Alistair Davidson @moh-kohn.eurosky.social · 2hThe state of AI is funny. Lots of jobs are asking for RAG, which is a way of attaching a knowledge store to an LLM. I immediately wondered why this is better than a pile of markdown files. Then I learned Google created an alternative standard called RKF that is a pile of markdown files (LLMWiki). 110
Alistair Davidson @moh-kohn.eurosky.social · 2hA result of social media is people being more-easily bounced into supporting really weird agendas because of the use of strong moralistic language. It's not specific to the left. 160
Reposted by Alistair DavidsonSnowden St. @snowden.st · 2hI think Alt Boo-reau is onto something here! 0333
Reposted by Alistair DavidsonSnowden St. @snowden.st · 3hmy added little bit or hot take is that I think this kind of (dumb, wrong) demand for weird boycotts has skyrocketed in the digital age, and especially w/ pop therapy, no contact, etc. Social media loves to demand total schisms, complete cutting off of family and community, it’s like a fav tactic. 611116
Alistair Davidson @moh-kohn.eurosky.social · 5hThere's never been a better time to put on electronica and pretend to be a cool hacker dude 171
Reposted by Alistair DavidsonBarry Lyndon LaRouche @colfer.bsky.social · 6hSince it we're doing this again: the ECHR does *not* prohibit compulsory nationalisation: governments of all stripes compulsorily purchase things all the time. The issues are around public interest and "fair compensation." Thames Water is worthless as its liabilities exceed its assets and its... 2187
Reposted by Alistair DavidsonSarah Kay @k-interarma.bsky.social · 7hThe people that the Chief Constable here is seeking to criminalise at the behest of the DUP are the very same people who are doing everything they can to protect a process that has all but stalled, and is at risk of failing, dropping dead in the middle of the Garvaghy Road. 184
Reposted by Alistair DavidsonColin @colin-fraser.net · 23hAnother day working at the frontier AI lab. Everyone keeps asking me if the models have qualia. Buddy, I don’t even have qualia. 330152
Alistair Davidson @moh-kohn.eurosky.social · 23hThere were a few years in the 80s where it wasn't clear if hacking was illegal, then some hacking happened, then there was a panic and lots of laws. 170
Reposted by Alistair DavidsonDavid J Prokopetz @prokopetz.bsky.social · 03/10/2026A lot of OSR dungeon crawlers claim to be the true heirs to OD&D, but you can tell they're posers because not one of them has an entire chapter inexplicably devoted to underwater combat. 615419
Reposted by Alistair Davidsonnoam @noamchompers.bsky.social · 03/10/2026philosophers should have simply *answered* the deepest and most intractable questions ever posed. instead they've chosen to fuck around. disappointing 1664486
Reposted by Alistair Davidsontweety fish oh wow like a chimera or something spoooky @sifu.tweety.fish · 01/10/2026ok time to stake a claim: I don't generally think there's any evidence LLMs could write a rewarding novel of any sort EXCEPT they could definitely do a better job of _Ready Player One_ 1629025
Reposted by Alistair DavidsonJosephine beckbook.com Riesman @josie.zone · 03/10/2026Normalize saying "Wowzers!" 105212
Alistair Davidson @moh-kohn.eurosky.social · 03/10/2026Anti-driving ad idea: show a person going about their day but having to feed coins into the dashboard constantly. Like put a mock coin machine in there. I don't have a good UK figure but in Texas with parking and depreciation it's about $1/mile people are spending. 271
Alistair Davidson @moh-kohn.eurosky.social · 03/10/2026Strong sense that in Europe we have - technically talented people and sensibly-run businesses absolutely clamouring for funding to replace American tech - leaders who think the people who correctly called out the dangers of American tech must never be allowed anywhere near the money 0317
Reposted by Alistair DavidsonLee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 03/10/2026Anyway, it's 2026 and there are people, in public, saying with their full chest that we shouldn't have fought Hitler and I don't know what you do about that without a set of politicians made of something a bit firmer than slime. 323653
Reposted by Alistair DavidsonKeza MacDonald @mackeza.bsky.social · 29/09/2026"I'd advise editors to ask themselves: if you never get women pitching your site or applying for your jobs, why is that? Do you read female writers- and if not, why? Do you talk to women about whom they are reading, or do you only talk about work with other men? Not all of our biases are conscious." 06712
