@ckck9.bsky.social
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AOC here with a digital literacy lesson of the day: we’re all vulnerable to manipulation, especially when we’re outraged, and even when that outrage is warranted. I’ve had politically left friends reach out to me this week w/ some pretty wild & very scary scenarios… & they cited BlueSky as a source.
I cannot emphasize enough how true & real this is.
In almost anywhere on the political spectrum you ID with or major issue, there’s probably a bot/troll operation to encourage your rage and vitriol.
And how/where that rage gets directed, esp understandable rage, is what they are out to influence.
In almost anywhere on the political spectrum you ID with or major issue, there’s probably a bot/troll operation to encourage your rage and vitriol.
And how/where that rage gets directed, esp understandable rage, is what they are out to influence.
People on this app get really angry every time I point out that social media manipulation is a real phenomenon that we are all stewing in and that’s having real world consequences and I’m sure part of that is engagement farmers who do that manipulation not liking people talking about it
July 4, 2025 at 10:59 PM
AOC here with a digital literacy lesson of the day: we’re all vulnerable to manipulation, especially when we’re outraged, and even when that outrage is warranted. I’ve had politically left friends reach out to me this week w/ some pretty wild & very scary scenarios… & they cited BlueSky as a source.
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Just published: "Unraveling the Big Lie: Participatory Disinformation and the 2020 Election." Thrilled to see this work out in the world and part of such an amazing compilation. My chapter features my initial research and model on "participatory disinformation": academic.oup.com/book/60493?l...
Connective Action and the Rise of the Far-Right: Platforms, Politics, and the Crisis of Democracy
Abstract. This volume introduces a “connection action” framework for explaining democratic backsliding. We bring together a mostly political science compar
academic.oup.com
July 3, 2025 at 4:27 PM
Just published: "Unraveling the Big Lie: Participatory Disinformation and the 2020 Election." Thrilled to see this work out in the world and part of such an amazing compilation. My chapter features my initial research and model on "participatory disinformation": academic.oup.com/book/60493?l...
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Vital point here. The frames of political discourse — which are shaped by the structure of the info environment and by both strategic & organic communication — shape how people interpret their own experiences. We're not dealing with a problem of bad "facts" ... but one of corrupted sensemaking.
What many of us warned, & what is unavoidably clear now, is that there is no privileged sphere of "real life" that is sheltered, separate from the information environment. It's narratives all the way down -- even to the point that they shape *how people experience their own material circumstances*.
May 23, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Vital point here. The frames of political discourse — which are shaped by the structure of the info environment and by both strategic & organic communication — shape how people interpret their own experiences. We're not dealing with a problem of bad "facts" ... but one of corrupted sensemaking.
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State capacity is the whole ballgame.
paradoxically, the best thing we could do to cut costs and eliminate bloat at ODOT would be to hire more staff - it’s the elimination of state capacity and the funding of private companies who know how to squeeze the most public dollars out of the state in contracting delivering subprime results
"An independent study published by the Brookings Institution shows that excessive reliance on consultants is a major contributor to high costs, and Oregon’s costs are double the national average."
cityobservatory.org/odots-strate...
cityobservatory.org/odots-strate...
April 23, 2025 at 5:32 PM
State capacity is the whole ballgame.
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This is why we need many social platforms.
The idea of one massive “public square” should be squarely over & dead by now -didn’t work, won’t work, can’t work. The whims of a billionaire shouldn’t be the rules. But on a centralized platform, they are. So here we are.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
The idea of one massive “public square” should be squarely over & dead by now -didn’t work, won’t work, can’t work. The whims of a billionaire shouldn’t be the rules. But on a centralized platform, they are. So here we are.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
They Criticized Musk on X. Then Their Reach Collapsed.
Three users who disagreed with the site’s owner saw views for their posts plummet.
www.nytimes.com
April 23, 2025 at 11:36 AM
This is why we need many social platforms.
The idea of one massive “public square” should be squarely over & dead by now -didn’t work, won’t work, can’t work. The whims of a billionaire shouldn’t be the rules. But on a centralized platform, they are. So here we are.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
The idea of one massive “public square” should be squarely over & dead by now -didn’t work, won’t work, can’t work. The whims of a billionaire shouldn’t be the rules. But on a centralized platform, they are. So here we are.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
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I bet you didn’t read this when I wrote it, so you should read it now, because it’s just getting more relevant by the day stancilculture.substack.com/p/crisis-is-...
