"a heady mix of old-fashioned hucksterism, plutocratic megalomania and utopian ideology"
"[GenAI] is truly phenomenal but flawed in ways that encode the deformed character of its progenitors"
"inflated ego of an industry that thinks it is just one more datacentre away from computational divinity"
"[GenAI] is truly phenomenal but flawed in ways that encode the deformed character of its progenitors"
"inflated ego of an industry that thinks it is just one more datacentre away from computational divinity"
When the AI bubble bursts, humans will finally have their chance to take back control | Rafael Behr
The US economy is pumped up on tech-bro vanity. The inevitable correction should prompt a global conversation, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behr
www.theguardian.com
December 23, 2025 at 3:52 PM
"a heady mix of old-fashioned hucksterism, plutocratic megalomania and utopian ideology"
"[GenAI] is truly phenomenal but flawed in ways that encode the deformed character of its progenitors"
"inflated ego of an industry that thinks it is just one more datacentre away from computational divinity"
"[GenAI] is truly phenomenal but flawed in ways that encode the deformed character of its progenitors"
"inflated ego of an industry that thinks it is just one more datacentre away from computational divinity"
Reposted by Greg Langmead
This piece by Michael Drout is outstanding. I have felt the "great black wave of anguish" of losing a child he describes; the disappointment that there was no eucatastrophe, no miracle that awful morning. Yet we still find hope amid sorrow.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/o...
#tolkien #lotr
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/o...
#tolkien #lotr
Opinion | Why I Keep Returning to Middle-Earth
www.nytimes.com
December 23, 2025 at 3:05 AM
This piece by Michael Drout is outstanding. I have felt the "great black wave of anguish" of losing a child he describes; the disappointment that there was no eucatastrophe, no miracle that awful morning. Yet we still find hope amid sorrow.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/o...
#tolkien #lotr
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/o...
#tolkien #lotr
To those who smh at AI haters who don't know the latest fascinating technical advances:
1. If 2023 quality was overhyped, that's a permanent sin, not redeemable by increasing quality.
2. We're not having a fundamentally technical conversation.
3. You sound like gun nuts hating on libs.
1. If 2023 quality was overhyped, that's a permanent sin, not redeemable by increasing quality.
2. We're not having a fundamentally technical conversation.
3. You sound like gun nuts hating on libs.
December 23, 2025 at 2:02 PM
To those who smh at AI haters who don't know the latest fascinating technical advances:
1. If 2023 quality was overhyped, that's a permanent sin, not redeemable by increasing quality.
2. We're not having a fundamentally technical conversation.
3. You sound like gun nuts hating on libs.
1. If 2023 quality was overhyped, that's a permanent sin, not redeemable by increasing quality.
2. We're not having a fundamentally technical conversation.
3. You sound like gun nuts hating on libs.
Reposted by Greg Langmead
Real Nazis didn't wear masks when they asked for your papers.
December 21, 2025 at 12:21 PM
Real Nazis didn't wear masks when they asked for your papers.
Reposted by Greg Langmead
Ouch! The most accurate standard of time in the USA may have gone down!
Yup, a bunch of atomic clocks at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Boulder, Colorado seem to have lost power.
(1/n)
Yup, a bunch of atomic clocks at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Boulder, Colorado seem to have lost power.
(1/n)
![Dear colleagues,
In short, the atomic ensemble time scale at our Boulder campus has failed due to a prolonged utility power outage. One impact is that the Boulder Internet Time Services no longer have an accurate time reference. At time of writing the Boulder servers are still available due a standby power generator, but I will attempt to disable them to avoid disseminating incorrect time.
The affected servers are:
time-a-b.nist.gov
time-b-b.nist.gov
time-c-b.nist.gov
time-d-b.nist.gov
time-e-b.nist.gov
ntp-b.nist.gov (authenticated NTP)
No time to repair estimate is available until we regain staff access and
power. Efforts are currently focused on obtaining an alternate source of
power so the hydrogen maser clocks survive beyond their battery backups.
More details follow.
