iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

JWB @jwbsalevi.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Ai is more like a digestive system than a Mind. It's not Artificial Intelligence, it's complex, multi-system, data processing that produces some useful outputs, and a lot of slop. It's all about reprocessing and extracting value (and crap) from what is ingested. Do your bowels "understand" cookies?

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JWB @jwbsalevi.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Instead of thinking of AI systems as "minds", we'd be better off thinking of them as digestive systems for data that can produce quite a bit of useful stuff, and endless shit.

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JWB @jwbsalevi.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Because they don't do "reality". Regurgitating data is way easier. If the data is word patterns, they can sound clever and convince idiots they're "superintelligences" that "understand" stuff. If the data is code, they can have "agency". But reality is messy edge cases all the way down. Too hard.

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JWB @jwbsalevi.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Unlike the bullshit term "AI", "large language model" is "load bearing", as Claude insists on babbling. So can we just agree that it isn't ideas, or understanding, or minds, or reality that's being modeled, it's patterns in cribbed language? That's where the "intelligence" is. The rest is noise.

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JWB @jwbsalevi.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I suspect that being accused of anti-semitism for being anti-zionist and anti-Netanyahu also fuels "anti-semitism". The fact is: nuanced views on Israel are possible, but they're not popular - online at least.

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JWB @jwbsalevi.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

2011 for me. Shook my (remaining) faith in human nature. I mean wtf?

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JWB @jwbsalevi.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Once heard a dad on a beach in the U.K. yell "Shut up you fucking c..." to his 4-year-old daughter. Still haven't gotten over it.

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JWB @jwbsalevi.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Life in the flooded zone means only satire can call attention to the truth. The platforms are hitting a capability wall, so they want to build a fake wall and call it "safety". More bugs being sold as features.

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JWB @jwbsalevi.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

So. Is this stop me before I kill again? Or is it maybe stop me before investors see through my bullshit?

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JWB @jwbsalevi.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I was curious about how "douchebag" has evolved over time in popular media, so I looked it up. "Douche", apparently, now denotes "male with over-inflated ego, vanity, aggressive entitlement, and a profound lack of self-awareness tied to cluelessness about how others see them." Remind you of anyone?

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JWB @jwbsalevi.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

They buried the lede: "Mr. Trump’s eldest sons are ... board members of Dominari Holdings, which has invested in Powerus, a Florida-based drone maker. Donald Trump Jr. also sits on the advisory board of Unusual Machines, the top manufacturer of drone components in the United States."

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JWB @jwbsalevi.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

"[Trump] is following in the grand tradition of American leaders starting wars with people they don’t understand, then wondering what went wrong."

nytimes.com

Opinion | Canada Said No to America. It Will Reverberate Far Beyond Its Borders.

Mark Carney has chosen suffering, but he did what Canadians elected him to do.

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JWB @jwbsalevi.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Trump wants the benefits of being a reliable ally, a good president, a successful businessman, and a likeable human without being any of those things. And he gets away with it. He is, however, definitive proof that the American political system is broken.

cbc.ca

Trump says Canada 'wants the benefits' of being a U.S. state in his 1st comments since trade talks broke down | CBC News

In his first comments since trade talks broke down, President Donald Trump said Canada "wants the benefits" of being a U.S. state "without being one." The president's brief post on his Truth Social pl...

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JWB @jwbsalevi.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

tldr: feedback is good.

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JWB @jwbsalevi.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Nostalgia isn't what it used to be...

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JWB @jwbsalevi.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

I'd like this to be true. But let's be clear on which specific skills will help. To start: 1. an ability to pay attention to the real environment 2. robust bullshit detection 3. sensitivity to subtle changes in one's own abilities and behavior. Otherwise the tech will keep reshaping us in its image.

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JWB @jwbsalevi.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

It's worth asking if this is indeed who they actually are, or if it's just that X's algorithm gives them plenty of incentives to behave like Asshats. I suspect a fair number of these "separatists" are just attention starved narcissists - as are Nigel Farage and DJT. Not one Rene Levesque in sight.

