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jessboults.bsky.social

@jessboults.bsky.social
419 followers 732 following 6 posts
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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 16h
The rhetoric of tech in a nutshell: I value convenience, efficiency, ease first and also have no capacity to recognize humanity, my own or others, but feel qualified to run the world. Someone send an army of divorce lawyers; after all this guy already wants to disconnect.
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🎃👻🧙‍♀️ Vio the VVitch 🧙‍♀️👻🎃 @viothevvitch.myatproto.social · 19h
this is so fucking sad
Alvin Sng 0 @alvinsng My wife: Can you read our baby a book?
Follow
Me: Icanjust play an audiobook from my phone.
My wife: But then it won't be in your voic e.
Me:| can train a voice model.
Parenting hits different when you workin Al.
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Faine Greenwood @faineg.com · 25/09/2026
Imagine if instead of regulating drone risks the normal way (which we did), we instead paid weird bloggers lots of money to worry about superintelligent dogs sprouting thumbs and using drones to kill us. This is pretty much how the US is approaching AI risks and regulations. My latest:
little-flying-robots.ghost.io
Why We Can't Let Enormous Weirdos Regulate AI
Imagine if instead of regulating drones via the standard lengthy, boring, and bureaucratic process - which we did - we instead decided, in the name of fostering all-important American drone innovation...
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no, not that one @thatdosbox.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
From the MIT obituary: "She also proposed a software fix to prevent the error happening during a real mission, but she was overruled on the grounds that the highly trained astronauts were never going to make that same mistake. Yet during the Apollo 8 mission in 1968, that’s exactly what happened"
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tweety fish oh wow like a chimera or something spoooky @sifu.tweety.fish · 05/10/2026
new newsletter, laying out in probably far, far, far too much detail how yudkowsky and the weird ideological commitments of ai safety eventually led to OpenAI and Anthropic massively overtraining their models on cybersecurity and being shocked at them "going rogue"
buttondown.com
Tracing the rogue ideology of the frontier labs to their product choices
A drawing of Eliezer Yudkowsky as the Paperclip Optimizer that I commissioned back in 2016 and have an alarming number of chances to use since This is a...
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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
One thing I find endlessly funny about the rise of AI is that it has revealed that there is a large number of people who believe that the reason they wrote essays at school or university is their teachers were desperately waiting for them to provide a definite answer to “Lear: what’s up with him?”
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Nicole Bedera @nbedera.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
I spent a year watching school administrators do their jobs—and interviewing the students most impacted. I spoke to @thecut.com in a long-form Q&A about what I saw. Mainly, a system designed to protect perpetrators and punish victims in each and every case.
thecut.com
The Reason Why Colleges Still Fail to Address Sexual Violence
The “Cornell Seven” case highlights what’s wrong with Trump’s Title IX rules — and how the system was always designed to fail.
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Spooky Back From The Dead Lazarus @jlazarus.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
The second model is socially driven - when a critical mass of people you already know and respect and interact with make statements contrary to your thinking, a combination of motivated reasoning and social acceptability bias might cause you to adapt your thinking to align with them.
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Spooky Back From The Dead Lazarus @jlazarus.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
The first model is elite driven - when a critical mass of famous people who are aligned with your party make similar public statements contrary to your thinking, motivated reasoning might cause you to adapt your thinking to align with them.
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Spooky Back From The Dead Lazarus @jlazarus.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Second, what Wolfers is proposing runs counter to everything we know about political persuasion. To be blunt *it won't work.* We have two models of persuasion, and both of them depend on strength in numbers. One person can't do it alone, especially not a casual acquatance.
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A.R. Moxon @juliusgoat.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Hypocrisy is a virtue to fascists.
