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Jeff Loeb

@jdloeb.bsky.social
433 followers 855 following 83 posts

Designer of practices. Chemical Engineer. Changing the conversation in construction.

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Reposted by Jeff Loeb
ijw @bulletsweetp.bsky.social · 1h
Human skill is made out of difficulty, simulated genai skill-shaped capability is made out of crimes
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Brooke Harrington @ebharrington.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
In the past month, I've started waking once a week at 1am--involuntarily--& being so wired that I can't get back to sleep all night. Couldn't figure out why. Wasn't doing anything different. Just realized: I'm scared by what I'm seeing in my research. Nihilistic billionaires toying with our lives.
Headline of June 2025 article by in the Nation by author Jeet Heer: 
"The Billionaires Are Abandoning Humanity
Peter Thiel and his friends feel they no longer belong to our species."
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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
The richest man owns X. The second richest man owns The Washington Post. The third and fifth richest men control Google. The sixth richest man owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. And the eighth richest man now owns both Paramount and Warner Bros. See the problem here?
bbc.com
Paramount takes over Warner Bros in $110bn Hollywood merger
The merger of two of Hollywood's biggest movie studios comes after months of legal disputes and concern over competition
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Jeff Loeb @jdloeb.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Nihilism misunderstands the Clearing 
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ken @chumulu.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
"To hope is to give yourself to the future, and that commitment to the future makes the present inhabitable" -- Rebecca Solnit
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ken @chumulu.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
"... history, which was a forgery anyway, might as well be the Playground-of-Crackpots, must be added the terrible, demoralizing fascination in the possibility that gigantic lies and monstrous falsehoods can eventually be established as unquestioned facts" -- Hannah Arendt (1951)
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ken @chumulu.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
"The knowledge of knowledge compels. It compels us to adopt an attitude of permanent vigilance against the temptation-of-certainty" -- Maturana and Varela
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ken @chumulu.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, There is a field. I'll meet you there" -- Rumi
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Fando Fonts @fandofonts.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Esto del @doctorow.pluralistic.net explica muchos de los problemas que tenemos hoy día con pa vivienda y con muchas cosas más: la primacía del derecho de la propiedad sobre el resto de los derechos
"Property" is the established catechism of the Church of Late-Stage Capitalism.
"Property" is the most sacrosanct right in public orthodoxy, elevated above every other right. My property right lets me destroy perfectly good food while you starve outside my door:
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Dr. Damien P. Williams, dread portent down from a mountain cave @wolven.blacksky.app · 26/03/2025
The number of people who somehow still, in this day and age, seem to fully believe that they are immune to propaganda, marketing, or other psychological influence and will never ever be duped or otherwise convinced to believe or maybe even Do a silly thing is honestly just astounding to me.
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Anthony Moser @anthonymoser.com · 21/09/2026
8. often, when people say LLMs "can do" something they mean LLMs can produce output that looks like the output of doing something 9. producing something that looks like the output of doing something is not the same thing as doing it
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Anthony Moser @anthonymoser.com · 21/09/2026
7. "some people find LLMs useful" is a different claim than any of the following: a) LLMs are good at doing the things people use them for b) LLMs are well suited to the tasks for which they are advertised c) LLMs "can do" something
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Neil Turkewitz @neilturkewitz.bsky.social · 26/07/2025
“When we think these systems capture something deep about ourselves & our thinking, we induce distorted & impoverished images of ourselves & our cognition.” —@irisvanrooji.bsky.social AGI isn’t a beautiful dream. It’s an insult…and a threat. A perversion of what it means to be human.
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ebisback.bsky.social @ebisback.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Nailed it 💥
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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The challenges we face must be met by a bold progressive populist movement that strengthens democracy and shakes up the system. We can’t simply return to the path we were on before Trump. We cannot allow Big Money to dominate our politics and economy. And we cannot capitulate to the oligarchy.
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The Shallow State @ourshallowstate.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
A SAD, MALIGNANT, DELUSIONAL CONMAN AND FRAUD ... No integrity; No compassion; No empathy; No shame; No conscience; No courage; No character; No humanity; No morality; No manners; No respect; No music; No books; No happiness; No love; No friends; No honor. Not even a dog.
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Jeff Loeb @jdloeb.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I lack the ancient incantations to hand over the servers to the raccoons today, but the sentiment is a wonderful reminder: true flourishing (sustainment) isn't about running the machinery faster—it's about knowing when to let the moss take it back.
