Gerald Zhang-Schmidt
@zhangschmidt.bsky.social
Microexploration educator, non-extreme athlete
I remain constantly fascinated by how our consciousness is apparently at a state where denial of its biological foundations is, well, among its fundamentals.
December 20, 2025 at 8:05 PM
I remain constantly fascinated by how our consciousness is apparently at a state where denial of its biological foundations is, well, among its fundamentals.
It was never appreciated enough, unlike simplistic "CO2 is fertilizer, not poison" "arguments" from "sceptics". (But of course, it's not like I'm replying that to someone who doesn't know it already.)
December 20, 2025 at 8:04 PM
It was never appreciated enough, unlike simplistic "CO2 is fertilizer, not poison" "arguments" from "sceptics". (But of course, it's not like I'm replying that to someone who doesn't know it already.)
And I'm still relatively sure I read about research with the same conclusion before I started studying ecology - in 1996.
Another problem with CO2? It messes with plants. Some grow faster; others don’t.
But for our food crops, it makes them have lower nutrient levels — and just more empty calories.
Elevated CO2 is plant *junk food*.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
But for our food crops, it makes them have lower nutrient levels — and just more empty calories.
Elevated CO2 is plant *junk food*.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
CO2 Rise Directly Impairs Crop Nutritional Quality
This analysis studies the direct effect of CO2 rise on nutrient quality by synthesizing pre-existing data on ~59,000 samples across 43 different food crops, where half of the plants were grown under ....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
December 20, 2025 at 7:55 PM
And I'm still relatively sure I read about research with the same conclusion before I started studying ecology - in 1996.
I found my grandma's confirmation of Aryan whatever-that-was, so I'd assume we're white enough - and shoes definitely get taken off. We're civilized Europeans, not, uhm, those there across the pond.
December 20, 2025 at 7:52 PM
I found my grandma's confirmation of Aryan whatever-that-was, so I'd assume we're white enough - and shoes definitely get taken off. We're civilized Europeans, not, uhm, those there across the pond.
Maybe AI slop ragebaits all the trolls and we can actually have sensible discussions... says the guy currently in an utterly useless "discussion" on whether matcha's origins had anything to do with China.
November 7, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Maybe AI slop ragebaits all the trolls and we can actually have sensible discussions... says the guy currently in an utterly useless "discussion" on whether matcha's origins had anything to do with China.
I worked in China when an app for putting yourself into a film clip was popular - and when a colleague tried to use my face in it, it said I looked like a known person and didn't allow it.
OPEN AI, meanwhile: Whatever.
Is that it? Who'll sue for slander first?
OPEN AI, meanwhile: Whatever.
Is that it? Who'll sue for slander first?
November 4, 2025 at 3:31 PM
I worked in China when an app for putting yourself into a film clip was popular - and when a colleague tried to use my face in it, it said I looked like a known person and didn't allow it.
OPEN AI, meanwhile: Whatever.
Is that it? Who'll sue for slander first?
OPEN AI, meanwhile: Whatever.
Is that it? Who'll sue for slander first?
This was not AI after all, huh?
I'm not a West Wing obsessed lib or anything but the more I see pictures of this the more fucked up I think it is. It's like he cut off one of the hands of the Lincoln memorial with an angle grinder so he could add a big gun to it.
The Treasury Department instructed employees not to share to share photos of the demolition of parts of the White House’s East Wing
October 21, 2025 at 4:03 AM
This was not AI after all, huh?
Aren't these the same people who'd argue that a pharmacist selling or doctor prescribing an abortion drug would/should be held legally responsible?
September 20, 2025 at 11:39 AM
Aren't these the same people who'd argue that a pharmacist selling or doctor prescribing an abortion drug would/should be held legally responsible?
Das klingt wie "doing donuts on someone's front lawn".
Haben die testen wollen, wie viele g sie wie lange aushalten?
Haben die testen wollen, wie viele g sie wie lange aushalten?
September 20, 2025 at 11:34 AM
Das klingt wie "doing donuts on someone's front lawn".
