iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Andrew Chen @andrewsw.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

The AI & Culture area at SWPACA invites proposals on anything related to AI - as tool, cultural phenomenon, creative force, or subject of scholarship. All perspectives welcome; civility expected. Human presenter required. Submit: swpaca.org/app | Due: October 31, 2026 @swpaca.bsky.social #swpaca27

swpaca.org

Home Page - SWPACA

We are now accepting proposals for SWPACA 2027 through October 31, 2026!

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Andrew Chen @andrewsw.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

CFP: swpaca.org "AI & Culture" area invites proposals on anything related to AI as tool, cultural phenomenon, creative force, or subject of scholarship. Submit: swpaca.org/summer-salon/ | Deadline: April 27 Please forward to any you think might be interested. Thanks! #swpaca26 @swpaca.bsky.social

swpaca.org

Home Page - SWPACA

Submissions for Summer Salon 2026, which meets June 25-27, 2026, are now being accepted through April 27.

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Andrew Chen @andrewsw.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

On March 2, I teach a 2-month course "CSIS 290 - Artificial Intelligence: A Beginner's Guide". If you or anyone you know is interested, please share (officially in-person, but I'll be remote-friendly, including if you need/want to do this asynchronously). eservices.minnstate.edu/registration...

eservices.minnstate.edu

Course Detail - Student e-Services

Minnesota State University Moorhead

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Andrew Chen @andrewsw.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

Announcing my new blog: SoulGraph.tech I figured it was past time to start blogging publicly thoughts about what will happen if/when AI becomes conscious. Please join me. I think these are important conversations to have.

soulgraph.tech

Home

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Andrew Chen @andrewsw.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

My father learned to code in school. I learned to code at home, offline. Eldest child learned to code from online resources. Middle child learned to vibe code from/with AI. What will my youngest child learn?

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Andrew Chen @andrewsw.bsky.social · 05/10/2025

What if, because people use AI so much, the incentive to put stuff on the web gets removed because no one is reading the web but is asking AI instead? What if that means new stuff isn't put on the web? Then AI has nothing more to scrape and train off of? Could AI herald its own demise?

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Andrew Chen @andrewsw.bsky.social · 05/10/2025

CFP: swpaca.org Annual Conference ; Submit by October 31, 2025; New in 2025: an area for “AI & Culture”. Please consider submitting and also please forward to any you think might be interested. Thanks! #swpaca26 @swpaca.bsky.social

swpaca.org

- SWPACA | Southwest Popular/American Culture Association

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Andrew Chen @andrewsw.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

What if AI is good at some things that humans enjoy doing, but AI can do it better? And if AI can do it cheaper? Those things just become hobbies. What if AI forces us to live lives where all we do is our hobbies? As long as we can thrive and not just survive.

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Andrew Chen @andrewsw.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

I think we need to stop calling them “hallucinations” and just call them “mistakes”. That might make the discourse about dealing with them a little easier.

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Andrew Chen @andrewsw.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

“Graceful degradation” is a design philosophy that we apply to web pages so they will still work on older browsers. What if we applied it to urban planning so the structures would still work if/when the population declines?

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Andrew Chen @andrewsw.bsky.social · 03/08/2025

The phrase “interdependence of all existence” has been so used as to become cliche. I propose a new one to hit home better: “inter-existence of all”

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Andrew Chen @andrewsw.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

We say “saving” and “loading” when it comes to games, but we don’t (usually) use their counterparts “restoring” and “unloading”. Take a moment and think about why.

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Andrew Chen @andrewsw.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

This little rhetorical twist shaped modern thinking: If instead of calling it "The Law of Gravity" & "The Law of Motion", we called it "The God of Gravity" & "The God of Motion", with children such as "The Demigod of Orbits". The striking impact of monotheism on modern scientific understanding.

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Andrew Chen @andrewsw.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

We're hiring an "Executive Director of the Institute of Applied AI"! Please check out the link here, don't be afraid to comment and/or DM me with any questions, and also feel free to forward to anyone else you think might be interested! minnstate.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Minnes...

minnstate.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com

Executive Director of the Institute of Applied AI

All Job Postings will close at 12:01 a.m. CT on the specified Closing Date (if designated). Working Title: Executive Director of the Institute of Applied AI Institution: Minnesota State University, Mo...

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Andrew Chen @andrewsw.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

There comes a time when there is nothing more to say, nothing more to think - it is merely a time for action. But to think that it is that time, to say that it is that time, is proof that it is not. Wishful thinking does not make it so.

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Andrew Chen @andrewsw.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

If corporations get humans to use AI more, then humans have more time to be consumers, benefiting corporations. Until eventually humans run out of credit, can’t afford basic necessities, and die. Then corporations pivot to a B2B-only world. The end of the Anthropocene era awaits. Corporacene arises.

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Andrew Chen @andrewsw.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

All of human history can be seen as a slow transformation from a co-op PvE into a competitive PvP.

