Justin Joque
@jjoque.bsky.social
visualization librarian | philosophy, media, cyberwar, stats | Deconstruction Machines (UMN Press, 2018) | Revolutionary Mathematics: Artificial Intelligence, Statistics and the Logic of Capitalism (Verso, 2022) | my views are yours
Pinned
Justin Joque
@jjoque.bsky.social
· Feb 14
Revolutionary Mathematics
Our finances, politics, media, opportunities, information, shopping and knowledge production are mediated through algorithms and their statistical approaches to knowledge; increasingly, these methods ...
www.versobooks.com
Posting this so I can pin it. This is my most recent book about artificial intelligence, statistics and capitalism. It was written largely before the most recent AI boom, but feel that everything I wrote is even more true today than when I wrote it. (also available in Spanish, Japanese and Korean)
I think he has zero control over the government; no idea what Is going on; and is just appreciative whenever a nice young person comes to visit him at the nursing home his children stuck him in
November 21, 2025 at 9:21 PM
I think he has zero control over the government; no idea what Is going on; and is just appreciative whenever a nice young person comes to visit him at the nursing home his children stuck him in
A funny/annoying artifact of how LLMs work is that if you ask google what streaming service has a movie it seems to now say Netflix regardless of if it does or does not have it.
November 21, 2025 at 7:36 PM
A funny/annoying artifact of how LLMs work is that if you ask google what streaming service has a movie it seems to now say Netflix regardless of if it does or does not have it.
Sometimes I think modernity has only given us two worthwhile inventions: modern medicine and cinema. Outside of that what we need more than anything else is time (and medicine gives us more time to live and cinema the time to sit with the beauty of the world). Other tech mostly just steals our time
The value of knowledge is in having done the work. The value of research is in having done the research. The value of a summary is in having summarized the information. The value of writing is in having done the writing.
Learning with AI falls short compared to old-fashioned web search theconversation.com/learning-wit...
November 21, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Sometimes I think modernity has only given us two worthwhile inventions: modern medicine and cinema. Outside of that what we need more than anything else is time (and medicine gives us more time to live and cinema the time to sit with the beauty of the world). Other tech mostly just steals our time
Every night me and the boys at the pub watching the TV news chanting at the anchor, "it's the libidinal economy!"
"Mom and Dad are separated" doesn't strike me as a particularly healthy lens for engaging with politics.
Trump-Marjorie Taylor Greene breakup shakes MAGA: ‘Mom and Dad are separated’
In Greene’s Georgia congressional district, much of the MAGA base has her back against Trump, who has called her a “traitor.”
www.washingtonpost.com
November 21, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Every night me and the boys at the pub watching the TV news chanting at the anchor, "it's the libidinal economy!"
Reposted by Justin Joque
Hey everyone I'm hosting a party this weekend and inviting
November 21, 2025 at 10:38 AM
Hey everyone I'm hosting a party this weekend and inviting
I miss how when you used to mistype something into google it would say "did you mean: hr tempo run" and now the annoying ai just says "hr temp run is not a standard phrase". AI sucks
November 21, 2025 at 12:46 PM
I miss how when you used to mistype something into google it would say "did you mean: hr tempo run" and now the annoying ai just says "hr temp run is not a standard phrase". AI sucks
Reposted by Justin Joque
Wrote up a little intervention post/explanation for my class about why using LLMs for trying to learn programming (as first time learners!) is bad and detrimental datavizf25.classes.andrewheiss.com/news/2025-11...
November 2, 2025 at 10:17 PM
Wrote up a little intervention post/explanation for my class about why using LLMs for trying to learn programming (as first time learners!) is bad and detrimental datavizf25.classes.andrewheiss.com/news/2025-11...
Hey everyone I'm hosting a party this weekend and inviting
November 21, 2025 at 10:38 AM
Hey everyone I'm hosting a party this weekend and inviting
Reposted by Justin Joque
Reposted by Justin Joque
At one time, when he was first awakened, Elon Musk was staying in Uruvelā at the goatherd’s banyan tree on the bank of the Nerañjarā River. Then as he was in private retreat this thought came to his mind, “The four kinds of mindfulness meditation are the path to convergence."
"beloved by children and animals, elon musk is most famous for his consistent and principled altruism, as well as his fierce commitment to the truth even when it comes at great personal cost"
November 20, 2025 at 10:15 PM
At one time, when he was first awakened, Elon Musk was staying in Uruvelā at the goatherd’s banyan tree on the bank of the Nerañjarā River. Then as he was in private retreat this thought came to his mind, “The four kinds of mindfulness meditation are the path to convergence."
At one time, when he was first awakened, Elon Musk was staying in Uruvelā at the goatherd’s banyan tree on the bank of the Nerañjarā River. Then as he was in private retreat this thought came to his mind, “The four kinds of mindfulness meditation are the path to convergence."
"beloved by children and animals, elon musk is most famous for his consistent and principled altruism, as well as his fierce commitment to the truth even when it comes at great personal cost"
November 20, 2025 at 10:15 PM
At one time, when he was first awakened, Elon Musk was staying in Uruvelā at the goatherd’s banyan tree on the bank of the Nerañjarā River. Then as he was in private retreat this thought came to his mind, “The four kinds of mindfulness meditation are the path to convergence."
Lmao this introduction absolutely slaps
November 20, 2025 at 7:48 PM
Lmao this introduction absolutely slaps
Reposted by Justin Joque
The year is 2025, and the NSA is recruiting the nation’s top poets
This study show that using poems to jailbreak LLMs is... super effective? What the heck.
