James Z Dyson

Software engineer
he/him

[Grady Booch @Grady_Booch]

Our science and our technology have posed us a profound question: Will we learn to use these tools with wisdom and foresight before it's too late? Will we see our species safely through this difficult passage so that our children and grandchildren will continue the great journey of discovery still deeper into the mysteries of the cosmos? That same rocket and nuclear and computer technology that sends our ships past the farthest known planet can also be used to destroy our global civilization. Exactly the same technology can be used for good and for evil.

It is as if there were a god who said to us: "I set before you two ways. You can use your technology to destroy yourselves or to carry you to the planets and the stars.

It's up to you.
-- Carl Sagan, Cosmos

[Hank Green @hankgreen]

Just listened to a clip of Jason Calacanis talking about how most tech companies now "support Trump on various endeavors" with the exception of Anthropic and "this is america you're allowed to have an opinion BUT! This administration takes things personally, and they're full contact."

The overall thesis of the clip as I understood it was "Anthropic is a bunch of Democrats, they hate Trump, Trump hates them back. Why isn't Dario doing the thing all the other tech leaders are doing? Of course Trump is fucking with them."

OK.

I think it's fair to say that the average person would say that Jason Calacanis is more of a capitalist than me. Certainly he's made much more money than me and his job title contains the word "capitalist."

But what Jason is talking about being the new structural quality of the American economy here is not capitalism.

If the President of the United States picks OpenAI to win the AI race even though Anthropic's tech is better, that's not "Oh, y'know, this administration takes things personally!" shrug.

That's actually not capitalism anymore...it's a pretty well-understood different system called oligarchy. That becomes very obvious if you just replace any of the characters in the story with names you don't recognize.

Just in case it needs saying, oligarchy sucks. It is bad for innovation and bad for economies and bad for consumers and ultimately also often (eventually) very bad for the oligarchs! This is why we're supposed to be apalled when our leaders start actively encouraging oligarch-like behavior.

Because, look...funny thing about capitalism that I've noticed...most capitalists (there are some exceptions) have no real ideological allegiance to capitalism. They don't /want/ to compete. Competing is annoying, it's hard, you can very easily lose!

If they can make more money by getting the state to protect them than they can by innovating and competing, they will absolutely pick state protection.

Most capitalists will happily become oligarchs. Their allegiance isn't to any particular system, it's to margin.

Now, people to my left will say that oligarchy is, in fact, the final form of capitalism...it's where capitalism will inevitably ends up. I don't believe this because of how we have lots of examples of capitalist countries that are not oligarchies.

But watching it happen in my country (and watching influential capitalists shrug as it does) doesn't strengthen my position!

It is honestly kinda astounding to see such a staunch pro-market guy just say, "the administration is full-contact, Dario needs to play ball." We all get that that's not a defense of markets, right?

It's a defense of one guy distorting a market because he dislikes any power that is not his power. If you find yourself defending that, it is possibly because you, yourself, strive to be an oligarch. Be real careful with that. You can follow your incentives into an evolutionary dead-end. It happens all the time.

I've just been thinking about it all morning. Just a real jaw dropper.

You can watch the video here: https://t.co/eU29LH9xoR

[Karen Kenyatta Russell🍀 @Karen_Russell]

Now I get it!

“The kicker: the same people killing the monitors want to mine the deep sea for minerals. So they are destroying the only tools that could measure what that mining does. That is not an accident.

That is the point. You cannot see the damage if you break the instruments first.”

[Anish Moonka @anishmoonka]

Christina Koch was a firefighter at the South Pole at -111°F before she ever applied to be an astronaut. That was maybe the fourth most interesting line on her resume. She grew up in North Carolina, got three degrees from NC State, and her first real job was building deep-space instruments at NASA.

Then she left for Antarctica. Spent three and a half years bouncing between the Arctic and Antarctic as a research scientist, including a full winter at the South Pole base. That means going months without sunlight or fresh food, with a crew of about 50 people and no way out until flights resume. While she was down there, she also joined the glacier search-and-rescue team.

After coming back, she went to Johns Hopkins and built instruments for two NASA missions (one of them is still orbiting Jupiter right now). She figured out how to start a tiny vacuum pump that NASA designed for a future Mars rover. Johns Hopkins nominated it for their Invention of the Year in 2009. Then she went back to the field. More time in Antarctica and a stretch up in Greenland. A government research station in northern Alaska, near the top of the world. Then she ran another one in American Samoa, near the equator.

In 2013, NASA selected her from 6,300 applicants. Eight people got in. Her first space mission was supposed to be a normal rotation on the International Space Station, but NASA extended it. She ended up staying 328 straight days and orbiting Earth 5,248 times, covering about 139 million miles (roughly 291 round trips to the Moon). Up there, she ran over 210 experiments, including tests of cancer drugs in zero gravity and 3D printers that can build structures close to human tissue. Six spacewalks, 42 hours floating outside the station. She learned Russian for the training. She flies supersonic jets.

Right now, Koch is on Artemis II, heading for a flyby behind the far side of the Moon. The crew launched on April 1 and is on track to travel about 252,000 miles from Earth, which would break the all-time human distance record of 248,655 miles set by Apollo 13 in 1970. That record has stood for 56 years, and it was set during a disaster that nearly killed the crew. Fred Haise, one of the Apollo 13 astronauts, is 92 now. He told Koch: "I heard you're going to break our record."

