iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Steve Reeves @stevereeves.bsky.social · 2h

"It's not surprising, then, that neo-liberalism’s attempt to turn self-interest into a philosophy for conducting human affairs has proved to be a non-adaptive disaster. It attempts to unwind those collective efforts that have led to human success and survival" newsroom.co.nz/2026/06/06/a...

newsroom.co.nz

Anne Salmond: Hayek's bastards, revisited

Neoliberalism's attempt to make self-interest into a governing philosophy has proven to be a disaster, writes Dame Anne Salmond, but alternatives do exist

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Ms Hooper @mshooper.bsky.social · 2h

The Prime Minister’s Office is facing fresh questions over transparency and corporate lobbying after the Chief Archivist formally directed it to account for records relating to dealings with two of New Zealand’s biggest companies, Fonterra and Z Energy. #nzpol

waateanews.com

Missing Records, Corporate Lobbying and the PM: Chief Archivist Demands Answers Over Fonterra and Z Energy - Waatea News: Māori Radio Station

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Abortion Law Reform Association of New Zealand Aotearoa @alranz.bsky.social · 17h

#Antichoice Health Minister Simeon Brown banned puberty blockers against all expert advice. It's w/the courts now. If he can ban treatment for one group of people, TRUST that he will go after #abortion if this government is given another term. Brown & any antis do not listen to experts. #nzpol

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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Anthropic is out with new nonsense about Claude (or the collection of models called Claude) deserving moral consideration and/or be able to feel distress, so my inbox is filling up with journos asking me to comment. I've also got a day job, so here is a brief set of public comments on this: >>

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Jason @greedyrunner.bsky.social · 22h

because they're talking shit as part of the LLM hype.

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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

In other words, it is the job of scientists to devise experiments that can test their claims, to always be cautious abt what they are claiming, and to critically evaluate the claims of other scientists. By these well-established standards, no serious science is happening behind Anthropic's claims.

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onion person @junlper.beer · 23h

elon musk has more empathy for lines of code than a majority of humanity

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Denis - The COVID Info Guy @thecovidinfoguy.bsky.social · 22h

New Scientist: COVID variant XFG is now dominant globally and better at evading antibodies. Immunity from vaccines and prior infections is still helping prevent widespread severe illness, but experts warn future variants remain a threat as declining global surveillance makes them harder to track.

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Aaron Hawkins @ahawkins.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Drug testing has (by design) captured all the attention, but it's nowhere near the worst bit. For more than 30 years, benefit levels have been kept lower than the cost of staying alive. On purpose. Campaigning on the back of cutting them even further is monstrous. The cruelty is the point.

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Ryan CrawCour @ryan.crawcour.social · 09/10/2026

It’s easy, if you want a party that will drive social welfare and tax reform, look after our planet and make things more affordable for the vast majority of Kiwis, party vote Greens (candidate vote Labour if you must) Anything else is a vote for National and by assoc a vote for ACT & NZF #nzpol

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Micah @rincewind.run · 08/10/2026

the reason “AI will create so much abundance we will have a utopian society” rhetoric falls so flat is that the people building it will never, ever share their bounty unless it is taken from them and we all know it

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Steve Reeves @stevereeves.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Or that there has been substantial consultation with staff

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Kat Tenbarge @kattenbarge.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Anthropic banning “abusive or cruel behavior” toward Claude in its new usage policies is proof to me that tech companies are going to moderate violence against AI before they ever moderate violence against women and minorities

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The Conversation AUNZ @aunz.theconversation.com · 09/10/2026

OpenAI released 722 new AI-generated mathematical papers at once – three have been retracted, and mathematicians are coming to grips with the rest.

theconversation.com

Is this the ‘mathocalypse’? Why OpenAI’s latest results dump has left mathematicians in shock

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Dan Slevin @danslevin.funeralsandsnakes.net · 09/10/2026

Book Hero also threatening the sustainability of many local independent book retailers through predatory pricing.

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Andrew @openpolicy.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Treating the acquisition of 'AI' tools for all tertiary education institutions in Aotearoa as merely 'a commercial matter' seems like something way beyond folly given the likely impact on teaching, learning, assessment, research, etc. Not to mention the privacy and theft of IP implications. #nzpol

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Steve Reeves @stevereeves.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Be good if just for once reporters like this explained WHY a small budget deficit is a good thing. Just something basic like that, please.

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Stephanie Rodgers 🍉 @bootstheory.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

IF you build a system that requires a certain number of *employable people* to not have jobs How do you justify treating those people as scum? Let's make THAT the topic of debate, if we really simply unavoidably must continue to pretend ~the economy~ is all that matters

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Alan (not ekshully a B'Stard) @alans-world.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

#NZpol This scumbag govt doesn't get people as actual human beings. And the poorest? Ah. Mere line items. "Errors" on a spreadsheet mucking up the look of self-serving KPIs. It's ALL deliberate because WE KNOW this DOESN'T FUCKING WORK and *THEY KNOW* WE KNOW IT DOESN'T — but THEY'LL DO IT ANYWAY.

