Question to help out a PhD student: Has anyone done STS-y work analyzing optimization research (the field of engineering, not "optimization" in general)? Even better, any data scientists/HCI/computer scientists try to bring STS theory (especially ANT) and OR methods into conversation?

Who has made this 🤣

How to Get Into Fights with Data Centres is now available in Portuguese, thanks to my amazing translator Louise Karczeski // How to Get Into Fights with Data Centres já está disponível em português, graças à minha incrível tradutora Louise Karczeski emmlab.info/Resources_pa...

I now have this in my head so it's only fair if you all also have this in your head ant time anyone ever mentions the Sunn O)))

The Quietus would not exist were it not for our subscribers. We're not doing a Black Friday sale as we can't afford to, but if you subscribe today, you'll be helping actual humans share their joy in music with independent editorial that's guaranteed AI-slop-free: thequietus.com/subscribers/

The chat interface was a marketing bet. Selling #AI as if it is not auto complete. It still is. "#ChatGPT shifted the user’s relationship to text, moving the prompt from a ‘piece of writing for the model to finish’ to a ‘question calling for an answer’." mail.cyberneticforests.com/what-was-…

they're saying there's a spectre haunting europe and it's very nice, we're looking into it strongly, it's beautiful, we love it and we think it means well

TRUMP [after spending 5 minutes with Zohran]: surplus value, it’s a very wonderful thing, very wonderful, and they’re stealing it. Can you believe that? We’re going to be looking very strongly at the bourgeoisie, what they’re up to

when the ai bubble bursts it's gonna be a whole Project™ to tease apart neural-nets-the-technology from chatbots-the-product-class in the public consciousness given that these companies have been trying their hardest to confuse everybody about this distinction for the last several years

What this reveals is that for most people in charge right now “AI” is less useful as a technology than as a piece of language to shift a conversation in whatever direction they need it to go. In one minute it will propel a new economy; in another it’s the reason for a recession.

NEW: Welcome to the Great AI Bubble. Yes, it’s here. And yes, it’s going to burst. It’s also got way more in common with the Epstein scandal than you really want to know. open.substack.com/pub/broligar...

[To the tune of Pretty Woman by Roy Orbison] 🎵Baba Yaga 🎵Walking down the street 🎵Baba Yaga 🎵House with chicken feet 🎵Baba Yaga

thinking about the scene in Twin Peaks at Laura's funeral where Bobby breaks down and says that everyone there killed Laura because they knew what was happening, they knew she was in trouble and they didn't do anything. thinking about that scene a lot today.

The whole war on “woke” and “cancel culture” was contrived to protect the worst people in our society and make it possible for them to keep doing despicable things to other people.

I reckon the most interesting subset of discourse here is when presumed [good] factors are actually either actually bad, or there to downplay or dismiss the bad even if the amount of good is way smaller than the bad. A short thread to explain: on "training for electrification" + "demand response"

🌐🚨 CALL FOR PAPERS 🚨🌐 'The Visual Politics of Digital Ecologies' 🗓️ 2-3 February 2026 📍 @oxfordgeography.bsky.social We invite one-word titles (e.g. hallucinating, zooming, obscuring, glitching, generating) Deadline: 14th November Full info: digicologies.com/cfp

"the makers of AI aren’t damned by their failures, they’re damned by their goals. They want to build a genie to grant them wishes, and their wish is that nobody ever has to make art again. They want to create a new kind of mind, so they can force it into mindless servitude."

New awareness campaign

What’s wrong babe? You’ve hardly touched your Gregg’s Benedict.

Interested in data centers? In critical data center studies? Here's an open biblio -- anyone can add or borrow from it. Please do add anything that's missing. Enjoy! docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Creía que no pudiera volverme más fan de Zohran y de repente saca esto! 🥹

the cow's tools will never be used to dismantle the cow's barn

I struggle to fully allow myself to be politically hopeful on account of being burned over and over again for my entire adult life, but god it does feel good to see Zack Polanski on all the horrible shows calmly and articulately telling the horrible presenters that bad things are actually bad

It is not "attribution and sourcing" to generate post-hoc citations that have not been read and did not inform the student's writing. Those should be regarded as fraudulent: artifacts testifying to human actions and thought that did not occur. www.theverge.com/news/760508/...

Incredibly, there is a "new" track from Life Without Buildings - Sue Tompkins, Will Bradley, Chris Evans & @robertdallasgray.com . It is, as ever, utterly magnificent, and I burst into tears hearing it for the very first time. Pick it up on Bandcamp. errolshotwax.bandcamp.com/album/love-t...

"To put it bluntly, the most powerful people in the world are preparing for the end of the world, an end they themselves are frenetically accelerating."

Cada día si, pero hoy más que nunca:

it's not FOR us

Werner! Werner, it’s Marvin. Your cousin, Marvin Herzog. You know that new sound you’re looking for? Well listen to this! *holds phone up to flies buzzing around a decomposing corpse*

Green Party Conference 2025 just passed a motion that would Abolish Landlords! Through a programme of unprecedented council house building, taxation and housing those who need it, a Green government would eliminate profit from a human right. Housing for all.

oh man another one for my 'Ian Fleming's weird statements of certainty about the world' ('There's nobody crueler than a half-Belgian, half-Congolese' kind of stuff, or 'Everyone knows the Portuguese are the finest butlers')

The use of chatbots reinforces and promotes a cliché that isn't true at all: that research, especially in the humanities, is a solipsistic endeavour. Without the continuous lively exchange between people, there is no research, at least none that would be worth reading. 3/n

to be honest I've always found it kinda fun to end up being a little bit crappy at whatever I try to do... Takes a lot of pressure off, and I feel like everyone can tell when you're doing something just for the love of the game

While Mexico tries to become a data center hub, its electric grid isn't powerful enough to keep up with the energy demand. In Queretaro, Microsoft has to use gas generators for at least one data center. Story by @pjarandia.bsky.social and @dandiba.bsky.social for @restofworld.org. bit.ly/425DjAu

"Si esteu veient això, és que Israel ens ha detingut il·legalment". Aquest és el missatge que ha llançat l'exalcaldessa de Barcelona Ada Colau a través d&#...

Israeli forces have reportedly boarded the Alma vessel, the leading ship of the Global Sumud Flotilla, and detained its crew.

🔴El ejército israelí empieza a interceptar los buques de la Flotilla Global Sumud en aguas internacionales. www.elsaltodiario.com/palestina/ba...

Arlin Medrano en X: "Alma y Sirius han sido interceptado s. Adara -nosotrxs- lideramos la flotilla." Así aparece en el tracker de la Flotilla.

Just realised mid-workshop to my horror/delight that it's basically impossible to avoid some terrible/great puns when talking critically about AI in Catalan: "Hi Ha IA? NO Cal-IA"

Another great project from the AI + Planetary Justice Alliance: "an open-access and evolving map" for "trac[ing] the true costs of the raw materials" used to develop AI technologies.

My old man's a Durstman He wears a red snapback He enjoys record scratching And metal fused with rap

An excellent true thing is that I gave unequivocally anti-“AI” talks at Wesleyan and Tufts this month where the computer scientists and engineers in attendance have no interest in allowing this industry to hijack education and asked me “how can we get our students to take your classes?”

ASDA was named after it's founders: Agnetha, Senny, Djörn & Anni-Frid

This could literally be a cartoon of my dad (bookbinder & teacher, Derbyshire accent) ❤️🥲

When people say that I’m prolific (which I love, thank you) I usually say that I don’t think I have more ideas than anyone else just that I have a knack of finishing things. In the rare cases when I am invited to lecture at further education I often talking about the struggle to finish ideas.