Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialve, the ghost of info past @vortexegg.com · 17hThe widespread cultural performance of autonomized systems as having independent agency from their operators is also a form of cultural technical illiteracy; one that is incredibly dangerous for organizations and institutions to let their professional staff carry on with. 2102
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialJacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · 16hAaron Swartz, coding prodigy and hacktivist who helped develop RSS and was a co-founder of Reddit, died by suicide after facing $1 million in fines and 35 years in prison for felony charges, just for downloading pdfs of research papers with the intention of making them accessible to the public. 61124404713
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialPaul Crider @paulcrider.liberalcurrents.com · 13/10/2026This bill would abolish ICE, DHS, and CBP, transferring legitimate customs duties to other departments. It would sunset Section 219 of the INA close the Guantánamo Bay detention facility and shutter all immigration detention centers. You have my sword, milady. 6041981201
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialTruthout @truthout.org · 13/10/2026Rep. Delia C. Ramirez has introduced a bill that would abolish not just ICE, but the DHS altogether, repealing the 2002 law establishing the agency and replacing it with one focused on protecting civil and human rights.truthout.orgRep. Delia Ramirez Introduces Landmark Bill to Abolish DHS, ICE, and CBPThe Department of Homeland Security was established in 2002 as part of the Bush administration’s war on terror. 18484552108
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialEvan Bernick, a finite mode with a smol hooman and a lorg floof @evanbernick.bsky.social · 14/10/2026I am entirely serious when I say that this should be seen as a moderate position. It specifically and surgically dismantles institutions that did not exist pre-9/11 and assigns their functions much as they were assigned pre-9/11. 1354721666
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialAndy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 10/10/2026This isn't a case of abusing some loophole or misusing discretionary authority. The law is unambiguous and he's breaking it, simple as that. If Congress isn't going to do anything about breaking the law that already exists, passing another law to make it double-illegal accomplishes nothing. 191300209
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialColin @colin-fraser.net · 11/10/2026Like if the models are sOoOoO dangerous and prone to going rogue all the time and superhuman hackers and potentially misaligned, why are you letting it do anything at all without direct supervision? Why can it access a single website or execute a single line of code without human review? 51199
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialColin @colin-fraser.net · 09/10/2026Anyway it doesn't mean reward hacking isn't a real phenomenon; it just exists completely outside of the model and mostly corresponds to "model doesn't work". But it has the pleasant side effect of making it sound like the reason it doesn't work is because you actually made the model TOO smart 4334
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialAsher HELLbein @asherelbein.bsky.social · 09/10/2026But that's the thing: I don't believe that these people actually care about the ethics of AI personhood. It is because they know the robots aren't people that they feel safe wringing their hands over their personhood. Real people? Eh. They require stuff from you 08514
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialAsher HELLbein @asherelbein.bsky.social · 09/10/2026It's flatly obscene for Elon Musk to be talking about cruelty to robots when he is personally, singlehandedly and gleefully responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths. (And, not to put too fine a point on it, when he thinks nothing of dressing those robots up as sex slaves for him) 127151
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialFaine Greenwood @faineg.com · 09/10/2026nationalize everything Elon Musk owns. 742978613
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialGhostly Bree @mostlybree.kitrocha.com · 08/10/2026I'm actively enraged that everyone allows them to just go around saying this shit like they shouldn't go directly to jail for unthinkable crimes if any of it is true and also go directly to jail for unthinkable fraud if it's not. 223235
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialGhostly Bree @mostlybree.kitrocha.com · 08/10/2026I don't believe they are conscious but I also don't believe you should get to do interviews where you say "idk man our business model might be built on enslaving sentient creatures" and still get to be a business. 4772208
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialKatherine Alejandra Cross @quinnae.com · 08/10/2026To do this through a dissociative medium that already trains us to think of its contents as less real. As so much entertainment. So much content. It is not merely immoral, but the screaming, atavistic *absence* of morality--not coincidentally this defines Hegseth's entire approach to the Pentagon. 229435