Due to prolonged high wind gusts there have been a combination of utility power line damage and preemptive utility shutdowns (in the interest of wildfire prevention) in the Boulder, CO area. NIST's campus lost utility power Wednesday (Dec. 17 2025) around 22:23 UTC. At time of writing utility power is still off to the campus. Facility operators anticipated needing to shutdown the heat-exchange infrastructure providing air cooling to many parts of the building, including some internal networking closets. [....]
At initial power loss, there was no immediate impact to the NIST atomic
time scale or distribution services because the projects are afforded
standby power generators. However, we now have strong evidence one of the crucial generators has failed. In the downstream path is the primary signal distribution chain, including to the Boulder Internet Time Service. Another campus building houses additional clocks backed up by a different power generator; if these survive it will allow us to re-align the primary time scale when site stability returns without making use of external clocks or reference signals.
Best wishes,
-Jeff Sherman](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:fb5fjz7jxmbf3alhwh44ookd/bafkreicfacdabxxqyw77ujiuv2u6vow4vozmlmpgaeuemmxr422posq2ey@jpeg)
December 20, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Ouch! The most accurate standard of time in the USA may have gone down!
Yup, a bunch of atomic clocks at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Boulder, Colorado seem to have lost power.
(1/n)
Yup, a bunch of atomic clocks at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Boulder, Colorado seem to have lost power.
(1/n)
The Atlantic says not everyone we see in Epstein photos is guilty of the same crimes as he, or maybe of any. This is a perfect example of “a thing everyone knows already,” which is a shit topic for a piece of writing. cf: straw man.
https://apple.news/AR0VGfyRWRxiBMqeMR011nQ
https://apple.news/AR0VGfyRWRxiBMqeMR011nQ
December 19, 2025 at 10:51 PM
The Atlantic says not everyone we see in Epstein photos is guilty of the same crimes as he, or maybe of any. This is a perfect example of “a thing everyone knows already,” which is a shit topic for a piece of writing. cf: straw man.
https://apple.news/AR0VGfyRWRxiBMqeMR011nQ
https://apple.news/AR0VGfyRWRxiBMqeMR011nQ
I know plenty of people who have felt like David Brooks was on the level. I barely distinguish him from Douthat -- just another hierarchical theocrat. I'm the angry cynic, but right now it's looking like I'm right again, which, fuck.
December 19, 2025 at 12:34 PM
I know plenty of people who have felt like David Brooks was on the level. I barely distinguish him from Douthat -- just another hierarchical theocrat. I'm the angry cynic, but right now it's looking like I'm right again, which, fuck.
It's just like what Trump dumped on us all, and it has the same sentiment behind it. It separates us from each other, which is absolutely a goal. It's miserable to live with GenAI.
Funny animal videos no longer being trustworthy just fucking sucks all around. I love the wonder of animal behavior and what it says about the experience of being alive. It's because it happened in reality that it's so fun. It's not fun if it was just made up. There's no wonder there.
December 19, 2025 at 12:32 PM
It's just like what Trump dumped on us all, and it has the same sentiment behind it. It separates us from each other, which is absolutely a goal. It's miserable to live with GenAI.
Reposted by Greg Langmead
Funny animal videos no longer being trustworthy just fucking sucks all around. I love the wonder of animal behavior and what it says about the experience of being alive. It's because it happened in reality that it's so fun. It's not fun if it was just made up. There's no wonder there.
December 19, 2025 at 2:26 AM
Funny animal videos no longer being trustworthy just fucking sucks all around. I love the wonder of animal behavior and what it says about the experience of being alive. It's because it happened in reality that it's so fun. It's not fun if it was just made up. There's no wonder there.
“Be the dam against the slop.” How about a world without slop, please?
I see a lot of complaints about untested AI slop in pull requests. Submitting those is a dereliction of duty as a software engineer: Your job is to deliver code you have proven to work simonwillison.net/2025/Dec/18/...
Your job is to deliver code you have proven to work
In all of the debates about the value of AI-assistance in software development there’s one depressing anecdote that I keep on seeing: the junior engineer, empowered by some class of …
simonwillison.net
December 18, 2025 at 5:15 PM
“Be the dam against the slop.” How about a world without slop, please?
Reposted by Greg Langmead
If we are banning cell phones for kids we need to be talking about banning chatbots for boomers
www.persuasion.community/p/my-chatgpt...
www.persuasion.community/p/my-chatgpt...
