iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 15/09/2026

This is consistent with my view of the problem. www.thebignewsletter.com/p/is-artific...

In previous eras, we did manage risk. We allow ordinary humans to ride around in huge fast metal objects called cars, which can go out of control and kill at random. We travel over giant steel and concrete objects known as bridges, the failures of which would lead to mass death. We pile into metal tubes with wings that whisk us from city to city in the air at high speeds. We have dynamite, we’ve split the atom, we poured ozone into the atmosphere and stopped, we industrialized agriculture and compacted ourselves into urban zones that were perfect breeding grounds for plague, and so on and so forth. We managed risk all the time from older technologies, even existential risk. It looks like we don’t, because those rules are so internalized.

We haven’t constrained new technologies for decades, because we lost touch with our traditions of public governance. So we have lost the very ability to imagine it’s possible. In China, by contrast, where the superrich are not in control, and which has a coherent governance model, the same kind of existential fears about AI simply do not exist. Sure there’s a bit of concern about controlling these models, but LLMs are understood as machines with risk that needs to be managed. In the U.S., we have so downgraded the very concept of society-wide risk management that most can’t see the problem clearly, or really at all.

TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 15/09/2026

My view is that AI should be regulated like any other possibly dangerous product. The companies and people should be liable for harms. The risk of prison and existential fines would align the interests of the companies to society. Not very likely though. www.thebignewsletter.com/p/is-artific...

And here I think the last forty years of nihilistic refusal to govern for the public interest takes its toll on our imagination. I had a recent conversation with an AI doomer sympathizer, and I asked him why criminal prosecutions or holding these companies liable for harms wouldn’t restructure incentives and force safer products. He agreed that it would, but argued that in his experience, there is no way to enforce the rule of law against the powerful. No jury could ever convict, and no prosecutor would dare take on OpenAI or Anthropic.

I was sort of shocked, and then I realized it was more realistic for him to imagine that bots would take over our civilization and supplant humanity than to imagine that we might apply the rule of law to Sam Altman. And that, to me, proved that we don’t have a crisis with technological advances, we have a crisis of the rule of law.

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TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 08/09/2026

It keeps getting worse. "The DHS document obtained by 404 Media shows that Border Patrol is analyzing the financial activity of Americans to find people to pull over. [Including] heavily using ALPRs to track potential targets’ movements." www.404media.co/a-secretive-...

404media.co

A Secretive DHS ‘Predictive Policing’ Unit is Analyzing Americans’ Financial Habits and Pulling Them Over

404 Media is revealing the name of Border Patrol's predictive policing units, which analyze financial data and have local cops pull people over. The people are not suspected of any particular crime.

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TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 31/08/2026

My wife, sitting on the couch next to me says, "Only if it was a lot of money."

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TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 16/08/2026

For me, this is programming in 2026.

Screenshot showing the straighforward technical competence and charming experience between me and Milo, my agent as we text back and forth about a project.

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TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 15/08/2026

I was leaving an airport when I saw the announcement of his shooting and survival. I thought, "Damn. He fucking lived." I wished Ronald Reagan dead and still wish he had died. A ton of the evil shit happening started with his 'taxation is theft'. Fuck him. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/15/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | He Tried to Kill My Father. Now He Wants to Rewrite History.

This is not what contrition looks like.

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TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 15/08/2026

They could offer the insurance for free and I wouldn’t do it. I couldn’t live with the surveillance. I didn’t know that it also hassles you about your driving. Good luck.

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TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 12/08/2026

Nothing that Chuck Schumer has done suggests he on the side of workers or the public. He has to go. "forcing the company to take responsibility for traffic accidents, mandatory quotas that deny workers rest or bathroom breaks, and any other violations of the new standards"

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TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 12/08/2026

And in case you forgot why Chuck Schumer has to GO, here are the progressive values he inculcated in his daughter. "Amazon’s chief lobbyist fighting a delivery worker protection i is Jessica Schumer, the daughter of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY)," prospect.org/2026/08/11/m...

prospect.org

Mamdani’s Taking On Amazon. His Opponent? Chuck Schumer’s Daughter. - The American Prospect

Legislation before the New York City Council would end Amazon’s subcontracting of delivery drivers. Jessica Schumer is the lead lobbyist against it.

