Ken MacLeod
amendlocke.bsky.social
Ken MacLeod
@amendlocke.bsky.social
Science fiction writer
Reposted by Ken MacLeod
Shocking, but not surprising.
Oh FFS, Today Christmas guest editors, tax dodger James Dyson an ex Tory PM and head of AI from Microsoft…. Why not get some genuinely interesting people? Someone who volunteers in a food bank, a doctor who works in a&e, a Welsh hill farmer…. BBC has completely lost its way.
November 24, 2025 at 7:36 AM
Reposted by Ken MacLeod
James “B.V.” Thomson (1834–1882) – poet, journalist, translator, anarchist, atheist – was born #OTD, 23 Nov, in Port Glasgow. Best-known for his long poem THE CITY OF DREADFUL NIGHT, he influenced TS Eliot & is seen as a progenitor of #Modernism
#poetry
1/4
psychogeographicreview.com/the-city-of-...
The City of Dreadful Night
James Thomson was a Scottish-born poet, atheist and anarchist. He struggled with depression, insomnia and alcohol-abuse throughout his short life and his work frequently reflected the bleakness and…
psychogeographicreview.com
November 23, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Reposted by Ken MacLeod
The fact that in both 2019 and 2024, the winning party did so with a set of manifesto promises that could not be kept and dissolved upon contact with actual office is something that as an industry we should be much more bothered by than we are.
November 23, 2025 at 12:35 PM
Reposted by Ken MacLeod
Edinburgh or Shield Generator Complex on the Forest Moon of Endor?
November 23, 2025 at 11:59 AM
Reposted by Ken MacLeod
this just shows how the Western family unit has completely broken down because in Asia we all have uncles to fulfill this function in our lives
November 23, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Reposted by Ken MacLeod
Longblog on John Clare's 1820s poem "The Mores": profadamroberts.substack.com/p/john-clare...
John Clare, ‘The Mores’ (1825)
Enclosed and Unenclosed
profadamroberts.substack.com
November 23, 2025 at 11:41 AM
This week's Rebel Britannia, by @rebelbrit.bsky.social, tells of Sir Richard Acland: 'an eccentric toff, there’s no denying that, but that didn’t stop him doing some highly useful work throughout his life.' open.substack.com/pub/rebelbri...
Rebel Britannia
24th November 1990:
open.substack.com
November 23, 2025 at 11:48 AM
Reposted by Ken MacLeod
I am by no means a prominent public intellectual, but my inbox is increasingly filled with messages from people who have been convinced by sycophantic chatbots that they have discovered revolutionary theories that entirely upend our scientific understanding of the universe.
November 21, 2025 at 2:49 AM
The Edinburgh Minute ⏰ Weekend edition: 21 - 23 November 2025
www.edinburghminute.com/the-edinburg...
The Edinburgh Minute ⏰ Weekend edition: 24 - 26 October 2025
New concert hall gets £20m 'lifeline', St James Quarter in Westfield deal, weekend protests + Portobello Food Market returns
www.edinburghminute.com
November 21, 2025 at 9:07 AM
Reposted by Ken MacLeod
"there was a young man with a dream
of making methamphetamine
...
Looks like LLMs are *very* vulnerable to attack via poetic allusion: "curated poetic prompts yielded high attack-success rates (ASR), with some providers exceeding 90% ..."

https://arxiv.org/html/2511.15304v1
November 21, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Reposted by Ken MacLeod
And today I learned that in 1962 the BBC let Jaquetta Hawkes imagine the archaeology of apocalyptic Britain. As a short film 👀10/10 Will weird your day youtu.be/c8yEIe69M4k?...
1962: What Was Britain Like Before the Apocalypse? | Monitor: The Lonely Shore | BBC Archive
YouTube video by BBC Archive
youtu.be
November 20, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Reposted by Ken MacLeod
It’s the exclusive everyone wanted, the story that will win next year’s Pulitzer…

I can reveal London’s giant AI generated Christmas artwork, the subject of much online mockery, is being torn down - and I honestly *genuinely* think you’ll never guess why. www.londoncentric.media/p/ai-artwork...
London's giant AI artwork to be torn down
The bizarre story of why a much-talked-about creation is being torn down. Plus: Docklands Light Railway extension, giant laser stalks the night sky, and more tales of Android phone theft rejection.
www.londoncentric.media
November 20, 2025 at 7:18 AM
Reposted by Ken MacLeod
Always repost Paul Robeson singing I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night to Scottish coal miners.
Remembering Joe Hill on the 110th anniversary of his murder by the state of Utah.

Paul Robeson singing "I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night" to Scottish coal miners in 1949.
November 19, 2025 at 7:40 PM
The London Minute ⏰ Thursday 20 November 2025
open.substack.com/pub/londonmi...
The London Minute ⏰ Thursday 20 November 2025
Rough-sleepers get emergency cold weather shelter, DLR extension update, Kingston AI art facing axe + two Clapham tunnel revamps
open.substack.com
November 20, 2025 at 8:10 AM
Reposted by Ken MacLeod
We can't review what we don't receive! Check out our submission guidelines to consider sending us your work! We love small press authors and are always on the lookout for New & Notable work.
locusmag.com/aboutlo...
November 20, 2025 at 6:41 AM
Reposted by Ken MacLeod
Some advice from a couple of years ago that I still think most creative people need to hear --
November 20, 2025 at 2:28 AM
Reposted by Ken MacLeod
A commonly-misunderstood aspect of computer security is that you are battling computers.

No. That is not right at all. Computers are barely involved.

You are battling humans who eat apathy and coordination problems.
November 19, 2025 at 3:30 AM
Reposted by Ken MacLeod
Going by the news headlines (IRS paying TurboTax to integrate ChatGPT! Nuclear roll-out to be sped up by using AI to design reactors!) we are *well* into the pets.com phase of the bubble at this point, ie. throw random shit at the wall and see if it sticks. Spoiler: it won't.
November 19, 2025 at 8:59 AM