Michelle Shevin
@michebox.bsky.social
Future Preservation Society
Pinned
Michelle Shevin
@michebox.bsky.social
· Mar 18
Possibility + Power = Plan
I soured on my first strategic foresight job gradually, and then all at once.
medium.com
David Graeber once said “this feeling of hopelessness that everyone has is a manufactured product.”
Today I’ve published a piece about how the future gets foreclosed and how we fight back with our minds and relationships.
Today I’ve published a piece about how the future gets foreclosed and how we fight back with our minds and relationships.
Reposted by Michelle Shevin
This might be my villain origin story: www.wired.com/story/openai...
OpenAI and the FDA Are Holding Talks About Using AI In Drug Evaluation
High-ranking OpenAI employees have met with the FDA multiple times in recent weeks to discuss AI and a project called cderGPT.
www.wired.com
May 8, 2025 at 9:44 PM
This might be my villain origin story: www.wired.com/story/openai...
Reposted by Michelle Shevin
People are always saying on social media that gen-AI is here to stay and that it’s retrograde and standing in the way of progress if we reject it. But there are plenty of things that were once the embodiment of progress that we collectively decided to reject, from cocaine in soft drinks to eugenics
May 8, 2025 at 11:56 AM
People are always saying on social media that gen-AI is here to stay and that it’s retrograde and standing in the way of progress if we reject it. But there are plenty of things that were once the embodiment of progress that we collectively decided to reject, from cocaine in soft drinks to eugenics
Reposted by Michelle Shevin
The hysteria when you say, “nah I’m good” on all the chat bots is how you know they’re in the grips of roulette fever. You know the guy at a casino, shaking at 2 am, telling you how dumb you are not to get in on this?
The chatbot people are so upset. What are you going to do? Come to my home and force me to use ChatGPT?
May 6, 2025 at 11:38 PM
The hysteria when you say, “nah I’m good” on all the chat bots is how you know they’re in the grips of roulette fever. You know the guy at a casino, shaking at 2 am, telling you how dumb you are not to get in on this?
Reposted by Michelle Shevin
DOGE is assembling a master database of personal data from across the government -- including tax records, social security files, immigration dossiers etc.
This cross-agency master database is exactly what Congress tried to prevent when it passed the Federal Privacy Act of 1974.
This cross-agency master database is exactly what Congress tried to prevent when it passed the Federal Privacy Act of 1974.
April 30, 2025 at 11:20 AM
DOGE is assembling a master database of personal data from across the government -- including tax records, social security files, immigration dossiers etc.
This cross-agency master database is exactly what Congress tried to prevent when it passed the Federal Privacy Act of 1974.
This cross-agency master database is exactly what Congress tried to prevent when it passed the Federal Privacy Act of 1974.
Reposted by Michelle Shevin
A centralized database will be "ill-equipped to correct errors, allow for extenuating circumstances, or bring facts up to date," warned Vance Packard. "The notion of the possibility of redemption is likely to be incomprehensible to a computer."
April 30, 2025 at 11:20 AM
A centralized database will be "ill-equipped to correct errors, allow for extenuating circumstances, or bring facts up to date," warned Vance Packard. "The notion of the possibility of redemption is likely to be incomprehensible to a computer."
Reposted by Michelle Shevin
This consolidation started long before now and was a product of a lot of American hubris. But this is definitely the “find out” phase and it’s going to be brutal.
The alarming consolidation of federal government data and processes into private corporate control threatens democratic oversight, public transparency, and national security – all without adequate safeguards or accountability.
"On the rooftop patio of the General Services Administration headquarters, an agency staffer recently discovered something strange: a rectangular device attached to a wire that snaked across the roof... a transceiver that communicates with Elon Musk’s vast and private Starlink satellite network."
April 17, 2025 at 12:14 PM
This consolidation started long before now and was a product of a lot of American hubris. But this is definitely the “find out” phase and it’s going to be brutal.
Reposted by Michelle Shevin
This is, the therapists say, very dangerous—the algorithm doesn't know how to detect nuance, or when to ask follow up questions, for instance, and may be turning away people in genuine crisis. Algorithmic triage, they say, has been a disaster, and they've fought it since its inception.
April 12, 2025 at 3:23 AM
This is, the therapists say, very dangerous—the algorithm doesn't know how to detect nuance, or when to ask follow up questions, for instance, and may be turning away people in genuine crisis. Algorithmic triage, they say, has been a disaster, and they've fought it since its inception.
Reposted by Michelle Shevin
i'm ambivalent about litigating algorithmic fairness and accuracy; this is why. negotiating administrating this system fairly or accurately is nonsense. there's no running a colony ethically, or an empire in a human-centered way. you can make up bullshit and hit those targets, but they mean nothing.
