Dan Slimmon
@danslimmon.bsky.social
Techno-pessimist and software engineer and podcaster https://techblows.net/
Reposted by Dan Slimmon
"Ultimately, the collective strategy of AI companies threatens to deskill precisely those people who are essential for society to function. (...) automation of knowledge and culture by private companies is a worrying prospect – conjuring dystopian and outright fascistic scenarios."
“While the AI industry claims its models can “think,” “reason,” and “learn,” their supposed achievements rest on marketing hype and stolen intellectual labor. In reality, AI erodes academic freedom, weakens critical reading, and subordinates the pursuit of knowledge to corporate interests.”
AI Is Hollowing Out Higher Education
Olivia Guest & Iris van Rooij urge teachers and scholars to reject tools that commodify learning, deskill students, and promote illiteracy.
www.project-syndicate.org
November 16, 2025 at 8:16 PM
"Ultimately, the collective strategy of AI companies threatens to deskill precisely those people who are essential for society to function. (...) automation of knowledge and culture by private companies is a worrying prospect – conjuring dystopian and outright fascistic scenarios."
Reposted by Dan Slimmon
So when big industry reports say: this is the factor that matters, this is the construct that matters
we are allowed to say: why? What's your proof? Why this and not others?
And "it's what we did for the past x years" isn't a persuasive form of evidence. At all. It's just proof of convention.
we are allowed to say: why? What's your proof? Why this and not others?
And "it's what we did for the past x years" isn't a persuasive form of evidence. At all. It's just proof of convention.
November 15, 2025 at 5:20 PM
So when big industry reports say: this is the factor that matters, this is the construct that matters
we are allowed to say: why? What's your proof? Why this and not others?
And "it's what we did for the past x years" isn't a persuasive form of evidence. At all. It's just proof of convention.
we are allowed to say: why? What's your proof? Why this and not others?
And "it's what we did for the past x years" isn't a persuasive form of evidence. At all. It's just proof of convention.
November 14, 2025 at 9:02 PM
Reposted by Dan Slimmon
Lots of folks captioning aurora photos like "for a few minutes we didn't think about politics"
guess I'm built different, every time I'm out trying to see night sky stuff I frequently think about how much light pollution is entirely preventable with just a tiny bit of regulation
guess I'm built different, every time I'm out trying to see night sky stuff I frequently think about how much light pollution is entirely preventable with just a tiny bit of regulation
November 13, 2025 at 10:03 PM
Lots of folks captioning aurora photos like "for a few minutes we didn't think about politics"
guess I'm built different, every time I'm out trying to see night sky stuff I frequently think about how much light pollution is entirely preventable with just a tiny bit of regulation
guess I'm built different, every time I'm out trying to see night sky stuff I frequently think about how much light pollution is entirely preventable with just a tiny bit of regulation
Reposted by Dan Slimmon
I don't think you can stack nothingburgers like that. If you try, the top and bottom components implicitly form a new burger of their own, with the others as its contents. This would be a bunburger at the very least, which I wouldn't particularly want to eat, but it's not nothing.
it's so funny that alex jones was totally right about everything, the government is a bunch of drug-addled pedophiles and masked regime thugs are grabbing people off the streets, and now he has to pretend it's all a hoax
November 13, 2025 at 9:53 PM
I don't think you can stack nothingburgers like that. If you try, the top and bottom components implicitly form a new burger of their own, with the others as its contents. This would be a bunburger at the very least, which I wouldn't particularly want to eat, but it's not nothing.
Reposted by Dan Slimmon
RE starbucks picket line--the relevant detail is "picket line, do not cross." Pass that along. Proclaiming that you are in no danger of doing so because you are too aesthetically pure to let Starbucks coffee pass your lips is...unhelpful and does not give the impression you perhaps imagine it does.
November 13, 2025 at 1:56 PM
RE starbucks picket line--the relevant detail is "picket line, do not cross." Pass that along. Proclaiming that you are in no danger of doing so because you are too aesthetically pure to let Starbucks coffee pass your lips is...unhelpful and does not give the impression you perhaps imagine it does.
