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Dan McQuillan

@danmcquillan.bsky.social
8.1K followers 444 following 1.2K posts

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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Yes, our sense of smell helps us keep a dividing line between a world of AI and a world where people matter, because AI STINKS 🦨
Headline from Financialt Times | Opinion Artificial intelligence which reads "Why we can thumb our noses at AI; Our sense of smell helps us to keep a few shreds of privacy intact and maintains a dividing line between real and virtual worlds" 
The url for the original article is https://www.ft.com/content/dd33034e-86f0-48b6-b62f-4a32a5334be0?emailId=c9765643-6604-4499-ac92-b23c80fbd7f9&segmentId=22011ee7-896a-8c4c-22a0-7603348b7f22&syn-25a6b1a6=1
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
"Anthropic leaders to control AI lab via 'Founder LLC' to promote the common good" www.reuters.com/legal/transa.... If only Elinor Ostrom was still around to explain to these AI doomer numpties that 'common good' is something we decide _in common_, not via a cabal.
screenshot from linked Reuters piece which reads: "Sept 28 (Reuters) - Anthropic has long positioned itself as the virtuous AI company. An early look at its IPO filing shows how it is creating a ​new "Founder LLC" vehicle aimed at serving the common good, while insulating its leaders from market forces.
The new LLC will be made up initially of Anthropic's seven co-founders including CEO Dario ‌Amodei, individuals who are "distinctly equipped to be stewards of our mission," according to a copy of the filing, seen by Reuters. Anthropic's mission is to benefit humanity through responsible AI."
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Raider @iwillnotbesilenced.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
The people's occupation of Puerta del Sol in Madrid continues to grow in size and ferocity. They know the real invaders are not working class immigrants or people of color, but vulture funds, landlord parasites and transnational capitalists who drive workers from homes and suppress wages.
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Predictive Fabulating Algorithmic Systems (PFAS)
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Shake in your shoes, doomer oligarchs! "AI skeptics dubious slowdown will solve technology’s real harms" (quotes Emily Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social , @wolven.blacksky.app and myself). www.sfexaminer.com/news/technol...
Headline from San Francisco Examiner which reads ' AI skeptics dubious slowdown will solve technology’s real harms', over a grpahic of Sam Altiman holding a 'slow' sign overlaid with a circuitboard patterning.
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
TFW you publish a preprint about ways to decouple society from the infrastructural collapse prefigured by AI only to discover that the preprint server is already being knocked out of action... 🙄
Screenshot from CERN's preprint server at https://zenodo.org/ saying "Zenodo is currently experiencing slowness and intermittent outages due to heavy automated traffic from bots and AI crawlers. We are aware of the problem, and our team is focused on stabilizing the service. Thank you for your patience"
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
This episode of @melhogan.bsky.social's The Data Fix w/ @eryk.bsky.social is the most grounded discussion of so-called 'rogue AI' I've come across podcastaddict.com/the-data-fix... The algos aren't 'planning' or 'conspiring' but blindly following imitative but meaningless streams of generated text.
podcastaddict.com
The Data Fix - Rogue, with Eryk Salvaggio
Listen to The Data Fix - Rogue, with Eryk Salvaggio by Mél Hogan on Podcast Addict. When is AI 'going rogue' and when is it just sloppy oversight by the companies designing the models? The answer won't surprise you -- probably -- but in this episode we discuss why we can both not believe the doom-hype marketing hype of AI companies and still be a bit worried about where this is all taking us. Erik Salvaggio unpacks and explains all of this better than anyone I know. Recorded Aug 27, 2026. Released Aug 31, 2026.Eryk Salvaggio’s websitecyberneticforests.comLinked In: Eryk Salvaggio’s Posthttps://www.linkedin.com/posts/eryk-salvaggio_when-you-see-a-headline-claiming-that-ai-activity-7485551550107656192-d-tq The System From Nowherehttps://mail.cyberneticforests.com/the-system-from-nowhere/On Stochastic Flocks & The Critical Problem of Useful AI https://www.techpolicy.press/stochastic-flocks-and-the-critical-problem-of-useful-ai/ On RLVR (the verifiable rewards bit) - "It's Not X, It's Y"https://mail.cyberneticforests.com/its-not-just-data-its-post-training/ The Data Fix: Soulless, with Eryk Salvaggiohttps://shows.acast.com/the-data-fix/episodes/639d6648b0a821001040e0e2 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
AI maths meets mafia: "I said if OpenAI released its result in the way proposed I would go public with what happened. The reply was “Why would you ruin your career?” I replied that I'm an academic, & asked why he thought going public would ruin my career" cims.nyu.edu/~tristanb/st...
