Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Mr John Robertson @robbotron.bsky.social · 2d

That’s a podcast!

But yes, wouldn’t it be good?

Mr John Robertson @robbotron.bsky.social · 3d

Making fun of extremists is just and good and most importantly, funny.

Their radicalisation is usually some version of feeling mocked or left out.

They’ll gussy it up sometimes, but mostly they weren’t invited to a party, or a pretty girl called them a loser once so now everyone else has to die.

5 35

Reposted by Mr John Robertson

Abby Normal @rememberingmachine.bsky.social · 3d

Thinking about the @lindsayellis.bsky.social video where she noted how white nationalists co-opted American history X and all these other “strong” critiques but can’t handle “Springtime for Hitler” because of how ridiculous it makes them look

Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · 3d

I’m telling you: ridicule works. These guys are supposed to intimidate the citizenry and it’s very hard to do that when a guy in a frog suit is just staring you down and daring you to do something that makes it look like you’re afraid of a cartoon

dan sinker @dansinker.com · 3d

Portland never stops being Portland.

6 140 690

Reposted by Mr John Robertson

dan sinker @dansinker.com · 3d

Portland never stops being Portland.

competentposter @competentposter.bsky.social · 4d

wizard frog is insane

170 1.5K 6.3K

Mr John Robertson @robbotron.bsky.social · 3d

It *is* specific, and probably needs vitamin c

1

Mr John Robertson @robbotron.bsky.social · 3d

“Science fiction in the grand tradition!”

6

Mr John Robertson @robbotron.bsky.social · 3d

I have discovered thanks to this message that Vitamin C cream exists and is stinky

1

Reposted by Mr John Robertson

flyingrodent @flyingrodent.bsky.social · 3d

What strikes you as more likely? That the whole country of seventy million people has unaccountably gone insane, or that maybe two thousand people who all know each other and work together, often in the same building, have slowly roasted each others’ brains to lunacy. www.ft.com/content/c7e4...

How polarised is Britain?

Behind media perceptions of a sharpening political divide is a more complicated picture

www.ft.com

8 47 220

Reposted by Mr John Robertson

Frames @oxinabox.bsky.social · 4d

as a girl with a PhD in natural language processing and machine learning it's actually offensive to me when you say "we don't know how LLMs work so they might be conscious"

I didn't spend 10 years in mines of academia to be told ignorance is morally equal knowledge.

We know exactly how LLMs work.

65 1.6K 5.7K

Mr John Robertson @robbotron.bsky.social · 3d

A gamechanger!

Eddie Robson @eddierobson.bsky.social · 3d

I didn't realise you could delete the Discovery feed because they don't call it deleting. You unpin it. But it's the same effect, it's gone and you don't accidentally click on it any more.

Kim Hu @kim-hu.com · 3d

I deleted that one from my feeds list so I’ll never ever accidentally click on it lol. It’s the bad place

1 2 16

Reposted by Mr John Robertson

Ash Higgins @ashhiggins.bsky.social · 5d

This. Is. Why. I. Paint.

"They're trying to convince people they can't do the things they've been doing easily for years - to write emails, to write a presentation. Your daughter wants you to make up a bedtime story about puppies - to write that for you." We will get to the point, she says with a grim laugh, "that you will essentially become just a skin bag of organs and bones, nothing else. You won't know anything and you will be told repeatedly that you can't do it, which is the opposite of what life has to offer. Capitulating all kinds of decisions like where to go on vacation, what to wear today, who to date, what to eat.
People are already doing this. You won't have to process grief, because you'll have uploaded photos and voice messages from your mother who just died, and then she can talk to you via Al video call every day. One of the ways it's going to destroy humans, long before there's a nuclear disaster, is going to be the emotional hollowing-out of people."

13 580 1.4K

Mr John Robertson @robbotron.bsky.social · 4d

Fun fact: a “Tilly Norwood” is old-timely sex slang for a made-up fuck that never happened. Derives from sailors paying to fingerbang seals in the Pacific (a “tilly” is where the seal pimp stores coins, “nor wood” suggests no penis can enter the seal.)

2 3 35

Reposted by Mr John Robertson

Duncan Jones @manmademoon.bsky.social · 5d

Knew this was coming.

Andrew Couts @couts.bsky.social · 5d

NEW: ICE is planning to hire a team of nearly 30 people to surveil social media 24/7, build dossiers on people, and flag them for arrest and deportation. @dell.bsky.social has the scoop: www.wired.com/story/ice-so...

ICE Wants to Build Out a 24/7 Social Media Surveillance Team

Documents show ICE plans to hire dozens of contractors to scan X, Facebook, TikTok, and other platforms to target people for deportation.

www.wired.com

36 76 230

Reposted by Mr John Robertson

bleary @bleary.off-the-records.com · 5d

We’re starting to forget, as a society, how to do parables and allegories. Everyone thinks they’re clever for asking “yes but WHY did the wolf want to blow down the little pig’s house?” but you lose the heart of the story if you give the wolf a backstory.

Anne Billson @annebillson.bsky.social · 5d

Some reviews of THE LONG WALK missing the point & complaining the world beyond the walk isn't sufficiently fleshed out. What more do they need to know? It's like demanding backstories for Boba Fett etc, endless details that dilute the original mysteries & preempt audiences' imaginations.