Reposted by Dan Slimmon
please inject this video directly into my veins. perfection
Russia presented its human-like AI robot. It fell down as it walked onto the stage.
November 13, 2025 at 3:50 PM
please inject this video directly into my veins. perfection
Reposted by Dan Slimmon
Every office has an executive tier whose emails are like:
saw on news , , can we replce complianc dept with web 3
and a worker tier whose emails are like:
Dear Jim,
First of all, I *love* this idea! Unfortunately, I spoke with Legal and identified a few issues with this approach. For starters…
saw on news , , can we replce complianc dept with web 3
and a worker tier whose emails are like:
Dear Jim,
First of all, I *love* this idea! Unfortunately, I spoke with Legal and identified a few issues with this approach. For starters…
Well, it's a little clearer now why billionaires are so invested in technology that produces better written emails.
November 13, 2025 at 12:10 AM
Every office has an executive tier whose emails are like:
saw on news , , can we replce complianc dept with web 3
and a worker tier whose emails are like:
Dear Jim,
First of all, I *love* this idea! Unfortunately, I spoke with Legal and identified a few issues with this approach. For starters…
saw on news , , can we replce complianc dept with web 3
and a worker tier whose emails are like:
Dear Jim,
First of all, I *love* this idea! Unfortunately, I spoke with Legal and identified a few issues with this approach. For starters…
Reposted by Dan Slimmon
This week, we wrap up our 2-parter on Jira! (Part 1: techblows.net/5; Part 2: techblows.net/6) Hear about:
- The Atlassian founders' matching $100M houses
- How Jira turns its own failures into more sales
- Jira's special way of alienating us from our creativity and initiative
- The Atlassian founders' matching $100M houses
- How Jira turns its own failures into more sales
- Jira's special way of alienating us from our creativity and initiative
November 12, 2025 at 4:59 PM
This week, we wrap up our 2-parter on Jira! (Part 1: techblows.net/5; Part 2: techblows.net/6) Hear about:
- The Atlassian founders' matching $100M houses
- How Jira turns its own failures into more sales
- Jira's special way of alienating us from our creativity and initiative
- The Atlassian founders' matching $100M houses
- How Jira turns its own failures into more sales
- Jira's special way of alienating us from our creativity and initiative
Those petty bitches in Greenwich Village were so jealous of Flattron that they renamed themselves "Flatirtron"
November 12, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Those petty bitches in Greenwich Village were so jealous of Flattron that they renamed themselves "Flatirtron"
Thank God we invented all these labor-saving technologies! Now we have so much more time for the work we REALLY hate
November 11, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Thank God we invented all these labor-saving technologies! Now we have so much more time for the work we REALLY hate
Reposted by Dan Slimmon
obviously you only sell almost $6 billion in stock when you're certain a company is going to get even more valuable
Japanese giant SoftBank said Tuesday it has sold its entire stake in tech giant Nvidia for $5.83 billion.
Click here to read more: https://cnb.cx/49LCIs8
Click here to read more: https://cnb.cx/49LCIs8
November 11, 2025 at 7:56 AM
obviously you only sell almost $6 billion in stock when you're certain a company is going to get even more valuable
Watching Hitchcock's "Lifeboat" (1944). Everybody's speaking in the mid-Atlantic accent, but they're in the middle of the Atlantic so it's appropriate
November 11, 2025 at 2:23 AM
Watching Hitchcock's "Lifeboat" (1944). Everybody's speaking in the mid-Atlantic accent, but they're in the middle of the Atlantic so it's appropriate
Reposted by Dan Slimmon
that's right
ironically i've said this since the beginning bc my early career was 100% consulting and
THIS IS HOW MOST LARGE COMPANIES USE CONSULTANTS
if you are at *all* savvy, you will realize that many so-called engagements are using you as a handy, deniable loincloth to cover their ass
ironically i've said this since the beginning bc my early career was 100% consulting and
THIS IS HOW MOST LARGE COMPANIES USE CONSULTANTS
if you are at *all* savvy, you will realize that many so-called engagements are using you as a handy, deniable loincloth to cover their ass
The entire point of AI is to have that magic mystery black box as origin point: unquestionable and impervious. A puppet god that tech companies control but are never responsible for.
