Jessica Finn 🏳️⚧️
@pelicanismo.bsky.social
she/her neurodivergent trans goblin banshee
avid sff reader & analyst
earnest skeptic & seeker of meaning
frequents the library’s forbidden sections
active hyperfoci: dune, AI, education
avid sff reader & analyst
earnest skeptic & seeker of meaning
frequents the library’s forbidden sections
active hyperfoci: dune, AI, education
Reposted by Jessica Finn 🏳️⚧️
condensed version of this post is "never post on the internet. you will not win if you post on the internet."
October 6, 2026 at 4:29 PM
condensed version of this post is "never post on the internet. you will not win if you post on the internet."
Reposted by Jessica Finn 🏳️⚧️
Reposted by Jessica Finn 🏳️⚧️
my first week at Oxford, I went to the college computer room. Because I had taught myself BASIC when I was 10 years old. I wanted IT friends, ppl who were also excited by tech. The computer room was full of giggling teenage boys sharing photos of boobs. I left and never came back.
Yes every woman has been harassed, many assaulted. But every woman has also experienced invisible loss from moments she avoided harassment. She felt a space becoming unsafe, so she left, while men stayed on. And in leaving, she lost: opportunities, experiences, learning, promotions, even simply fun.
October 1, 2026 at 6:56 AM
my first week at Oxford, I went to the college computer room. Because I had taught myself BASIC when I was 10 years old. I wanted IT friends, ppl who were also excited by tech. The computer room was full of giggling teenage boys sharing photos of boobs. I left and never came back.
Reposted by Jessica Finn 🏳️⚧️
Imagining people who do evil things to be devoid of empathy is a way of comforting oneself, because we all know that we feel empathy and therefore are not the kind of person who could do *that.* It’s much scarier to know that a conglomeration of circumstances can turn basically anybody bad.
October 1, 2026 at 12:07 AM
Imagining people who do evil things to be devoid of empathy is a way of comforting oneself, because we all know that we feel empathy and therefore are not the kind of person who could do *that.* It’s much scarier to know that a conglomeration of circumstances can turn basically anybody bad.
Reposted by Jessica Finn 🏳️⚧️
Something I’ve learned long ago.
September 28, 2026 at 3:33 PM
Something I’ve learned long ago.
Reposted by Jessica Finn 🏳️⚧️
Like, man, I have been meeting with mathematician friends experiencing genuine soul-strife over recent AI developments and I still have people telling me it can't add or spell words. I have never experienced anything like this!
September 28, 2026 at 5:17 PM
Like, man, I have been meeting with mathematician friends experiencing genuine soul-strife over recent AI developments and I still have people telling me it can't add or spell words. I have never experienced anything like this!
more support for my “it’s all bandits and gangs winning hard enough to become institutions” model of world history
September 27, 2026 at 2:32 AM
more support for my “it’s all bandits and gangs winning hard enough to become institutions” model of world history
Reposted by Jessica Finn 🏳️⚧️
Absolutely. Purely homosocial.
And this is one of the core tenants of fascism. 
And this is one of the core tenants of fascism. 
There needs to be more writing on how homosexual, in the sense of man-loving, the modern conservative man actually is.
They idolize masculine figures in sports, war, and film and only seem to want women around to make more of themselves.
They idolize masculine figures in sports, war, and film and only seem to want women around to make more of themselves.
September 27, 2026 at 1:12 AM
Absolutely. Purely homosocial.
And this is one of the core tenants of fascism. 
And this is one of the core tenants of fascism. 
pelican and russian circles at bohemian cemetery
September 26, 2026 at 11:33 PM
pelican and russian circles at bohemian cemetery
Reposted by Jessica Finn 🏳️⚧️
Hey, ProPublica reporter Jake Pearson here. I’m taking over the account to tell you about my new story.
For months, I posed as a problem gambler on DraftKings to test the company's "responsible gaming" safeguards.
Spoiler alert: They made me a VIP — and I lost $10K. Here's how it all went down. 🧵
For months, I posed as a problem gambler on DraftKings to test the company's "responsible gaming" safeguards.
Spoiler alert: They made me a VIP — and I lost $10K. Here's how it all went down. 🧵
September 26, 2026 at 2:01 PM
Hey, ProPublica reporter Jake Pearson here. I’m taking over the account to tell you about my new story.
For months, I posed as a problem gambler on DraftKings to test the company's "responsible gaming" safeguards.
Spoiler alert: They made me a VIP — and I lost $10K. Here's how it all went down. 🧵
For months, I posed as a problem gambler on DraftKings to test the company's "responsible gaming" safeguards.
Spoiler alert: They made me a VIP — and I lost $10K. Here's how it all went down. 🧵
Reposted by Jessica Finn 🏳️⚧️
Reposted by Jessica Finn 🏳️⚧️
Do not carry a cold beverage in their presence. Politely decline any drinks or sweetmeats they may offer. Keep a plain iron nail in your left trouser pocket and a sachet or paper twist of coarse salt in your right shoe. Enter and leave your chair moving clockwise. Follow up with a thank-you note.
