society

  • These two posts get at the sense of fancy statistical pattern systems (aka AI) having some purpose, but that purpose very much not being even on the horizon of the path we are on with current applications of AI.

    Read more

  • Thinking Machines

    I like this post about ‘impressionist blogging’, mainly because it gives voice to a sense of how using generative AI as a tool shapes the work it serves. I still don’t know how generative AI will work its way into my life. For all the risks that it poses, there are myriad interesting possibilities. But…

    Read more

  • Threads

    I joined Mastodon during one of the waves of user migrations after Elon Musk took over Twitter, and I have to say, I like it there. So I didn’t really know what to make of Threads when people started talking about it.

    Read more

  • A More Complete Picture on New Tech and Society

    I’ve had a few interesting conversations in the last couple of weeks that have ended up at the same conclusion: we can talk tech until the cows come home, but the really interesting debates—the debates that are too often absent, especially from the Silicon Valley perspective—are not from the sciences.

    Read more

  • Media literacy

    https://points.datasociety.net/you-think-you-want-media-literacy-do-you-7cad6af18ec2 I’ve had this link in my reading list for a while, but it is quite timeless. I think we have a sense of the media landscape having found its footing after the upheaval of the internet’s arrival, but really, I think the last 20 years have only been the beginning of our reckoning of…

    Read more

  • Everyday AI

    I got the idea to try these weekly posts after realising how many links I was saving while browsing the Web. It isn’t my goal with this little project to provide a comprehensive exploration of an area, more of a stroll through the bits that interest me just now. So with my excuses out of…

    Read more

  • Hypertext

    I’m trying something new here. Rather than write a screed about how we should all get on bicycles and take up blogging again, I’m going to share some links to things I found interesting on the Web this week. It might become a (kind of) weekly thing and probably will go out on Thursdays. So,…

    Read more

  • Ghosts in the Machine

    Humans can see faces in anything, so it’s not much of a surprise that we can be fooled into seeing sentience in a chat-bot.

    Read more

  • Local Democracy

    How do you find the balance between fully engaging with and empowering the people who have to live with political decisions, without yielding to the views of the people who shout the loudest and have the time and resources to show up to public consultations?

    Read more