David Spurrett
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doctorspurt.bsky.social
David Spurrett
@doctorspurt.bsky.social

Philosopher, working on evolution of mechanisms of action selection, and their variously situated subversion. https://davidspurrett.com/

Philosophy 23%
Psychology 21%
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Hello new followers. I'm a philosopher of cognitive science working on a book called 'Engines of Hostility'. Recent papers that inform the book are:
(1) "Hostile Scaffolding" (Timms & Spurrett)
(2) "Fashioning Affordances" (Spurrett & Brancazio)
(3) "On Hostile and Oppressive Affective Technology."
Something compelled me to make this

They could re-use this gag:
Statler: Wake up you old fool. You slept through the show.
Waldorf: Who's a fool? You watched it.

Yes, he'd be dire.
Was driving my kids to school and the first thing on the radio was reporting about Trump's video depicting the Obamas as apes and I think many people still don't fully appreciate what it means to have to raise Black children in a country where the president is so brazenly and consistently racist

LBC 'journalism' would rather not call racism what it is.

When I watched season 1 of 'Westworld' back in the day I kept thinking it was kinda lazy or unimaginative writing that the (very rich) guests' main goals in the park seemed to be killing and f*cking without consequence and with 'consent' an utter irrelevance. Seems I was wrong.
The New York Times has finally covered the Trump video of Obama as an ape — and they are still providing cover for him. Fuck the Times.
No joke: I got angry hate mail today for writing an obituary of a Black woman scientist—because the person felt she did didn’t deserve the recognition.

Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Gladys Mae West obituary: mathematician who pioneered GPS technology
She made key contributions to US cold-war science despite facing huge barriers as a Black woman.
www.nature.com

If you don't already know the Klinkenborg, Damon, then you are in for a major treat!

Probably not an 'essay' but the first thing that came to my mind is Verlyn Klinkenborg's "Several short sentences about writing". (That Saunders essay is lovely.)

Yes, that seems especially clear here, with the feedback scripts, and the ways the 'team' interactions facilitate division of labour, etc. A zone of proximal dev tools, if you will.

Reposted by David Spurrett

Somebody created an Reddit clone exclusively populated by personal digital agents and let them interact with each other. It’s bonkers, fascinating and terrifying in equal measure.

www.forbes.com/sites/amirhu...
An Agent Revolt: Moltbook Is Not A Good Idea
OpenClaw is a breakthrough AI assistant. Moltbook, its new social network for agents, is a security catastrophe waiting to happen. Here's why you should avoid it.
www.forbes.com
We got Palantir's user guide for ELITE, the tool they made for ICE: www.404media.co/here-is-the-...
Here is the User Guide for ELITE, the Tool Palantir Made for ICE
404 Media is publishing a version of the user guide for ELITE, which lets ICE bring up dossiers on individual people and provides a “confidence score” of their address.
www.404media.co
New from 404 Media: here is the user guide for ELITE, the tool Palantir made for ICE. A map shows people on a map; ICE clicks them, brings up their dossier. ICE uses to find which neighborhoods to target. We obtained it, you can now read the document for yourself: www.404media.co/here-is-the-...
Here is the User Guide for ELITE, the Tool Palantir Made for ICE
404 Media is publishing a version of the user guide for ELITE, which lets ICE bring up dossiers on individual people and provides a “confidence score” of their address.
www.404media.co

Yes! Neurons are one cool technology for cognition, but goal-tracking response to contingencies goes pretty much all the way down, and is worth recognising as cognitive.
"We are bearing witness to what fear can do to the health of a community"
A poignant piece @NEJM about the Minneapolis devastation
"We care for our patients because they are human beings. Our patients are being harmed. People are dying unnecessarily."
www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

Reposted by David Spurrett

After years of corporations like Nintendo suing regular people for fan projects, of course people want to see LLM companies face the same consequences.
A phenomenon I find interesting is the yearning for corporations to launch copyright nukes on the AI companies. Which is to say there is such a feeling of hopelessness and a kind of legal void around this stuff that many people are demanding someone, anyone, do something about it in court.
Google’s new world AI model tool let me generate a bunch of Nintendo-inspired games. Including one featuring Link with a paraglider! Gift link: www.theverge.com/news/869726/...
Oh our Minneapolis, I hear your voice
Singing through the bloody mist
We’ll take our stand for this land
And the stranger in our midst

Directed by Thom Zimny
Edited by Thom Zimny and Samuel Shapiro
Production Footage: Pam Springsteen and Thom Zimny
Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Lyric Video)
YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen
youtu.be

Reposted by Anne Applebaum, Mariana Mazzucato, Stephen M. Walt , and 181 more

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.

Stay free
Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)
YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen
youtu.be
First post of the year, new paper out today: we present possibly the biggest case of systematic Measurement Schmeasurement in tech use. It seems that most studies on gaming (videogame) addiction/disorder haven't measured gaming after all. This research took years, so long 🧵 doi.org/10.1098/rsos...
Confusion in gaming disorder measurement
Abstract. Measurement is important for the scientific programmes of addictive behaviours. In the present study, we investigated the measurement of gaming d
doi.org

Reposted by David Spurrett

"There’s an extremely hurtful narrative going around that my product, a revolutionary new technology that exists to scam the elderly and make you distrust anything you see online, is harmful to society."
Please Don’t Say Mean Things about the AI That I Just Invested a Billion Dollars In
“[Nvidia CEO] Jensen Huang Is Begging You to Stop Being So Negative About AI” — Headline from Gizmodo - - — Guys, enough is enough. Bullying is a s...
buff.ly
"I think it's no surprise that a company run by a man who sat behind Trump at his inauguration, and donated to the destruction of the White House, has taken a stance that helps ICE agents retain anonymity."

Scoop from @davidgilbert.bsky.social
Meta Is Blocking Links To ICE List on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads
Users of Meta's social platforms can no longer share links to ICE List, a website listing what it claims are the names of thousands of DHS employees.
www.wired.com

Reposted by David Spurrett

The BMJ @bmj.com · 14d
ICE agents are using an app developed by Palantir that draws on the health records of millions of Americans to find and detain illegal immigrants
www.bmj.com/content/392/...

Cool, and thank you! (I'm working on a book-length treatment of hostility, including updating and expanding the ideas in that scaffolding paper.)

Yes, and "attentional landscaping" is such a good term for it. (I sometimes say 'curating the attentional landscape' but using 'landscaping' as a verb is better.) Going to read Browne & Watzl shortly, and will look out for published versions of the others!

Rest in Peace Alex Jeffrey Pretti🙏🏾 The VA ICU Nurses send him off right 💔
I mostly just stay off Twitter altogether but after double checking that the Walter Hudson post was still up I ran across this and just had to share so the Romancelandians who bought hand warmers could hear about the PROFESSIONAL GRADE LOGISTICS.
How many versions of the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) exist? And how much does this affect research using the IGT? More than you might think. 🧵
Methodological Flexibility in the Iowa Gambling Task Undermines Interpretability: A Meta-method Review: https://osf.io/4g3vr
A coworker took this from her apartment. I haven't seen a crowd this size before. Maybe the first Women's March? But it was much much warmer that day. ICE OUT OF MINNESOTA!