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gabriel burrow

@gabrielburrow.bsky.social

200 followers 210 following 90 posts

PhD in contemporary literature at Birkbeck, UoL (SF modelling; political movements; utopia). Part-time Research Lead for TEAM LEWIS global creative. Editor at MOSF Journal of Science Fiction. Tired. gabrielburrow.com

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gabriel burrow @gabrielburrow.bsky.social · 4h

In December I'll be co-hosting a workshop entitled "Utopia, Dystopia and the Post-Capitalist State" with the wonderful people at @ucl-ccs.bsky.social.

This is an open CFP, and we're keen to bring together researchers across multiple disciplines. For more information, drop me a message!

What political formations might follow the capitalist state? Anarcho-capitalists imagine the dismantling of the nation state in favour of deregulated territories and zones. Techno-feudal overlords seek to dissolve the state into a network of platforms that they own and control. Imaginaries on the left include visions of abundance and democratic planning, hyperlocalised disaster communism and various modes of degrowth primitivism.

These utopian/dystopian visions exist in tension with one another. Dreams of green industrial strategy and coordinated climate adaptation rub up against nightmarish petrofutures. Fears of a future police state co-exist with horror at the idea of police, prison and border abolition. Militarisation is presented as the only guarantee of peace while pacifism is denounced as utopian.

We invite proposals spanning literature, film, games, political theory, sociology, science and technology studies, critical finance studies, and more:

How is the future of the state, governance and sovereignty being imagined?
- What mediums are being used to construct and communicate these imaginaries?
- How are utopian and dystopian framings used politically – as critique, legitimation and strategy?
- How do these competing visions of future states interact with one another?

gabriel burrow @gabrielburrow.bsky.social · 3d

The GenAI ecosystem in two charts. The first covers its (circular) funding - what could possibly go wrong? 👀

The second addresses everything else: the footprint of physical infrastructure, resource use, human labour, etc.

www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

www.cartography-of-generative-ai.net

gabriel burrow @gabrielburrow.bsky.social · 15d

If your models could solve real-world problems with sufficient compute - and it's a scarce resource - why would you squander it on people generating and sharing silly videos?

A) Because they're not actually very good at solving real-world problems

B) You're morally bankrupt

C) Both

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gabriel burrow @gabrielburrow.bsky.social · 15d

Sam Altman last week: Unless we bring more AI-ready compute online, we might have to choose between curing cancer and free global education

Sam Altman this week: We've launched an AI brainrot engine lol

gizmodo.com/openai-offic...

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gabriel burrow @gabrielburrow.bsky.social · 24d

Cyberspace but it's just really big Mr Beast videos

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gabriel burrow @gabrielburrow.bsky.social · 24d

As Mark Zuckerberg continues to humiliate himself trying to capture the AR and VR space, I figured it was worth taking the pulse of the "metaverse".

tl;dr: It’s sub-par escapism for people experiencing a sub-par way of living—cyberpunk with the knobs turned down.

gabrielburrow.com/2025/09/22/m...

Metaverse or Torment Nexus?

There’s a common joke within science fiction circles derived from a Tweet by author Alex Blechman (2021). It reads, “Sci-Fi Author: In my book I invented the Torment Nexus as a cautionary tale. Tec…

gabrielburrow.com

gabriel burrow @gabrielburrow.bsky.social · Aug 18

The violent criminality...

gabriel burrow @gabrielburrow.bsky.social · Aug 6

S-tier Meg episode

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gabriel burrow @gabrielburrow.bsky.social · Jun 27

Your dad doomscrolling LinkedIn at Glastonbury

gabriel burrow @gabrielburrow.bsky.social · Jun 13

Was great to catch up with Birkbeck colleagues at this year's CACC conference.

So many cool projects underway (mushrooms, Cornish knockers, human compost, a breast cancer memoir, Silicon Valley theology, etc.)

Being a humanities researcher in the UK often feels pretty bleak. But not yesterday!

gabriel burrow @gabrielburrow.bsky.social · Jun 11

Ok, it's not shit with randoms once you get to the later night lords...

Reposted by gabriel burrow

☀️ Starshine @starshine.bsky.social · Jun 8

me and 2000 Patriots on our way to go secure home depot

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Reposted by gabriel burrow

Jon @thelitcritguy.bsky.social · Jun 4

Not many places would let me quote both Huey Newton and Marx

www.currentaffairs.org/news/andor-s...

Andor Shows Us What Popular Culture Could Be

In an era of banal, homogenous mass media, Andor refuses easy optimism and shows us that building a better world is a hard, necessary task. It’s exactly the imaginative pop culture we need.

www.currentaffairs.org

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gabriel burrow @gabrielburrow.bsky.social · Jun 5

The annoying part is this will become Elon's go-to excuse for SpaceX failing to achieve its various unrealistic goals (Mars etc.)

gabriel burrow @gabrielburrow.bsky.social · Jun 5

😞

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gabriel burrow @gabrielburrow.bsky.social · May 30

You're spot on about its coherent and seductive qualities though. A tough - but necessary - read.

gabriel burrow @gabrielburrow.bsky.social · May 30

The critique of profit-only tech and the Dot-com bubble ("Lost in Toyland" etc.) is bearable... Then he gets onto what he wants to replace it with and it's *deranged*.

gabriel burrow @gabrielburrow.bsky.social · May 30

🌌 Our latest issue of JOSF is LIVE 🌌

Lots of cool stuff in there, including an essay on science fictional librarians from fellow editor John J. Doherty.

I didn't work on this one – getting stuck into our forthcoming VR special issue. Watch this (virtual) space.
publish.lib.umd.edu/index.php/sc...

gabriel burrow @gabrielburrow.bsky.social · May 28

Best torso in the game.

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gabriel burrow @gabrielburrow.bsky.social · May 27

Spicy paper reveal:

gabriel burrow @gabrielburrow.bsky.social · May 16

"In the clown nursery it's always time to dance."

HEADACHE - "THE HEAD HURTS BUT THE HEART KNOWS THE TRUTH"

Lyric sheet for "THE HEAD HURTS BUT THE HEART KNOWS THE TRUTH"

gabriel burrow @gabrielburrow.bsky.social · May 16

Looking forward to this! I'll be talking about the aesthetics of digital activism in contemporary science fiction.

Ali Rıza Taşkale @alirizataskale.bsky.social · May 16

I’m organizing an international workshop next week at Roskilde University: Speculating the Future: Fictional Worlds and Financial Realities. We’ll explore how speculative fiction helps us understand speculative finance & future-making. The keynote will be delivered by Sherryl Vint from UC Riverside.

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gabriel burrow @gabrielburrow.bsky.social · May 11

While novels are not instruction manuals, are you at all receptive to them operating on the level of cognitive map or model (i.e. presenting a miniature world that reflects complex systems)?

I see that as distinct from the technocratic "how to" readings that KSR admittedly courts in Ministry.

Reposted by gabriel burrow

Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · May 10

My new book #MoreEverythingForever is out now in the UK too! If you're tired of Silicon Valley billionaires forcing their awful ideas on the rest of us, this one is for you. www.hachette.co.uk/titles/adam-...

More Everything Forever

'Disconcerting . . . a disturbing and important book' NEW SCIENTIST The bad science and sinister ideas behind Silicon Valley's foolish obsession with immo...

www.hachette.co.uk

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gabriel burrow @gabrielburrow.bsky.social · May 10

Pretty sure Star Trek is about how cool it would be to send Katy Perry to space!!!