Today's links

• The petty (but undeniable) delights of cultivating ungovernability as a habit: Get good at being on hold.
• Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
• Object permanence: "Ventus"; Woody Guthrie v Trump's dad; Tory MP v poppers.
• Upcoming appearances: Where to find me.
• Recent appearances: Where I've been.
• Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.
• Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.
• Colophon: All the rest.

The petty (but undeniable) delights of cultivating ungovernability as a habit (permalink)

I am on record as being skeptical of the notion that if you shop very carefully, you can make society better. "Conscious consumption" is not a tool for structural change, and any election that requires you to "vote with your wallet" is always won by the people with the thickest wallets (statistically speaking, that's not you):

https://pluralistic.net/2025/09/13/consumption-choices/#marginal-benefits

Now, that's not to say that boycotts are useless. But a boycott is a structured and organized campaign. The Montgomery bus boycott wasn't a matter of a bunch of people waking up one morning and saying, "You know what, fuck it, I'm gonna walk today":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgomery_bus_boycott

The Montgomery bus boycott was an organized project, put together by a powerful membership organization, the NAACP, that demanded far more of its members than merely shopping very carefully. The boycott was the end stage of an organized resistance, not a substitute for it.

The problem with "conscious consumption" is that it comes out of the neoliberal tradition in which every political matter is supposedly determined by your individual actions, and not your actions as part of a union or other political institution that works as a bloc to overthrow the status quo.

"Conscious consumption" arises out of the tradition that gave us Margaret Thatcher's maxim, "There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families and no government can do anything except through people and people look to themselves first."

Any attempt to change society by shopping very carefully is destined to fail, but it's worse than that. Because "shopping very carefully" never makes systemic change, its practitioners inevitably decide the reason they're not seeing the change they yearn for is that their allies aren't shopping carefully enough. This turns the careful shopper into a cop who polices other people's consumption, demanding that they stop eating some foodstuff or using Twitter or watching HBO Max. Squabbling over whether using a social media network makes you a Nazi generates far more heat than light – so much heat that it incinerates the solidarity you need to actually fight Nazis.

Which is not an argument against boycotts! Boycotts work. If boycotts didn't work, then genocide apologists wouldn't be apoplectic over the BDS movement:

https://bdsmovement.net/

But a "boycott" isn't the same thing as "you and your social circle deciding that buying the wrong product makes you a Bad Person and then devoting your energies to scolding your allies for choosing Coke instead of Pepsi." Boycotts are downstream of organizing; they are not a substitute for organizing. There is such a thing as society.

Now, all that said, I will confess: I sometimes do something that looks a lot like "shopping very carefully," and when I do, I derive enormous satisfaction from it (but I am always careful not to mistake my tiny victories for political action). But I get it, honestly, I do. Sometimes, "shopping very carefully" is a way to eke out a tiny, personal victory in the face of overwhelming odds against a wildly overmatched opponent. That feels very good.

One example would be patronizing my local repair shop (or fixing my stuff myself). The big structural barriers to repair are things like "parts pairing":

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/24/record-scratch/#autoenshittification

And manufacturers who abuse trademark law to get CBP to seize refurbished parts at the border:

https://www.shacknews.com/article/108049/apple-repair-critic-louis-rossmann-takes-on-us-customs-counterfeit-battery-seizure

The repair problem isn't that your neighbors are "sheeple" who've had their minds warped by a "throwaway society." The problem is that technical and legal countermeasures have made repair so hard and unprofitable that getting your stuff fixed is more expensive and time-consuming than it needs to be.

That said: I love going to my local repair shop. I love fixing things on my own. It's great. It makes me feel great. I think you should do it because it may make you feel great, too, and it'd be nice for you to support your local fix-it place, but let's not pretend that we'll change society that way.

Here's another example: for the past couple years, I've been navigating a (thankfully very treatable) cancer diagnosis. The fact that my cancer is very treatable doesn't mean it's easily treated. America's shitty, for-profit healthcare system is terrible at the best of times, and nearly unnavigable when coping with a complex condition that crosses a lot of disciplinary lines and requires access to specialized, expensive equipment.

I'm asymptomatic, so the hardest part of having cancer – so far – is fighting the Kaiser bureaucracy to make sure my treatment goes off as planned:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/05/carcinoma-angels/#squeaky-nail

The fact that the different Kaiser departments drop so many balls when handing off care between them means that I have to juggle those balls for them. I make extensive use of organizational tactics like "suspense files," which are a kind of inverted to-do list, in that they let you manage other people's to-do lists, rather than your own:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/26/one-weird-trick/#todo

(In case you're wondering, the best part of having cancer is that Kaiser comps 100% of your parking! Free cancer parking!)

Now, I also make sure to note each of Kaiser's failures and I raise grievances and California health ombudsman complaints for each one – not because I'm angry and want an apology, but because I'm a well-organized, native English-speaking cancer patient with no symptoms, which means that I can do the advocacy that other people can't, and help them (I also track these complaints with suspense files, calendar entries, etc, to make sure that they're followed through).

