Aaron Helton
@aaronhelton.com
He/Him
Library systems dev @ UN Library
en/es
TTRPGs, ♾️ DM
Reader. Writer. Digital Humanist in training @ CUNY GC. William Blake stan.
Queens, NY
www.aaronhelton.com and blog.hilltown.studio
Likes/Reposts ≠ endorsements.
Library systems dev @ UN Library
en/es
TTRPGs, ♾️ DM
Reader. Writer. Digital Humanist in training @ CUNY GC. William Blake stan.
Queens, NY
www.aaronhelton.com and blog.hilltown.studio
Likes/Reposts ≠ endorsements.
Pinned
Aaron Helton
@aaronhelton.com
· Jun 27
Dead I Am the Rat by hilltown
A Mausritter adventure about defeating the cat lord.
hilltown.itch.io
At the beginning of the year I made myself a goal of publishing a TTRPG adventure, which I've never done before. After making a last push on writing, then learning layout and making my own art, here's the result!
Dead I Am the Rat: Play as rat zombies to defeat the cat lord!
#mausritter #osr
Dead I Am the Rat: Play as rat zombies to defeat the cat lord!
#mausritter #osr
Reposted by Aaron Helton
The decline of right wing cultural production is just due to the fact that they don’t like culture, they like the signifiers of culture, ie “classic sculpture means white people are better.” They don’t like art at all except for this purpose. They don’t even like the nerd stuff they whine about
February 18, 2026 at 4:06 PM
The decline of right wing cultural production is just due to the fact that they don’t like culture, they like the signifiers of culture, ie “classic sculpture means white people are better.” They don’t like art at all except for this purpose. They don’t even like the nerd stuff they whine about
Reposted by Aaron Helton
MiddelEnglisshemaxxinge
February 18, 2026 at 10:25 PM
MiddelEnglisshemaxxinge
Reposted by Aaron Helton
“When a population is dependent on a machine, they are hostages of the men who tend the machines” is the line everyone remembers from “The Roads Must Roll” which was written 86 years ago.
I just for the life of me can't figure out why a large chunk of people are inherently hostile to new technology shaped by companies that actively support an anti-science, anti-humanist mass murder autocracy
The Problem With AI Is Shitty Human Beings
The problem with AI isn't going to be Skynet. It's going to be amoral extraction class assholes applying half-cooked automation at scale onto deeply broken sectors in exploitative ways in a country t...
karlbode.com
February 18, 2026 at 10:20 PM
“When a population is dependent on a machine, they are hostages of the men who tend the machines” is the line everyone remembers from “The Roads Must Roll” which was written 86 years ago.
New post!
Thinking about the purpose and audience for TTRPG maps.
Also a chance to share the map art I put together for Dead I Am the Rat.
cc @prismaticwasteland.com who is running a blog Bandwagon about maps right now
Thinking about the purpose and audience for TTRPG maps.
Also a chance to share the map art I put together for Dead I Am the Rat.
cc @prismaticwasteland.com who is running a blog Bandwagon about maps right now
Whose Map Is It Anyway?
A Bandwagon post about Maps Who are TTRPG maps for? Because there are so many game styles, I imagine there's no single answer to this qu...
blog.hilltown.studio
February 18, 2026 at 5:10 PM
New post!
Thinking about the purpose and audience for TTRPG maps.
Also a chance to share the map art I put together for Dead I Am the Rat.
cc @prismaticwasteland.com who is running a blog Bandwagon about maps right now
Thinking about the purpose and audience for TTRPG maps.
Also a chance to share the map art I put together for Dead I Am the Rat.
cc @prismaticwasteland.com who is running a blog Bandwagon about maps right now
Reposted by Aaron Helton
You know how when the title of an article on the web ends in a question mark the answer is “no?” There’s some version of this for articles declaring things to be over.
February 18, 2026 at 12:33 PM
You know how when the title of an article on the web ends in a question mark the answer is “no?” There’s some version of this for articles declaring things to be over.
Reposted by Aaron Helton
If "AI" was being built, used, and planned for in responsible ways--the way a civilization designed to enhance human thriving would do--then a lot more people would be enthusiastic about its potential. But the people in charge of defining what AI will be are the fucking worst short-term scumbags.
February 18, 2026 at 12:37 PM
If "AI" was being built, used, and planned for in responsible ways--the way a civilization designed to enhance human thriving would do--then a lot more people would be enthusiastic about its potential. But the people in charge of defining what AI will be are the fucking worst short-term scumbags.
Reposted by Aaron Helton
Guest Post — Diamond Open Access Needs Institutions, Not Heroes scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2026/02/18/g...
Guest Post — Diamond Open Access Needs Institutions, Not Heroes - The Scholarly Kitchen
Today's guest blogger asks: What would it mean to support community-led publishing as infrastructure, rather than as a collection of heroic individual efforts?
scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org
February 18, 2026 at 11:30 AM
Guest Post — Diamond Open Access Needs Institutions, Not Heroes scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2026/02/18/g...
