asocialpenguin
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asocialpenguin.bsky.social
asocialpenguin
@asocialpenguin.bsky.social
15 followers 43 following 9 posts
Self educated geek, tinkerer, entropy source.🏳️‍🌈♠️
Too many interests, too little time.

Profile pic by Samuel Blanc www.sblanc.com licensed under Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en
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olivia.science
Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia:
doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical
thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity.
1/n
Abstract: Under the banner of progress, products have been uncritically adopted or even imposed on users — in past centuries with tobacco and combustion engines, and in the 21st with social media. For these collective blunders, we now regret our involvement or apathy as scientists, and society struggles to put the genie back in the bottle. Currently, we are similarly entangled with artificial intelligence (AI) technology. For example, software updates are rolled out seamlessly and non-consensually, Microsoft Office is bundled with chatbots, and we, our students, and our employers have had no say, as it is not considered a valid position to reject AI technologies in our teaching and research. This is why in June 2025, we co-authored an Open Letter calling on our employers to reverse and rethink their stance on uncritically adopting AI technologies. In this position piece, we expound on why universities must take their role seriously toa) counter the technology industry’s marketing, hype, and harm; and to b) safeguard higher education, critical thinking, expertise, academic freedom, and scientific integrity. We include pointers to relevant work to further inform our colleagues. Figure 1. A cartoon set theoretic view on various terms (see Table 1) used when discussing the superset AI (black outline, hatched background): LLMs are in orange; ANNs are in magenta; generative models are in blue; and finally, chatbots are in green. Where these intersect, the colours reflect that, e.g. generative adversarial network (GAN) and Boltzmann machine (BM) models are in the purple subset because they are both generative and ANNs. In the case of proprietary closed source models, e.g. OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Apple’s Siri, we cannot verify their implementation and so academics can only make educated guesses (cf. Dingemanse 2025). Undefined terms used above: BERT (Devlin et al. 2019); AlexNet (Krizhevsky et al. 2017); A.L.I.C.E. (Wallace 2009); ELIZA (Weizenbaum 1966); Jabberwacky (Twist 2003); linear discriminant analysis (LDA); quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA). Table 1. Below some of the typical terminological disarray is untangled. Importantly, none of these terms are orthogonal nor do they exclusively pick out the types of products we may wish to critique or proscribe. Protecting the Ecosystem of Human Knowledge: Five Principles
September 6, 2025 at 8:13 AM
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timnitgebru.bsky.social
Two Eritreans tried to assassinate the butcher, Graziani, in Addis Ababa. Eritrea was ~50 years into being colonized by Italy at the time. The response was the Italians burning people alive for three days. And what do they do in Italy as reparations? Build him a statue to honor him. Disgusting.
untoldmag.org UntoldMag @untoldmag.org · Aug 14
Italy’s colonial past was as brutal “as anyone else’s”, from poison gas in Ethiopia to concentration camps in Yugoslavia.
Yet the nation hides behind the myth of the “good Italian.”
https://f.mtr.cool/hlmlhmwlqk
August 21, 2025 at 5:08 PM
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shing.bsky.social
Our Kickstarter is now live! Help support our film about neighbors still gathering for dinner in a time of unrelenting doom!

www.kickstarter.com/projects/shi...
August 20, 2025 at 3:45 PM
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hannahtempler.com
for my birthday today the greatest gift would be to get closer to my goal to funding service dog! share to help get a guy a cool dog that can help him navigate the Horrors
Donate to Help Georgie get a life-changing service dog!, organized by Hannah Templer
PLEASE NOTE: if you are a current icoc/icc member please do not attempt t… Hannah Templer needs your support for Help Georgie get a life-changing service dog!
www.gofundme.com
August 20, 2025 at 2:39 PM
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hannahtempler.com
hey i'm gonna start posting about this more again, with about 6 months left and a little over halfway to go
Donate to Help Georgie get a life-changing service dog!, organized by Hannah Templer
PLEASE NOTE: if you are a current icoc/icc member please do not attempt t… Hannah Templer needs your support for Help Georgie get a life-changing service dog!
www.gofundme.com
May 28, 2025 at 8:00 PM
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michellema.bsky.social
Each time you ask an AI chatbot a question, it sends a request to a data center and strains an increasingly scarce resource: water.

