kai @kaiq.bsky.social · 04/10/2026the trellis/garden/gardener metaphor is great because it’s beautiful and actually less anthropomorphic than the bird metaphor. rather, it puts agency in the right place (with the gardener)! 100
kai @kaiq.bsky.social · 04/10/2026basically perfect metaphor for neural networks / LLMs by a guy who really knows ball 100
Reposted by kairax ‘levon honkers’ king @raxkingisdead.bsky.social · 02/10/2026i wrote about the rule my friend and i have: we call each other to cry and scream and rend our garments in moments of agony, but at the end of every such conversation, we have to tell each other a joke www.patreon.com/raxkingisdea... 117115
kai @kaiq.bsky.social · 30/09/2026there are so many ways to disagree! See Ava Kofman’s amazing profile of Curtis Yarvin in the New Yorker … 101
kai @kaiq.bsky.social · 30/09/2026I’m a fan of {local publication} but it’s bad practice to let writers write about their subjects with open contempt 100
Reposted by kaiA. Sophia Koepke @askoepke.bsky.social · 17/04/2026Takeaway: Models, like organisms, may perceive the world within their Umwelt (check von Uexküll: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakob_J...). We suspect future evidence will favor von Uexküll over Plato. Different models may learn rich representations of the world, just not the same one. 7/9en.wikipedia.orgJakob Johann von Uexküll - Wikipedia 141
Reposted by kaiJaz @jaz.sh · 27/09/2026Okay so I've built a new Atlas, this time it lets you explore the conversations on Bluesky over the past 7 days graphically. It should update every ~6 hours and help you navigate the information environment that exists on here. I've learned a LOT about what people do here today... atlas.jazco.devatlas.jazco.devAtlasA living map of what Bluesky is talking about: the past week's conversations, grouped into topics and regions and rebuilt every six hours. 1161425423
kai @kaiq.bsky.social · 23/09/2026the more I think about it the more the existence of foosball seems insane 000
kai @kaiq.bsky.social · 22/09/2026There needs to be a word for how a bad technology can still help you by accident, but in a way that is actually a case against the technology 25412
Reposted by kaiThe Last Visible Dog @thelastinstance.bsky.social · 11/08/2026I think this picturing is inadequate to the technical reality, and explaining why might help to clarify why I have different intuitions about what's going on. 2107
kai @kaiq.bsky.social · 13/09/2026I feel like you just need some basic technical and social foundations to have a good discussion, but maybe I’m asking too much of education…? 111
kai @kaiq.bsky.social · 13/09/2026is there anywhere with good AI discussion that is not just AI boosters/gearheads (at one extreme), or online leftists who still think AI is stuck in the “stochastic parrot” era (at the other extreme)? T_T 100
Reposted by kaiGoodnews @goodnews.computer · 04/09/2026Take a break from being depressed that everything you love is being destroyed by slop for a moment and let me tell you about the beautiful symbiotic relationship between graffiti writers, train yard workers, and model train enthusiasts. 895453545
Reposted by kaiActual names @actualnames.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Friday Hellions United States, Freedmen's Bureau Hospital and Medical Records, 1865-1872 2275
Reposted by kaiActual names @actualnames.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Ha Zingers Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1500-1971 1322
kai @kaiq.bsky.social · 09/09/2026the sequel to “conflict is not abuse” should be “being cringe is not the same as causing harm” 000
kai @kaiq.bsky.social · 09/09/2026maybe we should diversify the economy from being entirely propped up by nvidia lmao 000
kai @kaiq.bsky.social · 08/09/2026hmm for public ones I like the Oakland Review of Books Discord. maybe there’s a similar one for LA? like for Plot? other than that, a lot of mine are hyper specific to Bay Area interest / friend groups haha 010
kai @kaiq.bsky.social · 08/09/2026maybe we should fund a … microgrant program slash publicity-generating vehicle …. kind of like the Tiny Awards! High visibility and low amounts of $ involved :) 010
kai @kaiq.bsky.social · 08/09/2026Sidebar: Bluesky has so many design issues, like enabling random leftists to leave mean drive-by comments... I actually like Discord better for community because it encourages more prosocial behavior ! 110
kai @kaiq.bsky.social · 08/09/2026I actually like the model of side projects as a form of tech critique, since it is now accessible to people who are not engineers! (And presumably have more diverse ideas) 111
