iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Lisa Rokusek @lisarokusek.myatproto.social · 6m

Before we can learn to work w/our fear and anxiety we have to let ourselves become aware of how it bubbles away just below the surface of our consciousness.

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Lisa Rokusek @lisarokusek.myatproto.social · 57m

We are governed by a ghoulish majority party but those who allow themselves to be fodder for the ghoul grist mill are also ghoulish. Don't give the ghouls any credit, not one inch of resource, don't allow yourself to be a pawn in their ghoul games I do not care how much of an "honor" it might be.

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Lisa Rokusek @lisarokusek.myatproto.social · 1h

Long before the cursed 2024 election I was enraged at the traction RFK Jr had within the "wellness" and bigpharma critical people. There are reasons to be concerned about bigcorp of all flavors including big pharma but inviting malevolent wrecking ball of RFK Jr into US health was obviously bad.

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Lisa Rokusek @lisarokusek.myatproto.social · 2h

Its coming up, less than a week away! <taps sign> Friendly, but dangerous when provoked!

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Lisa Rokusek @lisarokusek.myatproto.social · 3h

All things equal there will always be some dude doing things some dudes do that make my fingers itch for gasoline and matches. My restraint works okay is what I'm saying. No one lit afire!

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Lisa Rokusek @lisarokusek.myatproto.social · 3h

I'm really hungry right now and I want a potato/egg taco.

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Lisa Rokusek @lisarokusek.myatproto.social · 3h

I worried my talk where I own being a full-assed buddhist (instead of half-assed) would be a stretch at a tech conference especially w/me spending significant amount of time talking about Thich Nhat Hanh & Joan Halifax. But I've gotten several emails referencing my reading list - guess I was okay.

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Lisa Rokusek @lisarokusek.myatproto.social · 7h

It’s super we are arresting so many of the elected officials on charges of human trafficking and prostitution, just swell. But how do we keep electing so many rapists pedophiles and human traffickers in the first place? Really need to look at that. Living in this society is exhausting.

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Lisa Rokusek @lisarokusek.myatproto.social · 8h

A pattern that never goes away: Men disagreeing with women who have proven expertise.That they disagree is less a problem than the way. So often the expertise is denigrated and erased and usually by a man who only has opinions without any depth. A tale as old as time but for sure playing out in AI.

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Lisa Rokusek @lisarokusek.myatproto.social · 8h

Tony Judt is tapping on the glass in great alarm.

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Lisa Rokusek @lisarokusek.myatproto.social · 8h

Foucault is deeply disappointed in all of us.

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Anil Dash @anildash.com · 05/10/2026

Exactly this. And in fact, many models *have* been created this way, and decades of prior machine learning systems *were* created this way, consensually. These things are choices! People are STILL working this way! It’s not just that a better world is possible — it already EXISTS. We can nurture it.

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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 05/10/2026

This is your occasional reminder that generative "AI" in particular could have been developed on public domain materials and/or licensed and compensated works but the major players intentionally, methodically and systemically chose to steal labor from working creative folks instead

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Micah @rincewind.run · 05/10/2026

the reason these people need to be stripped of almost all of their money is so that they stop thinking that it gives them the right to nominate themselves for the "benevolent dictator" position

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Lisa Rokusek @lisarokusek.myatproto.social · 05/10/2026

No reconciliation without truth. Pass it on.

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Gil Durán @gilduran.com · 05/10/2026

It’s not just one billionaire. It’s a full-blown cult of billionaires who believe dictatorship should replace democracy—and that technology (crypto and AI) will make this inevitable. They say it loud. Some guy just wrote a book about it (That guy is me!) www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Ne...

simonandschuster.com

The Nerd Reich

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “This transfixing debut from journalist Durán investigates the antidemocratic ideologies espoused by tech billionaires ...

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Valerie Sizemore @tarwatirno.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Ronny Fernandez is an incredibly gross goblin man, and is half the reason I decided serving alcohol for these people can't be done as "harm reduction." This was before I learned that he is Holly's abusive ex-husband. A lot of things make more sense now. I really appreciate Holly speaking up!

