F. T. Berner
@ftberner.bsky.social
I live in Italy, but I dream of other worlds below these sunny landscapes, so I write speculative fiction.
First snow of the year ❄️❄️❄️
November 24, 2025 at 8:11 PM
First snow of the year ❄️❄️❄️
Reposted by F. T. Berner
Journalist challenge: Use “Machine Learning” when you mean machine learning and “LLM” when you mean LLM. Ditch “AI” as a catch-all term, it’s not useful for readers and it helps companies trying to confuse the public by obscuring the roles played by different technologies. 🧪
November 22, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Journalist challenge: Use “Machine Learning” when you mean machine learning and “LLM” when you mean LLM. Ditch “AI” as a catch-all term, it’s not useful for readers and it helps companies trying to confuse the public by obscuring the roles played by different technologies. 🧪
Reposted by F. T. Berner
i think a lot of people who only speak english think translation is like an exact scientific process or something and don’t realize there’s any nuance and artistry in it
November 8, 2025 at 4:56 AM
i think a lot of people who only speak english think translation is like an exact scientific process or something and don’t realize there’s any nuance and artistry in it
Reposted by F. T. Berner
This! The emphasis on respect is so important. So often AI is hyped up to “solve problems quickly” but these “solutions” always lack respect for the people that will be impacted by AI outputs.
November 7, 2025 at 3:12 PM
This! The emphasis on respect is so important. So often AI is hyped up to “solve problems quickly” but these “solutions” always lack respect for the people that will be impacted by AI outputs.
This!
Good literary translation requires understanding (language, culture, genre--on both sides of the translation) and an ability to write well. "AI" can't do that. There are no shortcuts. Treat your work and foreign language readers with the respect they deserve. You won't fool anyone with this.
Amazon has launched a new AI-driven translation service, Kindle Translate, for Kindle Direct Publishing authors 👇 #BookSky
November 7, 2025 at 3:01 PM
This!
Reposted by F. T. Berner
A halloween cartoon for @newscientist.com
October 31, 2025 at 11:27 AM
A halloween cartoon for @newscientist.com
Reposted by F. T. Berner
Read in public. Read in private. Read e-books, genre books, comics, fanfiction. Read literature. Read nonfiction. Read books you’ve already read. Listen to audiobooks. Read what you want. There’s no such thing as “doing reading the wrong way.”
October 29, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Read in public. Read in private. Read e-books, genre books, comics, fanfiction. Read literature. Read nonfiction. Read books you’ve already read. Listen to audiobooks. Read what you want. There’s no such thing as “doing reading the wrong way.”
A skeet review of my story. @cypayseur.bsky.social called it "a moving experience"! *happy dance*
Go read it if you haven't yet!
Go read it if you haven't yet!
F.T. Berner's story is more angsty and melancholy, about ecological research, exploitation, guilt, and atonement, and it makes for a moving experience.
So a nice issue, which you can find under Diabolical Plots' fiction tag here: www.diabolicalplots.com/category/fic...
So a nice issue, which you can find under Diabolical Plots' fiction tag here: www.diabolicalplots.com/category/fic...
Fiction – Diabolical Plots
www.diabolicalplots.com
October 11, 2025 at 12:00 PM
A skeet review of my story. @cypayseur.bsky.social called it "a moving experience"! *happy dance*
Go read it if you haven't yet!
Go read it if you haven't yet!
Yay, my little story is now available to read on @diabolicalplots.com !!!
New fiction!
"On the Effects and Efficiency of Birdsong: A Meta-Analysis" by F.T. Berner @ftberner.bsky.social
www.diabolicalplots.com/dp-fiction-1...
"On the Effects and Efficiency of Birdsong: A Meta-Analysis" by F.T. Berner @ftberner.bsky.social
www.diabolicalplots.com/dp-fiction-1...
September 16, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Yay, my little story is now available to read on @diabolicalplots.com !!!
Reposted by F. T. Berner
Unsolicited writing advice, no. 13:
If you are lucky enough to be translated into other languages, always know this: you are NOTHING without your translator. Your translator has skills far beyond just putting words into another language. A good translator is a stylist, an interpreter, a composer.