April 11, 2025 at 2:39 AM
i'm ambivalent about litigating algorithmic fairness and accuracy; this is why. negotiating administrating this system fairly or accurately is nonsense. there's no running a colony ethically, or an empire in a human-centered way. you can make up bullshit and hit those targets, but they mean nothing.
Reposted by Michelle Shevin
After Trump was elected the first time, there was also a lot of talk about making iPhones in the US. At the time, I co-edited the sci-fi outlet Terraform, and asked @timmaughan.bsky.social to imagine what such a future might really look like.
With his permission, I'm republishing the story in full:
With his permission, I'm republishing the story in full:
Flyover Country
What a future where iPhones are made in America would really look like.
www.bloodinthemachine.com
April 8, 2025 at 11:16 PM
After Trump was elected the first time, there was also a lot of talk about making iPhones in the US. At the time, I co-edited the sci-fi outlet Terraform, and asked @timmaughan.bsky.social to imagine what such a future might really look like.
With his permission, I'm republishing the story in full:
With his permission, I'm republishing the story in full:
Reposted by Michelle Shevin
Go slow and love intensely.
April 8, 2025 at 4:26 AM
Go slow and love intensely.
“Is your heart beating and do you plan to live? Come this way…” —@adriennemareebrown.bsky.social
April 6, 2025 at 5:11 PM
“Is your heart beating and do you plan to live? Come this way…” —@adriennemareebrown.bsky.social
Reposted by Michelle Shevin
Erez Reuveni argued on behalf of the Justice Department during Friday’s hearing in the Abrego Garcia case.
Reuveni has reportedly been placed on leave.
Here’s one exchange with the judge that may have contributed to his ouster:
Reuveni has reportedly been placed on leave.
Here’s one exchange with the judge that may have contributed to his ouster:
April 5, 2025 at 9:34 PM
Erez Reuveni argued on behalf of the Justice Department during Friday’s hearing in the Abrego Garcia case.
Reuveni has reportedly been placed on leave.
Here’s one exchange with the judge that may have contributed to his ouster:
Reuveni has reportedly been placed on leave.
Here’s one exchange with the judge that may have contributed to his ouster:
a pro life tip is to find someone you like to tell your dreams to
a poem i wrote while falling in love with my life
I dreamt my body electric -- tree-like, geomagnetic...
medium.com
April 5, 2025 at 8:15 PM
a pro life tip is to find someone you like to tell your dreams to
“Planning on co-liberation and collective thriving doesn’t mean things proceed according to a plan. It looks more like prioritizing, over and over again, the reality that while the future is unwritten, my destiny is tied up with yours— that all life is an interconnected web…
David Graeber once said “this feeling of hopelessness that everyone has is a manufactured product.”
Today I’ve published a piece about how the future gets foreclosed and how we fight back with our minds and relationships.
Today I’ve published a piece about how the future gets foreclosed and how we fight back with our minds and relationships.
Possibility + Power = Plan
I soured on my first strategic foresight job gradually, and then all at once.
medium.com
April 3, 2025 at 2:45 AM
“Planning on co-liberation and collective thriving doesn’t mean things proceed according to a plan. It looks more like prioritizing, over and over again, the reality that while the future is unwritten, my destiny is tied up with yours— that all life is an interconnected web…
Reposted by Michelle Shevin
The hype machine for Big Tech, "AI", and cyberlibertarianism shows no sign of slowing down. This is because it actually has to speed up to balance the number of red lights flashing on the dashboard in terms of "AI's" usefulness, contribution to human happiness, and (crucially), profitability.
The full report by the Tony Blair Institute is out, in which they detail how copyright should be "rebooted" in the AI age. It reads like a big tech lobbying document. I hope they will be asked serious questions at its launch in London today.
Some very brief highlights:
🧵 1/8
Some very brief highlights:
🧵 1/8
April 2, 2025 at 7:53 AM
The hype machine for Big Tech, "AI", and cyberlibertarianism shows no sign of slowing down. This is because it actually has to speed up to balance the number of red lights flashing on the dashboard in terms of "AI's" usefulness, contribution to human happiness, and (crucially), profitability.
