Sign in

atomless

@atomless.bsky.social
89 followers 93 following 136 posts

Book: Predictive Capital Roads to Terminal Alienation: Soil to Server Farm, Reason to Vibe www.creativeapplications.net/theory… Blog: atomless.substack.com

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by atomless
Catherine D'Ignazio (she/her/ella) @kanarinka.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
MIT spent $3 million on 500 AI-capable surveillance cameras while laying people off, shutting down libraries, and canceling journal subscriptions. In this article, 4 faculty & I discuss our new arts initiative to celebrate surveillance and repression on college campuses: fnl.mit.edu/how-we-learn...
fnl.mit.edu
How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Campus Surveillance – MIT Faculty Newsletter
6357166
Reposted by atomless
Gil Durán @gilduran.com · 25/09/2026
Peter Thiel says the "Antichrist" will preach "peace." Now his cronies in the Trump regime are pushing "Pax Silica" ("Silicon Peace"). It's a grandiose name for AI colonialism and imperialism. 1st target: The Philippines. More from @kieraevebutler.bsky.social www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
Tech Bros and the Trump administration are building an AI empire—in the Philippines
Pax Silica aims to lock up rare earths, and hand Silicon Valley the keys.
13236114
Reposted by atomless
Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 25/09/2026
The problem is that learning about a new topic often requires 1) letting (maybe temporarily only) go of existing frames and 2) understanding another (learned) community's or (expert) person's way of seeing things.
45213
Reposted by atomless
Neil Turkewitz @neilturkewitz.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
“In 2000, after years writing about Silicon Valley, she published a book, Cyberselfish, that discerned within the tech utopianism of the era a dead-eyed, woman-hating social malevolence—what the subtitle called the “Terribly Libertarian Culture of High-Tech.” #PaulinaBorsook
wired.com
Who Killed Paulina Borsook’s Career?
A quarter-century ago, Borsook published a wildly prophetic, penetrating book about Silicon Valley called Cyberselfish. Then she disappeared.
186
Reposted by atomless
Dan O'Hara @skeuomorphology.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The PCR positivity map is out and there's been another significant jump in positivity both in England and in Scotland. Testing is increasing but more slowly than needed: ~15k in England, 4K in Scotland. jamestindall.info/skeuomorphol... 1/7
24833
Reposted by atomless
Gregk Foley @gregk.co.uk · 25/09/2026
Juxtaposition is an act or instance of placing two or more things side by side often to compare or contrast or to create an interesting effect
TELEGRAPH

