Kara Patterson 🇨🇦
@karakpatterson.bsky.social
310 followers 320 following 44 posts
Associate professor, senior scientist, physiotherapist. A dance obsessive and music enthusiast searching for ways to integrate them into my research. (She/her)
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Reposted by Kara Patterson 🇨🇦
slurmsmackenzie.bsky.social
GenAI truly was the worst technology to come along at this moment.

An energy and water guzzler when we most urgently need to take climate action.

A disinformation machine as our journalism fails.

A bias machine as fascism takes root.

A job killer in a cost of living crisis.
thevoidencore.bsky.social
The "cognitive decline and brain damage from repeat COVID infections" and "easy to use robot that makes slop and melts your critical thinking skills" is a hell of a combo in a post-fact media ecosystem
Reposted by Kara Patterson 🇨🇦
gwensnyder.bsky.social
Relatedly, one red flag I have learned to see lately is the person who *needs* to be the child whisperer.

Because that is a person whose ego is at odds with the child's ability to maintain healthy boundaries and make their own choices about who to trust
gwensnyder.bsky.social
One of the best phrases I've ever learned for working with kids is, "thank you for your no."

It gives me such happiness to see them make their own choices for their little bodies, and to be able to affirm that as a good thing
chantalalive.blacksky.app
Some little kids are not really shy, they just choose who they want to give their energy to & refuse to give it unless they want to. We could all learn from that boundary setting.
Reposted by Kara Patterson 🇨🇦
brenttoderian.bsky.social
“The big advantage of bikes is that they go directly from where you start to where you finish, when you need to go. The advantage over cars is that they need perhaps 1/10th of the amount of space. Roads that jam up quickly with cars can carry effectively unlimited numbers of people by bicycle.”
Why e-bikes are more important the EVs
Bikes can actually transform cities in the way driverless cars promise
danielknowles.substack.com
Reposted by Kara Patterson 🇨🇦
canadianpolling.bsky.social
"Donald Trump's comments about Canada becoming the US' 51st state have strengthened my Canadian pride and my belief that Canada must maintain its independence"

🟢 Agree: 72%
🟡 Neutral: 19%
⚫️ Disagree: 9%

Read it here: open.substack.com/pub/canadian...
Canadians Firmly Reject Idea of American Statehood
Support for American statehood remains low across all age groups, even in more conservative provinces like Alberta
open.substack.com
Reposted by Kara Patterson 🇨🇦
hypervisible.blacksky.app
From the tech bro gospel: “someone was going to coarsen society and further immiserate people, it may as well be me.”
"We're already at the point where we can't tell what's real and what's not online, and OpenAI and other tech companies will have to solve around that," said the former OpenAI engineer, using tech lingo for finding a solution to a problem. "But that's not an argument for not trying to dominate this market. You can't stop progress. If OpenAI didn't release Sora, someone else would have."

In fact, Meta is also trying to, with its recent introduction of Vibes, a platform where people can make and share short AI-generated deepfakes. In July, Google introduced Veo 3, an AI video tool. But it wasn't until OpenAI's release of the Sora app that personalized AI slop really took off.
Reposted by Kara Patterson 🇨🇦
nicolechung.bsky.social
I’m not autistic, just a parent to an autistic kid w/ fairly significant support needs, but I personally find it very frustrating to see so many people fixated on preventing, reducing, or “curing” autism and neurodiversity instead of talking about inclusion + getting folks whatever support they need
Reposted by Kara Patterson 🇨🇦
profannawatts.bsky.social
Lol the Nobels can't even acknowledge women's contribution to discovery. But sure let's acknowledge The Machines.
Headline from an article in Nature this week that states "Prizes must recognize machine contributions to discovery. The future of science will be written by humans and machines together. Awards should reflect that reality."
Reposted by Kara Patterson 🇨🇦
queenofthesouth.bsky.social
Needing multiple streams of income to stay afloat is a societal failure not a personal one. You should be able to afford a comfortable lifestyle with one job. You are not lazy.
Reposted by Kara Patterson 🇨🇦
carlzimmer.com
Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE
nyti.ms
Reposted by Kara Patterson 🇨🇦
monsterteatime.bsky.social
When I struggled with something writing-wise I take a walk. And 100% of the time I end up figuring out the solution. I would never, ever, ever, ask a machine to do that for me. Wtf.
ouinne.bsky.social
The only correct take on a fundamentally anti-human technology.
Screenshot of David Simon interview 
SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems...
SIMON: What?
SHAPIRO: ...Or saying...
SIMON: You imagine that?
SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over.
SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level.
SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this.
SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.
Reposted by Kara Patterson 🇨🇦
Reposted by Kara Patterson 🇨🇦
piper-uhn.bsky.social
Our Keynote Panel - moderated by Angela M. Cheung with panelists Alexandra Rendely, Rebecca Lewkowicz, and Susie Goulding explored "The Important Role of People with Lived Experience in Long-COVID Care and Research".

