James Bridle
Artist, author of New Dark Age (2018) and Ways of Being (2022). Free Palestine, Protect Trans Kids, for ever and ever. mastodon.social/@jamesbridle / jamesbridle.com
- I'm speaking at EMST in Athens next week about plants, animals, Ai and intelligence, and probably also about Greece, water, community, and the future. www.emst.gr/en/events-en...
- Realising the Epstein emails are basically Snowden all over again. Drip-drip feed of revelations over months, vertigo-inducing visibility into horror and abuse, total lack of accountability; feelings of helplessness, eventual exhaustion, and another gaping void in our collective agency.
- Reminded of Mr Hastings, a maths teacher and good person, who would annotate particularly poor tests "John 11.35", or simply "JW".
- I know you've heard that a federal judge ordered the release of 5 year old Liam Conejo Arias and his father, and that they're now home. But did you look at the judge's order? It's less than 2.5 pages and well worth a minute. "Jesus wept." Link to pdf: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
- Thinking again about how the producer on a Radio 4 show I did a while back asked me to repeat myself "but don't mention capitalism this time" and also edited out all the things I said about Peter Thiel being quite an important influence to understand when talking about tech and politics.
- Morning.
- Reposted by James BridleHello, I have a new book out in the spring with Picador and I would love it if you could help me spread the word. IF WE TOLERATE THIS draws on years of work, to help readers understand why British politics is hurtling rightwards and what to do about it. Pre-orders: uk.bookshop.org/p/books/if-w...
- Absolutely bonkers to discover that I have a very long entry in Grokipedia, which charts my life in quite startling, almost frightening detail, makes a few errors but not many (and rarely its own- mistakes sourced elsewhere) but crucially does spend a lot of time arguing that I am wrong about stuff.
- "The end justifies the means. But what if there never is an end? All we have is means." ― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Lathe of Heaven
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- Discussing brains with my kid at bedtime. We talked about snake detection theory... I knew we have an evolutionary aptitude for snake detection, but not that snakes are basically responsible for primates being so visually focussed. And we all dream of them. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_d...
- January 19th. The first Asphodel spears appear, flower of the dead, but sacred to Persephone, who will, in time, return the Spring to us.
- What a life www.nytimes.com/2026/01/14/w...
- This. All hands to the pumps.
- @jacobwren.bsky.social Jacob, genuine question, how on earth do you read this much?
- Reposted by James BridleThe FT got is architecture critic Edwin Heathcote to write about data centres and it's wonderful. www.ft.com/content/7692...
- As the US military announces integration with Grok, probably time to point out that, as well as being a CSAM-on-demand-generator, Grok can't build a chair...
- The big win from the holidays is that when we play lego now, the kid quietly sings "Warm.... leatherette... Warm... leatherette..." to themselves.
- Life at Birzeit University. www.instagram.com/p/DTK988MDZkM/
- I'm in this BBC Radio series about the idea of Progress, talking about technology, AI, and everything going up and to the right. You can listen on BBC Sounds if you're in the UK, or are handy with a VPN: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
- I ate lunch with these students in their cafeteria two months ago. Praying for their safety. This is scholasticide, part of the ongoing genocide, not only in Gaza, but throughout Palestine.
- No cheating, reskeet with the most recent photo of your pet.
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- As midnight approaches in EEST, and I drink the whisky, and eat the carrot, your reminder that the Richard D James Album is 100% a Christmas Album.
- Amidst everything, a lone flamingo visited us today, on the shore just below our house. So we sat with them awhile, because they are the most magical of birds.
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- "This ain't no technological breakdown / Oh no, this is the road to Hell... This ain't no upwardly mobile freeway / Oh no, this is the road to Hell." Rip Chris Rea
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- Harvested mistletoe in the forest today. The Nameless Day approaches. Remember that everything is possible.
- Writing all day in a near-empty village in the Peloponnese, the only soundtrack the screams of Greek Air Force jets doing low altitude circuits of the mountains...
- The split between public perception, interested opinion, and corporate/government policy - I count three camps - on everything, from tech (particularly AI), to human rights, to international policy and conflict, feels so overwhelming it feels like it needs new words, new structuring ideas.
- Cracked my phone screen because it fell off the woodpile while I was stacking logs / built a solar oven and made baked beans for lunch with the sun
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- "Top to toe in tailbacks / Oh, I got red lights all around / But soon there'll be a freeway, yeah / Get my feet on holy ground" - Chris Rea / / "All ground is holy ground. Every bush is a burning bush." - John Moriarty
- First public meeting for our energy community tonight: aphaia-energy.com Sometimes the revolution starts with a dozen people in a chilly studio trying to understand net metering, right?
- I feel like so much good writing is going on behind substack/etc paywalls, which would once have been on free and open blogs. I know how we got here, but I don't get how its sustainable. I simply can't afford to pay a hundred people a monthly subscription.
- "There is hope - but not for us." Ewen Mcaskill on the so-called West Bank, twenty years after this last visit www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
