Ryan Williamson
@rywilwrite.bsky.social
Speculative fiction that refuses to look away. US Army vet/Canadian expatriate/political heretic. It’s our scars that make us beautiful. 🏳️🌈
📝 ryanwilliamson.com
📝 ryanwilliamson.com
Pinned
"Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. It's a way of understanding it."
—Lloyd Alexander
—Lloyd Alexander
The whole “alpha wolf” framework was debunked by David Mech, the same researcher who originally popularized it. He spent decades trying to correct the record: wolf packs are family units, and the “alphas” are just… the parents.
And lone wolves who fail to start a new pack starve or are killed.
And lone wolves who fail to start a new pack starve or are killed.
February 12, 2026 at 4:50 PM
The whole “alpha wolf” framework was debunked by David Mech, the same researcher who originally popularized it. He spent decades trying to correct the record: wolf packs are family units, and the “alphas” are just… the parents.
And lone wolves who fail to start a new pack starve or are killed.
And lone wolves who fail to start a new pack starve or are killed.
No, this isn’t satire. It’s the NYT.
February 12, 2026 at 4:21 PM
No, this isn’t satire. It’s the NYT.
Welp, probably not going to get any fiction writing done tonight. Might crack open a book that’s been on my TBR pile forever. Or not. I like to be unpredictable.
February 12, 2026 at 4:00 AM
Welp, probably not going to get any fiction writing done tonight. Might crack open a book that’s been on my TBR pile forever. Or not. I like to be unpredictable.
Absolutely, we should absolutely be talking about stock prices instead of… checks notes… child sex trafficking.
February 11, 2026 at 6:34 PM
Absolutely, we should absolutely be talking about stock prices instead of… checks notes… child sex trafficking.
Today is Gus’s Gotcha Day! One whole year and he’s still peeing on the carpets. (But otherwise he’s a great dog.)
February 11, 2026 at 5:22 PM
Today is Gus’s Gotcha Day! One whole year and he’s still peeing on the carpets. (But otherwise he’s a great dog.)
Stanford and Caltech just published a comprehensive taxonomy of why LLMs fail at reasoning. It maps almost perfectly onto experiments I’ve run testing AI against creative writing. And the writing community is making policy based on misunderstanding both while ignoring the real threat to authors.
SFWA Banned AI from the Nebulas While Stanford Was Cataloguing Why It Could Never Win One
A new Caltech/Stanford survey paper just systematically catalogued how and why large language models fail at reasoning—fundamental architectural failures, unfaithful reasoning, robustness breakdown…
theannex.blog
February 11, 2026 at 7:12 AM
Stanford and Caltech just published a comprehensive taxonomy of why LLMs fail at reasoning. It maps almost perfectly onto experiments I’ve run testing AI against creative writing. And the writing community is making policy based on misunderstanding both while ignoring the real threat to authors.
Writing that fails at its purpose isn’t good writing regardless of how clean the sentences are.
I hate a lot of “literature” because performing competence and control in a scene that demands the opposite is a lie, and polished craft in service of a victimized child’s lived truth is masturbation.
I hate a lot of “literature” because performing competence and control in a scene that demands the opposite is a lie, and polished craft in service of a victimized child’s lived truth is masturbation.
The Most Advanced LLM on the Planet Still Can’t Write a Fourteen-Year-Old
Anthropic’s Opus 4.6—arguably the most advanced LLM on the planet—wrote a scene from my YA space opera manuscript. The prose was clean, the structure was sound, the emotional beats landed. Then I f…
theannex.blog
February 11, 2026 at 6:18 AM
Writing that fails at its purpose isn’t good writing regardless of how clean the sentences are.
I hate a lot of “literature” because performing competence and control in a scene that demands the opposite is a lie, and polished craft in service of a victimized child’s lived truth is masturbation.
I hate a lot of “literature” because performing competence and control in a scene that demands the opposite is a lie, and polished craft in service of a victimized child’s lived truth is masturbation.
Reposted by Ryan Williamson
K-Pop Superbowl Halftime next year. Let's keep the assholes angry.
February 9, 2026 at 6:23 PM
K-Pop Superbowl Halftime next year. Let's keep the assholes angry.
Every sacred thing Mormonism claims to have restored and locks behind a paywall has been standard equipment in Catholicism for two thousand years. I spent years interrogating priests, waiting for one to say “no, we don’t have that one.”
They never did.
They never did.
It’s Just Tuesday for Catholics
YouTube video by Ryan Williamson
youtu.be
February 9, 2026 at 3:12 AM
Every sacred thing Mormonism claims to have restored and locks behind a paywall has been standard equipment in Catholicism for two thousand years. I spent years interrogating priests, waiting for one to say “no, we don’t have that one.”
They never did.
They never did.
I have Claude exceptionally well calibrated now.
February 8, 2026 at 4:52 AM
I have Claude exceptionally well calibrated now.
Republican are slowly beginning to wake up and even groggily push back on Trump’s fascism.
Day late and a dollar short, buckos.
You’re still dead to me.
Day late and a dollar short, buckos.
You’re still dead to me.
February 8, 2026 at 2:35 AM
Republican are slowly beginning to wake up and even groggily push back on Trump’s fascism.
Day late and a dollar short, buckos.
You’re still dead to me.
Day late and a dollar short, buckos.
You’re still dead to me.
Oh, and fuck ICE.
From “ICE After Minneapolis” by Nick Miroff, The Atlantic
February 8, 2026 at 2:32 AM
Oh, and fuck ICE.
