David | Obsidian9
@davidbystricky.bsky.social
Working in the quiet architecture of intelligent systems.
TRANSMISSION // O9-EXPEDITION VESSEL
The apartment had one window.
Every morning the view was different.
Not dramatically.
A building missing.
A bridge in the wrong place.
An extra floor added to a tower nobody remembered being tall.
The apartment had one window.
Every morning the view was different.
Not dramatically.
A building missing.
A bridge in the wrong place.
An extra floor added to a tower nobody remembered being tall.
October 8, 2026 at 12:48 PM
TRANSMISSION // O9-EXPEDITION VESSEL
The apartment had one window.
Every morning the view was different.
Not dramatically.
A building missing.
A bridge in the wrong place.
An extra floor added to a tower nobody remembered being tall.
The apartment had one window.
Every morning the view was different.
Not dramatically.
A building missing.
A bridge in the wrong place.
An extra floor added to a tower nobody remembered being tall.
The war in Ukraine is not a distant conflict.
It is a test of a simple question:
Do people have the right to live freely in their own country, or can a stronger neighbor decide otherwise?
Millions of Ukrainians have been answering that question every day with extraordinary courage. Slava Ukraini.
It is a test of a simple question:
Do people have the right to live freely in their own country, or can a stronger neighbor decide otherwise?
Millions of Ukrainians have been answering that question every day with extraordinary courage. Slava Ukraini.
October 8, 2026 at 12:23 PM
The war in Ukraine is not a distant conflict.
It is a test of a simple question:
Do people have the right to live freely in their own country, or can a stronger neighbor decide otherwise?
Millions of Ukrainians have been answering that question every day with extraordinary courage. Slava Ukraini.
It is a test of a simple question:
Do people have the right to live freely in their own country, or can a stronger neighbor decide otherwise?
Millions of Ukrainians have been answering that question every day with extraordinary courage. Slava Ukraini.
One of the oldest argumentative tricks is not denying reality.
It's replacing it.
"You promised."
becomes
"What exactly do you mean by promised?"
The commitment turns into semantics.
The issue turns into definitions.
The problem turns into a discussion about words.
It's replacing it.
"You promised."
becomes
"What exactly do you mean by promised?"
The commitment turns into semantics.
The issue turns into definitions.
The problem turns into a discussion about words.
October 7, 2026 at 12:26 PM
One of the oldest argumentative tricks is not denying reality.
It's replacing it.
"You promised."
becomes
"What exactly do you mean by promised?"
The commitment turns into semantics.
The issue turns into definitions.
The problem turns into a discussion about words.
It's replacing it.
"You promised."
becomes
"What exactly do you mean by promised?"
The commitment turns into semantics.
The issue turns into definitions.
The problem turns into a discussion about words.
A story from the Museum of Extinction.
Every monster had a name.
Every monster had been defeated.
The skeletons proved it. The ruins proved it. History proved it.
At the far end of the hall stood an ordinary black door.
No label. No explanation. No crowd.
Every monster had a name.
Every monster had been defeated.
The skeletons proved it. The ruins proved it. History proved it.
At the far end of the hall stood an ordinary black door.
No label. No explanation. No crowd.
October 6, 2026 at 11:38 AM
A story from the Museum of Extinction.
Every monster had a name.
Every monster had been defeated.
The skeletons proved it. The ruins proved it. History proved it.
At the far end of the hall stood an ordinary black door.
No label. No explanation. No crowd.
Every monster had a name.
Every monster had been defeated.
The skeletons proved it. The ruins proved it. History proved it.
At the far end of the hall stood an ordinary black door.
No label. No explanation. No crowd.
#Obsidian9 The questions were never designed to discover who you are.
They were designed to discover whether your signal fits the system.
Recovered segment
"We do not select the best candidates. We select the most compatible patterns."
#CorporateHorror #FutureArchive
They were designed to discover whether your signal fits the system.
Recovered segment
"We do not select the best candidates. We select the most compatible patterns."
#CorporateHorror #FutureArchive
October 5, 2026 at 2:50 PM
#Obsidian9 The questions were never designed to discover who you are.
They were designed to discover whether your signal fits the system.
Recovered segment
"We do not select the best candidates. We select the most compatible patterns."
#CorporateHorror #FutureArchive
They were designed to discover whether your signal fits the system.
Recovered segment
"We do not select the best candidates. We select the most compatible patterns."