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JWB @jwbsalevi.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

Old people don't run (or ruin) America, capital does. Age limits would be a band-aid: you'd just end up with 50-year-old billionaire-backed politicians, instead of 70-year-old ones.

writing.yaschamounk.com

Samuel Moyn on Why Old People Are Ruining America

Yascha Mounk and Sam Moyn also discuss whether some people deserve to have more votes than others.

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JWB @jwbsalevi.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

on must have priorities. But did soap bars somehow disappear while I wasn't looking?

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JWB @jwbsalevi.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

Watching Apple Keynote for the first time in years. Very cool how they're automating dystopia and making it so convenient. With Apple AI none of us will have to waste consuming time thinking or doing boring, slow interactions with reality! Not available in the EU! Siri, plan my move to France.

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JWB @jwbsalevi.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

While the rest of us think it's joke this guy is leading Ontario.

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JWB @jwbsalevi.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

If anyone is destroying the topless towers of western civilization, it isn't Lupita N'yongo's lovely Helen; it's the gigantic collective savagery of Musk, Trump and their tribe of racist, barbarous, cannibalistic Laestrygonians. Homer knew what he was talking about.

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JWB @jwbsalevi.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

The great Lise Doucette hosts BBC Newshour and covers the Venice Biennale and The Booker Prize in the culture segment. Refreshing change from the usual obsession with obscure music.

bbc.co.uk

BBC World Service - Newshour - Available now

Available episodes of Newshour

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JWB @jwbsalevi.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

It's like when you're at home, and you staple baloney to your forehead. I hate when that happens.

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JWB @jwbsalevi.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Saw this at HotDocs in Toronto last night. Overall a useful watch that gives some context for the general public. But I wish they had addressed the actual workings, limitations and rampant plagiarism of the tech, rather than focusing so much on how the people in charge can be assholes.

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JWB @jwbsalevi.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

So THAT's what the kids are all saying! Six-Seven, Six-Seven is just chat slang for 86-47. Guess they're going to have to arrest everyone under 12 in America.

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JWB @jwbsalevi.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

At the very least, AI is weaponizing the Bullshit Industrial Complex.

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JWB @jwbsalevi.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

This probably suits Trump just fine. The American right loves doing business with military dictatorships. See Franco, Stroessner, Ayub Khan, Park, Mobutu, Suharto, Idi Amin, Marcos, Pinochet, Zia, Saddam, Mubarak, Musharraf, Sisi. Not to mention the Shah.

reuters.com

Iran's Guards seize wartime power, weakening Supreme Leader's role

Iran no longer has a single, undisputed clerical arbiter at the pinnacle of power — an abrupt break with the past that may be hardening Tehran’s stance as it weighs renewed talks with Washington.

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JWB @jwbsalevi.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

That was HenryVII, if I'm not mistaken. The Vikings called it Vinland (wine land) which is pretty aspirational. John Cabot called it Terra Primum Vista, which is understandable after a long, speculative sea voyage. No one knows what the aboriginal Beothuk called it. I think "The Rock" rocks.

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JWB @jwbsalevi.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

It really does depend where you look. You can always read Middlemarch.

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JWB @jwbsalevi.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

Have genuine subject experts contribute to designing the curriculum, by all means. But what primary and secondary school students need in the classroom is not experts who teach, but experts at teaching.

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JWB @jwbsalevi.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

No one has "cracked AI" though a few have hyped it more successfully than Apple.

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JWB @jwbsalevi.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

Every time he opens his fat mouth we should raise the DST. Probably the best thing for everyone in the long run.

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JWB @jwbsalevi.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

A toddler asking for another story is one of the very best things in life, enjoy it while you can. If you're especially lucky, as I am, they'll be writing stories when they're 14.

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JWB @jwbsalevi.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

On the bright side, by the time your 4-year-old is old enough to vote, the presidential candidate is more likely to be an AI porn star than JD Vance.

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JWB @jwbsalevi.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

Not entirely in good company though.

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JWB @jwbsalevi.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Tradition and shamelessness. No other reason. On the other hand, why do the Guardian's editorial offices have so many great women?

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JWB @jwbsalevi.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Ironically, these guys have done more damage to the self worth of white men than anyone. It's just embarrassing being an older white dude nowadays. Cavemen were surely better on average. Where do you send garden variety assholes? Back to the daddies who gave them something stupid to prove?

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