Abstract Tesseract

Them: Why don't you make common cause with the doomers?

Us: Because there is a scare resource we are competing for: policy maker attention

Bernie: Posts a video on X of a conversation he had with Yud & co at MIRI.

the chotnings will continue until morale improves

Title: Taking Back Technopower: STS and strategic interventions for the fight against technofascism with authors and research areas

The current moment is characterized by resurgent struggles against technofascism. These struggles include community resistance against data centers, strategic actions against tech companies complicit in genocidal violence, and organizing efforts across many sectors against the proliferation of AI in the workplace. This open panel gathers people engaged in these sites of struggle to collectively consider the following question: how can STS approaches advance these struggles against fascist technopower, and work towards constructing more liberatory futures? In addressing this question, we seek to surface the incipient militant potential of STS, often submerged under scholarship that muddies strategic analysis and disarms political action through the register of subversive critique. Through close attention to relationality and sociality, STS may help build solidarities while unsettling the sedimented categories that impede movement building (Breymen et al, 2017). By incorporating materialist, political economic accounts of technology, STS may help push beyond the boundaries of "ethical tech” by revealing the imbrications of economic and financial processes with technoscience (Birch, 2013). And as a roving, interdisciplinary field attuned to embodied and situated practices (Haraway, 1988), an STS lens may help ensure that analyses are constantly attentive to the lively contingencies of on-the-ground struggles.

We seek to explore theories born through political struggle, and examples of how STS theory informs praxis. Submissions may include, but are not limited to: strategic reflections from organizers and activists; historical accounts that can inform future organizing and activism; or the analysis of organizing artefacts (e.g., propaganda, slogans, campaigns) and their role in advancing political struggle. We will facilitate this panel as an open discussion among folks situated across different sites of struggle, aiming to provide a space for advancing the struggle against technofascism through the development of relationships, theories, and strategic insights.

hi STS people! are you engaged in political struggle against fascism? do you have things to share: strategic reflections, organizing artefacts, etc.? do you have thoughts about how we will win? if so, you should submit something to our open panel at 4S this year! www.4sonline.org/accepted_ope...

It is kind of suspicious that the only people I see actively defending LLMs as morally neutral seem to have very specific career incentives to do so. Especially in the academy!

The LA Olympics are gonna be so fascist they'll have quidditch

How I long for one (1) week where a prominent person does not say something about "AI" that makes me question whether I maybe respected them too much

Oh what, I'm supposed to be impressed by "AI" because a famous old man in my field seems to like it? I'm a linguist, I've had loads of practice with losing respect for famous old men in my field

The Knuth thing is such a beautiful intersection of "AI" enthusiast hobbies: tech-worship and hero-worship

Reminds me of Jakob Nielsen's bizarre and disappointing embrace of "AI" in UX design: buttondown.com/practicaltip...

/ EYEV BEEN USING LINUX SINCE EYE BUBBLED UP UN2 THE SURFACE OF U REALITY IN 2012
/ & LET ME TELL U IT WAS TERRIBLE BACK THEN
/ BUT
/ ITS GOOD NOW
/ IT JUST WORKS
/ U SHULDNT HAVE NE TROUBLE FIGURING IT OUT TBH
/ BUT:
/ WULD NE1 BE INTERESTED IN A WEATHER IS HAPPENING GUIDE 2 USING LINUX?

Being an "AI" hater is an act of love

Four buckets suffice to describe pro-AI folks here:

- vibecoding sociopath convinced linear algebra is just a tool
- quirky tech hobbyist convinced their pet LLM has a rich inner life
- lib/centrist who can't believe anything with institutional backing can be bad
- deeply unpleasant financebro

unsolicited advice:
1. post about your book
2. put the TITLE of the book in the post
3. put a LINK TO BUY THE BOOK in the post
4. consider a cute graphic or just put the cover of your book (with alt text!) in the post
5. post about it as if this is the first time someone's learning about it/you

The people who hid behind the vagueness of "users need..." to hide the fact that they didn't have a clear conception of who the user actually was, are now hiding behind "AI will..."

We call 30 different things "AI." If you mean chatbot, just say chatbot (but then it's obvious if the claim is BS)

has anyone made a "days since an employee of this site has shown open disdain for the community" tracker

Grammarly Offering Manuscript Reviews by AI Versions of Recently Deceased Professors The Grammarly "Expert Review" feature uses AI to provide feedback on papers using the name and work of real professors, dead or alive.

Daily reminder that calling ai dead labor and stolen labor is literal.

Maha from the al-Kitaab Arabic language learning series

Every time I hear someone talk about MAHA I think of her and hope she's not still فعلاً وحيدة

teaching about morphology today which meant making my linguistics students scream the word PHILAFUCKINGDELPHIA at me in unison to show how we can predict where the FUCKING goes based on which syllable is stressed

Far Side Cow Tools comic with Praat logo in the lower right corner

studying linguistics equips you with the tools necessary to succeed in the real world.

the tools

anti-trans Dems ate shit last night

They are more than welcome to stop being "AI" boosters at any time!

Yeah I feel like there's already plenty to do when it comes to building resilient support networks for people who are resisting "AI", and solidarity/mutual political education with people who are being targeted by "AI" products and companies. I don't care if "AI" enthusiasts are feeling alienated

2026 nuclear family meme— featuring Fritzi as Neurodivergent Aunt, Sluggo as Sluggo, Nancy as Daughter, Nancy Jr as Woke Dog

Don't let industry gibberish get you down, dazzle you, or anything else. Ignore them and reject thembin general or challenge their nonsense. But it's not scientific to have words with no clear meaning. The opposite!

This is crucial to me. Poking holes in product testimonials can be strategic for showing that boosters are full of shit. But even if they weren't wrong about the testimonials, they're wrong for using intrinsically harmful products. You can say I'm acting in bad faith—I am a hater, so I don't care

An image with a blue gradient in the center and California poppy in faded yellow. It features the Berkeley Sociology logo, and the following text: From: 'David James Harding' via socgrads@lists.berkeley.edu <socgrads@lists.berkeley.edu> Date: Mon, Mar 2, 2026 at 8:01 AM Subject: 2026 Sociology Commencement Speaker: Dr. Alex Hanna Dear Sociology Community, I'm very pleased to announce that our speaker for the 2026 Sociology Commencement will be Dr. Alex Hanna, a writer and a sociologist of technology, labor, inequality, and social movements whose academic and public-facing work can be found in our discipline's top journals, blogs, op-eds, policy briefs, and in your neighborhood book store.

17 years ago, I didn't get into the UC Berkeley Sociology program.

In May, I'll have the distinct honor of giving the keynote speech at this year's commencement. I'm still processing this, but I'm ecstatic for the opportunity to pay forward a little voice of hope and solidarity.

Oh also even if the products worked exactly as well as "AI" enthusiasts have tricked themselves into believing, and if they were somehow magically a net positive for the environment, they would still be completely unethical because of the exploitation inherent in their design, creation, and use

“If [wealthy, powerful people] can get us to accept that the future’s already settled, AI is already here, the end is already here, then we will create that for them. My most daring idea is to refuse.” — @tressiemcphd.bsky.social

a bright orange canvas jacket with bright blue, green, and magenta letters in a 3x4 pattern reading a b c d e f u c k i c e

finished embroidering my jacket :)

Are there any movies that you feel got an unfairly bad rap in mainstream media and you wish people would give another chance?

that's such weird and sad and bad behavior