Aram Zucker-Scharff
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chronotope.aramzs.xyz
Aram Zucker-Scharff
@chronotope.aramzs.xyz
AramZS. he/him. Privacy Engineer. Tech for journalism. Ad Tech. Prev: Fullstack, strategy, econ/game journo, storytelling, altac. Views are only my own. NYCer. https://aramzs.nexus/
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
the ludic ideal… I still don’t think anyone has ever made a better game than this…..
Replayed Papers Please and man the fact that it feels GOOD as a border inspector to find something wrong in an immigrant's paperwork and deny them entry is such effective design-as-commentary.
November 12, 2025 at 6:52 AM
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
"All major game studios are using generative AI" the fact this is a lie aside, the ones that are using it aren't doing so willingly. It's meddling managers and CEOs with no understanding or attachment to game development forcing it on devs who end up not using anything it outputs anyway.
November 12, 2025 at 7:01 AM
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
The current technology & the 'stuff everything into it' approach is not technically able to be intelligent or be conscious. There is no technical capability for it to even stop lying to you. The current technology will never ever be fundamentally able to understand what the truth is. Or understand.
Interesting essay on AI and consciousness but it ignores the fact that language models do not actually seem conscious if you take a closer, more scientific, look. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/o...
Opinion | A.I. Is on Its Way to Something Even More Remarkable Than Intelligence
www.nytimes.com
November 10, 2025 at 1:18 AM
In Japan which means my work slack now has 20 posts queued up for eastern local start of work-day. Sorry!
November 12, 2025 at 5:52 AM
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
This concentration camp was opened at Fort Bliss, the site of a former Japanese internment camp.

It also cost over $1B in private contracts to build in a place meant to hold 1000 people. So, basically it’s a fascist grift.
shorturl.at/qhuSc
November 12, 2025 at 4:57 AM
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
High end wealth inequality allows for shit like this
November 12, 2025 at 2:55 AM
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
Happy Yokai Day!

"Yokai: Shigeru Mizuki's Supernatural Parade" is out today! This is a tremendous collection of Mizuki's artwork, yokai encyclopedias, and an essay from me about Mizuki's role as a folklorist in Japan.

amzn.to/488rQU2

@dandq.bsky.social
November 11, 2025 at 11:34 PM
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
Everything is hitting an API that uses tokens at a blistering rate vs the other conversational ones and converts them between making a bunch more requests in the process eating more tokens.

Anyways, go try to break your code it will probably do you favors lol.
November 11, 2025 at 11:35 PM
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
Recently we hired @jimray.bsky.team as a new devrel at Bluesky, and I wanted to give him an overview of the Atmosphere. We recorded the session!

I give you: Squeeky Board with Paul and Jim, a detailed overview of AT://
Squeeky Board with Paul and Jim
YouTube video by Paul Frazee
www.youtube.com
November 11, 2025 at 11:33 PM
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
Amelia Acker: "Each chapter introduces data archiving processes that relate to the evolution of data sovereignty...: from magnetic tape + timesharing computer models from the 1950s,... to file structures + virtual containers in cloud-based information services over the past 40 yrs" — open access!
Archiving Machines
Archiving Machines advances our understanding of memory, information, and data by charting the struggle between the computing technologies that archive data ...
mitpress.mit.edu
November 11, 2025 at 11:28 PM
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
i had heard from a friend whose spouse is a teacher about how they don’t teach phonics anymore and i wasn’t sure how they would have replaced it. an interesting, sad and alarming read here - maybe explains why my younger siblings didn’t get into reading as much as i did
November 11, 2025 at 11:35 PM
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
‘It is this breach of trust—this shattering of a person’s faith in the benevolence and intrinsic fairness of America—that is the hardest thing to watch.’
A photographer’s view of ICE’s relentless courthouse arrests
The shattering of faith in America's goodness is the hardest part to watch.
www.motherjones.com
November 11, 2025 at 11:23 AM
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
threw together a lil web component to add this to any input. super easy progressive UX enhancement for your atproto app!

tangled.org/@jakelazarof...
November 11, 2025 at 3:03 AM
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
I've got three Party of One episodes I think really showcase what makes the mystery resolution mechanics in Carved From Brindlewood games work:

1, our Apocalypse Keys game with @kierongillen.bsky.social

www.partyofonepodcast.com/2025/09/14/4...
467 - Apocalypse Keys with Kieron Gillen - Party Of One
Kieron is the writer behind some of my favorite comics, including Young Avengers, Journey Into Mystery, and The Wicked + The Divine. His latest works include The Power Fantasy, about the six superpowe...
www.partyofonepodcast.com
November 11, 2025 at 4:58 AM
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
Senators look at Trump's shameless corruption and say "give us some of that"
November 10, 2025 at 10:28 PM
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
US consumer watchdog says it is legally blocked from accessing funds reut.rs/4p5bX6x
US consumer watchdog says it is legally blocked from accessing funds
The top U.S. consumer watchdog said on Monday it was legally prohibited from drawing cash from the Federal Reserve to support continuing operations, but that its current funding should last through the end of this year "at least."
reut.rs
November 11, 2025 at 4:40 AM
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
Happy There Is A Circulatory System Walking Through The Kitchen Day to all who celebrate.
November 10, 2025 at 10:54 AM
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
NEW: Supreme Court rejects long-shot effort to overturn ruling that legalized gay marriage:
www.nbcnews.com/politics/sup...
Supreme Court rejects long-shot effort to overturn same-sex marriage ruling
The court turned away an appeal filed by Kim Davis, a former county clerk in Kentucky who was sued after refusing to issue a marriage license to a gay couple.
www.nbcnews.com
November 10, 2025 at 2:33 PM
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
NEW: Buried in 141-page text of the latest draft text of the Senate's ag appropriations bill is a restriction on hemp-derived THC products w/ >0.4mg per container—an effective ban on the existing market. Would go into effect 1yr from passage: www.appropriations.senate.gov/imo/media/do...
November 9, 2025 at 10:05 PM
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
This deal to reopen the government is fucking disgraceful.

Tens of millions will lose their healthcare. Trump will be emboldened.

This is exactly what’s wrong with Democratic Party leadership and why we need more people in Congress who will actually hold the line.
November 10, 2025 at 12:43 PM
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
Eight Senate Dems Caved, and Caved Too Early.
Eight Senate Dems Caved, and Caved Too Early - emptywheel
With one more week, Trump would have owned far more of the responsibility for SNAP and flight cutbacks.
www.emptywheel.net
November 10, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
"...but draft documents obtained by POLITICO show that officials are planning far-reaching changes to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to the benefit of artificial intelligence developers."
Brussels knifes privacy to feed the AI boom
Draft proposals obtained by POLITICO show EU is breaking sacred privacy regime to placate industry.
www.politico.eu
November 10, 2025 at 11:57 AM
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
More privacy for tech users is good! But creating a new privilege for a robot that routinely says inaccurate and dangerous things does seem like a weird way to enhance user privacy, if that is ultimately what this is about.
November 10, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff
Cursed timeline
November 10, 2025 at 1:08 PM
the agentic web is just apis

send post
November 10, 2025 at 1:43 PM