@annaleen@wandering.shop cover
@annaleen@wandering.shop avatar

annaleen

@[email protected]

I write science fiction and science nonfiction. Author: Automatic Noodle, Stories Are Weapons, The Terraformers. Bylines: Flaming Hydra, New Scientist, etc. Pod: Our Opinions Are Correct. Sometimes a professor of media studies. I love noodles.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. View on remote instance

@annaleen@wandering.shop avatar annaleen , to random

I just wrote a column for @newscientist called "stop anthropomorphizing ants" and I am pretty sure it's among the weirdest things I've ever written and probably they won't use that exact title lol

@annaleen@wandering.shop avatar annaleen , to random

Last night, Automatic Noodle won the Octavia Butler Award!! I'm so honored and happy!!! 🤖❤️🎉 https://www.instagram.com/p/DUI5pCoknog/?img_index=5&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

@annaleen@wandering.shop avatar annaleen , to random

The wonderful queer bookstore Cross & Crows in Vancouver is at risk of closing. Please consider donating to keep this cozy community space open! They host great readings and stock a wide array of queer books. A gem. https://gofund.me/a4e53f57f

@annaleen@wandering.shop avatar annaleen , to random

If you had to pray to a cheese for strength and luck, which kind would you pick?

@annaleen@wandering.shop avatar annaleen , to random

Things that seem wrong?

@annaleen@wandering.shop avatar annaleen , to random

Today only, Automatic Noodle e-books are on sale for $2.99 on all platforms! Grab one while they're still hot and chewy! https://bookshop.org/p/books/automatic-noodle-annalee-newitz/625018d0518991aa

The words "$2.99 e-book deal! Today only!" are at the top of this flyer. Below them, the cover of Automatic Noodle is shown against a background of flowers.
ALT
@annaleen@wandering.shop avatar annaleen , to random

In bookstores today! It's "We Will Rise Again," a book of hard-won hope in this dark season. I co-edited it with the wondrous @older and Karen Lord -- it's an anthology of speculative stories and essays about protest and resistance! Grab one now!
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/We-Will-Rise-Again/Malka-Older/9781668095959

This is a picture of the book cover, which is an abstract looking planet in orange, green, and purple. "We Will Rise Again: Speculative Stories and Essays On Protest, Resistance, and Hope. Edited by Karen Lord, Annalee Newitz, and Malka Older." Below that, it reads: Available Now from Saga Press
ALT
@annaleen@wandering.shop avatar annaleen , to random

I've reached the "eating the last piece of pie with my bare hands" stage of the weekend

@annaleen@wandering.shop avatar annaleen , to random

Fascism is a form of intergenerational trauma. In my latest newsletter, I talk about how this played out in the life of sexologist Wilhelm Reich, whose career as an anti-fascist activist took a dark, grifty turn. https://buttondown.com/thehypothesis/archive/we-will-rise-again/

@annaleen@wandering.shop avatar annaleen , to random

Are you yearning for hope? Do you need some friends in the resistance? It's time to pre-order your copy of "We Will Rise Again," a glorious anthology of speculative fiction and essays about political protest and resistance. With stories from an incredible lineup of international authors! Coming 12/3! Perfect for the holidays! https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/We-Will-Rise-Again/Malka-Older/9781668095959

@annaleen@wandering.shop avatar annaleen , to random

I cannot stop thinking about this paper about how Iberian harvester ants can produce offspring of two entirely different species. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02524-8

cc: @futurebird

@annaleen@wandering.shop avatar annaleen , to random

This is coconuts. I was using PirateShip, an app for buying and managing mailing labels. When I entered the window for printing a label, a dialog box popped up asking me if I wanted the document summarized by AI. The document, to be clear, was a mailing label that I was in the process of printing.

@jeridansky@sfba.social avatar jeridansky , to random

So I’ve seen a lot of folks on here singing the praises of Automatic Noodle by @annaleen .

I’m not the slightest bit interested in robots, so I was going to give this a pass. But after reading so much love for the book, I’m going to get it after all.

My local indie bookstore said it’s on backorder, so I guess it’s selling well! Yay! I have my order in for whenever the book arrives.

https://www.automaticnoodle.website

annaleen ,
@annaleen@wandering.shop avatar

@jeridansky @aral Mike is the greatest

@jendefer@dice.camp avatar jendefer , to bookstodon group

I recently finished reading Infomocracy by @older and had to double check the publication date afterwards. Some parts of it felt so prescient!