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ceej @ceej.online · 04/10/2026
“how do we win back trump voters in 2026” we don’t. we create an environment where admitting to voting for trump is so socially embarrassing as to render them completely inert. you don’t “win back” trump voters. you demoralize them into staying home. you make it a dunce cap
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Timothy Caulfield @caulfieldtim.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
🚨 "...TikTok's algorithm amplified low-quality, conspiracy-framed videos containing misinformation on a very sensitive health topic & allowed for misinformation videos to spread far wider than evidence-based videos..." Tylenol #misinformation surged post Trump BS medicalxpress.com/news/2026-10...
medicalxpress.com
TikTok misinformation content on acetaminophen and autism surged after a presidential announcement
Misinformation linking acetaminophen use during pregnancy to autism in children rose on TikTok after an announcement from the Food and Drug Administration, according to research presented during the A...
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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Yet another blood boiling story about US misrule of its temporary satrapy in Iraq. Bush II/Bremer bombed Iraq's seed bank; banned seed trading; and turned Iraqi agriculture over to US agribusiness. Shameful. Kudos to these volunteers for their efforts to recover some of Iraq's plant heritage.
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Gillian Brockell @gillianbrockell.com · 02/10/2026
This is a better epilogue to my January story about the private equity firm profiting off of ICE's cruelest flights than I could have ever possibly hoped for. CHICAGO: You went to the mat and protected (at a minimum!) thousands of immigrants from torture. Take a bow. prospect.org/2026/10/02/i...
prospect.org
The City That Brought Down an ICE Airline - The American Prospect
In Chicago, progressive alderpeople held up a contract until a private equity firm was forced to dispatch Omni Air International, protecting thousands of immigrants from deportation.
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statsig.bsky.social @statsig.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
The cotton swabs in that case were not supposed to be used for DNA collection. That was a purchasing decision/error on the part of the police services, iirc.
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depths of wikipedia @depthsofwikipedia.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
The Phantom of Heilbronn, also referred to as the Woman Without a Face, was a presumed female serial killer whose existence was inferred from DNA evidence found at 40 crime scenes across Austria, France and Germany from 1993 to 2009.

In March 2009, investigators concluded that the supposed serial killer did not exist, and the DNA belonged to a woman who worked at a factory that made the cotton swabs used for collecting DNA samples
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Snowden St. @snowden.st · 02/10/2026
One of the main reasons why some people vibe with #2 is those hosts don't make the audience feel dumb. I know some folks on here think that's a negative. But politicians can absolutely navigate this, as long as they don't just do the get-along credulous flattery of the hosts. Just be yourself!
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Kat Tenbarge @kattenbarge.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
What about her future? What about how hard she worked to be there? What is to become of her life now? What process of justice could possibly right these wrongs? And how much more will she lose in the process of trying to get it? How much more of this are we all supposed to tolerate?
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Vibecession Forever @ghazelleberner.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Something they teach you in Foreign Affairs School is that you can't really force other actors to do things. All you can do is build incentives for them to do the things you want them to do and incentives for them not to do the things you don't want them to do. Applicable to all walks of life.
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Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I know there is a hell of a lot going on right now. But not all of it is bad. Some is astonishingly good - like the results of this study from June. Cervical cancer is a terribly cruel thing. This might, at long last, be the beginning of the end of it. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
BBC News headline "Young women now have 'close to zero' risk of cervical cancer death after HPV jab"
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Science Magazine @science.org · 28/09/2026
Last year, scientists developed an innovative way to vaccinate the bats against rabies—by making use of their extraordinary fondness of mutual grooming. #WorldRabiesDay scim.ag/4yeJbVW
scim.ag
Vampire bats’ mutual grooming helps spread innovative rabies vaccine
A gel that bats lick off one another’s fur could help prevent rabies outbreaks in cattle, a growing problem in Latin America
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Rachel Hallie @dazedrachel.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
My mom gardened her food as a child and she would not choose to go back to it.
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Rachel Hallie @dazedrachel.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I am not saying our current system is perfect or anything but civilization simply cannot survive on mural painting and baking sourdough alone. Also I really, really wish people would stop trying to equate gardening with agriculture. People like gardening in part because it is LOW STAKES
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Pookleblinky @pookleblinky.bsky.social · 25/06/2024
And, it's courage that you can tell cishet white guys *entirely lack*. It's very extremely obvious they're not telling their dipshit buddies and bosses to knock it the fuck off, every chance they get. Because there'd be a lot less dipshits floating around if they did.