Partly, I'm able to do this because I'm very organized. I'm not organized because I worship at the cult of "personal productivity"; I'm definitely Jenny Odell-pilled on that score:

https://memex.craphound.com/2019/04/09/how-to-do-nothing-jenny-odells-case-for-resisting-the-attention-economy/

I'm organized because I pursue The Way of Jim Munroe's "Time Management for Anarchists" ("once I learned how to make my own structure, I was able to kick my expensive boss habit and work on my own"):

https://jimmunroe.net/comics/pamphlets/time_management_for_anarchists/time_management_for_anarchists.html

Having invested a lot of energy into being organized, I now get massive discounts on dealing with other people's shit. Remember: giant corporations and other remorseless bureaucracies throw up roadblocks on the assumption that you will be a "rational economic actor." The airline assumes that if it costs you 15 hours to collect on the $50 voucher you're entitled to, you will just let them steal $50 from you. But once you get organized enough, you can cut that 15-hour investment down to a 15-minute one, and I will absolutely trade 15 minutes of dealing with an airline's bullshit for $50 of that airline's money.

(Why yes, Air Canada did fuck me over on Jan 3 and get me home at 5AM the next day, instead of 730PM the night before; and yes, they did deny my compensation claim; and yes, I have filed an appeal with the Canada Transport Agency; why do you ask?)

One of my favorite podcasts is "An Arm and a Leg," which divides itself between deep dive structural analyses into how corrupt and ghastly American medical billing is, and enumerations of sweet hacks that ninja bill-fighters have come up with to slice through the billing labyrinth your insurer and hospital trap you in and cut straight to the bullseye:

https://armandalegshow.com/

For example, the latest episode tells the story of med student Thomas Sanford, who figured out that hospitals were stealing billions of dollars every year from the poorest people in America, who were all entitled to have their medical bill canceled. He founded Dollarfor, a nonprofit that helps patients get their medical debt canceled:

https://armandalegshow.com/episode/our-favorite-project-of-2025-levels-up-and-you-can-help/

Dollarfor now has an automated tool that guides you through a survey and then generates and files the completed, hospital-specific paperwork needed to get your medical debt canceled (they've made versions of this for every hospital in America!):

https://dollarfor.org/

(If you're a health worker, here's a printable guide with QR codes that you can clip to your lanyard and show to patients while you deliver care):

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14cfwK66A_mfBBBqn35_Lp7930uoY-73f/view

Now, the real problem here isn't that hospitals steal billions from charity cases: it's that America has a garbage for-profit healthcare system that kills and bankrupts people at scale. Dollarfor is amazing, but it's not going to fix that problem. I don't know Sanford, but I bet if you asked him, he'd agree with this, and say something like, "Yes, and I'm helping people not have their lives destroyed by this garbage system, which is good unto itself; and also, it might give them the free time and wherewithal to participate in movements to overthrow the garbage system."

I really dote on the fact that Dollarfor has literally built a different version of their tool for every single hospital in the country. It's a perfect example of how turning yourself into a highly organized adversary can overcome the time-based economics our enemies rely on to keep their garbage systems intact.

Whenever I think of this stuff, I flash on two pop-culture references that made a deep impression on me. The first comes from 1985's Real Genius, Val Kilmer's best ever movie (fight me!). Real Genius is set at a fictionalized version of Caltech in which young prodigies slowly discover that their scumbag prof has tricked them into working on a weapons contract for the DoD.

This being fictional-Caltech, there are all these scenes in which very smart people do weird and amazing things. At one point, we learn that there's a former child prodigy living in the basement under the dorms, a guy named Lazlo Hollyfeld who became a hermit after discovering that he, too, had been duped into working on a baby-killer project. We get these tantalizing glimpses of Lazlo in his subterranean redoubt, where he has built some kind of giant Rube Goldberg machine that is engaged in a mysterious mechanical process that involves manipulating cards of some sort.

At the film's denouement (spoiler alert for a 40 year old movie), we discover what he was doing:

Lazlo: These are entries into the Frito-Lay Sweepstakes. "No purchase necessary, enter as often as you want" – so I am.

Chris: That's great! How many times?

Lazlo: Well, this batch makes it one million six hundred and fifty thousand. I should win thirty-two point six percent of the prizes, including the car.

Chris: That kind of takes the fun out of it, doesn't it?

Lazlo: They set up the rules, and lately I've come to realize that I have certain materialistic needs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6kBfBXZBdc

Then there's a scene from the otherwise tepid (fight me!) Batman Returns (1992) in which we encounter the Penguin in his subterranean redoubt, brandishing pages full of kompromat that have been laboriously taped together:

The Penguin: What about the documents that prove you own half the firetraps in Gotham City?

Maximillian 'Max' Shreck: If there were such documents – and that's not an admission – I would have seen to it they were shredded.

