Reposted by Mark C.lexanderCara Stern @carastern.bsky.social · 10hOverriding local decisions that allow for more housing supply makes zero sense. Watching a conservative government add heavy regulation to free-market housing supply is simply mind-boggling. 24615
Mark C.lexander @marcalexanderv.bsky.social · 19hI’d guess a mix of all three but no basking, as few people can genuinely bask while deprived. Though I think governments mostly (USA used to do this) lack the tools and ability to regulate multinationals. Zero sum will continue as generational warfare as growth wont be widely shared. 000
Mark C.lexander @marcalexanderv.bsky.social · 09/10/2026Receipts: www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/ar...ctvnews.ca‘Fear and anxiety’: The untold story of the Vancouver Police Department’s stranger assault scareInternal emails obtained through Freedom of Information requests shed light on the Vancouver Police Department's media strategy related to stranger assaults ahead of the city's 2022 election. 000
Mark C.lexander @marcalexanderv.bsky.social · 09/10/2026Yeah man, it’s pretty obvious how much they spin the stats to benefit the candidates they clearly support. VPD does not inspire confidence. Remember when it came out later that crime rate in 2022 had dropped significantly but VPD just happened not to release that info? 101
Reposted by Mark C.lexanderCanadian Paintings @canadianpaintings.bsky.social · 05/10/2026Dog, Boy, and St. John River Alex Colville 1958 014245
Reposted by Mark C.lexanderCanadian Paintings @canadianpaintings.bsky.social · 07/10/2026Hills of Thunder Bay Terry Watkinson 2020 218239
Reposted by Mark C.lexanderCanadian Paintings @canadianpaintings.bsky.social · 07/10/2026Rain Clouds A.J. Casson 1976 113432
Reposted by Mark C.lexanderCanadian Paintings @canadianpaintings.bsky.social · 08/10/2026Autumn Trees, Mulmur Twp - Ontario Alan C. Collier 1987 18426
Reposted by Mark C.lexanderJohn Michael McGrath @jm-mcgrath.bsky.social · 08/10/2026AB Premier Danielle Smith announces the province is forcing Edmonton to reverse its infill housing rules, because why would you want an example of market-driving housing affordability in your small-government province? www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xjx2...youtube.comAlberta Premier Danielle Smith makes an announcement in Edmonton – October 8, 2026YouTube video by cpac 915545
Mark C.lexander @marcalexanderv.bsky.social · 08/10/2026This is so fucked. Edmonton was the beacon of light. Literally the city upon a hill that other cities could strive to be like. A place where the housing crisis couldn’t get a foothold because of proactive policy. Why!!!! 0230
Mark C.lexander @marcalexanderv.bsky.social · 08/10/2026Hey, do you want to go get a coffee at the cafe? “No, let’s just take caffeine pills“ 010
Mark C.lexander @marcalexanderv.bsky.social · 07/10/2026We know what the status quo allowed, massive generational inequality in housing type and delayed family formation. You’d think she would at least acknowledge that this looks a lot like passing the buck. We know many central banks exclude asset price inflation… which massively benefits asset owners 000
Mark C.lexander @marcalexanderv.bsky.social · 07/10/2026lol, ok, I’m sure that will restore confidence. Most people couldn’t tell you what monetary policy or the BOC, is. I get there are trade-offs but when her response to every concern related to their interest rate is ‘status quo plus public education’, it doesn’t inspire confidence. 110
Mark C.lexander @marcalexanderv.bsky.social · 07/10/2026I found her responses really disappointing. When asking about business loans she says she’ll go ask some young entrepreneurs in Victoria. When the subject of how CPI is calculated she admits it’s not perfect but we gotta stay the course and do ‘better public education for monetary policy’ 100
Mark C.lexander @marcalexanderv.bsky.social · 06/10/2026Hi Eric. Have you read any of Romain Brette’s work? His recent book The Brain, In Theory, probably takes either or both of these routes. Curious to hear your thoughts on any of his arguments if you e come across them 000