December 17, 2025 at 4:38 PM
If we are banning cell phones for kids we need to be talking about banning chatbots for boomers
www.persuasion.community/p/my-chatgpt...
www.persuasion.community/p/my-chatgpt...
What a great point. I hate our cowboy strain.
"The notion that all elected officials have are their thoughts and prayers, regardless of by whom it is uttered, is a direct attack on the purpose of government itself."
snyder.substack.com/p/what-a-ter...
snyder.substack.com/p/what-a-ter...
What a terrible thing it is
Mass shootings as regime change
snyder.substack.com
December 17, 2025 at 6:08 PM
What a great point. I hate our cowboy strain.
Reddit, but when someone asks for advice every suggestion in the replies explicitly skips one or more criteria. Oops that’s just regular Reddit.
December 16, 2025 at 10:51 PM
Reddit, but when someone asks for advice every suggestion in the replies explicitly skips one or more criteria. Oops that’s just regular Reddit.
Here’s an accurate way to measure AI resource usage given how much is hidden: what they build. Is the data center going to be exclusively AI? Who knows. But they did not need this before and now they do. So more or less?
Mark Zuckerberg is building a data center in Louisiana that will use 3x more electricity than all of New Orleans.
Oligarchs want YOU to pay for these data centers with higher water & electric bills.
Americans must fight back against billionaires who put profits over people.
Oligarchs want YOU to pay for these data centers with higher water & electric bills.
Americans must fight back against billionaires who put profits over people.
December 16, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Here’s an accurate way to measure AI resource usage given how much is hidden: what they build. Is the data center going to be exclusively AI? Who knows. But they did not need this before and now they do. So more or less?
Reposted by Greg Langmead
Mark Zuckerberg is building a data center in Louisiana that will use 3x more electricity than all of New Orleans.
Oligarchs want YOU to pay for these data centers with higher water & electric bills.
Americans must fight back against billionaires who put profits over people.
Oligarchs want YOU to pay for these data centers with higher water & electric bills.
Americans must fight back against billionaires who put profits over people.
December 10, 2025 at 4:40 PM
Mark Zuckerberg is building a data center in Louisiana that will use 3x more electricity than all of New Orleans.
Oligarchs want YOU to pay for these data centers with higher water & electric bills.
Americans must fight back against billionaires who put profits over people.
Oligarchs want YOU to pay for these data centers with higher water & electric bills.
Americans must fight back against billionaires who put profits over people.
Reposted by Greg Langmead
If this GenAI is an "extinction event" then it's _known_ and _intended_ to be an extinction event. The repurposing of the source material, the mangling through a float network, and the interposing in front of other ways of using the web, can have done nothing else
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Google AI summaries are ruining the livelihoods of recipe writers: ‘It’s an extinction event’
AI Mode is mangling recipes by merging instructions from multiple creators – and causing them huge dips in ad traffic
www.theguardian.com
December 15, 2025 at 6:46 PM
If this GenAI is an "extinction event" then it's _known_ and _intended_ to be an extinction event. The repurposing of the source material, the mangling through a float network, and the interposing in front of other ways of using the web, can have done nothing else
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Fascinating critique here, and good comments so far as well. It's a little wobbly, I'm not convinced, but I will take a look at the proposed alternative (which is only barely sketched, I must say). medium.com/@redhotbits/...
TCA Architecture: A Glorified Antipattern
And no, MVVM is not the alternative
medium.com
December 15, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Fascinating critique here, and good comments so far as well. It's a little wobbly, I'm not convinced, but I will take a look at the proposed alternative (which is only barely sketched, I must say). medium.com/@redhotbits/...
Reposted by Greg Langmead
APP STORE: "This app is rejected. You must make that button 2px larger for the Buttons Standards Act."
DEV: "Okay, done. I also put in ads for a gambling app where the close button is a trick that actually burns your finger if you press it, but if you don't, your phone melts.
APP STORE: "Approved."
DEV: "Okay, done. I also put in ads for a gambling app where the close button is a trick that actually burns your finger if you press it, but if you don't, your phone melts.
APP STORE: "Approved."
