Stefan Geens
@stefangeens.com
Love complexity, fight entropy. Based in Stockholm.
Also just sped through @garymarcus.bsky.social 's Taming Silicon Valley. It's a quicker and slighter read than Empire of AI but it's got the same vibe as @timothysnyder.bsky.social 's On Tyranny.
August 25, 2025 at 11:48 AM
Also just sped through @garymarcus.bsky.social 's Taming Silicon Valley. It's a quicker and slighter read than Empire of AI but it's got the same vibe as @timothysnyder.bsky.social 's On Tyranny.
Just finished @karenhao.bsky.social 's Empire of AI. Takeaways: Sam Altman should have stayed fired, OpenAI is a self-fulfilling prophecy, and the negative externalities of the AI industry are huge. 10 years into the latest AI summer, this is a good place to take stock as another AI autumn sets in.
August 25, 2025 at 11:43 AM
Just finished @karenhao.bsky.social 's Empire of AI. Takeaways: Sam Altman should have stayed fired, OpenAI is a self-fulfilling prophecy, and the negative externalities of the AI industry are huge. 10 years into the latest AI summer, this is a good place to take stock as another AI autumn sets in.
Just finished this wonderful history of Alexandria by Islam Issa. Brought me back to the time I spent there in 2008. I remember the people the best, especially their joy. I think I captured some of it in these photos: www.flickr.com/photos/stefa...
August 1, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Just finished this wonderful history of Alexandria by Islam Issa. Brought me back to the time I spent there in 2008. I remember the people the best, especially their joy. I think I captured some of it in these photos: www.flickr.com/photos/stefa...
Half-way through The Golden Road by William Dalrymple - it feels essential in that it focuses on the connections between the places other books tend to focus on exclusively. In this telling, China, India, Khmer, Axum, Persia and the Romans are all part of a giant interconnected web. Fascinating!
June 3, 2025 at 7:11 PM
Half-way through The Golden Road by William Dalrymple - it feels essential in that it focuses on the connections between the places other books tend to focus on exclusively. In this telling, China, India, Khmer, Axum, Persia and the Romans are all part of a giant interconnected web. Fascinating!
Another low-key low-effort fuzzy photo taken with my iPhone through the eyepiece of the telescope, this time of the crescent moon 🌘 that brought the end of Ramadan. Taken from a clear sky in the Stockholm suburbs.
April 1, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Another low-key low-effort fuzzy photo taken with my iPhone through the eyepiece of the telescope, this time of the crescent moon 🌘 that brought the end of Ramadan. Taken from a clear sky in the Stockholm suburbs.
Very bad iPhone photo of a partial solar eclipse taken today through my telescope from the Stockholm suburbs.
March 29, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Very bad iPhone photo of a partial solar eclipse taken today through my telescope from the Stockholm suburbs.
Just realized southern Greenland is at the same latitude as Oslo and Uppsala.
March 28, 2025 at 8:52 AM
Just realized southern Greenland is at the same latitude as Oslo and Uppsala.
Reading the chapter on Italian fascism, how it was propelled by two contradictory ideological strands: Catholic social conservatives, plus the tech-utopian Futurists. How strikingly like American fascism today: Religious ethno-nationalists, plus the techno-libertarian crypto-singularity-bros.
March 16, 2025 at 10:43 PM
Reading the chapter on Italian fascism, how it was propelled by two contradictory ideological strands: Catholic social conservatives, plus the tech-utopian Futurists. How strikingly like American fascism today: Religious ethno-nationalists, plus the techno-libertarian crypto-singularity-bros.
This German election map from the BBC explains so much: www.bbc.com/news/live/ck...
February 24, 2025 at 2:30 PM
This German election map from the BBC explains so much: www.bbc.com/news/live/ck...
Going through my photo archive - some favorites from a visit to Kashgar around 2010, just as the oppression of the Uyghurs was ramping up. (That tea house in the first photo disappeared soon after in a frenzy of “modernization”.)
February 23, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Going through my photo archive - some favorites from a visit to Kashgar around 2010, just as the oppression of the Uyghurs was ramping up. (That tea house in the first photo disappeared soon after in a frenzy of “modernization”.)
I’m assuming this reading frenzy is me trying to process this terrible new time we live in (and it’s only just begun), but in any case, here is the rest of my current hoard:
February 22, 2025 at 4:57 PM
I’m assuming this reading frenzy is me trying to process this terrible new time we live in (and it’s only just begun), but in any case, here is the rest of my current hoard:
Now reading : Einstein’s Tutor by Lee Philips. About Emmy Noether, the brilliant mathematician whose work laid the foundation for much of 20th century physics. A real mathematician’s mathematician. I’m a few chapters in and it’s a breezy read, much of it new to me.
February 22, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Now reading : Einstein’s Tutor by Lee Philips. About Emmy Noether, the brilliant mathematician whose work laid the foundation for much of 20th century physics. A real mathematician’s mathematician. I’m a few chapters in and it’s a breezy read, much of it new to me.
