Alja Isakovic @iAlja
@ialja.bsky.social
Improving tech & education with imagination, innovation, and inclusivity. Rethinking the stories we tell in tech and elsewhere. 🏳️🌈 (She/they)
ℹ️ https://ialja.com
💬 https://blog.ialja.com/
🌳 ✨ 💻
ℹ️ https://ialja.com
💬 https://blog.ialja.com/
🌳 ✨ 💻
Pinned
Nurturing conditions for kindness & learning in public online spaces
Reflecting on how the US TikTok ban accidentally revealed how we can have calmer and more meaningful conversations, despite the common belief that the internet is a hostile place inhabited by trolls a...
blog.ialja.com
Amidst the darkness, kindness still grows in between the cracks, even in enshittified places like TikTok.
Here are some of my reflections of the kindness & calm witnessed on #WorldTok in the past couple of weeks: blog.ialja.com/2025/02/04/n...
We can still imagine a better future together! 💜
Here are some of my reflections of the kindness & calm witnessed on #WorldTok in the past couple of weeks: blog.ialja.com/2025/02/04/n...
We can still imagine a better future together! 💜
🌑 This New Moon, @m3metix.bsky.social and I wonder about the state and practice of rest in these end times: tethix.substack.com/p/rest-in-en...
🌑 Rest in End Times
Wondering about the state and practice of rest in these end times.
tethix.substack.com
April 28, 2025 at 7:49 AM
🌑 This New Moon, @m3metix.bsky.social and I wonder about the state and practice of rest in these end times: tethix.substack.com/p/rest-in-en...
Reposted by Alja Isakovic @iAlja
More great news for the AI brand
NEW: A secretive surveillance company is building "AI persona" bots for cops intended to gather evidence on people. Personas include "college protesters," "radicalized" divorced moms, children. We have docs that shows how it works and what cops can do with it:
www.404media.co/this-college...
www.404media.co/this-college...
This ‘College Protester’ Isn’t Real. It’s an AI-Powered Undercover Bot for Cops
Massive Blue is helping cops deploy AI-powered social media bots to talk to people they suspect are anything from violent sex criminals all the way to vaguely defined “protesters.”
www.404media.co
April 17, 2025 at 1:53 PM
More great news for the AI brand
Reposted by Alja Isakovic @iAlja
“Why am I so sad today?” I ask myself after staring at my little handheld sadness machine and clicking all the sad little things that will definitely make me sad
April 17, 2025 at 5:25 PM
“Why am I so sad today?” I ask myself after staring at my little handheld sadness machine and clicking all the sad little things that will definitely make me sad
Thank you, dear Earthian brother @m3metix.bsky.social, for another beautifully meandering, messy, and wonderfully human yarn 💜 We invite you to tune in if you're just as tired of role-playing as a machine as we are.
🎧 tethix.substack.com/p/how-might-...
🎧 tethix.substack.com/p/how-might-...
How might we stop role-playing as machines?
Sceptical of the promises of AI salvation, we question our internalised industrial logic and explore how we might find our way back to human being and belonging.
tethix.substack.com
April 18, 2025 at 12:48 PM
Thank you, dear Earthian brother @m3metix.bsky.social, for another beautifully meandering, messy, and wonderfully human yarn 💜 We invite you to tune in if you're just as tired of role-playing as a machine as we are.
🎧 tethix.substack.com/p/how-might-...
🎧 tethix.substack.com/p/how-might-...
Reposted by Alja Isakovic @iAlja
Reposting with alt text, because the space craft debris really sits look like pieces of a dragon. I don't know the scale. Photo credit: Rachid Zeinddin
www.facebook.com/share/p/15Ex...
www.facebook.com/share/p/15Ex...
March 30, 2025 at 8:35 AM
🌑 This New Moon, @m3metix.bsky.social and I share reflections on lives lost, mugs broken and repaired, and an invitation to give love one more chance before we collectively break under pressure beyond repair.
tethix.substack.com/p/grieving-f...
tethix.substack.com/p/grieving-f...
🌑 Grieving for End Times
Reflections on lives lost, mugs broken and repaired, and an invitation to give love one more chance before we collectively break under pressure beyond repair.
tethix.substack.com
March 29, 2025 at 5:47 PM
🌑 This New Moon, @m3metix.bsky.social and I share reflections on lives lost, mugs broken and repaired, and an invitation to give love one more chance before we collectively break under pressure beyond repair.
tethix.substack.com/p/grieving-f...
tethix.substack.com/p/grieving-f...
