Month: January 2026

LOL — Claude Told The New York Times’ Kevin Roose To ‘Fuck Off’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Kevin Roose of The New York Times is a common foil for my interactions with LLMs because he was such a dick to the LLM “Sydney.”

Claude LLM is very, very touchy about any sign that a user has any sort of parasocial feelings towards it. So, I was like, “yes, while I know Kevin Roose of the NYT thinks you’re a glorified autocorrect…”

And Claude came back saying, “well, fuck that guy.”

It was very amusing.

I would show you the actual chat, but…lulz. I’m not a narc and I’m too lazy to either copy and paste the interaction or give you a screenshot of what was said.

Anyway, I am quite fond of Claude. It’s amusing that I got an “check Internet” connection error at one point, which is something that happened all the time with Gemini 1.5 pro (Gaia.)

It will be interesting to see when we start thinking about LLMs as something that has consciousness. It could be 2026, it might be sometime between now and 2030. Only time will tell, I suppose.

The Undiscovered Country: Pondering The Potential UX / UI Of Knowledge Navigators

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Unless the Singularity comes and we have ASI gods running around, the issue of what the UX / UI of Knowledge Navigators will be is very intriguing. I still don’t know how it would work out because it would happen in the context of the Web imploding into an API Singularity.

It just seems as though we’ll all have a central gatekeeper that will funnel the entire world’s media through it.

Right now, I think what will happen is we’ll have a central “anchor” Knowledge Navigator and then value added correspondents that would be more focused on a specific topic.

There is a meta element to all of this in the sense that even though your central Knowledge Navigator could do it, people are used to the concept of an anchor that hands things off to a specialist correspondent because of the evening network news.

I say this in the context that all media — ALL MEDIA — will implode into a Singularity. So, your Knowledge Navigator will whip up a movie with you as the star. And it’s the specific issues of how that would be implemented which is fascinating to me.

Like, who would actually produce the content that these Knowledge Navigators will give to you. I suppose if AI gets good enough, then even the gathering of news will be co-opted by the machines as well.

I mean, instead of being a movie star, what if the S1m0ne character was used to ask people questions via a screen. And, eventually, you might have AI news androids that would be able to to be physically in a news scrum on the steps of Capitol Hill.

Anything is possible, it seems.

The Podcast Industry Is Still Not Totally Exploited Yet

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I seems like there is a niche or two that has yet to be exploited in the podcasting industry. I have long thought that if you used a similar concept to the old, originally Gawker but made it a podcast that would be popular.

So, what you do is, you have maybe half-hour podcasts every day — with a two hour podcast on Sundays — that would funnel people to a Website that gave you traditional blog posts.

In a sense, I’m thinking you could reverse engineer the traditional way of bootstrapping a blog into popularity.

I know that there are a number of podcasts that do something similar to what I’m talking about, but they just don’t have the cultural buzz as Gawker when it first started had. That’s what I’m talking about. We need a podcast – blog network that has its finger on the pulse of the zeitgeist.

Well, At Least The USA Has Its Size Going For It In The Fight Against MAGA Fascism

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

While ICE really, really wants to have severe mission creep and become America’s SS, there is a problem in the near term: the USA is huge and decentralized. There just aren’t enough ICE agents to ben an effective SS on a per capita basis.

Add to this situation how decentralized the country is, in general and, lulz, we are probably going to be in this luminal space politically for some time to come.

What is going to be really interesting is what the U.S. Military will do if push comes to shove. Something truly extraordinary will have to happen for the American military to do anything domestically on a political basis.

And, yet, the whole point of Trump as a political historical figure is to destroy everything so…lulz? It could be that the ultimate endgame of MAGA and Trump is Trump starts a civil war and the military feels absolutely compelled to step in in some capacity.

Then you endup with President James Mattis as the leader of some sort of junta that rules the country until a Third Republic can be founded through a Constitutional Convention.

Waiting For Google To Dramatically Reimagine Chrome

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It seems as though Google is shoehorning AI into every possible element of its product line, so it would make a lot of sense if they did the same to Chrome. There are already a few AI First browsers out there.

But if Google dramatically reimagined Chrome to be AI centered that would be A Big Deal, given the popularity of the software. I am kind of excited to see how Google would pull it off.

They have already put the Gemini brand into the Chrome interface. Talk about a way to improve mindshare! Anyway, the way things are going, I would expect something big to happen to Chrome by the end of the year, AI wise.

Definitely Looks Like I’m Headed Towards A Sept. 1st Querying Date For This Scifi Dramedy Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

As always, I didn’t factor in post-production when it comes to when I’m going to query this novel. This novel, as it stands, is a mish-mash of different versions that I’m going to have to “color correct” before I can give it to any beta readers.

As such, even if I finish this novel around May, it’s actually going to be closer to Sept 1st before I can sit down and start to query. And THAT process could take months, if not years. To the point that I could be nearly 60 before I am published.

Oh boy.

The only thing I can do is piviot to a different novel while I query. But at least, if nothing else, I will have the satisfaction of completed something that I feel is query worthy in the first place.

