Rua M. Williams
@fractalecho.bsky.social
Common Cyborg | NB ND Mad Bean | Disability and Epistemology | Research Ethics and Dissensus
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Rua M. Williams
@fractalecho.bsky.social
· Oct 11
This book is titled “Disabling Intelligences” for many reasons. First, because so-called “AI” is built from historical commitments to the excision of disability from the classification of humanity.
link.springer.com/book/10.1007/9…
link.springer.com/book/10.1007/9…
Reposted by Rua M. Williams
It’s less we assume sentience is speech (see: animals) but that GenAI convincingly generates the affect of personhood (there’s a fun Japanese word for this - sonzai kan).
Coupled with AI hype and a mechanical model of consciousness, we have a perfect storm.
Coupled with AI hype and a mechanical model of consciousness, we have a perfect storm.
Grok can't apologize. Grok can, when prompted, generate a word sequence that is statistically similar to the colloquial phrases we think of as "apologies," but Grok cannot actually apologize because Grok isn't sentient. But we all have a lot of trouble with this because we assume sentience IS speech
January 2, 2026 at 5:48 AM
It’s less we assume sentience is speech (see: animals) but that GenAI convincingly generates the affect of personhood (there’s a fun Japanese word for this - sonzai kan).
Coupled with AI hype and a mechanical model of consciousness, we have a perfect storm.
Coupled with AI hype and a mechanical model of consciousness, we have a perfect storm.
Reposted by Rua M. Williams
I aspire to be generous in my reading, interlocution, research, citations, and collaboration. Not because I expect reciprocity (tho don't get it twisted: that Would be nice), but because it makes this career life bearable and not a pit of vipers. That's all.
April 20, 2024 at 4:44 AM
I aspire to be generous in my reading, interlocution, research, citations, and collaboration. Not because I expect reciprocity (tho don't get it twisted: that Would be nice), but because it makes this career life bearable and not a pit of vipers. That's all.
Reposted by Rua M. Williams
Collaborative community organizing goes for academic research and citational praxis too
March 22, 2025 at 5:49 PM
Collaborative community organizing goes for academic research and citational praxis too
Hahahahhaha
Until AI can interact with my microaggressive coworkers for me it DEFINITELY cannot take away tasks I hate.
The desire for AI has been expressed as “taking away the tasks we hate.” But who designates contemptable tasks? And what does our contempt for this work say about how we regard the people who do it?
December 31, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Hahahahhaha
Reposted by Rua M. Williams
This is a fundamentally Crip perspective in my view. Ableist systems require and perform ranking, prioritisation and notification of sentient life. Ability, completeness, enclosure and distinction -- not to mention the fetishization of the impossibility which is 'independence'
December 31, 2025 at 9:30 AM
This is a fundamentally Crip perspective in my view. Ableist systems require and perform ranking, prioritisation and notification of sentient life. Ability, completeness, enclosure and distinction -- not to mention the fetishization of the impossibility which is 'independence'
I always get so excited to go to a design museum and then it's always just edgy furniture and I remember I am not a designer
December 30, 2025 at 9:52 PM
I always get so excited to go to a design museum and then it's always just edgy furniture and I remember I am not a designer
Reposted by Rua M. Williams
“Technology and History: ‘Kranzberg’s Laws’,” was published in Technology and Culture in *1986*— that's *forty fucking years ago* people— & it was delivered as his (Kranzberg's) presidential address to the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) the year before that, so we're rolling up on 41…
December 29, 2025 at 10:22 PM
“Technology and History: ‘Kranzberg’s Laws’,” was published in Technology and Culture in *1986*— that's *forty fucking years ago* people— & it was delivered as his (Kranzberg's) presidential address to the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) the year before that, so we're rolling up on 41…
Reposted by Rua M. Williams
The other thing about normalizing gAI use in higher ed is that we are teaching our students that they cannot trust their own creativity, their own thoughts and brains, their own skills without having it reshaped/shellacked/transmogrified by LLMs. We’re setting them up for failure and dependence.
December 28, 2025 at 12:46 PM
The other thing about normalizing gAI use in higher ed is that we are teaching our students that they cannot trust their own creativity, their own thoughts and brains, their own skills without having it reshaped/shellacked/transmogrified by LLMs. We’re setting them up for failure and dependence.
