Michael McKinney
@mashan.bsky.social
(He/him) Sometime author and esotericist. History buff. Player of Dwarf Fortress. Feeder of cats. Knower of obscure and mostly useless things.
aka "Satyr" (yes, that Satyr)
aka "Satyr" (yes, that Satyr)
Reposted by Michael McKinney
i'm going to sound sarcastic here but genuinely one of the most interesting aspects of LLMs is that they are proving that evil is real, by which i mean if you train them to do one bad thing they start doing other bad things that you have not trained them to do
At least once a month, Anthropic puts out an alignment paper d AI behavior where, if you saw it in a science fiction film, you‘d be screaming at the idiot scientists onscreen to stop development
www.anthropic.com/research/eme...
www.anthropic.com/research/eme...
From shortcuts to sabotage: natural emergent misalignment from reward hacking
Anthropic is an AI safety and research company that's working to build reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems.
www.anthropic.com
November 24, 2025 at 6:23 AM
i'm going to sound sarcastic here but genuinely one of the most interesting aspects of LLMs is that they are proving that evil is real, by which i mean if you train them to do one bad thing they start doing other bad things that you have not trained them to do
Reposted by Michael McKinney
"Human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but ... life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves."
~ Gabriel García Márquez 🌸🌸🌸
~ Gabriel García Márquez 🌸🌸🌸
November 22, 2025 at 2:06 PM
"Human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but ... life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves."
~ Gabriel García Márquez 🌸🌸🌸
~ Gabriel García Márquez 🌸🌸🌸
Reposted by Michael McKinney
me waking up and opening this app
November 22, 2025 at 12:02 PM
me waking up and opening this app
Reposted by Michael McKinney
I'm happy from a political standpoint watching Donald Trump and his party forced into debating health care. It's like watching a walrus do quantum physics
November 8, 2025 at 11:03 PM
I'm happy from a political standpoint watching Donald Trump and his party forced into debating health care. It's like watching a walrus do quantum physics
Reposted by Michael McKinney
I apologize Comrade Kristol, I should have never doubted you.
November 8, 2025 at 11:17 PM
I apologize Comrade Kristol, I should have never doubted you.
'Real' Biblical angels appeared in human form. Ezekiel's vision wasn't necessarily of an angel as such.
Why Real Biblical Angels Are Creepy, Beastly, and Hardly Angelic www.openculture.com?p=1125030
Why Real Biblical Angels Are Creepy, Beastly, and Hardly Angelic
Nearly 70 percent of Americans believe in angels, at least according to a statistic often cited in recent years. But what, exactly, comes to their minds — or those of any other believers around the wo...
www.openculture.com
October 15, 2025 at 12:36 PM
'Real' Biblical angels appeared in human form. Ezekiel's vision wasn't necessarily of an angel as such.
Reposted by Michael McKinney
There is no dialectic, no synthesis between "reality exists and we're trying to deal with it" and the absolute rejection of reality and insertion of unreality, you stupid, conceited fucks.
There is no middle ground!
There is no middle ground!
I am going to have a small meltdown.
In @nytopinion.nytimes.com
“Binary thinking is not always destructive,” Mark Edmundson writes. “But when all thought is binary, we are in trouble.”
“Binary thinking is not always destructive,” Mark Edmundson writes. “But when all thought is binary, we are in trouble.”
October 13, 2025 at 2:00 AM
There is no dialectic, no synthesis between "reality exists and we're trying to deal with it" and the absolute rejection of reality and insertion of unreality, you stupid, conceited fucks.
There is no middle ground!
There is no middle ground!
Reposted by Michael McKinney
this felt too informative not to share
October 6, 2025 at 1:24 PM
this felt too informative not to share
Reposted by Michael McKinney
in war the "rules" go all soft, and success depends on a mindset comfortable operating in that chaos--not dragged about from panic to panic by one's worst fears
October 3, 2025 at 10:03 AM
in war the "rules" go all soft, and success depends on a mindset comfortable operating in that chaos--not dragged about from panic to panic by one's worst fears
Reposted by Michael McKinney
It’s both depressing and darkly hilarious how Lawfare posting has gone from “we got him on an Article 33, Clause 8, Subsection Alpha infraction, baby cannon time!” to *slams whisky bottle down* “the law is fake and I challenge John Roberts to a fistfight at the Walmart parking lot.”
September 29, 2025 at 5:18 PM
It’s both depressing and darkly hilarious how Lawfare posting has gone from “we got him on an Article 33, Clause 8, Subsection Alpha infraction, baby cannon time!” to *slams whisky bottle down* “the law is fake and I challenge John Roberts to a fistfight at the Walmart parking lot.”
Reposted by Michael McKinney
Happy Stanislav Petrov Day! On this day one man prevented the apocalypse.
September 26, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Happy Stanislav Petrov Day! On this day one man prevented the apocalypse.
Reposted by Michael McKinney
If Jurassic Park had feathered its dromaeosaurids in 1993, I'm telling you that this would be the GOOD timeline. And yet here we are.
