Nostr notes by The Luddite

Judging from the state of the computer science literature, it ...

2026-07-05T23:48:20Z

In reply to nevent1q…cwqt
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Judging from the state of the computer science literature, it seems like the disinterest in reading extends to natural language!

Longshot, but looking to connect to someone who took Eng 101 at ...

2026-06-05T17:02:04Z

Longshot, but looking to connect to someone who took Eng 101 at Arizona State University in Spring or Fall of 2020 who received the following email (or one like it). Boosts greatly appreciated.

I'm looking for something on the history of data science. ...

2025-07-21T14:47:55Z

I'm looking for something on the history of data science. Anyone have any recommendations? Maybe someone in #STS ?

A reminder that the anti-Iraq-war protests were some of the ...

2025-06-22T15:05:10Z

A reminder that the anti-Iraq-war protests were some of the largest demonstrations in human history and they failed. The "carrying signs and yelling at empty buildings" theory of change comes form a sanitized retelling of past movements.

Today, every group with a twitter is calling for a demonstration in their town, but movements that don't cause power to feel pain and don't have the institutional capacity to negotiate if/when they do are doomed to failure.

I'm pretty sure that I confused two Horkheimer works. I think ...

2025-06-05T20:33:39Z

In reply to nevent1q…e7pw
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I'm pretty sure that I confused two Horkheimer works. I think that the one I meant to reference was "the concept of enlightenment" in Dialectics of Enlightenment. Both books are collections of essays, the first essay is "the concept of ___", and I read them around the same time, so my memory is a little fuzzy about which is which.

(Culture Industry, also in Dialectics of Enlightenment, also really really spoke to me.)

Yeeessss! I plan on re-reading it soon myself for some stuff ...

2025-06-03T15:50:59Z

In reply to nevent1q…gjv5
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Yeeessss! I plan on re-reading it soon myself for some stuff I'm working on. I remember that it's a handful of essays, and a few of them are stand outs, but a few others left me a little dissatisfied. I'm pretty sure that it was the later essays in the book's order that I liked more but it's been a while. If you get into it do let me know and save me the time 🤣

That's really fascinating. I added to my list with a paste of ...

2025-06-02T23:28:17Z

In reply to nevent1q…vddf
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That's really fascinating. I added to my list with a paste of your comment so that I remember why I added it. What a funny coincidence that, like blockchain radicals, it also references deleuze!

(sorry went out of town for the weekend)

unsurprisingly I'm with you. Imo that was the core sin of ...

2025-05-30T13:41:29Z

In reply to nevent1q…ygnw
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unsurprisingly I'm with you. Imo that was the core sin of "#HashtagActivism." They were so entranced with the network analyses that Twitter data allowed them to do that they didn't consider how people work: how does change happen; where does power lie; etc. What the book ultimately did was accidentally analyze Twitter as a medium then ascribe the results to people or society. No outside Twitter theorizing or grounding in actual human topics. It's a frustrating trend to say the least.

It absolutely reminds me of occupy, but without the genuine ...

2025-05-29T17:32:33Z

In reply to nevent1q…dxye
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It absolutely reminds me of occupy, but without the genuine commitment to radical, substantive democratic assemblies. It's like a meme that repeats all the worst strategic and tactical failures of Occupy and abandons what did make it worthwhile. It's honestly super depressing to watch.

In response to the new admin, there's another viral protest ...

2025-05-29T16:25:53Z

In response to the new admin, there's another viral protest movement. #50501 is a case study in a pathological organizational pattern, but now is not the time to wish that the resistance were otherwise structured. #50501 is here, so what is to be done? Here's my contribution to that discussion, drawing on both my tech nerdism and my experience as an organizer trying to navigate these spaces

https://theluddite.org/post/50501.html

I love these paragraphs because they capture the exact moment ...

2025-04-08T13:15:31Z

I love these paragraphs because they capture the exact moment when a scientist cashes in their reputation, and the public goodwill in science more generally, for VC money. The company has raised almost half a billion USD!

https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/04/08/1114371/game-of-clones-colossals-new-wolves-are-cute-but-are-they-dire/

Bethanie Maples: "My work actually has proven that AI ...