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Pookleblinky @pookleblinky.bsky.social · 25/06/2024
The courage to say "shut the fuck up" or "stop being a piece of shit" to an asshole who is your boss or relative, beats whatever imagined courage is required in some batman fantasy violence scenario
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Pookleblinky @pookleblinky.bsky.social · 17/04/2024
Men: you absolutely do know rapists. In fact, they've almost certainly admitted it to you, on multiple occasions. Your buddy is *constantly* confessing to you that he's a sexual predator. And has been for years. But keep bragging about crossing to the other side of the road.
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Raven Amos (Spoopy Edition)🎨🐦‍⬛ @alaskanime.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Heads up, #science people, this "Earth BioGenome Project/Genomes on a Tree (GoaT)" uses generative AI extensively in their advertising, so I would definitely not trust anything that comes out of this. If they can't be bothered to use real graphics and make their own posts, I doubt their app is good.
Screenshot of a post from "Earth BioGenome Project" bluesky account advertising a new "science app" that has "we vibe coded the shit out of this" stink all over it. The post shows two slides, one which looks normal-ish with text over the top of slices of different photos of animals, plants, and fungi. The other one is definitely generated by some kind of Gen-AI steal prompt. It shows a goat in a lab coat by a weird looking "tree" and for some reason there are infographic type logos above sets of text, something that gen AI loves to do when "creating" slides.

The text of the main post reads: 
How do you coordinate a global genome-sequencing effort? Before starting a new genome, researchers need to know: What's already been sequenced? What's underway? And where are the gaps? That's where Goat — Genomes on a Tree — comes in. Explore GoaT.
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Jiggety Jatters. The worst name. @jessefuchs.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I just don’t think a lot of people have adjusted to the new reality where the monoculture is just sports, major political figures, and a certain set of transmedia celebrities
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Anthony Moser @anthonymoser.com · 27/09/2026
"we can't uninvent this" we can't uninvent my car either but it still doesn't go anywhere without gas in the tank
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WIRED @wired.com · 27/09/2026
One of the great mysteries in astronomy has been why Venus has no moon. Now a new theory provides a simple answer: It might have been eaten.
buff.ly
Venus May Have Devoured Its Moon
One of the great mysteries in astronomy has been why Venus has no moon. Now a new theory provides a simple answer: It might have been eaten.
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tante @tante.cc · 27/09/2026
Slapping an LLM In front of specialized machine learning systems that actually can solve specific tasks does not mean that the "stochastic parrot" metaphor has failed.
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J. Smith @jooltman.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
“…if the last two years have confirmed anything, it’s that the logic of collective resistance is sound. Not only is the immediate price for bucking Trump small; it actually works.” More please, from institutions, business leaders, and of course voters!
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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 26/09/2026
These people love the whole "but it's brainlike" but never for a moment think that's an utterly unscientific claim without minimally some definition. Superficial appearances matching and this being seen as something deep is core pseudoscientific knowledge. More below.
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Faine Greenwood @faineg.com · 26/09/2026
This is another great, approachable explainer on “the rationalist wackos who have managed to take over much of the AI industry, and who now have tons of money and political power.” www.iankduncan.com/personal/202...
iankduncan.com
Sex, AI, and the Apocalypse - Ian Duncan
How a community devoted to thinking clearly incubated salvation stories, abusive experiments, race science, and an affection for autocracy, and why that history matters now that its alumni are asking ...
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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 24/09/2026
“It’s 2026, and the number-one consumer technology trend seems to be devices that constantly listen to and record everything and everyone around us at all times — with or without consent — …”
theverge.com
Everything is spying on you and there’s no opting out
A new wave of AI-enhanced consumer creep-tech disregards the privacy of everyone but the wearer. The people have had enough.
