MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 11/10/2026In other words: if most of us are dipshits, does it matter if the computers are really thinking? 000
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 11/10/2026Seeing AI discourse this morning made me realize the real issue isn’t whether machines can think. If we have to define what Donald Trump, Elon Musk or, say, any AI company CEO does as thinking, then thinking might be highly overrated. 110
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 08/10/2026And that they can get you to do stuff that makes them laugh — like perform pages in Dragons Love Tacos — over and over and over. Just because it makes them happy even as you go slightly bonkers (which makes it funnier). 0110
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 05/10/2026(especially reading about the STL Germans, not because they were necessarily more crucial than the others around the North.) 010
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 05/10/2026The more I read about the ‘48ers, especially the ones around St. Louis like Hecker, the more I think the Civil War would have gone a lot differently. 120
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 29/09/2026I find it satisfying that writers like Ray Bradbury are still being taught to freshmen like my son. I find it unnerving that A Sound of Thunder feels too on the nose right now, for so many thematic reasons. 010
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 29/09/2026I mean, you’ve kind of described how most most philosophers seem to feel about Silicon Valley technologists. Every specialized field hates it when the outside world looks in and has an opinion without having done the reading. 001
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 28/09/2026I mean, it’s easier to ignore pop culture now than it was in ‘96 when I was in my 20s and I couldn’t pick One Sweet Day out of a lineup either. I can handclap to Blister in the Sun in my sleep tho. 020
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Yeah it’s a one timer for sure and it lingers, like a taste that never escapes your teeth 010
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 24/09/2026www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8TH9akp/tiktok.com#capaction #tammy #duckworth #tired #usa TikTok video by peaceful_when_single 010
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 21/09/2026When I lived in South Florida, many drivers there saw a turn signal as a reason to speed up and block you from merging in front of them on the highway. like they were personally offended at the idea Maybe STL could just start slow, with figuring out red lights and license plates 150
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 19/09/2026I’d like to see what happened if they were regulated and audited by the Writer’s Guild and ASCAP. That’d be interesting. 000
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 09/09/2026Luckily I have no faith in myself so will sleep the sleep of the ignorant. 010
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 09/09/2026Unrelatedly, I had an offensive line coach in high school who was so prim in his language that he wouldn’t even say the word “crotch” - he’d say “crouch“ instead. Scream, really, at teenager during humid August summers. “You gotta hit ‘em inna CROUCH!” Dream about that tonight, I dare you. 020
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 09/09/2026Oh god, I already regret this, but: what’s the first most unfortunate? 200
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 08/09/2026Regardless, you could get a guy from a 16” softball Chicago beer league to analyze that swing, and it’d be just as brutal. 001
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 08/09/2026Bregman’s parents are both lawyers, not profs, but his dad was chair of the Dem party in New Mexico. I think you’re thinking of Nico Hoerner. I think his mom taught / worked at Berkeley 120
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 04/09/2026I don’t know that I agree, but even having the discussion shows how far Fried is from understanding how unqualified he is to make a judgement- as opposed to having an opinion. It’s just bizarre to use math to justify one’s feelings. 000
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 04/09/2026A prof of mine once told me that Harold Bloom considered philosophy to be a subset of Plato, not the other way around. Writers in modern English could make the same case about Olde Will - he defined the context. 100
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 04/09/2026Also it’s ‘pop’, and all the rest of you who say ‘soda’ are weirdo heathens. 020
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 04/09/2026It must mean something dumb that I am annoyed as shit that I track as someone from Illinois or Michigan (depending on how I pronounce ‘handkerchie’) even though I am from Indiana — though really Chicagoland anyway. 110
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 04/09/2026Aw this is the best thing I am going to see — and hear — today and all weekend. 110
Reposted by MoXmas Mark Lerner @ragandboneshop.bsky.social · 04/09/2026It's out TODAY! 🎵🖤 At rosine.bandcamp.com Also at subvert.fm/rosine and of course all of the streaming sites. If you enjoy it, I would so appreciate you telling others about it. Cover painting by Nancy Howell. 183
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 03/09/2026www.moderntiredealer.com/retail/artic...moderntiredealer.comDobbs Tire Gets New CEOAudax Private Equity has named Derek Basile the new CEO of Dobbs Tire & Auto Centers. 110
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 03/09/2026If you were playing a bodhrán or a tin whistle in between pints of stout, you could go full-on Irish-American punk-folkie. 010
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 03/09/2026I really hope this isn’r too frightening, but I think you’re mistaken. It’s not a new and worse scumbag variety. It’s a variety of “cousin of Dylan Moran‘s character in Black Books“. I.e., more and more Irish Lit Dirtbag. Joycean, even. gads. 110
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 02/09/2026@johnrogers.bsky.social This fits what I am seeing in other context. curious if it resonates with you. backofmind.substack.com/p/robot-clas...backofmind.substack.comrobot class traitorsthe future and its ownership 000
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 31/08/2026Oh, while I can’t talk about the mass unstructured data, it does good work with that too given the right guideline. 000
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 31/08/2026They’re pretty good. Mostly they tend to confirm patterns good analysts already see, and do catch some nice edge cases. They are REALLY good at sourcing quotes :) 110
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 31/08/2026It is both ways. As in, it is both a useful tool, and a tool that produces slop. Nuclear energy powers energy grids and bombs. It’s okay to recognize that. But, you know, you do you. 000
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 31/08/2026But experiences can certainly differ and I wouldn‘t generalize from that specific POV - except for the quality of data point. But that’s just GIGO. 110
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 31/08/2026Disagree with the “elite logic engines” assessment as well, if only because they are wholly dependent on the quality of the data they are using or assessing. They can be, if strictly guided. I personally find they do an okay job of clustering ideas, but I work with qualitative data, not quant. 210
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 31/08/2026Well, no. Not many entities can produce slop, which is the point. i am explicitly saying it is negative and that AI is a tool that produces it. I am able to separate that assessment from its quality as a tool in other ways. Again: two different points. 100
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 31/08/2026No, they are living in the world as professionals and as people. 100
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 31/08/2026I think “junior copywriter“ is my exact assessment of its capabilities. Its use for slop production is kind of undisputed, isn’t it? That would be true if the capabilities were Wordsworthian, because the slop is as much a function of scale. Two different things. 100
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 31/08/2026I’m still not clear why you think it’s a put down. I think it’s a description, neither a compliment nor an insult. And the whole discussion started about why writers don’t like LLMs. 100
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 31/08/2026(I’m leaving out Grok and Musk’s apparent need to create a Nazi bot.) 100
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 31/08/2026OTOH, LLMs don’t ever seem like they’re ever going to produce a an Ed Wood equivalent either. There’s a floor of legibility and ceiling of creativity. That’s actually really powerful for a lot of productive tools (as long as you build in data quality and safety gates). 120
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 31/08/2026I mean, if there’s an example of, I dunno, Claude writing a well-reviewed novel instead of, say, the kind of submissions that are overwhelming publishers slushpiles and Amazon‘s kindle books, that’d be really interesting to see. 100
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 31/08/2026Why would an accurate description be a put down? A useful tool that gets abused in other environments is still a useful tool. If someone were to hype a carpenter’s hammer as a perpetual motion machine, or a nose hair trimmer, I’d feel the same way. 100
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 31/08/2026Maybe 5% of the time it comes up with a really notable phrase. That’s actually really super useful for productivity work in corporate environments. It’s unfortunately good for overwhelming social media at scale -- “slop”. It’s wholly unsuitable for art. 110
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 31/08/2026No no, I was using that deliberately. I have used AI tools extensively in my work and they are adequate at writing. About as good as a junior copywriter who can’t push back on a client with no taste. Perfect for PR language and email and company powerpoint. 100
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 30/08/2026Which is why the term slop exists, really. “Adequate at scale.” 100
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 30/08/2026Because the vast majority of people don’t know who they are, and so don’t associate them with the theft. The science is secondary, and also to most professional writers, unimpressive. which is to say, okay for basic business comms, sometimes a little better. 200
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 30/08/2026Well, if you spend a lot of time tending a garden and someone decides to throw a tailgate in it, it’s not about the economic system at that point. Altman, Zuckerberg and Amodei aren’t ever gonna be welcome at Worldcon. 110
MoXmas @moxmas.bsky.social · 30/08/2026Yeah, likely. Or just because it makes them angry, again because it’s their labor, regardless of whether they made money on it or not. 120