A 🧵on our investigation into how the data centers that power AI are increasingly being built in highly water-stressed places:

www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...
The AI Boom Is Draining Water From the Areas That Need It Most
A Bloomberg News analysis finds that roughly two thirds of new data centers built or in development in the US since 2022 are in places with high levels of water stress.
www.bloomberg.com
May 8, 2025 at 3:59 PM
asocialpenguin.bsky.social
Of all the effed up ways of adopting "AI" technologies, mimicking a dead person strike me as one of the creepiest use cases.
Are we ever going to stop deluding ourselves that we're interacting with intelligent, caring entities?
#StochasticParrots
Caption of a news headline from The Guardian. Arizona - AI of dead Arizona road rage victim addresses killer in court.
May 7, 2025 at 10:51 AM
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timnitgebru.bsky.social
You can now register at www.eventbrite.com/e/dair-prese...

⏰Friday April 11 9am-12pm PDT | 12pm-3pm EDT | 6pm-9pm CEST | 7pm-10pm EAT
March 23, 2025 at 1:11 AM
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bywaterbooks.bsky.social
“Literature was the passport to enter a larger life; that is, the zone of freedom. Literature was freedom. Especially in a time in which the values of reading & inwardness are so strenuously challenged, literature is freedom.” —Susan Sontag

#SapphicBookSky #LGBTQSky #AuthorSky #BooksNotBans
March 18, 2025 at 2:07 PM
asocialpenguin.bsky.social
Too little, too late?
The EFF's attempt to recover from the earlier faux pas on Meta's new content policy feels like a hastily patched together PR act.
January 10, 2025 at 11:29 AM
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esqueer.net
Meta literally created a LGBTQ exception for calling someone mentally ill as an insult. You can't do it for any other group except LGBTQ people.
The image is from a "Transparency Center" document and lists guidelines regarding acceptable and prohibited content for insults. It mentions: 1. Insults about: Character, such as cowardice, dishonesty, criminality, and sexual promiscuity or immorality. Mental characteristics, including but not limited to accusations of stupidity, intellectual capacity, and mental illness, as well as unsupported comparisons among politically correct (PC) groups based on inherent intellectual traits. 2. Highlighted section: The document allows allegations of mental illness or abnormality when tied to gender or sexual orientation, referencing political and religious discourse about transgenderism and homosexuality. It also acknowledges the non-serious use of terms like "weird."
January 8, 2025 at 1:51 AM
asocialpenguin.bsky.social
Still in beta, but looking great with magnetic attachment and all of the little improvements the model team has contributed so far! 👏
Definitely a fun way to experiment with #qiskit on #RaspberryPi.
andysc.bsky.social Andy S-C @andysc.bsky.social · Dec 11
Announcing what we've been doing this Summer at IBM: a 3D- printed model of the #IBM #Quantum System Two, with a built-in #RaspberryPi running #qiskit quantum software.
Major kudos to @ericjenney.bsky.social and @janlahmann.bsky.social :)
Still in beta, but...
github.com/JanLahmann/R...
3D printed model of IBM Quantum System Two computer
December 12, 2024 at 4:47 PM
asocialpenguin.bsky.social
I just discovered #chemadvent24, and I'm merrily geeking out as I catch up with all the goodness I had missed.
compoundchem.com Compound Interest | Chemistry infographics @compoundchem.com · Dec 9
For day 9 of #ChemAdvent24, a look at the chemistry behind silvering baubles!