December 15, 2025 at 7:14 AM
APP STORE: "This app is rejected. You must make that button 2px larger for the Buttons Standards Act."
DEV: "Okay, done. I also put in ads for a gambling app where the close button is a trick that actually burns your finger if you press it, but if you don't, your phone melts.
APP STORE: "Approved."
DEV: "Okay, done. I also put in ads for a gambling app where the close button is a trick that actually burns your finger if you press it, but if you don't, your phone melts.
APP STORE: "Approved."
“Remember that an AI girlfriend responding to your loneliness might just be a man in a Nairobi slum"
I'd like the world to get to a place where they respond to a story like this with "Duh!"
This gross stuff is the tech and the tech is this.
buttondown.com/maiht3k/arch...
I'd like the world to get to a place where they respond to a story like this with "Duh!"
This gross stuff is the tech and the tech is this.
buttondown.com/maiht3k/arch...
Report Reveals the Devastating Cost of AI Intimacy
Plus, what an uncanny customer service experience taught us about global systems of labor exploitation
buttondown.com
December 12, 2025 at 3:14 PM
“Remember that an AI girlfriend responding to your loneliness might just be a man in a Nairobi slum"
I'd like the world to get to a place where they respond to a story like this with "Duh!"
This gross stuff is the tech and the tech is this.
buttondown.com/maiht3k/arch...
I'd like the world to get to a place where they respond to a story like this with "Duh!"
This gross stuff is the tech and the tech is this.
buttondown.com/maiht3k/arch...
Reposted by Greg Langmead
At 17:00 UTC today I'm going to give a talk at the Topos Institute. You can watch it here!
youtube.com/watch?v=GzBV...
(1/n)
youtube.com/watch?v=GzBV...
(1/n)
John Baez: "Cospans of finite sets"
YouTube video by Topos Institute
youtube.com
December 11, 2025 at 1:40 PM
At 17:00 UTC today I'm going to give a talk at the Topos Institute. You can watch it here!
youtube.com/watch?v=GzBV...
(1/n)
youtube.com/watch?v=GzBV...
(1/n)
I think the protagonist should consider a more emphatic gather-ye-rosebuds angle:
Well the fire is still goodbying,
And my dear we're slowly dying...
Well the fire is still goodbying,
And my dear we're slowly dying...
December 11, 2025 at 12:13 AM
I think the protagonist should consider a more emphatic gather-ye-rosebuds angle:
Well the fire is still goodbying,
And my dear we're slowly dying...
Well the fire is still goodbying,
And my dear we're slowly dying...
I cherry-pick Talbott quotes because he has so many apt ones that have grown on me over the 30 years since I met his writing. But just so yinz know, I saved his worst quotes as well. Here's one that says "I despise Greg": "how many students of mathematics still look to the night sky with wonder?"
December 10, 2025 at 3:13 AM
I cherry-pick Talbott quotes because he has so many apt ones that have grown on me over the 30 years since I met his writing. But just so yinz know, I saved his worst quotes as well. Here's one that says "I despise Greg": "how many students of mathematics still look to the night sky with wonder?"
"Our experiment with the computer consists of the effort to discover every possible aspect of the human mind that can be expressed or echoed mechanically – simulated by a machine – and then to reconstruct society around those aspects." - Stephen Talbott, "The Future Does Not Compute"
December 10, 2025 at 3:05 AM
"Our experiment with the computer consists of the effort to discover every possible aspect of the human mind that can be expressed or echoed mechanically – simulated by a machine – and then to reconstruct society around those aspects." - Stephen Talbott, "The Future Does Not Compute"
I find this interesting both because of the fallacy Dan Verssen has fallen into, which is a common one, and because there seems to be plenty of pushback out there as well, which warms my heart. It's not just tech, it has sins baked into its floats.
Then don't make the game. It's a simple as that.
If a game needs to use a plagiarism machine to exist, it doesn't need to exist.
If a game needs to use a plagiarism machine to exist, it doesn't need to exist.
December 10, 2025 at 1:46 AM
I find this interesting both because of the fallacy Dan Verssen has fallen into, which is a common one, and because there seems to be plenty of pushback out there as well, which warms my heart. It's not just tech, it has sins baked into its floats.