Sarah Friend
@isthisa.com
dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good
spiraling lying in bed thinking about all the times my heart was closed when it should have been open
February 6, 2026 at 9:09 AM
spiraling lying in bed thinking about all the times my heart was closed when it should have been open
many esoteric traditions involved cognitive protection rituals that one should engage in before contact with entities that may or may not be malevolent, full of temptations, deceptive, or seducing
this is more important now than ever before
this is more important now than ever before
February 3, 2026 at 9:59 AM
many esoteric traditions involved cognitive protection rituals that one should engage in before contact with entities that may or may not be malevolent, full of temptations, deceptive, or seducing
this is more important now than ever before
this is more important now than ever before
anyone who has read Accelerando will know the lobster-themed AI takeover was long coming
January 31, 2026 at 10:15 AM
anyone who has read Accelerando will know the lobster-themed AI takeover was long coming
One big thing I did in 2025 was finally receive a huge upgrade to my cyborg parts-and I decided to write more about it to get started on one of my 2026 experiments: writing about software
Read the full post on substack: open.substack.com/pub/isthisan...
Read the full post on substack: open.substack.com/pub/isthisan...
January 21, 2026 at 7:49 PM
One big thing I did in 2025 was finally receive a huge upgrade to my cyborg parts-and I decided to write more about it to get started on one of my 2026 experiments: writing about software
Read the full post on substack: open.substack.com/pub/isthisan...
Read the full post on substack: open.substack.com/pub/isthisan...
Reposted by Sarah Friend
stumpy the greyhound (and a sort of unofficial mascot of the media arts scene here in Berlin) is unfortunately battling soft tissue sarcoma, however this process has revealed his latent divinity, plz pray for his complete recovery
December 21, 2025 at 12:20 PM
stumpy the greyhound (and a sort of unofficial mascot of the media arts scene here in Berlin) is unfortunately battling soft tissue sarcoma, however this process has revealed his latent divinity, plz pray for his complete recovery
Reposted by Sarah Friend
telling my kids this was waymo
September 6, 2025 at 10:19 AM
telling my kids this was waymo
here's a shower thought that might make people mad:
AI boyfriends are going to be way more disruptive than AI girlfriends, because the average man is already used to way more self-sacrifice, subservience, and dare I say ... sycophancy ... from a partner than the average woman
AI boyfriends are going to be way more disruptive than AI girlfriends, because the average man is already used to way more self-sacrifice, subservience, and dare I say ... sycophancy ... from a partner than the average woman
July 12, 2025 at 9:00 AM
here's a shower thought that might make people mad:
AI boyfriends are going to be way more disruptive than AI girlfriends, because the average man is already used to way more self-sacrifice, subservience, and dare I say ... sycophancy ... from a partner than the average woman
AI boyfriends are going to be way more disruptive than AI girlfriends, because the average man is already used to way more self-sacrifice, subservience, and dare I say ... sycophancy ... from a partner than the average woman
humans could learn a lot from how dogs jump up and down and run around in a lil circle when they're happy, just saying
July 10, 2025 at 8:51 AM
humans could learn a lot from how dogs jump up and down and run around in a lil circle when they're happy, just saying
wondering today if the current rise of the online "critical internet researcher" (I support them) is a product of the first truly social media literate generation with useless graduate degrees now being out of the academy
July 8, 2025 at 1:52 PM
wondering today if the current rise of the online "critical internet researcher" (I support them) is a product of the first truly social media literate generation with useless graduate degrees now being out of the academy
wow maybe we should use this? if you ask English learners, they often complain about the utterly unhinged mapping of spelling to pronunciation. legitimately it makes the language a lot harder
also this can be read already by a fluent English speaker without any trouble and looks based?
also this can be read already by a fluent English speaker without any trouble and looks based?
This is totally readable and should replace English spelling imo www.theguardian.com/education/20...
The radical 1960s schools experiment that created a whole new alphabet – and left thousands of children unable to spell
Decades ago, a generation of UK schoolchildren unwittingly took part in an initiative aimed at boosting reading skills – with lasting consequences
www.theguardian.com
July 6, 2025 at 2:21 PM
wow maybe we should use this? if you ask English learners, they often complain about the utterly unhinged mapping of spelling to pronunciation. legitimately it makes the language a lot harder
also this can be read already by a fluent English speaker without any trouble and looks based?
also this can be read already by a fluent English speaker without any trouble and looks based?
considered going and submitting my work to Neurips, but as a non-student non-academic apparently I'm in the highest ticket price category
why bother having an arts track at all, if the only non-academic ticket is the highest-price industry one?
why bother having an arts track at all, if the only non-academic ticket is the highest-price industry one?