#ChemSky 🧪
Infographic on silvering baubles, explaining how a solution of silver nitrate combined with concentrated ammonia solution and a glucose solution produces the silver coating. The structures of silver nitrate and glucose (in its reducing form) are shown.
December 9, 2024 at 6:42 PM
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chanda.blacksky.app
Since yesterday I was talking about Gates McFadden’s struggles to get behind the camera opportunities, it’s time for me to share a story about the Doctor and how she’s one of the reasons I’m a Professor. 🧵

(Here’s us at the 2024 #StarTrek convention #STLV)
A photo of me with Gates McFadden at the 2024 STLV
December 8, 2024 at 4:11 PM
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michaelwhelan.bsky.social
RISING (2007)
Acrylic on Watercolor board - 36" X 24"

This image came to me while I was working on THE RIVER in 1996. 1/3
Rough stone steps wind around the side of a hill defining the cliff's edge in their slow ascent. As the path turns sharply, the eroded ground beneath forms an overhang. The sky beyond is suffused with golden radiance layered with grey-blue clouds. The trees at the edge of the cliff, already in the transition to autumn, are lit by the warm glow of sunset creating a contrast of light and shadow up thick textured trunks. Out over the edge, hovering in the open air, a woman in a long dress holds her hands out as if presenting a clear spherical vessel containing a solitary flame. Bathed in the light of sunset, she stares off panel into the far distance while a pair of doves flies low, sweeping over the curving steps.
November 29, 2024 at 12:05 AM
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carvehername.bsky.social
#OnThisDay, 28 Nov 1967, Jocelyn Bell Burnell discovers the existence of pulsars - a new type of star.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #WomenInSTEM 🗃️

1/2
Jocelyn Bell Burnell in the 1960s, in front of a radio telescope. she is a white woman with dark hair, wearing a sensible duffle coat given how cold it must have been out there.
November 28, 2024 at 12:59 PM
asocialpenguin.bsky.social
This amazing #sapphic #fantasy series blew me away. Highly recommended.
javodvarka.com J.A. Vodvarka - Author @javodvarka.com · Nov 14
I write these. They're pretty good. Read them. #books #fantasy #sapphic books2read.com/javodvarka
November 14, 2024 at 6:29 PM
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alancerny.bsky.social
This may be helpful for you new followers. You can block every single person on these lists. Just click on the subscribe button and it will give you the option to block every one on it. Here’s the first: bsky.app/profile/did:...
November 6, 2024 at 9:49 PM
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wolvendamien.bsky.social
Facial recognition in smart glasses to dox people? Yeah, a bunch of us warned shit like this was going to happen, and it's going to enable some really bad shit. We need to fundamentally reconsider what constitutes "public" and "private" in our society, and we need to have done it several years ago.
josephcox.bsky.social Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · Oct 2
New from 404 Media: someone put facial recognition on Meta's smart glasses to instantly dox strangers. You look at them, sends face to a facial recognition tool. LLM infers name, sends to people site. Gets phone number, address. I've seen it in action www.404media.co/someone-put-...
Someone Put Facial Recognition Tech onto Meta's Smart Glasses to Instantly Dox Strangers
The technology, which marries Meta’s smart Ray Ban glasses with the facial recognition service Pimeyes and some other tools, lets someone automatically go from face, to name, to phone number, and home...
www.404media.co
October 2, 2024 at 4:45 PM
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eff.org
Digital spaces enable LGBTQ+ people to engage with their gender and sexual orientation, but it can be daunting to give up any kind of privacy online while doing so. Here's a guide to protecting your identities online, from using a VPN to obscuring faces.
Beyond Pride Month: Protecting Digital Identities For LGBTQ+ People
The internet provides people space to build communities, shed light on injustices, and acquire vital knowledge that might not otherwise be available. And for LGBTQ+ individuals, digital spaces enable
www.eff.org
July 19, 2024 at 8:48 PM
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riengray.bsky.social
Happy to announce that my lesbian berserker story found a home in @bonabooks.bsky.social's queer pulp anthology, I Want That Twink Obliterated!

It's available for preorder, for anyone who missed the Kickstarter: i-want-that-twink-obliterated-an-anthology-of-queer-sff.backerkit.com/hosted_preor...
A black background with a white outline, which has the queer and pulpy cover of the anthology I Want That Twink Obliterated! in the center. The surrounding text is advertising Rien Gray's story submission, A Heart of Broken Steel.
May 14, 2024 at 4:28 PM