Abe Katz
abekatz.bsky.social
Abe Katz
@abekatz.bsky.social
Life: stand outdoors and play music

Job: fight epistemic crises at a computer
Former Discord; Meta
Teaching at Duke; Middlebury
Very cool analysis! Another important piece is that many of these red circles began as - and many continue today as - *non-political* in orientation, at least explicitly. “Guys just talking.” To that extent, I think the “dems need a Joe Rogan” line of thinking has traction.
March 15, 2025 at 10:59 PM
Little Brother by Doctorow as required reading!
February 13, 2025 at 3:11 PM
I’m not being facetious: I truly recommend reading this, because it’s as wrong as it is a harbinger of the new phase of como.
February 13, 2025 at 2:50 PM
If I focus on the “open source” part of ROOST and less on the (widely misunderstood) “AI” part, I get most excited. Like 70% of some infra/tooling ROOST releases, but hate 30% of it? Fork it and make it better!
February 11, 2025 at 2:44 PM
In other words, I hope fediverse mods lean into ROOST in a major way.
February 11, 2025 at 12:54 PM
I also want a human-centered tech world, but I’m concerned that parts of fediverse culture today - like anti-automation - will get in the way of it being a viable alternative to the ubiquitous walled-gardens of today.
February 11, 2025 at 12:53 PM
I went to an IFTAS presentation at TrustCon last year which summarized a bunch of survey responses about trust and safety, from owners/moderators of federated servers. One point that concerned me was respondents were generally opposed to the use of AI/automation in moderation.
February 11, 2025 at 12:51 PM
And a Kendrick-level winner 😉
February 4, 2025 at 11:22 PM
Bring it to Duffy’s door with press and cameras. None of this is business-as-usual, and I want my Rep to meet the moment.
January 31, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Will you start an investigation?
January 30, 2025 at 9:11 PM
Oh this is extremely rad, as far as econ can be.
January 30, 2025 at 5:14 PM
I disagree. He has been running the gauntlet since 2016 and suddenly he’s a Cool Kid - he will only go further down this path.
January 29, 2025 at 10:37 PM
Please turn up the heat, Congresswoman. Now.
January 28, 2025 at 5:10 PM
Strong agree when it comes to specific substantive claims (eg heliocentricity). When it comes to epistemic claims / process (how do we make knowledge; how *should we evaluate* helio v geocentricity) I think the state must play a role: see “separation of church and state.”
January 26, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Transaction cost of arriving at a price* I meant
January 26, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Interesting. But for some claims - like some market goods - the “transaction cost” of arriving at a cost should be prohibitive. Do we need to litigate (find a price for) “the earth is flat,” or can it be anointed “wrong” because the body of info debunking it for millennia can’t be overcome?
January 26, 2025 at 2:51 PM
IMO when conflict comes, it will be because of public image, credit, portfolio, and power, etc, not because of a substantive policy difference. A (much harder) version of this chart that captures their “are they getting what they want”-ness on those dimensions will be a better predictor.
January 25, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Very cool! Aside from new features for Bluesky, are there any breakthroughs yet on non-Bluesky instances that interop here using ATproto?
January 24, 2025 at 9:39 PM