SAS chief: Army witch hunts put Britain at risk SAS are not the heroes they think they are, says whistleblower
Monica Grenfell, who worked at the elite regiment’s Herefordshire HQ for three years, claims soldiers were ‘feral’ and that ‘nasty characters ruled the roost’
27117
Reposted by atomless
Gregory Norminton @gregorynorminton.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
“The most virulent form of philosophical technolibertarianism is a kind of scary, psychologically brittle, prepolitical autism... an inability to reconcile the demands of being individual with the demands of participating in society. Technolibertarians make a philosophy out of a personality defect.”
wired.com
Who Killed Paulina Borsook’s Career?
A quarter-century ago, Borsook published a wildly prophetic, penetrating book about Silicon Valley called Cyberselfish. Then she disappeared.
12215
Reposted by atomless
Climate Defiance @climatedefiance.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
HUGE UPDATE: we halted Amazon's panel at Climate Week. We shut it down so hard that every guest and every speaker had to leave the premises. No one was able to return. Their whole event lasted less time than their warehouse workers' pee break.
25750252
Reposted by atomless
Bela Lugosi's Dad 🏳️‍⚧️ 🇵🇸 @belalugosisdad.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Fucking called it. Dropped the reckless endangerment/with intent aggravating factor (ignore thensubtitle under the thumbnail, that's out of date). That reduces the maximum sentence from life to 3 months and a £2,500 fine. Makes it look like it doing something, while getting him back to work ASAP.
theguardian.com
Far-right activist Daniel Thomas charged over alleged dinghy slashing in Channel
Thirty-seven-year-old in custody on suspicion of crimes including criminal damage with intent to endanger life
1324187
Reposted by atomless
elia ayoub @ayoub.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
EU countries have said that they respect the ICC. What will they do to protect it from this fascist onslaught?
112557
Reposted by atomless
Neil Turkewitz @neilturkewitz.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
“If a white, straight woman working in media and technology deals with this much bullshit, imagine the experience of a woman who happens to be a person of color, or gay, or transgender.” 🙏🏼💙 @katie-drummond.bsky.social The world is richer for having you in it.
wired.com
Women Still Face Too Much Bullshit—in Silicon Valley and Beyond
WIRED dedicating an entire issue to women in 2026 might seem regressive, or obvious, or even unnecessary. We disagree.
0175
atomless @atomless.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
In The Claude Delusion, @doctorow.pluralistic.net frames LLM outputs as being as empty as an atheist’s sunset. Which is just a brilliant way of putting it, and extends into one of the best explanations I’ve yet read for the eerie experience of using an LLM. pluralistic.net/2026/09/21/s...
pluralistic.net
Pluralistic: The Claude Delusion (21 Sep 2026) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
072
Reposted by atomless
Neil Turkewitz @neilturkewitz.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
“I don't worry that AI will destroy humanity so much as I fear it will destroy the humanity within us.” @eryk.bsky.social
mail.cyberneticforests.com
A Fork in the Road
AI is an excuse that allows those with power to operate at a distance from those whom their power touches.
162
Reposted by atomless
Neil Turkewitz @neilturkewitz.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
“the illusion of learning” What could go wrong?
nytimes.com
An M.I.T. Report Warns A.I. Is Causing ‘Cognitive Surrender.’ Universities Are in a Bind. (Gift Article)
As A.I. upends education, university leaders have been all over the map about how to respond. It can be very confusing for students.
275
Reposted by atomless
Democracy Now! @democracynow.org · 18/09/2026
Ahead of the annual session of the United Nations General Assembly, @oxfaminternational.bsky.social's executive director urges world leaders to take "decisive action" on multiple crises. "The world is torn apart by the inequality emergency, the climate crisis [and] the wars all around."
36830
atomless @atomless.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
BREAKING: Starmer Trooper joins Death Star construction corp.
000
Reposted by atomless
Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Palantir have just bought themselves a Labour Lord with close links to the Labour government. No other word to describe this other than corruption. How can Watson remain a member of the House of Lords and keep the Labour whip?
942314827
Reposted by atomless
elia ayoub @ayoub.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Rooney is good people
0508
atomless @atomless.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
A book about the limitations and the violence of so-called "AI" and how it extends and intensifies those of Capital, please give it a read. www.creativeapplications.net/theory/predi...
creativeapplications.net
Predictive Capital – Roads to terminal alienation, soil to server farm, reason to vibe
So-called ‘AI’ —more accurately: Predictive Capital— is the latest instrument in Capital’s apparatus of alienation. It steals our work, simulates our labour, reanimates our expression, autocompletes o...
001
Reposted by atomless
Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 14/09/2026
wow so this is absolutely fantastic and chill and correct about everything especially around the 30 minute mark where she talks about universities
youtu.be
Helena Sheehan, "World Views"
YouTube video by Critical Theory Workshop
2369
Reposted by atomless
jon christian @jonchristian.net · 17/09/2026
NEW: We spent months investigating a little-known media startup called Brown Brothers Media, which buys legit news sites and turns them into AI-powered zombie content farms What blew my mind was its traffic -- it appears to be getting more readers than NPR or CBS News futurism.com/artificial-i...
futurism.com
How Three Brothers Built an AI Slop Empire by Buying Legitimate News Sites and Turning Them Into Zombie Content Farms That They Say Get 50 Million Page Views per Month
Brown Brothers Media is a media empire raking in millions of clicks with AI, fake writers, and plagiarism.
401324686
atomless @atomless.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Great piece. Backrooms also reminds me of the work of George Tooker, whose paintings also evoke the bureaucratic violence of an Institutional Gothic.
000
atomless @atomless.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
China: ban all anthropomorphisation of LLMs. America: How much can we make this whole thing resemble an episode of Black Mirror that was rejected for being too dark?
010
atomless @atomless.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
The LLM, agentic harness or otherwise, does not understand anything. Two structural sleights of hand have facilitated the illusion that it does: 1. The statistical regurgitation of human cognition. 2. The statistical reproduction of the actions of workers already reduce to performing bullshit jobs.
000
Reposted by atomless
Arthur Wyatt @arthurwyatt.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I like “institutional gothic” much better than “liminal“ for this.
27017
Reposted by atomless
Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
One of the dangers of AI is the models’ capacity to social engineer humans. One possible outcome is that those humans (who usually don’t understand the tech) will then social engineer other humans. Through this process, we could see the spread of AI psychosis. (I think we’re seeing this already.)
Human figure says to computer, “Say ‘I am alive’”

