Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme
@michaelann.bsky.social
Online Communities, Social Tech, Folk Theories, Epistemic Justice, Queer/Trans HCI. Assistant Prof of Computer Science & Comm Studies @ Northeastern University. @nusealab.bsky.social director. Neurodivergent, trans woman, wife girl, femme lesbian, dork.
Pinned
Hi, I'm Michael Ann, and I'm a Computer Science professor and longtime shitposter! I work on improving social technology. The shitposting is below, the science I'm responsible for is on my site:
- Epistemic Justice: wp.me/P2O4Fr-hN
- Folk Theorization: wp.me/P2O4Fr-9m
- Queer HCI: wp.me/P2O4Fr-9s
- Epistemic Justice: wp.me/P2O4Fr-hN
- Folk Theorization: wp.me/P2O4Fr-9m
- Queer HCI: wp.me/P2O4Fr-9s
Some lovely coverage of senior @nusealab.bsky.social doctoral candidate @erikavmelder.bsky.social's research with our ARC techniques, second in a series on the kind of epistemically just research approaches I'm always talking about on here! www.khoury.northeastern.edu/research-tha...
Research that hits home: Erika Melder’s community-based push for user-friendly social media - Khoury College of Computer Sciences
Social media platforms often want to be as big as possible, and in as many ways as possible. But one Khoury PhD student is finding that many communities want just the opposite, both for camaraderie an...
www.khoury.northeastern.edu
November 10, 2025 at 9:14 PM
Some lovely coverage of senior @nusealab.bsky.social doctoral candidate @erikavmelder.bsky.social's research with our ARC techniques, second in a series on the kind of epistemically just research approaches I'm always talking about on here! www.khoury.northeastern.edu/research-tha...
GTA Online's character creator presents a grand vision of a world where every single woman is extremely clocky.
November 10, 2025 at 6:00 PM
GTA Online's character creator presents a grand vision of a world where every single woman is extremely clocky.
Reposted by Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme
Gay marriage may still be challenged but the way we fight back must be by standing together to defend our community
ALL of our community
Trans people but especially trans women are the most vulnerable among us and if we cannot defend the most vulnerable then we will eventually collectively fail
ALL of our community
Trans people but especially trans women are the most vulnerable among us and if we cannot defend the most vulnerable then we will eventually collectively fail
November 10, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Gay marriage may still be challenged but the way we fight back must be by standing together to defend our community
ALL of our community
Trans people but especially trans women are the most vulnerable among us and if we cannot defend the most vulnerable then we will eventually collectively fail
ALL of our community
Trans people but especially trans women are the most vulnerable among us and if we cannot defend the most vulnerable then we will eventually collectively fail
Reposted by Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme
If we fail to defend trans rights
Then we cis queers will deserve to lose gay marriage bc it would never have been possible without the labor, love, blood, sweat, hopes, and vision of trans people
Do not stop fighting for our queer family just bc for the moment gay marriage is safe
Then we cis queers will deserve to lose gay marriage bc it would never have been possible without the labor, love, blood, sweat, hopes, and vision of trans people
Do not stop fighting for our queer family just bc for the moment gay marriage is safe
November 10, 2025 at 4:29 PM
If we fail to defend trans rights
Then we cis queers will deserve to lose gay marriage bc it would never have been possible without the labor, love, blood, sweat, hopes, and vision of trans people
Do not stop fighting for our queer family just bc for the moment gay marriage is safe
Then we cis queers will deserve to lose gay marriage bc it would never have been possible without the labor, love, blood, sweat, hopes, and vision of trans people
Do not stop fighting for our queer family just bc for the moment gay marriage is safe
The "passing privilege" of regularly being read as a cis girl with a societally unacceptable body type.
Because, you know, fat cis women rule our society and have no hatred lobbed at them ever, which is why they're always the heroes in movies and TV and never face workplace discrimination.
Because, you know, fat cis women rule our society and have no hatred lobbed at them ever, which is why they're always the heroes in movies and TV and never face workplace discrimination.
November 8, 2025 at 8:09 PM
The "passing privilege" of regularly being read as a cis girl with a societally unacceptable body type.