From “ICE After Minneapolis” by Nick Miroff, The Atlantic
February 8, 2026 at 2:31 AM
From “ICE After Minneapolis” by Nick Miroff, The Atlantic
In Minneapolis, ordinary people are outside schools in subzero temperatures watching for ICE vehicles so parents can safely pick up their kids. A nurse is standing as a human shield between agents and immigrants. And Trump has ordered DHS to pull back. Good men and women doing something still works.
Good Men Doing Something
In Minneapolis, ordinary people are standing outside schools in subzero temperatures watching for ICE vehicles so parents can pick up their kids safely. Coffee shops are handing out whistles so peo…
theannex.blog
February 7, 2026 at 6:13 AM
In Minneapolis, ordinary people are outside schools in subzero temperatures watching for ICE vehicles so parents can safely pick up their kids. A nurse is standing as a human shield between agents and immigrants. And Trump has ordered DHS to pull back. Good men and women doing something still works.
Somewhere along the way “I think women are hot and also complete human beings” became a position too nuanced for either political tribe.
Not sure when that happened.
Not sure when that happened.
February 6, 2026 at 10:40 PM
Somewhere along the way “I think women are hot and also complete human beings” became a position too nuanced for either political tribe.
Not sure when that happened.
Not sure when that happened.
Had to sign a legal document today in pen and ink. I asked if they wanted a wax seal with my sigil too.
Do I return the signed document by raven?
Do I return the signed document by raven?
February 6, 2026 at 10:23 PM
Had to sign a legal document today in pen and ink. I asked if they wanted a wax seal with my sigil too.
Do I return the signed document by raven?
Do I return the signed document by raven?
Reposted by Ryan Williamson
Sure, it could have been posted by a staffer. But … probably not. slate.trib.al/ovZDBWA
The Lion King Excuse Does Not Make the Racist Donald Trump Post Any Better
Sen. Tim Scott, who is Black, called it “the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House.”
slate.trib.al
February 6, 2026 at 8:14 PM
Sure, it could have been posted by a staffer. But … probably not. slate.trib.al/ovZDBWA
I find it darkly ironic that the hardest-core Tolkien dudebros are… pretty authoritarian and racist actually.
Tolkien would totally punch a Nazi.
Tolkien would totally punch a Nazi.
February 6, 2026 at 3:12 AM
I find it darkly ironic that the hardest-core Tolkien dudebros are… pretty authoritarian and racist actually.
Tolkien would totally punch a Nazi.
Tolkien would totally punch a Nazi.
The last people who put up statues to celebrate their detention camps lost at Nuremberg.
February 6, 2026 at 2:34 AM
The last people who put up statues to celebrate their detention camps lost at Nuremberg.
Reposted by Ryan Williamson
Yup. This is also why I get annoyed when people start suggesting "golden age" science fiction titles to people who are new the genre and are asking for suggestions. You want to turn a modern 15-year-old off science fiction forever, recommend stories that were old when her grandparents were her age.
When people ask how to get into GA SF I always say that the right way is via some of those fat "Best Of" short fiction collections
February 5, 2026 at 11:19 PM
Yup. This is also why I get annoyed when people start suggesting "golden age" science fiction titles to people who are new the genre and are asking for suggestions. You want to turn a modern 15-year-old off science fiction forever, recommend stories that were old when her grandparents were her age.
People often forget Norman Rockwell quit the Saturday Evening Post in protest of their racist policies and went on to paint some of the most subversive works of his time.
February 6, 2026 at 2:27 AM
People often forget Norman Rockwell quit the Saturday Evening Post in protest of their racist policies and went on to paint some of the most subversive works of his time.
The distance between Vance’s “Heritage Americans” speech and an ICE agent shooting a mother in her car was shorter than I feared six months ago.
Heritage Americans™
Vice President Vance wants to “redefine the meaning of American citizenship” around Americans with “real roots”—people MAGA calls “Heritage Americans.” Mere days after ICE agents murdered a 37-year…
theannex.blog
February 6, 2026 at 2:10 AM
The distance between Vance’s “Heritage Americans” speech and an ICE agent shooting a mother in her car was shorter than I feared six months ago.
“United States, once the world’s exemplary liberal democracy, is now a hybrid state combining a fascist leader and a liberal Constitution; but no, it has not fallen to fascism. And it will not.”
— Jonathan Rauch
— Jonathan Rauch
February 5, 2026 at 11:40 PM
“United States, once the world’s exemplary liberal democracy, is now a hybrid state combining a fascist leader and a liberal Constitution; but no, it has not fallen to fascism. And it will not.”
— Jonathan Rauch
— Jonathan Rauch
“When the facts change, I change my mind. Recent events have brought Trump’s governing style into sharper focus. Fascist best describes it, and reluctance to use the term has now become perverse.”
— Jonathan Rauch
— Jonathan Rauch
February 5, 2026 at 10:55 PM
“When the facts change, I change my mind. Recent events have brought Trump’s governing style into sharper focus. Fascist best describes it, and reluctance to use the term has now become perverse.”
— Jonathan Rauch
— Jonathan Rauch
“MAGA… seems to be betting that the American polity has a deep reserve of untapped nativist rage—but if current polls are to be believed, the administration seems to be underestimating the everyday decency and patriotism of the American public.”
— Laura K. Field, “Intellectual Edgelords of the GOP”
— Laura K. Field, “Intellectual Edgelords of the GOP”
February 5, 2026 at 10:51 PM
“MAGA… seems to be betting that the American polity has a deep reserve of untapped nativist rage—but if current polls are to be believed, the administration seems to be underestimating the everyday decency and patriotism of the American public.”
— Laura K. Field, “Intellectual Edgelords of the GOP”
— Laura K. Field, “Intellectual Edgelords of the GOP”