Haben die testen wollen, wie viele g sie wie lange aushalten?
Haben die testen wollen, wie viele g sie wie lange aushalten?
Sufficiently advanced technology... I've seen the argument recently that we're all living in newly enchanted worlds: No one knows how all this works anymore.
September 8, 2025 at 4:32 AM
Sufficiently advanced technology... I've seen the argument recently that we're all living in newly enchanted worlds: No one knows how all this works anymore.
Too close to actual fact to ever happen. Gotta keep up appearances with those.
September 8, 2025 at 4:28 AM
Too close to actual fact to ever happen. Gotta keep up appearances with those.
You know, you can get away from the online world, the news from everywhere that only tangentially affect your life or that you are a minuscule influence on, and all the bs falls away.
August 23, 2025 at 8:31 AM
You know, you can get away from the online world, the news from everywhere that only tangentially affect your life or that you are a minuscule influence on, and all the bs falls away.
A lot of the "it's their world, it would be like abstinence education" is like saying "alcohol is normal, let's teach pupils how to use it well!"
August 23, 2025 at 6:48 AM
A lot of the "it's their world, it would be like abstinence education" is like saying "alcohol is normal, let's teach pupils how to use it well!"
I see phone use among middle schoolers.
I'm conflicted.
We have a phone ban now, with exceptions for educational use, and I think that's a good approach.
School teaching about phones... I think it's utterly ineffectual.
I'm conflicted.
We have a phone ban now, with exceptions for educational use, and I think that's a good approach.
School teaching about phones... I think it's utterly ineffectual.
August 23, 2025 at 6:48 AM
I see phone use among middle schoolers.
I'm conflicted.
We have a phone ban now, with exceptions for educational use, and I think that's a good approach.
School teaching about phones... I think it's utterly ineffectual.
I'm conflicted.
We have a phone ban now, with exceptions for educational use, and I think that's a good approach.
School teaching about phones... I think it's utterly ineffectual.
The person I saw this from quoted from the article, but everyone (because that's her shtick) interprets the "we dunno" from the article as saying phone bans in schools are bad.
August 23, 2025 at 6:48 AM
The person I saw this from quoted from the article, but everyone (because that's her shtick) interprets the "we dunno" from the article as saying phone bans in schools are bad.
Why would you post about this article without allowing comments from people you don't follow (when you don't interact much) and only allowing reposts - unless you want your interpretation of the findings (and those of your tribe) to be the only ones allowed?
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
Evidence for and against banning mobile phones in schools: A scoping review - Marilyn Campbell, Elizabeth J Edwards, Donna Pennell, Shiralee Poed, Victoria Lister, Jenna Gillett-Swan, Adrian Kelly, Dajana Zec, Thuy-Anh Nguyen, 2024
Public opinions are divided on the relative benefits versus harms of allowing mobile phones in schools. When debating the consequences of mobile phones in schoo...
journals.sagepub.com
August 23, 2025 at 6:43 AM
Why would you post about this article without allowing comments from people you don't follow (when you don't interact much) and only allowing reposts - unless you want your interpretation of the findings (and those of your tribe) to be the only ones allowed?
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
But weirdly, it's inducing suffering by reducing friction, replacing challenging reality with comfortable illusion.
August 19, 2025 at 10:14 AM
But weirdly, it's inducing suffering by reducing friction, replacing challenging reality with comfortable illusion.
This is... Fall; or, Dodge in Hell and its ending. Which I always thought was ridiculous in its conclusion that somehow the virtual would win.
But hey, even the Red Pill folks want to live in their own fantasy these days.
But hey, even the Red Pill folks want to live in their own fantasy these days.
August 19, 2025 at 10:12 AM
This is... Fall; or, Dodge in Hell and its ending. Which I always thought was ridiculous in its conclusion that somehow the virtual would win.
But hey, even the Red Pill folks want to live in their own fantasy these days.
But hey, even the Red Pill folks want to live in their own fantasy these days.
We were talking about how cows are the biggest danger to hikers in the Alps, not wolves or bears.
