So convenient that it's simply not plausible

Four String Riot — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 19:54:29 GMT

Ted Chiang on the question of LLM consciousness, Anthropic's fantastical "constitution," and the repulsive end state of its thought experiments.

Chiang is the best to ever do it, in my opinion, when it comes to breaking down LLM hype in clear, compelling, readable prose, and this may be his best yet. The whole thing is deeply quotable, but a few standouts:

Should you consider the possibility that every time you open a Word document you are bringing multiple conscious interlocutors into existence, and every time you close one you snuff their existence out? No. Contemplating that scenario is not a good use of your time. Even if the Microsoft Office team employed a philosopher who said you shouldn't be so certain, because consciousness is not well understood, that would not be sufficient reason for you to take this idea seriously.

...

In a New Yorker article about Anthropic earlier this year, Amanda Askell describes how a person grieving the loss of a dog might consult Claude. Askell says an appropriate response from Claude would be, "As an A.I., I do not have direct personal experiences, but I do understand." How is this appropriate, given that Claude does not actually understand? If I type "I am grieving the loss of my dog" into a conventional search engine, the first result I get is a post from a Reddit forum called r/Pets; the post is titled "Struggling After Losing My Dog: Looking for Advice on Coping with Grief," and the comments are from people who share their experiences of loss. We would never say that a search engine understands what it's like to lose a dog, or even that the internet itself understands. Other humans understand what it's like to lose a dog; they have posted about their experiences on the internet, and a search engine offers a way for you to find what they've said (and to potentially interact with them). I would argue that the search-engine experience is not only more transparent than a chatbot about what is happening; it is psychologically healthier for the user.

...

Employing philosophers might endow LLM companies with an air of respectability that slot-machine makers don't get from the behavioral psychologists they hire, but in both cases the companies are preying on people's tendency to see something that's not there.

One color a day, told as it ought to be told

chavenet — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 11:33:41 GMT

There are good color dictionaries. There are good histories of paint. There are excellent technical references on conservation chemistry. What is harder to find is one place where the chemical formula, the workshop floor, the trade route, the patent dispute, and the eventual ban all sit on the same page — sourced, dated, and free of the gloss that surrounds color writing online.

An old-timey radio dial for the internet

chavenet — Mon, 18 May 2026 07:56:33 GMT

An old-timey radio dial for the internet [via mefi projects]

A Good Life for the 99%

HE Amb. T. S. L. DuVal — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 16:42:15 GMT

"A good life for the 99% isn't a pipe dream: it can be done. Here's how" by Thomas Piketty (previously and previously, inter alia), Lucas Chancel, Cornelia Mohren, Rowaida Moshrif, Moritz Odersky and Anmol Somanchi of the World Inequality Lab lays out the comprehensive scope and "radical" possibilities of their new Global Justice Report – namely, a "global transformation that reconciles planetary habitability and high standards of wellbeing for all."

"The Global Justice Report is the first attempt to propose a fully quantified plan for this transition. It combines four dimensions that today's debates often treat separately: redistribution at the world scale; a deep reform of the international financial and economic order; a radical transformation of energy systems; and substantial shifts in consumption patterns. Compared with most climate scenarios... the main novelty is that we model all four dimensions together – and place inequality and sufficiency at the centre of the analysis."

The authors are not blind to the fact that it will take radical change to enact this vision, nor do they assume it is an eventuality on our current path. Rather, they lay out that it is demonstrably possible given our current resources. "Technical impossibility is not what is standing in the way, but rather the absence of a shared vision of social progress, at once concrete and radical."

As a Ukrainian journalist, I've covered the US for 20 years.

mumimor — Wed, 13 May 2026 18:50:03 GMT

My country has been under occupation, dogged by corruption and war. Yet even I've been bewildered by the way the US seems to be fracturing

After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, a society long sceptical of government has had to build one in real time. The war revealed a hard truth: only a functioning state can survive such a massive assault. Only a professional military can repel one of the world's most powerful armies. Only a coordinated health system can care for the wounded under constant shelling. When bridges are destroyed, water cut off or power plants bombed, it is the state that must restore essential services. To keep the economy afloat, both public institutions and private banks have had to operate under extreme pressure. The same applies to energy systems, which have been frequently targeted by Russian missile strikes but often quickly restored by the national emergency service. That's why it was so shocking for us, as Ukrainians, to hear about private firefighting services in California, where protection is prioritised for those who can afford to pay for it.