April 7, 2025 at 4:08 AM
I bet you didn’t read this when I wrote it, so you should read it now, because it’s just getting more relevant by the day stancilculture.substack.com/p/crisis-is-...
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Great writeup of the #ATmosphere conference. It was organized by the community — the protocol that powers Bluesky is taking on a life of its own.
techcrunch.com/2025/03/25/a...
techcrunch.com/2025/03/25/a...
A world without Caesars: How the ATProto community is rebuilding the web to return power to the people | TechCrunch
The first in-person gathering devoted to those building with the AT Protocol — which powers Bluesky — was held in Seattle.
techcrunch.com
March 26, 2025 at 2:30 AM
Great writeup of the #ATmosphere conference. It was organized by the community — the protocol that powers Bluesky is taking on a life of its own.
techcrunch.com/2025/03/25/a...
techcrunch.com/2025/03/25/a...
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Long, highly optimistic read.
How AI is transforming medicine — Harvard Gazette
Artificial intelligence is up to the challenge of reducing human suffering, Harvard Medical School experts say. Are we?
news.harvard.edu
March 23, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Long, highly optimistic read.
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This trend seems to be growing here.
False comfort that AI doesn’t work or that it isn’t getting better is pervasive on Blue Sky. As a result, people who could add important points of view to current discussions on the meaning & use of AI instead try to believe they don’t have to think about it.
False comfort that AI doesn’t work or that it isn’t getting better is pervasive on Blue Sky. As a result, people who could add important points of view to current discussions on the meaning & use of AI instead try to believe they don’t have to think about it.
Not to be a broken record, but AI critics who insist that AI "doesn't work" and is going to just disappear are misleading - that just isn't true, as controlled studies like this one show.
There are many issues with AI & many things that need critique, but pretending it is going away is not helpful.
There are many issues with AI & many things that need critique, but pretending it is going away is not helpful.
Randomized trial AI for legal work finds Reasoning models are a big deal:
Law students using o1-preview had the quality of work on most tasks increase (up to 28%) & time savings of 12-28%
There were a few hallucinations, but a RAG-based AI with access to legal material reduced those to human level
Law students using o1-preview had the quality of work on most tasks increase (up to 28%) & time savings of 12-28%
There were a few hallucinations, but a RAG-based AI with access to legal material reduced those to human level
March 20, 2025 at 7:08 PM
This trend seems to be growing here.
False comfort that AI doesn’t work or that it isn’t getting better is pervasive on Blue Sky. As a result, people who could add important points of view to current discussions on the meaning & use of AI instead try to believe they don’t have to think about it.
False comfort that AI doesn’t work or that it isn’t getting better is pervasive on Blue Sky. As a result, people who could add important points of view to current discussions on the meaning & use of AI instead try to believe they don’t have to think about it.
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This is a sharp question from Ezra Klein in his interview with David Shor (head of data science at Blue Rose Research).
The possibility that TikTok might be “turning the dials” is something I’ve been flagging for years.
You’d have to be pretty naive at this point to think it’s ~not~ happening.
The possibility that TikTok might be “turning the dials” is something I’ve been flagging for years.
You’d have to be pretty naive at this point to think it’s ~not~ happening.
March 20, 2025 at 1:18 AM
This is a sharp question from Ezra Klein in his interview with David Shor (head of data science at Blue Rose Research).
The possibility that TikTok might be “turning the dials” is something I’ve been flagging for years.
You’d have to be pretty naive at this point to think it’s ~not~ happening.
The possibility that TikTok might be “turning the dials” is something I’ve been flagging for years.
You’d have to be pretty naive at this point to think it’s ~not~ happening.
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Like @coloradotravis.bsky.social I consumed this over the weekend, and I highly encourage everyone to read it.
The coverage is treating the book as an expose of Meta culture and execs and while it is that, I think the more interesting parts are in between and focus on global power dynamics 1/
The coverage is treating the book as an expose of Meta culture and execs and while it is that, I think the more interesting parts are in between and focus on global power dynamics 1/
March 17, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Like @coloradotravis.bsky.social I consumed this over the weekend, and I highly encourage everyone to read it.
