Thomas Nyckel
@cantorstaub.bsky.social
Media Studies scholar & high-intensity parent 💚
Universität Regensburg
media theories | agential realism | digital media & computability, Turing & Gödel, myths of AI | robotics & programming
https://github.com/Cantorstaub
opinions are my own
Universität Regensburg
media theories | agential realism | digital media & computability, Turing & Gödel, myths of AI | robotics & programming
https://github.com/Cantorstaub
opinions are my own
This 4-year-old kid told me: "NO, this is not a com-put-er, this is a POL-LUTER!" 💻
Well, looking at AI information-bombing global communication
looking at the footprints of digital technology
this kid might have a point 🤔
#Weizenbaum, at the very least, would have nodded
Well, looking at AI information-bombing global communication
looking at the footprints of digital technology
this kid might have a point 🤔
#Weizenbaum, at the very least, would have nodded
November 28, 2025 at 3:32 PM
This 4-year-old kid told me: "NO, this is not a com-put-er, this is a POL-LUTER!" 💻
Well, looking at AI information-bombing global communication
looking at the footprints of digital technology
this kid might have a point 🤔
#Weizenbaum, at the very least, would have nodded
Well, looking at AI information-bombing global communication
looking at the footprints of digital technology
this kid might have a point 🤔
#Weizenbaum, at the very least, would have nodded
Der #Cyberspace in Gibsons »Neuromancer«, »Burning Chrome«…
Vielleicht geht es hier nicht um den Entwurf neuer Medientechnologie. Vielleicht geht es um die Vermittlung viel älterer Erfahrungen von Körper, Raum und Bewegung: Die ersten Flugversuche, die ersten Zugfahrten, das panoramatische Sehen.
Vielleicht geht es hier nicht um den Entwurf neuer Medientechnologie. Vielleicht geht es um die Vermittlung viel älterer Erfahrungen von Körper, Raum und Bewegung: Die ersten Flugversuche, die ersten Zugfahrten, das panoramatische Sehen.
November 25, 2025 at 5:58 PM
Der #Cyberspace in Gibsons »Neuromancer«, »Burning Chrome«…
Vielleicht geht es hier nicht um den Entwurf neuer Medientechnologie. Vielleicht geht es um die Vermittlung viel älterer Erfahrungen von Körper, Raum und Bewegung: Die ersten Flugversuche, die ersten Zugfahrten, das panoramatische Sehen.
Vielleicht geht es hier nicht um den Entwurf neuer Medientechnologie. Vielleicht geht es um die Vermittlung viel älterer Erfahrungen von Körper, Raum und Bewegung: Die ersten Flugversuche, die ersten Zugfahrten, das panoramatische Sehen.
Neuer Trend: Ehrliche Werbung?
Ich weiß noch nicht
Ich weiß noch nicht wie ich das finden soll
Ich weiß noch nicht
Ich weiß noch nicht wie ich das finden soll
June 30, 2025 at 9:09 AM
Neuer Trend: Ehrliche Werbung?
Ich weiß noch nicht
Ich weiß noch nicht wie ich das finden soll
Ich weiß noch nicht
Ich weiß noch nicht wie ich das finden soll
We have been using Obsidian at the Virtual Humanities Lab at Ruhr university Bochum. It is a little bit complex in some aspects, but worth the effort.
Check out the plugin "Dataview" for Obsidian. It might be useful for what you have in mind 👍
Check out the plugin "Dataview" for Obsidian. It might be useful for what you have in mind 👍
+1 for Obsidian! I started using it for my book project (replacing Scrivener notes which were just becoming too unwieldy) and loved it so much that I use it for personal stuff, travel planning and even my day job
June 13, 2024 at 12:12 PM
We have been using Obsidian at the Virtual Humanities Lab at Ruhr university Bochum. It is a little bit complex in some aspects, but worth the effort.
