Tau Cetaceans
@tau-cetaceans.bsky.social
Foreign service brat, escaped NASA lab monkey, recovering planetary geologist, aspiring sci-fi novelist, armchair geopolitician, history buff, alternate history buff, future history buff, non-fan of the current cyberpunk dystopia. 🇺🇳 🇺🇸 🇺🇦 ♾️🖖🥥🫏🐿
in all my years of GMing cyberpunk and cyberpunk-adjacent things like Shadowrun...
could never have come up with something as messed up as Palantir IRL
could never have come up with something as messed up as Palantir IRL
December 14, 2025 at 12:52 PM
in all my years of GMing cyberpunk and cyberpunk-adjacent things like Shadowrun...
could never have come up with something as messed up as Palantir IRL
could never have come up with something as messed up as Palantir IRL
petty but fair
and it does raise an obvious corollary - what MAGA type bears the highest degree of physical resemblance to Pol Pot?
and it does raise an obvious corollary - what MAGA type bears the highest degree of physical resemblance to Pol Pot?
December 14, 2025 at 1:31 AM
petty but fair
and it does raise an obvious corollary - what MAGA type bears the highest degree of physical resemblance to Pol Pot?
and it does raise an obvious corollary - what MAGA type bears the highest degree of physical resemblance to Pol Pot?
we are so cooked
December 12, 2025 at 5:41 AM
we are so cooked
actual dream had: was in command of a Galaxy-class in LEO, using photon torpedoes, phasers and transporter beams to ruin Vladimir Putin's day
grim reality: turned down LEGO Enterprise-D for xmas b/c Paramount in bed with Trump
(also nobody is giving me a real Galaxy-class starship because reasons)
grim reality: turned down LEGO Enterprise-D for xmas b/c Paramount in bed with Trump
(also nobody is giving me a real Galaxy-class starship because reasons)
December 10, 2025 at 11:49 AM
actual dream had: was in command of a Galaxy-class in LEO, using photon torpedoes, phasers and transporter beams to ruin Vladimir Putin's day
grim reality: turned down LEGO Enterprise-D for xmas b/c Paramount in bed with Trump
(also nobody is giving me a real Galaxy-class starship because reasons)
grim reality: turned down LEGO Enterprise-D for xmas b/c Paramount in bed with Trump
(also nobody is giving me a real Galaxy-class starship because reasons)
aside from how Musk is stealing this idea from the Culture novels, and that it'd work better in a far future anarcho-socialist utopia than some capitalist implementation with existing tech
a modest proposal: if you commit a crime, the only car you are permitted to buy is a Cybertruck, mark of shame
a modest proposal: if you commit a crime, the only car you are permitted to buy is a Cybertruck, mark of shame
November 16, 2025 at 4:15 AM
aside from how Musk is stealing this idea from the Culture novels, and that it'd work better in a far future anarcho-socialist utopia than some capitalist implementation with existing tech
a modest proposal: if you commit a crime, the only car you are permitted to buy is a Cybertruck, mark of shame
a modest proposal: if you commit a crime, the only car you are permitted to buy is a Cybertruck, mark of shame
If you see this, post an album cover with a motor vehicle on it.
November 8, 2025 at 11:18 AM
If you see this, post an album cover with a motor vehicle on it.
reminds me of the LEGO guy I had coming out of a coffee shop - I named him "exactly the kind of douchebag who would order {google result for longest possible Starbucks order which couldn't fit in a BlueSky skeet}, and then berate the barista for getting his order wrong"
November 7, 2025 at 5:10 PM
reminds me of the LEGO guy I had coming out of a coffee shop - I named him "exactly the kind of douchebag who would order {google result for longest possible Starbucks order which couldn't fit in a BlueSky skeet}, and then berate the barista for getting his order wrong"
brain is immediately flashing back to a panel from one of Tim Kreider's "The Pain" comics...
(though, I guess like Romney winning in 2012... that's a quaint dystopian vision compared to the real timeline)
(though, I guess like Romney winning in 2012... that's a quaint dystopian vision compared to the real timeline)
September 4, 2025 at 12:38 AM
brain is immediately flashing back to a panel from one of Tim Kreider's "The Pain" comics...
(though, I guess like Romney winning in 2012... that's a quaint dystopian vision compared to the real timeline)
(though, I guess like Romney winning in 2012... that's a quaint dystopian vision compared to the real timeline)
З Днем Незалежності
August 24, 2025 at 10:38 PM
З Днем Незалежності
Remember when the GOP was the party of free enterprise and being hawkish on Russia?
