new William Gibson book opening line dropped

this is what summer is going to be like

I helped a little bit with this, and while it's written for a settler audience it's still useful for Indigenous Peoples too. If there's interest maybe we can do a version that's more focused on Indigenous perspectives / rights / concerns etc. In the meantime I'll keep an eye out for other stuff

Word on the street is Mississauga will be the next Canadian city to move on a datacentre moratorium.

A new toolkit is out on data centre fights in Canada! It is very good! aicivilsociety.ca/ResistingAID... Read on for key info, tactics, and case studies, written by academics and activists in the trenches. #AI #Canada

A new toolkit is out on data centre fights in Canada! It is very good! aicivilsociety.ca/ResistingAID... Read on for key info, tactics, and case studies, written by academics and activists in the trenches. #AI #Canada

I've got an op-ed in the Globe today with @nicktsergas.ca. We're thinking about how Hamilton's movement towards a data centre moratorium could snowball across Canada and help reset the way data centres + cities interface in the future. www.theglobeandmail.com/business/com...

Hamilton council voted 15–1 to stop datacentre development while the city writes regulations for the facilities. @apasek.bsky.social and I think it isn't really a Hamilton story. Hamilton is the first domino in an urgent national conversation. gift: www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/1c12514... #HamOnt

Launching an activist investor plot to take over VIA rail and get them to change their baggage and boarding policies

Election-year Hamilton City Council overwhelmingly votes for moratorium on data centres, #envhist including one possible one proposed by @mcmasteruniversity.bsky.social

from the june 2026 issue of the zine

the low cost of custom flag printing is breaking society and we need to talk about it

Yay! This is a very fun project where academics were asked to take a swing at what the future might hold--something we're often reluctant to do. I've got a chapter on super/semiconductors, and the coming revolution (or not?) in the material basis of computation.

staple the snack wrappers to your union cards to demonstrate dominance

we heard you hate AI, so at LFP we've been making resources for turning off AI features across the web. but we also don't think AI problems can be solved at an individual level, so we included some of our fav tools for community resistance as well. more to download free at libraryfreedom.org

Fun new thing that happens when you publish a book: Demons (scammers with LLMs) send you copious amounts of emails with bad summaries of your book, a list of asinine questions about it, and an offer for you to pay them money to feature your book in their fake book club.

I will be on CBC Radio's Just Asking talking data centres at 4pm on Saturday. Call in maybe? But no prank calls on live national radio! (Q: Is your data centre running? A: No, not yet. It takes a long time for these hyperscale projects to come online and they face increasing public resistance)

Yeah so government funds are definitely going to be used to harass the public to use more AI, and to subsidize the compute costs of private companies (often for providers outside of Canada, fwiw). www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

I'm looking for a new PhD student to come join me at UAlberta & Amii to study trans perspectives on AI policy & the future of AI as part of my new lab. The position is fully funded and offers access to a range of supports - more details in the poster below!

Sent to me by my little brother 💀

I've been so excited for this like you have NO idea

See you can just say "it sucks we should ban it"

I think a lot of people think the point of sports is that your team will win and then you will be happy. That is not the point of sports. The point of sports is to be sad in a group

Data centres have cost Irish people €1.4 billion via increased electricity bills and the line of questioning in the media is 'but if we say no, won't our economy implode'. The exact same economic 'threat' that is made when we try to pass the OTB. www.thejournal.ie/readme/data-...

(AI is the new electricity)

While we're all pope posting, I can't shake the intrusive thought that, damn, I sure wish Lenny Belardo were here to see it.

website that picks the Rothko closest to how the weather feels in your location (by Joonas Virtanen) rothko.joonas.wtf

Leo the Grey

Dude this pope is crafting some rather sharp sentences

103: "entrusting an algorithm ... with the power to select who is worthy or not, without anyone bearing responsibility for that judgment, is to hand over the task of redefining the boundaries of human possibilities. In this process, political responsibility is lost, not just empathy." - Pope Leo

Pope's AI dissertation is good

Next week I'm going to be on CBC's Cross Country Checkup, a long running radio call in show, to talk about data centers. (Of course, all I can think about was the educational trucker/geography video game we played in my elementary school computer lab. Hope I reach some truckers out there...)

Three things said about AI and social science: it's a topic to study, a thing to critique, a tool to use. My new Daedalus essay argues these aren't three conversations; they're one. A 🧵 on "Field Theory: AI as Social Science Question, Object, and Tool." www.amacad.org/publication/...

A few reflections on 5 months (and counting) on the road this sabbatical: sabbatical-ing.blogspot.com/2026/05/life...

Delightful

NEW: xAI appears to have added more than 500 MW (!) of unpermitted gas turbines to its Colossus 2 campus in a matter of weeks, according to internal emails between the company and regulators

Time again to send my thanks to Caleb McDaniel, wherever/whoever you are, for this extremely handy syllabus date generator tool! wcaleb.rice.edu/syllabusmake...

I'm super excited about this book!!! mitpress.mit.edu/978026205136...

There's definitely a weird dynamic in the interplay between academics and journalists where you learn that something just happened because a bunch of reporters blow up your inbox looking for a comment. I've been offering a lot of hot takes on the 'sovereign' AI Cloud that got announced in Vancouver!

Even when Microsoft says "we pinkie swear we will actually pay local taxes" that doesn't mean that the whole infrastructure chain is playing by the same rules!

My chat on AI-as-trash is up at The Informed Educator podcast! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a... I chat with my very nice colleagues Lauren + Anne (in a beautiful forest) about the values of a deflationary, grumpy approach to LLMs in teaching & learning contexts.

reference.mp4

Very cool multilingual CFP for a special issue to be published in JEM! machineagencies.milieux.ca/cfp-model-an... "Model and the Reactor: AI as and against Environmental Media"

I have a new favourite website that I will never visit: julianoliver.com/projects/sci... scienceispoetry.net

Thanks I hate it

Very cool conference coming up in Vienna on the 'residues' of AI. I'm looking forward to it!

Yeah I don't like it!

I was lucky to write the lead article for a special issue of Academe on AI in the Corporate University. In "What does AI do?" I offer a provisional balance sheet of this technology's effects on our work, our finances, and our management, in a moment of rising fascist attacks on higher education.

Back in America and celebrating its cultural traditions the only way I know how: enjoying a delicious arepa and eating a rotissery chicken with my bare hands