Because, you know, fat cis women rule our society and have no hatred lobbed at them ever, which is why they're always the heroes in movies and TV and never face workplace discrimination.
Because, you know, fat cis women rule our society and have no hatred lobbed at them ever, which is why they're always the heroes in movies and TV and never face workplace discrimination.
Reposted by Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme
Science will never succeed until we recognize the humanity of all scientists and break the dehumanization cultures that crush too many people.
November 8, 2025 at 7:23 PM
Science will never succeed until we recognize the humanity of all scientists and break the dehumanization cultures that crush too many people.
A bit of good news: I think you'd all be pleasantly surprised by how resistant the undergrads are becoming to AI. Institutions have lost their minds on this front, but more and more the students themselves are saying "no" to this horribly corrosive technology.
November 8, 2025 at 7:37 PM
A bit of good news: I think you'd all be pleasantly surprised by how resistant the undergrads are becoming to AI. Institutions have lost their minds on this front, but more and more the students themselves are saying "no" to this horribly corrosive technology.
Haha all those years with a therapist trying to worry less about the possibility of worldwide epistemic collapse (a fear I've had since childhood) sure was money I should have used on video games instead.
November 8, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Haha all those years with a therapist trying to worry less about the possibility of worldwide epistemic collapse (a fear I've had since childhood) sure was money I should have used on video games instead.
Grading through the migraine by putting my sunglasses on, hope the students can sense that this feedback is *extra cool* and stylish
November 8, 2025 at 7:07 PM
Grading through the migraine by putting my sunglasses on, hope the students can sense that this feedback is *extra cool* and stylish
We convinced electric sand to think but then we got fooled by the most low-rent trick we could teach the thinking sand.
We are a silly little species.
We are a silly little species.
November 8, 2025 at 6:54 PM
We convinced electric sand to think but then we got fooled by the most low-rent trick we could teach the thinking sand.
We are a silly little species.
We are a silly little species.
As the rare computer scientist who has completely refused to play ball with this harmful AI/LLM fad, all I want to say is that I have marshmallows, graham crackers, all the supplies for s'mores for when it burns down, and I'll share at the simple cost of you listening to one gleeful "I told you so."
November 8, 2025 at 6:51 PM
As the rare computer scientist who has completely refused to play ball with this harmful AI/LLM fad, all I want to say is that I have marshmallows, graham crackers, all the supplies for s'mores for when it burns down, and I'll share at the simple cost of you listening to one gleeful "I told you so."
Is anyone testing all this litmus to make sure it’s still good?
November 8, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Is anyone testing all this litmus to make sure it’s still good?
Follows are not endorsements but I suppose they are a tacit statement that I'm not going to spend all that much of my time and effort tracing networks of who doesn't like whom for whatever reason within the overall population of transfems on here.
November 7, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Follows are not endorsements but I suppose they are a tacit statement that I'm not going to spend all that much of my time and effort tracing networks of who doesn't like whom for whatever reason within the overall population of transfems on here.
Breaking: fed up from years of everyone making jokes about them, Cornell University decides to *become* the joke willfully.
November 7, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Breaking: fed up from years of everyone making jokes about them, Cornell University decides to *become* the joke willfully.
Reposted by Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme
The use of LLMs for any purpose as a stand-in for a real human or a simulation of a human is indicative of the cultural turn from an information society (understanding reality to be evidence of itself) to one of imagination and make-belive (understanding our desires to be evidence of the world)
November 7, 2025 at 4:52 PM
The use of LLMs for any purpose as a stand-in for a real human or a simulation of a human is indicative of the cultural turn from an information society (understanding reality to be evidence of itself) to one of imagination and make-belive (understanding our desires to be evidence of the world)
Be the Butlerian Jihad you want to see in the world
November 7, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Be the Butlerian Jihad you want to see in the world
Reposted by Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme
I can’t be the only one who just straight up isn’t interested in incorporating anything we learn from synthetic “social” science experiments conducted on LLM facsimiles of human text because I simply don’t think the epistemology of it has any bearing on the world, regardless of any similarity
LLMs are now widely used in social science as stand-ins for humans—assuming they can produce realistic, human-like text
But... can they? We don’t actually know.
In our new study, we develop a Computational Turing Test.
