Matt Karlov
@mattkarlov.com
Writer of speculative fiction. Author of The Unbound Man and The Lordless City.
Reposted by Matt Karlov
The golden age of diversity and democracy in Oz.
November 16, 2025 at 7:04 AM
The golden age of diversity and democracy in Oz.
Reposted by Matt Karlov
This is the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time. @aptshadow.bsky.social @abraham.bsky.social
October 8, 2025 at 4:34 PM
This is the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time. @aptshadow.bsky.social @abraham.bsky.social
Reposted by Matt Karlov
![Comic. [Two people on shore looking at body of water] PERSON 1: Hey, where’s that big island we were looking at this morning? PERSON 2 with short hair: Oh, it’s underwater. The ocean’s depth here goes up and down by like ten feet every day. PERSON 1: What? PERSON 2: It’s because the planet has a big moon orbiting near the surface. It causes weird gravity effects. PERSON 1: *What???* [caption] People here are used to them, but tides are one of the weirdest and most sci-fi elements of life on Earth.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cz73r7iyiqn26upot4jtjdhk/bafkreidj2tdqhkgoamiqf5reqt7kvbpt26x3cgjxsp4rtwwb46qumcltdq@jpeg)
September 2, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Reposted by Matt Karlov
One day I would like for human society to progress to a point that it wouldn't be profoundly embarrassing to explain how it works to an advanced alien species.
July 31, 2025 at 4:49 PM
One day I would like for human society to progress to a point that it wouldn't be profoundly embarrassing to explain how it works to an advanced alien species.
Reposted by Matt Karlov
Happy 15th anniversary of the peak achievement of literary criticism, to all who celebrate
July 30, 2025 at 11:08 AM
Happy 15th anniversary of the peak achievement of literary criticism, to all who celebrate
Reposted by Matt Karlov
The lesson people infuriatingly never seem to master is that there is no creating a police state just for other people. If you create a police state with no due process for immigrants or accused criminals, then that's the system you've created for yourself.
May 31, 2025 at 7:53 PM
The lesson people infuriatingly never seem to master is that there is no creating a police state just for other people. If you create a police state with no due process for immigrants or accused criminals, then that's the system you've created for yourself.
Reposted by Matt Karlov
Stand aside Turing, we now have The Potato Test.
this is such an interesting time to be alive. we concreted the internet as our second equal and primary reality but it's full of ghosts now
we try to talk to them and they pass right through
it's a haunted world of dead things who look real but don't really see us
we try to talk to them and they pass right through
it's a haunted world of dead things who look real but don't really see us
May 20, 2025 at 7:03 AM
Stand aside Turing, we now have The Potato Test.
Reposted by Matt Karlov
Loved season 2 of Severance. Gripping, weird, heartfelt, and unabashedly itself. More please.
March 21, 2025 at 10:37 AM
Loved season 2 of Severance. Gripping, weird, heartfelt, and unabashedly itself. More please.
Reposted by Matt Karlov
Techdirt explains why they're a democracy blog now and also, coincidentally, why this will always be a Mike Masnick stan account: www.techdirt.com/2025/03/04/w...
Why Techdirt Is Now A Democracy Blog (Whether We Like It Or Not)
While political reporters are still doing their view-from-nowhere “Democrats say this, Republicans say that” dance, tech and legal journalists have been watching an unfortunately recogn…
www.techdirt.com
March 6, 2025 at 4:12 AM
Techdirt explains why they're a democracy blog now and also, coincidentally, why this will always be a Mike Masnick stan account: www.techdirt.com/2025/03/04/w...
Reposted by Matt Karlov
dropped phone
February 19, 2025 at 4:15 PM
dropped phone
Reposted by Matt Karlov
Let’s take a quick look at LOTR from Sauron’s perspective, where it resembles nothing so much as a counter-espionage spy thriller.
January 12, 2025 at 9:14 AM
Let’s take a quick look at LOTR from Sauron’s perspective, where it resembles nothing so much as a counter-espionage spy thriller.
A world in which everyone understood this would be a very different world indeed.
The problem, ultimately, is that people seem to think categories are real things, things that exist in nature.
And they aren't.
NATURE exists in nature.
Any finer distinction is something that we draw - and we have to decide where to draw it.
And they aren't.
NATURE exists in nature.
Any finer distinction is something that we draw - and we have to decide where to draw it.
So because I was reminded - the definitive answer to "Is a hot dog a sandwich?" is "by what taxonomy?"
Categories matter, after all. Taxonomies exist for a reason. If you're not clear on defining your categories, then your mixed berry salad will consist of:
Categories matter, after all. Taxonomies exist for a reason. If you're not clear on defining your categories, then your mixed berry salad will consist of:
January 18, 2025 at 12:43 AM
A world in which everyone understood this would be a very different world indeed.