If you are lucky enough to be translated into other languages, always know this: you are NOTHING without your translator. Your translator has skills far beyond just putting words into another language. A good translator is a stylist, an interpreter, a composer.
August 31, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Unsolicited writing advice, no. 13:
If you are lucky enough to be translated into other languages, always know this: you are NOTHING without your translator. Your translator has skills far beyond just putting words into another language. A good translator is a stylist, an interpreter, a composer.
If you are lucky enough to be translated into other languages, always know this: you are NOTHING without your translator. Your translator has skills far beyond just putting words into another language. A good translator is a stylist, an interpreter, a composer.
Happy publication day to meeeee...
My new story is now available for subscribers on the Diabolical Plots Patreon. Go subscribe, maybe?
www.patreon.com/diabolicalpl...
My new story is now available for subscribers on the Diabolical Plots Patreon. Go subscribe, maybe?
www.patreon.com/diabolicalpl...
August 15, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Happy publication day to meeeee...
My new story is now available for subscribers on the Diabolical Plots Patreon. Go subscribe, maybe?
www.patreon.com/diabolicalpl...
My new story is now available for subscribers on the Diabolical Plots Patreon. Go subscribe, maybe?
www.patreon.com/diabolicalpl...
"The chatbot gives the impression of an intelligence that is specifically engaging with you and your work, but that impression is nothing more than a statistical trick."
Modern AI tools emulate the classic con-man tricks of mentalism, tricking people into believing that they’re far more clever - and sapient - than they actually are.
Fantastic piece by @baldurbjarnason.com :
softwarecrisis.dev/letters/llme...
Fantastic piece by @baldurbjarnason.com :
softwarecrisis.dev/letters/llme...
The LLMentalist Effect: how chat-based Large Language Models rep…
The new era of tech seems to be built on superstitious behaviour
softwarecrisis.dev
August 12, 2025 at 3:56 PM
"The chatbot gives the impression of an intelligence that is specifically engaging with you and your work, but that impression is nothing more than a statistical trick."
In a Venice state of mind...
August 10, 2025 at 9:37 AM
In a Venice state of mind...
Reposted by F. T. Berner
Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new.
July 19, 2025 at 12:32 AM
Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new.
Welcome to the world, @fantasymagazine.bsky.social
I'm so happy about this!
I'm so happy about this!
the new, renewed, published by us issue of @fantasymagazine.bsky.social just dropped!
go read amazing, fantastical short stories, flash fiction, poems, and interviews put together by Co-Editors-in-Chief @shingai-be-like.bsky.social and @arleysorg.bsky.social with special thx to @ecatherine.com
go read amazing, fantastical short stories, flash fiction, poems, and interviews put together by Co-Editors-in-Chief @shingai-be-like.bsky.social and @arleysorg.bsky.social with special thx to @ecatherine.com
Fantasy Homepage - PSYCHOPOMP.COM
Subscribe to Fantasy Magazine now and receive the ePub + PDF instantly in your inbox for only $5/quarter:
psychopomp.com
June 3, 2025 at 6:46 AM
Welcome to the world, @fantasymagazine.bsky.social
I'm so happy about this!
I'm so happy about this!
Reposted by F. T. Berner
Reposted by F. T. Berner
We're living through the Who Cares Era, where completely disposable things are shoddily produced for people to mostly ignore, while the government stomps its uncaring boot on our necks. But there's an easy way to fight back: Care.
I wrote about it: dansinker.com/posts/2025-0...
I wrote about it: dansinker.com/posts/2025-0...
May 23, 2025 at 11:27 PM
We're living through the Who Cares Era, where completely disposable things are shoddily produced for people to mostly ignore, while the government stomps its uncaring boot on our necks. But there's an easy way to fight back: Care.
I wrote about it: dansinker.com/posts/2025-0...
I wrote about it: dansinker.com/posts/2025-0...
Reposted by F. T. Berner
We tend to assume boredom is something to be avoided, but in centuries past you would go wandering through the woods or stare at the walls of a cave for an hour and accidentally invent beer or a new religion or write Alice in Wonderland.
May 14, 2025 at 7:29 PM
We tend to assume boredom is something to be avoided, but in centuries past you would go wandering through the woods or stare at the walls of a cave for an hour and accidentally invent beer or a new religion or write Alice in Wonderland.