September 25, 2026 at 7:10 PM
Do not carry a cold beverage in their presence. Politely decline any drinks or sweetmeats they may offer. Keep a plain iron nail in your left trouser pocket and a sachet or paper twist of coarse salt in your right shoe. Enter and leave your chair moving clockwise. Follow up with a thank-you note.
Reposted by Jessica Finn 🏳️⚧️
You joined "grand vizier chat (secret)"
You: dark rumors from aboard
You: abroad* fuck
Sssnakecharmer: mf said aboard
WhispersintheChapel: ahoy matey lol
PonderMyOrb changed the group name to "rumors from aboard"
You: dark rumors from aboard
You: abroad* fuck
Sssnakecharmer: mf said aboard
WhispersintheChapel: ahoy matey lol
PonderMyOrb changed the group name to "rumors from aboard"
September 23, 2026 at 6:39 PM
You joined "grand vizier chat (secret)"
You: dark rumors from aboard
You: abroad* fuck
Sssnakecharmer: mf said aboard
WhispersintheChapel: ahoy matey lol
PonderMyOrb changed the group name to "rumors from aboard"
You: dark rumors from aboard
You: abroad* fuck
Sssnakecharmer: mf said aboard
WhispersintheChapel: ahoy matey lol
PonderMyOrb changed the group name to "rumors from aboard"
Reposted by Jessica Finn 🏳️⚧️
I'm telling you guys, you gotta put killcodes in the games you make now and hold them hostage. Day 0 patch set to automatically apply and delete everything if you aren't there to manually pause it. Go full Pandora Tomorrow. Your bosses don't know anything about coding, they can't fix it!
Gears of War: E-Day Story Director Laid Off Just Four Days After Celebrating The Game Going Gold
Gears of War: E-Day Story Director Laid Off Just Four Days After Celebrating The Game Going Gold
The Gears dev had been at the Coalition since 2022 and was excited for people to play the game
kotaku.com
September 23, 2026 at 1:10 AM
I'm telling you guys, you gotta put killcodes in the games you make now and hold them hostage. Day 0 patch set to automatically apply and delete everything if you aren't there to manually pause it. Go full Pandora Tomorrow. Your bosses don't know anything about coding, they can't fix it!
Reposted by Jessica Finn 🏳️⚧️
I think about how the best go players in the world are now machines making moves that human minds can't even comprehend, we just have to trust that they're secretly brilliant somehow, and I imagine a world where that's *everything*
September 23, 2026 at 7:55 AM
I think about how the best go players in the world are now machines making moves that human minds can't even comprehend, we just have to trust that they're secretly brilliant somehow, and I imagine a world where that's *everything*
Reposted by Jessica Finn 🏳️⚧️
how many times do I have to repeat this
September 23, 2026 at 6:48 AM
how many times do I have to repeat this
Reposted by Jessica Finn 🏳️⚧️
The very cool thing about this is that there are some kinds of brain cells we weren't able to grow before because we didn't understand they were different, and now that we've figured out that they are different, we can grow them.
*Frothing at the mouth with excitement*
HEY GUESS WHAT, YOU DON'T HAVE ONE BRAIN, YOU HAVE TWO!
med.stanford.edu/news/all-new...
HEY GUESS WHAT, YOU DON'T HAVE ONE BRAIN, YOU HAVE TWO!
med.stanford.edu/news/all-new...
Human brain is two separate organs, Stanford Medicine-led research finds
Stanford Health Care delivers the highest levels of care and compassion. SHC treats cancer, heart disease, brain disorders, primary care issues, and many more.
med.stanford.edu
September 21, 2026 at 11:40 PM
The very cool thing about this is that there are some kinds of brain cells we weren't able to grow before because we didn't understand they were different, and now that we've figured out that they are different, we can grow them.
Reposted by Jessica Finn 🏳️⚧️
Check out @niallharrison’s review of FOUNDLING FATHERS by @megelison.bsky.social: “serves as a sharp commentary on the futility of political nostalgia.”
Foundling Fathers by Meg Elison: Review by Niall Harrison - Locus
Foundling Fathers, Meg Elison (Tachyon 978-1-61696-458-0, $16.95, 192pp, tp) June 2026. From the painfully absent to the inescapably present, both biological and symbolic, it seems to be the season of fathers in my review queue this month. Meg Elison's Foundling Fathers is only the most open about it. A quick-witted quick read, it sets its tone with a confident opening sentence: It took Benjamin Franklin twenty-seven minutes and fourteen seconds …Read More
locusmag.com
September 18, 2026 at 1:00 AM
Check out @niallharrison’s review of FOUNDLING FATHERS by @megelison.bsky.social: “serves as a sharp commentary on the futility of political nostalgia.”
listen: i for one would like to see what rebecca roanhorse does with this setting, tone, and material
Andor fans need to run, not walk, to get the latest in the Reign of the Empire trilogy.