Check out the plugin "Dataview" for Obsidian. It might be useful for what you have in mind 👍
Check out the plugin "Dataview" for Obsidian. It might be useful for what you have in mind 👍
Reposted by Thomas Nyckel
It’s called “Artificial Intelligence” because, traditionally, researchers stuffed things into this category when they didn’t know how to solve or even address them. The idea has always been “when computers can do THIS they’ll be truly smart!”
June 3, 2024 at 3:58 AM
It’s called “Artificial Intelligence” because, traditionally, researchers stuffed things into this category when they didn’t know how to solve or even address them. The idea has always been “when computers can do THIS they’ll be truly smart!”
Reposted by Thomas Nyckel
I'm seeing folks talk about deleting their art + re-uploading with anti-AI measures and I just want to say maybe consider not doing that?
I get wanting to protect your art, but in case your art gets stolen by someone, you have a record showing you uploaded it first ages ago proving that's your IP.
I get wanting to protect your art, but in case your art gets stolen by someone, you have a record showing you uploaded it first ages ago proving that's your IP.
June 1, 2024 at 11:09 PM
I'm seeing folks talk about deleting their art + re-uploading with anti-AI measures and I just want to say maybe consider not doing that?
I get wanting to protect your art, but in case your art gets stolen by someone, you have a record showing you uploaded it first ages ago proving that's your IP.
I get wanting to protect your art, but in case your art gets stolen by someone, you have a record showing you uploaded it first ages ago proving that's your IP.
I think I might already have encountered one of these data-scraping accounts on Bluesky, albeit my account has only a few followers. Something to have an eye on, probably.
So today I stumbled on troll acct networks designed to aim at Dems.
They've gotten better-ish at the bios. My guess is they're copying the structure of real users bios and swapping some of the language around.
They've gotten better-ish at the bios. My guess is they're copying the structure of real users bios and swapping some of the language around.
May 29, 2024 at 3:05 PM
I think I might already have encountered one of these data-scraping accounts on Bluesky, albeit my account has only a few followers. Something to have an eye on, probably.
Reposted by Thomas Nyckel
In der Frage zeigt sich deutlich, warum wir uns auf diese Diskussion nicht einlassen sollten. Kritik an 6 J. war Ausgangspunkt von #IchBinHanna. 6 J. sind schlecht. 4+2 löst Probleme nicht. Wer jetzt fragt, was besser ist, hat schon aufgegeben, auf echte Lösung zu drängen. Wir geben das nicht auf.
May 20, 2024 at 6:38 AM
In der Frage zeigt sich deutlich, warum wir uns auf diese Diskussion nicht einlassen sollten. Kritik an 6 J. war Ausgangspunkt von #IchBinHanna. 6 J. sind schlecht. 4+2 löst Probleme nicht. Wer jetzt fragt, was besser ist, hat schon aufgegeben, auf echte Lösung zu drängen. Wir geben das nicht auf.
Reposted by Thomas Nyckel
Der aktuelle politische Kurs bezüglich des #WissZeitVG zeigt deutlich: wir müssen laut bleiben. Auch, wenn ich mich manchmal frage, woher wir eigentlich die Kraft nehmen sollen - denn wenn nach Jahren der Debatte zum Status quo zurückgekehrt wird, macht das sprachlos. /1 #IchBinHanna
May 20, 2024 at 6:01 PM
Der aktuelle politische Kurs bezüglich des #WissZeitVG zeigt deutlich: wir müssen laut bleiben. Auch, wenn ich mich manchmal frage, woher wir eigentlich die Kraft nehmen sollen - denn wenn nach Jahren der Debatte zum Status quo zurückgekehrt wird, macht das sprachlos. /1 #IchBinHanna
Reposted by Thomas Nyckel
„Die Poesie heilt die Wunden, die der Verstand schlägt.“
Gute Nacht mit Novalis
Gute Nacht mit Novalis
May 18, 2024 at 7:59 PM
„Die Poesie heilt die Wunden, die der Verstand schlägt.“
Gute Nacht mit Novalis
Gute Nacht mit Novalis
Reposted by Thomas Nyckel
As an experiment, I have occasionally used ChatGPT and Gemini to answer my kids' homework questions. Both have a 100% failure rate. Every single time I do it, the machine confidently spits out an answer that looks credible but is quite obviously wrong if you know the subject.