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Mountain Tui @mountaintui.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Nearly 15% of working population on jobseekers, 80,000 above National's target as Coalition's job cuts, record biz failures & cost of living results in 220,000 Kiwis on jobseekers while ~160,000 so far leave permanently. Their answer: cut benefits, cut youth off benefits & drive more into poverty

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Antonio E. Porreca 🐳 @aeporreca.org · 07/10/2026

The Association for Human Mathematics (AHM) statement on OpenAI’s October 6 release of mathematical documents just dropped! www.ahmath.org/statements

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Steve Reeves @stevereeves.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Yet the Unis want us to go on admitting them as though things are OK At one end we see bright, hopeful youngsters, at the other, just about to graduate, we see youngsters trying to keep themselves together in the face of 100s of job applications, most of which don't even get the decency of a reply

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Te Ara Paerangi Com - Research Advocacy Capability @te-ara-paerangi.community · 07/10/2026

Very hard here and pretty much everywhere else on the planet. The rich succeeded in commoditising that kind of knowledge. The 'overproduction' of STEM graduates is on purpose. That means they are no longer special enough to get good money and stable employment. The exploitation machine goes brrrr.

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Steve Reeves @stevereeves.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

And those graduates are finding it really hard to get jobs in NZ. People with good STEM degrees are out of work. A huge social and cultural problem, yet again, being stoked by right-wingers.

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Te Ara Paerangi Com - Research Advocacy Capability @te-ara-paerangi.community · 07/10/2026

I think there is an argument that the push for STEM above all else is their doing. The destruction of the humanities in higher ed. is because they think it has no value for them. Our current government is one example of this handy work. The US is clearly doing the same as are some in Europe. #NZPOL

en.wikipedia.org

Smaug - Wikipedia

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jonathansgamecast.bsky.social @jonathansgamecast.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Ok BUT also random drug tests for the millionaires and billionaires getting government contracts too. Why? Because if you're gonna make poors stay off drugs for 372.55 a week then you should expect the ceos getting part of the $52 billion in government spending to do the same. #nzpol

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Jolisa Gracewood @nzdodo.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Translation of this chart: people with $20,000+ in spare change are about THREE times more likely (2.89) to support the current political situation, as to be interested in helping change it. Are billionaires immoral? Dunno, but the data sure suggests the casually wealthy may be a tad biased. #nzpol

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Frank @fmacskasy.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

How about some jobs instead!?! Hundreds apply for just one vacancy! If this is the best housing allowance bludger Louise Upston can do, she is a total failure. www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

rnz.co.nz

National promises random drug testing for jobseeker beneficiaries

National is promising to introduce random drug testing for those on the jobseeker benefit to ensure they're "ready for work".

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Dr Bex @drbex.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

All of this to carve out a so-called "saving" of $580M over 4 years. Barely anything in the scheme of things. And it won't be a "saving" it'll end up costing us five times this in health, justice, crime, mental health, and misery.

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David Clegg @delphijunkie.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

If it's ok for National MPs to get pissed on the job and abuse staff members, a wee toke is the least they should allow for people who can't get a job in the market they've crushed.

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Steve Reeves @stevereeves.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Why does the current Govt hate the people on this country??? Take a look at the details here...all it will do is increase suffering. Is that the point? Do they hate that much? I guess hatred is all they have left. www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

rnz.co.nz

National promises random drug testing for jobseeker beneficiaries

National is promising to introduce random drug testing for those on the jobseeker benefit to ensure they're "ready for work".

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David Slack @davidslack.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Johnny had four bed legs but he has lost three of them. How many does he have left? And is it safe now to go into a room with him?

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kyle @kyledchurch.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

a vote for any of the current coalition parties looks to be a vote for the wholesale rollback of human rights in NZ

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

One thing I find endlessly funny about the rise of AI is that it has revealed that there is a large number of people who believe that the reason they wrote essays at school or university is their teachers were desperately waiting for them to provide a definite answer to “Lear: what’s up with him?”

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Vote for hope in November! Toitū te Tiriti 🇳🇿 @mrjeffhowell.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

This. The Mowbrays hail from Cambridge, not that you'd ever know it. Total and complete radio silence on giving anything back to the region they grew up in. At this stage, grateful residents would settle for their fingernail clippings but...

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Clint Fern @clintfern.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

My best bit of the debate was Kent's summation.

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Steve Reeves @stevereeves.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Never mind the quality...feel the length

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Phil Wheeler @phil-wh.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

When corporate senior management up-failing is your hammer, every problem looks like a nail. Once again for the kids at the back: "A country is not a business!"

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Jonathan Coe @jonathancoe.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Ever since I first saw it, this scene has epitomised Amerlcan elegance for me. I wrote a short story about it for Radio 4 (never broadcast) and it's why I drink Gibsons even though nobody who works in a bar these days knows what they are. A perfect scene - RIP Eva Marie Saint.

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PontsticInsect @keltikidea.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

It was then they realised that it wasn't the task that was the point, it was the way you used your mind to complete it. But by then, it was all too late....

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Ms Hooper @mshooper.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

The greenhouse gases that cause global warming have increased to new record levels in New Zealand's atmosphere, new data shows. At the same time, the country's climate is changing, with warmer annual temperatures and a greater proportion of rain falling during extreme events. #nzpol

rnz.co.nz

Greenhouse gases hit record levels in New Zealand's atmosphere, new data shows

The greenhouse gases that cause global warming have increased to new record levels in New Zealand's atmosphere, new data shows.

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Ryan CrawCour @ryan.crawcour.social · 06/10/2026

Imagine coming 3rd in a 2 person debate, and this is your response. #nzpol

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Steve Reeves @stevereeves.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Dead cat strategy: distract from the huge and already damaging environmental and social consequences.

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Jolisa Gracewood @nzdodo.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

The incumbent came third. *in a poll of the studio audience, which was made up of undecided voters, population-weighted. bsky.app/profile/danx...

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Dave @dpdiver.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Hipkins and Luxon would rather piss on 4.5 million of us, than piss off 2828 ultra rich people who are, or who have realistic ambitions to be, billionaires. #nzpol

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