#PiPERResearchDay2025
Reposted by Kara Patterson 🇨🇦
ziibiing.com
-my followers paid for my dad’s cancer treatment and gave him the funds he needed to take time off during chemo and radiation

-i got a book deal with Penguin Random House and they gave me another

-i’ve raised over $200,000 for direct actions, Indigenous orgs, arts orgs i care about

-i have a job?
conradhackett.bsky.social
Has anything great happened in your life because of social media?
Reposted by Kara Patterson 🇨🇦
karakpatterson.bsky.social
A great and informative video from @kurzgesagt.org

The term “confidently incorrect” sums up the problem with AI slop nicely.

I also like the position that AI can be a useful tool but the “integrity and creativity is still ours”
mims.bsky.social
This is a REALLY good video that gets into the *specifics* of how AI is degrading our information environment and putting truth further out of reach for the average person / the population as a whole
bvlsingler.bsky.social
I walked into the lounge last night to find my teenage son watching this. We have long admired @kurzgesagt.org and found their videos to be extremely illuminating. But this one in particular I think is so important right now!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zfN...
Reposted by Kara Patterson 🇨🇦
Reposted by Kara Patterson 🇨🇦
dreamwisp.bsky.social
Because it feels relevant as we continue to evaluate the media and our representatives’ statements, my favorite way to identify the active vs. passive voice.
A post by Rebecca Johnson:
“I finally learned how to teach my guys to ID the passive voice. If you can insert "by zombies" after the verb, you have passive voice.”

A tumblr respond from mightymur:
“The final, brilliant word on passive voice.
"She was killed [by zombies.]"<--passive
"Zombies killed [by zombies] her." <-- active”
Reposted by Kara Patterson 🇨🇦
pieist.xenoplasm.com
Why bother to read something nobody could be bothered to write?
Reposted by Kara Patterson 🇨🇦
abeba.bsky.social
ideally, the only places i want to be in AI are spaces for resistance, refusal and community organising

in reality, i find myself in spaces where AI governance, regulatory or institutional/scientific decisions are made where either i my input is paid lip service or entirely ignored
Reposted by Kara Patterson 🇨🇦
lollardfish.bsky.social
This is true for students too. Yes there are many factors impacting student reading, but working 30+ hours a week to be able to afford college is definitely one of them.
adapalmer.bsky.social
I see pieces like this a lot, often w/ a spin of lamenting cultural degeneration, but reading is a LABOR issue, it’s declined because so many people are working overtime or two jobs & employers expect after hours work. France has Earth’s highest reading rate b/c long lunch breaks & labor protections
Reposted by Kara Patterson 🇨🇦
andybrockman.bsky.social
Everybody makes money out of academic authors except the authors...News.

Wiley is the latest academic publisher to reach a multi-million deal to allow access to its content to AI developers, with no opt out, let alone payment, for the authors who created that content.
Wiley set to earn $44m from AI rights deals, confirms “no opt-out" for authors
The US publisher is the latest to capitalise on deals to give tech firms access to its authors’ content to train their Large Language Models (LLMs).
www.thebookseller.com
Reposted by Kara Patterson 🇨🇦
andytobo.bsky.social
My university has something called the "raft debate" where professors defend their disciplines. I've been chosen to represent the humanities and they asked me to make a promo video. You know what I had to do.
Reposted by Kara Patterson 🇨🇦
caulfieldtim.bsky.social
Junk science + AI + political agendas = knowledge crisis.

Are We Facing a New Dark Age for Public Health Data? www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/ment...

Huge issue: "AI can produce compelling 'scientific' papers featuring plausible data and convincing figures."
Are We Facing a New Dark Age for Public Health Data?
The quality of scientific research is facing the twin threats of AI-generated data fabrication and the loss of long-standing, trusted, public domain datasets.
www.psychologytoday.com
Reposted by Kara Patterson 🇨🇦
docatcdi.com
How to cook the correct amount of pasta:

1. Pour out how much you think you need.

2. Wrong.