kai @kaiq.bsky.social · 02/09/2026That's why I feel like somewhat non-political strategies like privacy/e2ee, such as in Signal, have actually been more effective than overt praxis as a theory of change 110
kai @kaiq.bsky.social · 02/09/2026The trope (which u prob know) is that any platform custom-built for a marginalized community will not survive, whereas on a mass platform, marginalized communities can hide on infrastructure that is broadly available to everyone… (forgot who came up w this) 110
kai @kaiq.bsky.social · 02/09/2026Who is harcourt? It is really cool to hear about impact litigation as a strategy for praxis. in HCI/art I feel like there are way too many speculative futuring workshops tho… What is missing is a way to sustainably fund idealistic alternatives and get people to actually use them widely imo 110
kai @kaiq.bsky.social · 30/08/2026basically I think tech critics should be more honest with themselves, and the public, about their motivations. because as a reader I sense dishonesty and that makes me distrust their opinions 000
kai @kaiq.bsky.social · 30/08/2026as another example, literary critics don’t write blistering takedowns of every single book they review. they have positive reviews and mixed reviews. It's only in tech where you can accrue clout based on solely slamming things without contextualizing or praising … 100
kai @kaiq.bsky.social · 30/08/2026this phenomenon also seems to be pretty unique to tech. for example I've never heard of a professional medical critic, despite the United States health care system being just as problematic 200
kai @kaiq.bsky.social · 30/08/2026but like… why not just build your career on something you love??? 110
kai @kaiq.bsky.social · 30/08/2026I do find the persona of the careerist tech critic to be contradictory in an interesting way—unlike most careers, it involves building your life’s work on something you hate, while also secretly loving it enough to become intricately familiar with it and wish it were better (e.g. Ed Zitron) 110
Reposted by kaimaya goldberg-safir @roughnotes.bsky.social · 18/08/2026natalie nakase is such a good writer, here's what she just said about communication: “it is high, it is harsh, it is violent, it is direct tonight.” 1345
kai @kaiq.bsky.social · 26/08/2026I wonder if second-gen Asian American art is so computer-centric because that’s the kind of first-gen Asian who was allowed into the US 000
Reposted by kaiMatthew Kirschenbaum @mkirschenbaum.bsky.social · 25/08/2026Machine translation was the original application for the transformer. It’s the use case and benchmarking in AIAYN. 0132
kai @kaiq.bsky.social · 19/08/2026does the membership give you anything that Berkeley bowl doesn’t?? I guess cachet?? 000
Reposted by kainorvid_studies @norvid-studies.bsky.social · 26/06/2026technical people who were surprised by deep learning success going into what specifically they were surprised by, beyond "hey it works?" [separate thread for readability and linearity] 10286
Reposted by kaiMatthew Kirschenbaum @mkirschenbaum.bsky.social · 31/05/2026In a talk I’ve been giving this spring, I’ve pointed out that “the same authors who are tireless critics of the tendency to anthropomorphize large language models by way of words like ‘know’ and ‘understand’ and ‘think’ seem content to dismiss them based on their inability to ‘mean’ or ‘intend.’” + 1125
Reposted by kaiTed Underwood @tedunderwood.com · 10/06/2026Psst, buddy — fixer 4 is back, and it shipped the wire-up not the cop-out. Dodge a collision and never ride exports: the local badge scoped truthfully. 413318
kai @kaiq.bsky.social · 15/04/2026I do think some friction in technology is good, not because friction is inherently good, but because doing things more slowly actually creates more space for introspection: "am I doing the right thing?" 010
Reposted by kailoscharlos @loscharlos.bsky.social · 18/03/20266 years ago today I went on my last run (pic left) — today I’m 36 and I’ve spent my entire 30’s with #LongCovid struggling to walk up and down the block, or work more than 1-2 hours a day. Heres 4 things I never thought I’d lose at this age: 7318133
Reposted by kaiMaggie Tokuda-Hall @maggietokudahall.bsky.social · 16/03/2026It is genuinely wild that we can claim: Ryan and Zinzi Coogler Alyssa Liu Delroy Lindo Zendaya Marshawn Lynch Mahershala Ali Tom Hanks Angela Davis Chelsea Peretti Boots Riley Maxine Hong Kingston Jack London Fred Korematsu Daveed Diggs Like 812114
kai @kaiq.bsky.social · 09/03/2026“I want to show the world my art” and it’s just some text in a box 000
kai @kaiq.bsky.social · 06/03/2026Objections aside, I largely agree with Rothfeld - I don’t want LLM-written prose or ideation anywhere near my writing, because I want to be part of a community of practice, even if it inconveniences me 010
