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Geoffrey Rockwell

@grockwel.bsky.social

620 followers 38 following 9 posts

Philosophy and Digital Humanities at the U of Alberta

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Computer science 41%

Art 14%

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Geoffrey Rockwell @grockwel.bsky.social · Oct 17

Andreessen's Techno-Optimist Manifesto include academics as the enemy, but the description of our sins could just as well fit venture capital.

Our enemy is the ivory tower, the know-it-all credentialed expert worldview, indulging in abstract theories, luxury beliefs, social engineering, disconnected from the real world, delusional, unelected, and unaccountable – playing God with everyone else’s lives, with total insulation from the consequences.

Geoffrey Rockwell @grockwel.bsky.social · Oct 17

Reading Andreessen's Techno-Optimist Manifesto. He quotes Martinetti's Futurist Manifesto which includes, "We want to glorify war - the only cure for the world - militarism, patriotism, the destructive gesture of the anarchists, the beautiful ideas which kill, and contempt for woman."

First world war: The manifesto of Futurism

FT Marinetti's 1909 manifesto of the principles of the Futurism movement

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Geoffrey Rockwell

Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · Oct 16

Marc Andreessen, who runs one of the biggest Silicon Valley venture capital firms, wrote a "manifesto" today labeling “social responsibility" and "tech ethics" teams "the enemy."

His firm, a16z, recently pivoted from crypto/NFTs/Web3 to American military and defense contractor technology.

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Reposted by Geoffrey Rockwell

Ted Underwood @tedunderwood.com · Oct 16

I can't bring myself to read more than a page of the Andreessen thing. It's word vomit; LLMs do much better.

But the meta-pattern is interesting: academia and tech are locked in the sort of struggle for moral authority that used to take place between academics and journalists.

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Geoffrey Rockwell @grockwel.bsky.social · Oct 16

Call For Papers is now up for Replaying Japan 2024. This is being jointly organized at the U of Buffalo, SUNY and at the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester (with transportation.) Should be a great conference on Japanese game culture. See replaying.jp

Call for papers 2024 - Replaying Japan

Replaying Japan 2024 – The 12th International Japan Game Studies Conference – [Conference Theme] Preservation, Innovation and New Directions in Japanese Game Studies [Dates] Monday, August 19 (U...

replaying.jp

Reposted by Eszter Hargittai, Geoffrey Rockwell

Ross Dahlke @rossdahlke.bsky.social · Oct 16

"Digital detoxes" are trendy. But who actually does this voluntary disconnection?

Minh Hao Nguyen & @eszter.com find that younger, higher educated, more frequent internet users, and those with less dependable access are more likely to voluntarily disconnect

doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqad021

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Geoffrey Rockwell @grockwel.bsky.social · Oct 13

Reflecting in my blog on how OpenAI has changed the "core values" it describes on its Careers page. Now AGI is the first core value and anything that doesn't help with the commitment to building safe and beneficial AGI is out of scope. See theoreti.ca?p=8364

Reposted by Geoffrey Rockwell

Brett Bobley @brettbobley.bsky.social · Oct 13

A 21 year old undergrad played a key role in this major breakthrough for the Herculaneum Scrolls project (one of the coolest DH projects NEH has funded). Luke Farritor, from U Nebraska-Lincoln, was the first person to uncover a full word from a 2000 year old scroll. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

AI reads text from ancient Herculaneum scroll for the first time

Machine-learning technique reveals Greek words in CT scans of rolled-up papyrus. Machine-learning technique reveals Greek words in CT scans of rolled-up papyrus.

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Geoffrey Rockwell

Ted Underwood @tedunderwood.com · Aug 31

Every field has its own challenges.

@AmandaAskell on Twitter: Philosophy: "Our low-hanging research fruit has been plucked for the last 2000 years, so to make progress you must build a ladder."

AI: "And over here we have the fruit gun. It pelts you with low-hanging research fruit every few seconds. Try not to let it distract you."