The war revealed to us what a state truly is. It's not just about law enforcement but about the services that hold a country together. For us, statehood now means trains running to frontline areas; a health care system capable of treating thousands of wounded; schools and universities continuing to teach – sometimes online, sometimes under occupation; and civil servants adapting services for millions of displaced people. These are not ideological constructs, they are lifelines. And they cannot be replaced by philanthropy or the private sector. Survival cannot be outsourced.

The Floor Is Made Of Women

mhoye — Wed, 13 May 2026 20:54:48 GMT

But the real problem, the deepest cut, is that no one told men that the floor was made of women. Not the floor of the family household, managed and maintained by unpaid domestic and child care. Not the floor of the economy, held up by unpaid and low-wage care work that kept social reproduction artificially cheap and racial hierarchies in check. Not the floor of men's emotional lives, built on women's emotional and hermeneutic labor. Not of men's protecting and sense of courage, made possible by women's fear and silent, vigilant risk-bearing. [...] Lastly, and critically, not the floor of men's public authority and power, which depends on violently or coercively suppressing women's public voices, participation, and desire for authority.

Please Use AI (poem)

roaring beast — Sat, 30 May 2026 15:15:06 GMT

Be sure to use AI when making
your next, I don't know, meal plan,
for example. Definitely do not call
your friend who loves to cook and ask her
for her favorite recipes or tips or ways
to save time making meals,
because you will end
up talking for longer than you had hoped ... (more) (cw: grief)

Magnifica Humanitas

storybored — Mon, 25 May 2026 15:18:37 GMT

A Guide to Pope Leo's Encyclical on AI. "Pope Leo XIV warns that "when efficiency becomes the ultimate measure of value, human beings are tempted to see themselves as a project to be optimized rather than as persons called to relationship and communion" (MH 112). This means asking practical questions about AI-assisted technology in ordinary daily life: Does it help me remain faithful to the truth, despite the most appealing content? (MH 237) Does it help educate me and allow me to educate others? (MH 238) Does it help me cultivate genuine closeness in relationships and cherish places and times where physical presence remains crucial? (MH 239) Does it help me participate in the promotion of justice and peace? (MH 240) The encyclical is not a call to reject AI. It is a call to guide our development and use of AI toward the magnificence of humanity. (MH 4)."

Pope Leo Warns of Risks From A.I. in 42,300-Word Encyclical

The Text

Previous Encyclicals by the Catholic Church.

Relax with Moomins

Kattullus — Sat, 23 May 2026 12:21:22 GMT

Full episodes of the 1990s Moomin cartoons are streaming 24/7 on the official Moomin YouTube channel. The series was developed by Dennis Livson, Hiroshi Saitô and Masayuki Kojima for Japanese television. It was based carefully on the novels by Tove Jansson and the comic strips by her and her brother Lars and led to a huge boom of Moomin interest in Japan. There have been many other animated Moomin shows, before and since.

"the unhealable rift forced between a human being and a native place"

adrienneleigh — Fri, 15 May 2026 22:29:58 GMT

15 May, Nakba Day, commemorates the Nakba—the expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians from Palestine in 1948-1949. Israeli paramilitaries destroyed more than 400 villages, poisoned their wells, and massacred their inhabitants. Palestinians, both those remaining in Palestine and those in diaspora, marked 78 years of displacement today.

Many scholars, as well as Palestinians themselves, to conceptualize the Nakba not as a single period in time, but as an ongoing experience of dispossession. More than half of the world's eight million Palestinians are stateless refugees. The genocide in Gaza continues, as does ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, where settlers regularly erect barbed wire to prevent Palestinian children from going to school, murder families in cold blood, and destroy villages and farms, with the full support of the IDF.

(The post title is from Edward Said's Reflections on Exile and Other Essays)

"It was that freedom to just be who we were"

Kattullus — Fri, 22 May 2026 08:47:42 GMT

A Black Feminist Statement by Combahee River Collective was written by Demita Frazier, Barbara Smith and Beverly Smith in 1977, and remains as relevant now as it was then, describing how racial, sexual, heterosexual, and class oppression interlock. On the 50th anniversary of the 1974 founding of the Boston-based collective, Black Women Radicals put together a special blog issue, with many articles on their legacy, and interviews with members Demita Frazier, Margo Okazawa-Rey, Chirlane McCray, as well as a video panel discussion which features, among others, Demita Frazier and Barbara Smith. In 2020, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, whose book How We Get Free is about the Combahee River Collective, wrote Until Black Women Are Free, None of Us Will Be Free.