The Penguin: Ah, good idea! [pulls out a sheaf of documents]

The Penguin: A lot of tape and a little patience make all the difference.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103776/quotes/

Both Lazlo and the Penguin are defeating the time-based security assumptions of their adversaries. Frito Lay treats filling in 1.65m sweepstakes entries as the same thing as filling in infinity entries; Max Schrek treats the time needed to piece together shredded paper as infinite. Rounding a very large number up to infinity isn't entirely irrational, but once you get organized enough, you just might be able to find the time – or a system – to bring that very big number down to an entirely tractable value.

Yes, this is a species of "careful shopping" but my point isn't to say that shopping carefully is useless – rather, that it's a drastic error to mistake this useful (and surprisingly satisfying) tactic for a strategy that will truly alter the system.

Hey look at this (permalink)

• Verizon Wastes No Time Switching Device Unlock Policy to 365 Days https://www.droid-life.com/2026/01/20/verizon-device-unlock-policy-365-days/

• CEOs say AI is making work more efficient. Employees tell a different story. https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/ceos-say-ai-is-making-work-more-efficient-employees-tell-a-different-story/ar-AA1UE3Tq

• This is the End of the US Global Monetary System https://profstevekeen.substack.com/p/this-is-the-end-of-the-us-global

• Europe has more bargaining strength than it thinks https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/europe-has-more-bargaining-strength

• U.S workers just took home their smallest share of capital since 1947, at least https://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-workers-just-took-home-214018586.html

Object permanence (permalink)

#25yrsago Karl Schroeder's "Ventus" https://www.mindjack.com/books/ventus.html

#20yrsago Hollywood’s Canadian MP plagiarizes entertainment industry in op-ed https://web.archive.org/web/20060814015107/http://www.michaelgeist.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1082

#20yrago Pope: Divine inspiration is copyrighted https://web.archive.org/web/20070219175621/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article717916.ece

#10yrsago Gay Tory MP outs himself as a “poppers” user, slams proposed ban https://web.archive.org/web/20160122212659/https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/mp-crispin-blunt-admits-using-poppers-while-attacking-proposed-ban/ar-BBotElv

#10yrsago Donald Trump’s dad was Woody Guthrie’s hated Klansman landlord https://theconversation.com/woody-guthrie-old-man-trump-and-a-real-estate-empires-racist-foundations-53026

#5yrsago How one of America's most abusive employers gets away with it https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/22/paperback-writer/#toothless

#1yrago EFF's transition memo for the Biden admin https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/22/paperback-writer/#memo

Upcoming appearances (permalink)

• Denver: Enshittification at Tattered Cover Colfax, Jan 22
  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cory-doctorow-live-at-tattered-cover-colfax-tickets-1976644174937

• Colorado Springs: Guest of Honor at COSine, Jan 23-25
  https://www.firstfridayfandom.org/cosine/

• Ottawa: Enshittification at Perfect Books, Jan 28
  https://www.instagram.com/p/DS2nGiHiNUh/

• Toronto: Enshittification and the Age of Extraction with Tim Wu, Jan 30
  https://nowtoronto.com/event/cory-doctorow-and-tim-wu-enshittification-and-extraction/

• Salt Lake City: Enshittification at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts (Tanner Humanities Center), Feb 18
  https://tanner.utah.edu/center-events/cory-doctorow/

• Victoria: 28th Annual Victoria International Privacy & Security Summit, Mar 3-5
  https://www.rebootcommunications.com/event/vipss2026/

• Berkeley: Bioneers keynote, Mar 27
  https://conference.bioneers.org/

• Berlin: Re:publica, May 18-20
  https://re-publica.com/de/news/rp26-sprecher-cory-doctorow

• Berlin: Enshittification at Otherland Books, May 19
  https://www.otherland-berlin.de/de/event-details/cory-doctorow.html

• Hay-on-Wye: HowTheLightGetsIn, May 22-25
  https://howthelightgetsin.org/festivals/hay/big-ideas-2

Recent appearances (permalink)

• How the Internet Got Worse (Masters in Business)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auXlkuVhxMo

• Enshittification (Jon Favreau/Offline):
  https://crooked.com/podcast/the-enshittification-of-the-internet-with-cory-doctorow/

• Why Big Tech is a Trap for Independent Creators (Stripper News)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmYDyz8AMZ0

• Enshittification (Creative Nonfiction podcast)
  https://brendanomeara.com/episode-507-enshittification-author-cory-doctorow-believes-in-a-new-good-internet/

• Enshittification with Plutopia
  https://plutopia.io/cory-doctorow-enshittification/

Latest books (permalink)

• "Canny Valley": A limited edition collection of the collages I create for Pluralistic, self-published, September 2025

• "Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It," Farrar, Straus, Giroux, October 7 2025
  https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374619329/enshittification/

• "Picks and Shovels": a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about the heroic era of the PC, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), February 2025 (https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865908/picksandshovels).

• "The Bezzle": a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about prison-tech and other grifts, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), February 2024 (thebezzle.org).