cims.nyu.edu
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
New preprint from me: 'Beyond AI: Infrastructuring the Common Good'. The paper treats AI as diagnostic of deeper contradictions, and argues that convivial practice can reclaim vital systems from the collapse of the technopolitical regime. doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
Screenshot of paper title and abstract. 'Beyond AI: Infrastructuring the Common Good': "Rather than taking AI as a central focus, this paper treats it as diagnostic of deeper contradictions. AI intensifies extractivism while being unable to deliver on its promises, and its rampant scaling of energy and resource demands heralds a form of ‘total mobilisation’. This paper proposes decomputing as a programme for pushing back against such technocratic nihilism. Decomputing adopts a degrowth framework and advocates for reclaiming agency through deautomatisation and people’s coun- cils, in order to develop convivial alternatives that centre an ethics of care. It is a philosophical and tactical response to the wider crisis of care induced by the collapse of existing systems..."
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
New preprint from me: 'Beyond AI: Infrastructuring the Common Good'. The paper treats AI as diagnostic of deeper contradictions, and argues that convivial practice can reclaim vital systems from the collapse of the technopolitical regime. doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
Screenshot of paper title and abstract. 'Beyond AI: Infrastructuring the Common Good': "Rather than taking AI as a central focus, this paper treats it as diagnostic of deeper contradictions. AI intensifies extractivism while being unable to deliver on its promises, and its rampant scaling of energy and resource demands heralds a form of ‘total mobilisation’. This paper proposes decomputing as a programme for pushing back against such technocratic nihilism. Decomputing adopts a degrowth framework and advocates for reclaiming agency through deautomatisation and people’s coun- cils, in order to develop convivial alternatives that centre an ethics of care. It is a philosophical and tactical response to the wider crisis of care induced by the collapse of existing systems..."
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Video of all presentations & Q+A spui25.nl/programma/ai... From my talk: ""The chapter counterposes Total Mobilisation and decomputing to make the claim that we either incubate a technofascist order or we shift very idea of 'order' itself..."
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Video of all presentations & Q+A spui25.nl/programma/ai... From my talk: ""The chapter counterposes Total Mobilisation and decomputing to make the claim that we either incubate a technofascist order or we shift very idea of 'order' itself..."
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Book launch for 'AI, Infrastructures and Sustainability' on Wed 2nd; register for the livestream spui25.nl/programma/ai... with eds Anne Mollen & Fieke Jansen and authors Patrick Brodie, Gerwin van Schie & myself. The book is open access & downloadable from link.springer.com/book/10.1007...
Book cover of ' AI Infrastructures and Sustainability - Expanding Perspectives on Automation, and Communication Media' showing an abstract mineral surface in blues and oranges.
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
AI makes being average at [faking] any skill available to everyone [until inference prices increase]. If you take time to be good at what you do [someone will train agentic AI to imitate you] & you won't have to worry about being replaced [until your boss chooses agentic AI].
screenshot of tweet from @thedankoe which reads "AI makes being average at any skill available to everyone, which makes average work worthless. If you take the time to become incredibly good at what you do you won't have to worry about being replaced."
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Fisher/Jameson said "It's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism". And yet, that act of imagining alternatives is urgent; if AI tells us nothing else, it tells us that capitalism is actively imagining the end of us.
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Is the NoMeansNo song "Oh No! Bruno!" really a sad lament for the way Bruno Latour's attempt to overcome dualisms encouraged an anemic form of science & technology studies that's unfitted for our turbulent times? If so, I'm here for it 🎸🫡 www.youtube.com/watch?v=raUp...