Reposted by Alistair DavidsonMatt Kirkcaldie @matttkk.bsky.social · 03/10/2026Not least because the eyeball and photoreceptor cells are full of water, regardless of the outside environment. 948610
Reposted by Alistair Davidsonworm @rfksbrainworm.bsky.social · 02/10/2026If you ever wondered why visible light is those particular wavelengths, it's because life evolved to see in the narrow range where water is transparent 10158391634
Reposted by Alistair DavidsonTristan Grayford @tristangrayford.scot · 03/10/2026The UK, now under the power of the Labour Party, has become a place an entire demographic feel the need to flee due to systematic legal discrimination enforced by the state. 110639
Reposted by Alistair DavidsonAlbert Pinto @70sbachchan.bsky.social · 02/10/2026US interfering in hugely important elections in Brazil MAGA wants a compliant comprador capitalist class ruling Latin America, just as they want a new MAGA Europe. Will Latin American society and political class fall in line? Or will they fight as Lula's political coalition is doing in Brazil? 34216
Reposted by Alistair DavidsonAlbert Pinto @70sbachchan.bsky.social · 02/10/2026"The US role in Brazil's election is criminally under-discussed in the US, though obviously front and center of the conversation in Brazil." - @ishaantharoor.bsky.social US has done Lawfare & Economic Warfare against Brazil & the continent and it is shocking how few americans know/care about it 24931
Reposted by Alistair DavidsonCoach Finstock @coachfinstock.bsky.social · 21/06/2024When your corgi is buffering 566655994
Reposted by Alistair Davidsonillumi @yallchemist.bsky.social · 02/10/2026lol one of our website designers used our organization's entire monthly claude credits yesterday and now half the company doesn't know how to do their jobs. it's october 2nd. 15464921127
Alistair Davidson @moh-kohn.eurosky.social · 02/10/2026The history of Claws (AI personal assistants) accidentally highlighted a big flaw in starting from "AI is like a person" when building features. They assumed that the more context an assistant has, the better - like a human. But it turned out that no, the longer the context the weirder AI gets. 130
Reposted by Alistair DavidsonRobert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 02/10/2026The ability to pour hundreds of millions of pounds into a loss-making TV channel, bent on wrenching British politics sharply to the right, is yet another of the ways in which extreme wealth is trying to remake UK democracy. It needs to be part of any serious conversation about political funding. 531856754
Reposted by Alistair DavidsonAidan O’Brien @aidanobrien.bsky.social · 02/10/2026Over on X, the everything app, claims that Ireland has descended into "full-blown civil war", with people engaged in open warfare about migration and claims about the "New Irish Republican Army", mostly with old/unrelated videos/images. Absolute brain worms. 2025162
Alistair Davidson @moh-kohn.eurosky.social · 02/10/2026Full pipeline in view: 1) Pro-genocide professor who claims he was cancelled but actually quit 2) Working at a university centre created to promote conservatives outside of usual academic processes 3) Pushed out through hip birthplace of the alt-right Vice 4) On a platform owned by Mark Zuckerberg 130
Reposted by Alistair DavidsonTom Roberts @tpgroberts.bsky.social · 02/10/2026I actually felt my own shame instinct rise in my throat 1285
Reposted by Alistair DavidsonChris @chrs00.bsky.social · 01/10/2026The French call it when you can see the pain in their eyes 191
Reposted by Alistair DavidsonLaura Webster @lauraewebster.bsky.social · 25/09/2026So great to get to interview Taj Ali about his new book on South Asian resistance in the UK not once but twice in two days! First at a packed event with Unison and then for The National Podcast. We dig into the history as well as the current rise of the far-right. Podcast out next week. 094
Alistair Davidson @moh-kohn.eurosky.social · 02/10/2026If you all hate the devs as much as you say you do, you can actually move off bsky central. Blacksky or Eurosky for your data, mu for a client, they're not your boss. 144
Alistair Davidson @moh-kohn.eurosky.social · 02/10/2026Three games here I *loved*: Unavowed - remarkable modernisation of point-and-click adventures with the ability to choose party members and some branching plot lines The Excavation of Hob's Barrow: Wickerman, the video game. It's SO atmospheric. Old Skies: really clever and moving time travel plot 0156