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Lisa Rokusek @lisarokusek.myatproto.social · 05/10/2026

@devintoshea.bsky.social i went to a tech conference last week and somehow one of the things I talked about when meeting new people was your book and the whole STL Veiled Prophet phenom. They'd often look it up online and recoil in horror in real time. Thanks for helping me break the ice!

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Lisa Rokusek @lisarokusek.myatproto.social · 05/10/2026

Okay no one can say they cannot hear the #STL city emergency alert alarms again. I'm deafened INSIDE my house.

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Lisa Rokusek @lisarokusek.myatproto.social · 05/10/2026

These people and this story were some of my favorites of my weekend. Enraging. But a happier ending.

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swmark78.bsky.social @swmark78.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

"You have to destroy a few whole societies to make an omelette." Sam Altman, probably.

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e.w. niedermeyer @niedermeyer.online · 05/10/2026

when emerging technologies are guided by long-termist utilitarianism, the public gets the deaths and doesn't get the benefits, while the Musks and Kalanicks get vast wealth... the current LLM/AI space is different in many ways, but utilitarian arguments should still be a massive, screaming red flag

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Lisa Rokusek @lisarokusek.myatproto.social · 05/10/2026

@humanbn.bsky.social and I went for a mid-morning meal and the restaurant was not open. So we walked to another. Nope. So we wandered to a third & that’s how we had the best cubano ever and I got revved up w/a delicious cafe con leche. The wandering was wonderful, see, and kind of the best part.

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Taylor Barnett-Torabi @taylorbar.net · 02/10/2026

louder for the people in the back: "when the cost of writing code goes to zero, the things that matter are ideas, taste, & distribution (a.k.a. judgement, connection, and trust)" from a talk by Emily Lovell and Moon Davé at #monktoberfest

Slide that says:

when the cost of writing code goes to zero, the things that matter are ideas, taste, & distribution (a.k.a. judgement, connection, and trust)
- Lola Egherman, CodeDay

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Lisa Rokusek @lisarokusek.myatproto.social · 04/10/2026

I can fight like hell against dangerous corrosive views, understand there is acceptable variance in other issues and work very hard to see even those holding reprehensible opinions as human beings. No one is free until we are all free. Some folks might need to be firewalled until they get that.

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bianca wylie @biancawylie.com · 04/10/2026

Pluralism is a method that operates counter to supremacy and hierarchy. lesscomputer.ca/say-eugenics...

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Lisa Rokusek @lisarokusek.myatproto.social · 04/10/2026

All day long. “it's arguable that a decision is the unit of democracy.”

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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 16/12/2025

I wrote this brief talk on why “augmenting diversity” with LLMs is empirically unsubstantiable, conceptually flawed, and epistemically harmful and a nice surprise to see the organisers have made it public synthetic-data-workshop.github.io/papers/13.pdf

title: Cheap science, real harm: the cost of replacing human
participation with synthetic data

author: Abeba Birhane

abstract: Driven by the goals of augmenting diversity, increasing speed, reducing cost, the
use of synthetic data as a replacement for human participants is gaining traction
in AI research and product development. This talk critically examines the claim
that synthetic data can “augment diversity,” arguing that this notion is empirically
unsubstantiated, conceptually flawed, and epistemically harmful. While speed and
cost-efficiency may be achievable, they often come at the expense of rigour, insight,
and robust science. Drawing on research from dataset audits, model evaluations,
Black feminist scholarship, and complexity science, I argue that replacing human
participants with synthetic data risks producing both real-world and epistemic
harms at worst and superficial knowledge and cheap science at best

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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 04/10/2026

every racist bigot ever

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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

one thing I remember thinking about during the NYT's wall to wall coverage of Claudine Gay's fake plagiarism scandal is how regularly the NYT denies credit to the work of local, independent, and/or student journalists

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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Men Explain Rape to Me.

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Lisa Rokusek @lisarokusek.myatproto.social · 04/10/2026

Hahahaha. Roshi Joan On AI starts out talking about Abebe Berhane’s influence in her understanding data sets. My worlds stay collided. Roshi Joan remains fresh and a badass.