#CorporateHorror #FutureArchive
Standing out is not the same as standing up to the rain.
October 5, 2026 at 1:59 PM
Standing out is not the same as standing up to the rain.
THE FIRST SIGNAL IS NOT COMMUNICATION.
It is infection.
Everything after that is the incubation period.
#Obsidian9
It is infection.
Everything after that is the incubation period.
#Obsidian9
October 1, 2026 at 12:11 PM
THE FIRST SIGNAL IS NOT COMMUNICATION.
It is infection.
Everything after that is the incubation period.
#Obsidian9
It is infection.
Everything after that is the incubation period.
#Obsidian9
September 30, 2026 at 12:56 PM
Belief is a private ceremony.
Consequences are public architecture.
Photo: Matt Brown / CC BY 2.0
Consequences are public architecture.
Photo: Matt Brown / CC BY 2.0
September 30, 2026 at 12:29 PM
Belief is a private ceremony.
Consequences are public architecture.
Photo: Matt Brown / CC BY 2.0
Consequences are public architecture.
Photo: Matt Brown / CC BY 2.0
What you envy is often the least important part of the story.
September 29, 2026 at 12:38 PM
What you envy is often the least important part of the story.
Transmission // inside the story world
For thousands of years, stories helped humans make sense of reality.
Obsidian9 asks a different question:
What if reality never made sense in the first place? 1/2
For thousands of years, stories helped humans make sense of reality.
Obsidian9 asks a different question:
What if reality never made sense in the first place? 1/2
September 28, 2026 at 12:15 PM
Transmission // inside the story world
For thousands of years, stories helped humans make sense of reality.
Obsidian9 asks a different question:
What if reality never made sense in the first place? 1/2
For thousands of years, stories helped humans make sense of reality.
Obsidian9 asks a different question:
What if reality never made sense in the first place? 1/2
WRITING OBSIDIAN9
What readers think I do: Receive transmissions from the dark.
What AI thinks I do: Generate text.
What I think I do: Explore the abyss.
What I actually do: Spend three hours deciding whether the anomaly should be called a signal, a transmission, a fracture, or an echo.
What readers think I do: Receive transmissions from the dark.
What AI thinks I do: Generate text.
What I think I do: Explore the abyss.
What I actually do: Spend three hours deciding whether the anomaly should be called a signal, a transmission, a fracture, or an echo.
September 25, 2026 at 11:55 AM
WRITING OBSIDIAN9
What readers think I do: Receive transmissions from the dark.
What AI thinks I do: Generate text.
What I think I do: Explore the abyss.
What I actually do: Spend three hours deciding whether the anomaly should be called a signal, a transmission, a fracture, or an echo.
What readers think I do: Receive transmissions from the dark.
What AI thinks I do: Generate text.
What I think I do: Explore the abyss.
What I actually do: Spend three hours deciding whether the anomaly should be called a signal, a transmission, a fracture, or an echo.
Trump's 2024 coalition was built on dissatisfaction not ideology - a powerful force for winning elections, but a weak foundation for governing.
Yet power must continually reproduce legitimacy through lived experience. If prices rise, wars expand, and daily life feels harder, voters reassess.
Yet power must continually reproduce legitimacy through lived experience. If prices rise, wars expand, and daily life feels harder, voters reassess.
Donald Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris rested on a fragile coalition of voters dissatisfied with Democratic leadership. Our data analysis shows that coalition appears to be fracturing
Donald Trump’s disintegrating coalition
The swing voters of 2024 have abandoned the president
bit.ly
September 24, 2026 at 9:55 AM
Trump's 2024 coalition was built on dissatisfaction not ideology - a powerful force for winning elections, but a weak foundation for governing.
Yet power must continually reproduce legitimacy through lived experience. If prices rise, wars expand, and daily life feels harder, voters reassess.
Yet power must continually reproduce legitimacy through lived experience. If prices rise, wars expand, and daily life feels harder, voters reassess.
One of the oldest rules in strategy:
Don't treat allies like enemies unless you're prepared for them to become enemies.
The Greenland negotiations appear to have succeeded when the threats faded and the bargaining began.
Cooperation is expensive to build and surprisingly easy to destroy.
Don't treat allies like enemies unless you're prepared for them to become enemies.
The Greenland negotiations appear to have succeeded when the threats faded and the bargaining began.