I also highly recommend Goethe's Faust for a 2026 read.
December 29, 2025 at 12:57 AM
I also highly recommend Goethe's Faust for a 2026 read.
As you begin to build your 2026 reading lists (which is a thing I assume some people do), consider adding my really very short book on AI and Eugenics.
Disabling Intelligences:Legacies of Eugenics and How We are Wrong about AI has a lot in under 50k words.
link.springer.com/book/10.1007...
Disabling Intelligences:Legacies of Eugenics and How We are Wrong about AI has a lot in under 50k words.
link.springer.com/book/10.1007...
December 28, 2025 at 10:49 PM
As you begin to build your 2026 reading lists (which is a thing I assume some people do), consider adding my really very short book on AI and Eugenics.
Disabling Intelligences:Legacies of Eugenics and How We are Wrong about AI has a lot in under 50k words.
link.springer.com/book/10.1007...
Disabling Intelligences:Legacies of Eugenics and How We are Wrong about AI has a lot in under 50k words.
link.springer.com/book/10.1007...
This is a Christmas present to me, specifically.
another robot highlight for 2025: man wearing humanoid mocap suit kicks himself in the balls
December 27, 2025 at 8:31 PM
This is a Christmas present to me, specifically.
Often I am told by my peers, both senior and junior, that they're afraid to speak out like I do about various things, probably most especially challenging specific research or teaching norms more than broader (and more pressing) political issues. And I'm always confused by it.
December 27, 2025 at 6:37 PM
Often I am told by my peers, both senior and junior, that they're afraid to speak out like I do about various things, probably most especially challenging specific research or teaching norms more than broader (and more pressing) political issues. And I'm always confused by it.
Reposted by Rua M. Williams
Agree
I worked in a school for children with profound disabilities and had to counter argue weekly with non disabled people who said “chat gpt is a disability aid, it helps students to write”. No, it does not, and in fact it steals work from other disabled creators- it isn’t safe or an aid.
I worked in a school for children with profound disabilities and had to counter argue weekly with non disabled people who said “chat gpt is a disability aid, it helps students to write”. No, it does not, and in fact it steals work from other disabled creators- it isn’t safe or an aid.
Stories about Meta's glasses "helping" blind people infuriate me. Ah yes. Because the greatest indignity is having to ask people for help. Never mind that relying on such technology 1. Absolves society from ever making any serious efforts to re-examine its values and practices
December 27, 2025 at 6:21 AM
Agree
I worked in a school for children with profound disabilities and had to counter argue weekly with non disabled people who said “chat gpt is a disability aid, it helps students to write”. No, it does not, and in fact it steals work from other disabled creators- it isn’t safe or an aid.
I worked in a school for children with profound disabilities and had to counter argue weekly with non disabled people who said “chat gpt is a disability aid, it helps students to write”. No, it does not, and in fact it steals work from other disabled creators- it isn’t safe or an aid.
Reposted by Rua M. Williams
Every single shitty and intrusive technology techbros want to make ubiquitous, they try to justify with a story about how it will help disabled people.
Self-driving cars and blind people, voice activated tech and physical disabilities, etc. But that’s never really the reason they want to do it.
Self-driving cars and blind people, voice activated tech and physical disabilities, etc. But that’s never really the reason they want to do it.
December 27, 2025 at 9:09 AM
Every single shitty and intrusive technology techbros want to make ubiquitous, they try to justify with a story about how it will help disabled people.
Self-driving cars and blind people, voice activated tech and physical disabilities, etc. But that’s never really the reason they want to do it.
Self-driving cars and blind people, voice activated tech and physical disabilities, etc. But that’s never really the reason they want to do it.
Stories about Meta's glasses "helping" blind people infuriate me. Ah yes. Because the greatest indignity is having to ask people for help. Never mind that relying on such technology 1. Absolves society from ever making any serious efforts to re-examine its values and practices
December 27, 2025 at 2:25 AM
Stories about Meta's glasses "helping" blind people infuriate me. Ah yes. Because the greatest indignity is having to ask people for help. Never mind that relying on such technology 1. Absolves society from ever making any serious efforts to re-examine its values and practices
Reposted by Rua M. Williams
That time of year again!