i have to confess something. i have never, ever not once used chatgpt for anything and its literally unimaginable to me that anyone would. people everywhere whose taste and opinions i would normally trust will be like "yeah i use it for x" why? what would compel you to do that? don't answer this
May 18, 2024 at 11:36 PM
As an experiment, I have occasionally used ChatGPT and Gemini to answer my kids' homework questions. Both have a 100% failure rate. Every single time I do it, the machine confidently spits out an answer that looks credible but is quite obviously wrong if you know the subject.
Reposted by Thomas Nyckel
If you own a Tesla, your car is covered in cameras that take images reviewed by Tesla employees, who share them with each other, joke about them, and make them into memes.
www.reuters.com/technology/t...
www.reuters.com/technology/t...
www.reuters.com
May 14, 2024 at 11:46 PM
If you own a Tesla, your car is covered in cameras that take images reviewed by Tesla employees, who share them with each other, joke about them, and make them into memes.
www.reuters.com/technology/t...
www.reuters.com/technology/t...
Reposted by Thomas Nyckel
Call for papers!
Born-Digital Collections, Archives and Memory with @SASNews
Explore access, development & effects of born-digital collections, archives & cultural heritage.
Submit #CFP by 7 Jun 2024.
📅: 2-4 April 2025
Senate House, @LondonU & online
www.sas.ac.uk/borndigital2...
Born-Digital Collections, Archives and Memory with @SASNews
Explore access, development & effects of born-digital collections, archives & cultural heritage.
Submit #CFP by 7 Jun 2024.
📅: 2-4 April 2025
Senate House, @LondonU & online
www.sas.ac.uk/borndigital2...
Born-Digital Collections, Archives and Memory
2 - 4 April 2025 Senate House, University of London & Online
www.sas.ac.uk
May 9, 2024 at 11:06 AM
Call for papers!
Born-Digital Collections, Archives and Memory with @SASNews
Explore access, development & effects of born-digital collections, archives & cultural heritage.
Submit #CFP by 7 Jun 2024.
📅: 2-4 April 2025
Senate House, @LondonU & online
www.sas.ac.uk/borndigital2...
Born-Digital Collections, Archives and Memory with @SASNews
Explore access, development & effects of born-digital collections, archives & cultural heritage.
Submit #CFP by 7 Jun 2024.
📅: 2-4 April 2025
Senate House, @LondonU & online
www.sas.ac.uk/borndigital2...
Montägliches Bahnkantenwarten.
Wenn aus 28 Minuten Fahrzeit 1,5 h werden, werfen sich Fragen auf:
Steigen Zugverspätung und DB-Rendite etwa gemeinsam - als zwei Seiten derselben Medaille??
Korrelation, Kausalbeziehung... In der Heterotopie des Bahnhofs wirkt alles möglich ... und nichts
Wenn aus 28 Minuten Fahrzeit 1,5 h werden, werfen sich Fragen auf:
Steigen Zugverspätung und DB-Rendite etwa gemeinsam - als zwei Seiten derselben Medaille??
Korrelation, Kausalbeziehung... In der Heterotopie des Bahnhofs wirkt alles möglich ... und nichts
May 6, 2024 at 9:58 AM
Montägliches Bahnkantenwarten.
Wenn aus 28 Minuten Fahrzeit 1,5 h werden, werfen sich Fragen auf:
Steigen Zugverspätung und DB-Rendite etwa gemeinsam - als zwei Seiten derselben Medaille??
