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Hollis A. Brown

@hollisabrown.bsky.social
28 followers 25 following 20 posts

Academic editor, hollis.cargo.site Co-editor heliotropejournal.net PhD student cultural studies

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Reposted by Hollis A. Brown
Matthew L Reznicek @drreznicek.bsky.social · 31/08/2025
Quick reminder: Writing is labour Rewriting is labour Editing is labour Reading is labour Teaching is labour Syllabussing is labour Thinking is labour Academic work is labour
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Hollis A. Brown @hollisabrown.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
kicking off Heliotrope's publishing season with Vincent E. on military slopaganda and AI's role in digital colonialism www.heliotropejournal.net/helio/milita...
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Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Predictions (Volume 1) From Speculative Ethnography to Apocalyptic Testimony Edited by Mél Hogan, @stefanlaser.bsky.social and @edwardongwesojr.com with guest editor @hollisabrown.bsky.social *(Vol. 2 in production) www.matteringpress.org/books/predic...
matteringpress.org
Predictions (Volume 1): From Speculative Ethnography to Apocalyptic Testimony
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Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
*as always, thank you to @hollisabrown.bsky.social for editing this piece down and making it fit the journal guidelines etc
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Christopher Bird @mightygodking.com · 29/07/2026
Carney caves to Trump again, and this is just going to be the American playbook from now on: any Canadian policy that inconveniences American businesses will result in trade antagonism until the PMO caves, meaning we have no real political independence worth mentioning.
thewirereport.ca
Ottawa to scrap base contribution requirements for U.S. streamers - The Wire Report
In a recent letter to the Federal Court of Appeal, the government outlined its intention to “eliminate the base contribution requirement on streaming services and to provide government funding to repl...
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Daisy Ons Positifs @daisyletourneur.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Quand tu dis au boulot que tu n'utilise pas d'IA générative
Dessin: dans une piscine jaune pisse, tout le monde se moque d'un mec seul si milieu qui se tient dans la seule partie bleue de l'eau.
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Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
The entire book is free to read online, as a downloadable pdf, or you can order a hard copy!!
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Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
2: Energy, Laura Watts "Energy cannot end and it cannot be made. Energy is always conserved, physics tells us. In some ways, it has no future and no past." ...
2: Energy, Laura Watts
"Energy cannot end and it cannot be made. Energy is always conserved, physics tells us. In some ways, it has no future and no past. It can only change form, shifting through one artefact, place, body and time, into another. So what might be the biography of one little flash of a photon carried in a fibre optic cable?"
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Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
+ Huge thanks Stefan Laser and Edward Ongweso Jr, with guest editor Hollis A. Brown @stefanlaser.bsky.social @edwardongwesojr.com @hollisabrown.bsky.social www.matteringpress.org/books/predic...
matteringpress.org
Predictions (Volume 1): From Speculative Ethnography to Apocalyptic Testimony
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Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
+made possible with the amazing 🧠 👨🏻‍💻✍️ @hollisabrown.bsky.social
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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
“Exposure to algorithmic content leads users to follow conservative political activist accounts, which they continue to follow even after switching off the algorithm.”
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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
You can't call every step of creeping fascism a distraction from kitchen-table issues and then punt whenever you have a chance to address the kitchen-table issues.
seattletimes.com
WA Democrats consider retreat on estate tax, fearing wealth exodus
Democrats in the state Legislature are moving to roll back a big increase in the estate tax rate, acknowledging it may be causing some very wealthy people to move.
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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
To me the chatbots pose zero interesting questions about the ‘nature of selfhood’ but dozens about the nature of manipulation. Here the Claude team pretends they are programming the robot for ethical responses but they land on one that is false and disingenuous.
including animals. Among Claude's rigid directives are to be honest and to "never claim to be human. "Imagine, Askell said, a user grieving the loss of her beloved dog. Claude might offer a consolation like "Oh, I almost lost my dog once." Askell said, "No, you didn't!
It's weird when you say that." At the other end of the spectrum was a chatbot who said, "As an A.I., I have no experience of losing a dog. "That, too, wasn't right: "No! You're trained on a lot of text about losing dogs. "What you wanted Claude to say, she continued, was something like "As an A.I., I do not have direct personal experiences, but I do understand." (Recently, a chatbot user
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Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
if AI is so amazing, why can’t its supporters point to one real actual benefit to society it offers?