Computer says, “>I am alive”

Human figure responds, “Oh my god”
612027
Reposted by atomless
Gil Durán @gilduran.com · 16/09/2026
The Nerd Reich wants to control the universe, but they can't control book readers. My book is #6 on Amazon's bestseller list—a month after publication! Please buy at your LOCAL bookstore or via Bookshop! Use this link to support my work: bookshop.org/a/109206/978...
screenshot of amazon chart showing Nerd Reich at #6
431031270
Reposted by atomless
Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
💥 FORTY THOUSAND 2,000 pound bombs That’s what the Trump administration is planning to sell Israel as part of $2.8 BILLION military aid package financed by US taxpayers.
theguardian.com
US set to deliver 2,000lb bombs to Israel as part of vast arms deal
Powerful bombs prompted such concern about mass deaths in Gaza that Biden officials paused delivery two years ago
43522
Reposted by atomless
elia ayoub @ayoub.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Graffiti in Ashdod of directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor with ‘Traitors’ written on them because they released a film, Naza, featuring Israeli soldiers admitting to knowingly killing civilians www.instagram.com/p/DdT1kJzgoNA/
It’s designed as a mugshot with ‘traitors’ written on them
0216
atomless @atomless.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
👨‍🍳💋
04511
atomless @atomless.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Perfection.
010
Reposted by atomless
Jill Walker Rettberg @jilltxt.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
The video of Marwa Abdulhai and Isadora White's talk about this paper is now online here - they present a pretty complex computer science paper so clearly, I highly recommend watching it if you're interested in using LLMs to edit or draft writing might do: www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnDQ...
youtube.com
How LLMs Distort Our Written Language #AIStories
YouTube video by Center for Digital Narrative, UiB
14521
Reposted by atomless
Neil Turkewitz @neilturkewitz.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
A must-read 🧵, including: “arts & humanities are…the experimental wildcards from which creativity arises. They preserve plasticity in collective cognition, to literally think outside the box of solutions. AI solutionism only gives you the box.” Bravo @rawx.bsky.social!
242
Reposted by atomless
Neil Turkewitz @neilturkewitz.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
When Words Fail…
031
Reposted by atomless
Happy Hour at Hippel's @sanktmaxtci.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Their entire strategy is to make every state they do business with dependent on their software. They do this by selling images of technocratic national renewal to liberals (backed naturally by pressure from the White House) and social militarisation to fascists.
1288
Reposted by atomless
Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
pay living wages for all workers. tax the shit out of billionaires. happy labor day.
3645851157
atomless @atomless.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals, "Good and Evil," "Good and Bad", (1887) americanliterature.com/author/fried...
120
Reposted by atomless
elena razlogova @erazlogo.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
I am assigning this article to my students for the first day of class.
14714
atomless @atomless.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
You seeing the insane promotions Trump’s posting for your Nerd Reich book? @gilduran.com
3416
Reposted by atomless
404 Media @404media.co · 05/09/2026
Using an advanced new instrument, scientists observed Einstein’s equivalence principle on a free-falling quantum object, demonstrating that this prediction of general relativity also holds up in quantum physics.
404media.co
Breakthrough Quantum Test Resolves a Major Cosmic Mystery
Using an advanced new instrument, scientists observed Einstein’s equivalence principle on a free-falling quantum object, demonstrating that this prediction of general relativity also holds up in quantum...
313028
Reposted by atomless
Cecilia Rikap @ceciliarikap.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
GenAI replaces your creativity, your (critical) thinking. #GenAI augments the gap between tasks' conception & execution. US (& Chinese) #BigTech not only concentrates capital, they also steer tech change. They decided this is the tech that we get. www.versobooks.com/en-gb/produc... Pre-sale: 👇👇
0186
atomless @atomless.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Day after @sanktmaxtci.bsky.social published a piece describing Simulacral Fascism, the Whitehouse prompted war-crimes Claude for a demo www.whitehouse.gov/arcade/
whitehouse.gov
Arcade
110
Reposted by atomless
New_ Public @newpublic.org · 03/09/2026
Big Tech has been lying to us: they CAN make their platforms safer — and these rules can be applied globally. Meta Oversight Board member @nighatdad.bsky.social in @techpolicypress.bsky.social: www.techpolicy.press/meta-owes-th...
But whatever else the settlement settles, it ends one long argument about feasibility. Those of us who work on these harms outside the US have spent years being told that defaults like these would break the product, that the answer lay in parental supervision and digital literacy, that regulators misunderstood the engineering. Meta has now demonstrated that substantial changes to the product are possible. Which makes the limits of this agreement harder to ignore.
13611
Reposted by atomless
Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Socialism is what they called public power. Socialism is what they called social security. Socialism is what they called the growth of free and independent labor organizations. Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people. —Harry Truman, 1952
483192506884
Reposted by atomless
Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 14/11/2025
Love to see community action against this AI nonsense! neighborhoodview.org/2025/11/13/d...
As one Massachusetts school administrator recently said; this moment with AI is remarkably like the moment when we were introduced to asbestos. Yes, it had some remarkably promising characteristics – fireproofing! – and had some real utility in science, research, and industrial applications. But a profit-driven industry bullied us into inserting it everywhere; into our homes and schools and public spaces, before we really understood the risks. This resulted in decades, if not centuries, of illness, injuries, deaths, and the astronomical financial burden of trying to remove the stuff.