Anne Billson @annebillson.bsky.social · 6d

Went to see THE LONG WALK, you know, to relax. Which of course did not relax me AT ALL. Though, fun fact, I'd spoilered the ending for myself, but somehow got it wrong so the actual ending took me completely by surprise. Whole thrust of film pretty damn political. Hoffman & Jonsson both great.

5 6 31

Reposted by Mr John Robertson

Stephen Collins @stephencollins.bsky.social · 5d

[Scene is ANCIENT GREECE - where SOCRATES and PLATO and others are sitting round, thinking]

1
SOCRATES:
Plato..

PLATO:
Yes Socrates?

2
SOCRATES:
Can you tell me, are you human?

PLATO:
Why… yes, Socrates

3
SOCRATES:
And would you agree, Plato, that a human knows what a chariot is?

PLATO:
Um, yep

4
SOCRATES:
So you can tell me, then

5
[Socrates produces a papyrus, showing a drawing of the corner of a chariot wheel]

SOCRATES:
*Is that a chariot*?

6
PLATO:
Well
that’s more just a bit of wheel

7
SOCRATES:
So not a *chariot*.

PLATO:
No.

8
SOCRATES:
[Producing another papyrus with the full drawing of the chariot, chopped into boxes]

So if a man were challenged to “tap the boxes containing chariots to prove you’re human” when he was just trying to check his ClubCard points... *where could he tap*?

9
PLATO:
Well you can’t tap any of them really

10
SOCRATES:
So are we not human?

PLATO:
‘Spose not.

11
[Bleak pause]

12
PLATO:
I’ll get the hemlock

SOCRATES:
Yeah

[ends]

12 490 1.3K

Reposted by Mr John Robertson

Solaris Books @solarisbooks.bsky.social · 6d

Next week, 7pm 9th October, don't miss @aptshadow.bsky.social at Leeds Waterstones for a very special panel event on "Building Brilliant Worlds" alongside @rjbarker.bsky.social and
@davewragg.com in association with @britfantasysoc.bsky.social!

Tickets only £5! www.waterstones.com/events/panel...

1 17 38

Reposted by Mr John Robertson

Stew Hotston (he/him) @stewarthotston.com · 7d

I had the worst lunch. Honestly.

Maybe @bbcnewsnight.bsky.social could cover the rise in the far right, in racist attacks and, you know, the effect on millions of British people instead of platforming them every night

I'd settle for @theguardian.com doing even basic coverage of racism in the UK

Today I sat next to racists planning openly planning to murder people in a cafe

How have we come to a place where racists can openly talk about murdering people in public with no consequence?

stewarthotston.com

17 92 170

Reposted by Mr John Robertson

Alanna Smith @alannawrites.bsky.social · 7d

The language of non-consent around AI is really telling. "It's too late to be scared." "It's here whether we want it or not." "You'll have to learn to work with it." "You can't fight the inevitable."

All just variations of "you're not allowed to say no." Creepy technology made by creepy people.

The Guardian @theguardian.com · 7d

‘It’s too late to be scared’: readers on the controversial rise of AI ‘actors’

The birth of AI ‘actor’ Tilly Norwood has caused a backlash in Hollywood and has sparked conversation from Guardian readers

www.theguardian.com

49 1.6K 3.9K

Reposted by Mr John Robertson

James Ross @jamesrosscomedy.bsky.social · 7d

36th episode of the Quantum Leopard podcast w/ JOHN ROBERTSON @robbotron.bsky.social is now out! We talk about The Dark Room and audience consent. Enjoy!

quantumleopard.podbean.com/e/episode-35...

Episode 35: John Robertson | The Quantum Leopard Podcast

John Robertson is the closest you'll get to watching a catastrophic weather event without risk to your personal safety. Creator of award-winning show The Dark Room and a superb improv comic, John walk...

quantumleopard.podbean.com

1 4 13

Mr John Robertson @robbotron.bsky.social · 8d

Post a fictional comedian who would definitely accept an invitation to the Riyadh Comedy Festival

4 6 39

Reposted by Mr John Robertson

Luke Plunkett @lukeplunkett.com · 9d

people thinking the year itself was special, and not the fact you just happened to be young and had more friends/less responsibility at that specific time, will forever be wild to me

12 8 180

Mr John Robertson @robbotron.bsky.social · 10d

Face it, if you’re performing for a regime that murders journalists, you may as well do some hacky jokes

1 4 33

Reposted by Mr John Robertson

Eleanor Morton @eleanormorton.bsky.social · 11d

You can't joke about anything anymore. Because you signed a multi figure contract with the Saudi government that said they wouldn't pay you if you did.

41 1.1K 6.2K

Mr John Robertson @robbotron.bsky.social · 11d

I’ve got one of these. No, you don’t all bloody need one.

Dull, dehumanising shit

Shoaib M Khan @shoaibmkhan.bsky.social · 11d

Digital IDs are a terrible, dangerous idea for numerous reasons.

But, even on their own terms, what's the gap they're supposed to fill?

It seems many people don't realise that we already have eVisas. All migrants get this "digital record" of their status and permission anyway.

2 16

Reposted by Mr John Robertson

alyssa mercante @alyssamerc.bsky.social · 12d

I think it’s important and not discussed enough that the majority of the alt right gamersphere “leaders” are actually taking massive amounts of people’s money and delivering them nothing but endless rage for it.

4 260 1.2K