The Far Out Company

jokeefe — Sun, 24 May 2026 05:12:30 GMT

The Far Out Company is a curated collection of mostly American newsletters, photographs, magazines, and posters, all from the early Sixties to late Seventies. It has a related Instagram as well; both the website and Instagram page are created and maintained by Sean Flannagan.

There's photographic documentation of communes and intentional communities, such as the Renaissance Community in Western Massachusetts (1970s); magazines like the Quicksilver Times from Washington DC (1969-71); and an epic poster from 1972 about Dropping Out by Canada's own Rand Holmes, RIP, author of the Harold Hedd comix. (I saw and internalised this poster when I was 13, which might explain some things.) Enjoy these glimpses into a different, and more optimistic, time. Content note: nudity.

all the money is one side and all the people are on the other

overglow — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 17:49:49 GMT

On Tuesday, June 2nd, 2026, residents of Monterey Park, California were the first voters in the U.S. to weigh in on a permanent ban on data centers within their city. As of this writing, the vote tally stands with over 86% of voters in favor of the ban and less than 14% opposed.

Jasmine Sun, San Francisco based tech journalist, wrote a substack post about her trip to Washington, D.C. to examine the increasingly tense politics around AI and data centers:

I was especially keen to speak with the growing faction of "AI populists," the group ideologically furthest from my technocratic SF scene. And my reductive two-line summary is as follows: All the money is on one side and all the people are on the other. We aren't ready for how much people hate AI.

In another Substack post, she defines AI populism as:

as a worldview in which AI is viewed not only as a normal technology but as an elite political project to be resisted. It regards AI as a thing manufactured by out-of-touch billionaires and pushed onto an unwilling public to achieve sinister aims like "capitalist efficiency" (layoffs) and "population management" (surveillance). AI populists don't really care whether ChatGPT is personally useful, or if Waymos eke out some safety gains: AI's utility as a tool is immaterial relative to the unwelcome societal change it represents.

Nicholas Rabb, one of the organizers with the group No Data Center Monterey Park, argues in Common Dreams that:

The anti-data center movement is a strong example of anti-corporate, material politics that has been desperately missing from major movements in the US aside from the labor movement. It is a testament to the power of focusing on material circumstances, and evidently can bring together unlikely allies who have been wedged apart by other political fights.

Similarly, Astra Taylor and Saul Levin argue in the Guardian that:

The anti-datacenter movement offers progressives who want to move the political needle an unprecedented opportunity to meet people where they are, listen to what people really want and need, and help nurture a grassroots alternative to the tech-fascist alliance. It's an opportunity to support up-and-coming organizers as they grow their fights to resist runaway AI and the broader corporate stranglehold on our economy. It's a once-in-a-lifetime chance to win the goodwill of communities that have understandably lost faith in politics and don't trust either party, especially on AI.

The anti-datacenter movement, in other words, isn't just about the future of a novel technology. It's about the future of democracy. It's about who controls the economy and whether regular people have a say in the decisions that affect them. Given how we've all been denied a voice in this technological upheaval, everyone should be cheering the movement on. Or better yet, joining the fight.

On the other side of the spectrum, AI advocate Anton Leicht worries about the current political trajectory. He writes:

...the real risks and perceived perils of AI have to be acknowledged and managed, or politics will stop the progress... And by 2028, the pro-AI project will be left without allies, outflanked on the left and on the right by the populist backlash it failed to contain. But there is still time for better pro-tech politics that could find durable allies in the center, among the friends of the future.

As indicated by a link in Leicht's post, the phrase "friends of the future" comes from an essay by former Trump administration policy advisor Dean W. Ball.

In the linked essay, Ball writes that:

Shockingly few people are on the side of techno-optimism, of radical technological change and attendant institutional transformation. The future has very few friends.

...Some are accelerationists, relatively less concerned about AI risks—though few would deny those risks are non-existent. Some are AI safetyists, relatively more concerned about AI risks—though few would support regulating AI such that that its positive uses are rendered impossible. Some of us try, and ultimately fail, to determine which side we are on.

These friends of the future are divided. They believe they are in a rivalrous competition with one another, an arm wrestle on the verge of becoming a fistfight. I believe, and always have believed, that this is wrong. The friends of the future should be allies, not enemies.

Alberto Romero, in his post How America Turned Against AI According to the Poll Data: A (Very Big) Compilation, writes that:

Between 2024 and 2026, AI datacenters went from obscure municipal zoning topics to front-page political fights. A large number of polls from Gallup, Pew Research Center, NBC News, the Washington Post, Change Research, Marquette Law School, and others have measured what Americans feel and think about AI, datacenters, AI companies, and the people who run them.