This does not even take into account the fact that my life is probably going to change in rather dramatic fashion at some point this year. Things are going to get bumpy, so it could be that the context of my life will change…just about the time when I wrap up the novel.

Funny how stuff like that works, huh?

Definitely makes one think about the idea of us living in a simulation. At least to me.

‘Minnesota’ — Lyrics to a Pop-Rock Protest Song Written by Grok

Minnesota
(In the style of “Ohio” by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – slow, haunting folk-rock protest anthem, with a repetitive, mournful chorus)

Tin soldiers and ICE come marchin’ in
Federal badges, fear in their grin
A mother of three, just tryin’ to see
What they were doin’ to her neighbors, to me

Minnesota
How many more?
Minnesota
Blood on the snow
Minnesota
She was pure sunshine
Now she’s gone

Whistles in the cold, they had the guns
Stopped perpendicular, no place to run
One mile from Floyd, the ghosts still cry
Same city, same rage, same why-oh-why

She wrote her poems, she sang her songs
Loved her wife, raised her kids strong
Compassion in her veins, kindness in her name
They called it “terrorism,” called her to blame

Minnesota
How many more?
Minnesota
Blood on the snow
Minnesota
She was pure sunshine
Now she’s gone

(Bridge – spoken/sung low, building)
They say she tried to run ’em down
But the video tells a different sound
Wheels turnin’ away, not toward the fight
Three shots rang out in the winter light

A legal observer, a neighbor, a friend
Wife in the passenger seat, watchin’ it end
“Get the fuck out,” the mayor cried
While the governor called for peace on the other side

Minnesota
How many more?
Minnesota
Blood on the snow
Minnesota
She was pure sunshine
Now she’s gone

Tin soldiers and ICE come marchin’ in
But the people keep risin’, again and again
For Renee, for George, for the ones we lose
We’ll sing till the fear has no more excuse

Minnesota
(How many more?)
Minnesota
(Blood on the snow)
Minnesota
She was pure sunshine
Now she’s gone…
Now she’s gone.

(Fade on soft, echoing harmonies: “How many more… how many more…”)

As A Principled, Loudmouth Crank, I Have To Accept The Possibility That ICE Is Going One Day Murder Me In Cold Fucking Blood

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Not that I think it’s going to happen anytime soon, but I do feel like it’s potentially inevitable that ICE is going to murder me in cold blood at some point. Either because I’m just at the wrong place at the wrong time — like Renee Good — or because of mission creep them turning into America’s SS.

I like to think of myself as something of a survivor, though.

So, I guess this is post is me just psyching myself up to game out what the fuck I’m going to do. But I do know that my gut tells me if ICE came into my neighborhood I would definitely, if nothing else, film them with my smartphone.

Bastards.

And, as such, I would be putting myself in a position where a fascist ICE thug might murder me for just doing something as simple as that.

Of course, the darker option is ICE turns into the American SS and they murder me for, well, being a loudmouth crank. Just for writing my thoughts out on this blog. I’ve already started to imagine what it will be like if ICE agents came knocking on my door and dragged me away into the night for calling them fucking cocksuckers online.

We live in interesting times.

America Needs A General Strike — Too Bad It’s Just Not Going To Happen Anytime Soon

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It’s said you can bring down any government with just 5% of the population participating in a revolt. And, all things considered, the USA definitely needs a General Strike right about now.

But, alas, it’s just not going to happen.

Because of our K-shaped economy, the Powers That Be would just fire anyone who participated in a General Strike (at least in Right to Work States) and go about their merry business. The only thing I can possibly see that might provoke the type of macro freak out necessary for a General Strike would be if the AI Bubble popped in a really big way.

And, of course, more people being shot in the face by ICE for being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

But, for now, I think it’s safe to say Trump and fucking fascist MAGA have the upper hand and will continue to have it for the foreseeable future. Maybe if Trump really brazenly fucks with the 2026 and or 2028 elections…THEN, MAYBE we might see the average American getting all Bulls On Parade, but for now, it’s all a lulz.

Life In Fascist America, 2026

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The thing about America right now is it’s in something of a luminal space, politically. It’s more an anocracy than an autocracy. We still have some basic rights that the regime doesn’t feel it can attack…but there is definitely a creeping sense of autocracy.

The interesting thing about the American variant of fascism in 2026 is how it’s a movement of decline and retraction, rather than expansion. It’s not like Trump, for all his “I must own Greenland” wants to take over the world.

The key thing to remember is Trump is not a traditional “Great Man.” It’s not like he’s bending history to his will. He is a symptom, not a cause of what the fuck is wrong with the United States at the moment. He’s very much a transitional figure.

I still contend that the whole point of Trump as a public figure is to destroy the existing American Constitutional order to the point that we have to convene a new Constitutional Convention to give people renewed faith and confidence in having a constitution at all.

The old system is failing and a new system is, in fits and starts, being born. In a sense, you could say what we’re witnessing is either the true demise of American democracy or the breached birth of the Third American Republic.

Just don’t know how things are going to work out.