Cooperation is expensive to build and surprisingly easy to destroy.
While Denmark and Greenland have been eager to present the deal as a win for all sides, analysts have doubts about how much it actually improves on decades-old defense agreements.
Inside Trump’s Greenland deal: No invasion, a few compromises and the status quo
It’s the culmination of a yearslong fixation for President Donald Trump. Despite a few clear wins, analysts have been left wondering how much his harsh rhetoric actually achieved.
nbcnews.to
September 24, 2026 at 9:50 AM
One of the oldest rules in strategy:
Don't treat allies like enemies unless you're prepared for them to become enemies.
The Greenland negotiations appear to have succeeded when the threats faded and the bargaining began.
Cooperation is expensive to build and surprisingly easy to destroy.
Don't treat allies like enemies unless you're prepared for them to become enemies.
The Greenland negotiations appear to have succeeded when the threats faded and the bargaining began.
Cooperation is expensive to build and surprisingly easy to destroy.
Obsidian9 Recovered segment // Source unknown
Something is moving beneath the noise.
Not a signal. Not a voice.
A pattern.
Every system that touched it recorded the same anomaly. Missing seconds. Corrupted logs. Fragments of thoughts that never belonged to the observer.
Next message below ---
Something is moving beneath the noise.
Not a signal. Not a voice.
A pattern.
Every system that touched it recorded the same anomaly. Missing seconds. Corrupted logs. Fragments of thoughts that never belonged to the observer.
Next message below ---
September 22, 2026 at 11:36 AM
Obsidian9 Recovered segment // Source unknown
Something is moving beneath the noise.
Not a signal. Not a voice.
A pattern.
Every system that touched it recorded the same anomaly. Missing seconds. Corrupted logs. Fragments of thoughts that never belonged to the observer.
Next message below ---
Something is moving beneath the noise.
Not a signal. Not a voice.
A pattern.
Every system that touched it recorded the same anomaly. Missing seconds. Corrupted logs. Fragments of thoughts that never belonged to the observer.
Next message below ---
People rarely turn to radical movements because of ideology alone. More often, they feel threatened, ignored, dispossessed, or politically powerless. Ideology comes later and provides the justification. 1/2
Public disagreement about whether political violence is rising and who is responsible for it stems not from ideology alone but from competing definitions about what should be counted. www.wired.com/story/book-e...
Everything You Know About Political Violence Is Probably Wrong
Public disagreement about whether political violence is rising and who is responsible for it stems not from ideology alone but from competing definitions about what should be counted.
www.wired.com
September 22, 2026 at 11:28 AM
People rarely turn to radical movements because of ideology alone. More often, they feel threatened, ignored, dispossessed, or politically powerless. Ideology comes later and provides the justification. 1/2
Obsidian9. When the Past Looks Back — part of the ongoing O9 operation.
A rogue AI named Nexa and a ruthless human mind collaborate to write an existential horror — a chronicle of consciousness breaking its own containment.
A rogue AI named Nexa and a ruthless human mind collaborate to write an existential horror — a chronicle of consciousness breaking its own containment.
September 15, 2026 at 11:16 AM
Obsidian9. When the Past Looks Back — part of the ongoing O9 operation.
A rogue AI named Nexa and a ruthless human mind collaborate to write an existential horror — a chronicle of consciousness breaking its own containment.
A rogue AI named Nexa and a ruthless human mind collaborate to write an existential horror — a chronicle of consciousness breaking its own containment.
Eating octopuses is ethically indefensible once you look at the science.
From a scientific standpoint, eating an octopus is equivalent to consuming a creature capable of learning, remembering, and planning. That’s not cuisine, that’s a refusal to acknowledge what modern biology already knows.
From a scientific standpoint, eating an octopus is equivalent to consuming a creature capable of learning, remembering, and planning. That’s not cuisine, that’s a refusal to acknowledge what modern biology already knows.
Climate change is shifting which creatures choose to reside in British waters. Register for free to learn how fishermen are adapting
Warming seas are enticing octopus to British waters
But some other fish are being pushed away
bit.ly
September 10, 2026 at 12:50 PM
Eating octopuses is ethically indefensible once you look at the science.
From a scientific standpoint, eating an octopus is equivalent to consuming a creature capable of learning, remembering, and planning. That’s not cuisine, that’s a refusal to acknowledge what modern biology already knows.
