Matti Minkkinen @mmin@scholar.social

“…terms like ‘ethics’ and ‘AI for good’ have been so completely denatured of any actual meaning…let’s actually look at who’s running the levers of these systems…shifting away from just focusing on things like ethical principles to talking about power.”

https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/04/23/1023549/kate-crawford-atlas-of-ai-review/

"we know that our current processes make bad decisions, and we were hoping you could help"
"yep, our machine learning system can clear that right up"
"the bad decisions part?"
"the knowing part"

Bot-generated safety sign

RT @Fly_Cuttlefish@twitter.com

This will always be one of my favorite historical fun facts.

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/Fly_Cuttlefish/status/1355536221385207812

There’s a post going around on the birdsite that slams the emergence of the app web as a fundamental wrong turn in the evolution of the web.

I have some sympathy with this perspective although I suspect my reasons are not the same as that of the original poster.

My take is that all of modern software fundamentally got _documents_ wrong and the turn the web took is an inevitable consequence of that.

Been using #obsidian knowledge-base / note taking app for the past few weeks and so far I really like it! It kinda doesn't force you into a single pattern but provides a strong tagging, link and editor support. For example you get built-in vim keybinds and a graph view of your note connections.

Definitely recommend giving it a go!
https://obsidian.md/
#trythisapp

I can't wait until this is all over and I can go back to riding my horse through the mall.

Notification literacy?

http://literaci.es/notification-literacy

'The Ofqual algorithm was the technical embodiment of a deeply political idea: that a person is only as good as their circumstances dictate.'

📰 Louise Amoore on the algorithmic foreclosure of young futures. The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/aug/19/ditch-the-algorithm-generation-students-a-levels-politics

#Humor #Statistics

should have my website show a message if you _don’t_ have an adblocker installed recommending that you get one

PhD Status: Online 🌐
Huge thanks to my supervisors Prof. Teal Triggs and Richard Banks, and examiners Prof. Jussi Parikka and Prof. Anthony Masure.

https://researchonline.rca.ac.uk/4420/

This I like. #together

When people come with the argument that "human nature" just doesn't allow certain utopia, I always turn sad.

You grew up in a belief system which was aggressive enough to colonize most of this planet. You internalized this so much, that you can't even imagine something entirely different anymore.

This has nothing to do with human nature. That is malleable to a large extent; what you consider "natural" is nothing but socialization.

I finished reading World Wide Waste by Gerry McGovern. I'd consider it essential reading for anyone working with computers!

https://gerrymcgovern.com/books/world-wide-waste/

It's well cited (though I still need to check those citations) & uses maths effectively to make it's point.

That computers + (surveillance) capitalism is actually worse for the environment than the predigital era. That we can and must move slow and fix things, and fund that vital work directly.

Surveillance capitalism is the same as climate change, but for data:

- Some people have been warning about its consequences for years
- Most people don't care because they don't feel concerned, they can't see it affecting them
- A few companies are making a lot of damage with the help of governments
- When we will face the consequences it will be too late
- We can still do something about it, and the sooner the better