Benjamin Riley

*By “porosity” I meant “proposition” goodness

I agree for sure on ELLs — the whole gen AI technology was borne of language translation — and am curious to know more about SPED, lots of variance there.

But not only do teachers have too much on their plate…no one needs to be taught about how to use LLMs! That’s their value porosity, type and go

Your early posts on AI spurred my direction with Cognitive Resonance, Larry! You broke it you bought it. (Kidding, as the latter)

@johndownesangus.bsky.social

"'If you teach that n--- (speaking of myself) how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave.' These words stirred up sentiments within that lay slumbering. From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom."

-- Frederick Douglass

Radical clerics in charge of the Revolutionary Guard declare jihad upon the enemies of the Supreme Orange Leader.

Yes, I think *you* should do that and report back to us.

Indeed I did! Thanks for the pointer

There's a lot to hate about Having a Dragon In Your House. But what if there was a way to Have a Dragon In Your House? Our new free course Dragons Can Be Couches will show you practical ways to work with dragons -- without being eaten, losing your family and home, or perishing in a huge fire.

I am re-reading Hellen Keller's autobiography and, once again, I am struck by the how the entirety of the human conscious experience, the independence of language from thought yet also the vital symbiotic relationship between them, is summed in her story. It moves me so deeply I can barely breathe.

The Tuttle Twins Learn Incredibly Wrong History Lessons The libertarian propaganda series is back and worse than ever.

Last week, I shared my daughter (age 9) casually dropped a Thomas Sowell reference in conversation. As I suspected, it’s because she’s watching Tuttle Twins, libertarian cartoons funded by (yep) the Koch network.

Dad is now teaching her about “propaganda.”

www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-tut...

I guess I’d be more confident in the pedagogy of this “newsletter course” on “mindfully” using AI if, within the first five minutes of reading, it did not quote Ethan Mollick saying exactly the same thing twice.

@theguardian.com, I’m available for “mindful editing”! But I am a human, sorry.

In pursuit of Cognitive Solidarity Guest post by Pip Sanderson, National Institute of Teaching (England)

"What durable knowledge and habits can teachers draw on as technologies change faster than curricula ever can?

And how do we replace what can feel like cognitive anarchy with something closer to cognitive solidarity?"
- @pipsanderson.bsky.social

Indeed, oops. Deleted so that other Eliot doesn’t get confused hahaha.

Isn’t it though? Eloquent, yet grounded in the practical challenge we face. Thanks for reading and pointing @naomialderman.bsky.social here.

In pursuit of Cognitive Solidarity Guest post by Pip Sanderson, National Institute of Teaching (England)

"This is a crisis of epistemic infrastructure. If schools are to build positive cultures in this digital world, we have to start with how information actually functions in social groups: how identity, relationships, and status shape what young people trust and share."
- @pipsanderson.bsky.social

How Talks Between Anthropic and the Defense Dept. Fell Apart

It's hard not to read this story and conclude that every single person and entity involved is moronic. The US government is in the hands of facist morons, and the Big Tech companies producing AI tools are led by delusional or self-serving morons.

We are in a very dangerous place.

It’s madness to me. Check Dylan’s posts, written before 404 blew open the bullshit. Even if we take their results at face value — which we should not — it ain’t the tech that’s responsible.

More Everything Forever, MORE MORE MORE! My interview with scientist-turned-author Adam Becker

If you haven’t had your fill of @adambecker.bsky.social — and how could you, really — he swung by my Substack for an interview last year:

open.substack.com/pub/buildcog...

Have you seen the 404 story and/or @dylanpkane.bsky.social recent posts?

I asked AI to shorten you

Quote paraphrased to meet space constraints

Surviving the Third Information Crisis Writer Naomi Alderman gives us tips and tricks on how to stay sane in a maddening world

"I’m remembering that everyone else is a person, not a symbol...
I actually find that quite inspiring. We’re living through this really tumultuous epoch, and we can decide whether we fight for the civil public space, and how long our 'wars of reformation' will go on."
- @naomialderman.bsky.social

To be clear, I do not fear AI-as-Skynet. I fear what we are already seeing, fascist idiots incorporating AI into our weaponry system, leading to military chaos that spawns nuclear war. Iran can’t hit us, but China sure can.

Correct. I may add a clarification along those lines.

The nightmarish combination of nuclear weapons and AI no longer feels like some far-fetched science fiction to me. Yesterday was the first day I truly contemplated the danger of nuclear holocaust in my lifetime.

It will be hard to use AI to cultivate “co-intelligence” if we are all dead.

Might want to read up on the Iranian primary school for girls that that was hit yesterday. 148 dead, last I checked.

Only took a day

Damn man, what a call.

I genuinely think the morons in charge of the US military may have used some form of AI to pick targets. It’s a recipe for disaster and we may already be seeing exactly how.