June 26, 2025 at 1:24 PM
considered going and submitting my work to Neurips, but as a non-student non-academic apparently I'm in the highest ticket price category
why bother having an arts track at all, if the only non-academic ticket is the highest-price industry one?
why bother having an arts track at all, if the only non-academic ticket is the highest-price industry one?
in this household Lain is famous
feel so vindicated about James K covering Duvet, after going around saying she sounds like bôa for years to mass confusion
June 20, 2025 at 9:19 AM
in this household Lain is famous
feel so vindicated about James K covering Duvet, after going around saying she sounds like bôa for years to mass confusion
June 20, 2025 at 9:19 AM
feel so vindicated about James K covering Duvet, after going around saying she sounds like bôa for years to mass confusion
ladies, is it a red flag if your bf is mean to Chat?
June 15, 2025 at 7:02 PM
ladies, is it a red flag if your bf is mean to Chat?
remind me to start tweeting about EU politics more so random drive-by Americans have more clues I'm not from there
June 11, 2025 at 8:30 AM
remind me to start tweeting about EU politics more so random drive-by Americans have more clues I'm not from there
I know there are a lot more urgent things going on in this world, but if you depend on any daily medications you should be securing a 6-8 month supply of them like, yesterday
June 10, 2025 at 11:18 AM
I know there are a lot more urgent things going on in this world, but if you depend on any daily medications you should be securing a 6-8 month supply of them like, yesterday
breaking news: no more
"interspecies communication"
"the more-than-human"
"multispecies thinking" etc
if I can't bring my dog to your event
"interspecies communication"
"the more-than-human"
"multispecies thinking" etc
if I can't bring my dog to your event
June 9, 2025 at 2:20 PM
breaking news: no more
"interspecies communication"
"the more-than-human"
"multispecies thinking" etc
if I can't bring my dog to your event
"interspecies communication"
"the more-than-human"
"multispecies thinking" etc
if I can't bring my dog to your event
if you run an art organization please for the love of god have an email list, instagram *cannot* be replied upon to show me your content unless you are also putting on makeup to trending audio
June 8, 2025 at 1:14 PM
if you run an art organization please for the love of god have an email list, instagram *cannot* be replied upon to show me your content unless you are also putting on makeup to trending audio
residencies are cute, but tbh I'm also tired of the endless onslaught of artist opportunities that require moving house for months. idk why people think strong creative work is aligned with rootlessness
June 5, 2025 at 11:12 AM
residencies are cute, but tbh I'm also tired of the endless onslaught of artist opportunities that require moving house for months. idk why people think strong creative work is aligned with rootlessness
Reposted by Sarah Friend
the position consistent with aaron swartz's published writings is quite clearly "training is fair use but we should do guerrilla open access on closed model weights". this seems likely to upset every major faction but i don't think it's incorrect
June 1, 2025 at 7:07 PM
the position consistent with aaron swartz's published writings is quite clearly "training is fair use but we should do guerrilla open access on closed model weights". this seems likely to upset every major faction but i don't think it's incorrect
I think this image would literally kill Theordor Adorno
May 29, 2025 at 6:19 PM
I think this image would literally kill Theordor Adorno
Remote Viewing, a new sculptural work that displays (to scale, one-to-one) what Google Earth sees of the location it's placed in
currently on view at the Fellbach Triennial Kleinplastik 🛰️
currently on view at the Fellbach Triennial Kleinplastik 🛰️
May 25, 2025 at 6:05 PM
Remote Viewing, a new sculptural work that displays (to scale, one-to-one) what Google Earth sees of the location it's placed in
currently on view at the Fellbach Triennial Kleinplastik 🛰️
currently on view at the Fellbach Triennial Kleinplastik 🛰️
Reposted by Sarah Friend
How can open social protocols fail us?
I put together an analysis comparing several specific failure modes between Farcaster, Bluesky, and Mastodon.
Please let me know if any of the protocol descriptions could be presented more fairly!
shazow.net/posts/open-s...
I put together an analysis comparing several specific failure modes between Farcaster, Bluesky, and Mastodon.
Please let me know if any of the protocol descriptions could be presented more fairly!
shazow.net/posts/open-s...
How can open social protocols fail us in 2025
Let’s compare the possible failure modes of various open social protocols:
ActivityPub/Mastodon
ATProto/Bluesky
Farcaster/Warpcast
Some scenarios I’d like to consider:
Can my identity be taken away...
shazow.net
May 15, 2025 at 3:19 PM
How can open social protocols fail us?
I put together an analysis comparing several specific failure modes between Farcaster, Bluesky, and Mastodon.
Please let me know if any of the protocol descriptions could be presented more fairly!
shazow.net/posts/open-s...
I put together an analysis comparing several specific failure modes between Farcaster, Bluesky, and Mastodon.
Please let me know if any of the protocol descriptions could be presented more fairly!
shazow.net/posts/open-s...