dancer so I did nothing. Then they took all our books and I thought fuck this how do we sue the arse off Big Tech on a writer's wage. Actual Impotence

Just posted a not *entirely serious thing on poetry and public health messaging over at the northseapoets substack open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

THE NON EXISTENT SHAME OF A TARTAN ARMY DESERTER #Adolescence #Review

Douglas Dunn - Cosmologist, from Terry Street. First published 56 years ago. And still blossoming. #Poetry

As mass murder and genocide escalate in #Gaza, the UK government should denounce them, cut off all support to Netanyahu's government and assist in its prosecution. Instead, Starmer silences his ministers. In doing so, he facilitates the crimes.

LOST WORDS In their philistinism #MAGA has inadvertently created a glossary for resistance & rebuilding the world they're destroying | This is a “counter-desecration phrasebook” open.substack.com/pub/fiftysix... @georgemonbiot.bsky.social @billmckibben.bsky.social

BLOG - Who Owns Scotland 2024. My annual analysis of who owns Scotland which reveals a growing concentration in the pattern of privately-owned rural landownership since 2012. andywightman.scot/2025/03/who-...

Fascinating read on a book about words and language by programmer and linguist Margaret Magnus.

Most users intuitively feel that Twitter/X is censoring political posts it doesnt like - or hatebombing those same posts - but its still useful to have investigative confirmation. Thanks, Will.