Post

Log in
About
Code of conduct
Privacy
Users
Instances
About Bonfire

Cory Doctorow

@pluralistic@mamot.fr · activity timestamp 52 min. ago

Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: The actual epistemic crisis; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2026/08/20/epistemic-void/

#Pluralistic

The North Pole at night, hand-tinted in blues and purples so it looks more like a moonscape. Protruding from the ice is the cross-sectioned head and neck of a man, his brains on display. Stepping over the leftmost mountains is a killer pulp robot, about to crush the head. Leaning against the rightmost mountains is a sneering, princely toff in a red frock coat, holding a cane that has penetrated the decapitated skull and lodged in the brains.

https://pluralistic.net

Pluralistic: The actual epistemic crisis (20 Aug 2026)

#pluralistic

Flag this post
Block

11 Replies

0 Boosts

tuban_muzuru

@tuban_muzuru@beige.party · activity timestamp 24 min. ago

@pluralistic

Before photoshopped images, we had Playboy magazine. You cannot imagine how much foundation was used on those girls.

Flag this comment
Block

Cory Doctorow

@pluralistic@mamot.fr · activity timestamp 51 min. ago

The actual epistemic crisis: AI's assault on reality is an opportunistic infection.

https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/117130483897538524
https://bsky.app/profile/did:web:pluralistic.net/post/3mtkguvwlkk2l

Bluesky Social

By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) (@doctorow.pluralistic.net)

AI is alarming for many reasons: it's a dangerous financial bubble, an environmental catastrophe, and a tool for eroding wages and labor power. But in addition to all that, AI is an epistemic disaster. 1/

Flag this comment
Block

Cory Doctorow

@pluralistic@mamot.fr · activity timestamp 51 min. ago

Hey look at this

* The $1 Trillion Black Box https://www.propublica.org/article/military-defense-spending-budget-series

* The Right Word is Wrongness https://www.meditationsinanemergency.com/the-right-word-is-wrongness/

* Yes Obviously the Senate Should Be Abolished https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/yes-obviously-the-senate-should-be

Yes Obviously the Senate Should Be Abolished

Political pundits acting shocked by this are snide pricks.

Meditations in an Emergency

The Right Word is Wrongness

I've been in northern New Mexico for more than two weeks, in what is normally the monsoon season, but there has been no rain beyond a brief, quickly evaporated spatter of drops three times so far. The plants are parched, and the usual green regeneration of monsoon season I

ProPublica

The $1 Trillion Black Box

The U.S. military budget is vast and opaque. Projects touted as engineering marvels end up facing years of delays and ballooning costs. ProPublica has launched a series to report on the Pentagon’s spending.

Flag this comment
Block

Cory Doctorow

@pluralistic@mamot.fr · activity timestamp 51 min. ago

#20yrsago Goth day at Disneyland photos https://flickr.com/photos/doctorow/tags/batsday/

#20yrsago HOWTO run a successful sf convention room party https://www.nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/how_to_throw_a_1/

#20yrsago Yahoo: Go ahead and remix our brand https://web.archive.org/web/20061111175912/http://www.ysearchblog.com/archives/000348.html

#10yrsago The Equation Group’s sourcecode is totally fugly https://web.archive.org/web/20160818012451/https://www.cs.uic.edu/~s/musings/equation-group/

#5yrsago Bubble https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/21/podcasting-as-a-visual-medium/#huntr

#1yrago Melissa Mendes's "The Weight" https://pluralistic.net/2025/08/21/weighty/#edie-is-a-badass

https://pluralistic.net

Pluralistic: Melissa Mendes's "The Weight" (21 Aug 2025)

https://pluralistic.net

Pluralistic: 21 Aug 2021

Equation Group Initial Impressions

A group calling itself the “Shadow Brokers” claimed to stolen some of the NSA’s “Equation Group’s” “cyber weapons.” A sample of the tools were made publicly ...

Yahoo! Search blog: Your Yahoo! is Showing

https://www.nielsenhayden.com

How to throw a large room party at a science fiction convention

1. UNIVERSAL PARTY ESSENTIALSa box of black plastic trashbags three or four rolls of paper towels, minimum a sponge with a scrubby side dish detergent small paper napkins very small, shallow, insecure paper plates plastic serving utensils serving containers signage a cheese and veggie knife a bottle opener a corkscrew cash on your person, preferably…

Flickr

Flickr Search

Flag this comment
Block

Cory Doctorow

@pluralistic@mamot.fr · activity timestamp 49 min. ago

Yesterday's threads: The ordinariness of evil; and more!

https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/117121090724073316

Flag this comment
Block

~7 more replies

Cory Doctorow

@pluralistic@mamot.fr · activity timestamp 49 min. ago

My latest nonfiction book is the internationally bestselling"The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI," from MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374621568/thereversecentaursguidetolifeafterai/

My previous nonfiction book is the internationally bestselling "Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It":

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374619329/enshittification/

Macmillan Publishers

Book details - Macmillan Publishers

A short, provocative guide to what's good, bad, and stupid about AI and the discourse around AI, by the author of Enshittification. In modern tech parlance, ...

Macmillan Publishers

Book details - Macmillan Publishers

Enshittification: it’s not just you—the internet sucks now. Here’s why, and here’s how we can disenshittify it.We’re living through the Enshittocen...

Flag this comment
Block

Cory Doctorow

@pluralistic@mamot.fr · activity timestamp 48 min. ago

My ebooks and audiobooks (from FSGxMCD, Tor Books, Head of Zeus, McSweeneys, Beacon, Verso and others) are for sale all over the net, but I sell 'em too, and when you buy 'em from me, I earn twice as much and you get books with no DRM and no license "agreements."

https://craphound.com/shop/