Reposted by Aaron Helton
The Left Is Missing Out On Assault Weapons
As a movement, it has largely refused to engage seriously with the joys of wielding semiautomatic weapons, ceding debate about a threat and opportunity to the right
As a movement, it has largely refused to engage seriously with the joys of wielding semiautomatic weapons, ceding debate about a threat and opportunity to the right
February 18, 2026 at 11:28 AM
The Left Is Missing Out On Assault Weapons
As a movement, it has largely refused to engage seriously with the joys of wielding semiautomatic weapons, ceding debate about a threat and opportunity to the right
As a movement, it has largely refused to engage seriously with the joys of wielding semiautomatic weapons, ceding debate about a threat and opportunity to the right
Reposted by Aaron Helton
Genuinely, there is something reassuring about being able to shame a company, even in limited ways.
backlash still does something (though of course we want more)
Notorious Surveillance Company Amazon Cancels Ring-Flock Partnership
Amazon Ring just announced it’s canceling its new partnership with Flock Safety – adding to the wave of backlash against the Atlanta-based surveillance company known for selling Automatic License Plat...
www.fightforthefuture.org
February 17, 2026 at 11:47 PM
Genuinely, there is something reassuring about being able to shame a company, even in limited ways.
Reposted by Aaron Helton
Just a side note to say: if we can really get this DH meta-discourse going on here this morning, Bluesky will have truly become Twitter circa 2014
February 16, 2026 at 4:27 PM
Just a side note to say: if we can really get this DH meta-discourse going on here this morning, Bluesky will have truly become Twitter circa 2014
Reposted by Aaron Helton
"A closed border means violence and death." www.liberalcurrents.com/abolition-am...
Abolition, Amnesty, Decriminalization, Open Borders
You may not believe immigration restrictions are racist, but racists believe immigration restrictions are racist.
www.liberalcurrents.com
February 17, 2026 at 9:07 PM
"A closed border means violence and death." www.liberalcurrents.com/abolition-am...
Reposted by Aaron Helton
Banning social media is meaningless when school tech shares data with social media companies and third parties
So a child reaches 16 and already has an entire shadow profile ready for them, not to mention what is known to HR systems and advertisers.
Good tech journalism would say this
So a child reaches 16 and already has an entire shadow profile ready for them, not to mention what is known to HR systems and advertisers.
Good tech journalism would say this
February 17, 2026 at 8:40 AM
Banning social media is meaningless when school tech shares data with social media companies and third parties
So a child reaches 16 and already has an entire shadow profile ready for them, not to mention what is known to HR systems and advertisers.
Good tech journalism would say this
So a child reaches 16 and already has an entire shadow profile ready for them, not to mention what is known to HR systems and advertisers.
Good tech journalism would say this
Reposted by Aaron Helton
My contribution to the discourse, which I've said before and will say again: DH isn't over. DH has won. 1/
February 17, 2026 at 3:46 PM
My contribution to the discourse, which I've said before and will say again: DH isn't over. DH has won. 1/
Today's fun (personal/education since I'm on leave) has been to a) run a thing in a Docker container, b) control that thing as a systemd service, and c) reverse proxy it via nginx so it resolves, with SSL, as thing.my.domain
Outcome? Success.
Outcome? Success.
February 17, 2026 at 4:24 PM
Today's fun (personal/education since I'm on leave) has been to a) run a thing in a Docker container, b) control that thing as a systemd service, and c) reverse proxy it via nginx so it resolves, with SSL, as thing.my.domain
Outcome? Success.
Outcome? Success.
Reposted by Aaron Helton
New book now coming out very soon. Next month!
BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT! @mahliann.bsky.social, @marcuscarter.com, and myself have combined our collective brains and written a wide-reaching introduction to the complex and interdisciplinary field of Game Studies in this forthcoming book for Polity. www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?b...
February 15, 2026 at 11:41 PM
New book now coming out very soon. Next month!
Reposted by Aaron Helton
Roses are redde
Violettes are blue
Sayinge that the adoption of a technologye ys inevitable
Ys a way to trick you
Violettes are blue
Sayinge that the adoption of a technologye ys inevitable
Ys a way to trick you
February 16, 2026 at 7:27 PM
Roses are redde
Violettes are blue
Sayinge that the adoption of a technologye ys inevitable
Ys a way to trick you
Violettes are blue
Sayinge that the adoption of a technologye ys inevitable
Ys a way to trick you
Reposted by Aaron Helton
This image of a priest in camouflage vestments has been floating around online since at least 2016- a friend wondered if it was AI, and out of curiosity/procrastination, I found out it's a photo by William Koontz of the 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment.
1-22infantry.org/pics2/koontz...
1-22infantry.org/pics2/koontz...
February 16, 2026 at 7:11 PM
This image of a priest in camouflage vestments has been floating around online since at least 2016- a friend wondered if it was AI, and out of curiosity/procrastination, I found out it's a photo by William Koontz of the 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment.
1-22infantry.org/pics2/koontz...
1-22infantry.org/pics2/koontz...