2025-04-04T14:30:10Z

In reply to nevent1q…qgy0
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Bethanie Maples: "My work actually has proven that AI companions can halt suicidal ideation"

https://youtu.be/-El-CFpOf2I?t=1198

Jump to ~3 min to hear the host discuss Weizenbaum. It's an insult to mention him in a video promoting exactly what he warned us against.

(scroll up in this 16 month old thread for context)

I might've found the dumbest paper ever written. ...

2025-03-16T16:24:43Z

I might've found the dumbest paper ever written.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666188825000863

"if Canadians all used land acknowledgements in their emails roughly 30 people would be sacrificed annually to reputation signaling."

An honest paper by a well adjusted person who just cares about the environment.

OMG LOL

2025-03-06T20:29:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…2qhv
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OMG LOL

One of the unexpected joys of hating the tech industry publicly ...

2025-03-06T20:06:44Z

One of the unexpected joys of hating the tech industry publicly is the spam I get that looks for tech keywords then emails me thinking that I am the very thing I despise.

Lots of studies show that The Algorithm has a right wing bias. ...

2025-03-06T16:15:25Z

Lots of studies show that The Algorithm has a right wing bias. They tend to discuss their findings in faux-neutral language, like "filter bubbles" or "partisanship." Instead of thinking of politics as differences of degree along a one-dimensional spectrum, a self-limiting and unproductive framework, let's compare the substance of the right's politics to the design of social media.

https://theluddite.org/post/intellect.html

Actual photo of me trying to make a minor point ...

2025-02-25T14:59:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…44p5
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Actual photo of me trying to make a minor point

Wired: The Loneliness Epidemic Is a Security Crisis ...

2025-02-13T15:43:07Z

Wired: The Loneliness Epidemic Is a Security Crisis

https://www.wired.com/story/loneliness-epidemic-romance-scams-security-crisis/

This article understands a social problem through a medicalized lens (the ironically-contagious so-called "loneliness epidemic") then through an IT security lens and I wonder if maybe the article's double-layered technocratic framing reveals more about the problem than its substance (which FWIW I thought was fine).

Agreed with both of you. It's that disrupter/free thinker ...

2025-01-30T16:13:56Z

In reply to nevent1q…weju
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Agreed with both of you. It's that disrupter/free thinker mindset. This one essay in particular blows through so much existing theory and scholarship that it boggles the mind.

My pet theory on how to best read his corpus is that it's all ...

2025-01-30T14:56:56Z

In reply to nevent1q…e3k5
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My pet theory on how to best read his corpus is that it's all the best received rambles at parties he's gone to. That's not the worst way to come up with essays that might be popular for tech people if tech people are at your parties. It's like an accidental focus group. As you become rich and your friends get fascier, you get this shit.

Even his media diet is clearly shrinking. Compare these two ...

2025-01-30T14:35:44Z

In reply to nevent1q…q8q6
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Even his media diet is clearly shrinking. Compare these two excerpts. The first is him repeating an argument popularized by Jordan Peterson, that Marxism is a religion, and the second, from the older essay, brings in an interesting historical example. His most recent essay is just cobbled together right wing talking points. There's no interesting anecdotes or sources like that.

(3/3 [but I might get angry and keep going later])

In his old essays, when he approached these issues, he did a ...

2025-01-30T14:26:49Z

In reply to nevent1q…4cq5
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In his old essays, when he approached these issues, he did a better job of doing the thing clever reactionaries do of incorporating enough of a radical critique to give it substance, especially for the uninitiated.

You can compare the tact and plausible deniability for yourself. Here's one from 2004 that he cites in the most recent essay:

https://paulgraham.com/say.html

It's basically the same thesis.

(2/N)

Paul Graham just word vomited again, this time titled "The ...

2025-01-30T14:23:25Z

Paul Graham just word vomited again, this time titled "The Origins of Woke."

If you sample his early essays then his later essays, he's very clearly the same guy, but you can feel the oligarchy around him become increasingly insular. His essay today consists exclusively of him rearticulating his social status and complaining that others would question the status quo, though he obviously doesn't/can't see it that way.

(1/N)

This is one of the funniest bad AI studies yet: "Evaluating ...

2025-01-16T16:06:25Z

This is one of the funniest bad AI studies yet: "Evaluating large language models in theory of mind tasks"

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-55628-6

They reduced an inherently abstract metacognitive ability to producing plausible text, which they benchmark, then, with staggering irony, read theory of mind into.