• "The Lost Cause:" a solarpunk novel of hope in the climate emergency, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), November 2023 (http://lost-cause.org).

• "The Internet Con": A nonfiction book about interoperability and Big Tech (Verso) September 2023 (http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org). Signed copies at Book Soup (https://www.booksoup.com/book/9781804291245).

• "Red Team Blues": "A grabby, compulsive thriller that will leave you knowing more about how the world works than you did before." Tor Books http://redteamblues.com.

• "Chokepoint Capitalism: How to Beat Big Tech, Tame Big Content, and Get Artists Paid, with Rebecca Giblin", on how to unrig the markets for creative labor, Beacon Press/Scribe 2022 https://chokepointcapitalism.com

Upcoming books (permalink)

• "Unauthorized Bread": a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2026

• "Enshittification, Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It" (the graphic novel), Firstsecond, 2026

• "The Memex Method," Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2026

• "The Reverse-Centaur's Guide to AI," a short book about being a better AI critic, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, June 2026

Colophon (permalink)

Today's top sources:

Currently writing: "The Post-American Internet," a sequel to "Enshittification," about the better world the rest of us get to have now that Trump has torched America (1023 words today, 12377 total)

• "The Reverse Centaur's Guide to AI," a short book for Farrar, Straus and Giroux about being an effective AI critic. LEGAL REVIEW AND COPYEDIT COMPLETE.

• "The Post-American Internet," a short book about internet policy in the age of Trumpism. PLANNING.

• A Little Brother short story about DIY insulin PLANNING

This work – excluding any serialized fiction – is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net.

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"When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla" -Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla

READ CAREFULLY: By reading this, you agree, on behalf of your employer, to release me from all obligations and waivers arising from any and all NON-NEGOTIATED agreements, licenses, terms-of-service, shrinkwrap, clickwrap, browsewrap, confidentiality, non-disclosure, non-compete and acceptable use policies ("BOGUS AGREEMENTS") that I have entered into with your employer, its partners, licensors, agents and assigns, in perpetuity, without prejudice to my ongoing rights and privileges. You further represent that you have the authority to release me from any BOGUS AGREEMENTS on behalf of your employer.

ISSN: 3066-764X

After the success of Salvatore Mercatante's live recording on Bandcamp, I wanted to continue presenting live sets wherever is made sense, and after hearing this one from WNDFRM in person for Nonseq, I knew it would be something the textured, minimal and immersive ambient enthusiasts amongst us would enjoy in high-quality...

Scroll to the bottom for some free download codes, but it’s name-your-price on Bandcamp either way.

~

WNDFRM has long occupied a parallel lane, equal parts reductionist and tactile. His studio output, including his 2025 release on ASIP, WVLT, is often about what isn’t there, carving space with restraint and a patient sense of pacing. But in this rare live recording from his appearance at Seattle’s Nonseq series in late 2025, we’re reminded how those same principles can hum with immediacy, weight, and physicality.

Tim’s live set leans even deeper into the tactileness hinted at on WVLT. Over 37 minutes, WNDFRM builds a slow-motion tension through dub-damaged rhythms, brittle textures, and dissolving sequences. Familiar elements, saturated pads, clipped delay lines, off-grid percussion, surface and vanish without resolution. A gradual unravelling from a sound designer in his element.

A huge thanks to Steve Peters, Chloe Harris and the Nonsequitur community for the evening.

Available now as name your price on Bandcamp.

BC codes (limited!) redeem

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When it comes to the evolution of the human penis, size matters. 

Scientists have discovered that men with larger penises are not only more attractive to women, they are also deemed more threatening to men, which is “the first experimental evidence that males assess rivals’ fighting ability and attractiveness to females based partly on a rival’s penis size,” according to a study published in PLOS Biology on Thursday. 

“In humans, height and body shape are well known to influence attractiveness, but penis size has rarely been tested alongside these traits in a controlled, experimental setup,” said Upama Aich, a behavioral and evolutionary biologist at the University of Western Australia who led the study, in an email to 404 Media. 

“What motivated us was the evolutionary puzzle that the human penis is unusually large relative to other primates, which raises the question of whether it signals information beyond its primary reproductive role of sperm transfer,” she added.

Sexual selection, a form of natural selection, is a process in which certain traits that enhance reproductive success—from big antlers to colorful feathers—become amplified in a lineage over time. Male traits may persist both because they are selected by females, which is known as intersexual selection, or because those traits are associated with better success against male rivals, which is called intrasexual selection.

Previous research has presented evidence that bigger penises are more attractive to women, in tandem with characteristics like height and body shape, suggesting that intersexual selection may have played a role in the anomalously large human penis. Aich and her colleagues set out to confirm that result, while also testing out the role of intrasexual selection for the first time.

The researchers recruited more than 600 male and 200 female participants to rate computer-generated male figures with different heights, body shapes, and penis sizes (all shown in a flaccid state). Some participants attended an in-person display of life-size images while others rated the figures on an online platform. Men were asked to assess the figures as potential rivals, while women were asked to rate them as potential mates. 