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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 04/10/2026

Inspired by @seanpmackinnon.bsky.social on "curating reading lists for others", here's a thread with some of mine for when people want to collaborate: 1) How do we build theory? 2) What does computationalism imply? 3) How do we use models? 4) What happens when these ideas radiate outwards? 👇🏼

metatheory.space

Hello! 🍃 metatheory.space is a group that works at the foundations of cognitive science. We are interested in the intersections of psychological and computational neurocognitive theorising with critic...

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moose @moosewerk.filix-femina.com · 04/10/2026

Biased media was the cocaine. The LLM (mis)information ecosystem is crack.

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sarcastic parrot @monkchips.com · 02/10/2026

bell hooks has come up a few times over the last couple of days #monktoberfest. I am so fucking proud that this is a space where voices and analysis like hers are being heard and inform the work we do as a community.

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Lisa Rokusek @lisarokusek.myatproto.social · 04/10/2026

Sometimes my techwork feels separated from my heartwork-throughout my career I've acted on my desire and intention to be more congruent - for my efforts to be a force for good for all, and I mean all. Heartened by seeing more and more tech workers caring about each other and the world as a whole.

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Lisa Rokusek @lisarokusek.myatproto.social · 03/10/2026

I went to a tech conference #Monktoberfest for the first time after watching it from afar for years and years and y’all I have maybe never stepped into a warmer kinder and exceptionally fabulous group of people. NOT A JACKWAGON TO BE FOUND!

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Lisa Rokusek @lisarokusek.myatproto.social · 03/10/2026

I have suffered through a long enough flight with a plenty lubricated man & his partner loudly working their way through entertainment and into politics - now discussing trans athletes and rape - while I agree w/many of their positions I’m itching to tell them to use their inside voices. SO LOUD!

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Joshua Foust 🪖🎮 @joshuafoust.com · 01/10/2026

Hard to overstate just how much blood Elon Musk has on his hands, and how dismaying it is to see this legacy of violence and death swept under the rug because spaceships go zoom real good.

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hammancheez but spooky @hammancheez.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Yall wanna see a 2 hour old highland cow

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Dominic 🇪🇺 🏳️‍🌈 🇺🇦 @theriotnrrd.eurosky.social · 01/10/2026

“I want the technology to outlive the company itself” — @rude1.blacksky.team talking about his goal for #Blacksky at #Monktoberfest I wish more companies took this attitude to their services — especially, as Rudy also notes, when hardware devices will fail without those services.

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Kai @kaiho.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

*solved, damnit

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Lisa Rokusek @lisarokusek.myatproto.social · 02/10/2026

I just got the flowers @humanbn sent me yesterday for giving my talk. Supported from afar. What a fun time #monktoberfest is!

A vase of pink roses gerbera daisies and assorted delights.

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Swarna Podila (she/her) @skpodila.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I know @ericksoen.bsky.social is talking about this in the context of bike bus and agency, but “go where you’re loved” is a great motto to live by in general ❤️❤️ Choose your family, friends, your people where you’re loved for you who are and are given the space to grow and be better. #monktoberfest

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TheSpinMD @mikemaney.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Shot these last night on The Boat. #monktoberfest

Black-and-white waterfront scene beneath heavy, layered storm clouds. A wooden dock extends into calm water, with a small boathouse, houses, trees, and several utility poles along the shoreline. A single streetlamp glows near the dock, adding a small bright point to the otherwise dark, overcast landscape.

Close-up of the bow of a red-and-white boat floating on dark, calm water. The boat’s sharp bow, white trim, mooring ropes, and metal fittings are visible. The hull and its white stripes create distorted, wavy reflections across the water.

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Lisa Rokusek @lisarokusek.myatproto.social · 01/10/2026

Having way too many flashbacks to my endo journey in this talk about the medical landscape and endometriosis. I TALKED TO TEN DOCS before I found one who listened to me. Ah 2005 you were a hard time to have gynecologic issues.

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Kyle Orland @kyleor.land · 30/09/2026

[SENATOR ERIC SCHMITT]: So you’re telling me under oath that you've never played World of Warcraft? [JACK SMITH]: Correct [SCHMITT]: WELL THEN *unveils poster* please explain this picture of you farming gold in Eversong Woods! [SMITH]: That is Elden Ring, sir.

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