Its not at all surprising though. Once stuff goes into the black box suddenly no one is accountable or responsible for the results! The best in corporate handwashing.
With an added bonus runaround of "only the vendor can fix it" trying to exhaust the customer so they give up.
With an added bonus runaround of "only the vendor can fix it" trying to exhaust the customer so they give up.
November 10, 2025 at 8:38 PM
that's right
ironically i've said this since the beginning bc my early career was 100% consulting and
THIS IS HOW MOST LARGE COMPANIES USE CONSULTANTS
if you are at *all* savvy, you will realize that many so-called engagements are using you as a handy, deniable loincloth to cover their ass
ironically i've said this since the beginning bc my early career was 100% consulting and
THIS IS HOW MOST LARGE COMPANIES USE CONSULTANTS
if you are at *all* savvy, you will realize that many so-called engagements are using you as a handy, deniable loincloth to cover their ass
Reposted by Dan Slimmon
a few months ago I said "having generative AI handle absolutely anything with regards to healthcare is a nightmare and should be banned" and a bunch of people made fun of me and called me stupid. anyways,
November 10, 2025 at 4:00 PM
a few months ago I said "having generative AI handle absolutely anything with regards to healthcare is a nightmare and should be banned" and a bunch of people made fun of me and called me stupid. anyways,
Reposted by Dan Slimmon
we should not be letting any company get away with blaming AI for their failures. I'm not even sure how we got to this point. people are like "it's just a tool" okay so is a forklift and we still hold somebody responsible when it goes wrong and hurts someone. this is YOUR AI!
November 10, 2025 at 4:05 PM
we should not be letting any company get away with blaming AI for their failures. I'm not even sure how we got to this point. people are like "it's just a tool" okay so is a forklift and we still hold somebody responsible when it goes wrong and hurts someone. this is YOUR AI!
Reposted by Dan Slimmon
Reposted by Dan Slimmon
your honor, every single crunchwrap is more supreme than this court
November 8, 2025 at 3:09 AM
your honor, every single crunchwrap is more supreme than this court
Just finished reading this fascinating Microsoft Research paper from 1998 about "Lumière," a project which directly informed Clippy. It presages many modern difficulties with automated help agents and AI systems arxiv.org/pdf/1301.7385
November 7, 2025 at 11:49 PM
Just finished reading this fascinating Microsoft Research paper from 1998 about "Lumière," a project which directly informed Clippy. It presages many modern difficulties with automated help agents and AI systems arxiv.org/pdf/1301.7385
Reposted by Dan Slimmon
if you are the public defense investigator who just subpoenaed Sam Altman on stage know that i love you and think you are a wonder upon this earth.
November 7, 2025 at 7:59 PM
if you are the public defense investigator who just subpoenaed Sam Altman on stage know that i love you and think you are a wonder upon this earth.
Reposted by Dan Slimmon
As a white man, I hate AI for appropriating my culture of being confidently wrong about things while using Reddit as a primary source.
November 6, 2025 at 2:56 PM
As a white man, I hate AI for appropriating my culture of being confidently wrong about things while using Reddit as a primary source.
Fantastic news: the tech industry has reinvented "quietly succumbing to censorship," with the modern twist that now you get to pay a fee to them
November 7, 2025 at 6:17 PM
Fantastic news: the tech industry has reinvented "quietly succumbing to censorship," with the modern twist that now you get to pay a fee to them
Reposted by Dan Slimmon
Fact-Checking Claims About Zohran Mamdani https://theonion.com/fact-checking-claims-about-zohran-mamdani/
November 7, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Fact-Checking Claims About Zohran Mamdani https://theonion.com/fact-checking-claims-about-zohran-mamdani/
Reposted by Dan Slimmon
In the last 30 years, digital technology ran out of ways to make people's lives substantively better. Now it's just a market where we can trade our old problems for newer problems at a terrible exchange rate
November 7, 2025 at 4:23 PM
In the last 30 years, digital technology ran out of ways to make people's lives substantively better. Now it's just a market where we can trade our old problems for newer problems at a terrible exchange rate