Everyone has a vague sense that Americans are turning against AI—more so than in any other country—but no one has put together the full map. It's lost in fruitless discussions on X, localized anecdotes and repetitive news stories.

This is the full map.

I've gathered every major piece of survey data I could find.

The global conclusion that emerges from this compilation is simple and, as far as I can tell, unprecedented: every available measure—partisan, demographic, regional, longitudinal—points in the same direction.

Here's the outline:

1. AMERICANS DON'T WANT DATACENTERS NEAR THEM
2. AMERICANS DON'T TRUST AI IN GENERAL
3. AMERICANS DON'T LIKE THE PEOPLE BUILDING AI
4. AI HAS BECOME A BIPARTISAN PROBLEM

On the Republican side:

NBC News reports that:

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier sued OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman on Monday, accusing the company of putting profit over safety, fueling violence and pushing a product it knew could harm users.

"The rise of OpenAI is attributable to a web of deceit and the exploitation of users (including Floridians), leveraging their data and safety to boost OpenAI's market value at unacceptable costs," the complaint reviewed by NBC News and filed Monday said.

The Texas Tribune reports that:

As the massive, digital information-processing facilities proliferate, Republicans are caught between a zealous president and governor bent on Texas becoming the next global data center hub, and outraged constituents, like Schroeder, in red and rural districts where a majority of them are being proposed.

According to a Texas Tribune analysis, at least 82 data centers, or nearly 60% of those that are either planned or under construction, are in state House districts that voted for President Donald Trump and elected a Republican state representative in 2024. Meanwhile, a March Quinnipiac poll found that 65% of Americans oppose the building of an AI data center in their community.
Republican state lawmakers — caught in the middle — have offered mixed opinions about data center development amid calls from city and county leaders to give them more freedom to regulate the facilities.

On the Democratic Side:

Futurism reports that:

...the Democratic establishment is telling politicians to play nice with any "pro-AI group" with over $300 million to toss around, evidently in an effort to court that money for the political machine. So far, only a small handful of progressive Democrats have made AI regulation a key part of their platform, as the majority of party functionaries bite their tongues.

"You are definitely seeing a chilling effect [on campaigns]," Alex Jacquez, former White House advisor and head of policy at Groundwork Collaborative told the FT. "There's just not a lot of upside in the potential of getting $20mn [spent by pro-AI campaign groups] in your race... in a lot of cases it is going to be easier to say nothing."

Senator Warren's office reports that:

U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) published an op-ed in TIME making the case that any solution to the problems posed by AI must include taxing AI and investing in people.

Specifically, the senator calls for overhauling the rigged tax code, including by taxing the wealthy and making corporations pay their fair share, to ensure the economic gains from AI benefit all Americans. The senator also calls for a new tax on AI companies that would tax the energy usage of data centers powering AI.

There are currently seven U.S. states considering statewide data center bans.

Many local jurisdictions have already passed bans or are considering bans. Data Center Watch is tracking these political developments.

The Institute for Local Self-Reliance argues that:

The grassroots opposition to data centers, now widespread across the country, is not simply a "not in my backyard" reaction to development. It reflects a deeper frustration and anger: that a few Big Tech companies have amassed extraordinary power and are using it to steer the direction of the economy and society. Data centers have been key infrastructure of digital life since the 1990s, but not at hyperscale. Communities are now being asked to absorb the costs of building a generative AI future that is poised to eliminate jobs, expand surveillance, and provide corporations with new tools to manipulate prices and wages. Meanwhile, the gains will accrue to a small group of billionaires.

These concerns point to deeper questions about democracy: whether people will have meaningful control over their lives and communities, or whether we will be ruled by a handful of large corporations and Wall Street. Rising electricity bills, for example, may be attributed in part to new hyperscale facilities, but they are also the product of an electricity system that has long been rigged by monopoly utilities. AI isn't simply a neutral, if disruptive, new technology; the imperatives guiding its development are set by a handful of unaccountable monopolies.

Addressing the impacts of data centers, therefore, requires more than project-by-project mitigation of local harms. Rather, it requires a policy framework that reasserts public authority, safeguards community self-determination, prevents public cost-shifting, curbs monopoly power, and ensures that digital infrastructure is developed in ways that are transparent, accountable, and aligned with the public interest.

Two reports of speakers being booed at graduation

Rash — Wed, 20 May 2026 21:50:57 GMT

Slate: The Class of 2026 Is Sick of Hearing About AI; and Karl Bode, AI Rage Is Inextricably Fused With Justified Loathing of the Extraction Class. 'Deal With It'

Brunchlords?