The cover image of the NoMeansNo album 'Wrong', showing the head & shoulders of a cow-headed figure.
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Drake meme:
text 1 "Desertification?"
text 2 "Datacentrefication!"
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Floodlight @floodlightnews.org · 27/08/2026
NEW: Thermal drone footage shows the Microsoft-backed DataOne AI data center in Vineland, NJ is running dozens of gas generators. None of them have permits. A Floodlight visual investigation with @us.theguardian.com:
floodlightnews.org
One of East Coast’s largest data centers accused of ‘violating federal law’
Thermal drone footage shows DataOne — the Microsoft-backed AI data center in Vineland — is powering its operations with dozens of unpermitted generators
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Great denunciation of Thiel et al., but many such critiques of fascism miss the element of mass psychology that carries them to power. Tech is key here, not just for concentrating wealth, but because machinic social relations make us more susceptible to fascist solutionism.
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
The collective noun for a swarm of North Sea jellyfish is 'sortirdunucleaire'.
Screenshot of Reuters headline from August 11, 2026 reading 'Jellyfish-hit French nuclear plant shuts down three reactors' showing a photo of the Gravelines nuclear power plant seen across the beach in Petit Fort Philipp.
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Attempts to govern AI fail because it's diagnostic of deeper changes in the order of things zenodo.org/records/1945.... Decomputing aims instead to decouple critical services from technocratic collapse. Next week I'll post the preprint 'Beyond AI: Infrastructuring the Common Good'.
lnkd.in
LinkedIn
This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Text: Treat your body like a data centre. Consume as much water and literature as possible. Upset local city councils with your existence. 
Background image: a bearded man putting up the frame of aparge tent in a muddy field with trees in the background.
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Amy Woodson-Boulton @amywb.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Hey folks! In time for the new year, @climatejusticeuni.bsky.social North America is putting on a flash talk about resisting AI! Join us!! Friday 21 August, 9-10am PT/12-1 ET #ResistAI #AcademicSky #Climate #GreenSky
climatejusticeuniversitiesunion.org
Flash Discussion: AI-Free Teaching Tips & Strategies
CJUU's North American branch warmly invites all members, friends, and interested parties to our next Flash Discussion: AI-Free Teaching Tips and Strategies! On Fri Aug 21, from 12-1 pm Eastern, join ...
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JS Tan @js-tan.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
My book AGAINST TECH OLIGARCHY, out Sept 15, is available for pre-order at againsttecholigarchy.com. It chronicles the rise of tech workers' activism, how they courageously came together to challenge the industry's most powerful bosses, and how their movement changed Silicon Valley forever. 1/
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Breaking: AI companies announce that hyperscale datacentres will switch to a behind-the-meter power supply based on burning books. As the same books have already been sliced & scanned for model training, the companies describe this a sustainable closed loop. 📚🔥☠️
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
They've built a screwing-things-up-at-scale-machine which baits us with imitation conversations and still all they can offer by way of explanation is 'hints of AGI' hogwash. None of these companies can be trusted to talk straight or clean up the mess.
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Dumping Big Tech isn't just a matter of personal politics or even of tech sovereignty (which is a con anway) it's a matter of survival. Big Tech is the latest flag bearer for civilisation-ending extractivism and all the delusions about progress that keep us addicted to it.
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
They've built a screwing-things-up-at-scale-machine which baits us with imitation conversations and still all they can offer by way of explanation is 'hints of AGI' hogwash. None of these companies can be trusted to talk straight or clean up the mess.
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Dumping Big Tech isn't just a matter of personal politics or even of tech sovereignty (which is a con anway) it's a matter of survival. Big Tech is the latest flag bearer for civilisation-ending extractivism and all the delusions about progress that keep us addicted to it.
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Hyperscalers: "We're investing more than $1 trillion in AI capital investment". Smug AI adopter: "I'm completely in charge, I just use it for brainstorming ideas". AI isn't a consumer toy, it's a push for systemic transformation that amps up alienation and climate harm.☣️
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Out now, my conversation with Josh and Ray of the great Politechs podcast where we collectively wrestle with the idea of 'decomputing' politechs.dev/episodes/s02.... Check out their other episodes, if you haven't yet; cracking conversations with critical voices politechs.dev/episodes.html
politechs.dev
Politechs Episode 12 - Decomputing - Dan McQuillan
Josh and Ray talk decomputing with Dr. Dan McQuillan.