Nobody had left Earth's neighborhood since December 1972. Koch and her three crewmates are the first in 53 years, and they are coming home at about 25,000 mph. That is faster than any crewed spacecraft has ever come back through the atmosphere.

[Senator Mark Kelly @SenMarkKelly]

When I was 22 years old, I commissioned as an Ensign in the United States Navy and swore an oath to the Constitution. I upheld that oath through flight school, multiple deployments on the USS Midway, 39 combat missions in Operation Desert Storm, test pilot school, four space shuttle flights at NASA, and every day since I retired – which I did after my wife Gabby was shot in the head while serving her constituents.

In combat, I had a missile blow up next to my jet and flew through anti-aircraft fire to drop bombs on enemy targets. At NASA, I launched on a rocket, commanded the space shuttle, and was part of the recovery mission that brought home the bodies of my astronaut classmates who died on Columbia. I did all of this in service to this country that I love and has given me so much.

Secretary Hegseth’s tweet is the first I heard of this. I also saw the President’s posts saying I should be arrested, hanged, and put to death.

If this is meant to intimidate me and other members of Congress from doing our jobs and holding this administration accountable, it won’t work. I’ve given too much to this country to be silenced by bullies who care more about their own power than protecting the Constitution.

[Jamie Dupree @jamiedupree]

Jeffries: "House Republicans, welcome back from your taxpayer funded 7-week vacation."

[Senator Rand Paul @SenRandPaul]

We don’t blow up boats off Miami because 25% of the time suspicion is wrong.

We shouldn’t do it off Venezuela either. These are small outboards with no fentanyl and no path to Florida.

We can’t just kill indiscriminately because we are not at war. It’s summary execution! 

Everyone gets a trial because sometimes, the system gets it wrong. Even the worst of the worst in our country get due process.

The bottom line is that execution without process is not justice, and blowing up foreign ships is a recipe for chaos.

[Dan Lamothe @DanLamothe]

New Pentagon Press Association statement tonight:

"Today, the Defense Department confiscated the badges of the Pentagon reporters from virtually every major media organization in America. It did this because reporters would not sign onto a new media policy over its implicit threat of criminalizing national security reporting and exposing those who sign it to potential prosecution.

"The Pentagon Press Association’s members are still committed to reporting on the U.S. military. But make no mistake, today, Oct. 15, 2025 is a dark day for press freedom that raises concerns about a weakening U.S. commitment to transparency in governance, to public accountability at the Pentagon and to free speech for all."

[Jamie Dupree @jamiedupree]

President Trump to NBC's 'Meet the Press' about trade with Canada: "We do very little business with Canada...We don’t need them."
(Canada is the top destination for US exports so far in 2025 and is our second biggest trading partner)
Source: https://t.co/UQYWTCVo5J

[Aaron Rupar @atrupar]

The optics of Trump demolishing the economy and then peacing out for some R&R at a Saudi-funded golf tournament held at a private club he still owns and profits from aren’t great

[JerryRigEverything @ZacksJerryRig]

Retweeted without comment.

[Ben Wikler @benwikler]

The Department Of Government Efficiency, for example

[Sen. Bernie Sanders @SenSanders]

Instead of stealing Greenland from Denmark, let’s steal some of their policies.

In Denmark:

- Health care and college are free.  

- The starting wage is $22/hr.

- Paid parental leave is 1 year.

- Paid vacation is 6 weeks.  

- All workers get pensions.

[Senator Mark Kelly @SenMarkKelly]

Traitor?

Elon, if you don’t understand that defending freedom is a basic tenet of what makes America great and keeps us safe, maybe you should leave it to those of us who do.

[Senator Mark Kelly @SenMarkKelly]

Just left Ukraine. What I saw proved to me we can’t give up on the Ukrainian people. Everyone wants this war to end, but any agreement has to protect Ukraine’s security and can’t be a giveaway to Putin. Let me tell you about my trip and why it’s important we stand with Ukraine.🧵

[Senator Mark Kelly @SenMarkKelly]

The world will become a very cold and lonely place if we continue this ridiculous “screw you, go it alone” foreign policy. It’s dumb and it won’t age well and puts you and your kids and your grandkids at risk. America is the strongest, richest country in the world. We didn’t get there by being bullies like Putin, we got there by leading from the front and bringing our allies. That’s why I’ll continue to share with everyone who will listen why we must keep supporting Ukraine.

[Liz Cheney @Liz_Cheney]

Here is some truth: Putin invaded Ukraine. NATO is the most successful military alliance in history. Since 1945, American leadership has ensured freedom and security for ourselves and millions of others around the world. Together with our allies, we defeated the Soviet Union—an empire so evil it had to build gulags and walls to keep its own people in. Destroying America’s alliances and abandoning the cause of freedom is morally and strategically indefensible. Putin will pocket Trump’s naive concessions and demand much more. Appeasement makes a wider war more likely, not less.

@realDonaldTrump, @JDVance, and @elonmusk have made clear who they are. Only fools—or Kremlin tools—would abandon NATO, side with Russia, and demand Ukraine surrender in the face of Putin’s brutal aggression.

[💀💢 @gugukcoklat]

made me remembered again about this

(original post by @/mathewsmarz)

[Stephen Griffin @SGriffin_Lab]

OK, I have a busy day, but I've been asked about why I've criticised the GBD, antivax rhetoric etc...

First, re vaccines, see my 📌. TLDR, they're not perfect, no medicine is, but lies about modifying our DNA, mass cardiovascular problems, graphene, pharma/WEF/Gates plots are 💩