Korrelation, Kausalbeziehung... In der Heterotopie des Bahnhofs wirkt alles möglich ... und nichts
Wenn aus 28 Minuten Fahrzeit 1,5 h werden, werfen sich Fragen auf:
Steigen Zugverspätung und DB-Rendite etwa gemeinsam - als zwei Seiten derselben Medaille??
Korrelation, Kausalbeziehung... In der Heterotopie des Bahnhofs wirkt alles möglich ... und nichts
Reposted by Thomas Nyckel
»Just a few years ago, people said that AI would never be creative. And yet AI now feels like an endless river of creativity, making poetry and images and music and video that stretch the imagination.« (Mustafa Suleyman)
Dunno, feels more like a compost heap than an endless river, if you ask me
Dunno, feels more like a compost heap than an endless river, if you ask me
A New Digital Species
Key insights of today’s newsletter: In his new role as the CEO of the Microsoft AI devision, Mustafa Suleyman gave TED talk in Vancouver, Canada. In his talk, Suleyman suggested we need new words and ...
jurgengravestein.substack.com
May 6, 2024 at 7:26 AM
»Just a few years ago, people said that AI would never be creative. And yet AI now feels like an endless river of creativity, making poetry and images and music and video that stretch the imagination.« (Mustafa Suleyman)
Dunno, feels more like a compost heap than an endless river, if you ask me
Dunno, feels more like a compost heap than an endless river, if you ask me
Without jumping to conclusions about the similarities between different epochs – the second sentence on the memorial plaque for Moritz Schlick at the University of Vienna feels heavier recently.
achtung history-content: heute auf meinem weg zur vorlesung auf der hauptuni bin ich hier vorbeigekommen: einer bodenplatte auf der so genannten „philosophenstiege“ im hauptgebäude am universitätsring 1. but what happened?
May 5, 2024 at 5:20 PM
Without jumping to conclusions about the similarities between different epochs – the second sentence on the memorial plaque for Moritz Schlick at the University of Vienna feels heavier recently.
Reposted by Thomas Nyckel
This morning, I opened a PDF to find Adobe Acrobat giving me an AI-generated summary of it. That led to a rabbit hole of finding all the places Acrobat’s AI Assistant has to be turned off. Here they are: www.wordsbywes.ink/a...
#LLMs #AmEditing
#LLMs #AmEditing
Turning Off Adobe Acrobat's AI Assistant - Words by Wes
This morning, I opened a PDF to find Acrobat giving me an AI-generated summary of it. Since I frequently deal with unpublished manuscripts and other confidential documents for clients, I can’t have them processed by generative AI tools (and I don’t want my PDFs being read by LLMs either). So…
www.wordsbywes.ink
April 30, 2024 at 7:51 PM
This morning, I opened a PDF to find Adobe Acrobat giving me an AI-generated summary of it. That led to a rabbit hole of finding all the places Acrobat’s AI Assistant has to be turned off. Here they are: www.wordsbywes.ink/a...
#LLMs #AmEditing
#LLMs #AmEditing
Reposted by Thomas Nyckel
1. Mai-Tweet: Nachhaltige Perspektiven für Postdocs zu schaffen heißt nicht Arbeitnehmerrechte über das Leistungsprinzip zu stellen. Es heißt, Bedingungen zu schaffen, zu denen die Besten überhaupt in der Wissenschaft bleiben.
#IchBinHanna #ProfsFürHanna
www.jmwiarda.de/2024/04/30/r...
#IchBinHanna #ProfsFürHanna
www.jmwiarda.de/2024/04/30/r...
May 1, 2024 at 10:54 AM
1. Mai-Tweet: Nachhaltige Perspektiven für Postdocs zu schaffen heißt nicht Arbeitnehmerrechte über das Leistungsprinzip zu stellen. Es heißt, Bedingungen zu schaffen, zu denen die Besten überhaupt in der Wissenschaft bleiben.