The coverage is treating the book as an expose of Meta culture and execs and while it is that, I think the more interesting parts are in between and focus on global power dynamics 1/
The coverage is treating the book as an expose of Meta culture and execs and while it is that, I think the more interesting parts are in between and focus on global power dynamics 1/
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These are (among) the stories that need to be told, by the people who are experiencing them, in ways that their families and communities can understand. If the sound is these attacks on science is silence… then clawing back what we’ve lost will be even harder, possibly impossible.
God, that was hard to bear. Students told a physics town hall that grad schools have rescinded admission. NSF proposals are censored for words like “bias,” even when the meaning is technical. Physics curricula are being banned by school districts for encouraging girls. #APSGlobalSummit2025 #APSMarch
March 17, 2025 at 12:42 AM
These are (among) the stories that need to be told, by the people who are experiencing them, in ways that their families and communities can understand. If the sound is these attacks on science is silence… then clawing back what we’ve lost will be even harder, possibly impossible.
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One thing that the "left" (defined very broadly) can do to build a counter movement (to the participatory dynamics on the right) is to seize, model, and provide diverse opportunites for participation — so that everyday people can have agency in writing the story of who/what that movement is.
March 2, 2025 at 5:44 PM
One thing that the "left" (defined very broadly) can do to build a counter movement (to the participatory dynamics on the right) is to seize, model, and provide diverse opportunites for participation — so that everyday people can have agency in writing the story of who/what that movement is.
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A cold civil war ... never thought I'd be writing that, but here we are.
February 16, 2025 at 10:45 PM
A cold civil war ... never thought I'd be writing that, but here we are.
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"Friedrich Merz, the frontrunner to become Germany’s next leader, told a rally in Singen on Wednesday night that 'this is no longer the America we used to know,' amid the Trump administration’s major overhauls of the federal government." Points to J6 clemencies, firings of prosecutors in particular.
The US is ‘no longer the America we used to know,’ warns Germany’s Merz
“The way they’re pardoning people who have been sentenced to years in prison, that will have consequences for America,” Merz cautioned.
www.politico.eu
February 6, 2025 at 12:35 PM
"Friedrich Merz, the frontrunner to become Germany’s next leader, told a rally in Singen on Wednesday night that 'this is no longer the America we used to know,' amid the Trump administration’s major overhauls of the federal government." Points to J6 clemencies, firings of prosecutors in particular.
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Why do problems fester for so long in companies? Why can it take so long for teams, managers, and leaders to work out their shit, by which point you have far fewer options?
cutlefish.substack.com/p/tbm-337-pi...
cutlefish.substack.com/p/tbm-337-pi...
TBM 337: Pirates and Garbage Cans
Why do problems fester for so long in companies? Why can it take so long for teams, managers, and leaders to work out their shit, by which point you have far fewer options?
cutlefish.substack.com
February 2, 2025 at 9:35 PM
Why do problems fester for so long in companies? Why can it take so long for teams, managers, and leaders to work out their shit, by which point you have far fewer options?
cutlefish.substack.com/p/tbm-337-pi...
cutlefish.substack.com/p/tbm-337-pi...
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The most painful thing is the realization that we have built and accepted such an extraordinary digital panopticon that the kinds of social movements necessary may be much more difficult than we have dared to imagine.
January 29, 2025 at 6:09 AM
The most painful thing is the realization that we have built and accepted such an extraordinary digital panopticon that the kinds of social movements necessary may be much more difficult than we have dared to imagine.
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For those interested in politics, don’t ignore AI. AI models will further change politics into something that is probably unrecognizable.
Just like a TikTok algo can get what it wants in front of you, campaigns will figure out how to get information to get you to vote , OUTSIDE of your phone/PC
Just like a TikTok algo can get what it wants in front of you, campaigns will figure out how to get information to get you to vote , OUTSIDE of your phone/PC
Remember when we were arguing about the term "foundation models"? It feels like ages ago! With those base models culminating in DeepSeek v3 in Dec 2024, 2025 will likely be the year of LLM specialization!
Anyway, I will be writing about it more soon :).