If you're looking for a near-future globe-hopping socio-political thriller without easy answers, I recommend checking it out.

bookstodon@a.gup.pe icon bookstodon group

annaleen ,
@annaleen@wandering.shop avatar

@jendefer @older bookstodon@a.gup.pe icon bookstodon group I think about this book all the time

@annaleen@wandering.shop avatar annaleen , to random

Happy book birthday to Automatic Noodle, which is all about three things I love: biang biang noodles, San Francisco, and robots. Catch me on book tour, and pick up one of these amazing t-shirts or other swag at our retro-90s HTML masterpiece https://www.automaticnoodle.website/ (yes, this is the exact URL the robots use in the book). Tour dates are linked from the FAQ at the bottom of the site. Because of course you need an FAQ. It's what humans like.

I am smiling, standing in front of my bookshelf, wearing a green t-shirt that says "Automatic Noodle" and holding up a copy of my book.
ALT
@annaleen@wandering.shop avatar annaleen , to random

There is so much absolutely weird and sad shit in US politico-cultural war news today that I started to post like fifteen angry things and deleted all of them because all I want to say is hug your friends and remember that saying hello to a neighbor is worth more than 5000 hot takes online.

@annaleen@wandering.shop avatar annaleen , to random

This week, you can get the ebook of The Terraformers for just $2.99 wherever ebooks are sold -- including indie bookseller platform Bookshop.org, along with the usual places. If you can't wait for Automatic Noodle, this will tide you over!

The book cover for "The Terraformers," which has a lake and volcano on the left side and a high-tech city on the right. There is a quote from NK Jemisin that says "Newitz always sees to the heart of complex xystmes and breaks them down with poetic ferocity."
ALT
@annaleen@wandering.shop avatar annaleen , to random

Not a time for fireworks, people. Read the room.

@annaleen@wandering.shop avatar annaleen , to random

Will they destroy us? Will they be our willing slaves? We are asking all the wrong questions about AI and robots. In my latest newsletter, I talk about why I wrote an entire novella about how to ask the right questions about building a new life form. https://buttondown.com/thehypothesis/archive/robots-are-obsessed-with-1990s-web-aesthetics/

@Daojoan@mastodon.social avatar Daojoan , to random

Permission has become a product. Approval is a currency.

And somewhere along the line, progress got priced out.

Permissionless asks: what would you build if no one could stop you?

https://permissionlessbook.com/

annaleen ,
@annaleen@wandering.shop avatar

@Daojoan This looks AMAZING

@annaleen@wandering.shop avatar annaleen , to random

I downloaded a scientific paper of great interest to me. It is of typical length, about 15 pages in the PDF. I opened it in Acrobat, and got this message highlighted at the top of the page next to an AI sparkle icon: "This appears to be a long document. Save time by reading a summary." I cannot put into words how much this enrages me. First, this is not a long document. Have you met documents? Second, and more important, telling someone to not read a thing they want to read??! Fuck you, Adobe.

This appears to be a long document. Save time by reading a summary.
ALT
@ModernDayBartleby@mstdn.plus avatar ModernDayBartleby , to random

WOMEN OF THE PORTUGUESE GUINEA LIBERATION WAR: DE-GENDERING THE HISTORY OF ANTICOLONIAL STRUGGLE by Aliou Ly via Bloomsbury Books brewed with MUMS Coffee

Image of the book's cover which features a black and white photo of an outside market in Guinea-Bissau full of many Black people featuring in the foreground a smiling Black woman with a head wrap reaching forward to sort a white textile
ALT
annaleen ,
@annaleen@wandering.shop avatar
@annaleen@wandering.shop avatar annaleen , to random

A scenario that Schrödinger never addressed

Two black cats are in a large box. One is inside a second box within the box.
ALT
@annaleen@wandering.shop avatar annaleen , to random

Who is your commander at the moment?

@annaleen@wandering.shop avatar annaleen , to random

Give your future self a nice present. Pre-order "Stories Are Weapons" now from Green Apple Books in San Francisco, and I will sign and personalize it for you!! https://www.greenapplebooks.com/signed-annalee-newitz

@annaleen@wandering.shop avatar annaleen , to random

Hello Berkeley! I'll be talking to the astounding @edyong209 on 6/18 at the Hillside Club, about my new book, "Stories Are Weapons," a history of psyops and culture war in the USA. Expect dunking on junk science, geeking out about archives, and more. https://www.booksmith.com/event/stories-are-weapons

A poster for an event at 7pm, 6/18, at the Berkeley Hillside Club (2286 Cedar Street, Berkeley), about my new book, "Stories Are Weapons," where I'm in conversation with Ed Yong.
ALT
@annaleen@wandering.shop avatar annaleen , to random

Would you like to install our new feature 'help me write' in your browser? It's a text-generating spell made from the ground-up bones and wrung-out hearts of underpaid writers, sprinkled with algorithms torn from the livers of overpaid AI engineers whose ethics team colleagues were all fired for revealing how the spell was cast. DO YOU WANT TO INSTALL