August 23, 2025 at 2:34 AM
Remember when the GOP was the party of free enterprise and being hawkish on Russia?
there is still a large and special place in my heart for Carl Sagan - the guy whose writing introduced me to the term 'planetary geology', and that combination of science, wonder, skepticism of the MIC and much else besides, environmental and social consciousness and of course, SPACE!!!! /32
August 22, 2025 at 8:27 PM
there is still a large and special place in my heart for Carl Sagan - the guy whose writing introduced me to the term 'planetary geology', and that combination of science, wonder, skepticism of the MIC and much else besides, environmental and social consciousness and of course, SPACE!!!! /32
maybe that's something to imbue into the sci-fi timeline wiki thingy?
definitely want to balance verisimilitude (e.g. a timeline that is 'realistic' to the best of my ability, including incorporating current events even when I don't like them) with some full-throated antifascist sensibilities /31
definitely want to balance verisimilitude (e.g. a timeline that is 'realistic' to the best of my ability, including incorporating current events even when I don't like them) with some full-throated antifascist sensibilities /31
August 22, 2025 at 8:27 PM
maybe that's something to imbue into the sci-fi timeline wiki thingy?
definitely want to balance verisimilitude (e.g. a timeline that is 'realistic' to the best of my ability, including incorporating current events even when I don't like them) with some full-throated antifascist sensibilities /31
definitely want to balance verisimilitude (e.g. a timeline that is 'realistic' to the best of my ability, including incorporating current events even when I don't like them) with some full-throated antifascist sensibilities /31
and now - not sure how much weight to put on this, but Ed Regis - my gateway drug to transhumanism - showed up in yet another BtB episode - as the stenographer for a biotech grifter (who also has ties to Epstein, because who doesn't at this point?)
/24
/24
August 22, 2025 at 8:27 PM
and now - not sure how much weight to put on this, but Ed Regis - my gateway drug to transhumanism - showed up in yet another BtB episode - as the stenographer for a biotech grifter (who also has ties to Epstein, because who doesn't at this point?)
/24
/24
and a plug here for the Takeshi Kovacs trilogy - the best weaving in of transhumanist concepts like mind uploading and life extension to a sci-fi setting that I've encountered so far - that isn't, you know, completely unmoored from political and social consciousness... /19
August 22, 2025 at 8:27 PM
and a plug here for the Takeshi Kovacs trilogy - the best weaving in of transhumanist concepts like mind uploading and life extension to a sci-fi setting that I've encountered so far - that isn't, you know, completely unmoored from political and social consciousness... /19
by the end of college, GURPS Transhuman Space came out, and found rooting in the sense that they'd also taken the transhumanist memeplex and treated it just as an interesting set of sci-fi tropes - and acknowledged that transhumanism itself was an ideology
(honorable mention to Orion's Arm too) /14
(honorable mention to Orion's Arm too) /14
August 22, 2025 at 8:27 PM
by the end of college, GURPS Transhuman Space came out, and found rooting in the sense that they'd also taken the transhumanist memeplex and treated it just as an interesting set of sci-fi tropes - and acknowledged that transhumanism itself was an ideology
(honorable mention to Orion's Arm too) /14
(honorable mention to Orion's Arm too) /14
no... seriously... Chris Knight's line in Real Genius stuck with me "all science, no philosophy - wrong"
so really embraced the liberal arts undergrad experience, double majored in history, read stuff that made it harder to ignore parallels between the Mars Society mindset and Earth colonialism /13
so really embraced the liberal arts undergrad experience, double majored in history, read stuff that made it harder to ignore parallels between the Mars Society mindset and Earth colonialism /13
August 22, 2025 at 8:27 PM
no... seriously... Chris Knight's line in Real Genius stuck with me "all science, no philosophy - wrong"
so really embraced the liberal arts undergrad experience, double majored in history, read stuff that made it harder to ignore parallels between the Mars Society mindset and Earth colonialism /13
so really embraced the liberal arts undergrad experience, double majored in history, read stuff that made it harder to ignore parallels between the Mars Society mindset and Earth colonialism /13
there are critiques of Zubrin and his High Frontier mindset out there, in both sci-fi and sci-fact format... though in my limited interaction with him IRL and checking some of his recent words - worth noting there is a spectrum between him and the full-on transhumanist version of space conquest /9
August 22, 2025 at 8:27 PM
there are critiques of Zubrin and his High Frontier mindset out there, in both sci-fi and sci-fact format... though in my limited interaction with him IRL and checking some of his recent words - worth noting there is a spectrum between him and the full-on transhumanist version of space conquest /9