Anyway, I will be writing about it more soon :).
January 27, 2025 at 8:39 PM
For those interested in politics, don’t ignore AI. AI models will further change politics into something that is probably unrecognizable.
Just like a TikTok algo can get what it wants in front of you, campaigns will figure out how to get information to get you to vote , OUTSIDE of your phone/PC
Just like a TikTok algo can get what it wants in front of you, campaigns will figure out how to get information to get you to vote , OUTSIDE of your phone/PC
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"China has not reined in its tech sector out of any belief in democracy, but rather through a seeming understanding that the new forces of wealth, data, intelligence, information, commerce, and communications can hijack a country’s political system and lead it into dangerously uncharted territory."
Some people have asked me for an open version of this new column. Here it is. foreignpolicy.com/2025/01/24/w...
What China Got Right About Big Tech
Unlike Trump, Xi understood that a new class of business titans could hijack his country’s political system.
foreignpolicy.com
January 26, 2025 at 8:16 PM
"China has not reined in its tech sector out of any belief in democracy, but rather through a seeming understanding that the new forces of wealth, data, intelligence, information, commerce, and communications can hijack a country’s political system and lead it into dangerously uncharted territory."
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David Lynch was a magician who believed his own magic, and he made others believe it, too, Joshua Rothman writes. Read his reflections on Lynch’s creative process and inner world.
David Lynch’s (Possible) Realism
His movies were dreamlike. But what if life is a dream?
www.newyorker.com
January 25, 2025 at 7:01 PM
David Lynch was a magician who believed his own magic, and he made others believe it, too, Joshua Rothman writes. Read his reflections on Lynch’s creative process and inner world.
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This week we hosted D.A. Wallach on The Heart of Healthcare Podcast! From questioning the "doctor" honorific to calling large health systems "the root of evil," D.A. continues to challenge healthcare's sacred cows and offers a provocative vision for the future.
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
Is Medicine an Art or a Science? | Venture Capitalist D.A. Wallach
Podcast Episode · The Heart of Healthcare | A Digital Health Podcast · 01/20/2025 · 36m
podcasts.apple.com
January 21, 2025 at 3:58 PM
This week we hosted D.A. Wallach on The Heart of Healthcare Podcast! From questioning the "doctor" honorific to calling large health systems "the root of evil," D.A. continues to challenge healthcare's sacred cows and offers a provocative vision for the future.
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
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Places like this don’t happen by accident. It’s a determined commitment to building better communities centered on people.
Imagine coming home from school or work, and loudest sound was the sound of birds, getting ready to roost for the night.
Stel je voor dat je thuiskomt van school of werk, en het luidste geluid was het geluid van vogels die zich klaarmaakten om te slapen voor de nacht.
#Utrecht #ThrushHour
Stel je voor dat je thuiskomt van school of werk, en het luidste geluid was het geluid van vogels die zich klaarmaakten om te slapen voor de nacht.
#Utrecht #ThrushHour
January 20, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Places like this don’t happen by accident. It’s a determined commitment to building better communities centered on people.
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What I'm reading today.
This multi-year, multi-country analysis shows that right-wing populist politicians spread more online misinfo than their mainstream counterparts and explains how “the rise of political misinformation is associated to the recent wave of radical-right populism.”
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
January 20, 2025 at 6:47 PM
What I'm reading today.
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A post that connects DOGE with recent Andreessen and Yarvin interviews…
New, from me: as the Trump administration begins, I try to make sense of what, exactly, DOGE is.
Journalists and policymakers should be skeptical of its claim to be a govt reform commission, and more willing to see it as a form of oligarchic state capture.
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/doge-dange...
Journalists and policymakers should be skeptical of its claim to be a govt reform commission, and more willing to see it as a form of oligarchic state capture.
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/doge-dange...
DOGE: Dangerous Oligarchs Grab Everything
What Marc Andreessen revealed about the tech-industrial complex
donmoynihan.substack.com
January 20, 2025 at 4:30 AM
A post that connects DOGE with recent Andreessen and Yarvin interviews…
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Honestly we should ban all social media for one year, a societal “touch grass” reset
January 20, 2025 at 4:07 AM
Honestly we should ban all social media for one year, a societal “touch grass” reset