Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

I framed my book on generative models in terms of risks for a reason. Whatever you can say about their "productive value", their nondeterminism, manipulative UI, statistical mediocrity, and tendency towards unpredictable errors mean the risks—even if you're an asshole who disregards societal risks—outweigh the still largely hypothetical benefits

when 1000 faceless github accounts crowd into your PR queue all at once, slinging slop, desperate (for what reasons I cannot quite understand) for some shred of clout that comes from an accepted commit on a high-profile open source project, even if every single one of them is a Real Human Being and they are all still doing their best to pay enough attention, but they are also all staring directly into the Not Paying Enough Attention beam, you can't just give it a pass because it's worked before

So, even if we were to accept that LLMs are extremely useful and their utility overwhelms all possible concerns about externalities[1], we would absolutely need to *replace* the load-bearing presumption of good faith that the code we are consuming isn't *trying* to harm us, because now it's not *trying* to do anything, it's just whatever gets through the filters we have put in place. We have to replace it with a sandbox.

[1]: they aren't and it doesn't

> Our lab has agreed on a blanket ban on the use of generative AI for writing.

reason:

> Using generative AI inherently exposes you to the risk of career-ending accusations of plagiarism.

https://www.carlsonlab.bio/thoughts/the-only-reason-youll-ever-need-not-to-write-with-ai

Many organizations are intrigued by the idea of self-management because they hope to have better decision making while creating a power-with culture and structure. Sociocracy is one of the central governance methods to achieve exactly that.

However, it can be intimidating to implement those methods – it’s a lot at once! You’ll have to do research, train everyone, implement — months or even years of transition time. And regular work needs to get done as well! I always compare changes in governance to beating heart surgery. Tricky — at the very least.

Is there an easier way? Most of all, is there a safer way?

Continue reading
https://www.sociocracyforall.org/3-tools-from-sociocracy/

@glyph Yesterday somebody honestly told me “we obviously have to read every single line that is produced.”

Dude you sent two 7000-line PRs in the morning.

you know, if you’re considering rolling back your anti-AI policy because a bunch of people are crybullying each other over “AI witch hunts” and getting caught trying to pass off slop as their own work, your development community might have deeper problems that taking a centrist position on AI will almost definitely make much worse

I saw this elsewhere and thought I’d repost here. One lab’s policy on AI use in academic writing.

“The only reason you’ll ever need to not write with AI”

https://www.carlsonlab.bio/thoughts/the-only-reason-youll-ever-need-not-to-write-with-ai

#academicchatter

When you’re disabled, people will treat you like you’re broken.

They’ll act like you’re in the wrong no matter what you do.

They will insinuate you could “try harder”.

They will blame you for their discomfort.

Your disability is not your fault.

People just can’t face it.

#disability #ableism #chronicillness

Healthcare is suicide prevention.

Housing is suicide prevention.

Childcare is suicide prevention.

Universal basic income is suicide prevention.

When we ensure people have their basic needs met, mental health improves.

Will anybody tell Linux Kernel, XFCE, TDE, and the other slop-slingers?

Cal Newport: "From the outside, software development seemed like the poster child for AI’s potential. On the inside, it’s a mess."

https://calnewport.com/on-ai-coding-and-its-discontents/

#AI #LLM #ArtificialIntelligence #NoAI #softwareDevelopment

🌱 Tejemedios is back this year!

The Community Radio and Free Media Gathering brings together community communicators, independent media, grassroots journalists, and people working across territories to strengthen communication, autonomy, and collective action.

Tejemedios is a 100% self-organized and free gathering. To make it happen, we rely on the solidarity and support of people who believe in the importance of strengthening community voices and independent media.

That’s why we’ve launched a fundraising campaign for Tejemedios. Every contribution, regardless of its size, helps us cover the costs of organizing the gathering and making participation possible.

Support the campaign:https://firefund.net/tejemedios

Your support helps us continue creating spaces for knowledge sharing, collaboration, territorial defense, community communication, and the use of technology for autonomy.

Learn more about Tejemedios. Watch the video we created in collaboration with @subMedia to learn more about Tejemedios, why this gathering matters, and how you can help make it happen.https://wacha.punks.cc/w/421z1H5aEfvLZEgqWAtDeW

Have an idea, proposal, or want to collaborate in another way? Get in touch with us at: tejemedixs@riseup.net

Tejemedios is built collectively — and we need your support to make it happen! 🌎

The Trump regime is rolling loaded dice -- loaded against the rest of us -- in its handling of bird flu. This could end up killing millions of people, and at this point you have to ask whether it's their intention. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/rfk-jr-wants-to-let-bird-flu-spread-on-poultry-farms-why-experts-are/

The city that arrested a person for clapping at a data center meeting has now moved to virtual meetings, meaning residents can only watch and not provide public comment or participate. Says its for 'public safety'

https://www.404media.co/city-that-arrested-person-for-clapping-at-data-center-meeting-moves-to-virtual-townhalls-for-public-safety/

"When a person feels he knows a thing or two which other people have been too stupid to discover, he is a wise person. Then a feeling comes to him—a kind of a desire to enlighten the public concerning the things they do not know; incidentally—how smart he is."

https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/79325/pg79325-images.html

@zzt as a former open source community manager (volunteer and paid) I'm gonna say if you don't want want to deal with LLM and synthetic contributors to your project you don't have to. It's your project, you set the rules and community tone. Feel free to ban on sight with no apologies.

"If the “West” would take a break from sanctioning and bombing Iran, it just might find something to learn there—if they don’t destroy it first. As we mentioned in a post on Iranian architecture back in February, the Persians have hundreds of years practice at cooling buildings in one of the harshest heats on the planet without the use of AC..."

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2026/08/architectural-answers-to-an-overheating-world.html

Today on the Ben Joravsky show, Senior Editor at In These Times Miles Kampf-Lassin speaks about why many centrists would rather defeat progressives than defeat Trump. https://open.spotify.com/episode/3rXfS4EtcMcV3r3mQbkXw8?si=Wgnzt9QkQYmBXWmZTEGbyw&utm_source=copy-link

RE: https://shakedown.social/@aburtch/117073557960386055

The President of the United States is a dullard who wants our children to suffer and die from preventable illness.

It is noteworthy when the even the Los Angeles Police Department finds that Flock just isn't worthwhile.

https://www.gadgetreview.com/one-in-three-alerts-wrong-high-error-rates-and-data-concerns-force-cities-to-drop-flock