Reposted by Mark C.lexanderLuke Stark @lukestark.bsky.social · 06/10/2026In @macleans.bsky.social, I push back on AI doom discoursemacleans.caThe AI Doom Discourse Only Helps Big Tech - Macleans.caInstead of focusing on the potential destructive power of these systems, we should be look at the humans developing and wielding them 34119
Mark C.lexander @marcalexanderv.bsky.social · 06/10/2026explanations wanting. press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...press.princeton.eduThe Brain, In TheoryWhy engineering and computational analogies are poorly suited to the study of biological cognition 000
Mark C.lexander @marcalexanderv.bsky.social · 06/10/2026Yes, but that may well reflect many unconscious assumptions adopted from computer science in the study of the mind. You may be interested in Romain Brette’s work on exactly this topic, he’s trained in computer science and IIRC has a PhD in computational neuroscience but finds many of the going 100
Mark C.lexander @marcalexanderv.bsky.social · 06/10/2026which of course is exactly the sort of thing the article linked to above would likely caution against assuming. 110
Mark C.lexander @marcalexanderv.bsky.social · 06/10/2026’into’ someone’s mind, I’m not sure that’s what they’re imagining but I grant its an impressive technical achievement. Though I’m not sure the brain body dualism picture it paints re understanding how images are represented in the brain. It’s of course assumed images are represented in the brain 110
Mark C.lexander @marcalexanderv.bsky.social · 06/10/2026I guess I don’t think It’s surprising that these correlations can be made. You have the brain changes and the ‘stimulus’ and you correlate them. Then from the brain activity alone, with sufficient training, one can ‘decode’ what the stimulus likely is. When people imagine mind reading or looking 110
Mark C.lexander @marcalexanderv.bsky.social · 06/10/2026I mean, taliking about certainty being a kind of hubris, you might say you think Bender has some bad takes, she may well be right about some things. Or righter than the Rationalists are. 100
Mark C.lexander @marcalexanderv.bsky.social · 06/10/2026things dont seem the same to me. One is a cult-like group whose concepts of ‘AGI’ colour how they conceptualize their work and deeply anthropomorphize these tools. The other just has some standard takes from philosophy of mind that are contestable. 110
Mark C.lexander @marcalexanderv.bsky.social · 06/10/2026i think this is a fair request, but we see such strong claims, like the ‘rationalists‘ and many EA folks who work in Anthropic and OAI make some wild claims genuinely (p-doom, AI takeover) but its often the Emily Benders of the world who get mocked for Bad Takes On LLMs. I dunno but these two 100
Mark C.lexander @marcalexanderv.bsky.social · 06/10/2026Where and how said cognitive task is done. Romain Brette deals with this in his excellent book if you want an in-depth treatment of how this line of reasoning goes wrong. It’s fairly subtle! 130
Mark C.lexander @marcalexanderv.bsky.social · 06/10/2026Yes, the issue is often that neuroscientists conflate our everyday meaning of information with Shannon information, they essentially project Shannon information processes onto the brain while subjects do various cognitive tasks and then conclude draw the conclusions that x process in the brain is 120
Mark C.lexander @marcalexanderv.bsky.social · 05/10/2026The input output model is actually worthy of criticism, you should really check out Romain’s work, because it is far from a fait accompli. Living systems have many distinct and features/functions where computational theories do not easily map 010
Mark C.lexander @marcalexanderv.bsky.social · 05/10/2026if by ’process information’ you simply mean humans and animals can think and judge and perceive their environment, then yes of course they can process information, but of course in comp-sci process information has a specific meaning which many people assuming maps to brains 100
Mark C.lexander @marcalexanderv.bsky.social · 05/10/2026For single neuron, yes it’s bad, but the common alternative is that memories or images are neural traces, ie specific combinations of firing neurons. So not very far off. 020
