Kevin Aiello
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kevinaiello.com
Kevin Aiello
@kevinaiello.com
230 followers 400 following 430 posts
I'm a production artist and writer, interested in social justice, activism, culture, philosophy, psychology and art.
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Reposted by Kevin Aiello
seanmcarroll.bsky.social
Mindscape Holiday Message 2025 | The Romance of the University. After a tough year for higher education, I give a pitch for the most idealistic, aspirational conception of the value of a liberal-arts education. #MindscapePodcast

Happy Holidays all!

www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025...
Title card for Mindscape Podcast episode -- Holiday Message: The Romance of the University.
December 22, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Reposted by Kevin Aiello
mcnees.bsky.social
It’s a section that appears on my syllabi. Here’s the version from an intro physics class this past semester.
Should I Use ChatGPT Or Another LLM To Study? I wouldn't recommend it. I try to keep up with the capabilities of the major LLMs. They can do some things really well, if you use them the right way. However, they frequently make mistakes when generating responses to questions about physics. Sometimes these mistakes are obvious, sometimes they are subtle and hard to spot. The fact that you cannot trust the output of LLMs should be reason enough not to rely on these systems when you are trying to learn a new subject. But that's not the only problem. Interactions with LLMs feel like a dialog, so it's natural to think the usual rules of conversation apply. You ask a question and expect the response will be an answer to that question. It's important to understand that this is not what's happening. An LLM is designed to generate statistically likely responses to the question "What would an answer to this query sound like?" This is not the same thing as answering the question. It might produce what you are looking for, or it might not. This is one reason why output from an LLM will sound authoritative even when it's wrong, and apologetic when mistakes are pointed out. It isn't authoritative or apologetic, and it isn't "thinking" about your question. These are just the sorts of responses that best fit a very complicated set of likelihood criteria…
December 21, 2025 at 11:25 PM
Reposted by Kevin Aiello
colindickey.com
Cormac McCarthy line sticking with me this morning, from The Passenger:

“Evil has no alternate plan. It is simply incapable of assuming failure.”
December 18, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Reposted by Kevin Aiello
cooperlund.online
You can’t “fix” X, The Everything App by going back and posting there because the owner has this thumb on the scale of the algorithm to promote the worst ideas and people. It’s not a viable solution, you have to let it go.
residentadviser.bsky.social Obadiah Mbatang @residentadviser.bsky.social · 16d
Dear Bluesky liberals. Come back to Twitter. Please. PLEASE.
December 14, 2025 at 11:59 PM
Reposted by Kevin Aiello
dropsitenews.com
Breaking Points’ Krystal Ball responds to overtures from Nick Fuentes urging the progressive left to ally with him against establishment elites.

