🎃 🧟 Prof. Dr Beth Singler 👻 🎃
@bvlsingler.bsky.social
8.2K followers 3.8K following 930 posts
Anthropologist/Geek thinking about how you think about AI & robots. Assistant Professor in Digital Religions at UZH. Bvlsingler.com. She/her. 🌈 https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-mono/10.4324/9781003256113/religion-artificial-intelligence-beth-singler
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bvlsingler.bsky.social
I will never stop banging this drum! 🥁 There 🥁 is 🥁 no 🥁 AI 🥁 in 🥁 the 🥁 predictive 🥁 policing 🥁 in 🥁 Minority 🥁 Report!

Its three psychics in a paddling pool!!
Reposted by 🎃 🧟 Prof. Dr Beth Singler 👻 🎃
niedermeyer.online
real
junoryleejournalism.com
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.
Reposted by 🎃 🧟 Prof. Dr Beth Singler 👻 🎃
kevinmkruse.bsky.social
Rushing to the pharmacy to pick up my fat checks from Merck and Pfizer.
atrupar.com
Trump: "We're gonna be reducing the cost of medicines by 100%, 200%, 300%, 500% and even more than that."
Reposted by 🎃 🧟 Prof. Dr Beth Singler 👻 🎃
tedmccormick.bsky.social
A striking thing about articles I’ve read claiming to “study the effects” of generative AI on student writing skills and consumption of information is that (1) they nearly always find the effects are negative and (2) most “conclusions” are still written assuming that we must use AI, for some reason.
Reposted by 🎃 🧟 Prof. Dr Beth Singler 👻 🎃
rhi.bsky.social
A great article from Rachel, who really understands the heart and soul of Dad’s work.
Reposted by 🎃 🧟 Prof. Dr Beth Singler 👻 🎃
shannonvallor.bsky.social
Since it resonated with the audience, I’ll recap my main argument against AGI here. ‘General intelligence’ is like phlogiston, or the aether. It’s an outmoded scientific concept that does not refer to anything real. Any explanatory work it did can be done better by a richer scientific frame. 1/3
shannonvallor.bsky.social
This was a truly heartening day, with deeply thoughtful challenges to the dominant narrative framed around AGI, coming from across disciplines and perspectives. Felt like the tide might finally be turning a bit, at least among the scientific community. Thanks @royalsociety.org!
anilseth.bsky.social
1/2 I'm looking forward to taking part in a panel on AGI and the Turing Test, tomorrow afternoon (Thurs 2nd Oct) at the @royalsociety.org, w/ Dame Wendy Hall, Shannon Vallor, William Isaac, & Sir Nigel Shadbolt. royalsociety.org/science-even...
bvlsingler.bsky.social
I once went to see the Blair Witch Project at the cinema, got thoroughly terrified, played a prank on a friend's girlfriend who'd just seen it, got back to my college room by about 3am, and THEN started an essay for handing in that morning, all while being terrified by the wailing wind outside...
monkeyminion.com
I wrote a 15 page report on heraldic symbolism in medieval armor and weapon design for my art history class the night before it was due (8am class). Made up 90% of it (only found one book for reference) and got an A. GenAI could fucking never.
wrote 20 pages on Faulkner's The Bear four hours before final papers were due on trucker pills and coffee and cigarettes and got an A, fuck you.
You people couldn't hang with real slackers.
finn
wokeupchic • 4d
It's fuck Al till your homework due in 25 minutes
Reposted by 🎃 🧟 Prof. Dr Beth Singler 👻 🎃
zenothankyou.bsky.social
"Overusing the em-dash is a telltale sign of AI"

18th and 19th century German philosophers (also me, a serial em-dash overuser):
monkey looking away meme
Reposted by 🎃 🧟 Prof. Dr Beth Singler 👻 🎃
danhf.bsky.social
"the girlfriend of one of the founders of antifa"
Trinity in The Matrix Reloaded
Reposted by 🎃 🧟 Prof. Dr Beth Singler 👻 🎃
manmademoon.bsky.social
A kind and thoughtful video essay about MOON from Ken. Sharing it for those who might be interested, and because it occurred to me that more people have watched this wonderful essay than probably got to see the film when it was at the cinema! 😅

