Rajiv Moté
rajivmote.bsky.social
Rajiv Moté
@rajivmote.bsky.social
Chicago. SFFH writer (Codex, ex-SFWA), software professional, Dragonmount contributor, shiftless dreamer. Views expressed are my own and do not reflect my employers or anybody else.
https://rajivmote.wordpress.com/published/
Maybe when they're older, it shifts from "happily ever after" to "happy for a brief, shining moment of mutual delusion," and that sense of anticipatory loss becomes the spice that sharpens the sweet to a cutting edge.
November 27, 2025 at 5:27 AM
Standing in "authentic wonder before the beauty of God's creation" is that "raw, real, direct experience." Everything in my attention is converging on this idea. I'm lost in Plato's Cave.
bsky.app/profile/vult...
Pope Leo XIV told students not to use artificial intelligence for homework, saying that AI ‘won’t stand in authentic wonder before the beauty of God’s creation.’
Even God Is Worried About ChatGPT
Pope Leo XIV told students not to use artificial intelligence for homework, saying that AI ‘won’t stand in authentic wonder before the beauty of God’s creation.’
www.vulture.com
November 26, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Just got a second-round hold notice too, after 56 days, so that's nice.
November 26, 2025 at 4:25 PM
I asked a question at an author's book release, and a stranger made it a point afterward to tell me I had a beautiful speaking voice. Many years later, that memory still warms me.
November 26, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Ooh! Where is this?
November 26, 2025 at 5:16 AM
Are the members reliable? Is the data reliable? Is the algorithm reliable? Is Elon's Personal A.I. reliable?

So many questions. And all the answers are "no."
November 26, 2025 at 5:13 AM
Damn that's cold.
November 26, 2025 at 4:41 AM
"He did not remember when everything began to remind him of something else."

A longing for a raw, real, direct experience, unfiltered through all the intellectual categories, comparisons, and contexts we build up. A lens that bends light in a predecided direction.
November 26, 2025 at 4:11 AM
Is it fear? Is it anticipation? Feelings likewise blur, when the protag's condition deadens his life with precautionary routine and isolation. "Cretins" shows impersonal cruelty perverting natural human desires into monstrous forms. "What a feeling, to be needed."
November 26, 2025 at 3:50 AM
A 1996 movie, Kissed, had a demented premise treated with such tenderness and empathy that it almost lulls you into finding it romantic. "Cretins" reminds me of that. The protagonist, savagely marginalized by a debilitating condition, finds the line between connection and predation blurred.
November 26, 2025 at 3:50 AM
The parrots give up now.

"The humans... desire to make a connection is so strong that they’ve created an ear capable of hearing across the universe.

But I and my fellow parrots are right here. Why aren’t they interested in listening to our voices?"

electricliterature.com/the-great-si...
The Great Silence - Electric Literature
“The Great Silence” by Ted Chiang The humans use Arecibo to look for extraterrestrial intelligence. Their desire to make a connection is so strong that they’ve created an ear capable of hearing across...
electricliterature.com
November 25, 2025 at 9:08 PM
If The Empire Strikes Back were a TV series, Han and friends would defeat/escape each of the bounty hunters in each episode until Fett and Vader caught them on Bespin.

And that's what I think about bounty hunters.
November 25, 2025 at 9:03 PM