Reposted by Aaron Helton
Thanks @dmimno.bsky.social for sending me the article—I was trying to square the pull quotes I was seeing with my own sense that DH methods are everywhere these days—being used by many folks who would not identify with a field called "DH"—but I don’t think that take clashes with what Wilkens writes
Matt Wilkens on the end of DH:
"The steady state of DH, which I once believed was to be fully
subsumed within the humanities, now looks much more likely to involve the diffusion of humanistic knowledge into disciplines...constitutively quantitative and computational" academic.oup.com/alh/article-...
"The steady state of DH, which I once believed was to be fully
subsumed within the humanities, now looks much more likely to involve the diffusion of humanistic knowledge into disciplines...constitutively quantitative and computational" academic.oup.com/alh/article-...
What Instagram and Community Colleges Tell Us about the Future of Digital Humanities
Abstract. Two recent volumes illustrate the resilience of established critical approaches in literary studies, the potential use value of quantitative and
academic.oup.com
February 16, 2026 at 4:11 PM
Thanks @dmimno.bsky.social for sending me the article—I was trying to square the pull quotes I was seeing with my own sense that DH methods are everywhere these days—being used by many folks who would not identify with a field called "DH"—but I don’t think that take clashes with what Wilkens writes
Reposted by Aaron Helton
Hi! I have a new, quirky article out on how games use and represent the dead, but also on deadpool games, & the strange case of the #Fantamorto (an Italian fantasy sport).
>> gamestudies.org/2601/article... <<
🚨WARNING🚨: it might contain traces of @ckunzelman.bsky.social and @maurovanetti.itch.io
>> gamestudies.org/2601/article... <<
🚨WARNING🚨: it might contain traces of @ckunzelman.bsky.social and @maurovanetti.itch.io
February 16, 2026 at 7:54 AM
Hi! I have a new, quirky article out on how games use and represent the dead, but also on deadpool games, & the strange case of the #Fantamorto (an Italian fantasy sport).
>> gamestudies.org/2601/article... <<
🚨WARNING🚨: it might contain traces of @ckunzelman.bsky.social and @maurovanetti.itch.io
>> gamestudies.org/2601/article... <<
🚨WARNING🚨: it might contain traces of @ckunzelman.bsky.social and @maurovanetti.itch.io
Reposted by Aaron Helton
Man goes to the doctor with a strawberry growing out of his arse.
Doc says: 'I'll give you some cream for that'.
Doc says: 'I'll give you some cream for that'.
February 16, 2026 at 2:08 PM
Man goes to the doctor with a strawberry growing out of his arse.
Doc says: 'I'll give you some cream for that'.
Doc says: 'I'll give you some cream for that'.
Reposted by Aaron Helton
Don’t know yet myself whether the newest Wuthering Heights is weirdly interesting or abominable but what matters to me is that by making so much money it advances the possibility of new adaptations of the Brontë extended universe!!!
February 16, 2026 at 2:08 PM
Don’t know yet myself whether the newest Wuthering Heights is weirdly interesting or abominable but what matters to me is that by making so much money it advances the possibility of new adaptations of the Brontë extended universe!!!
Reposted by Aaron Helton
“AI Overviews are designed for speed, not accuracy, and that leads to mistakes in health information, which can be dangerous.”
Google puts users at risk by downplaying health disclaimers under AI Overviews
Exclusive: Google fails to include safety warnings when users are first presented with AI-generated medical advice
www.theguardian.com
February 16, 2026 at 1:42 PM
“AI Overviews are designed for speed, not accuracy, and that leads to mistakes in health information, which can be dangerous.”
Reposted by Aaron Helton
the thing is that there are lots of modest, tedious, repetitive tasks in many of our jobs and lives where we might be happy to pay a fee for an ethically developed standalone tool to do only that task. but we can’t have that because it won’t make people rich enough
Every time I try to question my kneejerk skepticism on LLMs because they seem like they might have some potentially interesting use cases, some company shoves them into a product I use all the time, and it absolutely sucks shit.
February 16, 2026 at 7:08 AM
the thing is that there are lots of modest, tedious, repetitive tasks in many of our jobs and lives where we might be happy to pay a fee for an ethically developed standalone tool to do only that task. but we can’t have that because it won’t make people rich enough
Reposted by Aaron Helton
Every time I try to question my kneejerk skepticism on LLMs because they seem like they might have some potentially interesting use cases, some company shoves them into a product I use all the time, and it absolutely sucks shit.
February 16, 2026 at 7:03 AM
Every time I try to question my kneejerk skepticism on LLMs because they seem like they might have some potentially interesting use cases, some company shoves them into a product I use all the time, and it absolutely sucks shit.
Reposted by Aaron Helton
"According to the World Health Organization’s Global E-Waste Monitor, the world generated 62 million tons of this trash in 2022, yet only 22 percent was formally recycled. The rest was dumped, landfilled or processed informally, often far from where the electronics were originally bought."
Can the Basel Treaty Fix Informal E-Waste Economies? passblue.com/2026/02/15/c...
Can the Basel Treaty Fix Informal E-Waste Economies?
passblue.com
February 16, 2026 at 2:11 AM
"According to the World Health Organization’s Global E-Waste Monitor, the world generated 62 million tons of this trash in 2022, yet only 22 percent was formally recycled. The rest was dumped, landfilled or processed informally, often far from where the electronics were originally bought."