Participants also filled out a questionnaire about their physical characteristics (including height and weight) and sexuality. Given the focus on mates and rivals, the researchers only used responses from self-identified heterosexual males and females in the study. 

The team designed the approach with nondescript figures devoid of any personality or identifiable background in part to sidestep the immense cultural weight of the human penis, an anatomical feature endowed with major significance across eras and societies. 

“We were very conscious that penis size is culturally loaded and surrounded by myths, humour, and anxiety,” said Aich. “That’s one reason we used anatomically accurate, computer-generated figures: it allowed us to manipulate specific traits independently while controlling for personal identity, social narratives and contextual cues.” 

“I do think this cultural baggage has discouraged careful scientific study in sensitive topics in the past, but from an evolutionary perspective, that makes it even more important to examine the question empirically rather than relying on assumptions,” she added.

To that end, the new study confirmed that women generally preferred figures with larger penises in addition to taller figures with more V-shaped bodies. It also revealed for the first time that men factored penis size into their assessment of male rivals, as they rated the figures with larger penises as more threatening rivals. Even more importantly, the men overwhelmingly guessed that the figures with larger penises would be more attractive to women. 

According to the researchers, this hints that in our evolutionary past, males may have avoided confrontations with rivals based in part on their penis size in addition to height and body shape. As a consequence, males with larger penises may have secured more access to mates not only due to female preference, but also because they were not challenged by rivals as often. This aspect of male-male competition may have helped to enlarge the human penis over time through selection.

“Previous research had often focused on the effect of penis size on female preferences, so our results that men also use penis size when assessing rivals adds a new dimension to the story,” Aich said. “It suggests penis size is interpreted not only in a sexual context, but also in competitive rival cues.” 

“However, the effect of penis size on attractiveness was four to seven times higher than its effect as a signal of fighting ability,” she continued. “This suggests that the enlarged penis in humans may have evolved more in response to its effect as a sexual ornament to attract females than as a badge of status for males, although it does both.”

Aich said her team was most surprised by the consistency of the participants’ responses across many manipulated variables. Similar patterns in the responses showed up regardless of whether the participants were viewing life-sized projections or scaled images online, whether they received payment for the experiment, and across both male and female participants.

“One obvious next step is to study how these visual cues interact with others that matter in real-world interactions, such as facial features, voice, or movement,” she said. “Another open question is how culturally variable these perceptions are, since standards of masculinity and attractiveness differ across societies. A cross-cultural study would be interesting.”

The new study adds to the evidence that both forms of sex selection influenced the size of the human penis, but many other factors also played a role in the development of the organ. For example, penis shape and size may have evolved to scoop the sperm of rival males out of the vaginal canal, or to raise the odds of female orgasm, both of which can contribute to reproductive success. 

In other words, both the size of the ship and the motion of the ocean are a part of the complex story of human sexual evolution. 

Seven years of development allowed Openspace Architecture and landscape designer Paul Sangha Creative to thread a 10,000-square-foot single-story home through mature forest without sacrificing the canopy that defines the site’s character – a constraint that ultimately generated the building’s gently curving plan and its sequence of connected spaces opening to Saanich Inlet views.

The design draws from mid-century West Coast Modernism’s timber traditions while incorporating Japanese structural principles that extend beyond aesthetic reference. Openspace Architecture employed tatami mat proportions to establish the organizational logic governing window grids and floor patterns throughout, creating spatial rhythms that feel measured rather than arbitrary. Deep eaves and low-pitched rooflines acknowledge Pacific Northwest rainfall patterns while the Japanese timber frame construction allows for the wide spans necessary to dissolve boundaries between interior volumes and exterior terraces.

Material choices reinforce this dialogue between shelter and exposure. Western red cedar wraps siding, ceilings, and structural elements in a unified envelope designed to weather and silver over time. The repetition of oversized natural limestone slabs from interior floors onto outdoor terraces eliminates the typical threshold that signals transition, while Café Canal sandstone grounds the composition in tones that mirror the surrounding forest floor and coastal geology.

Paul Sangha Creative’s landscape architecture operates through layered garden zones that mediate between cultivated and wild. The approach moves from shade-loving woodland species along the meandering driveway through increasingly formal plantings near the residence – broad sweeps of ferns and grasses, sculptural Trochodendron specimens positioned within water features, clipped Olearia and rhododendrons mounding around the hot tub. At the coastal edges, locally adapted seed mixes blur the boundary where deliberate design yields to naturally occurring plant communities.

Four-foot minimum depth with two-foot planting ledges, frameless glass guards for safety without visual interruption, discreet bubblers for aeration, months of water conditioning before introducing fish – these calculated decisions in the custom koi pond are disguised as organic elements. The pond functions as both habitat and focal point, its dark slate cladding picking up gray-blue gradations from the coastline and sky while creating apertures between the main residence, guest house, and surrounding woodland.

