4 ms·

The Air Loom Gang has kept up with the times. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Tilly_Matthews https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Tilly_Matthews

defrost 4y ago
That was a lovely bit of counter intell psyops by Ada Lovelace & the clackers ... Still imortilised to this day in the innermost ring of GCHQ.
Animats 4y ago
"Air loom"? There actually is such a thing as an air loom.[1] Air looms make most of the world's fabrics today. They're what made fabric cheap. But they don't go back to 1815. Developed in the 2nd half of the 20th century. [1] https://youtu.be/s5uGmOrrn_I https://youtu.be/s5uGmOrrn_I
- _9xrb 4y ago
  This reminds me of a story involving Terry A. Davis, the late schizophrenic programmer behind TempleOS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TempleOS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TempleOS He had a famous video (which I won't link here, as he goes on a racist tirade about incandescent CIA employees) in which his random word generator- which he claimed sent him messages from God- prints the words "China virus election." The video is from 2017. Of course it printed lots of random garbage too, and any impression of prescience is merely coincidental, but certain corners of the Internet did notice and remark on the coincidence. These dark corners of the Internet, 4chan in particular, have their own large populations of users who sincerely think they're victims of gangstalking. While it's amusing to see them find strange coincidences like COVID and the output of Terry's word generator, it's depressing to see such ill people feed off each other's delusions.
  - LeonTheremin 4y ago
    Here is an Ask HN in this line. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30214652 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30214652 Instead of assuming randomness coming from computers full of black-box microchips, assuming malicious interference may be just a better option - survival wise.
    - _9xrb 4y ago
      In the case of TempleOS, a hand-built operating system where every aspect of the software was written by Terry himself, I think it's safe to assume no outside factor twiddled those bits.
    - walterbell 4y ago
      Thanks, another data point for future audits. Such incident report claims can be aggregated in an open-source, CC-licensed index, to improve visibility for defensive analysis and benchmarking of potential responses.
- addingnumbers 4y ago
  Apparently Matthews was an accomplished designer and illustrator and did some fancifully specific diagrams of the Air Loom that was controlling his mind. https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/illustrations-of-madness-james-tilly-matthews-and-the-air-loom https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/illustrations-of-madnes...

defrost 4y ago

That was a lovely bit of counter intell psyops by Ada Lovelace & the clackers ... Still imortilised to this day in the innermost ring of GCHQ.

Animats 4y ago

"Air loom"? There actually is such a thing as an air loom.[1] Air looms make most of the world's fabrics today. They're what made fabric cheap. But they don't go back to 1815. Developed in the 2nd half of the 20th century. [1] https://youtu.be/s5uGmOrrn_I https://youtu.be/s5uGmOrrn_I

_9xrb 4y ago
This reminds me of a story involving Terry A. Davis, the late schizophrenic programmer behind TempleOS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TempleOS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TempleOS He had a famous video (which I won't link here, as he goes on a racist tirade about incandescent CIA employees) in which his random word generator- which he claimed sent him messages from God- prints the words "China virus election." The video is from 2017. Of course it printed lots of random garbage too, and any impression of prescience is merely coincidental, but certain corners of the Internet did notice and remark on the coincidence. These dark corners of the Internet, 4chan in particular, have their own large populations of users who sincerely think they're victims of gangstalking. While it's amusing to see them find strange coincidences like COVID and the output of Terry's word generator, it's depressing to see such ill people feed off each other's delusions.
- LeonTheremin 4y ago
  Here is an Ask HN in this line. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30214652 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30214652 Instead of assuming randomness coming from computers full of black-box microchips, assuming malicious interference may be just a better option - survival wise.
  - _9xrb 4y ago
    In the case of TempleOS, a hand-built operating system where every aspect of the software was written by Terry himself, I think it's safe to assume no outside factor twiddled those bits.
  - walterbell 4y ago
    Thanks, another data point for future audits. Such incident report claims can be aggregated in an open-source, CC-licensed index, to improve visibility for defensive analysis and benchmarking of potential responses.
addingnumbers 4y ago
Apparently Matthews was an accomplished designer and illustrator and did some fancifully specific diagrams of the Air Loom that was controlling his mind. https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/illustrations-of-madness-james-tilly-matthews-and-the-air-loom https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/illustrations-of-madnes...