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Geoffrey Rockwell @grockwel.bsky.social · Aug 25

Reflecting on presentation tools like PowerPoint and Tufte's critique. Wishing MORE had been successful. theoreti.ca?p=8346

Reposted by Geoffrey Rockwell

Quinn Dombrowski @quinnanya.me · Aug 25

It's 1991. While you and your buddies are doing humanities computing, across campus people are experiencing science with computer-created "virtual reality".

Cover of the Chronicle of Higher Education with a white dude in 90s sunglasses juxtaposed with some computer visualization of something scientific as a big picture on the cover.

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Reposted by Geoffrey Rockwell

Brandon Walsh @walshbr.bsky.social · Aug 24

Down to less than five extra new codes in the can in our spreadsheet that has 220 rows in it! Keep an eye out for any new codes you get and submit them here to share out to a colleague.

bit.ly/dh-bluesky

Digital Humanities Bluesky Code Sharing Form

Given the ongoing deterioration of Twitter as a viable space for the sharing of digital humanities work, ACH has begun exploring alternatives. Bluesky social has the makings of a viable alternative, b...

bit.ly

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Reposted by Geoffrey Rockwell

The Wynter in Black 🎃🐈‍⬛ @rebeccawynter.bsky.social · Aug 24

The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition has been awarded $124,000 to digitise 20,000 images from Swarthmore and Haverford archives to reveal truth and begin repair around #Quaker boarding schools, 1852-1945
#Quakers #Skystorians

Native American group to digitize 20,000 archival pages linked to Quaker-run Indian boarding schools

The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition says it will digitize 20,000 archival pages related to Quaker-operated Indian boarding schools.

apnews.com

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Geoffrey Rockwell @grockwel.bsky.social · Aug 19

Second day of Replaying Japan in Nagoya and continuing my conference notes, https://philosophi.ca/pmwiki.php/Main/Replaying2023 . Excellent paper on the challenges of game studies in China. If I understood the story their DiGRA chapter was ruled illegal by the government and papers disappear.

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Geoffrey Rockwell @grockwel.bsky.social · Aug 18

Reading AP's "Standards around generative AI" (https://blog.ap.org/standards-around-generative-ai) they strike me as sensible advice we should give our students including "We urge staff [students] to not put confidential or sensitive information into AI tools."

Geoffrey Rockwell @grockwel.bsky.social · Aug 18

At Nagoya Zokei University for Replaying Japan 2023 in Nagoya, Japan. Finally we are back in person. Keeping conference notes at https://philosophi.ca/pmwiki.php/Main/Replaying2023

Reposted by Geoffrey Rockwell

GanWeaving @ganweaving.bsky.social · Aug 16

Pro tip: don't use 'photorealistic' if you want to get images that look like photos! Check these 4 different settings in order to get what I mean.

[prompt/details in the alt]

#midjourney #aiart

portrait of a 30 year old tuscan woman, photorealistic --seed 1234 >> 'photorealistic' makes your image look like a painting since actual photos are rarely tagged with 'photorealistic'

portrait of a 30 year old tuscan woman, 50mm, f1.4, natural light, Pathéchrome --seed 1234 >> terms relating to photography make your image look way more like an actual photograph!

portrait of a 30 year old tuscan woman, photorealistic --style raw --seed 1234 >> 'photorealistic' makes your image look like a painting since actual photos are rarely tagged with 'photorealistic'

portrait of a 30 year old tuscan woman, 50mm, f1.4, natural light, Pathéchrome --style raw --seed 1234 >> terms relating to photography make your image look way more like an actual photograph!

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Reposted by Geoffrey Rockwell

Mark Sample @samplereality.bsky.social · Aug 12

Hey babe, wake up, a new robots.txt just dropped https://platform.openai.com/docs/gptbot

OpenAI Platform

Explore developer resources, tutorials, API docs, and dynamic examples to get the most out of OpenAI's platform.

platform.openai.com

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Geoffrey Rockwell @grockwel.bsky.social · Aug 11

Just posted a small album from our trip to Bamfield and Kiix̣in on Vancouver island. https://flickr.com/photos/geoffreyrockwell/albums/72177720310428843