I’ve recently come upon a bunch of new books that I want to read. So I’ve been hoarding them. First up is Private Revolutions by Yuan Yang. Just finished it. Plugged a gap in my experience of China these past 15 years, via the stories of 4 remarkably entrepreneurial young women and their struggles.
February 22, 2025 at 4:49 PM
I’ve recently come upon a bunch of new books that I want to read. So I’ve been hoarding them. First up is Private Revolutions by Yuan Yang. Just finished it. Plugged a gap in my experience of China these past 15 years, via the stories of 4 remarkably entrepreneurial young women and their struggles.
February 11, 2025 at 7:43 AM
If you need help spotting a fascist, you can always ask an Italian.
Seriously, it’s not that hard, so it’s a slim volume
Seriously, it’s not that hard, so it’s a slim volume
February 2, 2025 at 12:24 PM
If you need help spotting a fascist, you can always ask an Italian.
Seriously, it’s not that hard, so it’s a slim volume
Seriously, it’s not that hard, so it’s a slim volume
Just finished this. Extraordinarily good but also very very gruesome. Turns out I was late to the game - there is already a miniseries of the book.
Came as recommended reading for my trip to Svalbard. Turns out the novel isn’t set there, though they did film the TV adaptation there.
Came as recommended reading for my trip to Svalbard. Turns out the novel isn’t set there, though they did film the TV adaptation there.
January 19, 2025 at 7:12 AM
Just finished this. Extraordinarily good but also very very gruesome. Turns out I was late to the game - there is already a miniseries of the book.
Came as recommended reading for my trip to Svalbard. Turns out the novel isn’t set there, though they did film the TV adaptation there.
Came as recommended reading for my trip to Svalbard. Turns out the novel isn’t set there, though they did film the TV adaptation there.
From the archives: My office, March 4, 2007
Egypt had just gotten 3G along the entire Nile — it made remote work possible from every café between Cairo and Aswan, as long as you had a Nokia N95 or some such as a hotspot. Good times!
Egypt had just gotten 3G along the entire Nile — it made remote work possible from every café between Cairo and Aswan, as long as you had a Nokia N95 or some such as a hotspot. Good times!
January 9, 2025 at 2:34 PM
From the archives: My office, March 4, 2007
Egypt had just gotten 3G along the entire Nile — it made remote work possible from every café between Cairo and Aswan, as long as you had a Nokia N95 or some such as a hotspot. Good times!
Egypt had just gotten 3G along the entire Nile — it made remote work possible from every café between Cairo and Aswan, as long as you had a Nokia N95 or some such as a hotspot. Good times!
Midnight at midsummer on Sandhamn in the Baltic.
(I took these in 2012)
(I took these in 2012)
January 6, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Midnight at midsummer on Sandhamn in the Baltic.
(I took these in 2012)
(I took these in 2012)
Do not feed the pigeons.
January 4, 2025 at 9:12 AM
Do not feed the pigeons.
It’s back up and running 😅
January 4, 2025 at 9:06 AM
It’s back up and running 😅
New travel plan! During the next new moon, I’ll be spending a week in Longyearbyen, on Svalbard, working remotely while hoping to get lucky with the aurora borealis. I saw a glorious outbreak on Lofoten back in 2018 and want that experience again…
January 3, 2025 at 10:07 PM
New travel plan! During the next new moon, I’ll be spending a week in Longyearbyen, on Svalbard, working remotely while hoping to get lucky with the aurora borealis. I saw a glorious outbreak on Lofoten back in 2018 and want that experience again…
Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-Atlas, spotted in its waning days from Stockholm 90 minutes after sunset.
The comet will be back in 80,000 years. Our ancestors saw the last approach. Will there be descendants to see the next one?
The comet will be back in 80,000 years. Our ancestors saw the last approach. Will there be descendants to see the next one?
October 17, 2024 at 9:01 PM
Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-Atlas, spotted in its waning days from Stockholm 90 minutes after sunset.
The comet will be back in 80,000 years. Our ancestors saw the last approach. Will there be descendants to see the next one?
The comet will be back in 80,000 years. Our ancestors saw the last approach. Will there be descendants to see the next one?
Just finished a convincingly sympathetic and revisionist biography of a pivotal figure in Chinese history - the empress dowager Cixi. I had internalized the widespread notion that she resisted the modernization of her decaying dynasty. This book erased that misconception.
February 24, 2024 at 1:21 PM
Just finished a convincingly sympathetic and revisionist biography of a pivotal figure in Chinese history - the empress dowager Cixi. I had internalized the widespread notion that she resisted the modernization of her decaying dynasty. This book erased that misconception.
Thought I’d use my first post to check out how well BlueSky handles photos. Here are some from Sana’a, back in 2009, just before the troubles started.
February 7, 2024 at 12:28 PM
Thought I’d use my first post to check out how well BlueSky handles photos. Here are some from Sana’a, back in 2009, just before the troubles started.