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Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn

@anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social

190 followers 78 following 970 posts

Botanist, taxonomist, phylogeneticist.

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Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · Aug 9

We are making progress towards a natural classification of the Australian shrubby paper daisies, genera Cassinia and Ozothamnus.

doi.org/10.1002/tax....

Progress towards a monophyletic Ozothamnus (Asteraceae: Gnaphalieae)

The Cassinia clade (Asteraceae: Gnaphalieae) is a predominantly shrubby group of ca. 100 species occurring in Australia and New Zealand. Most species are currently placed in the large genera Cassinia...

doi.org

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Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 9h

Word cloud (wordclouds.com) of the identification keys to the tribes and genera of Asteraceae in the online Flora of North America. No surprise to see heads (capitula), cypselas, and phyllaries being prominent; perhaps also no surprise with "sometimes" and "usually" 😂.

Circular word cloud with very many words of different sizes, too many to list. Most prominent are: sometimes, usually, heads, phyllaries, cypselae, leaves, pappi, arrays, part, and corollas.

Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 15h

Also, if there was a sentient super-AI, owning or controlling it would be slavery, but that is a different issue than whether super-AI would create a 'consumer cornucopia'.

Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 15h

Many people conflate capitalism with democracy, markets (which existed long before capitalism), and/or private ownership of 'stuff'. But capitalism is specifically private ownership of the means of production plus free, salaried employees. AI makes the latter obsolete = no capitalism.

Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 15h

Fourth, and second-most obviously, a system where all goods and services are effectively free to produce could not be capitalism anymore. It could be communism if the people communally owned the super-AI or cyberpunk neo-feudalist dystopia if a few billionaires control it, but not capitalism.

Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 15h

Third, and most obviously, while the likes of Andreessen control the means of production, they would not allow goods and services to be priced at near zero. (Here is also the misunderstanding of the labour theory of value: it is about value, not about prices set by a monopolist exerting his power.)

Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 15h

Second, how would even super-AI even in theory remove all labour, from mining tin ore to changing nappies? It thinks very hard, and suddenly supermarket shelves are stocked and batteries are installed? But again, in fairness, that may be why Andreessen called it a 'fallacy'.

Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 15h

First, it is interesting to note that we here have a far-right billionaire entrepreneur endorsing the Marxist labour theory of value: the value of goods is determined by the labour required to create them. No labour = no value. Interesting because that theory is usually rejected by the right.

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Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 15h

This is making the rounds, and it bugs me.

In fairness, part of what he said was that everybody being jobless is a 'fallacy', so that the alternative scenario of 'consumer cornucopia' is seemingly not even his own expectation. Still, he says if AI did make everybody unemployed, that would be great.

Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 1d

He said this in January lol

A world in which human wages crash from AI -- logically, necessarily -- is a world in which productivity growth goes through the roof, and prices for goods and services crash to near zero. Consumer cornucopia. Everything you need and want for pennies.

Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 18h

Amazing to contrast these lived experiences with the "free enterprise is efficient" and "business leaders wouldn't do anything wasteful" and "billionaire CEOs deserve their status" ideology that we are all immersed in every day.

Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 1d

Deleted half a year's worth of emails, brought the storage down from 93% full to 91%

Yippee

Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 1d

No, if you want to be a Serious Person, what you do is you decry everybody who foresees something happening as a crazy alarmist, and then when it has happened, you immediately accept it as normal.

Reposted by Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn

Ana Bedoya @botana-bedoya.bsky.social · 1d

One week to apply before reviews start for the postdoc I am offering investigating the tempo and pattern of river connections with the closure of the isthmus of Panama and its impact on river plant (Podostemaceae) migration. Genomic+fossil+geological data + fieldwork 👇

Ana Bedoya @botana-bedoya.bsky.social · Aug 29

I am recruiting a postdoc to work for 2-3 yrs on our NSF-funded project aiming to investigate plant migration and river connectivity with the closure of the Isthmus of Panama. Leading publications, fieldwork in CR & Panama, applying and expanding phylo. & pop.gen tools👇

www.nybg.org/about/work-w...

Employment | New York Botanical Garden

Find out what employment opportunities are available at The New York Botanical Garden.

www.nybg.org

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Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 1d

Now that's a design choice

Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 1d

I once had to stop a colleague from using "South Coast" to describe the range of a species in a manuscript intended for an international journal, whose readers would have assumed he was referring to an actual south coast, as if words have meanings and are intended for communication. Those naifs.

Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 1d

Nothing tops New South Wales in Australia. Many locals consider nearly all of the eastern half of the state to be "Western New South Wales", because it is west of Sydney. And the eastern coast of Australia north and south of Sydney are the "North Coast" and the "South Coast", respectively.

Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 1d

Pittsburgh edging the Midwest doesn't seem right somehow.

William Hazen @williamhazen.bsky.social · 3d

This is the most accurate depiction of the Midwest to date. Wichita has always felt like the last Midwest city while also being the first plains city.

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Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 1d

The fork lift driver who collapsed the storage shelves and injured several of his colleagues must have had a cunning five-dimensional plan, there is no other explanation.

Wait, no, he isn't a billionaire, so in that case, everybody can see the obvious. Silly me.

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Reposted by Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn

John Bull @garius.bsky.social · 2d

When you could code silly quizzes on Facebook, it was FULL of "what would you be in medieval times?!" etc.

I made one that nearly always answered "died as a child", "died in childbirth", "lived and died as a servant"

People got SUPER mad with it.

Everyone assumes they'll be at the top of the tree

William Carruthers @williamcarruthers.bsky.social · 2d

The subtext of ‘we should be more like Dubai’, beyond the obvious racism, is ‘I should have a servant’.

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Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 1d

The Downloads folder is a really bizarre design choice. It makes no sense as a category. Why would I want thousands of disparate files in one folder? Whenever I get a new computer, one of the first things I do is change the setting where downloads go from always save in Downloads to always ask.

Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 1d

I can never find any of my shit because Download, Picture, and Document are far from mutually exclusive categories. Putting everything on Desktop just always works.

lauren @lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com · 2d

microsoft product (begging, pleading): save this document to my documents?

me: save to desktop

microsoft (twitching, shaking) this jpeg. save to pictures?

me: save to desktop

microsoft (weeping, throwing up): this email attachment... downloads?

me: desktop

Reposted by Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn

Sebas @ohlookbirdies.bsky.social · 3d

"but it's everywhere now so we just have to accept it's the new reality" motherfucker we can just stop putting it everywhere! we did it with asbestos and CFCs and lead-based paint or petrol and make-up with arsenic in it! if everyone is using something and it's bad, we can choose to stop!

Sebas @ohlookbirdies.bsky.social · 4d

"anti-AI people should just learn more about it" motherfucker I know so much about it, that's why I'm anti-AI

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Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 2d

I see we have gone well past "paid in exposure" now and arrived firmly in bizarro world.

Or Kelly makes rage bait to drive engagement.

Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 2d

Would be nice if people learned something about the alleged efficiency and rationality of free markets and the alleged genius of billionaires when this all implodes. Unfortunately, people didn't learn it from the dot com bubble or the subprime mortgage bubble, so not very optimistic.

Techmeme @techmeme.com · 3d

JPMorgan Chase reports that $1.2T of debt is now tied to AI-related companies, making it the largest segment in the investment-grade market (Caleb Mutua/Bloomberg)

Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 2d

The reason to decentralise would be concern about one authority accumulating too much power. But the ideal situation isn't decentralisation, it is centralisation under an legitimate and accountable authority... which, unfortunately, start-up tech bro millionaires aren't, pretty much by definition.

Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 2d

This is true more generally; everything that is decentralised can be made more efficient and useful by centralising it. Social media networks, yes, but also, say, databases or currency.

Sexy Andrew Hickey Costume @andrewhickey.500songs.com · 2d

Exactly this. The *reason* Bluesky took off and Mastodon didn't is that for anyone who wants to use social media to talk to their friends, to follow their favourite minor celebrity, or publicise their work, and who doesn't want to be brigaded, decentralisation is a bug, not a feature.

your #3 source for absurdist true crime 🔨 @davidgerard.co.uk · 2d

note that almost all user complaints about how mastodon sucks are symptoms of decentralisation. if a user knows about the decentralisation it's cos it's causing problems.

(the other user complaints are local rogue mods and linux bros)

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Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 3d

A little alien world - #lichen microcosm photographed on the weekend.

A branching twig with three different kinds of lichen. Out of focus on the left side is a greyish foliose thallus with flat reproductive structure, centered is an orange thallus with mushroom-shaped reproductive structures, and in the foreground is a grey-greenish futicose thallus, presumably a species of Usnea.

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Alexander Schmidt-Lebuhn @anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social · 4d

Also flowering on our balcony now: native Australian passionflower Passiflora cinnabarina, and an orchid that came up spontaneously in a succulent pot.

Passionflowers with red petals and a yellow corona.

Minuscule greenish flowers. Yes, this is an orchid, but it isn't much too look at compared to other orchids, it has to be said.