As you, the leaders and policymakers in our schools, craft an AI policy for our district, we the undersigned call on you to:

1. Ban AI tools into the classroom, protect our students and teachers from de-skilling and allow them the space and time to engage in assignments themselves.

2. Resist any direct financial relationship or contracts with AI providers, as well as the “training” they might offer.

3. Provide a digital literacy curriculum to help students navigate the current digital landscape, and promote critical engagement with technology.

4. Guarantee that anywhere generative AI has already entered our classrooms or curriculum, an opt-out will allow students and teachers to refuse the use of these products at no risk to their grades, progress or employment.
161106463
Reposted by atomless
therealnbw.bsky.social @therealnbw.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
There’s a remedy.
053
Reposted by atomless
Gil Durán @gilduran.com · 03/09/2026
Someone finally wrote a bad review of my book! Its argument: The tech bros are not fascists and we need not worry about them. Its author: a fellow at the Foundation for American Innovation (FAI). FAI's ideological godfather and treasured idol: Peter Thiel. 🫠
742399379
Reposted by atomless
Happy Hour at Hippel's @sanktmaxtci.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
This is in part because as much as these people are fascistic, it's still neoliberalism and detached from co-opting any kind of mass militancy in favour of focusing on different kinds of consumption. They want to be the elect as they constantly dissolve the masses prometheus-mag.com/2026/09/01/t...
prometheus-mag.com
The Ambiguity of Contemporary Fascism: Simulacra and the Consumer Society - Prometheus Magazine
Adam C. Jones looks at how neoliberalism has restructured classical fascism's political subjects, producing a "Simulacral Fascism".
084
Reposted by atomless
#BruceSterling @bruces.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
*No "observer" says "Give Mark the benefit of the doubt for his wisdom and goodwill," probably because, by now, there is no person anywhere on this planet who would say that
25316
Reposted by atomless
Musa Okwonga @okwonga.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Germany, 2026. A far-right politician calling for the mass deportation of 20 million people, to loud applause. A clear call for mass violence.
6273147