View more information on Openspace Architecture’s website.

Photography by Ema Peter.

In posts on ManyVids, the porn platform’s official account holds imaginary conversations with aliens, alongside AI-generated videos of UFOs, fractal images, “angel numbers,” and a video of its founder and CEO Bella French in a space suit shooting lasers from her eyes.  

French launched the site in 2014 as a former cam model herself, and the platform has millions of members and tens of thousands of creators. Adult content creators use it to sell custom videos and subscriptions, and perform live on camera. French recently changed her personal website to state her new goal is to “transition one million people out of the adult industry and do everything we can to ensure no one new enters it.” The statement follows posts on X’s ManyVids account about new strategies to pivot the site toward safe-for-work, non-sexual content.

This sudden shift away from years of messaging about being a compatriot with sex workers, combined with bizarre AI-generated text and images about talking to aliens and numerology on social media, has made some creators worry for their livelihoods, and caused others to leave the site completely.

For years, the official ManyVids social media accounts made mostly normal posts that promoted the site and its creators. But in mid-2025, the posts from the ManyVids X account changed. Instead of promotions of top creators, announcements of contests, and tips for using the platform, the account shifted its focus to existential and metaphysical musings. Around August, it started posting cryptic quotes, phrases, and images, many seemingly generated by or about AI. 

The account also started replying to engagement-farming posts from influencers, writing things like “Our purpose: to protect the feminine energy — so that balance may return,” and posting borderline-nonsensical bullet-point lists about “the boldness scale” and how ManyVids leadership is “all connected.” 

“The impact strength of a positive leader ⚡ Effectiveness ⚡ Execution ⚡ Discipline ⚡ Accountability,” one post in August said. On August 20, @ManyVids posted an image on X of a flow chart alongside a screenshot of a ChatGPT conversation, seemingly illustrating how the platform would bring in users through a “safe-for-work” zone, then allow them to access NSFW content after verifying their identifications. “Our vision: Adult Industry 2.0 isn’t about more revenue. It’s about evolution,” the post said. 

The replies to these posts show ManyVids creators expressing anger, concern, and bafflement. The account stopped posting on X in September. But on the ManyVids platform itself, which has a “news” feed that functions similarly to a microblogging platform but is just for official platform posts, the odd entries continue.

“Social API for the AI Age. Phase 1 — Pride Engine,” one post from January 16 says: 

“The High Universal Income (HUI) Engine is the distribution hub of the new economy, built for a world where AI does the work humans never wanted to do. AI generates surplus wealth, but humans need surplus purpose. Human meaning becomes the rarest and most valuable resource on Earth. Instead of opaque taxes, AI companies fund a Social License through platforms like ManyVids, converting AI efficiency into merit-based bonuses for human contribution. For every dollar earned through passion, creation, care, or learning, HUI adds 10%. This is not charity. It is a Pride Engine. We shift the foundation of human value.”

The post ends with a six-second AI generated video that includes the phrase “the ultimate guide to rebuilding civilization.” Most posts in recent weeks are like this: clearly AI generated text alongside six-second AI generated clips showing angels, chakras, or spiritual phrases. “The Simulation of Integrity. If we don’t fully understand the ultimate nature of reality, what should guide how we live inside it?” one recent post says. “If the nature of the ‘game’ is unknown, then how you treat others — and yourself — becomes the most meaningful data point.” 

And in a post right after the new year: “Hey everyone! Back-to-the-office Monday vibe. How were your holidays? Did you travel anywhere? I did... 🕳️Next time, I’ll bring sunglasses. I came back with a few new ideas and fresh thoughts ✨Let’s get to work. Let’s go, 2026! 🚀” Below the text: a video of French in a space suit, black hole in the background, shooting laser-lightning out of her eyes.

A lot of people who rely on ManyVids for income have noticed this odd behavior and are disturbed by it. 

“Ethical dilemmas about AI aside, the posts are completely disconnected with ManyVids as a site,” one ManyVids content creator told 404 Media, on the condition of anonymity. “Their customers and their creators are not served in any way by these. When faced with backlash, MV removed the ability to comment on posts. To anyone looking at them they appear to be ramblings and images generated by a person in active psychosis.” 

Almost every ManyVids creator 404 Media spoke to for this story brought up “AI psychosis” unprompted, when asked if they’d seen the ManyVids posts. 

“I have seen them and I find them really insulting,” Sydney Screams said. “The way I perceive the posts is that Bella and the MV team doesn't respect their creators enough to spend time making their own content, instead taking the easy way out and using bizarre AI that doesn't even relate. Why do we need Bella shooting laser beams out of her eyes to make an announcement? It's infuriating because it's like she doesn't take us seriously, doesn't take her own platform seriously, and we're supposed to just be grateful for the crumbs she's giving us. We deserve better,” she said. “We deserve to be treated with respect, talked to like we're adults, and listened to like our voices matter. Instead we get AI slop and posts that promise big things without any sort of follow through.”  

