"I happen to collect shoggoth memes. I've got over 300 of them. The pace of their creation is accelerating."

This is from @bruces. This year's WELL #SOTW2025 is a blast!

Bruce's collection:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/brucesterling/albums/72177720306793767/

His post in the thread: https://people.well.com/conf/inkwell.vue/topics/551/Bruce-Sterling-and-Jon-Lebkowsky-page05.html#post117

Shoggoths and AI

Memes that tie Lovecraftian imagery of formless monsters to contemporary Large Language Models.

Flickr

"Your Iphone isn’t an ad-supported gimme. You paid a thousand fucking dollars for that distraction rectangle in your pocket, and you’re still the product. What’s more, Apple has rigged Ios so that you can’t mod the OS to block its spying.

If you’re not paying for the product, you’re the product, and if you are paying for the product, you’re still the product."

Good stuff happens when @pluralistic joins #SOTW2025

https://people.well.com/conf/inkwell.vue/topics/551/Bruce-Sterling-and-Jon-Lebkowsky-page05.html#post106

#surveillanceCapitalism

The WELL: Bruce Sterling and Jon Lebkowsky: State of the World 2025

The WELL: Bruce Sterling and Jon Lebkowsky: State of the World 2025