Reposted by Alistair DavidsonKetan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 02/10/2026If you look at the four other top five competitors, they're like dedicated watch engineering and adjustment people Katie please stop this, you're making *checks notes* all other humans look bad 423325
Reposted by Alistair DavidsonBlackford Safe Routes @blackfordsaferoutes.co.uk · 01/10/2026What happens when you create a high-traffic neighbourhood by removing the modal filters on the Braid Estate… SUVs end up on their side Junction of Braid Rd and Hermitage Dr. Around school pick up time, Thursday 1st Oct 116029
Reposted by Alistair DavidsonNicole Bedera @nbedera.bsky.social · 01/10/2026I wrote a thread earlier today (before even reading this story, actually) about how commonly the “inconsistencies” in a victim’s story are actually procedural distortions made by people in positions of power who are invested in disbelieving her: 3619137
Reposted by Alistair DavidsonColin @colin-fraser.net · 01/10/2026similarly, I think that the fact that LLMs do not experience time is rather important, and means that if they are conscious in any meaningful sense, the nature of that consciousness is extremely unlike whatever living things experience. People do not have a "regenerate response" button. 4466
Reposted by Alistair DavidsonAsh Parrish, Kotaku's LeBron James @adashtra.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Yeah this Cornell thing is like a mass disabling event for survivors. I am fine, I *was* fine. But now it's in the zeitgeist again so I get to be reminded of my own college experience, something I hadn't thought about in decades, on a daily basis. 10906119
Alistair Davidson @moh-kohn.eurosky.social · 01/10/2026fwiw I reject the hard problem of consciousness; the hard problem is the material. We don't need a material explanation of qualia, which are obviously there! We lack an explanation of how a material world of consistent laws arises in a context of qualia or from qualia. 110
Alistair Davidson @moh-kohn.eurosky.social · 01/10/2026The first philosophy essay I ever wrote at university was about whether a Chinese Room is conscious. How in the fuck has that become the most pressing issue of the day 💀 140
Reposted by Alistair DavidsonAidan O’Brien @aidanobrien.bsky.social · 01/10/2026It's becoming clear the LOL/Bryson were *wildly* over optimistic about the amount of support they'd get from loyalist paramilitaries, or the broader Orange Lodge network and the protestant community in Portadown. Nor did they expect the cross community support for the GRRC protest. 24313
Alistair Davidson @moh-kohn.eurosky.social · 01/10/2026I consistently see reasonable people at the edge of social media mobs massively, massively under-rate how damaging mobbing is to the victim. If it hasn't happened to you, you are probably not imagining the effect of *very large volumes* of posts correctly. Very, very few people deserve mobbing. 040
Alistair Davidson @moh-kohn.eurosky.social · 01/10/2026lordy www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/scottis...glasgowtimes.co.ukChildren in balaclavas charged after riding E-Scooter the wrong way down M8 slip roadTwo children were caught wearing balaclavas riding an E-Scooter on an M8 slip road. 020
Reposted by Alistair DavidsonBlackford Safe Routes @blackfordsaferoutes.co.uk · 01/10/2026@drscottarthurmp.bsky.social presided over the reopening of Braid Rd to streams of cars in either direction, to great fanfare. Any comment Scott Arthur MP? (We will not be accepting anything blaming another political party - dems the rulez) 4206
Reposted by Alistair DavidsonBrendan Hark! T'is nearly Halloween. @brendanjharkin.bsky.social · 01/10/2026The Mary Wallopers are doing a live set at Garvaghy Road and all the OO get for entertainment is hearing Jamie Bryson address them all as "Men." like he's in a WW2 movie 98720
Alistair Davidson @moh-kohn.eurosky.social · 01/10/2026I took an article I wrote about web development, had AI turn it into LinkedIn-ese, edited that, spent my free-for-signing-up LinkedIn ad budget to promote it, and it actually got me a bloody interview. What are the odds. 2121
Reposted by Alistair DavidsonLisa Messeri @lmesseri.bsky.social · 01/10/2026one of the reasons that I warn researchers away from adapting commercial LLMs into their pipeline is that Big Tech has a history of sunsetting popular, usable products and replacing them with worse ones. (i'm trying to ween myself off of google scholar, but it is hard). 1021678