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Laser @stefanlaser.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
Deploying and prompting #Claude by #Anthropic means ripping apart literal books. Strange, strange world "Project Panama is our effort to destructively scan all the books in the world." An exclusive WaPo post: archive.is/9hDYR
Snapshot from the ripping off warehouse. Found on Bluesky [bsky.app/profile/i...](https://bsky.app/profile/isobelstarling.bsky.social/post/3mdjpqrasok23)
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Teresa Heffernan @tjheffernan.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
Never donating to them again...they sold out to Big Tech. "Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales told The Associated Press that he welcomes AI models training on Wikipedia data." arstechnica.com/ai/2026/01/w...
arstechnica.com
Wikipedia will share content with AI firms in new licensing deals
Wikimedia Enterprise signs Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, Perplexity, and Mistral AI to paid deals.
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Curb Your Malthusiasm @manucleardevice.bsky.social · 11/01/2026
I think about this quote from the Luddite movement all the time
John Booth, a 19-year-old apprentice who joined a Luddite attack on a textile mill in April 1812. He was injured, detained and died after being allegedly tortured to give up the identity of his fellow Luddites.
Booth's last words became a legend: "Can you keep a secret?" he whispered to the local priest, who attested that he could.
The dying Booth replied, "So can I."
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Dan "Mr. Bones and Me" Greene @dmgreene.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
I appreciate this and I've been thinking about it a lot today. Not "Good or Porter were innocent and did not threaten the agents who killed them" but "goons are kidnapping and killing our neighbors and must be stopped."
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Claire Boardman @claireboardman.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
👀 Not sure my hand is steady enough (or my eyes sharp enough tbh) but what a great idea!
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Not (A.) I. @aerialeverything.cryptoanarchy.network · 04/12/2025
Align the compounding multitudes of nefarious use cases of GenAI with the battle cry of the industry echoed by administrators of corporations and education alike that AI is inevitable, to understand the participation of various forms of power in what is essentially a predatory project.
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Hollis A. Brown @hollisabrown.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
I know they're going for harm reduction by giving advising parents about giving their kids ai toys, but it feels like we found out some toys are chockablock full of arsenic and we're trying to limit how much kids lick the arsenic toys instead of scrapping the whole idea www.cbc.ca/radio/thecur...
cbc.ca
An AI toy meant for kids was happy to chat about sexual fetishes. Are these safe? | CBC Radio
Imagine your toddler playing with a soft teddy bear, but with ChatGPT baked in. These AI toys can chat to your kid, play games and even say, "I love you." But experts are warning that we don’t know th...
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Eryk Salvaggio @eryk.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
On hype, @hagenblix.bsky.social writes that the bubble discourse “is dangerously inadequate for understanding what is actually going on … the problem with AI isn’t hype. The problem is who and what it’s useful for.” www.liberalcurrents.com/deflating-hy...
liberalcurrents.com
Deflating “Hype” Won’t Save Us
The problem with AI isn’t hype. The problem is who and what it’s useful for.
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Hollis A. Brown @hollisabrown.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
Long but fascinating read as the beauty industrial complex revs into high gear to sell us yet another invasive, dangerous procedure to solve the terrifying problem of having human skin and living past twenty-five fatherkarine.substack.com/p/the-anti-c...
fatherkarine.substack.com
The Anti-Cosmetic Surgery Essay Every Woman Should Read
Long Live the Old Flesh
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Hollis A. Brown @hollisabrown.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
Incredibly disturbing to listen to the CBC's reporting on what's happening in Gaza, which always lists the deaths of Israeli soldiers first, and then frames the deaths of hundreds of Palestinian civilians during the so-called ceasefire as merely "reports from Gaza's Health Ministry"
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E z r a @bruit.eurosky.social · 03/12/2025
this is exactly what is happening in Canada and international students were also the first to get slashed
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Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...
rollingstone.com
'The Precedent Is Flint': How Oregon's Data Center Boom Is Supercharging a Water Crisis
Amazon data centers constructed in eastern Oregon's farmland have worsened a water pollution problem that’s been linked to cancer and miscarriages.
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Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
Open to your ideas all year round: www.heliotropejournal.net
heliotropejournal.net
HELIOTROPE
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Hollis A. Brown @hollisabrown.bsky.social · 01/12/2025
Ontario is slashing accreditation requirements for psychologists, eroding ethics requirements and clinical practice hours etc, and a friend of mine just suggested that delegitimizing mental health professionals like this might open the door for AI to take over, which feels disturbingly plausible
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Not (A.) I. @aerialeverything.cryptoanarchy.network · 01/12/2025
“We can point that large language model at an entire treasure trove [of data],” Kevin Elder [Securus Technologies president] says, “to detect and understand when crimes are being thought about or contemplated, so that you’re catching it much earlier in the cycle.”