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Andrew Chen @andrewsw.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

CFP: swpaca.org Summer Salon; Submit by April 15, 2025; New this year: an area for “AI & Culture”. Please consider submitting and also please forward to any you think might be interested. Thanks!

swpaca.org

- SWPACA | Southwest Popular/American Culture Association

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Andrew Chen @andrewsw.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

When most of human life was a struggle against the environment, our innate drives served us well. But in “winning” the struggle we lost the purpose of our innate drives: they helped us against our environment, but now the only environment to struggle against was our own social environment.

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Andrew Chen @andrewsw.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

As the moon gets closer to the sun in the sky, we see less of it (crescent versus full). Perhaps this was the original inspiration for the story of Icarus?

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Andrew Chen @andrewsw.bsky.social · 22/03/2025

If we continue to focus on making things easy to understand, do we not encourage only understanding simple things?

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Andrew Chen @andrewsw.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

You have heard it said “be the change you want to see in the world.” But I say, if you see too much change in the world, be the opposite: safe, stable, tranquil peace.

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Andrew Chen @andrewsw.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

So much goes back to the pandemic. I think the pandemic brought humanity together in ways we had never seen before. And I think the enemies of togetherness got scared because of that and plotted their revenge.

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Andrew Chen @andrewsw.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

How often do we realize when we are speaking from a position of privilege? A check: if I were the one being disadvantaged by this, would I feel the same way? And be genuine, as sometimes answers are merely rationalizations and don’t engage actual emotional imagination.

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Andrew Chen @andrewsw.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

“So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” ‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭13‬:‭13‬ ‭RSV‬‬

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Andrew Chen @andrewsw.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

I wonder if this is the world’s oldest existing purse.

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Andrew Chen @andrewsw.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” ‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭22‬:‭6‬ ‭RSV‬‬

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Andrew Chen @andrewsw.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

Woolly mice. Almost woolly mammoth.

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Andrew Chen @andrewsw.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

Nanotech based electrochemical decomposition of PFAS (forever chemicals) could revolutionize our treatment and handling of them: spectrum.ieee.org/pfas-busting...

spectrum.ieee.org

Piezoelectric catalyst destroys forever chemicals

Startup secures $16 million to deploy PFAS-busting tech for wastewater

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Reposted by Andrew Chen

Mark Riedl @markriedl.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

What could possibly go wro… oh why do I bother?

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Andrew Chen @andrewsw.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

Perhaps we should be applying the concept of heterochrony in sociological contexts, as in group development heterochrony as contributing to social dysfunction of certain groups. I say this because “enlightened self-interest” seems to not be as applicable to group behavior as it used to be.

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Andrew Chen @andrewsw.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

People create powerful images of the struggle they see; then life imitates art

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Andrew Chen @andrewsw.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

Very simply: together beat the hearts of mother and child within

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Andrew Chen @andrewsw.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

Spread hope about good things. Take action to help people believe in what is hoped for. Iterate. Refine. Grow and lift up those around you.

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Andrew Chen @andrewsw.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

“Take care of the land and the land will take care of you” - Maya belief, paraphrased, found in presentation by Lauren Griego, Eastern New Mexico University at #swpaca25

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Andrew Chen @andrewsw.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

Just saw a presentation by rebeccadupontphd.com at @swpaca.bsky.social #swpaca25 - totally worth considering what she has to say about AI

rebeccadupontphd.com

Rebecca DuPont, Ph. D. – Innovative Educator, Designer and Developer

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Reposted by Andrew Chen

Frederick "Rick" Ballew @ballewedtech.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

👉Come to the first annual MN+CS Conference happening on April 11-12th in Minneapolis. Check out the schedule of events for this weekend full of learning, connecting and fun! More information about the conference and how to attend can be found on the - minnesota.csteachers.org

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Andrew Chen @andrewsw.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

Looking forward to the swpaca.org conference starting tomorrow and will be using the #swpaca25 tag for stuff related to it.

swpaca.org

- SWPACA | Southwest Popular/American Culture Association

Day(s)

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Andrew Chen @andrewsw.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

Artwork found on hotel bathroom wall. Ignore the location- admire the detail. Yet the wood on this is real - was nature just as much of an artist as the human who put the pieces together?

Wood and metal relief sculpture art wall hanging on brown wall

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Reposted by Andrew Chen

Alexander Doria @dorialexander.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

One of the most interesting new research in the LLM space: introducing Large Language Diffusion Models. arxiv.org/pdf/2502.09992

arxiv.org

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Andrew Chen @andrewsw.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

We went from the Age of Information, to the Age of Attention. We're going from the Age of Attention to the Age of Rationality: Rational capacity is the rare thing to be fought over, like how ads fight for attention. In this battle, I see some employing scorched-earth tactics.

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Reposted by Andrew Chen

Alexander Doria @dorialexander.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

Announcing the release of Common Corpus 2. The largest fully open corpus for pretraining comes back better than ever: 2 trillion tokens with document-level licensing, provenance and language information. huggingface.co/datasets/Ple...

huggingface.co

PleIAs/common_corpus · Datasets at Hugging Face

We’re on a journey to advance and democratize artificial intelligence through open source and open science.

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Andrew Chen @andrewsw.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

Some phrases are timeless. Sometimes what is timely is how close some feel to each other at a given moment. At this moment, for me it is a juxtaposition of “this too will pass” and “to thine own self be true”.

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