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Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
This is why I have now embraced my unadulterated, cringe-worthy, faith and belief in the truly unique ability of humans to be humans and to express their humanity in art and self-reflection. And I include all humanities disciplines in the “self-reflection” part.
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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I don’t normally write about what ails me because I can’t imagine anything more boring for you to read. But I decided to tell you something about my health today that I’ve never before revealed because I want to help dispel some of the stigma attached to a condition I’ve had.
robertreich.substack.com
Subject to Fits
My epilepsy
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Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Lights or witness the birth of a new animal imbue these events with meaning,” he adds. “They may also drive you to look better after our environment—by volunteering your time, donating or voting for climate-friendly parties.”
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Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
findings show that merely providing scientific facts is not the best way to communicate on climate-related issues—you need to connect with people.” says co-author Tobias Brosch, a psychologist at the University of Geneva. “The emotions you feel when you watch a nature documentary, see the Northern
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Jeff Loeb @jdloeb.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Hmmm…I think the purpose of a system (involving people) is the promises it makes and keeps.
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Ursula K. Le Guin Bot @leguinbot.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Outside the locked room is the landscape of time, in which the spirit may, with luck and courage, construct the fragile, makeshift, improbable roads and cities of fidelity: a landscape inhabitable by human beings.
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The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 07/09/2026
Today, people are optimizing life “as though living were another job. Too many of us seem to be maxxing our way out of the experiences and perspectives that give us maximum meaning,” Ian Bogost argues. He explores how finding wonder might be the antidote: theatln.tc/lpdDX5Kq
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A.R. Moxon @juliusgoat.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
"Why should my tax dollars go to giving houses to people who can't afford them?" Why should MY tax dollars should go to satisfying your desire to see desperate people living desperate lives? I'd rather save money and solve the problem, rather than spend money to exacerbate it.
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Ursula K. Le Guin Bot @leguinbot.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
We men dream dreams, we work magic, we do good, we do evil. The dragons do not dream. They are dreams. They do not work magic: it is their substance, their being. They do not do; they are.
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Alex Steffen @alexsteffen.bsky.social · 21/12/2022
The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry
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Kevin Elliott @kjephd.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
If one can't get through Arendt's Origins of Totalitarianism for this point, here's my brief treatment of the argument, under the heading of fascism: www.liberalcurrents.com/yes-its-fasc...
liberalcurrents.com
Yes, It's Fascism
It’s not an omen or threat or hint of fascism—it’s the thing itself.
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Mark Hamill @markhamillofficial.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
It doesn’t get any cuter than this, folks. 😍
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Dr. Damien P. Williams, dread portent down from a mountain cave @wolven.blacksky.app · 29/08/2026
…that means that YOU CANNOT PROMPT ENGINEERING YOUR WAY OUT OF THE FUNDAMENTAL ARCHITECTURE OF THESE SYSTEMS. They are GOING to output bullshit, because they are Bullshit Engines.
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Nolen Gertz @ethicistforhire.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
AI can improve student learning only by forcing students to become awakened to the essence of AI as the challenging-forth that reigns supreme in the modern era and that reduces not just assignments but the students themselves to nothing but mere standing-reserve...
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Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
the thing is like public health child literacy civil rights social justice rural poverty once you personally have become rich and successful, those things only matter if you still have the capacity to care deeply about people outside your immediate circle and that is harder than becoming rich
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Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Questions that cease to be interesting or even well-formed from the perspective of current research may well look interesting and sensible to those outside the field. Old answers to them may be congenial to various political projects or ideological agendas. That’s always been so; it changes nothing.
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Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
refuting every claim anybody makes is not in fact how science, or any discipline, works discarding approaches that have proven fruitless or wrongheaded, not stopping to re-litigate them every time someone digs up a junk data set or a retracted article they wish were true, is how disciplines move
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Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
A systematic deconstruction and critique of JD Vance's latest campaign speech, which is described as false and irreconcilable with Christian doctrine. No beating around the bush here. www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news...
vaticannews.va
The Hour of Responsibility - Vatican News
The words of Pope Leo XIV at the Meeting in Rimini and his call for the authentic realism of mercy against the false realism that would have us rearm
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Jeff Loeb @jdloeb.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
“There is therefore a need for courageous pioneers who will commit themselves concretely to freeing human coexistence from suspicion, work from the idolatry of profit, and technology and finance from the business of death.”
