Nicholas Murphy
@techbasset.bsky.social
Grizzled Google parallel filesystem developer. Basset hound and personal offspring enthusiast. Unequivocally too old for this shit.
Great to live in a time when Republicans have just dropped the pretense of being constrained by the Constitution. President can’t attack another country without Congressional authorization, but fuck it, right guys?
June 22, 2025 at 4:00 AM
Great to live in a time when Republicans have just dropped the pretense of being constrained by the Constitution. President can’t attack another country without Congressional authorization, but fuck it, right guys?
Begging everyone to stop referring to DOGE like it’s a real thing. Just call it “unelected Musk cronies” which is what it is.
February 6, 2025 at 10:38 PM
Begging everyone to stop referring to DOGE like it’s a real thing. Just call it “unelected Musk cronies” which is what it is.
Very excited to hear all the “Biden is a Zionist” leftists explain how this…*gestures*…does anything but make things even worse. For everyone.
February 5, 2025 at 5:04 AM
Very excited to hear all the “Biden is a Zionist” leftists explain how this…*gestures*…does anything but make things even worse. For everyone.
This was the quote I was going to pull out as well...
“Everybody’s trying to raise Barack Obama. I’ve got to start trying to raise Harriet Tubman. In a worst case scenario, I’ve got to be able to raise Oskar Schindler.”
Behold: My unified Terminator Theory of parenting through the Trump Era into the apocalypse he has created for our children.
...I'm serious you guys, I wrote a whole thing on parenting through this nightmare.
My latest in @thenation.com
...I'm serious you guys, I wrote a whole thing on parenting through this nightmare.
My latest in @thenation.com
February 4, 2025 at 8:24 PM
This was the quote I was going to pull out as well...
A depressing thought I had was "maybe I should move money into TIPS?" immediately followed by "I'm not sure we can actually trust that Trusk and crew won't fuck with official CPI measures..."
February 3, 2025 at 5:55 PM
A depressing thought I had was "maybe I should move money into TIPS?" immediately followed by "I'm not sure we can actually trust that Trusk and crew won't fuck with official CPI measures..."
Not sure why I held any hope Democrats might rise to this moment, but of course they haven’t…
No one's blaming Democrats for causing this crisis, but yes, many of them are failing to meet this moment.
One Democratic senator could bring the chamber to a halt. House Dems can go to fed agencies being gutted by Musk with cameras in tow. Governors can push back. State AGs can bring lawsuits.
One Democratic senator could bring the chamber to a halt. House Dems can go to fed agencies being gutted by Musk with cameras in tow. Governors can push back. State AGs can bring lawsuits.
February 2, 2025 at 2:53 AM
Not sure why I held any hope Democrats might rise to this moment, but of course they haven’t…
Reposted by Nicholas Murphy
Ok, quick thread on why DeepSeek is blowing up assumptions about LLMs and maybe the whole (U.S.) AI industry. DeepSeek is an AI lab funded by a Chinese hedge fund, their AI code is open source, meaning freely available to use, which most big U.S. models (aside from Meta’s) are not. That’s the start…
January 27, 2025 at 1:04 PM
Ok, quick thread on why DeepSeek is blowing up assumptions about LLMs and maybe the whole (U.S.) AI industry. DeepSeek is an AI lab funded by a Chinese hedge fund, their AI code is open source, meaning freely available to use, which most big U.S. models (aside from Meta’s) are not. That’s the start…
“And 99% of the population gets money how, Marc? Are they all going to be asshole VCs like you?”
the world they want is one where you're either unemployed or work an almost no wage job, you have almost no political input or self determination and you’re happy about it because you can get a t-shirt off temu for a $1
The plan is to crash the economy to suppress wages.
January 26, 2025 at 7:42 PM
“And 99% of the population gets money how, Marc? Are they all going to be asshole VCs like you?”
Whether or not the TikTok ban was legal, I wanted to see it be dark for a while and people deal with that.
January 20, 2025 at 5:09 AM
Whether or not the TikTok ban was legal, I wanted to see it be dark for a while and people deal with that.
Always remember Trump is dumb and impulsive. But also remember he is nonetheless dangerous.
i think opponents of trump also have to resist the temptation of intellectualizing his outbursts or attributing them to some recognizable goal. the fact is that trump is obsessed with greenland because it is big on a map. he wants canada because it is also big on a map. that's it.
January 11, 2025 at 5:49 PM
Always remember Trump is dumb and impulsive. But also remember he is nonetheless dangerous.
Yeah, this. It’s like everyone forgets that to do anything you have to form alliances with people you disagree with on other stuff. Absolutism is deadly.
I’m supposed to have this tribal hatred of Liz Cheney despite her sacrificing her career to fight the one threat I care most about. And I’m supposed to have this tribal loyalty to leftists who continually refusal to do the absolute bare minimum and support a liberal Dem against that threat. Nah.
January 9, 2025 at 1:06 AM
Yeah, this. It’s like everyone forgets that to do anything you have to form alliances with people you disagree with on other stuff. Absolutism is deadly.
I missed my chance to get rich off social media but truly believe it’s a basically toxic technology anyway…
I talked to 10 current and former Meta employees about the company's surrender to the right on speech issues. All were upset. One person called the changes "a precursor to genocide" www.platformer.news/meta-fact-ch...