And our findings are striking:
LLMs may be far less human-like than we think.🧵
But... can they? We don’t actually know.
In our new study, we develop a Computational Turing Test.
And our findings are striking:
LLMs may be far less human-like than we think.🧵
Computational Turing Test Reveals Systematic Differences Between Human and AI Language
Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly used in the social sciences to simulate human behavior, based on the assumption that they can generate realistic, human-like text. Yet this assumption rem...
arxiv.org
November 7, 2025 at 2:40 PM
I can’t be the only one who just straight up isn’t interested in incorporating anything we learn from synthetic “social” science experiments conducted on LLM facsimiles of human text because I simply don’t think the epistemology of it has any bearing on the world, regardless of any similarity
Reposted by Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme
Bed is so awesome, man. Like, a big comfy soft slab to lay down on, with blankets and stuff to keep you warm? A+ invention, no notes.
November 7, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Bed is so awesome, man. Like, a big comfy soft slab to lay down on, with blankets and stuff to keep you warm? A+ invention, no notes.
There are some good signs in the US but I think it's pretty premature to declare victory re: trans rights. To do so would be whatever the opposite of alarmism is. Maybe that's just... gullibility?
November 7, 2025 at 2:07 PM
There are some good signs in the US but I think it's pretty premature to declare victory re: trans rights. To do so would be whatever the opposite of alarmism is. Maybe that's just... gullibility?
Bluesky: the place for moderation ideas that didn't work and were actively harmful the first time Twitter tried them, but now have the word "decentralized" attached to them by ex-Twitter hipsters
November 7, 2025 at 1:29 PM
Bluesky: the place for moderation ideas that didn't work and were actively harmful the first time Twitter tried them, but now have the word "decentralized" attached to them by ex-Twitter hipsters
On the one hand, I'd love to be part of a space where folks are not really doing a lot of flirting with each other, because that tends to set up a toxic dynamic where boundaries get ignored as a matter of course.
On the other hand, hard to get people interested in that kind of space.
Bleh.
On the other hand, hard to get people interested in that kind of space.
Bleh.
November 6, 2025 at 7:03 PM
On the one hand, I'd love to be part of a space where folks are not really doing a lot of flirting with each other, because that tends to set up a toxic dynamic where boundaries get ignored as a matter of course.
On the other hand, hard to get people interested in that kind of space.
Bleh.
On the other hand, hard to get people interested in that kind of space.
Bleh.
Just once I want to see some honesty in an academic AI plan, because let's be honest, most of them boil down to "we're going to say whatever we need to say to get some of this money, then duck and cover while it all blows up in the near future"
November 6, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Just once I want to see some honesty in an academic AI plan, because let's be honest, most of them boil down to "we're going to say whatever we need to say to get some of this money, then duck and cover while it all blows up in the near future"
I am in the next room getting ready for work and I just hear my wife to our son (cat): “No! We have TALKED about this!”
November 6, 2025 at 3:10 PM
I am in the next room getting ready for work and I just hear my wife to our son (cat): “No! We have TALKED about this!”
Reposted by Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme
it’s just so funny to hear media elites talk about “affordability” like it’s a trend. telling on themselves every time.
November 6, 2025 at 2:41 PM
it’s just so funny to hear media elites talk about “affordability” like it’s a trend. telling on themselves every time.
This bit hits particularly hard - I *really* need sympathetic cis and transmasc people to stop suggesting that I can just adopt, I get that you're trying to help, but Vyria is right about what the situation is re: trans women adopting.
"you can always adopt"
No, I really can't. Because I'm trans, I'd be denied by most organizations due to widespread queerphobia/transmisogyny and also because I'm transfem, I lost my career and can't even afford to take care of a kid.
It's not in the cards for me and I haven't made peace with it
No, I really can't. Because I'm trans, I'd be denied by most organizations due to widespread queerphobia/transmisogyny and also because I'm transfem, I lost my career and can't even afford to take care of a kid.
It's not in the cards for me and I haven't made peace with it
November 5, 2025 at 6:38 PM
This bit hits particularly hard - I *really* need sympathetic cis and transmasc people to stop suggesting that I can just adopt, I get that you're trying to help, but Vyria is right about what the situation is re: trans women adopting.