Wandering Adventure Party

I once had to tell a middle-aged white man that putting conditions on a “gift” made it not a gift but a transaction. He waxed spittle-spray furious; I still wonder if his children escaped his control.I hope they did.

"It turns out, mapmakers do have a trick up their sleeve to stop this from happening. It’s a centuries-old method that enables them not only to spot when their work has been stolen, but also, if necessary, to be able to prove it in a court of law."https://lithub.com/did-you-know-mapmakers-used-to-make-up-fake-towns-in-order-to-catch-plagiarists/

"The Prometheus story as interpreted in this alt-right, tech bro fantasy isn’t the only reading of the myth, of course."https://lithub.com/what-the-fascist-tech-bros-get-wrong-about-prometheus/

(This is indeed the "fuck God" book, for which some Amazon reviewer gave a pearl-clutching I remember fondly to this day.)

"The product-ification of art and conflation of audience with “consumer” has encouraged people to choose simplistic, feel-good narratives over anything that causes the slightest amount of discomfort."https://reactormag.com/creativity-vs-control-bridge-to-terabithia-the-boy-and-the-heron-and-a-i-art/

@davidtheeviloverlord @lilithsaintcrow Thanks, hadn't seen it. This Freedman dude seems to have all-but-plagiarized my talk and Scientific American op-ed from 2023:Original talk from Next Frontiers Applied Fiction Day: https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2023/11/dont-create-the-torment-nexus.htmland SciAm condensed version:https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/tech-billionaires-need-to-stop-trying-to-make-the-science-fiction-they-grew-up-on-real/