youtu.be/QnSUJErY-1c?...
The Role That Should've Broken Sam Rockwell
YouTube video by Renzy
youtu.be
Reposted by 🎃 🧟 Prof. Dr Beth Singler 👻 🎃
thebrainofchris.bsky.social
This is the only proper way to watch Beckett. This person understands Beckett on a level you and I cannot even hope to.
luxalptraum.com
TFW you paid $1400 to see Beckett’s most famous work without knowing anything about it
One Star Review of Waiting for Godot on Broadway
I recently attended Waiting for Godot on Broadway and spent over $1,400 for two Row C seats (103 and 104). I'm a longtime admirer of Broadway productions and even hold a season pass for Shea's Performing Arts Theatre, so I came in with genuine enthusiasm and high expectations. Unfortunately, this show was unlike anything ! have ever experienced —and not in a good way.
What I encountered was not the artistry, music, or emotional storytelling I usually associate with Broadway, but instead what felt like an endless cycle of nonsensical conversation between characters who seemed trapped in their own madness. I tried-truly tried-to find meaning, symbolism, or even a thread of emotional resonance. I stayed through the first half hoping the second would offer clarity. But by intermission, it was clear: this was a waste of both time and money.
Keanu Reeves is an actor I respect greatly, but I cannot fathom why he would agree to participate in such a disjointed, inaccessible production. His talent was lost in a performance that defied reason rather than provoked insight.
To anyone considering attending: unless you are drawn to highly abstract, nearly incomprehensible theater, I strongly caution you against this show. For the average, educated, thoughtful theatergoer, it is far more frustrating than fulfilling. In my opinion, this was the single most disappointing Broadway experience I've ever had - an unfortunate waste of money and, more importantly, of time.
Reposted by 🎃 🧟 Prof. Dr Beth Singler 👻 🎃
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 🎃 🧟 Prof. Dr Beth Singler 👻 🎃
mehdirhasan.bsky.social
This Reuters headline. Oof.

Fascism isn't 'coming.' It's HERE.
www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...
Reposted by 🎃 🧟 Prof. Dr Beth Singler 👻 🎃
Reposted by 🎃 🧟 Prof. Dr Beth Singler 👻 🎃
alexhanna.bsky.social
As an instructor, I'd rather see your fever dream, No Doze-fueled 4AM essays written at an IHOP rather than anything generated by an LLM.

Hope this helps
monkeyminion.com
I wrote a 15 page report on heraldic symbolism in medieval armor and weapon design for my art history class the night before it was due (8am class). Made up 90% of it (only found one book for reference) and got an A. GenAI could fucking never.
wrote 20 pages on Faulkner's The Bear four hours before final papers were due on trucker pills and coffee and cigarettes and got an A, fuck you.
You people couldn't hang with real slackers.
finn
wokeupchic • 4d
It's fuck Al till your homework due in 25 minutes
Reposted by 🎃 🧟 Prof. Dr Beth Singler 👻 🎃
Reposted by 🎃 🧟 Prof. Dr Beth Singler 👻 🎃
existentialcomics.com
The fact that everyone totally ignores C3PO when he says stuff like this makes a lot more sense if you think of him as a ChatGPT type computer who just says plausible sounding sentences without any real analysis behind them.
Reposted by 🎃 🧟 Prof. Dr Beth Singler 👻 🎃
kensey.bsky.social
I'm constantly reminded these days that people frequently insisted the Eliza chatbot *must* have some form of sentience to display such insight.
Reposted by 🎃 🧟 Prof. Dr Beth Singler 👻 🎃
esouthard.bsky.social
Also, “if there’s words, they were produced by a mind” is a hard instinct to break
bvlsingler.bsky.social
I have a journal article coming out that discusses a specific example of some GenAI professors and I am not so scared for my job as for the whole damn epistemic network!
Reposted by 🎃 🧟 Prof. Dr Beth Singler 👻 🎃
Reposted by 🎃 🧟 Prof. Dr Beth Singler 👻 🎃
mims.bsky.social
Humans evolved a cognitive 'social proof' system for establishing what's true (if enough of the people around me believe something, I'll go along) and media fragmentation + social media has completely and totally hijacked it

Feels like AI will only make this worse
lordbusinessman.bsky.social
"no in the future people will cryptographically verify what's true and-" no they will not. People are fucking stupid.
Reposted by 🎃 🧟 Prof. Dr Beth Singler 👻 🎃
jackstilgoe.bsky.social
A key question for the AI industry will be whether energy consumers see data centres as just infrastructure for their digital lives or an unnecessary indulgence for new AI
AI Data Centers Are Sending Power Bills Soaring
Wholesale electricity costs as much as 267% more than it did five years ago in areas near data centers. That’s being passed on to customers.
www.bloomberg.com