Mark C.lexander @marcalexanderv.bsky.social · 05/10/2026For example, see Romain Brette’s work. He’s started computational neuroscience before realizing many of its assumptions aren’t well justified, and ultimately trying to understand the brain as a computer inhibits progress in many fields cognitivewonderland.substack.com/p/the-brain-...cognitivewonderland.substack.comThe Brain, in TheoryDoes the brain compute? A conversation with Romain Brette 110
Mark C.lexander @marcalexanderv.bsky.social · 05/10/2026It’s not quite obvious because many of those concepts have origins in computational sciences and have specific technical meanings in those fields. Neuroscience has indeed adopted some of that terminology but often without the corresponding technical definitions or mapping to phenomena 100
Mark C.lexander @marcalexanderv.bsky.social · 05/10/2026Wow so you’re saying we can map what is in the visual field with brain activity!!!??? 310
Mark C.lexander @marcalexanderv.bsky.social · 05/10/2026Sees the future *darkly through a sci-fi inspired semi religious techno futurism cult* 000
Reposted by Mark C.lexanderMichael Wiebe @michaelwiebe.bsky.social · 04/10/2026Why do people get mad at new apartments for being expensive, but are totally fine with the city creating entire mansion-only neighborhoods? If you think an expensive apartment isn't helping you, a poor renter, that can only be more true for a $10 million mansion. 3529
Reposted by Mark C.lexanderCanadian Paintings @canadianpaintings.bsky.social · 04/10/2026A Dream of Autumn David Thauberger 2014 129963
Reposted by Mark C.lexanderCanadian Paintings @canadianpaintings.bsky.social · 03/10/2026Tethered Ken Danby 1976 012628
Reposted by Mark C.lexanderCanadian Paintings @canadianpaintings.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Autumn Flight Benjamin Chee Chee ~ Anishinaabe n.d. 320246
Reposted by Mark C.lexanderCanadian Paintings @canadianpaintings.bsky.social · 26/09/2026September Snow on Mount Schaffer J.E.H. MacDonald 1929 013220
Reposted by Mark C.lexanderCanadian Paintings @canadianpaintings.bsky.social · 27/09/2026Leaf Pattern Franklin Carmichael 1922 020054
Reposted by Mark C.lexanderCanadian Paintings @canadianpaintings.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Study for mâtinawêwin (Sharing Food) Kent Monkman ~ Cree 2026 313756
Reposted by Mark C.lexanderCanadian Paintings @canadianpaintings.bsky.social · 30/09/2026âcimostâtowak (They Tell Stories to One Another) Kent Monkman ~ Cree 2025 017650
Reposted by Mark C.lexanderCanadian Paintings @canadianpaintings.bsky.social · 02/10/2026October Ploughing Franz Johnston n.d. 09315
Mark C.lexander @marcalexanderv.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Well you see that brick wall is actually a *heritage* brick wall that is protected under provincial legislation. If youd like to hit your head against it you’ll need to apply for a contact permit, which requires a community hearing first. 070
Reposted by Mark C.lexanderAlison Gopnik @alisongopnik.bsky.social · 01/10/2026This is an excellent article by Leif Wetherby - why AI is a cultural technology not a collection of human-like agents (citing our work on this). And why the anthropomorphism is a distraction from the very real risks and dangers and the way to deal with them. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/01/o...nytimes.comOpinion | Stop Talking About A.I. Like a Human (Gift Article)If we want to figure out the proper way to control A.I. models, we need to recognize what they really are. 620890
Mark C.lexander @marcalexanderv.bsky.social · 01/10/2026John, thoughts on the remaining candidates housing platform? Eric’s seemed the strongest and most aggressive in terms of addressing the housing crisis. 230
Mark C.lexander @marcalexanderv.bsky.social · 01/10/2026The fact that the idea of asking an LLM survey questions that would shed light on public opinion should never have even gotten off the ground. It tells you either the incentives in that area of business are fucked or the people doing this are stupid. Neither are good! 010
Reposted by Mark C.lexanderThe Economist @economist.com · 01/10/2026A fundamental overhaul is needed. Wealth should be taxed more via capital-gains taxes—and the burden on labour should lightenbit.lyA hurricane is coming to tax systemsGovernments should be preparing, but most aren’t 2349
