Nick Harkaway
@nickharkaway.com
Author. Also husband, dad, clothing-repairer, dog-walker. Decreasingly rigorous on social media. Happy to receive simple work queries here; anything more involved contact Patrick Walsh @ PEW Literary in London or email me.
www.linktr.ee/harkaway
He/him
www.linktr.ee/harkaway
He/him
Pinned
Kill Jackie | Official Trailer
YouTube video by Amazon Prime Video UK & IE
youtu.be
Same release date in the UK (Oct 2, Prime rather than AMC+) but… UK gets all 8 eps at once, America gets ‘em weekly.
(Still won’t make you a better person. At all.)
youtu.be/dKgTyq2-4w0
(Still won’t make you a better person. At all.)
youtu.be/dKgTyq2-4w0
Turing Heat?
Breaking news: President Trump said he will appoint an official responsible for artificial intelligence and form an unspecified “AI Force,” rejecting calls from lawmakers and industry leaders for new guardrails on the technology.
Trump to form ‘AI Force,’ name AI czar but rejects calls for constraints
A growing chorus of lawmakers and industry leaders have called for moving more slowly on the technology.
www.washingtonpost.com
September 19, 2026 at 7:48 PM
Turing Heat?
Reposted by Nick Harkaway
I gave a talk yesterday at a clean tech in incubator, and this was literally my thesis.
I don’t understand the hand-wringing reaction to claims that nueral networks have a 10% chance of destroying civilisation.
Fossil fuel companies have a 100% chance of initiating a mass extinction event.
Maybe we could address that?
Fossil fuel companies have a 100% chance of initiating a mass extinction event.
Maybe we could address that?
September 19, 2026 at 4:06 PM
I gave a talk yesterday at a clean tech in incubator, and this was literally my thesis.
Reposted by Nick Harkaway
Could do with someone senior in government saying this. Like, I don't know, the Prime Minister or someone.
I have spent weeks shadowing the RNLI and I can tell you, they do it out of nothing more than compassion.
Wrote about the heroes I've met over the years in this free-to-read post.
nicolakelly.substack.com/p/the-rnli-a...
Wrote about the heroes I've met over the years in this free-to-read post.
nicolakelly.substack.com/p/the-rnli-a...
The RNLI aren't traitors; they're heroes
I have spent weeks shadowing lifeboat crews. Here's what they do and what it's like.
nicolakelly.substack.com
September 18, 2026 at 8:08 AM
Could do with someone senior in government saying this. Like, I don't know, the Prime Minister or someone.
I’ve worn a grubby RNLI cap for decades. I sound London, but I was born in Truro and I was a basically feral (Gen X) kid wandering the coast path with a dog until sunset for a lot of my early life. The lifeboats are in the fabric like trawlers and farms and pasties and fish and chips.
September 19, 2026 at 10:24 AM
I’ve worn a grubby RNLI cap for decades. I sound London, but I was born in Truro and I was a basically feral (Gen X) kid wandering the coast path with a dog until sunset for a lot of my early life. The lifeboats are in the fabric like trawlers and farms and pasties and fish and chips.
Oh my.
Eye popping. Court just unsealed Summary Judgment motions in New York Times v OpenAI / Microsoft.
Easy to see why the AI companies had so many redactions (pink). Their own people wrote the lede for NYT, the "largest theft of labor in human history"... "more and more substitutive..." /1
Easy to see why the AI companies had so many redactions (pink). Their own people wrote the lede for NYT, the "largest theft of labor in human history"... "more and more substitutive..." /1
September 18, 2026 at 6:09 AM
Oh my.
PSA: my old Gmail address will shortly be closing its doors. It now serves only to attract that particularly vacuous new form of spam which proposes itself as a pitch with a deep understanding of the creative blah blah blah.
So, yeah, that's over.
So, yeah, that's over.
September 17, 2026 at 1:20 PM
PSA: my old Gmail address will shortly be closing its doors. It now serves only to attract that particularly vacuous new form of spam which proposes itself as a pitch with a deep understanding of the creative blah blah blah.
