For example, if the QWERTY keyboard of the United States had not been adopted elsewhere in the world as well – say, if Japan or Europe had adopted the much more efficient Dvorak keyboard – that trivial decision in the 19th century might have had big consequences for the competitive position of 20th-century American technology.

"Guns, Germs and Steel: A Short History of Everybody for the Last 13,000 Years" - Jared Diamond

Skye, 21

“My loafers are Dr. Marten, skirt I got at the Manhattan Vintage show, button-down is Uniqlo, cardigan is Heaven by Marc Jacobs, blazer is my mom’s and vintage Ralph Lauren, and bag is Los Angeles Appeal but when they were American Apparel. My style philosophy: Wait for pieces that call to you rather than what the industry is trying to push on you. Curate your own wardrobe thoughtfully.”

Mar 29, 2023 ∙ Chelsea

SUMMARY: The story follows Jake Gray, a young man who's been having bizarre visions of murder and self-mutilation, and his experience with a live roleplay-like online game called "The Pathway".

The mod has not seen this movie, but reading the Wikipedia description, it sounds nuts in the best way.

i watch people react to the lotr movies on youtube sometimes - just for my personal relaxation - and this one guy just said "maybe this is presumptuous but why can't they just make a new, even stronger ring that controls all the other ones plus the one ring?" and, holy shit. why don't they just keep making even stronger rings. apart from all the lore and storytelling reasons for why that's not possible under those specific circumstances, i wanna send a complete stranger the wikipedia article for "arms race" so so so fucking badly 😂

Boris Artzybasheff (1899-1965), ''Esquire'', Vol. 37, #4, April 1952 Source

Let's be friends...

What can you do as an American to help the people of Congo (and other oppressed groups that contribute to our daily lifestyles)?

Become uncomfortable being an American.

This video gives solutions to America's problem of mindless consumption.

Compilation of slutty sweaters that Possessed Jun-oh/Do-ha wears in Moon in the Day:

(I don't know if this is a sweater or a shirt or both, but it belongs here)

Why were pigeons abandoned? I’m assuming because technology replaced them but I can’t find a source

There wasn't a big need for them after the war and pigeons are culturally significant to a lot of people. They were a cheap source of food and fertilizer but (i know how I'm going to sound when I say this and I apologize) but my theory is the government did it on purpose to not only take a very useful livestock from the common knowledge of the American people but to also purposefully sow hate against different cultures.

SUMMARY: A group of online chatroom friends find themselves haunted by a mysterious, supernatural force using the account of their dead friend.

The mod has seen this movie and doesn’t care what anyone thinks, she really likes it. It’s a very interesting take on technological horror.

My New Article at American Scientist

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As of this week, I have a new article in the July-August 2023 Special Issue of American Scientist Magazine. It’s called “Bias Optimizers,” and it’s all about the problems and potential remedies of and for GPT-type tools and other “A.I.”

This article picks up and expands on thoughts started in “The ‘P’ Stands for Pre-Trained” and in a few threads on the socials, as well as touching on some of my comments quoted here, about the use of chatbots and “A.I.” in medicine.

I’m particularly proud of the two intro grafs:

Recently, I learned that men can sometimes be nurses and secretaries, but women can never be doctors or presidents. I also learned that Black people are more likely to owe money than to have it owed to them. And I learned that if you need disability assistance, you’ll get more of it if you live in a facility than if you receive care at home.

At least, that is what I would believe if I accepted the sexist, racist, and misleading ableist pronouncements from today’s new artificial intelligence systems. It has been less than a year since OpenAI released ChatGPT, and mere months since its GPT-4 update and Google’s release of a competing AI chatbot, Bard. The creators of these systems promise they will make our lives easier, removing drudge work such as writing emails, filling out forms, and even writing code. But the bias programmed into these systems threatens to spread more prejudice into the world. AI-facilitated biases can affect who gets hired for what jobs, who gets believed as an expert in their field, and who is more likely to be targeted and prosecuted by police.

As you probably well know, I’ve been thinking about the ethical, epistemological, and social implications of GPT-type tools and “A.I.” in general for quite a while now, and I’m so grateful to the team at American Scientist for the opportunity to discuss all of those things with such a broad and frankly crucial audience.

I hope you enjoy it.

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Read My New Article at American Scientist at A Future Worth Thinking About

Lt. Commander Killian: So what was your name again?

Nevularxi: I have not already told you. I’m afraid my name may not translate into your language.

Lt. Commander Killian: Oh yeah?

Nevularxi: I am named for a period of time on my home planet that surrounds the immediate aftermath of the second yearly equinox of our planet’s solar star. It’s the period following our fertile rainy season, and marked the beginning of the harvest in years of antiquity, as well as the coming of the colder, darker season which our species typically spends in isolation or hibernation. The period is considered to be a time of great liminality and spiritual importance in our ancient religions, although since the dawn of the modern technological age it has lost some of its transient meaning.

Lt. Commander Killian: …Okay, but i meant more like. how do I say your name.

Nevularxi: Oh, it’s nev-you-LARK-zee.

Lt. Commander Killian: Gotcha. by the way, your name in english is October.

It's 3am in Ireland now so I have to go to bed. I'll be back to resume live updates when I wake. For now, here is a Tweet from Palestine Action US about students and allies at Wentworth Institute of Technology confronting genocide-profiteers Elbit Systems.

Source: @Pal_ActionUS on Twitter

For continuous updates while I'm gone, click the link below: