iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Iris van Rooij 💭 @irisvanrooij.bsky.social · 1h

We present a typology of traps to avoid: 1. Believing that AI systems are minds 2. Believing that AI systems are theories 3. Believing that cognitive science can be automated. Learn to recognise and avoid these traps. Failure to avoid leads to numerous problems.

Table 1: Typology of traps, what goes wrong if not avoided, and how the traps can be avoided. Note that all traps in a sense constitute category errors (Ryle & Tanney, 2009) and the success-to-truth inference (Guest & Martin, 2023) is an important driver in most, if not all, of the traps.

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rob pike @robpike.io · 41m

You missed a spot.

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rob pike @robpike.io · 29/09/2026

Invest in our company so you can profit from your own destruction! While we lose money hand over fist! What the actual F is going on here? (Rhetorical question. Don't answer.)

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Harry Turtledove @hntdove.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Possibly for a goat.

Small tools--scissors, etc.--filed under "stomach relief"

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Kelsey Hightower @kelseyhightower.com · 28/09/2026

I hope we keep writing docs for people who want to understand and build things without using AI.

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Linotype Pilgrim @symbo1ics.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Thanks very much. Yes this is a very entertaining read, hall of fame paper. 🩵

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rob pike @robpike.io · 27/09/2026

www.cs.princeton.edu/~bwk/202/sum...

cs.princeton.edu

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rob pike @robpike.io · 27/09/2026

"Hydrostatic pressure from blebbing" is my phrase of the day.

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Sophie Carr @sophiecarr.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

On this day 12 and a half years ago I saw the coolest ever iceberg. Never seen one like it since. Fellsfjara, Jökulsárlón, #Iceland

A six-foot (ish) high turquoise iceberg with a small friend on a black sand beach. Grey rainy day with some of the turquoise reflected in the blank sand, and long exposure smooth waves breaking.

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Dave Vetter @davidrvetter.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Happy Kicked In The Head By A Horse Day, to all who celebrate. It's the 7th anniversary of this absolute banger.

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leon @leyawn.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

ceo of burger king: our burgers have gone rogue again and infected people with e coli

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rob pike @robpike.io · 24/09/2026

A huge part of surgery is pain mitigation and the relief of suffering. It's called care. It's called humanity. It's called empathy. it's called stewardship. These AI asshats have lost all of that, and they should be suffering for it, not us.

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Chris @cjthered.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Also - for reasons not really understood yet - the shingles vaccine appears to reduce dementia risk. By a lot. Honestly you could call it a dementia vaccine that also prevents shingles and not be very wrong. sciencedaily.com/releases/202...

sciencedaily.com

Shingles vaccine linked to 24% lower dementia risk

Older adults who received the Shingrix shingles vaccine were 24% less likely to be diagnosed with dementia over four years in a study of more than 500,000 people. Researchers estimate the difference c...

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Miguel de Icaza @migueldeicaza.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

From twitter bad_pote

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rob pike @robpike.io · 24/09/2026

More broadly, the so-called fixes being pushed out, such as age verification, punish the consumer instead of forcing the companies to do better. The whole model of how these things are legislated is backwards. Make the companies fix it, not their users, who are already trapped in a dystopia.

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rob pike @robpike.io · 24/09/2026

That's half of why I didn't sign on to the Anthropic authors suit. The other half is that there are a thousand other companies doing the same, so what symbolism the payout may have is close to meaningless. This problem is not ours to solve; it requires leadership, something sorely lacking nowadays.

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Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

AP Stylebook warns against anthropomorphizing AI systems: “Avoid language that gives them human characteristics… Instead, explain what a system does, how well it performs, who built it and who could be affected by it.”

APStylebook @APStylebook
X.com
Artificial intelligence systems do not think, feel, want or understand. Avoid language that gives them human characteristics. This is called anthropomorphizing, when we ascribe human traits, emotions or behaviors to non-human things, such as animals or inanimate objects.
Instead, explain what a system does, how well it performs, who built it and who could be affected by it.

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Bart⚓️ @bartgonnissen.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

The Facial Expressions of Tethys by artist Julius von Bismarck. A suspended high-sea buoy that moves in real time. Sensors on a twin buoy out in the Atlantic Ocean send live satellite data to motors inside the museum. This makes the indoor buoy copy the exact, real-time movements of the ocean waves.

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rob pike @robpike.io · 23/09/2026

As with Pandora's Box (in the Greek myth it's actually a jar), the Fall is just a way to give the power of knowledge to men while making women take the blame for the problems it brings.