So, yeah, that's over.
So, yeah, that's over.
Reposted by Nick Harkaway
The second European Conference on the Fantastic is in Sweden next June. You should come to Sweden, it's fantastic!
www.kau.se/kufo/aktivit...
www.kau.se/kufo/aktivit...
Fantastic Spaces and Places | Karlstads universitet
The second European Conference on the Fantastic Karlstad, Sweden 15-17 June, 2027
www.kau.se
September 17, 2026 at 11:18 AM
The second European Conference on the Fantastic is in Sweden next June. You should come to Sweden, it's fantastic!
www.kau.se/kufo/aktivit...
www.kau.se/kufo/aktivit...
Reposted by Nick Harkaway
Friend shared this video of a man unveiling the library he hid when he fled Damascus in 2011. It’s incredible
September 17, 2026 at 9:41 AM
Friend shared this video of a man unveiling the library he hid when he fled Damascus in 2011. It’s incredible
Did a thing at Waterstones Piccadilly last night with Mark Dunton, co-author of The MI5 Archive
www.waterstones.com/book/the-mi5...
www.waterstones.com/book/the-mi5...
The MI5 Archive by Mark Dunton, Stephen Twigge | Waterstones
Buy The MI5 Archive by Mark Dunton, Stephen Twigge from Waterstones today! Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over £25.
www.waterstones.com
September 17, 2026 at 7:59 AM
Did a thing at Waterstones Piccadilly last night with Mark Dunton, co-author of The MI5 Archive
www.waterstones.com/book/the-mi5...
www.waterstones.com/book/the-mi5...
Unlimbering the ole blocky finger for some new account with Legitimate Piddington Questions tra la la
September 17, 2026 at 7:07 AM
Unlimbering the ole blocky finger for some new account with Legitimate Piddington Questions tra la la
Apparently it is That Day. Just had to separate a rotund late 40s guy with anger issues from a bewildered octogenarian at the tube. Guy was honestly lining up to smack him. Unbelievable.
September 16, 2026 at 8:11 AM
Apparently it is That Day. Just had to separate a rotund late 40s guy with anger issues from a bewildered octogenarian at the tube. Guy was honestly lining up to smack him. Unbelievable.
I have just learned about Piddington and that is ten minutes I will never get back.
September 16, 2026 at 7:01 AM
I have just learned about Piddington and that is ten minutes I will never get back.
Reposted by Nick Harkaway
Wandered into my local indie bookshop and bought the new 1,246 page China Mieville novel The Rouse and the somewhat shorter Exit Party by Emily St John Mandel.
September 15, 2026 at 11:32 AM
Wandered into my local indie bookshop and bought the new 1,246 page China Mieville novel The Rouse and the somewhat shorter Exit Party by Emily St John Mandel.
Reposted by Nick Harkaway
As I've mentioned ad nauseum, I've spent my summer writing up the foresight review on safe adoption of AI in engineering that I've been working on for the past year (will be published in December). At the heart of it are some observations about AI safety culture (which is the hottest of hot messes)
September 15, 2026 at 7:58 AM
As I've mentioned ad nauseum, I've spent my summer writing up the foresight review on safe adoption of AI in engineering that I've been working on for the past year (will be published in December). At the heart of it are some observations about AI safety culture (which is the hottest of hot messes)
I am a couple of inches into the last box of the tip-ins
September 14, 2026 at 7:06 AM
I am a couple of inches into the last box of the tip-ins
fascinating thread
In recent cases, it's not that AI somehow "escaped containment" or "went rogue." That's anthropomorphizing at best.
It's more like if a Boston Dynamics robot dog nudged open an already open door and walked in.
It's more like if a Boston Dynamics robot dog nudged open an already open door and walked in.