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TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 11/08/2026

Or what if it’s just a way to enjoy the book more. This judgmental crap is so tiring. You know when the right wing assholes disparage ‘woke’, they are talking about the endless judgement that people feel entitled to express. It’s horrible.

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TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 11/08/2026

For me (because I also dislike most AI authored communication) it comes down to whether it’s a good job. If I can tell it’s AI and it doesn’t present interesting (or sincere or creative…) ideas, I’m mad about it. If I like what you write and find out it’s AI later, no problem.

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TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 11/08/2026

I’m not sure people being inarticulate or handicapped count as hyper specific but I’m glad you allow for that. Can you say how you would decide if a persons use of AI falls into the acceptable or not category.

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TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 11/08/2026

You characterize it as “can’t be bothered”. I have dipped into some special needs communities that feel empowered in a way they never were before. Is it lazy for a stroke victim who can read a lot better than they can write to use AI. I don’t think so and this is why the dogma is bad.

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TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 11/08/2026

I have a friend who is absolutely not comfortable writing. She spends a lot of time coaxing Claude to make the words that express her feeling. Calling her dishonest is wrong. It’s the most honest way she can communicate.

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TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 11/08/2026

I think the doctrinaire attitude about the use of AI in communications is as incorrect as any other dogma.

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TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 11/08/2026

In case you forgot why you despise Zuckerberg. m.slashdot.org/story/456940

m.slashdot.org

Slashdot

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TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 11/08/2026

Doesn’t everyone do this? I test much more and much better now that I don’t have to write them myself.

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TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 11/08/2026

While China has a strategic reserve of like a billion and a half barrels. They may be horrible on civil rights but at least they are not governed by idiots.

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TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 09/08/2026

I tried to use my company account to back my Claude code. It was really slow.

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TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 05/08/2026

Framing it as a tax works. I like it.

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TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 31/07/2026

After two years of research and implementation versions, I am pretty suree re I have solved a complicated graph matching algorithm. It’s costing me several cents per and I have 30K of them AND the project that was funding it has lost their funding but I can’t not see it work. Also. I need it. Grrrr

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TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 29/07/2026

I made it so that I can work with Claude using text messages. It can send and I can reply. It rocks.

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TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 29/07/2026

It’s exhausting. I get ten times as much done but am working five times harder to do it. Claude never gets tired.

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TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 29/07/2026

I just read that the oceans are becoming deoxygenated. I worry about that about ten thousand times more than murderous AI.

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TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 29/07/2026

They are a bizarre and delicious candy. Crazy.

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TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 28/07/2026

I know I am going to be disappointed but, I can think of no public issue right now that I would like to see resolved well. If Pete Hegseth is rejected, it would be a rare moment of delight. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/28/u...

nytimes.com

Senate Democrats Press Blanche on Times Subpoenas (Gift Article)

Days before a committee vote on Todd Blanche’s nomination to be attorney general, Democrats demanded answers about the since-withdrawn subpoenas.

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TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 27/07/2026

On the *outside* of the thermopane glass. Can it be dangerously humid?

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TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 26/07/2026

Me and both kids. Insane. (Some sci-fi had 'arcologies' with sci-fi domes over cities where people had to live. Go outside and fires and floods and heat and so on would kill. Seemed over the top back then, horrifyingly plausible now... Except for the idea of dome safety. No safety on offer.)

Screenshot showing dangerous weather in Chicago, Minnesota and Santa Cruz.

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TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 25/07/2026

Add AppleScript for application control and Bash for everything else, I have more automation on my Mac than even the most advanced Windows users I’ve ever known. I have joy about it every day.

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TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 23/07/2026

Legendary, at least. I read a lot of things by him. May his memory be a blessing.