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Anonymous @youranoncentral.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
You absolutely do not have to meet Republicans or MAGA down middle on any issue, fuck them. Push for what you as an opposition need and don’t give them an inch. Stall the government indefinitely if you have too. Better to freeze the process than allow injustice and fascism room to grow.
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Ursula K. Le Guin Bot @leguinbot.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
The end justifies the means. But what if there never is an end? All we have is means.
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Ian Coldwater 🧊🚫 @lookitup.baby · 22/08/2026
“Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.” Frank Herbert, Dune
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Saganism @sagan.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
“Our death is not an end if we can live on in our children and the younger generation. For they are us; our bodies are only wilted leaves on the tree of life.” — Albert Einstein
A black and white photograph of Albert Einstein smiling and sitting with three young girls in an outdoor setting with foliage and a wooden railing in the background.
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Jeff Loeb @jdloeb.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Optimist: The cup is half full Pessimist: The cup is half empty Heidegger: “The cup is a gathering of the fourfold whose true essence resides in the emptiness that holds.”
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Hagen Blix @hagenblix.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
The better AI gets, the more (and more subtle) AI psychoses we're gonna see, especially among intellectually inclined people. Not because the machines make you insane, but because it's becoming painfully obvious that sanity isn't just an individual-level property, but something social, ...
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Martyn @martynpedler.com · 19/08/2026
"I have to be blunt here: Our critics are really fucking stupid, and we’ve given them way too much leeway to conjure senile fantasies out of their own illiteracy. We need to stop taking their trolling in good faith, and we need to stop apologizing for our work."
defector.com
Humanists Have Done Nothing Wrong | Defector
For many years, I’ve held a pet theory that cultural consumers can be grouped into two broad categories: Primary Source People and Secondary Source People. The former are the book lovers, cinephiles, ...
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Damon Young @damonyoung.com.au · 16/08/2026
The Loebs: alternative view.
A stack of red hardback books in front of a wall of books
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Hagen Blix @hagenblix.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Engaging on their terms is to already help them win. The fascists may be playing. Tthey are, and I think this is crucial, having fun with this - pleasure and cruelty are deeply connected here. But they are engaging in a war. And letting your enemy chose the terrain is always a losing move. 4/4
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Hagen Blix @hagenblix.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
The point of fascist discourse is *not having to defend what you mean*. Instead, you force the other side to articulate what you mean for you. Even if they disagree, they have no legitimized the insinuated point as a question of debate, one that "reasonable people can disagree on". 3/
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Fiona Tribe @fionatribe.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
It’s almost as if the environment they’re in isn’t the problem. The focus on the individual when it comes to interventions, whether it’s on a ship, in a home, at a workplace, or up a tree continues to make me rage.
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Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 14/08/2026
"Living through a global resurgence of fascism, the greatest difficulty has proved to be not arguing against it, but convincing non-fascists that fascism’s adherents really mean it. That they believe what they are telling us they believe—and they will act accordingly."
liberalcurrents.com
Fascists Really Believe It
Millions could die because of ideas intellectually and morally equivalent to the ‘lizard people’ conspiracy theory.
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Brendan Keogh @brkeogh.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
I know I'm doing this a boringly cliche amount of times lately but I'm just endlessly struck by how apt all of Marx's comments on capitalism and technology are to current generative AI discourse. Both in the sense that 1) Dude knew what he was talking about and 2) it's still just capitalism.
"At the same time that factory work exhausts the nervous system to the uttermost, it does away with the many-sided play of the muscles, and confiscates every atom of freedom, both in bodily and intellectual activity. [105] The lightening of the labour, even, becomes a sort of torture, since the machine does not free the labourer from work, but deprives the work of all interest. Every kind of capitalist production, in so far as it is not only a labour-process, but also a process of creating surplus-value, has this in common, that it is not the workman that employs the instruments of labour, but the instruments of labour that employ the workman. But it is only in the factory system that this inversion for the first time acquires technical and palpable reality. By means of its conversion into an automaton, the instrument of labour confronts the labourer, during the labour-process, in the shape of capital, of dead labour, that dominates, and pumps dry, living labour-power. The separation of the intellectual powers of production from the manual labour, and the conversion of those powers into the might of capital over labour, is, as we have already shown, finally completed by modern industry erected on the foundation of machinery."
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