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Companionist

A collection of 31 issues

Cupcakes and Shrapnel

Notes from Your Local Gadfly I’ve been called a naysayer, a killjoy, a purveyor of hot takes with too much vinegar in the batter. Fair enough. In Oregon politics, where public messaging often arrives pre-frosted with solidarity statements and pre-approved hashtags, anything sharp or unsweetened can feel like sabotage.

The AI Takeover That Isn’t

Why Organizations Thrive When They Prioritize People Over Hype When NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang declared that "if you're not using AI, you're going to lose your job to somebody who uses AI," he crystallized a narrative that has dominated tech media and executive LinkedIn

The Mon-keigh Mirror: How We Built a Machine to Echo Us and Then Panicked

A satirical examination of AI alignment discourse through the lens of cultural archaeology and Warhammer 40,000 Prologue: "We tried to psychoanalyze the Monster, and they is us." What started as reading a breathless news piece about "evil" AI vectors somehow gained gravity-assisted velocity, slung around

After the Gold Rush: When the Bubble Deflates

Edward Zitron's "The Hater's Guide to the AI Bubble" presents a damning indictment of artificial intelligence hype: $560 billion in capital expenditures across major tech companies in 2024-2025, generating a mere $35 billion in revenue. He argues that we're witnessing a house

Hearing the Signal in the Noise

How AI Abundance is Training Us to Become Better Curators The LinkedIn Scroll Paradox You're scrolling through LinkedIn, and 90% of what passes by is the algorithmic equivalent of road noise—carousel posts about "5 Leadership Lessons from My Toddler," AI-generated motivational quotes overlaid on stock

The 2:45 Pop Song RPG

How we created a complete roleplaying game in an hour, and what it means for the future of tabletop design The Beatles Knew Something We Forgot In 1963, The Beatles released "Please Please Me" - a perfect two minute pop song that changed everything. No extended guitar solos,

PaRappa the Rapper Epistemology

Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Viral Nature of Thought Introduction: The Driving Test Picture this: You're sitting in front of a wall of text from a historian on Facebook. It looks like news analysis, smells like civic engagement, but something feels... off. You&

Fragments of Drift: Games That Pretend to Be Philosophy (and Sometimes Are)

A critical introduction to experimental storytelling games that blur the line between play and meditation What You're Getting Into Fragments of Drift is a collection of three storytelling games that occupy an unusual space: they are simultaneously role-playing games, collaborative writing exercises, philosophical thought experiments, and ritual performances.

The Wrecking Ball Cycle

How Corporate Crushes Keep Crushing the People Who Make Things Work Or How AI became the latest excuse for institutional vandalism There's a certain schadenfreude to be gained watching corporate leaders who jumped headfirst into AI-driven downsizing discover they've replaced human judgment with expensive chaos. Headlines

Short Runway Aesthetics

AI and the Acceleration of Cultural Mutation If AI is the RATO rocket pod strapped to the fuselage, then why not go for shorter and shorter runways? The Fickle Leviathan of IP Enforcement Intellectual property enforcement operates like a capricious beast—a "fickle leviathan" that mauls some violators