Thinking of all the hikers in sneakers, the biggest danger are the people to themselves.
Which seems appropriate.
Thinking of all the hikers in sneakers, the biggest danger are the people to themselves.
Which seems appropriate.
August 16, 2025 at 1:00 PM
We were talking about how cows are the biggest danger to hikers in the Alps, not wolves or bears.
Thinking of all the hikers in sneakers, the biggest danger are the people to themselves.
Which seems appropriate.
Thinking of all the hikers in sneakers, the biggest danger are the people to themselves.
Which seems appropriate.
The last time I was in a discussion like that, I was told I'm confusing arms and ordinance. And I haven't understood what difference that's supposed to make.
It all reminds me of the 40 lb. pupil I taught who was convinced cows were not a danger to him, he'd just topple them.
It all reminds me of the 40 lb. pupil I taught who was convinced cows were not a danger to him, he'd just topple them.
August 16, 2025 at 1:00 PM
The last time I was in a discussion like that, I was told I'm confusing arms and ordinance. And I haven't understood what difference that's supposed to make.
It all reminds me of the 40 lb. pupil I taught who was convinced cows were not a danger to him, he'd just topple them.
It all reminds me of the 40 lb. pupil I taught who was convinced cows were not a danger to him, he'd just topple them.
www.quantamagazine.org/the-ai-was-f...
@thoc.bsky.social recently wondered why every sci-fi AI has ethical rules baked in, our really existing AI don't. This is why: It doesn't work that way.
@thoc.bsky.social recently wondered why every sci-fi AI has ethical rules baked in, our really existing AI don't. This is why: It doesn't work that way.
The AI Was Fed Sloppy Code. It Turned Into Something Evil. | Quanta Magazine
The new science of “emergent misalignment” explores how PG-13 training data — insecure code, superstitious numbers or even extreme-sports advice — can open the door to AI’s dark side.
www.quantamagazine.org
August 14, 2025 at 1:38 PM
www.quantamagazine.org/the-ai-was-f...
@thoc.bsky.social recently wondered why every sci-fi AI has ethical rules baked in, our really existing AI don't. This is why: It doesn't work that way.
@thoc.bsky.social recently wondered why every sci-fi AI has ethical rules baked in, our really existing AI don't. This is why: It doesn't work that way.
All those stories of how people react to LLMs make me really worry about one set of algorithms:
The one in the human mind.
The one in the human mind.
August 13, 2025 at 5:34 PM
All those stories of how people react to LLMs make me really worry about one set of algorithms:
The one in the human mind.
The one in the human mind.
Also, even if that's totally misguided because LLMs are just programs, not consciousnesses: Have you ever explained how you are able to do what you do? Can you?
August 13, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Also, even if that's totally misguided because LLMs are just programs, not consciousnesses: Have you ever explained how you are able to do what you do? Can you?
What is this? How is this?
If you have engaged with LLMs at all, not in chats, but seeing anything their creators say, you have seen these people themselves state that they don't exactly know how or why LLMs do what they do. "Black Box" etc.
If you have engaged with LLMs at all, not in chats, but seeing anything their creators say, you have seen these people themselves state that they don't exactly know how or why LLMs do what they do. "Black Box" etc.
“Without meaningful access to documentation about how the system works, there’s no one weird trick for decoding a chatbot’s programming from the outside.”
Chatbots aren’t telling you their secrets
LLMs make things up — including about themselves.
www.theverge.com
August 13, 2025 at 5:32 PM
What is this? How is this?
If you have engaged with LLMs at all, not in chats, but seeing anything their creators say, you have seen these people themselves state that they don't exactly know how or why LLMs do what they do. "Black Box" etc.
If you have engaged with LLMs at all, not in chats, but seeing anything their creators say, you have seen these people themselves state that they don't exactly know how or why LLMs do what they do. "Black Box" etc.
There was a politician here who (in)famously stated that people who have a vision should go get their head checked...
August 12, 2025 at 6:36 PM
There was a politician here who (in)famously stated that people who have a vision should go get their head checked...