(1/3)

Thanks! I had the exact same experience. It keeps coming up in ...

2025-01-13T15:58:06Z

In reply to nevent1q…dhls
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Thanks! I had the *exact* same experience. It keeps coming up in leftist circles, and what few reviews I found online were positive. I think that a lot of non-technical people who review it get dazzled by the tech, and the tech people don't catch the garbage theory. theluddite.org tends to have good SEO (for reasons I don't understand), so I hope this stops some people from getting suckered into it.

This is my longest post yet because the theory the book presents ...

2025-01-13T15:39:52Z

In reply to nevent1q…9xa8
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This is my longest post yet because the theory the book presents is palatable to developers. It does to political theory what tech people always do: Confidently assume their skills apply in a field they don't bother to understand. The consequences are predictable. This, then, is an intervention directed at that mode of thinking, an examination of how bad theory leads to bad practice, and, most importantly, an attempt to stop would-be activists from getting caught up in this mess.

(2/2)

Dávila's "Blockchain Radicals" argues that the left ...

2025-01-13T15:35:18Z

Dávila's "Blockchain Radicals" argues that the left ought to embrace blockchain. Here's my 2 part review. The first critiques the book's approach to argumentation, and the second examines Dávila's own Breadchain Cooperative.

tl;dr Breadchain's use of the term "cooperative" is fraudulent, and it is, structurally, a grift, whatever his intentions might be.

https://theluddite.org/post/blockchain-radicals.html

(1/2)

These threads should be required reading for anybody who makes ...

2025-01-10T03:02:37Z

In reply to nevent1q…0mpa
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These threads should be required reading for anybody who makes software.

Nostr event nevent1qqsd59xpk8v7fa6lx206qdkgtmds89rqtwr4789j625fpu2cevm097szyrnzx8dwe8prtuxaesfxv09a0g8seerujnmcz4udqt2d3d2pdl86qs3zsrq

2025-01-04T20:33:08Z

https://anntelnaes.substack.com/p/why-im-quitting-the-washington-post

Sharing that same article from the WaPo cartoonist that quit, but with a comment: They say that owners of news orgs should uphold their "public obligations" and "nurture a free press." I'm not moved by calls for a more enlightened aristocracy that lives up to noblesse oblige. The press is not free so long as it can be bought and sold. Belief in editorial independence should've died, at the latest, when Manufacturing Consent came out.

That WaPo article (https://archive.md/XBO1R) going around about ...

2024-12-31T15:44:29Z

That WaPo article (https://archive.md/XBO1R) going around about how self-driving cars don't stop for pedestrians at crosswalks is luddism 101. Driving is not a purely technical task, but instead mediated by complex social processes, of which the attached screenshot from the article is a good example. Integrating self-driving cars means renegotiating those processes, and we should never let capital dictate terms, because they don't value human life.

"AI-generated poetry is indistinguishable from human-written ...

2024-12-06T15:11:42Z

"AI-generated poetry is indistinguishable from human-written poetry and is rated more favorably."

Though wrapped in the aesthetic of science, this paper is a pure expression of the AI hype's ideology, including its reliance on invisible, alienated labor. Its data was manufactured to spec to support the authors' pre-existing beliefs, and its conclusions are nothing but a re-articulation of their arrogance and ideological impoverishment.

Full breakdown: https://theluddite.org/post/ai-poetry.html

I had a recovered memory last night: It was 2011, my first day at ...

2024-11-26T14:29:14Z

I had a recovered memory last night: It was 2011, my first day at my first tech job at a small company, maybe a dozen people. The company went out for a welcome breakfast (which is nice). The CEO introduced me, then turned to me and said: "I give this to all new employees," handing me a copy of Atlas Shrugged.

Being me at 21, I blurted out something like: I've read it. She's a bad writer and worse philosopher. If you like it, you're going to love actually good sci-fi. Lasted 6 months.

that thread on ideas is only a handful of lines in the whole ...

2024-11-25T23:27:48Z

In reply to nevent1q…pzxy
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that thread on ideas is only a handful of lines in the whole story and it just fucking slaps

"The Machine Stops" ...

