Lori Emerson

it's a very good self to stay in touch with for the rest of one's life, I think!

successfully conned my middle aged self into almost finishing the syllabus thanks to teenager self's love of pizza, extra coffee, and late 80s REM.

sorry this is obvious but I can't help myself: horrible + men = power :(

thank you so much for this - I appreciate that *you* appreciate the spirit of the book!

today is the day I'm supposed to work on my syllabus and gosh darn if the toilet doesn't look dirty and weeds in the garden and oh hey I should pick up some new clothes and pet the cats and??

"The myth of technological and political and social inevitability is a powerful tranquilizer of the conscience. Its service is to remove responsibility from the shoulders of everyone who truly believes in it." --Joseph Weizenbaum, 1975 #ai

"Computers can make judicial decisions, computers can make psychiatric judgements...The point is that they ought not be given such tasks. They may even be able to arrive at 'correct' decisions in some cases--but always and necessarily on bases no human being should be willing to accept." #ai

Joseph Weizenbaum in 1975: "The very asking of the question, 'What does a judge (or psychiatrist) know that we cannot tell a computer?' is a monstrous obscenity. That it has to be put into print at all, even for the purpose of exposing its morbidity, is a sign of the madness of our times." #ai

"We have to sign on to this technology or else we'll be left behind" is something I keep hearing, but where are we being left??? Where is everyone else going?? Is it the place where all the 3D TVs and wifi-enabled toasters went? Is it literal dystopia? This argument is meaningless

In all this, it is specifically learning from biological systems, and trying to emulate their key features. Thus the measure of the importance of cybernetics is the backwardness of society’s present outlook on control, not the imagined ability of the science to build a super-brain." 2/2

you wouldn't think that a book called "Cybernetics and Management" would be so revelatory but really, Stafford Beer already knew in 1959 where it was at with so-called artificial brains! "Allied with new forms of energy, cybernetics is emergent to a new vision of society. 1/2 #ai #cybernetics

love Tony Tost's writing so much - I mean come on, it's like the latest season of Poker Face were written for me: episode 5 flashes a baseball scoreboard where poetics and cheese are tied 0-0 for maaaany innings...

Black t shirt laying on a silver work table with white text that reads “Radio Free Alcatraz 1969 / Giving voice to the voiceless.”

oh boy do I ever feel seen - gift from a friend #othernetworks

I think she might be on Mastodon but also suspect that she's had enough of that world that she prefers not to :)

that is the best thing to hear - thank you :)

how totally wonderful! thank you for letting me know 💚

oh my heart 😍

that sounds exactly right for me too! it's wonderful to have all these competing interests and investments and easy to forget energy limitations

I think part of me really loves doing these phases of Maximum Living even though they also often result in me getting sick 🤷‍♀️

it's possible I committed myself to three mountain races, one lecture-performance, and two talks in five weeks. full gas?!

this is really nice to hear - and I think the same thing about the Mundaneum! and then I think what makes it so wonderful-sounding is that it seems to exist for the commons, completely outside of corporations and capitalism

Many forms of “AI” fit fine with our policy. Grammar checking. Sorting a table of numbers. Maybe ML codes to do optimal data regression fits. Debugging code. Etc.

But we just don’t think using GenAI to do writing, analysis, research, creative work, etc., fits our ethical standards.

that is so nice to hear - thank you!

oh yessss...! otherwise known as just another day in the MAL 🤷‍♀️

I'll be trotting out my hopefully fun and zaney, completely analog #othernetworks lecture-performance here in Boulder Sept. 9th. come join the fun if you're around! 20 copies of Other Networks will also be for sale at the event. and thank you ‪@ntnsndr.in for making this happen 💚

intuitively that makes sense!

reading this and it's fascinating! ia600606.us.archive.org/20/items/mi-...

the best and maybe only way to cleanse one's mind of policies "for ensuring compliance" is to read about binaural
beat brainwave entrainment and how it might facilitate astral projection, telepathy and lucid dreaming. so there.

sometimes I like to imagine someone like Hugh Kenner or Harold Bloom being forced to take mandatory online training courses on the difference between "enterprise agreements," "stategic IT supplies," and how to make sure you "remain in compliance" 🤢

the smell touch feel look sound texture of #othernetworks!