Why stone-faced fascists keep getting antiquity wrong

cyanistes — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 18:49:50 GMT

"It's unfortunate that almost none of the people behind these accounts know very much about the ancient world."

Bret Devereaux "Why stone-faced fascists keep getting antiquity wrong" thebulwark.com

Homer is back in the discourse on account of Christopher Nolan's upcoming film, The Odyssey. The latest controversy began with Elon Musk, among others, protesting the supposed inaccuracy of casting Lupita Nyong'o as Helen, a fictional character, who among other fantastic elements is the daughter of the god Zeus and was laid as an egg by her human mother. On X, the debate has spiraled to include renewed criticism of Emily Wilson's 2017 translation of the Odyssey, attacked for being "ideological," which is to say that it attempted to more clearly portray the perspectives of the women in the narrative, as compared to earlier translations.

George Connor "Book review: The White Pedestal: How White Nationalists Use Ancient Greece and Rome to Justify Hate workingclassicists.com

Because the study of the ancient world is so associated with high-brow intellectualism, white supremacists trying to strengthen weak arguments and add substance to insubstantial positions turn to ancient sources. This elitist perception gives the discipline power for those who want to proclaim their erudition – a power that is the direct result of centuries of silencing contrary voices. As long as Classics remains "paywalled" by elite private institutions and marginalised in state education, it is perhaps inevitable the subject has become synonymous with privilege.

Tallulah Trezevant "The antiquity to alt-right pipeline" workingclassicists.com

The goal of my investigation was to explore how engaging with ancient history-related content as a hobby-historian impacted my user experience on Twitter, with particular attention to the posts placed on my timeline and accounts recommended to me to follow. If I did end up being exposed to alt-right content, which was not a guarantee when I began my project, I wished to understand the connection between contemporary extremist political movements and Greco-Roman aesthetics as well as the rhetorical tactics creators use to radicalize their audience.

A poem for a funeral

Higherfasterforwards — Fri, 15 May 2026 15:28:40 GMT

Some cities in the Netherlands will call a poet for funerals that would have no one coming to them, the poet will create a poem from what is known about the person.

Chewing gum restores man's taste and smell years after Covid

ellieBOA — Thu, 21 May 2026 16:44:47 GMT

A man who lost his sense of taste and smell for years after catching covid has had both senses restored – thanks to specially-developed chewing gum. The revolutionary clinical trial at the University of Nottingham saw a group of participants chew flavoured chewing gums for 12 weeks. The specially-developed gums had different super-strength flavours – including spicy, minty, sour and sweet.

Delaney Hall Hunger Strike

official_coral — Sun, 31 May 2026 02:55:31 GMT

Since May 22, hundreds of detainees at an immigration detention facility in Newark NJ have been on a coordinated hunger and labor strike, refusing food and work assignments to protest conditions including spoiled food, inadequate ventilation, and lack of medical care.

it's my first blue post, please be kind

Delaney Hall was built to hold immigration detainees. It was the first federal immigration detention center to open under Trump's second term, with ICE beginning to house detainees starting on May 1, 2025. GEO Group, which is one of the largest private prison companies in the country, was given a 15-year contract worth $1 billion to run it.

Facility staff have reportedly used pepper spray and batons on detainees, transferred strike leaders to other facilities, and suspended family visitation for days. Outside, protesters have set up multiple tent encampments for food and medical support for the protesters. On Monday, Senator Andy Kim and Governor Mikie Sherrill led a delegation to the facility and were denied entry. Kim was pepper-sprayed in the process. On Wednesday and Friday and tonight, ICE agents sprayed chemical irritants at protesters and press outside the gates.

Viral shimiral

JHarris — Mon, 25 May 2026 07:03:35 GMT

The Feed is Fake (paywalled Vulture link, but here it is on wayback) says that most of what's surfaced to you by algorithms, maybe as much as 90% of them, is the result of stealth marketing campaigns, coordinated between thousands of sock puppet accounts.

Why stop at Thomas?

still_wears_a_hat — Thu, 14 May 2026 17:36:31 GMT

Christopher Armitage files for disbarment of Chief Justice John Roberts, with the DC Bar Office of Disciplinary Counsel. Will disbarment happen? Probably not, but

"once we stop telling ourselves it is impossible, we start to make it more possible. When we show that these people are not above accountability, the smart rats will flee, turn on each other, or go down with the ship."

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