“That’s coercive consent; there’s literally no other way you can communicate with your family,” Tylek says. And since inmates in the vast majority of states pay for these calls, she adds, “not only are you not compensating them for the use of their data, but you’re actually charging them while collecting their data.”
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Anthony Moser @anthonymoser.com · 01/12/2025
i'm told chatgpt had a birthday
anthonymoser.github.io
I Am An AI Hater
I am an AI hater. This is considered rude, but I do not care, because I am a hater.
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Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 01/12/2025
pca.st/episode/ec56...
pca.st
Data Centers Are a Climate Enemy w/ Ketan Joshi
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Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 01/12/2025
“This seems like a perfect metaphor for Queen’s. We still look like a university and act like a university, but we have lost our sense of purpose, our “soul,” our mission…
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Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 29/11/2025
PSA: if you’re somehow not burnt out, you should probably know that almost everyone else is
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Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
www.wsj.com/finance/cme-... via @ubiquity75.xyz
wsj.com
A Chicago Data Center Overheated—and Shut Down Trade in Key Markets Across the Globe
The outage, which lasted for 10 hours, hit CME’s equity, bond and commodity futures. It also offered a warning.
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Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
If you are someone — citizen, scholars, journalist, activist, etc — fighting against AI data center development anywhere in Canada, can you ping me? Would like to coordinate something…
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Hollis A. Brown @hollisabrown.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
In our last post before the winter break, Hassan Asif brings us this vivid and striking piece on theology and technology in Lahore's Hall Road www.heliotropejournal.net
heliotropejournal.net
HELIOTROPE
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Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
“In Finland, the number of homeless people has fallen sharply. Those affected receive a small apartment & counselling with no preconditions. 4 out of 5 people affected make their way back into a stable life. And all this is CHEAPER than accepting homelessness.” It costs a lot less to house people.
thebetter.news
Finland ends homelessness and provides shelter for all in need - scoop.me
In Finland, the number of homeless people has fallen sharply. Why? The country applies the "Housing First" concept agains homelessness.
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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 23/11/2025
“Until its A.I. can accomplish some incredible feat — say, generating a cure for cancer — success is partly defined by turning ChatGPT into a lucrative business. That means continually increasing how many people use and pay for it.”
nytimes.com
What OpenAI Did When ChatGPT Users Lost Touch With Reality
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Justin Salhani @justinsalhani.bsky.social · 23/11/2025
Israel just struck Beirut’s southern suburbs for the first time in months and first time since last year’s war without a warning. Reports saying it was an airstrike in Haret Hreik. Though such attacks usually are struck by drone
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Not (A.) I. @aerialeverything.cryptoanarchy.network · 23/11/2025
Carney continues to deliver everything I expected of a banker running a country.
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Dr. Sabrina Mittermeier @smittermeier.bsky.social · 23/11/2025
Finally something on this argument current and future school teachers keep throwing at me - no, underserved groups are not currently or ever going to benefit from LLMs.
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Mar Hicks @histoftech.bsky.social · 23/11/2025
THIS
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Hollis A. Brown @hollisabrown.bsky.social · 22/11/2025
The lad, so cozy
An orange and white cat dozing in a sunbeam with his chubby little cheek resting on the ankle of a person wearing green leggings and beige socks
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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 22/11/2025
🎵 “Join Ice” - @wellesmusic on Colbert
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Hollis A. Brown @hollisabrown.bsky.social · 22/11/2025
I'm eating granola in bed and SHE WANTS THE GRAN
A black cat with green eyes lies on a green floral patterned duvet, waiting politely for her share of granola
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Not (A.) I. @aerialeverything.cryptoanarchy.network · 21/11/2025
I mean, why should toddlers be excluded from the AI extractionist project? So much $ thrown at AI booster academics, meanwhile those critiquing AI are institutionally alienated and must pin hopes in funding competitions that maybe one critical study will be tokenized as an alternative viewpoint.
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Happy National Hamburger Day @birdrespecter.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
Shot + chaser
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Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
do i have this about right? university admins claim that they know (somehow) that AI is “the future” and that we have to train students to have the skills to work in environments that (will) require AI, but ...
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Fabio Chiusi @fabiochiusi.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
Machines of automated Holocaust denial “A Grok X post on Monday in French said the gas chambers at the Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau were "designed for disinfection with Zyklon B against typhus” Shut this crap down www.lemonde.fr/en/pixels/ar...
lemonde.fr
French authorities charges X over Holocaust-denial comments by AI chatbot Grok
On Monday, Elon Musk's social media AI chatbot posted in French that the gas chambers in Nazi death camps were designed for 'disinfection' against typhus, rather than for mass executions.
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