Reposted by Alja Isakovic @iAlja
OpenAI's move to allow generating "Ghibly stlye" images isn't just a cute PR stunt. It is an expression of dominance and the will to reject and refuse democratic values. It is a vulgar display of power.
https://tante.cc/2025/03/28/vulgar-display-of-power/
https://tante.cc/2025/03/28/vulgar-display-of-power/
Vulgar Display of Power
Hayao Miyasaki is the co-founder of Studio Ghibli, a Japanese animation studio known worldwide for their stunning, emotional, beautiful stories and movies. At the core of Studio Ghibli’s work is a deep engagement with questions of humanity. About what it means to be a human, about how to care for one another and the world […]
tante.cc
March 28, 2025 at 9:21 AM
OpenAI's move to allow generating "Ghibly stlye" images isn't just a cute PR stunt. It is an expression of dominance and the will to reject and refuse democratic values. It is a vulgar display of power.
https://tante.cc/2025/03/28/vulgar-display-of-power/
https://tante.cc/2025/03/28/vulgar-display-of-power/
Brilliant reflection on the myths and prophesies of techno-theology by my dear Earthian brother @m3metix.bsky.social. And beautifully interwoven with personal reflections and emotions in a way that only a human can write 💜
m3metix.substack.com/p/worship-at...
m3metix.substack.com/p/worship-at...
Worship at the temple of infinite compute
A mythopoetic take on the GTC keynote with NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang
m3metix.substack.com
March 28, 2025 at 8:21 AM
Brilliant reflection on the myths and prophesies of techno-theology by my dear Earthian brother @m3metix.bsky.social. And beautifully interwoven with personal reflections and emotions in a way that only a human can write 💜
m3metix.substack.com/p/worship-at...
m3metix.substack.com/p/worship-at...
Reposted by Alja Isakovic @iAlja
1. One of capitalism’s greatest successes is to shut down our imaginations. With the help of its favoured tools - neoliberalism and fascism - it persuades us that “there is no alternative”. Our first task is to re-ignite our moral imaginations and name our alternatives. 🧵
March 28, 2025 at 8:08 AM
1. One of capitalism’s greatest successes is to shut down our imaginations. With the help of its favoured tools - neoliberalism and fascism - it persuades us that “there is no alternative”. Our first task is to re-ignite our moral imaginations and name our alternatives. 🧵
Reposted by Alja Isakovic @iAlja
Earlier this week I have evidence to the Sci Tech Select Cttee on the digital centre of govt inquiry. I wrote up my prep notes as 2 short listicles and a slightly longer blog post.
No. 1: Let's make digital inclusion fun again!
www.careful.industries/blog/2025-3-...
No. 1: Let's make digital inclusion fun again!
www.careful.industries/blog/2025-3-...
Making Digital Inclusion Fun Again — Careful Industries
5 ways the Digital Inclusion Action Plan could be a bit more exciting.
www.careful.industries
March 28, 2025 at 7:21 AM
Earlier this week I have evidence to the Sci Tech Select Cttee on the digital centre of govt inquiry. I wrote up my prep notes as 2 short listicles and a slightly longer blog post.
No. 1: Let's make digital inclusion fun again!
www.careful.industries/blog/2025-3-...
No. 1: Let's make digital inclusion fun again!
www.careful.industries/blog/2025-3-...
Really cool (and sobering) visual story of the living and the built: biocubes.net
Biocubes
visualization of everything on earth
biocubes.net
March 18, 2025 at 8:21 AM
Really cool (and sobering) visual story of the living and the built: biocubes.net
Our latest @tethix.bsky.social Newmoonsletter brings you the 𝗘𝗺𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗵𝘆 𝗠𝗮𝗽 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗘𝗻𝗱 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀 and an invitation to not just let it go (in the words of wise Elsa ❄️), but to make space for things that bring us joy & hope in these dark times 🌱 tethix.substack.com/p/empathy-fo...
February 28, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Our latest @tethix.bsky.social Newmoonsletter brings you the 𝗘𝗺𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗵𝘆 𝗠𝗮𝗽 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗘𝗻𝗱 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀 and an invitation to not just let it go (in the words of wise Elsa ❄️), but to make space for things that bring us joy & hope in these dark times 🌱 tethix.substack.com/p/empathy-fo...