2024-11-25T22:11:46Z

"The Machine Stops"

https://www.cs.ucdavis.edu/~koehl/Teaching/ECS188/PDF_files/Machine_stops.pdf

I can't believe that this was written in 1909. So many themes that resonate today: embodied cognition, machine-mediated social relations, and even a spectacle of meaningless content.

I love the idea that there's some undecided voter out there ...

2024-10-30T00:54:59Z

I love the idea that there's some undecided voter out there trying to weigh the pros and cons of Harris and Trump, and staying ahead of AI is what finally tips the scale to Harris.

Newspaper owners blocking endorsements isn't an aberration, ...

2024-10-26T13:45:27Z

Newspaper owners blocking endorsements isn't an aberration, but a particularly transparent example of how our entire political economic system functions.

It's so fucking cool that Maples is now who publications turn ...

2024-10-25T14:13:43Z

In reply to nevent1q…0lvz
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It's so fucking cool that Maples is now who publications turn to when they need expert comment on AI's impact on mental health. It's been a gift watching her go from one obviously fraudulent paper on the topic to frequently quoted in mainstream publications. Here's another NYT one.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/23/technology/characterai-lawsuit-teen-suicide.html

I sat down to use one of those blood pressure testing machines at ...

2024-10-15T14:34:18Z

I sat down to use one of those blood pressure testing machines at the pharmacy and the screen prompted me to sign up for my free account before getting started. Another successful disruption. Thanks tech!

Our friend Maples, whose "research" into Replika this ...

2024-10-10T12:29:38Z

In reply to nevent1q…e59g
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Our friend Maples, whose "research" into Replika this thread has already criticized at great length, continues touting Replika's supposed mental health benefits, and outlets continue to seek her out as an expert.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a62452522/ai-girlfriend/

This thread is now 8 months old, and Maples et al's so-called ...

2024-09-26T13:43:03Z

In reply to nevent1q…9zrh
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This thread is now 8 months old, and Maples et al's so-called findings have made it to Replika's wikipedia page.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replika

More updates: This bullshit study that we've been following ...

2024-09-05T17:06:14Z

In reply to nevent1q…2h7y
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More updates: This bullshit study that we've been following for 9 months got cited on the freakonomics podcast. Jump to 23min.

https://freakonomics.com/podcast/can-a-i-companions-replace-human-connection/

Good news, though. Our Matters Arising is through peer review and currently awaiting publication:

https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/pkt6e

Also worth noting that without my coauthor's UVM affiliation, there's no way I'd be shelling out 4 figures to respond in the journal.

Patriotism is the state's knockoff brand solidarity that ...

2024-08-29T14:34:50Z

Patriotism is the state's knockoff brand solidarity that dilutes it with loyalty to a machine of violence at the border and abroad.

I'm doing a huge deploy on a Friday afternoon. Client's ...

2024-08-16T17:45:50Z

I'm doing a huge deploy on a Friday afternoon. Client's call against my advice. Thoughts and prayers please. I don't want to pull a CrowdStrike.

I don't discriminate based on text genre, only content! I ...

2024-08-12T20:53:18Z

In reply to nevent1q…sky8
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I don't discriminate based on text genre, only content! I actually would love to borrow it, and I can drop off the book that I'm currently borrowing from you that I might've forgotten I have still until right now :)

Looking for critical texts on gamification. I'm less ...

2024-08-12T16:59:55Z

Looking for critical texts on gamification. I'm less interested in whether it "works" or not than I am in how it changes users' relationships with the subject matter (like learning a language through duolingo), how tech companies think about their users, how we think about what tech companies are capable of doing... things like that.

Critics like Luxemberg accused Lenin's idea of a ...

2024-06-20T16:30:37Z

In reply to nevent1q…7n5j
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Critics like Luxemberg accused Lenin's idea of a "revolutionary vanguard" of being a new Blanquism, which he denied. Lots of rich debate in that back and forth. Fair warning that Lenin is kind of a bore to read.

There's also texts by early revolutionaries on the general topic of how extreme is too extreme. Trotsky wrote "Terrorism and Communism," for example, though I admit that I haven't read it. Unlike Lenin, Trotsky is usually an engaging writer.

Glad to be of service! Though it's been a while, iirc, Malm ...