Reposted by F. T. Berner
On this day in 1797, the sun finally set on the Venetian Republic. On 12 May, the Maggior Consiglio voted itself out of existence in the face of the overwhelming threat from Revolutionary France's Army of Italy. Napoleon claimed to bring liberty and democracy. He brought neither.
May 13, 2025 at 10:50 AM
On this day in 1797, the sun finally set on the Venetian Republic. On 12 May, the Maggior Consiglio voted itself out of existence in the face of the overwhelming threat from Revolutionary France's Army of Italy. Napoleon claimed to bring liberty and democracy. He brought neither.
Reposted by F. T. Berner
Writers: before you sign a contract with a publisher, make sure AI isn't replacing your illustrator, your translator, your editor, your jacket designer. Readers: if you're thinking of buying a book, do the same. Refuse. Resist. If AI garbage doesn't sell, people will stop making it.
May 11, 2025 at 10:53 AM
Writers: before you sign a contract with a publisher, make sure AI isn't replacing your illustrator, your translator, your editor, your jacket designer. Readers: if you're thinking of buying a book, do the same. Refuse. Resist. If AI garbage doesn't sell, people will stop making it.
Reposted by F. T. Berner
If this all feels too much to fight, start small. Take "aspiring writer" out of your bio and replace it with "writer." Stop saying things like "I don't have a proper job." Support creators; translators; illustrators. Boycott AI generated junk.
We are many. They are few. And we have the words.
We are many. They are few. And we have the words.
May 11, 2025 at 10:38 AM
If this all feels too much to fight, start small. Take "aspiring writer" out of your bio and replace it with "writer." Stop saying things like "I don't have a proper job." Support creators; translators; illustrators. Boycott AI generated junk.
We are many. They are few. And we have the words.
We are many. They are few. And we have the words.
Reposted by F. T. Berner
January 31, 2024 at 6:45 PM
Reposted by F. T. Berner
I've been thinking about this since the rise of machine translation, and even more since I started teaching TL. When I came up as a translator, I did a lot of brute force translation work—reams of emails about shipping delays, HR presentations, customer surveys, just the drudgiest of drudge work.
same in commercial translation I think. If the trend continues this will be the last generation of translators with a nose capable of sniffing out the shit. A generation raised inside the dungheap will never be able to develop the instincts needed to sniff out the shit
Was at a conference dinner a while back and one guy said "The future is AI. It doesn't replace senior developers, but no more need for juniors."
To which i replied:
"Where do you think senior developers come from. Straight from the womb?"
He went quiet, then wandered off to a different huddle.
To which i replied:
"Where do you think senior developers come from. Straight from the womb?"
He went quiet, then wandered off to a different huddle.
May 9, 2025 at 3:50 PM
I've been thinking about this since the rise of machine translation, and even more since I started teaching TL. When I came up as a translator, I did a lot of brute force translation work—reams of emails about shipping delays, HR presentations, customer surveys, just the drudgiest of drudge work.
Reposted by F. T. Berner
Was at a conference dinner a while back and one guy said "The future is AI. It doesn't replace senior developers, but no more need for juniors."
To which i replied:
"Where do you think senior developers come from. Straight from the womb?"
He went quiet, then wandered off to a different huddle.
To which i replied:
"Where do you think senior developers come from. Straight from the womb?"
He went quiet, then wandered off to a different huddle.
Yesterday it was a middle aged woman in my gym doing the same thing. Talking a young man’s ear off about how much chatGPT helps her do her work. Charts and writing — “i’m not good at that and now i don’t need someone in the org flow to do it”.
On the C train in Manhattan, two women — middle age, business look, clearly lawyers from the conversation — going on and on about ChatGPT. Helping them do research, write briefs, even plant a garden at home! So quick and easy!
Ugghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Ugghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
May 9, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Was at a conference dinner a while back and one guy said "The future is AI. It doesn't replace senior developers, but no more need for juniors."
To which i replied:
"Where do you think senior developers come from. Straight from the womb?"
He went quiet, then wandered off to a different huddle.
To which i replied:
"Where do you think senior developers come from. Straight from the womb?"
He went quiet, then wandered off to a different huddle.