Mark Mounts @markmounts@qoto.org

finally ready to announce that my git zine, “How Git Works", is coming out in ONE WEEK! on May 31!

it also comes with this (free!) cheat sheet which you can download and print out here: https://wizardzines.com/git-cheat-sheet.pdf

I want to read this book! Here's an interview with one author:

Daniel Brooks: What can we begin doing now that will increase the chances that those elements of technologically-dependent humanity will survive a general collapse, if that happens as a result of our unwillingness to begin to do anything effective with respect to climate change and human existence?

Peter Watts: So to be clear, you’re not talking about forestalling the collapse —

Daniel Brooks: No.

Peter Watts: — you’re talking about passing through that bottleneck and coming out the other side with some semblance of what we value intact.

Daniel Brooks: Yeah, that’s right. It is conceivable that if all of humanity suddenly decided to change its behavior, right now, we would emerge after 2050 with most everything intact, and we would be “OK.” We don’t think that’s realistic. It is a possibility, but we don’t think that’s a realistic possibility. We think that, in fact, most of humanity is committed to business as usual, and that’s what we’re really talking about: What can we begin doing now to try to shorten the period of time after the collapse, before we “recover”? In other words — and this is in analogy with Asimov’s Foundation trilogy — if we do nothing, there’s going to be a collapse and it’ll take 30,000 years for the galaxy to recover. But if we start doing things now, then it maybe only takes 1,000 years to recover. So using that analogy, what can some human beings start to do now that would shorten the period of time necessary to recover? Could we, in fact, recover within a generation? Could we be without a global internet for 20 years, but within 20 years, could we have a global internet back again?

https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/the-collapse-is-coming-will-humanity-adapt/

I couldn't stop thinking about the Meta AI chatbot that made up a human experience in a parenting Facebook group - so I wrote about why online communities are for people, not chatbots. Decades of social computing research tells us that information seeking in online communities is as much about shared experiences and human connection as it is about getting an answer. Maybe generative AI shouldn't be *everywhere* doing *everything*. https://theconversation.com/ai-chatbots-are-intruding-into-online-communities-where-people-are-trying-to-connect-with-other-humans-229473

Dear Google,

When I search, I am not looking for The Answer. I am looking for sources. A search that generates only answers will be useless personally, and worse than useless professionally for me.

What I would really like is an internet search engine that works. Google did that once. Then they focused on other things and used it for ad revenue and it became the new Craigslist.

It would sure be nice if Google would reinvent an actual internet search engine.

In this #code4thought [EN] episode I talk to Greg Wilson @gvwilson, co-founder of the Carpentries. For >25yrs the carpentries serve an ever growing need to teach essential computing/data skills and train the next generation of tutors. Find out from Greg how it all started and what the challenges are. Out now on your podcast app, YouTube or https://codeforthought.buzzsprout.com/1326658/15010367-en-carpentries-for-all-greg-wilson

If Apple integrates AI technology from OpenAI or Google, it could pose a privacy nightmare. I truly hope Apple includes simple toggle options to disable these AI features. I don't want OpenAI accessing my personal data; they are not trustworthy. I want a simple phone that does calls, texts, and a few apps. I have zero use for shity openai llm. I don’t wish to have AI on my phone. Please keep these fancy features as an option. Please don’t force them like Microsoft.

Every time I see any story about how fucked scholarly communication is my first reaction is a) yall know you can just make your own websites right, b) yall know you can just review each others work without a journal giving you permission right, and only then do I arrive at c) ok there are systemic problems but seriously have you considered (a) and (b) and how this is all entirely optional

Via @tomstoneham

"All this seems to be based on an article of faith; namely, that all that is needed to create superintelligent machines is (a) infinitely more data and (b) infinitely more computing power. And the strange thing is that at the moment the world seems to be taking these fantasies at face value."

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/13/from-boom-to-burst-the-ai-bubble-is-only-heading-in-one-direction"

WHERE THE WEB IS GOING: The convergence of LLMs and web advertising will lead to "ads" consisting of several hundred gigabytes of javascript containing a (weighted) neural network designed to generate unique per-user video advertisements—generated on your computer at your expense to ensure the imagery is unique and evades AI-based ad-blockers.

"AI spam" is an entire AI, squatting on your CPU and making it glow dull red as it works out how to capture your attention.

Welcome to the spamularity.

We need a movement for conscientious objection to ReCaptchas. I don’t want to be forced to participate in training machine learning models to identify sidewalks, crosswalks, buses and cars in order to go about my daily life digitally.

I don’t want driverless cars on my city streets. I don’t believe the fiction that this technology will ever be safe.

I do not consent to using my own cognitive labor to train the models that will mow down people on foot or bikes later with no accountability.

Some fundamental theorems in mathematics. ~ Oliver Knill. https://people.math.harvard.edu/~knill/graphgeometry/papers/fundamental.pdf #Math

'Typewriters — the manually powered writing machines once made by Remington, Underwood and Royal — are wondrous things.

To see their magic in action, try this trick: Set a typewriter out on a table with a sheet of paper pre-rolled into its carriage, and wait. Nearly every child, and many adults, will be drawn to the beauty and specificity of the machine. They will just have to type something. A thought. A complaint. A poem. A wish.'
- Tom Hanks
(Image from Wiki Commons, Communication dans Musée des Arts et Métiers).

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/22/books/review/tom-hanks-reviews-a-tale-told-by-a-typewriter.html

Not only could we not rid ourselves of PDFs but now we're inventing ways to talk to them

I don't know if AI is going to replace programmers or not but there will be a lot of jobs just to delete AI generated code.

Privacy tip: When you sell or trade-in a vehicle, remember to erase all of your data from the in-car electronics. The car dealerships will NOT do this, although they should be required to.

This wasn’t done for the last few vehicles I’ve purchased. I know one previous owners name, where she lives, what her taste in music is, where her dad lives (and how often she visited him), and what restaurants she often went to. In the wrong hands, this is dangerous as hell.

#Automobile #Privacy

Far more frightening than anything I’ve seen thus far on the #disinformation infiltration & indoctrination of #MAGA #Republicans

#Trump voters tell #VaughHillyard of #MSNBC that ‘#Russia is not our enemy’ & #Putin is taking back what’s his in #Ukraine.

#ForeignInfluenceCampaign #RussianDisinformation #Trump #Strongman #authoritarianism #autocracy #TuckerCarlson #propaganda
https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/watch/trump-voters-tell-nbc-reporter-that-russia-is-not-our-enemy-205044805866

The traits that are associated with ‘AI’ — intelligence, professionalism, power — are those that the white racial frame ascribes to white people. White people overrepresented in the ‘AI’ workforce are designing a set of servants who would let them avoid interacting with people who aren’t white. The whiteness of ‘AI’ is dehumanizing because the white racial frame itself is dehumanizing to anybody who is not ascribed whiteness —

Emily Bender
https://faculty.washington.edu/ebender/papers/Bender-2024-preprint.pdf

The Disturbing Impact of the Cyberattack at the British Library #britishlibrary #librarians #history
https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-uk/the-disturbing-impact-of-the-cyberattack-at-the-british-library

Meditation, it works.

Currently reading an enjoyable book where literature and maths intersect:

"We often think of mathematics and literature as polar opposites. But what if, instead, they were fundamentally linked? In her clear, insightful, laugh-out-loud funny debut, Once Upon a Prime, Professor Sarah Hart shows us the myriad connections between math and literature, and how understanding those connections can enhance our enjoyment of both. "

#book #mathematics #literature #sarah_hart