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialWill Thorne @wbthorne.bsky.social · 07/10/2026What rent control features matter most? Curious about exploring the rent control literature yourself? You can try for yourself here: wbthorne.com/evidence.html 28712
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialJohn Brown’s Body @berndtpetersen.bsky.social · 07/10/2026So “why not add it to humanity’s understanding?” begs the question. A machine-checkable certificate has been added to humanity’s archive. Whether it has been added to human understanding is precisely the issue. Proof is not merely certification; mathematics is not merely a database of truths. 172
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialJohn Brown’s Body @berndtpetersen.bsky.social · 07/10/2026Mathematics is not merely a database of true propositions. It is also a human epistemic practice: proofs organize concepts, expose dependencies, supply explanations, train intuition, generate methods, and create the common intellectual ground from which further mathematics is done. 161
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialWalker Bragman @walkerbragman.bsky.social · 02/10/2026The article notes that Makary drew “strong applause” for saying “The real battle is not between left versus right. It’s between people who are lying to you and people who are trying to tell you the truth.” But that’s NOT true: The destruction of public health is a right-wing project. 1044565
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialFAIR (Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting) @fairmediawatch.bsky.social · 02/10/2026"Who Are the Houthis?": Establishment media keep asking the same question, but they aren't giving many answers. fair.org/home/corpora...fair.orgCorporate Media Don’t Understand the Houthis—and Don’t Want You to, EitherCorporate media see one thing above all that anyone needs to know about the Houthis: They are simply proxies of Iran, the West’s current favorite enemy. 065
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialEric Blair @protecttruth.bsky.social · 02/10/2026America’s biggest political problem is rightwing billionaires 122545
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialMae Nick Phra Khanong @nickjbrumfield.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Seriously just enforce normal liability for AI on the owners and so much of this shit goes away AI companies want to be treated like the hired expert when it comes to pocketing any financial flows, but like a cursory Google Search whenever it comes to liability 635097
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialKatie Martin @katie0martin.ft.com · 25/09/2026I have blamed The agents That hacked Your website And which You probably Reasonably thought I controlled Forgive me I am rich And unaccustomed To taking responsibility 6079082229
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialAnthony Moser @anthonymoser.com · 25/09/2026ai doesn't "hallucinate" it's structurally indifferent to truth ai doesn't give people "ai psychosis" it automates cult dynamics it's a bullshit engine that makes people go auto cult 615739
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialJulia Carrie Wong @joolia.bsky.social · 24/09/2026I feel like if Sam Altman was criminally charged under CFAA they would figure out a way to stop doing crimes all the time 441850
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialKetan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 24/09/2026Leaving a bomb with a timer in a building doesn't get reported as "bomb tries to blow up building", and OpenAI's employees designing an extremely clumsy, badly designed self-prompting language model hooked up to public actions that can cause harm shouldn't be reported that way either 328888
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialKevin Riggle @kevinr.free-dissociation.com · 20/09/2026One weird trick 281
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialCourtney Milan @courtneymilan.com · 19/09/2026I promise you there would be no AI alignment problem if the CEOs of AI companies faced jail time if their AI killed anyone. 31076225
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialKevin Riggle @kevinr.free-dissociation.com · 19/09/2026As Robert Tappan Morris was convicted for! 083
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialPhilip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 14/09/2026One thing that irritates me is the idea that "China" moving ahead on AI is somehow supposed to be bad for "us", as if Anthropic and OpenAI and X and Meta and Google in any way represent or are accountable to any nation. They don't serve our government, they own it. 1152
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialColin @colin-fraser.net · 12/09/2026The Bostrom story has this weird dichotomy where “intelligence” operates over this incredibly rich and nuanced space such that the AI can predict and optimize over the full open universe, but “final goals” are specified in these blunt Midas-like terms like “maximize paperclips”. 318415