#IchBinHanna #ProfsFürHanna
www.jmwiarda.de/2024/04/30/r...
#IchBinHanna #ProfsFürHanna
www.jmwiarda.de/2024/04/30/r...
Auf der Heimfahrt noch eine Runde DB-Regio-Sauna gegönnt 🔥 So muss ein guter Arbeitstag enden 👌
April 30, 2024 at 4:35 PM
Auf der Heimfahrt noch eine Runde DB-Regio-Sauna gegönnt 🔥 So muss ein guter Arbeitstag enden 👌
Reposted by Thomas Nyckel
Darren Wershler, Jussi Parikka, and I got to talk abt our book, _The Lab Book_, which came out 2 years ago...already! thank you New Books Network - listen here if you'd like to hear us talk abt labs in relation to infrastructure, institutions, funding, and community newbooksnetwork.com/the-lab-book
Darren Wershler et al,, "The Lab Book: Situated Practices in Media Studies" (U Minnesota Press, 2022) - New Books Network
newbooksnetwork.com
April 16, 2024 at 3:58 PM
Darren Wershler, Jussi Parikka, and I got to talk abt our book, _The Lab Book_, which came out 2 years ago...already! thank you New Books Network - listen here if you'd like to hear us talk abt labs in relation to infrastructure, institutions, funding, and community newbooksnetwork.com/the-lab-book
On the second day of the semester, the weather was changeable on campus—rain and dropping temperatures. But what a warm welcome from students and staff at @uniregensburg.bsky.social (I:IMSK) 🌞 I think this is the beginning of a beautiful colleagueship 🚢
April 16, 2024 at 5:21 PM
On the second day of the semester, the weather was changeable on campus—rain and dropping temperatures. But what a warm welcome from students and staff at @uniregensburg.bsky.social (I:IMSK) 🌞 I think this is the beginning of a beautiful colleagueship 🚢
Reposted by Thomas Nyckel
don't have to poison every image, just a random subset, to screw with their ability to train on everything they can grab
do you use alt tags on your images? I hope so! but describing what's in the pictures is easily scraped training data
so: poison the well, so machines won't want to drink from it
do you use alt tags on your images? I hope so! but describing what's in the pictures is easily scraped training data
so: poison the well, so machines won't want to drink from it
April 14, 2024 at 4:08 AM
don't have to poison every image, just a random subset, to screw with their ability to train on everything they can grab
do you use alt tags on your images? I hope so! but describing what's in the pictures is easily scraped training data
so: poison the well, so machines won't want to drink from it
do you use alt tags on your images? I hope so! but describing what's in the pictures is easily scraped training data
so: poison the well, so machines won't want to drink from it
Reposted by Thomas Nyckel
Just Published: 'Neural Networks' (@uminnpress.bsky.social and meson press), co-authored by Lucy Suchman, Théo Lepage-Richer, and yours truly. Examining critically the figure of the neural network, the book puts the neuroscientific back into our conversations about computational neural networks.
April 10, 2024 at 6:27 PM
Just Published: 'Neural Networks' (@uminnpress.bsky.social and meson press), co-authored by Lucy Suchman, Théo Lepage-Richer, and yours truly. Examining critically the figure of the neural network, the book puts the neuroscientific back into our conversations about computational neural networks.
Looking back at a beautiful time at the Virtual Humanities Lab (RUB), building the LIDAR Carrier robot, I wanted to thank all the great people I met along the way, the members of @sfb1567.bsky.social, and especially the colleagues I had the pleasure of working with in my team. It was a treat 🙏🙂🤖
April 3, 2024 at 8:37 AM
Looking back at a beautiful time at the Virtual Humanities Lab (RUB), building the LIDAR Carrier robot, I wanted to thank all the great people I met along the way, the members of @sfb1567.bsky.social, and especially the colleagues I had the pleasure of working with in my team. It was a treat 🙏🙂🤖