September 26, 2025 at 12:50 PM
If Jurassic Park had feathered its dromaeosaurids in 1993, I'm telling you that this would be the GOOD timeline. And yet here we are.
Reposted by Michael McKinney
one thing that is true for everyone reading this: unless something changes dramatically the number of people who agree with you on what basic facts constitute "reality" will shrink every year for the rest of your life
September 24, 2025 at 11:46 PM
one thing that is true for everyone reading this: unless something changes dramatically the number of people who agree with you on what basic facts constitute "reality" will shrink every year for the rest of your life
Reposted by Michael McKinney
many of you are working overtime to validate the humanity of people who are intentionally, systemically, and methodologically working to invalidate your humanity
September 24, 2025 at 1:39 PM
many of you are working overtime to validate the humanity of people who are intentionally, systemically, and methodologically working to invalidate your humanity
Reposted by Michael McKinney
Charles II: Did you finish that statue of the Archangel Michael defeating the devil?
Luisa Roldán: Si y yo hice la Diablo real fucking sexy, just like you asked
Luisa Roldán: Si y yo hice la Diablo real fucking sexy, just like you asked
September 22, 2025 at 10:53 PM
Charles II: Did you finish that statue of the Archangel Michael defeating the devil?
Luisa Roldán: Si y yo hice la Diablo real fucking sexy, just like you asked
Luisa Roldán: Si y yo hice la Diablo real fucking sexy, just like you asked
Reposted by Michael McKinney
the biden administration suspecting and proving that homan would take a bribe and then being unprepared to take the next step and just letting him walk away with $50k for doing nothing is so on the nose it just doesnt feel real
September 22, 2025 at 12:52 PM
the biden administration suspecting and proving that homan would take a bribe and then being unprepared to take the next step and just letting him walk away with $50k for doing nothing is so on the nose it just doesnt feel real
Reposted by Michael McKinney
Was at a bar in CA last night & this couple came in kind of sloppy and were talking to 2 dudes from LA.
At one point 1 of the dudes from LA, clearly a bit annoyed, turned to the sloppy couple and said unprompted “So, you guys from Fresno?”
And I almost spit my drink out laughing at the savagery
At one point 1 of the dudes from LA, clearly a bit annoyed, turned to the sloppy couple and said unprompted “So, you guys from Fresno?”
And I almost spit my drink out laughing at the savagery
September 22, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Was at a bar in CA last night & this couple came in kind of sloppy and were talking to 2 dudes from LA.
At one point 1 of the dudes from LA, clearly a bit annoyed, turned to the sloppy couple and said unprompted “So, you guys from Fresno?”
And I almost spit my drink out laughing at the savagery
At one point 1 of the dudes from LA, clearly a bit annoyed, turned to the sloppy couple and said unprompted “So, you guys from Fresno?”
And I almost spit my drink out laughing at the savagery
Reposted by Michael McKinney
I got this wonderful relief map of the world and my first reaction was “holy bleep the Tibetan plateau”
September 18, 2025 at 5:02 PM
I got this wonderful relief map of the world and my first reaction was “holy bleep the Tibetan plateau”
Reposted by Michael McKinney
I'm dying
September 17, 2025 at 4:59 PM
I'm dying
Reposted by Michael McKinney
Once again without legal justification, Trump ordered a strike that he says summarily killed 3 people in international waters. We still don’t know if the strikes are legal, and why the U.S. is not instead interdicting to get intelligence to disrupt narcotrafficking routes.
I'm pressing Trump for answers about the summary killing of 11 people on a boat in the Caribbean by the U.S. military. It's critical to our security and the safety of our servicemembers that we get information about what happened and why, and who exactly was killed.
September 16, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Once again without legal justification, Trump ordered a strike that he says summarily killed 3 people in international waters. We still don’t know if the strikes are legal, and why the U.S. is not instead interdicting to get intelligence to disrupt narcotrafficking routes.
Reposted by Michael McKinney
my favorite robert redford story is that mike nichols considered him for dustin hoffman's part in THE GRADUATE. during their conversation nichols asked redford something like, "have you ever struck out with a girl?" and redford's response was basically, "i don't understand the question"
September 16, 2025 at 1:24 PM
my favorite robert redford story is that mike nichols considered him for dustin hoffman's part in THE GRADUATE. during their conversation nichols asked redford something like, "have you ever struck out with a girl?" and redford's response was basically, "i don't understand the question"
Hats off, gentlefolk
they don't want pussy. they want to endlessly critique pussy
September 15, 2025 at 6:56 PM
Hats off, gentlefolk
Reposted by Michael McKinney
Blueskyificization of Social Media Considered Harmful (23 min read)
September 13, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Blueskyificization of Social Media Considered Harmful (23 min read)
Reposted by Michael McKinney
Amazing how much that is wrong with the world originated with 4chan.
September 12, 2025 at 8:31 PM
Amazing how much that is wrong with the world originated with 4chan.