Reposted by Matt Karlov
A little comic about desire paths.
January 15, 2025 at 7:18 PM
A little comic about desire paths.
Many insights to digest in this talk by @meredithmeredith.bsky.social
I particularly appreciated the exploration of how surveillance tech and authoritarianism share a key impulse: to divide the world into the few who know and the many who are merely objects to be known
media.ccc.de/v/38c3-feeli...
I particularly appreciated the exploration of how surveillance tech and authoritarianism share a key impulse: to divide the world into the few who know and the many who are merely objects to be known
media.ccc.de/v/38c3-feeli...
Feelings are Facts: Love, Privacy, and the Politics of Intellectual Shame
A debut of new research and analysis, focused on emotions and the affective register—love! shame! intimacy!
What happens when we put lov...
media.ccc.de
January 14, 2025 at 3:03 AM
Many insights to digest in this talk by @meredithmeredith.bsky.social
I particularly appreciated the exploration of how surveillance tech and authoritarianism share a key impulse: to divide the world into the few who know and the many who are merely objects to be known
media.ccc.de/v/38c3-feeli...
I particularly appreciated the exploration of how surveillance tech and authoritarianism share a key impulse: to divide the world into the few who know and the many who are merely objects to be known
media.ccc.de/v/38c3-feeli...
This is the web now. One easy thing you can do: switch browsers. Brave is just like Chrome except it’s made by people who care about privacy rather than advertising.
Seeing an online ad shouldn’t mean surrendering your data to thousands of companies you’ve never heard of. It’s time to end online behavioral advertising and the mass surveillance it enables.
Online Behavioral Ads Fuel the Surveillance Industry—Here’s How
Each time you see a targeted ad, your personal information is exposed to thousands of advertisers and data brokers through a process called “real-time bidding” (RTB). This process does more than deliv...
www.eff.org
January 7, 2025 at 1:16 AM
This is the web now. One easy thing you can do: switch browsers. Brave is just like Chrome except it’s made by people who care about privacy rather than advertising.
Reposted by Matt Karlov
from the notebooks of Raymond Chandler - possible titles he jotted down
January 2, 2025 at 5:20 PM
from the notebooks of Raymond Chandler - possible titles he jotted down
An idea like this only gets taken seriously when (a) the company fundamentally sees people as nothing more than users, essentially interchangeable and reducible to their digitally-mediated outputs, or (b) the company believes a sufficient proportion of its customers see each other that way.
Meta confirms they plan to add tons of AI-generated users to Facebook and Instagram
They will have bios, profile pics and can share content
(via Financial Times)
They will have bios, profile pics and can share content
(via Financial Times)
December 31, 2024 at 3:43 AM
An idea like this only gets taken seriously when (a) the company fundamentally sees people as nothing more than users, essentially interchangeable and reducible to their digitally-mediated outputs, or (b) the company believes a sufficient proportion of its customers see each other that way.
Reposted by Matt Karlov
THE YETI SPEAKS (whose two halves use the same letters, in the same order):
November 29, 2024 at 9:14 AM
THE YETI SPEAKS (whose two halves use the same letters, in the same order):
Reposted by Matt Karlov
Today’s poem is called ‘The Importance of the Oxford Comma’.
November 20, 2024 at 11:10 AM
Today’s poem is called ‘The Importance of the Oxford Comma’.
There’s a long history of people claiming that life is explicable by the best technology of the day (computing, steam engines, clockwork, etc), so I always approach these claims with scepticism. But this is very interesting.
nautil.us/in-the-begin...
nautil.us/in-the-begin...
In the Beginning, There Was Computation
Life is code, and code is life, in nature as it is in technology.
nautil.us
October 20, 2024 at 11:27 PM
There’s a long history of people claiming that life is explicable by the best technology of the day (computing, steam engines, clockwork, etc), so I always approach these claims with scepticism. But this is very interesting.
nautil.us/in-the-begin...
nautil.us/in-the-begin...
Reposted by Matt Karlov
Discworld QOTD, from Jingo
October 8, 2024 at 6:06 PM
Discworld QOTD, from Jingo
Reposted by Matt Karlov
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
October 2, 2024 at 10:46 PM
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
Reposted by Matt Karlov
My cartoon for this week’s Guardian Books.
September 21, 2024 at 9:04 AM
My cartoon for this week’s Guardian Books.
Reposted by Matt Karlov
“I before E except for when your weird foreign neighbour Keith receives eight counterfeit beige sleighs from feisty caffeinated weightlifters”
June 13, 2024 at 10:40 PM
“I before E except for when your weird foreign neighbour Keith receives eight counterfeit beige sleighs from feisty caffeinated weightlifters”