December 26, 2025 at 8:09 PM
That time of year again!
I just read an article in Japanese about how the prime minister wants to use AI to solve the Japanese labor shortage and "protect Japanese culture and stabilize society".
What they didn't say was that they invision AI as a way to stop immigration.
*tears hair*
(this logic is not unique to Japan)
What they didn't say was that they invision AI as a way to stop immigration.
*tears hair*
(this logic is not unique to Japan)
December 26, 2025 at 11:30 PM
I just read an article in Japanese about how the prime minister wants to use AI to solve the Japanese labor shortage and "protect Japanese culture and stabilize society".
What they didn't say was that they invision AI as a way to stop immigration.
*tears hair*
(this logic is not unique to Japan)
What they didn't say was that they invision AI as a way to stop immigration.
*tears hair*
(this logic is not unique to Japan)
The student feedback that really matters.
December 24, 2025 at 6:10 PM
The student feedback that really matters.
Reposted by Rua M. Williams
Just sharing this, can’t think of anyone better equipped to speak on this topic than Rua
This book is titled “Disabling Intelligences” for many reasons. First, because so-called “AI” is built from historical commitments to the excision of disability from the classification of humanity.
link.springer.com/book/10.1007/9…
link.springer.com/book/10.1007/9…
December 23, 2025 at 10:01 PM
Just sharing this, can’t think of anyone better equipped to speak on this topic than Rua
Reposted by Rua M. Williams
“The longer I live, the more convinced I am that this planet is used by other planets as a lunatic asylum.”
- George Bernard Shaw
- George Bernard Shaw
December 23, 2025 at 4:47 AM
“The longer I live, the more convinced I am that this planet is used by other planets as a lunatic asylum.”
- George Bernard Shaw
- George Bernard Shaw
Reposted by Rua M. Williams
New from @fractalecho.bsky.social and me. Our piece focuses on one person and organization, but it's about a seedy grift that permeates disability inclusion, in which those who aspire to “be the only” emulate those whose power they worship. buttondown.com/TYFYFL/archi...
December 22, 2025 at 8:26 PM
New from @fractalecho.bsky.social and me. Our piece focuses on one person and organization, but it's about a seedy grift that permeates disability inclusion, in which those who aspire to “be the only” emulate those whose power they worship. buttondown.com/TYFYFL/archi...
Reposted by Rua M. Williams
my latest piece for @techpolicypress.bsky.social focuses on how #surveillance tech can chill the first amendment-protected rights of disabled people to engage in protest.
protest is a vital check on authoritarianism, and everyone should be able to access it.
www.techpolicy.press/surveillance...
protest is a vital check on authoritarianism, and everyone should be able to access it.
www.techpolicy.press/surveillance...
Surveillance Tech Heightens Chilling Effects for Disabled Protestors | TechPolicy.Press
AI surveillance, mask bans, and biometrics threaten disabled people’s ability to exercise their right to assemble peaceably, argues Ariana Aboulafia.
www.techpolicy.press
December 16, 2025 at 3:29 PM
my latest piece for @techpolicypress.bsky.social focuses on how #surveillance tech can chill the first amendment-protected rights of disabled people to engage in protest.
protest is a vital check on authoritarianism, and everyone should be able to access it.
www.techpolicy.press/surveillance...
protest is a vital check on authoritarianism, and everyone should be able to access it.
www.techpolicy.press/surveillance...
Reposted by Rua M. Williams
look if you watched as much anime for 8 year old girls as I do you'd know there is a stark difference between the personality of a girl who is blue and a girl who is purple. In fact they couldn't be more different.
October 28, 2025 at 2:43 PM
look if you watched as much anime for 8 year old girls as I do you'd know there is a stark difference between the personality of a girl who is blue and a girl who is purple. In fact they couldn't be more different.
Light and sound overstimulation is a public health issue. Do you have any idea how unstoppable I'd be if every fucking public space didn't make me violently ill? Imagine how much more regulated and patient people would be if they weren't constantly assaulted by flashing lights and overloud music.
December 16, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Light and sound overstimulation is a public health issue. Do you have any idea how unstoppable I'd be if every fucking public space didn't make me violently ill? Imagine how much more regulated and patient people would be if they weren't constantly assaulted by flashing lights and overloud music.