November 20, 2025 at 6:41 PM
The year is 2025, and the NSA is recruiting the nation’s top poets
Wait, he was raised in a Barnes and Nobles? That might actually explain a few things
"The Barnes and Noble in York—where Fetterman was born and raised—had sold zero copies. The Barnes and Noble in Philadelphia had sold two copies. An independent store in Pittsburgh and an independent store in Philadelphia each told me they weren’t stocking Unfettered" defector.com/john-fetterm...
John Fetterman's Memoir Is As Low-Effort As His Senate Tenure | Defector
John Fetterman’s just-released memoir, Unfettered, argues that he’s turned a corner and has everything under control. Fetterman was a “stubborn asshole” (his words), he was clinically depressed, he wa...
defector.com
November 20, 2025 at 7:38 PM
Wait, he was raised in a Barnes and Nobles? That might actually explain a few things
Reposted by Justin Joque
"The problem is not why 40% are unemployed; it is why the 60% still have to work." - Visar Arifaj
* WHITE HOUSE ECONOMIC ADVISER HASSETT: THERE COULD BE A LITTLE BIT OF ALMOST QUIET TIME IN THE LABOR MARKET
@reuters.com #QuietTime
@reuters.com #QuietTime
November 20, 2025 at 3:19 PM
"The problem is not why 40% are unemployed; it is why the 60% still have to work." - Visar Arifaj
"The problem is not why 40% are unemployed; it is why the 60% still have to work." - Visar Arifaj
* WHITE HOUSE ECONOMIC ADVISER HASSETT: THERE COULD BE A LITTLE BIT OF ALMOST QUIET TIME IN THE LABOR MARKET
@reuters.com #QuietTime
@reuters.com #QuietTime
November 20, 2025 at 3:19 PM
"The problem is not why 40% are unemployed; it is why the 60% still have to work." - Visar Arifaj
Reposted by Justin Joque
When the great Stanley Aronowitz said at the school where I work in Flint MI that workers deserved to read Plato just as much as the rich, the crowd, packed with workers and students whose parents are workers, stood up and applauded.
Get them, MacArthur Fellow Jeffrey Miller
November 19, 2025 at 8:21 PM
When the great Stanley Aronowitz said at the school where I work in Flint MI that workers deserved to read Plato just as much as the rich, the crowd, packed with workers and students whose parents are workers, stood up and applauded.
Reposted by Justin Joque
The content is still obviously delusional to anyone reading it. It’s just organised crazy. But the real danger is the internal effect on the user. The AI provides coherence and validation, stabilising the narrative they’re caught in.
November 19, 2025 at 2:24 PM
The content is still obviously delusional to anyone reading it. It’s just organised crazy. But the real danger is the internal effect on the user. The AI provides coherence and validation, stabilising the narrative they’re caught in.
Reposted by Justin Joque
I've written about "disordered counterpublics" groups that reinforce shared delusions Here, the LLM becomes a 1 person counterpublic. It mirrors assumptions, absorbs contradictions, & provides the sense of a responsive, confirming audience.
It is the architecture of disordered discourse, automated.
It is the architecture of disordered discourse, automated.
November 19, 2025 at 2:23 PM
I've written about "disordered counterpublics" groups that reinforce shared delusions Here, the LLM becomes a 1 person counterpublic. It mirrors assumptions, absorbs contradictions, & provides the sense of a responsive, confirming audience.
It is the architecture of disordered discourse, automated.
It is the architecture of disordered discourse, automated.
what pdf reader are we all using on Macs. I should have quit adobe years ago but I can't take it anymore with all the AI shit
November 19, 2025 at 3:47 PM
what pdf reader are we all using on Macs. I should have quit adobe years ago but I can't take it anymore with all the AI shit
watch out mr thermodynamic theory of value; cause labor theory of value about to kick your ass like it always does
….
…
What
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What
November 19, 2025 at 3:45 PM
watch out mr thermodynamic theory of value; cause labor theory of value about to kick your ass like it always does
Reposted by Justin Joque
if you'd like to start a Circle for Experimental Critical Theory in your town, ping me for the handbook!
interccect.com
interccect.com
November 19, 2025 at 2:50 PM
if you'd like to start a Circle for Experimental Critical Theory in your town, ping me for the handbook!
interccect.com
interccect.com
Reposted by Justin Joque
TBH both of my girl dogs know quite well how to use a tool, i.e., me, to get what they want. They don’t need an implement, they know socially to ask the manager. I am their tool lol.
Nyx often appeals to me, Juno’s manager, when she wants an exception to something Juno would object to.
Nyx often appeals to me, Juno’s manager, when she wants an exception to something Juno would object to.
A female wolf has been doing something unusual on the Central Coast of British Columbia. She's learned to pull crab traps up from the water, yanking on a rope to bring it to the surface. But is it tool use? Very fun story from @phiejacobs.bsky.social for @science.org
Have wild wolves learned to use tools?
Video captures a lone female pulling crab traps out of the water, but does it count as tool use?
www.science.org
November 19, 2025 at 2:56 AM
TBH both of my girl dogs know quite well how to use a tool, i.e., me, to get what they want. They don’t need an implement, they know socially to ask the manager. I am their tool lol.
Nyx often appeals to me, Juno’s manager, when she wants an exception to something Juno would object to.
Nyx often appeals to me, Juno’s manager, when she wants an exception to something Juno would object to.
One thing I still don't get at all about the current AI bubble is why so much money is going into data centers but at least as far as I can tell very little hype and money (comparatively) is going into making better models. If it were me I'd pour billions into models that train with less data
November 19, 2025 at 12:59 PM
One thing I still don't get at all about the current AI bubble is why so much money is going into data centers but at least as far as I can tell very little hype and money (comparatively) is going into making better models. If it were me I'd pour billions into models that train with less data