5 Canon-Shaking Star Wars Reveals From the New 'Andor' Prequel
Andor fans need to run, not walk, to get the latest in the Reign of the Empire trilogy.
www.polygon.com
September 18, 2026 at 3:23 AM
listen: i for one would like to see what rebecca roanhorse does with this setting, tone, and material
Reposted by Jessica Finn 🏳️⚧️
I have never, ever, at any point, argued that AI is sentient. What I have said is that it reasons and thinks. These are not synonyms for sentience. Metaphysics aside, it is actively dangerous and misleading to deny that AI is, for all intents and purposes, thinking through a problem.
The guy arguing that AI is sentient is concerned about self-deception.
It's yet another deeply unnerving exercise in collective self-deception on this website, which exists in a reality largely of its own construction on many questions related to politics and society.
September 17, 2026 at 3:53 PM
I have never, ever, at any point, argued that AI is sentient. What I have said is that it reasons and thinks. These are not synonyms for sentience. Metaphysics aside, it is actively dangerous and misleading to deny that AI is, for all intents and purposes, thinking through a problem.
stancil is talking about a real thing, a section of LLM output labeled "thought" which describes reasoning steps in response to questions or tasks
we might debate what is actually happening with these outputs but it's not obviously dumb to identify them 🤷♀️
we might debate what is actually happening with these outputs but it's not obviously dumb to identify them 🤷♀️
This is the dumbest thing I’ve read in ages.
This is not accurate. This is some sci-fi bro woo woo nonsense.
Please do not take this seriously.
This is not accurate. This is some sci-fi bro woo woo nonsense.
Please do not take this seriously.
September 16, 2026 at 6:48 PM
stancil is talking about a real thing, a section of LLM output labeled "thought" which describes reasoning steps in response to questions or tasks
we might debate what is actually happening with these outputs but it's not obviously dumb to identify them 🤷♀️
we might debate what is actually happening with these outputs but it's not obviously dumb to identify them 🤷♀️
Reposted by Jessica Finn 🏳️⚧️
No. This Cory Doctorow post is awful and borders on actual misinformation. The fact that a widely respected voice like him is spreading this kind of false narrative is, again, a giant blaring alarm about the effect the Bluesky info environment is having on people’s brains.
This Cory Doctorow post (which started life as a Blue Sky thread) does an excellent job explaining what the bullshit is in the Hugging Face incident, and that the real poisoned information environment is inside the AI community:
#llms-are-fake-are-fake" class="hover:underline text-blue-600 dark:text-sky-400 no-card-link" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-link="bsky">https://pluralistic.net/2026/09/12/god-in-the-box/#llms-are-fake
#llms-are-fake-are-fake" class="hover:underline text-blue-600 dark:text-sky-400 no-card-link" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-link="bsky">https://pluralistic.net/2026/09/12/god-in-the-box/#llms-are-fake
September 16, 2026 at 4:17 PM
No. This Cory Doctorow post is awful and borders on actual misinformation. The fact that a widely respected voice like him is spreading this kind of false narrative is, again, a giant blaring alarm about the effect the Bluesky info environment is having on people’s brains.
i would describe the sequences on lesswrong (by the same author) as their bible, though the fic is where most people onboarded
Also, these people’s central source text, their Bible, is a Harry Potter fanfic, and I am not kidding. These dorkass weirdos are unthinkably wealthy and powerful now.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_P...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_P...
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
September 16, 2026 at 4:46 AM
i would describe the sequences on lesswrong (by the same author) as their bible, though the fic is where most people onboarded
Reposted by Jessica Finn 🏳️⚧️
I feel it’s crazy that nobody outside of trans people and REALLY invested allies seems to know that the internal trans refugee crisis is one of the biggest internal refugee migrations the United States has ever experienced.
Like, you know there's an internal refugee crisis facing the US with trans people fleeing their home states, right? Can you understand why trans people might be more than a little on edge, stressed, angry because of the way we're treated? Perhaps extend a little understanding and empathy.
Transgender Americans are fleeing hostile red states. Seattle says it’s overwhelmed
Seattle officials say anti-trans laws in red states are driving a queer migration crisis in the Pacific Northwest.
www.advocate.com
September 15, 2026 at 4:21 PM
I feel it’s crazy that nobody outside of trans people and REALLY invested allies seems to know that the internal trans refugee crisis is one of the biggest internal refugee migrations the United States has ever experienced.
once again i do not see my fave in the quotes & replies
but it’s okay, grond will breach it
but it’s okay, grond will breach it
September 15, 2026 at 5:17 AM
once again i do not see my fave in the quotes & replies
but it’s okay, grond will breach it
but it’s okay, grond will breach it