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialColin @colin-fraser.net · 13/09/2026I feel like the whole “pace” thing takes this teleological view of AI progress towards some known eventual state of “superintelligence” whereas the way models act is actually highly contingent on the specific choices that the labs make, like intentionally making them carry out supply chain attacks. 39114
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialDr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 10/09/2026"Perhaps we want AI systems to be tested by independent evaluators, and for companies to be held accountable if their AI products are not safe and do not operate as intended, either due to negligence on part of the company or due to training that promotes unintended behavior." 1354
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialDr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 10/09/2026"But what if we imagine a future in which we, the public, actually have some agency and get a say in what kind of AI we want in our lives? What would we want to happen?" 2386
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialKaitlin Is Just Getting Started @gothamgirlblue.com · 07/09/2026You can tell this is true because when Michelle Obama made healthy eating and exercise her issue as First Lady, this same movement failed to coalesce around her and in fact she met a ton of resistance from the same people who made RFK Jr possible 203089716
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialAndréa Ros @apocalypsecarousel.bsky.social · 02/09/2026Mamdani bans AI from the classroom. Beginning this fall, the nation's largest public school system will impose a 1-year moratorium on student-facing generative AI from 2-K-8th grade, covering more than half-million grade school children. Companion chatbots will be banned for students of ALL ages. 239988
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialAndrew Lilley Brinker @alilleybrinker.com · 31/08/2026Hey @1password.bsky.social, time to change course.alilleybrinker.com1Password Supports the Ethnic Cleansing of Europe — Andrew Lilley Brinker1Password has committed $300,000 to Omarchy. This is unacceptable and must be rescinded. 551525622
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialNash @radiodeadair.com · 29/08/2026Nope. There is no animus. You're playing with an automated algorithm that's being assigned too many privileges with outcomes based on probability. That's like "shit I lost control of this giant bolder I was rolling down a crowded street, it must be magic." 231057301
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialjon ben-menachem @jbenmenachem.com · 26/08/2026just wild that every large US university was doing mccarthy redux, islamophobia flavor, and these people were silent. a white supremacist postdoc in europe gets suspended? TO ARMS, MEN! 07720
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.social☀️ Jon Schwarz ☀️ @schwarz.bsky.social · 27/08/2026"This unfortunate race...have by their unexpected desertion & ferocious barbarities justified extermination" That was Thomas Jefferson. It's funny/"funny" how US rhetoric about American Indians was exactly the same as Israeli rhetoric about Palestinians. founders.archives.gov/documents/Je... 0166
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialTim Price @timprice.bsky.social · 25/08/2026I would never say clanker because that is giving these things too much credit for having a physical existence with which to make noise 273028
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialellie lockhart (she/they) @eleanor.lockhart.contact · 25/08/2026and I'll also admit that the past decade has actually just been very convenient for me as an empiricist-by-the-long-way-round, in the sense that the questions I was worried wouldn't find empirical validation, around homosexuality/gender identity, have generally (not universally) > 1131
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialellie lockhart (she/they) @eleanor.lockhart.contact · 25/08/2026and that wasn't nearly as clear that it would be the case in 2010, which is why when I studied the quant side of things I always mentally had a foot in the qual side because I really was worried about "what if the truths I uncover with numbers lead to bad places" & that wasn't based in *nothing* 1111
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialellie lockhart (she/they) @eleanor.lockhart.contact · 25/08/2026but at the same time, the current turn toward slopulism is *really bad* and the ways in which it's turning antisemitic (and honestly, anti-trans - a lot of the TERF stuff used to justify harmful laws is grounded in badly manipulated data) vindicates my old mentor's warnings about anti-empiricism 0163
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialflyingrodent @flyingrodent.bsky.social · 07/08/2026Britain’s tiny gaggle of hooting mad elite cranks, who all know each other and relentlessly repeat each other’s idiotic bullshit, are of course not “victims of social contagion”. 351399298
Reposted by @jhirwin.bsky.socialPieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 22/08/20267. It was in this context she said that *if* department members thought they saw grounds for complaints, they should use existing procedures within the university and follow university regulations. Again with the emphasis not do to stupid things extra-institutionally 1102