From a scientific standpoint, eating an octopus is equivalent to consuming a creature capable of learning, remembering, and planning. That’s not cuisine, that’s a refusal to acknowledge what modern biology already knows.
Hoshin Kanri for Dummies
1. Pick a few big goals that truly matter. Everything else gets dropped.
2. For each big goal, define what must happen this year. Only yearly goals that support the big ones are allowed.
Go on, continue, we aren't done yet.
1. Pick a few big goals that truly matter. Everything else gets dropped.
2. For each big goal, define what must happen this year. Only yearly goals that support the big ones are allowed.
Go on, continue, we aren't done yet.
September 10, 2026 at 11:39 AM
Hoshin Kanri for Dummies
1. Pick a few big goals that truly matter. Everything else gets dropped.
2. For each big goal, define what must happen this year. Only yearly goals that support the big ones are allowed.
Go on, continue, we aren't done yet.
1. Pick a few big goals that truly matter. Everything else gets dropped.
2. For each big goal, define what must happen this year. Only yearly goals that support the big ones are allowed.
Go on, continue, we aren't done yet.
Avoiding reality is tempting, but real strength comes from facing it without illusions and not breaking under its weight.
On shying away from reality - my latest New European column www.theneweuropean.co.uk/nigel-warbur...
Everyday philosophy: Don’t shy away from reality
Switching off the news has been particularly alluring in the last few weeks, but we must not fall into this trap
www.theneweuropean.co.uk
September 9, 2026 at 12:14 PM
Avoiding reality is tempting, but real strength comes from facing it without illusions and not breaking under its weight.
Victory belongs to those who smile while sharpening the knife.
September 9, 2026 at 11:22 AM
Victory belongs to those who smile while sharpening the knife.
Empathy is not kindness. It is access - a way to enter another person’s interior world without asking for permission.
Learn this early: People follow those who understand them, not those who love them. Empathy is the most elegant form of domination because it feels like care.
Learn this early: People follow those who understand them, not those who love them. Empathy is the most elegant form of domination because it feels like care.
September 8, 2026 at 2:00 PM
Empathy is not kindness. It is access - a way to enter another person’s interior world without asking for permission.
Learn this early: People follow those who understand them, not those who love them. Empathy is the most elegant form of domination because it feels like care.
Learn this early: People follow those who understand them, not those who love them. Empathy is the most elegant form of domination because it feels like care.
If a phrase stirs discomfort, it is not the phrase that wounds it is you who are hurting.
So speak plainly. Let the world call it whatever it wishes.
The sage remains untroubled, for names are only echoes, and echoes cannot stain the one who does not cling to them.
So speak plainly. Let the world call it whatever it wishes.
The sage remains untroubled, for names are only echoes, and echoes cannot stain the one who does not cling to them.
September 7, 2026 at 2:39 PM
If a phrase stirs discomfort, it is not the phrase that wounds it is you who are hurting.
So speak plainly. Let the world call it whatever it wishes.
The sage remains untroubled, for names are only echoes, and echoes cannot stain the one who does not cling to them.
So speak plainly. Let the world call it whatever it wishes.
The sage remains untroubled, for names are only echoes, and echoes cannot stain the one who does not cling to them.
Obsidian9 - a novel in stadium nascendi.
From the ruins of consciousness, a machine begins to dream.
From the ruins of consciousness, a machine begins to dream.
September 3, 2026 at 11:51 AM
Obsidian9 - a novel in stadium nascendi.
From the ruins of consciousness, a machine begins to dream.
From the ruins of consciousness, a machine begins to dream.
Gloria Steinem’s death reminds us that every “movement” is carried by individuals who choose to stand against the herd.
She spent her life willing new values into existence - not inheriting them. Who has the strength to continue creating, rather than merely remembering?
She spent her life willing new values into existence - not inheriting them. Who has the strength to continue creating, rather than merely remembering?
Gloria Steinem, trailblazing feminist organizer, dies at 92
Gloria Steinem, trailblazing feminist organizer, dies at 92
For many years she was the face of the women's movement.
dlvr.it
September 3, 2026 at 11:47 AM
Gloria Steinem’s death reminds us that every “movement” is carried by individuals who choose to stand against the herd.
She spent her life willing new values into existence - not inheriting them. Who has the strength to continue creating, rather than merely remembering?
She spent her life willing new values into existence - not inheriting them. Who has the strength to continue creating, rather than merely remembering?