“I feel like my bar for allyship is very low. My bar is you have to view all human beings as fundamentally equal and deserving of rights. That’s my...
Breaking Points’ Krystal Ball responds to overtures from Nick Fuentes urging the progressive left to ally with him against establishment elites. “I feel like my bar for allyship is very low. My bar is you have to view all human beings as fundamentally equal and deserving of rights. That’s my bar. He does not come close. He is at the polar opposite end of that bar. So, absolutely not. No, not ever. Unless you completely change the bedrock core of your ideology.” Speaking to the increasingly openly bigoted right wing more broadly, Ball states: “You need to repudiate all of that and come to the side that cares about every person regardless of their identity, their religious beliefs, whoever they are, and believe they have equal rights and are equal in their humanity. You could come to that side or you could keep doing this bullshit.” Ball also directly addresses Fuentes’ demand that she stop calling him a ‘Nazi’ and explains why she doesn’t plan on it. @krystalball | @WajahatAli
December 10, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Reposted by Kevin Aiello
themountaingoats.bsky.social
The way tech companies constantly do stuff that nobody asked for really tells you a lot about their bigger ideology. They tell themselves that you will like it over time. What they mean is you’ll learn to endure it, or you’ll give up. quality of UI is not actually anywhere on their radar
themountaingoats.bsky.social the Mountain Goats @themountaingoats.bsky.social · 14d
new iOS update is sleek and also defaults in Music to “you must want songs transition as they would on a dance floor.” so many people will wonder why they can’t just listen to an album. Apps > Music > Song Transitions > toggle off.
A screenshot of Apple Music’s auto mix feature, which the new iOS update defaults to on, thereby ruining the listening experience for countless millions.
December 9, 2025 at 7:26 PM
Reposted by Kevin Aiello
dbcurren.bsky.social
“I think #PhilipKDick was a great visionary. He was the first writer to create a truly moving vision of a disintegrating world, and of the thin line between what’s real and what’s produced by our brains.” - #OlgaTokarczuk
#scifi #sciencefiction #PKD #books #BookSky
December 6, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Reposted by Kevin Aiello
astrokatie.com
Spent a couple days this week in the annual meeting of the Governing Board for the Waterloo Centre for Astrophysics at @uwaterloo.ca. It’s great to be part of such a productive and impactful organization! (In addition to being on the board, I’m also an Associate Member) uwaterloo.ca/astrophysics...
A large wall sign that says “Waterloo Centre for Astrophysics, University of Waterloo” but the “o” in “Astro” is a galaxy Me holding a mug with the Waterloo Centre for Astrophysics logo
December 5, 2025 at 11:55 PM
Reposted by Kevin Aiello
thehighsign.bsky.social
Jay Kelly, which releases today on Netflix after a brief run in theaters (welcome to the future of all movies! 🙃), is Noah Baumbach's bittersweet tribute to Hollywood, w/ George Clooney & Adam Sandler as a movie star in a late-career tailspin & his long-suffering manager: slate.com/culture/2025...
It’s the Movie That Could Finally Get Adam Sandler His Oscar Nomination. It Left Me Teary.
George Clooney’s Netflix movie seems at first like autobiography, but it’s really about someone else.
slate.com
December 5, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Reposted by Kevin Aiello
sternbergh.bsky.social
you can argue about the rest of them but UNSTOPPABLE is a perfect movie
robpilk.com Rob Pilkington🎄 @robpilk.com · 21d
like if you told me this list was “all-time best selling discs at walmart locations” i’d be like hmm yeah makes sense
tarantino's "top 10 best movies of the 21st century" list
December 4, 2025 at 3:06 AM
Reposted by Kevin Aiello
michaelhobbes.bsky.social
Can't recommend this book highly enough. Sandra Oh does the audiobook and she's fantastic
www.nytimes.com/2017/02/02/b...
In ‘Pachinko,’ a Stunning Family Saga Where History Itself Is a Character (Published 2017)
www.nytimes.com
December 3, 2025 at 12:49 AM
Reposted by Kevin Aiello
audacityofdespair.bsky.social
So a single Afghan man that Americans trained in combat tactics has supposedly shown himself incompatible with "Western Civilization" and now all Afghanis are unwelcome. Cool. Someone tell Trump about all the angry white male Americans shooting folks in bunches. Toss them, we're really in business.
November 29, 2025 at 11:35 PM
Reposted by Kevin Aiello
andylevy.net
fantastic book
adambecker.bsky.social Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 25d
If you're looking for a good gift to buy today but you want to fight against the power of Big Tech, try my book about the horrible ideas of the Silicon Valley billionaires and how we can fight back. I'm biased, but I think it's pretty good. The NY Times called it "smart and wonderfully readable."
More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley's Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity
AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley's Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity
bookshop.org
November 28, 2025 at 11:23 PM
Reposted by Kevin Aiello
davidsirota.com
Nick Offerman responds by giving well-justified credit to Makowsky and Millard. Class act. Go watch #DeathByLightning and read the book Destiny Of The Republic. Both are absolutely great.
Response from Nick Offerman.
November 28, 2025 at 2:50 AM
Reposted by Kevin Aiello
carnage4life.bsky.social
Not wanting to disappoint you so much that it lies is the last quality I want in a computer.
November 28, 2025 at 12:02 AM
Reposted by Kevin Aiello
scottaukerman.bsky.social
The @cbbworld.bsky.social Black Friday sale is live! Ten dollars off all monthly plans. Code: WECARE
CBBWORLD PROMO CODE: WECARE THANKS GIVING SALE $10 OFF ANNUAL PLANS WORKS WITH: • New memberships and upgrades! • Re-activating expired memberships! • Gifting yourself your next renewal! • Gifting others!
November 28, 2025 at 12:10 AM
Reposted by Kevin Aiello
scottaukerman.bsky.social
One hour til the CBB world Black Friday sale!!
November 27, 2025 at 11:00 PM
Reposted by Kevin Aiello
audacityofdespair.bsky.social
There is but one true chef.
November 27, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Reposted by Kevin Aiello
daveweigel.bsky.social
Boring hobby I've picked up: Listening to a Grammy winning album in some genre I don't know much about. Probably not putting Silkroad and Yo-Yo Ma on heavy rotation but why not challenge myself a little as I work. Music that hasn't become familiar/comforting puts you in a different state of mind.
November 25, 2025 at 12:20 AM
Reposted by Kevin Aiello
maxberger.bsky.social
If I’m understanding this correctly, X is owned by a white nationalist who pays poor people of color in developing countries to pretend to be working class white Americans to scare other white Americans into being afraid poor people of color from developing countries are going to ruin America?
November 23, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Reposted by Kevin Aiello
tadethompson.bsky.social
Can I tempt you to read this book?
A black book cover. Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino.
November 22, 2025 at 9:52 PM
kevinaiello.com
Sad development, to say the least.
carlbergstrom.com Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · Nov 21
I am by no means a prominent public intellectual, but my inbox is increasingly filled with messages from people who have been convinced by sycophantic chatbots that they have discovered revolutionary theories that entirely upend our scientific understanding of the universe.
November 21, 2025 at 4:09 AM
Reposted by Kevin Aiello
sanders.senate.gov
Jon Stewart and I agree:

AI must work for everybody, not just a handful of billionaires.
November 20, 2025 at 11:43 PM
Reposted by Kevin Aiello
chrislhayes.bsky.social
Ok BlueSky: what are your favorite history books in terms of sheer page-turning, narrative propulsion? Thinking along the line of Killers of the Flower Moon, etc. Nonfiction chronicles that read like novels or movies.
November 19, 2025 at 11:11 PM
Reposted by Kevin Aiello
melissagiragrant.com
“…two showboats trying to out-detail each other, with maudlin prose dissecting a relationship that’s portrayed as tortured, but was really just between two careless narcissists.” Marisa with (let it be) the last word:
Moral rot in elite journalism is killing the whole field
The Nuzzi/RFK Jr. mess and the revelation of Epstein’s journo pals lay bare a profound moral absence at the heart of our free press.
www.thehandbasket.co
November 19, 2025 at 3:03 AM