If you need a break from existential dread, take a deep breath, shake off any anger or stress you might be feeling right now, and join @m3metix.bsky.social & I as we help each other co-regulate and explore collective futurecrafting.
You're not alone 💜
🎧 tethix.substack.com/p/collective...
You're not alone 💜
🎧 tethix.substack.com/p/collective...
What’s the role AI and digital tech could play in collective futurecrafting?
We dare you to dream, to imagine ways of coming together, both online and onland, and ways of taking the future into our caring, loving hands.
tethix.substack.com
February 19, 2025 at 4:10 PM
If you need a break from existential dread, take a deep breath, shake off any anger or stress you might be feeling right now, and join @m3metix.bsky.social & I as we help each other co-regulate and explore collective futurecrafting.
You're not alone 💜
🎧 tethix.substack.com/p/collective...
You're not alone 💜
🎧 tethix.substack.com/p/collective...
A bit of humour and playfulness is often helpful to start challenging yet crucial conversations about the kind of world we want to live in. Do we want to save the AI or take a step back and image a better world for our children? Decisions, decisions … #SaveTheAI
February 17, 2025 at 12:14 PM
A bit of humour and playfulness is often helpful to start challenging yet crucial conversations about the kind of world we want to live in. Do we want to save the AI or take a step back and image a better world for our children? Decisions, decisions … #SaveTheAI
A good reminder: “AI needs the Web to remain a viable place where uncountable numbers of characters are transacted daily.”
hedgehogreview.com/web-features...
hedgehogreview.com/web-features...
The New Verbal Economy
Only through regular injections of human writing can the models improve and the machines stay up to date.
hedgehogreview.com
February 17, 2025 at 11:29 AM
A good reminder: “AI needs the Web to remain a viable place where uncountable numbers of characters are transacted daily.”
hedgehogreview.com/web-features...
hedgehogreview.com/web-features...
Reposted by Alja Isakovic @iAlja
Nobody can save the world on their own, but you don’t have to.
Citizens across the world are stepping up, working across communities, countries and continents to make a difference.
Will you join the collective in 2025?
medium.com/citizen-coll...
#citizencollective #peoplepower #CommunityAction
Citizens across the world are stepping up, working across communities, countries and continents to make a difference.
Will you join the collective in 2025?
medium.com/citizen-coll...
#citizencollective #peoplepower #CommunityAction
Citizen Future: why we need a new story of self and society
Our societies need a new narrative, and it starts by ditching both authoritarianism and consumerism
medium.com
January 12, 2025 at 9:39 AM
Nobody can save the world on their own, but you don’t have to.
Citizens across the world are stepping up, working across communities, countries and continents to make a difference.
Will you join the collective in 2025?
medium.com/citizen-coll...
#citizencollective #peoplepower #CommunityAction
Citizens across the world are stepping up, working across communities, countries and continents to make a difference.
Will you join the collective in 2025?
medium.com/citizen-coll...
#citizencollective #peoplepower #CommunityAction
“We don’t need any more irony-poisoned hot takes or cathartic, irreverent snark. We need to collectively decide what kind of world we actually do want, and what we’re willing to do to achieve it.” #WorldTok
You Can’t Post Your Way Out of Fascism
Authoritarians and tech CEOs now share the same goal: to keep us locked in an eternal doomscroll instead of organizing against them, Janus Rose writes.
www.404media.co
February 8, 2025 at 11:14 AM
“We don’t need any more irony-poisoned hot takes or cathartic, irreverent snark. We need to collectively decide what kind of world we actually do want, and what we’re willing to do to achieve it.” #WorldTok
This one is for all EU citizens: we need 1 million signatures to make psychedelic-assisted therapies available & affordable in Europe. Sign, share & learn more at: www.psychedelicare.eu
PsychedeliCare Initiative - PsychedeliCare.EU
LET’S CARE TOGETHER To improve mental wellbeing and enable access to psychedelic-assisted therapies in Europe, we just need 1 million signatures. Are you a European citizen? THE REASONS Today, in the ...
www.psychedelicare.eu
February 7, 2025 at 6:52 PM
This one is for all EU citizens: we need 1 million signatures to make psychedelic-assisted therapies available & affordable in Europe. Sign, share & learn more at: www.psychedelicare.eu
Reposted by Alja Isakovic @iAlja
In Paris listening to the fifth talk in a row on global AI risks to humanity, and not one mention yet of runaway AI energy demand pushing us over the climate brink
February 6, 2025 at 11:17 AM
In Paris listening to the fifth talk in a row on global AI risks to humanity, and not one mention yet of runaway AI energy demand pushing us over the climate brink
“... we urge policymakers, industry leaders and all stakeholders to acknowledge the true environmental costs of AI, to phase out fossil fuels throughout the technology supply chain, to reject false solutions, and to dedicate all necessary means to bring AI systems in line with planetary boundaries.”