2024-06-20T16:29:21Z

In reply to nevent1q…k98u
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Glad to be of service! Though it's been a while, iirc, Malm discusses terrorism by suffragettes a lot. I bet there's some good sufragette lit on the topic, which might be a productive example since most people have a very positive disposition towards that movement.

re:size - That's one of the biggest topics in revolutionary theory. Useful search term is "Blanquism." (cont'd)

Yet another update on this thread. Forbes has picked up the ...

2024-05-14T16:01:20Z

In reply to nevent1q…eqyl
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Yet another update on this thread. Forbes has picked up the study.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/danfitzpatrick/2024/05/13/30-students-saved-from-suicide-by-a-chatgpt-based-ai-say-researchers/

Headline: "AI Chatbot Helps Prevent Suicide Among Students, Stanford Study Finds"

Subheading: "30 Students Saved From Suicide By ChatGPT Based AI, According To Research"

Such a vivid picture. Makes you expect some sort of medical trial, not an online survey sent out to existing Replika users by people at the Stanford School of Education with no follow-up or verification of any kind.

Already said this earlier in the thread, but it bears repeating: ...

2024-05-09T13:23:34Z

In reply to nevent1q…m5ff
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Already said this earlier in the thread, but it bears repeating: The journal is aware of these problems and refuses to retract the article, despite our explicit request for them to do so. The Luddite then submitted an official response, to be published alongside the paper, but it's been languishing in review for several months while the company continues to use the fraudulent science to woo the press and the public.

That junk paper from Maples et al that I've been following ...

2024-05-09T13:21:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…4pre
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That junk paper from Maples et al that I've been following for months just got cited in the NYT.

For those new here:

https://theluddite.org/#!post/replika

(tl;dr - study claims to "mitigate suicide" while dishonestly withholding crucial context that would undermine the company line. The lead author also fails to disclose at least two conflicts of interest.)

Archive link to NYT article:

https://archive.md/8q3ML#selection-1305.160-1309.210

We've updated the post, for the record: ...

2024-03-18T00:40:22Z

In reply to nevent1q…x2uy
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We've updated the post, for the record: https://theluddite.org/#!post/replika

Goddammit, I just realized why the study was conducted in 2021 ...

2024-03-18T00:14:38Z

In reply to nevent1q…ckt3
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Goddammit, I just realized why the study was conducted in 2021 but the results didn't come out until 2024.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/cindygordon/2024/01/30/replika-launches-new-immersive-ai-wellness-avatar-experience/

Replika launched a mental health product at the same time, and I strongly suspect that this is part of their press blitz.

More updates: Here's Replika's CEO, Eugenia Kuyda, a ...

2024-03-18T00:02:42Z

In reply to nevent1q…na2x
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More updates: Here's Replika's CEO, Eugenia Kuyda, a well-documented liar, touting the results of the study on Feb 16 podcast episode of "Cognitive Revolution."

https://pca.st/pma0q3bs

That Replika can maybe stop suicide by 25% or more is the cold open of the episode. Then after intro, at the 2:23 mark, the host says "Replika has been in the news again, this time, for a study out of Stanford, that found that 3% of its users found relief from suicidal ideation..."

Another update: Shivon Zilis, the neuralink person and mother of ...

2024-03-17T17:07:32Z

In reply to nevent1q…kwy7
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Another update: Shivon Zilis, the neuralink person and mother of two of Elon Musk's children, is on the board of the author's AI company.

So we have a paper claiming that AI chatbots can prevent suicide in student populations based on a survey of users of replika, the erotic chat app, which failed to disclose the erotic nature of replika, whose author also failed to disclose their conflict of interest as CEO of an AI education company, which is apparently in the Elon extended stupidverse. 🆒

After an email exchange with the journal, I did some digging, and ...

2024-02-07T19:12:38Z

In reply to nevent1q…4kl2
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After an email exchange with the journal, I did some digging, and it turns out that the lead author on this paper is the CEO of an AI company. I didn't think that this paper could get more egregious.

Nature* published an article titled "Loneliness and suicide ...

2024-01-29T22:27:42Z

Nature* published an article titled "Loneliness and suicide mitigation for students using GPT3-enabled chatbots"

https://www.nature.com/articles/s44184-023-00047-6

Even among the awful #AI hype articles, this one is egregious, and that's before taking into account the sensitivity of the subject matter.

Here's my response, where I break down this outrageous piece of marketing pseudoscience:

https://theluddite.org/#!post/replika