prior to this, my main exposure to the concept of terraforming had been in a more workaday depictions in sci-fi, such as Aliens and Kim Stanley Robison's Mars trilogy... just something we'll do... not... like... the quasi-religious political ideological thing I'd just saw IRL at the Mars Society /8
August 22, 2025 at 8:27 PM
prior to this, my main exposure to the concept of terraforming had been in a more workaday depictions in sci-fi, such as Aliens and Kim Stanley Robison's Mars trilogy... just something we'll do... not... like... the quasi-religious political ideological thing I'd just saw IRL at the Mars Society /8
for bonus points, this guy was unabashed about identifying himself as a protege of Edward Teller, e.g. the Father of the Hydrogen Bomb... which definitely added to the creepy vibes of the whole PANSPERMIC IMPERATIVE thing... /7
August 22, 2025 at 8:27 PM
for bonus points, this guy was unabashed about identifying himself as a protege of Edward Teller, e.g. the Father of the Hydrogen Bomb... which definitely added to the creepy vibes of the whole PANSPERMIC IMPERATIVE thing... /7
in parallel to all this, had read Zubrin's Case for Mars, got sucked into the Mars Society, went to their founding convention - and ooh boy, there was this moment - a speaker who unironically talked about THE PANSPERMIC IMPERATIVE - e.g. a manifest destiny to terraform all that can be terraformed /6
August 22, 2025 at 8:27 PM
in parallel to all this, had read Zubrin's Case for Mars, got sucked into the Mars Society, went to their founding convention - and ooh boy, there was this moment - a speaker who unironically talked about THE PANSPERMIC IMPERATIVE - e.g. a manifest destiny to terraform all that can be terraformed /6
in college, went on to read Drexler's Engines of Creation (not to mention Diamond Age - a sci-fi novel that took nanotech seriously), and so really bought into the nanotech hype for a while there... like the next 5-15 years for sure... it's been 25, something that colors how I see AI hype now /5
August 22, 2025 at 8:27 PM
in college, went on to read Drexler's Engines of Creation (not to mention Diamond Age - a sci-fi novel that took nanotech seriously), and so really bought into the nanotech hype for a while there... like the next 5-15 years for sure... it's been 25, something that colors how I see AI hype now /5
at the time I was noodling on doing a GURPS Space campaign with no FTL and the stuff in Great Mambo Chicken was a key inspiration for that - and is still in the DNA of my current past time (the "sci-fi timeline wiki thingy" described in the stickied thread) to some degree /4
August 22, 2025 at 8:27 PM
at the time I was noodling on doing a GURPS Space campaign with no FTL and the stuff in Great Mambo Chicken was a key inspiration for that - and is still in the DNA of my current past time (the "sci-fi timeline wiki thingy" described in the stickied thread) to some degree /4
and went straight back to knocking on doors for Harris in Pennsylvania... I was the FP dork who when they asked, said I was doing it for "The People of Ukraine"...
For Our Freedom and Yours
(side note - the Pennsylvania voter who posted this sign on their door - lives in my heart forever) /27
For Our Freedom and Yours
(side note - the Pennsylvania voter who posted this sign on their door - lives in my heart forever) /27
August 19, 2025 at 1:01 PM
and went straight back to knocking on doors for Harris in Pennsylvania... I was the FP dork who when they asked, said I was doing it for "The People of Ukraine"...
For Our Freedom and Yours
(side note - the Pennsylvania voter who posted this sign on their door - lives in my heart forever) /27
For Our Freedom and Yours
(side note - the Pennsylvania voter who posted this sign on their door - lives in my heart forever) /27
this time around, faced with ugly prospect of Trump coming back... took an American flag I'd gotten at the Harris rally at the Eclipse in front of the White House, went to Arlington and left it at the grave of my great-grandfather, who I'm proud to say was one of the architects of D-Day... /26
August 19, 2025 at 1:01 PM
this time around, faced with ugly prospect of Trump coming back... took an American flag I'd gotten at the Harris rally at the Eclipse in front of the White House, went to Arlington and left it at the grave of my great-grandfather, who I'm proud to say was one of the architects of D-Day... /26
but I made my peace with voting for her, one rainy summer day in 2016, looking over the cemetery above Omaha Beach... even back then it was obvious that Trump was hellbent on destroying the post-WW2 order, and it was starkly obvious that had been too hard won, with too much blood spilled to get /25
August 19, 2025 at 1:01 PM
but I made my peace with voting for her, one rainy summer day in 2016, looking over the cemetery above Omaha Beach... even back then it was obvious that Trump was hellbent on destroying the post-WW2 order, and it was starkly obvious that had been too hard won, with too much blood spilled to get /25