Reposted by Michelle Shevin
Holy shit
“Trump administration attorneys told the court to dismiss the request on multiple grounds, including that Trump’s “primacy in foreign affairs’ outweighs the interests of Abrego Garcia and his family”
“Trump administration attorneys told the court to dismiss the request on multiple grounds, including that Trump’s “primacy in foreign affairs’ outweighs the interests of Abrego Garcia and his family”
BREAKING: Trump admin says it mistakenly deported a Maryland father who had *withholding of removal* back to El Salvador on March 15. Govt told court Monday it won't bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia back. "What.The.Fuck..." one govt attorney told me. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc... @theatlantic.com
An ‘Administrative Error’ Sends a Maryland Father to a Salvadoran Prison
The Trump administration says it mistakenly deported an immigrant with protected status but that courts are powerless to order his return.
www.theatlantic.com
April 1, 2025 at 2:48 AM
Holy shit
“Trump administration attorneys told the court to dismiss the request on multiple grounds, including that Trump’s “primacy in foreign affairs’ outweighs the interests of Abrego Garcia and his family”
“Trump administration attorneys told the court to dismiss the request on multiple grounds, including that Trump’s “primacy in foreign affairs’ outweighs the interests of Abrego Garcia and his family”
Reposted by Michelle Shevin
BREAKING: Trump admin says it mistakenly deported a Maryland father who had *withholding of removal* back to El Salvador on March 15. Govt told court Monday it won't bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia back. "What.The.Fuck..." one govt attorney told me. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc... @theatlantic.com
An ‘Administrative Error’ Sends a Maryland Father to a Salvadoran Prison
The Trump administration says it mistakenly deported an immigrant with protected status but that courts are powerless to order his return.
www.theatlantic.com
April 1, 2025 at 2:25 AM
BREAKING: Trump admin says it mistakenly deported a Maryland father who had *withholding of removal* back to El Salvador on March 15. Govt told court Monday it won't bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia back. "What.The.Fuck..." one govt attorney told me. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc... @theatlantic.com
Reposted by Michelle Shevin
Pro-AI hype and Anti-AI doom are so deeply personal and polarized for a reason: they are the only visions of the future anyone is offering at all. In my latest for @techpolicypress.bsky.social, a look at the loss of faith in participatory politics that frames AI hype, but also its backlash.
Future Fatigue: How Hype has Replaced Hope in the 21st Century | TechPolicy.Press
To resist AI hype, we must not reassert the fiction that we could “return” to a functional democracy, writes Eryk Salvaggio.
www.techpolicy.press
March 26, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Pro-AI hype and Anti-AI doom are so deeply personal and polarized for a reason: they are the only visions of the future anyone is offering at all. In my latest for @techpolicypress.bsky.social, a look at the loss of faith in participatory politics that frames AI hype, but also its backlash.
Reposted by Michelle Shevin
Setting them aside isn't the prescription, so I don't think we're that far off. Mostly I want to see a "future" without AI at the center. Most Gen AI use cases are inseparable from this techno-capitalist impulse. But others aren't. Giving up one because we don't like the other feels like a retreat.
March 26, 2025 at 6:52 PM
Setting them aside isn't the prescription, so I don't think we're that far off. Mostly I want to see a "future" without AI at the center. Most Gen AI use cases are inseparable from this techno-capitalist impulse. But others aren't. Giving up one because we don't like the other feels like a retreat.
Reposted by Michelle Shevin
Brilliant piece by @hannahstoryb.bsky.social here - the naive 'JUST BUILD THINGS' abundance agenda is a boon to the fossil fuel industry.
prospect.org/culture/book...
prospect.org/culture/book...
March 26, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Brilliant piece by @hannahstoryb.bsky.social here - the naive 'JUST BUILD THINGS' abundance agenda is a boon to the fossil fuel industry.
prospect.org/culture/book...
prospect.org/culture/book...
Reposted by Michelle Shevin
There is a quasi-religion in Silicon Valley that views AI as godlike. This faith has always been parallel to Evangelical Christianity: salvation (transhumanism), the rapture (the technological singularity), and demons (Roko's Basilisk)
Lately the AI faith has fully fused with Christian Nationalism.
Lately the AI faith has fully fused with Christian Nationalism.
March 21, 2025 at 10:51 PM
There is a quasi-religion in Silicon Valley that views AI as godlike. This faith has always been parallel to Evangelical Christianity: salvation (transhumanism), the rapture (the technological singularity), and demons (Roko's Basilisk)
Lately the AI faith has fully fused with Christian Nationalism.
Lately the AI faith has fully fused with Christian Nationalism.
Reposted by Michelle Shevin
The promise of AI in education is it will save educators time. That's rubbish. It's sapping all our time already in working groups, committees, workshops, and marking anxiety. It's the most time-sapping, exhausting and frankly boring thing I've ever encountered in HE - and it's in my research area.
March 21, 2025 at 11:51 PM
The promise of AI in education is it will save educators time. That's rubbish. It's sapping all our time already in working groups, committees, workshops, and marking anxiety. It's the most time-sapping, exhausting and frankly boring thing I've ever encountered in HE - and it's in my research area.