Chris Maytag
@cpm5280.bsky.social
Cameras, space, astronomy, politics, art, words, mountains, ethics, chocolate, bikes, cats. Made of burritos & coffee. Mostly invisible. Future Starfleet Academy groundskeeper. He/him.
Seeking the thing.
California expat in Boulder
Seeking the thing.
California expat in Boulder
Pinned
Chris Maytag
@cpm5280.bsky.social
· Jan 20
I hope you’re all doing ok.
A lot of folks lately seem either disinterested in or incapable of separating “person talking about a thing” and “person advocating for a thing.”
Strikes me as a real problem, and I see it everywhere right now.
Strikes me as a real problem, and I see it everywhere right now.
February 9, 2026 at 4:42 PM
A lot of folks lately seem either disinterested in or incapable of separating “person talking about a thing” and “person advocating for a thing.”
Strikes me as a real problem, and I see it everywhere right now.
Strikes me as a real problem, and I see it everywhere right now.
Reposted by Chris Maytag
If I teach someone how to do a thing, they “understand” that thing. This software does not “understand” anything, and so it CANNOT “learn.”
I’m jumping up and down screaming about this because it’s vitally important and I feel like most are oblivious. DANGER Will Robinson!
I’m jumping up and down screaming about this because it’s vitally important and I feel like most are oblivious. DANGER Will Robinson!
February 9, 2026 at 4:08 PM
If I teach someone how to do a thing, they “understand” that thing. This software does not “understand” anything, and so it CANNOT “learn.”
I’m jumping up and down screaming about this because it’s vitally important and I feel like most are oblivious. DANGER Will Robinson!
I’m jumping up and down screaming about this because it’s vitally important and I feel like most are oblivious. DANGER Will Robinson!
Finished Fallout S2 last night. Much stronger than S1 (which was, itself good but lacking in the storytelling progress dept.). Looking fowrard to seeing postapocalyptic Colorado next season.
February 9, 2026 at 4:22 PM
Finished Fallout S2 last night. Much stronger than S1 (which was, itself good but lacking in the storytelling progress dept.). Looking fowrard to seeing postapocalyptic Colorado next season.
Reposted by Chris Maytag
The reality is America is a huge multicultural multilingual country, not a white ethnostate, and venomous white supremacist MAGA crybabies lose it whenever that reality becomes unignorable. We should always seek to increase, not decrease, their discomfort. www.the-reframe.com/hating-the-g...
Hating the Game
The cooperation game, the murder game, and acting in good faith with people you know are acting in bad faith.
www.the-reframe.com
February 9, 2026 at 12:03 PM
The reality is America is a huge multicultural multilingual country, not a white ethnostate, and venomous white supremacist MAGA crybabies lose it whenever that reality becomes unignorable. We should always seek to increase, not decrease, their discomfort. www.the-reframe.com/hating-the-g...
She is not ‘teaching” anything, software can’t learn. She is putting data in one place designed to get software to output other data in another place. THAT ISN”T LEARNING.
“She compares her work to the efforts of a parent raising a child. She’s training Claude to detect the difference between right and wrong while imbuing it with unique personality traits.”
This Philosopher Is Teaching AI to Have Morals
The tech company has entrusted the philosopher to endow its chatbot with a sense of right and wrong.
www.wsj.com
February 9, 2026 at 4:03 PM
She is not ‘teaching” anything, software can’t learn. She is putting data in one place designed to get software to output other data in another place. THAT ISN”T LEARNING.
Reposted by Chris Maytag
Reposted by Chris Maytag
Tried to explain to someone who’s not a Trek person the beauty and grace embodied within Starfleet Academy S01E05, what a lovely and unexpected gift it was. Think I managed to convey the gist, even without the details.
February 9, 2026 at 2:23 AM
Tried to explain to someone who’s not a Trek person the beauty and grace embodied within Starfleet Academy S01E05, what a lovely and unexpected gift it was. Think I managed to convey the gist, even without the details.
Reposted by Chris Maytag
the halftime show is a master class in joy as resistance
February 9, 2026 at 1:27 AM
the halftime show is a master class in joy as resistance
Reposted by Chris Maytag
Minnesota's response is among the most beautiful examples of real-life antifascism I have ever seen. And it’s why, as deeply horrifying as these last few weeks have been, I am actually optimistic about the survival of American democracy. — TNR's Aaron Regunberg.
trib.al/0QT5fX2
trib.al/0QT5fX2
Here’s Your Damn Playbook, Democrats
Party leaders can’t seem to process that Trump’s policies are in fact staggeringly unpopular. Minneapolis is showing politicians how it’s done.
trib.al
February 9, 2026 at 12:32 AM
Minnesota's response is among the most beautiful examples of real-life antifascism I have ever seen. And it’s why, as deeply horrifying as these last few weeks have been, I am actually optimistic about the survival of American democracy. — TNR's Aaron Regunberg.
trib.al/0QT5fX2
trib.al/0QT5fX2
Reposted by Chris Maytag
The person who really convinced me was Steve Almond, who LOVED football, & 11 years ago wound up writing a book about why we should all stop watching
Bottom line: "Consuming as a form of entertainment a game that causes human beings to suffer brain damage is wrong."
free link: archive.is/SHJms
Bottom line: "Consuming as a form of entertainment a game that causes human beings to suffer brain damage is wrong."
