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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 2d

"fentanyl for governance" is a great phrase.

It reminds me of what Weizenbaum pointed out years ago: digital systems tend to be built in order to make old methods "more efficient", which means rather than addressing fundamental issues, they just patch things up so they can limp along.

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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 2d

Thanks, yes, it seems so. I can't comprehend why people turn their governments over to him. He keeps on about the antichrist of "one world government" which is of course projection—it's what they're building.

One AI to rule them all, one AI to bind them …

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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 2d

Was about to delve into a detailed piece on ancient Indian poetry, then saw that the author uses AI for "research". Phew, that saved me the bother.

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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 4d

It's truly astonishing that anyone takes this seriously.

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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 4d

A mad nazi, driven by narcissistic compulsion, unable to formulate a coherent thought or to escape the ideology of his upbringing in the genocidal apartheid state of South West Africa.

Inside tech billionaire Peter Thiel’s off-the-record lectures about the antichrist

The political svengali and investor has been giving lectures on ‘an evil king or tyrant … who appears in the end times’

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by sujato

Juno Rylee Schultz @junoryleejournalism.com · 6d

David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)

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.

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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 5d

Despite the exposure of Trungpa’s abuse by such groups as the Sunshine Project, and despite the ongoing legacy of rape and child abuse perpetuated by his followers, they continue to promote and endorse his work, thus normalizing sexual predation and abuse.”

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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 5d

They have been instrumental in fostering the delusion that his drug-addled rantings constitute some form of “crazy wisdom” and in doing so have done irreparable harm to Buddhism.

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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 5d

Someone asked if they could use my translations for a book published by Shambhala. Here’s my response.

“I will not have anything to do with Shambhala Publications in any form. They were founded to promote the work of the rapist and pedophile Chogyam Trungpa.

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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 6d

“It looks like a bombed out landscape, but it isn’t, it’s an intentional one.”

Manufactured Landscapes | Official Trailer | DocPlay

YouTube video by DocPlay

www.youtube.com

sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 6d

“planet” obviously, but somehow “plant” works too!

sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 6d

The horror. But no, it was something else, not specifically Buddhist.

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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 6d

Just turned down a project that uses AI.

“It’s industry standard” — it’s an evil industry.
“It allows us to save time” — it allows us to steal other’s work and profit from it.

#banai

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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 7d

Translation: *not doing crime* would kill AI.

Excellent. Don’t do crime.

The Verge @theverge.com · May 26

Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry

Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.

buff.ly

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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 7d

Folks think the growth of China’s renewables is somehow *good for the plant*. Sure, renewables do *less harm* than FF, but every EV, solar cell, battery, harms the earth. It’s integral to the world’s most massive industrial machine, profiting from the burned and desecrated corpse of mother nature.

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Reposted by sujato

Håkon Nordhagen @hakonnordhagen.bsky.social · 9d

«is it rather the case that the [AI/LLMs] models’ inability to distinguish words from the world is precisely what makes them so useful to fascist aims?»

www.liberalcurrents.com/deflating-hy...

Deflating “Hype” Won’t Save Us

The problem with AI isn’t hype. The problem is who and what it’s useful for.

www.liberalcurrents.com

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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 10d

incredible. I had no idea the change was that vast in just ten years.

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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 10d

Remember all the agonizing like, "is it *really* a Nazi salute???" Musk has been "our guy" his entire life, his father before him, his grandfather before him.

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Reposted by sujato

Andrea Junker @strandjunker.com · 10d

“Terrible things are happening outside. Poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. Families are torn apart. Men, women, and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared.”

Diary of Anne Frank
January 13, 1943

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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 10d

Well, I'd rather see AI *go away* but yeah, good idea.

I really feel like governments have been largely made up of old guys who get their emails printed out. They're starry-eyed at the "smart" geeks and just relinquished any sense of purpose when it comes to the digital sphere.

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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 10d

We don’t even have anything like a public service sphere in the digital space.

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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 10d

It’s not even just one thing, it’s promoting a healthy digital ecosphere.

Eg. govts could run their own social media, spin up an instance of Mastadon or Bluesky and make it the official medium of record. It’s not competing w/ FB, it’s providing an accountable service.

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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 10d

Yeah, government is not the whole answer, but I think having both government and corporate is better than either alone.

I’m thinking of TV and radio in Australia, where you have commercial channels, govt channels which are quasi-independent, but also local community radio, universities, etc.

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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 10d

Good to see these serious issues being raised. I don’t think there’s a simple answer, but whatever it is it has to involve plurality. Break up the corporate monopolies and enable multiple options via govts, communities, regions, etc. Maybe a hard limit on the size of social media networks.

Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · 11d

Macron remarks are notable- some quotes: "We have been incredibly naive in entrusting our democratic space to social networks that are controlled either by large American entrepreneurs or large Chinese companies, whose interests are not at all the survival or proper functioning of our democracies."

Defend Democracy @defenddemocracy.bsky.social · 11d

President Macron: “Europeans, let's wake up!

We have been incredibly naive in entrusting our democratic space to social networks.”

defenddemocracy.eu/macron-democ...

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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 10d

I remember being at group discussion, one young guy was manspreading heavily. One woman asked him to cut it, but another woman said it’s better to just be patient. They ended up arguing while he kept on spreading.

Simpler times.