Collected Over Spread @collectedoverspread@qoto.org

"As a society, we're carving out exceptions to a general standard of representativeness—choosing specific places where we remind each other that it's not allowed. The vast majority of the time, representativeness is not only rampant, it goes completely unnoticed... And it's drowning us."

"It’s Not What It Looks Like: Or, How The Representativeness Heuristic Is Ruining Every Fucking Thing" by Duncan Sabien https://medium.com/@ThingMaker/its-not-what-it-looks-like-cde2c6104455

Conformity is a necessary evil in society, and often there is a debate between a side that does not recognize its necessity and another that does not recognize its evil.

I made this quip on my old Mastodon account (now defunct) but I think it's important enough to repeat (pending a longer blog post expanding on this idea).

The incident involving a certain food item at a certain event that took place two weeks ago is a prime example of the "PETA Principle" (as illustrated in https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/12/17/the-toxoplasma-of-rage/ ) in action: Controversial issues, those that can get many people on different sides involved, get talked about the most, as opposed to issues where people mostly agree. The incident was right on the edge of acceptability with some crucial factual disputes, making this whole thing ripe for arguments.

"Lies, Damned Lies, and Fabricated Options" by Duncan_Sabien on Less Wrong https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/gNodQGNoPDjztasbh/lies-damn-lies-and-fabricated-options

On "fabricated options," a type of wishful thinking which imagines choices without undesirable side effects or tradeoffs

In most cases I can bite my tongue because many of the specific proposals/campaigns are reasonable efforts at addressing inequity, but this sort of "rhetorical confusion" makes it difficult for me personally to fully participate in a lot of social-justice movements today.

I'm willing to call systems that perpetuate existing biases "inequitable" ("inequity") because the idea of equity inherently involves existing social context.

Of course one might ask, "Well, why can't the concepts of bias and discrimination involve social context?" Well, they sure can; in fact, most uses of terms like "systemic [bias/X-ism]" seem to.

There's no point in arguing over definitions and I guess it's "just semantics" to a degree. But again, I think the distinction matters.

I think a distinction needs to be made between social systems that introduce new forms of bias/discrimination and those that perpetuate existing forms. The former category is what I think of when it comes to terms like "bias," "discrimination," and the "X-isms." This is why the term " #AlgorithmicBias " in particular rubs me the wrong way: Pretty much every instance I have read about falls under latter category.

Maybe I should start using my Twitter account, just to follow relevant accounts (Not everyone has a Mastodon bridge lol)

"Maybe it’s expecting too much of the American people, but I wish the FDA could lean into this strategy. Grant drugs one-star, two-star, etc approvals... Then you could attach different legal rights and requirements to each of those."

"Adumbrations Of Aducanumab" from Astral Codex Ten

https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/adumbrations-of-aducanumab

"13 important points in the campus & K-12 'critical race theory' debate" by by Greg Lukianoff, Adam Goldstein, Bonnie Snyder and Ryne Weiss in "The Eternally Radical Idea" https://www.thefire.org/13-important-points-in-the-campus-k-12-critical-race-theory-debate/

(Side note: The replies to Lukianoff's Twitter thread on the article are a perfect demonstration of one of the reasons why I hate Twitter threads. I gave up trying to follow the discussion under each post. https://twitter.com/glukianoff/status/1409485620389597189 )

#CriticalRaceTheory #CRT #PublicEducation

Thread from Jason Scott (@textfiles@twitter.com) about the #YouTube #UnlistedVideos change: https://twitter.com/textfiles/status/1408160214558388225

YouTube says this is due to a security update that was made for unlisted videos, but they clearly have the technical ability to preserve the URLs of old videos if they have an opt-out option.

"URIs don't change: people change them." https://www.w3.org/Provider/Style/URI

#YouTube is setting unlisted videos uploaded before 2017 to private unless the channel owner opts out.

If you have any old unlisted videos, please opt out ASAP so people can continue to access the videos at the same URLs!
https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/update-youtube-unlisted-links/

I wonder how many #podcasts these days still adhere to the classic model of providing downloadable audio files in an RSS/Web feed, rather than locking the audio behind streaming services and apps #podcast #podcasting

Taboo your words. A Twitter thread from Free Black Thought about " #CriticalRaceTheory " in K-12 education: https://twitter.com/FreeBlckThought/status/1405443596380041221

#CRT

"Is Twitter Withholding a 'Nazi-Hunting' Algorithm for Fear of Inadvertently Banning Republican Lawmakers?" by Kim LaCapria on Truth or Fiction

https://www.truthorfiction.com/is-twitter-withholding-a-nazi-hunting-algorithm-for-fear-of-inadvertently-banning-republican-lawmakers/

#Twitter #SocialMedia #SocialNetworking