"I have a foreboding of an America … when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when … our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness…"
— Carl Sagan.

https://www.openculture.com/2025/02/carl-sagan-predicts-the-decline-of-america-unable-to-know-whats-true.html

"Men first felt necessity then look for utility, next attend to comfort, still later amuse themselves with pleasure, thence grow dissolute in luxury, and finally go mad and waste their substance."
— Giambattista Vico explains the AI Revolution in the 18th Century.

https://www.openculture.com/2025/02/carl-sagan-predicts-the-decline-of-america-unable-to-know-whats-true.html

RE: https://glammr.us/@hedgielib/117516068650562868

The Trump administration has done many many things more harmful that this. But I doubt even they have ever done anything quite so straight-up dumb.

Just a casual reminder that Germans who “didn’t bother to vote” in 1932 didn’t get a chance again until 1946, after Hitler’s death. — There’s a lesson there.

"When you know you’re going to have a hundred professionals gathered in a room to listen to you, do the work to make it worth the audience’s while. Putting a talk together at the last minute is not a ninja move, or a mark of experience. It’s simple unprofessionalism."

https://svpow.com/2017/09/17/giving-talks-some-more-positive-thoughts/

Autonomous drones following running people through the woods, without GPS. Developed, with military funds, at a public university.

This is not dual use anymore, this is single use. There is only one use here.

Sometimes I worry that I'm becoming a negative Nancy with all my ethics talk, and then I see colleagues proudly post this kind of thing without a single acknowledgment of the implications.

Everything is on its arse and we're going to hell in a handcart, Hot Wheels edition

The "made with AI" thing is a good start but I want *more* mandatory disclosures on Steam.

"This game was made by a studio that required devs to work six months of crunch."

"This game was made by union-busters."

"75% of this team was laid off the day after it shipped."

"Profits from this game enrich the Saudi Government."

Any others?

From the Times's daily briefing:

"US: Trump administration officials have taken soundings on backing Viktor Orban, the former Hungarian prime minister, for United Nations secretary-general, according to sources from several countries."

Because of course they have.

#AreWeTheBaddies?

One sure way to prove #AI is not alive? If it was, #billionaires wouldn’t be building housing for it…

The worst choice made on any #Beatles album:

Following the sublime Yesterday with the mundane Dizzy Miss Lizzy. DML should simply have been omitted from the album, and the whole thing allowed to finish with Yesterday.

I went to accept a peer-review request for the Journal of Anatomy. Clicked the Accept button, logged in using my ORCiD account, and was met with this.

Why in the name of all that is rational does Wiley need the right to update the research information and personal details of my ORCiD account?

Obviously I declined.

A wild humpback whale has had its heartbeat recorded for the first time. Ashley Blawas and colleagues used suction-cup tags to track blue and humpback whales through complete dives and feeding lunges. Blue whales’ hearts idle at six to seven beats per minute at depth, then jump to around 22 after a lunge; humpbacks spike to about 28 but recover in just 17 seconds, versus 60 for blue whales. One tag stayed attached off Antarctica for nearly three days. https://oceanographicmagazine.com/news/matters-of-the-heart-whats-a-blue-whales-heartbeat-telling-us/
#ShareGoodNewsToo

In what kind of world can these go hand in hand!?

“Anthropic files for listing on US stock market with valuation of more than $1.5tn” - https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/oct/26/anthropic-files-listing-stock-market

“Anthropic’s Claude AI model accessed Georgia voter data in US” - https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/oct/26/anthropics-claude-ai-model-accessed-georgia-voter-data-in-us

Europe is the future now www.arguably.uk/p/europe-is-...

Here's an idea for editors, let's do a little roleplay. Writer: "I have a contrarian take!" Editor: "Is it fucking stupid?" Writer: "Well yes, but it bucks the consensus. No one else is saying it." Editor: "Is that because the consensus is correct?" Writer: "... yes but... " <hang up>

Well this is eleventy-million kinds of Fucked Up. LA Times (who once contracted with me as a freelance reviewer and whom I struggled to get paid by) asserts that *merely reading its website* constitutes a permanent waiver of your right to sue it under *any circumstances*. This means that freelancers like me who read the website would lose the right to sue the company if we got stiffed. #consenttheater #bindingarbitration #dickovers

Watching him carefully but deliberately wade into this issue is very encouraging. For over a decade, political leaders have not dared to break the consensus on free movement and without that there can be no meaningful improvement in European relations.

“I am proud to say that as part of our new union contract, Current Affairs recently adopted one of the strictest anti-AI policies in the publishing industry. No text that is AI-generated may be published in our magazine. No AI-generated art may be used as a Current Affairs illustration. When you read Current Affairs, you are going to be reading the thoughts of a human, and seeing the results of human artistry.”

#ai #noAI #magazine

“Why We’re Banning AI”

https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/why-were-banning-ai