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victor

@notnaughtknot.bsky.social

italo calvino gave a wild talk on whether he sees his role as author replaceable by machine, what that means for “the reader,” and the primacy of fable over myth

“So we see that the two routes followed by my argument have
here come together. Literature is a combinatorial game that
pursues the possibilities implicit in its own material, independent
of the personality of the poet, but it is a game that at a certain
point is invested with an unexpected meaning, a meaning that is
not patent on the linguistic plane on which we were working but
has slipped in from another level, activating something that on
that second level is of great concern to the author or his society.
The literature machine can perform all the permutations possible
on a given material, but the poetic result will be the particular
effect of one of these permutations on a man endowed with a con-
sciousness and an unconscious, that is, an empirical and historical
man. It will be the shock that occurs only if the writing machine is
surrounded by the hidden ghosts of the individual and of his
society.”

December 21, 2025 at 2:02 AM

victor

@notnaughtknot.bsky.social

it's finally happened, I've been force-italo-feminized

Vitoria Gomes, Alexis Wellwood, and Jeffrey Lidz. It’s not just what we don’t know: The mapping problem in the acquisition of negation. Cognition, 239:105680, 2023. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.
2023.105680.

December 10, 2025 at 4:59 PM

victor

@notnaughtknot.bsky.social

glad to see that harvard is taking viewpoint diversity seriously

picture of a poster advertising “crimson community conversations: fall viewpoint diversity series” the talks advertised are Earth, flat or round? sponsored by the physics department, The autism vaccine debate: why are we so hung up on “evidence” sponsored by public health and medical schools, Gaza: Open air prison or “valuable beach front property” by center for middle eastern study and the divinity school (with parenthesis saying not to be confused with free palestine), and Is mourning palestinians too “one sided” by the working group on open inquiry

November 18, 2025 at 2:48 PM

victor

@notnaughtknot.bsky.social

November 12, 2025 at 3:53 AM

victor

@notnaughtknot.bsky.social

this is a big part of my critique of LLMs in word learning that applies more broadly to psycholing!!!

(second half of this paper)

Abstract: Large Language Models (LLMs; e.g., GPT-n) have attracted the attention of psycholinguists
who see a potential for solutions to ancient problems in them. This paper argues that, thus far, LLMs
have not, in fact, suggested any new solutions, but instead just appear to by virtue of their sheer size
and “double” opaqueness (both as models and as products). In the realm of cross-situational word
learning, LLMs run into the same issues that long-discussed "global models" do in accounting for the
rapidity and low-resourced nature of language acquisition. In the realm of meaning, they run into
largely the same issues as the long-established conceptual theories they are often compared to. In nei-
ther case do they appear to represent a true resolution to known issues, and as such broadly encour-
aging the use of LLMs in developmental psycholinguistics is a gamble. This paper then argues that
LLMs come with a range of immediate costs (to privacy, labor, and the climate) and so encouraging
their use is not simply a low-risk gamble. These costs should be kept in mind when deciding whether
to conduct any research with LLMs, whether it is to prove that they have some capacity or lack it. One
way of keeping these costs in mind is to learn about them and talk about them with each other, rather
than deciding that ethical questions are solely under the purview of some other discipline(s).

November 10, 2025 at 6:13 PM

victor

@notnaughtknot.bsky.social

join the neoluddites at Iffy Books for our next discussion (June 11th) on The Mechanic and the Luddite by @jathansadowski.com

really enjoying this one so far!

cover of “the mechanic and the luddite: a ruthless criticism of technology and capitalism” by Jathan Sadowski

May 29, 2025 at 3:33 PM

victor

@notnaughtknot.bsky.social

Been meaning to read The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by
Shoshana Zuboff? Join the neoluddite reading group where we'll be reading & discussing it for the next few months!

as always, you can join in person at Iffy books or virtually 😇

Check out the schedule here: victorgom.es/neoluddite

the cover of "The age of surveillance capitals: The fight for a human future at the new frontier of power" by Shosana Zuboff

November 19, 2024 at 4:56 PM

victor

@notnaughtknot.bsky.social

Make a resolution to read more? or to think more critically about tech?

Come read "Race After Technology" by Ruha Benjamin (@ruha9.bsky.social ) with us at Iffy Books starting Jan. 16!

Check victorgom.es/neoluddite for the schedule and more readings/info on the neoluddite reading group

cover of Race After Technology by Ruha Benjamin, art features a portrait of a black woman wearing futuristic metal mesh glasses with a circuit board background

January 4, 2024 at 2:46 PM

victor

@notnaughtknot.bsky.social

not sure I scanned this as intended

chalkboard that reads “free service on us” but the o in on is a pumpkin so it looks a bit like anus

October 31, 2023 at 3:36 PM

victor

@notnaughtknot.bsky.social

alexa play “Send Me On My Way” by Rusted Root

me on a log in a forest, trying to make my torso parallel to said log

me standing on another log, but this one is on top of the water and you can’t tell from this picture but it’s got a lot of fungi on it

October 28, 2023 at 12:52 PM

victor

@notnaughtknot.bsky.social

“okay”

text on brick wall that says beware of “dog”

October 19, 2023 at 12:37 PM

victor

@notnaughtknot.bsky.social

also I didn’t expect to run into myself at all, but this is now my favorite citation and it’s gonna be hard for any article to beat

October 5, 2023 at 2:05 PM

victor

@notnaughtknot.bsky.social

helped my dear friend zach hawk his wares at a craft fest & he gifted me this beautiful vase as thanks (“this needs to be with you!”) alongside his new chapbook which made me (good) cry a little on a train back home

a case with an ouroboros design with text “self suck” inside the ouroboros, next to a chapbook titled “etiquette in the arts”

October 5, 2023 at 2:04 PM

victor

@notnaughtknot.bsky.social

Happy to announce the Neoluddite Group's next read Is "The Human Use of Human Beings" by Norbert Wiener, with the first meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 3 at Iffy Books

I've updated the page with the schedule, additional readings, and more! hope you enjoy :) victorgom.es/neoluddite