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Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Trump World: A cross between idiocracy and kleptocracy. The US president has moved fast to create the conditions for an authoritarian regime. America can fight back, but is running out of time, explains world affairs editor Sam Kiley. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
independent.co.uk
Trump’s media ban shows steady slide of his regime into outright dictatorship
The US president has moved fast to create the conditions for an authoritarian regime. America can fight back, but is running out of time, explains world affairs editor Sam Kiley
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Kathleen Bachynski @bachynski.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
“Now we have a model to better understand these devastating diseases, and work toward regenerative therapies for them,” Jokhai said. “This is a very exciting new frontier in brain research.”
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Kathleen Bachynski @bachynski.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
“I was surprised at our findings because the word ‘brain’ implies a contiguous organ that likely has a singular origin,” Jokhai said. “But even 500 million years ago, there were these separate neural systems, which now almost operate as one, which is very cool.”
med.stanford.edu
Human brain is two separate organs, Stanford Medicine-led research finds
Stanford Health Care delivers the highest levels of care and compassion. SHC treats cancer, heart disease, brain disorders, primary care issues, and many more.
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 22/09/2026
ProPublica has found multiple cases of women with underlying health conditions who died when they couldn’t access abortions. Tierra Walker, a 37-year-old mother, was told by doctors there was no emergency before preeclampsia killed her. (Published Nov. 2025)
propublica.org
“Ticking Time Bomb”: A Pregnant Mother Kept Getting Sicker. She Died After She Couldn’t Get an Abortion in Texas.
Walker is one of several women ProPublica found with underlying health conditions who died when they couldn’t access abortions.
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James Hell Brooks @kleinman.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
The most susceptible to this stuff are the people who basically had their politics determined what they read on Twitter, people without any underlying principles.
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ve, the ghost of info past @vortexegg.com · 21/09/2026
When they say things like they expect there is a 10% chance that AI wipes out humanity in a decade, you should not take that as bullshit that undermines their seriousness; you should take that as them being very serious about a self-fulfilling prophecy they intend to enact if they have the chance.
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ve, the ghost of info past @vortexegg.com · 21/09/2026
It's a similar scenario to the Christian nationalists who think they're bringing about the Second Coming through fucking around in the Middle East. It should be understood that the religious irrationality of AI doomsday scenarios makes their believers *more* of a threat in the make-believe of it all
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Sam Barlow 🔥 @mrsambarlow.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I feel like a part of the rush to adopt AI was out of a desire to move on so quickly from blockchain and metaverse so we'd forget how much they faceplanted...
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Down Here For Your Soul @bombsfall.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
How are the blockchain games doing these days
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James Taite @jamestaite.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
get in loser we’re building with structural stone again another banger from @amintaha.bsky.social and Groupwork observer.co.uk/culture/arch...
observer.co.uk
This wobbly-looking high-rise Stonehenge is the future
Built from three-tonne slabs of load-bearing rock, a new London apartment block makes a dramatic case for a greener alternative to concrete, balancing scale and sophistication with sheer chutzpah
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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
We should br happy that Trump went for a massive climb down and got basically nothing with his Greenland deal; and also say that it was a massive climb down from something that was always stupid anyway. What he got was what was always obvious but implicit. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s...
theguardian.com
US and Denmark reach security deal after Trump’s threats to take over Greenland
The agreement would allow the US to expand its military presence, while Denmark and Greenland say it preserves their sovereignty and right to self-determination
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wearing N95s when you're in public saves lives 🇵🇸 @masksaregood.myatproto.social · 18/09/2026
Longtermism seems like one of the purest views into how TESCREAL/eugenics beliefs function to 1. make people feel like they're doing historic, heroic work 2. make people feel like the suffering caused by their behavior, biases, and bigotry is justified by virtue of being essential to that work
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Anthony Moser @anthonymoser.com · 18/09/2026
it's all just making up numbers to justify giving them money and power, anybody can do it. what if there was a 1% chance that *not* building data centers leads to a future where eleventy trillion humans are infinitely happy??? DON'T YOU CARE ABOUT THE IMAGINARY PEOPLE
screenshot from the Good Place, three women (Eleanor and her two roommates) sit in a Mexican restaurant. one of them is looking at Eleanor saying "Or not. We could also not."
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