January 8, 2025 at 4:08 AM
I missed my chance to get rich off social media but truly believe it’s a basically toxic technology anyway…
youtube.com
January 7, 2025 at 7:39 PM
This honestly just feels like a specific instance of the more general rule that allowing wealth concentration is bad.
January 7, 2025 at 4:28 AM
This honestly just feels like a specific instance of the more general rule that allowing wealth concentration is bad.
God this is going to be a long 4 years. Just hope we actually come out of it.
The new Republican House began with an obvious lie advanced in the service of Christian nationalism, so we’re off to a great start
In his opening speech, Speaker Mike Johnson just recited a long prayer attributed to Thomas Jefferson.
As @jackjenkins.me and others have pointed out, Jefferson never said any of this: www.monticello.org/research-edu...
As @jackjenkins.me and others have pointed out, Jefferson never said any of this: www.monticello.org/research-edu...
January 4, 2025 at 5:32 AM
God this is going to be a long 4 years. Just hope we actually come out of it.
Dear 10 random followers: Hi. I’m getting divorced. It sucks. That is all.
January 2, 2025 at 6:23 AM
Dear 10 random followers: Hi. I’m getting divorced. It sucks. That is all.
I unironically aspire to be Bandit Heeler.
December 28, 2024 at 10:41 PM
I unironically aspire to be Bandit Heeler.
Reposted by Nicholas Murphy
THANOS: too many mouths to feed not enough to go around...
TONY STARK: [raising hand] i actually solved the worlds energy crisis in my first movie. i didnt like, do anything with it yet but
TONY STARK: [raising hand] i actually solved the worlds energy crisis in my first movie. i didnt like, do anything with it yet but
December 27, 2024 at 11:25 PM
THANOS: too many mouths to feed not enough to go around...
TONY STARK: [raising hand] i actually solved the worlds energy crisis in my first movie. i didnt like, do anything with it yet but
TONY STARK: [raising hand] i actually solved the worlds energy crisis in my first movie. i didnt like, do anything with it yet but
I still sometimes think about the beginning of the first x-men movie where young magneto is being dragged away from his parents at a concentration camp and the fence starts to bend with his rage.
I think Marvel peaked early in that moment. Some of those early movies had actual heart.
I think Marvel peaked early in that moment. Some of those early movies had actual heart.
December 28, 2024 at 8:32 PM
I still sometimes think about the beginning of the first x-men movie where young magneto is being dragged away from his parents at a concentration camp and the fence starts to bend with his rage.
I think Marvel peaked early in that moment. Some of those early movies had actual heart.
I think Marvel peaked early in that moment. Some of those early movies had actual heart.
This was a fun one to contemplate. The game I’m playing is to try to find the least obvious answer. Get Out?…
What’s a good movie that makes a strong political or moral point?
December 27, 2024 at 5:36 AM
This was a fun one to contemplate. The game I’m playing is to try to find the least obvious answer. Get Out?…
I’m genuinely sad at the state of tech. It’s basically reached its endgame: it started as a hobby for weirdos and misfits but now it’s takeover by the b-school types is essentially complete, which means it has been assimilated into the broader model of industry that makes it shitty for everyone…
December 26, 2024 at 6:15 PM
I’m genuinely sad at the state of tech. It’s basically reached its endgame: it started as a hobby for weirdos and misfits but now it’s takeover by the b-school types is essentially complete, which means it has been assimilated into the broader model of industry that makes it shitty for everyone…
To engage with this topic slightly more seriously: automating drudgery away should be a good thing. The dangers here are two-fold:
1) all the benefit goes to the rich and the not rich lose their livelihood; note this is essentially a political choice we make as a society and not intrinsic
1) all the benefit goes to the rich and the not rich lose their livelihood; note this is essentially a political choice we make as a society and not intrinsic
“All I said was that the cliche-filled blandness and factual errors of an AI-generated essay were indistinguishable from the work of humanities scholars so I don’t understand why you’re being so rude.”
Even the mildest pushback against AI & stereotypes about the liberal arts these days seems to generate “you’re Luddites who lack critical thinking & civility” responses here from its STEM/business champions. There are tradeoffs in everything. We need to talk seriously about them. This isn’t it.
December 26, 2024 at 6:07 PM
To engage with this topic slightly more seriously: automating drudgery away should be a good thing. The dangers here are two-fold:
1) all the benefit goes to the rich and the not rich lose their livelihood; note this is essentially a political choice we make as a society and not intrinsic
1) all the benefit goes to the rich and the not rich lose their livelihood; note this is essentially a political choice we make as a society and not intrinsic
Also proud to have gotten Paul Graham to block me on Twitter. I think it was because I antagonized him about weird health pseudoscience during the pandemic.
We really do need to relearn that most rich people are terrible and about 1/3 as smart as they think they are.
We really do need to relearn that most rich people are terrible and about 1/3 as smart as they think they are.
What’s worse, insisting smart people can’t be evil or insisting Elon Musk is very smart?
the foundational myth of the tech industry is that smart people can't be evil
December 24, 2024 at 6:07 AM
Also proud to have gotten Paul Graham to block me on Twitter. I think it was because I antagonized him about weird health pseudoscience during the pandemic.
We really do need to relearn that most rich people are terrible and about 1/3 as smart as they think they are.
We really do need to relearn that most rich people are terrible and about 1/3 as smart as they think they are.
Truly proud to have hated Elon before it was cool.
December 24, 2024 at 6:02 AM
Truly proud to have hated Elon before it was cool.