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Anthony Moser @anthonymoser.com · 01/08/2026
Did nobody use the headline Alpha Folds
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
This looks like a well-researched and situated counter to Masley's 'do your own Qanon research' - 'The AI Data Center Water Management Challenge: A Georgia Case Study' tapsrundry.com/georgia-wate... Blunter version from the author in this pod youtube.com/watch?v=oNSQ...
Screenshot of the Environment Variables podcast youtube channel showing the episode titled 'TWiGS: The AI Water Management Challenge with Masheika Allgood'
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
AlphaFold was always bait-and-switch; now Google confirms it. A hyper-narrow bioinformatrics model with actual science bolted on whose guesses can be experimentally checked was never a licence for socially-applied slop at scale, but it's done its job. Effort transferred to LLMs.
Screenshot of Financial Times headline reading "Google DeepMind dismantles Nobel-winning AlphaFold team in strategy shift" with photo of Demis Hassabis & John Jumper
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
To paraphrase Raoul Vaneigem, people who talk about Resonsible AI or Responsible Tech without referring to the need to restructure our political-economy for the common good and to socialise all infrastructure, such people have a corpse in their mouth.
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Abstract for the forthcoming paper 'Beyond AI: Infrastructuring the Common Good'. Pre-print coming soon. "Rather than taking AI as a central focus, this paper treats it as diagnostic of deeper contradictions...." danmcquillan.org/beyond_ai_ab...
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Looking forward to a book titled 'Destructively Scan This Book!' in homage to Abbie Hoffman's Steal This Book en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steal_T...
Screenshot from from arstechnica: 
Headline: "Anthropic destroyed millions of print books to build its AI models -  Company hired Google’s book-scanning chief to cut up and digitize “all the books in the world"
Picture: the end image of a large pile of books
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Abstract for the forthcoming paper 'Beyond AI: Infrastructuring the Common Good'. Pre-print coming soon. "Rather than taking AI as a central focus, this paper treats it as diagnostic of deeper contradictions...." danmcquillan.org/beyond_ai_ab...
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Where is the university ethics committee that has stepped up to the plate and said "There's no ethical way to use Generative AI"?
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Seems like agentic AI's capacity to really f*ck things up isn't limited to deleting your personal $HOME directory.
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
FAccT and its predecessor FAT/ML are very poorly acronymed gatherings, as the point of their algorithmic objects of study is, in a specific technopolitical sense, to drain Fairness, distance Accountability and misdirect Transparency.
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Ron Salaj has posted his chapter on 'The New Spirit of Education and the Techno-Politics of AI' which goes from a genealogy of machines-for-learning to an analysis of AI Ed in terms of 'seriality' (Sarte) and 'interpassivity ' (Pfaller) meaningmaking.it/new-chapter-...
meaningmaking.it
New chapter: The New Spirit of Education and the Techno-Politics of AI – Meaning Making
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Robin Z @firepile.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Some rando trying to sell AI grading systems made the mistake of cold emailing me at work and I had prosecco for dinner so I replied with a link to @danmcquillan.bsky.social's "the role of the university is to resist AI" 🤷‍♀️
danmcquillan.org
The role of the University is to resist AI
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Papier-mâché Mussolini
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Perhaps the mistake was talking about the 'digital commons' as if a separate, unsullied space could host the social relations we were long robbed of, when we should have been talking about 'commons digital'; real common ownership of the infrastructure lock, stock and barrel?
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
Oxford showing its raggedy arse
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Alex Prichard @profalexp.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
#defendexeteruni c.org/sffZcfYxMw
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
Advocating for "AI sovereignty" is another way to call for a war economy.
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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
Let's just stop pretending that calculative prediction is a valid framing in most social settings. Dump the ML, invest in people. #FAccT2026 #decomputing
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