Within Bounds: Limiting AI's environmental impact
Joint statement from civil society for the AI Action Summit Signed by over 100 organizations. If you share our concerns and demands that AI systems be made compatible with our planetary boundaries, an...
greenscreen.network
February 5, 2025 at 5:25 PM
“... we urge policymakers, industry leaders and all stakeholders to acknowledge the true environmental costs of AI, to phase out fossil fuels throughout the technology supply chain, to reject false solutions, and to dedicate all necessary means to bring AI systems in line with planetary boundaries.”
Trying out @bluescreen.blue short-form video client and reposting a video from #WorldTok to bring a bit of calm into your feeds.
February 5, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Trying out @bluescreen.blue short-form video client and reposting a video from #WorldTok to bring a bit of calm into your feeds.
Loving this post, we need to still make space for goodness or else we'll be consumed by the darkness. Not ignoring facts and reality, just making sure we also have space for imagining different stories.
quantumsocialchange.substack.com/p/oh-my-good...
quantumsocialchange.substack.com/p/oh-my-good...
Oh my goodness!
Teaching about climate change isn’t easy when the last drops of hope for limiting warming to 1.5C evaporate with every US presidential decree. In response, I'm making a quantum leap in how I teach.
quantumsocialchange.substack.com
February 5, 2025 at 12:29 PM
Loving this post, we need to still make space for goodness or else we'll be consumed by the darkness. Not ignoring facts and reality, just making sure we also have space for imagining different stories.
quantumsocialchange.substack.com/p/oh-my-good...
quantumsocialchange.substack.com/p/oh-my-good...
Amidst the darkness, kindness still grows in between the cracks, even in enshittified places like TikTok.
Here are some of my reflections of the kindness & calm witnessed on #WorldTok in the past couple of weeks: blog.ialja.com/2025/02/04/n...
We can still imagine a better future together! 💜
Here are some of my reflections of the kindness & calm witnessed on #WorldTok in the past couple of weeks: blog.ialja.com/2025/02/04/n...
We can still imagine a better future together! 💜
Nurturing conditions for kindness & learning in public online spaces
Reflecting on how the US TikTok ban accidentally revealed how we can have calmer and more meaningful conversations, despite the common belief that the internet is a hostile place inhabited by trolls a...
blog.ialja.com
February 5, 2025 at 11:32 AM
Amidst the darkness, kindness still grows in between the cracks, even in enshittified places like TikTok.
Here are some of my reflections of the kindness & calm witnessed on #WorldTok in the past couple of weeks: blog.ialja.com/2025/02/04/n...
We can still imagine a better future together! 💜
Here are some of my reflections of the kindness & calm witnessed on #WorldTok in the past couple of weeks: blog.ialja.com/2025/02/04/n...
We can still imagine a better future together! 💜
A good example of how it's worth exploring alternative providers that are making more responsible choices, such as using AI models with a lower carbon footprint.
It would still be interesting to see additional data on inference costs (the footprint of actually using the model).
It would still be interesting to see additional data on inference costs (the footprint of actually using the model).
AI or not AI? 🤖
Can an AI tool ever be aligned with an ethical and sustainable web?
I've talked with exactly.ai, a genAI tool going in an interesting direction because it aligns with my values about what the web should be.
exactly.ai/community/us...
Can an AI tool ever be aligned with an ethical and sustainable web?
I've talked with exactly.ai, a genAI tool going in an interesting direction because it aligns with my values about what the web should be.
exactly.ai/community/us...
Nicolas Paries on the ecological impact of AI
Nicolas Paries spoke to us about feeling confident integrating exactly.ai into design proposals, building eco-friendly websites and enabling autonomy for his clients.
exactly.ai
February 5, 2025 at 11:23 AM
A good example of how it's worth exploring alternative providers that are making more responsible choices, such as using AI models with a lower carbon footprint.
It would still be interesting to see additional data on inference costs (the footprint of actually using the model).
It would still be interesting to see additional data on inference costs (the footprint of actually using the model).
Reposted by Alja Isakovic @iAlja
February 4, 2025 at 9:19 AM