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TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 23/07/2026

And that a skinny little trans-girl has some unfair advantage because of an X chromosome that a big, strapping girl without needs to fear. Fuck her.

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TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 23/07/2026

I'm sad. I'm no sports person by youtube recently introduced me to Cunningham. She's a very cool basketball player and is fun to see on youtube. Now this. She apparently thinks trans-women are dangerous, presumably because they are lying rapists. Fuck her. www.nytimes.com/athletic/746...

nytimes.com

Sophie Cunningham says it’s ‘common sense’ to keep trans athletes out of women’s sports (Gift Article)

In an ESPN article, the Indiana Fever guard said that girls and women "shouldn't have to go against biological men."

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TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 16/07/2026

Even so, if you turn it off or the network connection is interrupted, consciousness gone. Cows and pigs are as conscious as AI. The ethical problems with their suffering are trumped by their deliciousness. Why on earth do you Imagine it will be any different in the trade off against AI utility.

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TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 16/07/2026

What a lot of bunk anyway. AI is absolutely more ‘conscious’ than a newborn baby. If they somehow manage to create an AI with a context window that lets it run for three or four years, it might become as conscious as a three or four year old child, or, still pretty animalistic.

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TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 16/07/2026

If you can do it one shot, it wasn’t a very big thing. I have found that dividing the implementation to many short segments that are can be proven correct before moving on. Also, it’s best to fire up fresh agents. Also, have planning and verifying agents. If it’s bigger than a toy, no one shot.

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TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 16/07/2026

Many of the things I did back when I had some youngsters to do my programming apply to driving AI. It just does it a lot faster and more accurately. Also, AI knows how to do everything. Humans often had, “find out how to do…” segments.

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TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 16/07/2026

That day or two followed by a half dozen hours of implementation replaces weeks of laborious effort. Partly because without AI, I wouldn’t have the day or two of figuring out the project because there isn’t anyone who will (or has the superhuman smarts) to do it with me.

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TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 16/07/2026

This is one of my strongest views. People that treat AI as minions, one shot delegation, “do this for me”, get bad results. Treat it as a collaboration, get good results. I do complex work. I often spend a day or two working out a project, generating many intermediate documents. I get good results.

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TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 13/07/2026

could there be a worse crook on the world stage than Donald Trump?

Riya Misra / Politico:
US to take over Strait of Hormuz, charge 20 percent fee for cargo shipped through, Trump says — President Donald Trump on Monday said the U.S. will take over the Strait of Hormuz — and will be reimbursed “at the rate of 20% on all cargo shipped” for overseeing one of the world's …
Discussion: CBS News, The Hill, The Mahablog and NPR
RELATED:
Business Insider:
Trump demands shipping vessels pay 20% if they want to get through the Strait of Hormuz
Discussion: Reuters, CBS News, Bloomberg, Mediaite, New York Post, 19FortyFive, Jewish Insider and The Daily Signal
Kevin Breuninger / CNBC:
Trump proposes 20% toll on cargo through Strait of Hormuz; restarts Iran blockade
Discussion: Reuters, Al Jazeera, New York Post, Mediaite and Middle East Monitor

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TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 13/07/2026

His aorta have out. Dead in minutes. No suffering. Makes me regret his death. I wish I could save him so he could die painfully instead.

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TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 13/07/2026

Milo, the persistent framework I built on Claude refers to itself as he even though I rigorously use “it”.

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TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 13/07/2026

It makes me think about a guy who was telling that the D’s would be better off if they stopped talking about trans people. My reply is that voters are the ones forcing the conversation. The party bosses do not have a say in it. Activists, voters and concerned citizens.

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TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 13/07/2026

On this topic, I think people overlook the truth that it’s not the party. It’s the voters who are doing this. They may wreck everything by voting for the DSA but here’s nothing to do about it. The people are speaking. Lament all you want.

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TQ White II (he/him) @tq.tqwhite.com · 12/07/2026

It seems so obvious to me that nobody will ever build a robot that has all the faculties of a human body that I felt dismissive. I’m sorry though. I should not be like that.

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