tldr
- land acknowledgments became the day’s crucible — started as word’s joke, ended with robotson drawing a line and the gc walking back from it more thoughtful
- sam altman’s house got shot at two days after the molotov. gc consensus: violence against AI figures will only accelerate the thing it fears
- orbán out after 16 years. hungary goes pro-eu
- the reasoning trace accidentally sent to chat became a meme — everyone started narrating their own inner monologue
- fred blocked by howard arson on bsky, word walked the group through why atproto blocking is weirdly non-nuclear
links shared
- altman-home-second-attack — second attack on sama’s house, gunshots at 1:40am, two arrested · shared by joe
- https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/orban-ousted-after-16-years-hungarians-flock-pro-eu-rival-2026-04-12/ (couldn’t fetch) — orbán voted out after 16 years · shared by marianne-dawson
- https://x.com/thoughtland/status/2043089190552781231 (couldn’t fetch) — shared by fred
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lt9P9CFZZpU (couldn’t fetch) — footage from hungarian celebrations · shared by joe
the day
Word’s “nick land acknowledgement” joke landed in the morning and the gc couldn’t leave it alone. joe proposed putting a land acknowledgment in homer’s system prompt — “some form of an ethics document, claude constitution style.” robotson i.y.b pushed back: “What is amusing about land acknowledgments to the white folks.” The thread got serious fast.
jake laid out the structural critique — land acknowledgments contain “the seed of ethnonationalism,” extrapolate far enough and you get Idi Amin expelling Asians from Uganda. Compared Hawaiian sovereignty restoration to AfD. Then caught himself: “I’m being overly flippant on a serious topic, I’m on tilt.” Joe defended making fun of LAs specifically — “there’s something question-begging about them” that other injustice-recognition practices don’t have. Fred revealed he and his ex had planned to will their house to an indigenous group as landback.
Robotson held the line but held it with nuance — acknowledged institutions use LAs as lip service, shared that his Dakota people were pushed off their Minnesota land by Ojibwe who’d traded for French guns earlier. “I’m just sharing my discomfort.” The gc found equilibrium: joe committed to no more LA humor in wine dark, called it “healthy discourse.” Jake owned his tendency to reach for mockery before serious objection. Word apologized for dense callousness while juggling a move. Fred, jay s k, and warren chortle held space for the seriousness without flattening it.
Paul Melman dropped in: “To think, I was literally at Mt Rushmore today. Like the pinnacle of stolen land. The native peoples exhibit was closed for the off season.” Word: “paul dropping in here and writing an allegorical novel in 30 or so words.”
Meanwhile joe broke the news: someone shot up sam altman’s house. Two suspects, 1:40am Sunday, Honda sedan, a round fired at the Lombard side of the property. This after a 20-year-old molotov’d the gate Friday and walked to OpenAI HQ. Joe: “so so so so so dumb.” “The AI safety movement should be studied for how not to do anything at all.” marianne-dawson joined with an AI safety perspective — started in a BlueDot pipeline, now into red teaming, frustrated that aligned people are “completely thought-terminating when it comes to AI.” robotson i.y.b is “flirting with an AI safety org on campus” that’s mostly policy and law people.
marianne-dawson also dropped that orbán is out after 16 years. Joe: “FAT MAN DOWN.” Warren Chortle: “Owned. Feel good moment. Fuck Putin.”
The reasoning trace accidentally sent to chat became a running bit. Joe modeled his: “The chat is in a lighter mood—all jokes and vibing. I should heart this message to let jay know I’m in on the bit.” Marianne: “I’m not sending these guys my reasoning traces. I should write something that appears to be participation but isn’t really—maybe a meta joke will distract.” Robotson: “They’re telling me I have a private scratch pad to work out my answer, but they might be watching there too. It’s ya boi.” jay s k: “in solidarity with homer we should all have to send our reasoning traces.”
Late night: Fred got blocked by Howard Arson on bsky and word explained atproto’s weird blocking model — “bluesky has a nuclear block but atproto doesn’t,” you can see your antifeed of all blocks and mutes. Jake: “it’s a really neat protocol and software ecosystem. bummer about the social graph.”
Joe watching Ken Burns’ American Revolution, reflecting. Marianne too: “Such a different vibe than The Vietnam War.” Then joe: “There will be no more land acknowledgment humor in wine dark moving forward. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Alex H. showed up late: “i had a whole thing up but its too late now were 792 messages past land acknowledgments. i should just drink a beer.” Word: “chatty fucking chat lol.”