September 14, 2026 at 7:04 AM
fascinating thread
Reposted by Nick Harkaway
JOB!! The Department of History at the University of Ottawa invites applications for a position in medieval and/or transregional history, 7th-16th centuries. French or English, bilingualism an asset. universityaffairs.ca/search-jobs/...
August 28, 2026 at 1:28 PM
JOB!! The Department of History at the University of Ottawa invites applications for a position in medieval and/or transregional history, 7th-16th centuries. French or English, bilingualism an asset. universityaffairs.ca/search-jobs/...
Would have been great if someone in government at any time in the last thirty years had had the stones to outlaw massive donations. But I guess you could say that about so many things.
Nigel Farage receives second £36m donation in two days – Harborne matches Delo’s donation www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/202...
www.telegraph.co.uk
September 12, 2026 at 11:52 AM
Would have been great if someone in government at any time in the last thirty years had had the stones to outlaw massive donations. But I guess you could say that about so many things.
This is not, in fact, fine.
September 12, 2026 at 11:36 AM
This is not, in fact, fine.
I picked this up almost by accident because I didn’t have any Sharpies. I say “almost” because this was one of my dad’s pens. So now I’m feeling a bit contemplative.
September 11, 2026 at 4:39 PM
I picked this up almost by accident because I didn’t have any Sharpies. I say “almost” because this was one of my dad’s pens. So now I’m feeling a bit contemplative.
Give me strength. I'm signing tip-ins.
September 11, 2026 at 3:06 PM
Give me strength. I'm signing tip-ins.
Reposted by Nick Harkaway
The balaclava blackshirted thugs are a result of a decade of politicians, tabloids and the broadcast media telling racists they have "legitimate concerns."
The normalisation of actual fascism rhetoric and action has led to this and is a far greater "legitimate concern" than any migrant on a boat.
The normalisation of actual fascism rhetoric and action has led to this and is a far greater "legitimate concern" than any migrant on a boat.
September 9, 2026 at 8:34 AM
The balaclava blackshirted thugs are a result of a decade of politicians, tabloids and the broadcast media telling racists they have "legitimate concerns."
The normalisation of actual fascism rhetoric and action has led to this and is a far greater "legitimate concern" than any migrant on a boat.
The normalisation of actual fascism rhetoric and action has led to this and is a far greater "legitimate concern" than any migrant on a boat.
Reposted by Nick Harkaway
What I love about the people answering “negative” is they are basically saying “the last thousand years? I don’t care for them”.
As the Bayeux Tapestry opens to the public at the British Museum, what impact do Britons think the Norman Conquest had on British history?
Positive: 25%
Neither: 25%
Negative: 6%
Don't know: 44%
yougov.com/en-gb/daily-...
Positive: 25%
Neither: 25%
Negative: 6%
Don't know: 44%
yougov.com/en-gb/daily-...
September 10, 2026 at 11:34 PM
What I love about the people answering “negative” is they are basically saying “the last thousand years? I don’t care for them”.
I’m talking to Mark Dunton about The MI5 Archive next week… come join us!
www.waterstones.com/events/the-m...
www.waterstones.com/events/the-m...
The MI5 Archive: Mark Dunton in Conversation with Nick Harkaway at Waterstones Piccadilly | Events at Waterstones Bookshops | Waterstones
Events at Waterstones get you closer to the books and authors you admire most. Find information and tickets about The MI5 Archive: Mark Dunton in Conversation with Nick Harkaway at Waterstones Piccadi...
www.waterstones.com
September 11, 2026 at 9:28 AM
I’m talking to Mark Dunton about The MI5 Archive next week… come join us!
www.waterstones.com/events/the-m...
www.waterstones.com/events/the-m...
Has anyone projected when we might reach Peak Stupid? Because intuitively it seems like we must be getting close.
Interesting as an art project. Fucking insane as something a real-life defence contractor actually built. share.google/3syL2zCvP4Jt...
September 10, 2026 at 10:40 AM
Has anyone projected when we might reach Peak Stupid? Because intuitively it seems like we must be getting close.