Harlan Paramore, a ManyVids creator who also helps other creators onboard and manage their selling sites, said he’s noticed “bizarre posts about AI, angel numbers, christopaganism, cyberpaganism.” 

“I don't have anything against any of those beliefs, but they seem wildly out of place for an official site blog. They are also heavily loaded with AI-like language and structure, and decorated with AI images,” Paramore said. “I'm also a professional artist, and as both an artist and sex worker I'm frustrated and confused. Some of it kind of sounds like AI psychosis, too, which has me concerned for whoever is running that blog.” 

“I'm not a mental health professional, but whatever Bella is going through doesn't seem normal. It doesn't seem healthy,” Screams said. “From where I'm sitting, if I were close to Bella, I'd be reaching out to her other friends and family members to stage an intervention and try to get her serious mental health care.” 

All of this is coinciding with an apparent massive change in French’s ideology toward sex work. On her personal website, French says the goal of ManyVids is changing to “transition one million people out of the adult industry.” She calls sex work “exploitative.” Her bio quotes her as saying: “I had two choices: surrender to an exploitative industry or dismantle it. I chose to build its replacement... ManyVids was the result—the most efficient revenue-distribution engine for the AI-displaced workforce. Guided by first principles and core value thinking, Bella is leading MV’s next evolution: a Fintech/Social-Impact hybrid that turns digital presence into economic creation. By utilizing AI-integrated workflows and layered access, ManyVids is migrating creators from adult content into a diversified creative economy,” her bio says. “Our goal is to transition one million people out of the adult industry and do everything we can to ensure no one new enters it. We are working to transform an industry we don’t believe should exist—but we recognize that simple elimination creates deeper shadows. The solution is elevation through meaningful alternatives.” 

This is a recent addition to her website. According to archived versions of the site, the section about transitioning people out of the sex industry wasn’t there in November 2025. 

“ManyVids is now becoming a regulated e-social ecosystem — a digital space that sensitizes, elevates, and restricts adult content through layered brackets of access,” French’s bio says now. “This ensures that sacred sexual expression is never free, never exploited, and never divorced from its core human depth.” The “layered brackets” seem to be a reference to the ChatGPT screenshots from August 20. 

This is an extreme departure in tone from what French has said was her mission with ManyVids in the past. In 2019, I met French for an on-background hotel room meeting during the porn industry’s biggest award show and conference, AVN, where she told me she created ManyVids out of a passion to create a platform where other sex workers—having been an adult content creator herself—would be treated fairly and would be listened to by the platform’s owners. French is a former cam model herself, and has always been open publicly about wanting to create better platforms for other sex workers.

“Their customers and their creators are not served in any way by these."

“We try to offer sex workers the tools to be more successful as independent entrepreneurs without being judged,” French told the Daily Beast in 2019. “What was really important for me was to educate the world and make them realize that porn stars are not stupid.”

Shortly after she and I met in 2019, French agreed to a written interview as part of a VICE story about authenticity in cam work. In that email, she called camming the “biggest gift” she’d ever received. “Being a camgirl not only has a huge influence on my approach to taking business decisions but has changed the way I view people and life in general,” French wrote at the time. “Every single decision we take at ManyVids must answer 1 simple question, ‘Will this help the content creators, our MV Stars?’ That’s it,” French wrote in 2019. “If the answer is yes then we proceed, regardless if there is any financial advantage or potential for profit, that is irrelevant.” 

Platforms have long profited off of sex workers and pornography to establish popularity and rake in revenue before eventually doing a heel-turn on the creators who made them successful. We’ve seen it happen with mainstream social media platforms like Tumblr, Instagram, and Twitter, and also on sites ostensibly made for sex workers, like OnlyFans, which nearly changed its policies to ban explicit material after making billions of dollars off their content.  

I asked ManyVids and French if the platform is changing to reflect these social media posts and her statements on her bio, who is making the AI-generated posts mentioned above, how French plans to “transition one million people” out of sex work, and if any of this will affect creators and fans who use ManyVids. The ManyVids support team did not answer these questions specifically, but sent the following response (emphasis theirs):

"Hello, thanks for reaching out. Respect for Online Sex Workers. Sex work is real work. No more living in the shadows, no more being misunderstood.
No more being afraid, shadowbanned, or persecuted by systems and institutions. Not on our watch. We are not victims — and we are taking action now.This generation of online sex workers is about to change the game forever —and transform the oldest profession in the world in the right direction, for good. Respect the creators. Respect the work. Respect what you watch. We stand for safety, dignity, and opportunity for all creators."

I asked ManyVids to explain in specific terms what "we are taking action now" means. They replied: "A post will be published to our ManyVids News feed this Saturday, January 24th. It will provide additional clarification and go into a bit more detail on this," with a link to the feed.

“It concerns me that access to my earnings, and more importantly my personal information, is in the hands of someone seemingly out of touch with reality.” 