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Scott Teplin @steplin.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

My father in law gave me this tiny drawing he made today. 🥰

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rob pike @robpike.io · 23/09/2026

My radiologist looks like Doogie Howser, only younger. The nurse said he's "super smart" and I believe it. Good doc, great manner.

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rob pike @robpike.io · 23/09/2026

Pretty sure they didn't speak Old English in Italy.

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Cedar Riener @criener.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Every innovation and change in business these days is either: We took this product you like and turned it into a subscription We took this subscription you begrudgingly pay and added some ads We took these ads you found annoying and found more ways to find you

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rob pike @robpike.io · 21/09/2026

If you have time, go to the Kunsthaus and ask to see the massive collection of Dürer etchings in the library. It's an incredible resource. So special perhaps I shouldn't be advertising it.

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c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 13/04/2024

Let's talk about the bristlemouths, 13 species of bioluminescent deep-dwelling ocean fish in genus Cyclothone. There are a lot of them. Like, a lot. Specifically, our best guess is there are a million billion (1E15) bristlemouths on Earth. Making them the most populous vertebrate on the planet.

A xenomorph looking fish with dark slightly sparkly skin and an oversized lower jaw packed with sharp, needle-like teeth.

Photo from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.
https://twilightzone.whoi.edu/explore-the-otz/creature-features/elongated-bristlemouth/

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Luca @lucagalletti.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Still holds up today #MontyPython1975 IG: @thecinevoidclub www.instagram.com/thecinevoidc...

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rob pike @robpike.io · 19/09/2026

Go to the Kunsthaus and ask to see the Dürer etchings downstairs.

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rob pike @robpike.io · 19/09/2026

You'd definitely need to bring a trailer. And I say that as a lover of old British sports cars who has owned a couple myself. Gorgeous but unreliable to put it politely.

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Massimo (mirror) @rainmaker1973-m.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Today in 1982, in a posting made to a Carnegie Mellon bulletin board, Professor Scott Fahlman proposes the first known use of emoticons While they became famous in 1980s & beyond, their origin remained unknown until 2002, when the original message was retrieved from backup tape. Original post

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rob pike @robpike.io · 19/09/2026

When I was in Helsinki I stopped by what I thought was the furniture outlet for Alvar Aalto, but that turned out to be his old studio. The kind folks there accepted me, a huge fan, and showed me original drawings of most of his incredible commissions. What a day!

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The Serfs (youtube.com/theserfstv) @theserfstv.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

This is the most masculine video on the internet right now

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rob pike @robpike.io · 17/09/2026

But the air is disintegrating. Have you not been paying attention?

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Kelsey Hightower @kelseyhightower.com · 21/09/2024

At this point I'm willing to pay more money for appliances with zero smart features and physical controls for everything.

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Prasad Jallepalli, MD, PhD @prasad.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

a very effective presentation of androgen insensitivity (& indirectly, non-cell-autonomy, a core principle in development & evolution of multicellularity) in many situations, the cells in your body get external signals that tell them who they are & what they do, rather than knowing it internally

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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Nice to see this getting some attention. It's completely true, and I dearly wish more journalists understood where these common narratives about AI actually come from.

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BWJones @bwjones.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

This Abbott and Costello routine probably used 100 gallons of water and could power a household for a month. And again, the interface for AI is all wrong. It should not be programmed to give definitive answers. The model for this case should be the Librarian in Neil Stevenson’s Snowcrash.

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rob pike @robpike.io · 14/09/2026

Fun pictures when you butt-snap.

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Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

In case you were in any doubt physics' holy trinity is Einstein, Newton, and Maxwell. A Great Man trope, yes, but also a way to convey Maxwell's real status.

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Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I wonder if this might be a turning point. I'd like to think so. Because this declaration speaks to so much about the problem with AI in such contexts. If it can be of help in, say, drug discovery, that's fine. But it's precisely because maths doesn't have those stakes that the message is powerful..

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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

A group of 25 Fields Medalists, including myself, have made a joint declaration on Math and AI: mathandai.org . We welcome additional signatories. See also this article in the Economist announcing the declaration: www.economist.com/science-and-...

mathandai.org

Declaration — Math and AI

Read the declaration and add your name.

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rob pike @robpike.io · 11/09/2026

Current Guardian headline: "Australia news live: One fight cancelled every three days due to staff shortages; ASX set for worst week since US-Iran war began" I didn't know we had scheduled any!

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L. D. Lewis, Sea Witch Apologist 🧜🏾‍♀️ @ldlewiswrites.blacksky.app · 10/09/2026

I call this piece Hubris In Blue: Fountain Pen On An Airplane

Blue ink splotch in a crease of grid notepaper

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rob pike @robpike.io · 10/09/2026

They'll adapt, just as they adapted to this.

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