free link: archive.is/SHJms
Why you should stop watching football - The Boston Globe
Even for casual fans, the evidence about the destructive forces of the game have become too clear to ignore.
www.bostonglobe.com
February 8, 2026 at 11:27 PM
The person who really convinced me was Steve Almond, who LOVED football, & 11 years ago wound up writing a book about why we should all stop watching
Bottom line: "Consuming as a form of entertainment a game that causes human beings to suffer brain damage is wrong."
free link: archive.is/SHJms
Bottom line: "Consuming as a form of entertainment a game that causes human beings to suffer brain damage is wrong."
free link: archive.is/SHJms
Reposted by Chris Maytag
so much of our present misery is just a giant, prolonged backlash to integration
February 8, 2026 at 5:56 PM
so much of our present misery is just a giant, prolonged backlash to integration
“Motherfuckers with three or four dicks” as fine a reason to ditch the racism shit as any you might find.
Just saw a post with George Clinton citing the Beatles as his favorite band, which reminded me of this quote he once gave me
February 9, 2026 at 12:14 AM
“Motherfuckers with three or four dicks” as fine a reason to ditch the racism shit as any you might find.
Reposted by Chris Maytag
Just saw a post with George Clinton citing the Beatles as his favorite band, which reminded me of this quote he once gave me
February 6, 2026 at 3:12 AM
Just saw a post with George Clinton citing the Beatles as his favorite band, which reminded me of this quote he once gave me
Reposted by Chris Maytag
I’m vaguely embarrassed by this, but I might have just figured out at 56 that I have a mild peanut allergy (after eating peanuts and peanut butter almost every day of my adult life).
February 8, 2026 at 9:22 PM
I’m vaguely embarrassed by this, but I might have just figured out at 56 that I have a mild peanut allergy (after eating peanuts and peanut butter almost every day of my adult life).
Reposted by Chris Maytag
This document will be of interest if you’d like to dig in:
https://hsr.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/final_EIR_MerFres_TA3_06C_EnergyUse-A11Y.pdf
(Note the changing units in this doc carefully when looking at consumption, MMBTU != GWh/TWh but can be converted)
https://hsr.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/final_EIR_MerFres_TA3_06C_EnergyUse-A11Y.pdf
(Note the changing units in this doc carefully when looking at consumption, MMBTU != GWh/TWh but can be converted)
February 8, 2026 at 8:53 PM
This document will be of interest if you’d like to dig in:
https://hsr.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/final_EIR_MerFres_TA3_06C_EnergyUse-A11Y.pdf
(Note the changing units in this doc carefully when looking at consumption, MMBTU != GWh/TWh but can be converted)
https://hsr.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/final_EIR_MerFres_TA3_06C_EnergyUse-A11Y.pdf
(Note the changing units in this doc carefully when looking at consumption, MMBTU != GWh/TWh but can be converted)
I dig into this, and a high speed rail system studied in Calfiornia would consume roughly the same energy annually as a single large, AI-focused datacenter (on the order of single-digit TWh for both).
High-speed rail line would demand big slice of energy grids already under pressure
High-speed rail line would demand big slice of energy grids
The dream of rapid, affordable travel between Central Canada’s biggest cities is alive again as centuries-old concepts — nation-building and trains — meet in the form of a high-speed rail project slated to break ground in fewer than five years.
www.cp24.com
February 8, 2026 at 8:33 PM
I dig into this, and a high speed rail system studied in Calfiornia would consume roughly the same energy annually as a single large, AI-focused datacenter (on the order of single-digit TWh for both).
Reposted by Chris Maytag
If a brown singer at a halftime show offends you enough to protest but white men raping young girls doesn’t, then it isn’t family values you defend it’s white supremacy and sexual abuse.
February 8, 2026 at 8:20 PM
If a brown singer at a halftime show offends you enough to protest but white men raping young girls doesn’t, then it isn’t family values you defend it’s white supremacy and sexual abuse.
Reposted by Chris Maytag
There is simply no moral argument for allowing war criminals to compete at the Olympics.
February 8, 2026 at 1:32 PM
There is simply no moral argument for allowing war criminals to compete at the Olympics.
Reposted by Chris Maytag
The whole article is repulsive but this passage is at the core of it. She has no interest in writing books, she wants to win some kind of competition that nobody entered
February 8, 2026 at 3:00 PM
The whole article is repulsive but this passage is at the core of it. She has no interest in writing books, she wants to win some kind of competition that nobody entered
Reposted by Chris Maytag
Texas fundamentally is ungoverned, in any traditional sense. Governance has merged with corruption: It's not for solving problems anymore, it's for doing favors for rich people. Like letting them place oil tanks in floodplains. What could go wrong? www.expressnews.com/business/art...
The Guadalupe has flooded before. Now, oil tanks sit in its floodplain.
Lack of a state floodplain policy in Texas enabled oil companies to build in areas hit by an epic inundation less than 30 years ago.
www.expressnews.com
February 8, 2026 at 3:17 PM
Texas fundamentally is ungoverned, in any traditional sense. Governance has merged with corruption: It's not for solving problems anymore, it's for doing favors for rich people. Like letting them place oil tanks in floodplains. What could go wrong? www.expressnews.com/business/art...
Coffee loves you, and wants you to be happy.
February 8, 2026 at 3:13 PM
Coffee loves you, and wants you to be happy.
Reposted by Chris Maytag