In the meantime, creators have been confused and worried for weeks. Nothing has changed about the way the site operates publicly or creators’ payouts as of writing, but this is a series of events that many adult content creators are concerned represents a potential threat to their livelihood.

“If something were to happen to MV (or to my account there) due to what can only be described as AI psychosis, I would lose upwards of 14k per year—a not insignificant amount of income,” another adult creator on ManyVids told 404 Media. “It concerns me that access to my earnings, and more importantly my personal information, is in the hands of someone seemingly out of touch with reality.” 

ManyVids takes a larger-than-most cut from creators' profits, depending on the type of content: For videos and contest earnings (which are similar to tips), the platform takes 40 percent. On tips and custom video sales, it takes 20 percent, which is more in line with other adult platforms. This has been a source of complaint from creators for a long time, combined with unpredictable algorithms that creators say change how they’re discovered on the platform and what content performs best, impacting their earnings. Users have expressed dissatisfaction with these aspects of the platform, and how French runs it, for years. But the recent turn to AI and French’s statements about the industry are making some wonder if it’s time to leave. 

“I will still be using ManyVids for NSFW content for as long as they allow it,” adult content creator August told 404 Media. “But part of me thinks that they will try to do what OnlyFans did years ago and try to ban NSFW content which would be an absolute disaster for sex workers whose income depends on platforms like ManyVids.” 

Luna Sapphire, a creator who has been using the platform since 2015, said she finds French’s statements on her website “harmful and insulting” to those who’ve helped popularize the site from the start. “Most of us are not looking for a path out of the adult industry; we simply want to do our jobs with as little interference and censorship as possible,” Sapphire said. “Bella used to be very pro-sex worker and it is disappointing to see her change her tune.”

Several adult platforms have embraced, or at least allowed, AI-generated content and “models” on their sites alongside human creators in the last few years. On OnlyFans, AI-generated is allowed, but must comply with the site’s terms of service and and “must be clearly and conspicuously captioned as AI Generated Content with a signifier such as #ai, or #AIGenerated,” Onlyfans says in its terms. Fansly, another adult platform for independent creators, forbids “photorealistic AI-generated content” but allows non-photorealistic “virtual entities” (like V-tubers) if they’re registered using the uploader’s real legal information for verification purposes. JustForFans requires that “consent, identity, and proof of age must be established if the AI images are based on a real person's likeness,” and allows deepfakes if consent has been established. “For example, you can use your own face to create images of yourself or a model who has granted consent to use their face,” the platform’s terms say. IWantClips, another site for selling custom content, also requires users making AI-generated models to verify their identities, but explicitly doesn’t allow deepfakes. 

In 2024, IWantClips awarded an AI-generated model $1,000 as the winner of a Valentine’s Day-themed contest. “Adora” competed in the contest alongside human sex workers. On most of these sites, engagement and attention are currency, and on ManyVids, AI generated models sell content alongside humans. The platform prohibits “AI-generated or deepfake content that misrepresents real individuals without consent,” as part of its terms that forbid “content that violates any third party's intellectual property rights or another individual's privacy.”

“The AI/intense spirituality path has been so strange to witness, and I can’t imagine what it’s leaving the fans to think,” Elizabeth Fields, an adult content creator who’s used ManyVids for six years, told 404 Media. “I don’t understand what they are trying to do by taking this direction, nor do I understand how it’s fair of a sexwork built site to assume all of us don’t want to do NSFW content–and to try and funnel us into this box of ‘not enjoying the work we do. To an extent it feels degrading honestly—just because Bella’s experience in sex work was survival based and to make ends meet—a lot of us thoroughly enjoy our jobs, the path we took, and want to continue doing this.” 

Many sex workers are disabled, neurodivergent, mentally ill, chronically ill, or “all of the above,” Fields noted, and rely on online sex work to pay the bills. “It feels absolutely unfair to feel like we could be pushed off of a site that became popular off OUR NSFW content—because they want to make it more SFW, and implement all these new AI features that will quite frankly just turn clients off.” 

Despite all of this, Fields said she won’t be leaving the site. “To the point that as much as I'm extremely disappointed with many of the recent changes occurring, I won’t be deleting my account as to not lose that income and disappoint my ManyVids fans.” 

Others are done. Sydney Screams said she’s no longer uploading to ManyVids and made the decision to slowly start removing content from her stores there. “Platforms that allow for online sex work should be working FOR us, not against us. Sex workers use platforms like MV to earn our own living, to enable ourselves to have better lives, to keep ourselves housed and fed, to pay for medical bills, etc. Many of us choose this life and choose to make this our career, though there are far too many who are survival sex workers,” Screams said. “We aren't looking for a pathway out of the adult industry, especially on a platform that is a porn platform!!! Unless MV is going to start funding the educations & trainings of those trying to leave the industry for work elsewhere, I do not see how a porn platform is going to create a path out of the industry.” 

Emanuel Maiberg contributed reporting to this story.