Toots đ from 03/27 to 03/31
As discussed previously, on Fridays, I present my weekly social media roundups. Note that toots of articles generally include header images from the articles, which I donât include here unless their creators happen to have released them for use under a free license, and I notice. Most have not, or I donât notice. But I now add my commentary here, where I donât feel restricted by message length.
Also, I donât generally attach pictures to posts with quotations.
12:23 â Sat 25 March 2023
Helpful hint: If someone (like a large tech company) doesnât provide a mathematical definition of âintelligenceâ that lets you simulate making a decision on paper, then no, their system is NOT on the verge of becoming intelligent.
It wasnât true thirty years ago, when companies sold Prolog-based systems and insisted that they only needed a few more âfactsâ in their database, and itâs not true just because the systems run neural networks.
Instead, it shows the low standards the companies have.
I considered writing a full post on this topic, and may still do so. But honestly, this sums it all up. And I mean thirty years fairly literally, by the way. In the early-to-mid â90s, at least one companyâIâve forgotten the name, but it sounded a lot like the descriptionâthat had a Prolog-based system along the lines of but not quite an expert system.
Much like Microsoft promoting OpenAI in a research paper, this week, that prior company insisted that they had their system so close đ¤ to ârealâ intelligence. They would assign it comparative descriptors, reporting that it had the reasoning ability of a rat or a human infant or whatever they wanted, because those comparisons donât mean anything, and insisted that their system would only improve as they fed facts and relationships into their database, which would replace the information that people learn through experience.
You can see how well that worked out for them: I donât remember their name, and you probably donât remember ever hearing about such a thing. Likewise, Microsoftâs attempt to push this narrative falls apart on even the slightest scrutiny. They canât tell you how to identify intelligence, and wouldnât if they could, because such a revelation would affect animal rights and other fields. They can only tell you that products feel like they expect humans to feel, which tells you what you need to know about themâŚ
I should note that I donât consider artificial intelligence impossible, but I certainly donât think that some company will stumble on it by pouring resources into technologies that weâve had and studied since the 1960s. Instead of âsparks of intelligence,â they actually most likely see confirmation bias.
9:05 â Mon 27 March 2023
Image credit: https://unsplash.com/photos/umixjcVd0Ws by Amr Tahaâ˘, made available under the Unsplash license
Managers repay loyal workers with unpaid labor from Futurity
No matter how Stanley and his colleagues framed the scenario, branding John as loyal always resulted in managers being more willing to ask him to shoulder the unpaid labor.
Hashtags: #Work #Capitalism
I donât suppose that anybody will find this at all surprising. Many companies operate on a cult of machismo, where you prove that you âbelongâ by showing your willingness to work long hours, and everybody suffers for it, because work quality drops long before any of us clocks eight hours in the day. But theyâd rather feel like theyâve gotten free labor than optimize for productivity.
At one point, I actually walked out of an interview, because the hiring manager kept asking me how I prevented my teachingâall night courses, I should point outâfrom getting in the way of meeting deadlines. After dancing around the issue for a while, I pointed out that, if his team worked late, then he dramatically mismanaged the project, and packed my things while he fumed.
12:06 â Mon 27 March 2023
Wall Street owns this country. It is no longer a government of the people, by the people and for the people, but a government of Wall Street, by Wall Street and for Wall Street. The great common people of this country are slaves, and monopoly is the master.
Hashtags: #Quotes #WomensHistory
9:01 â Tue 28 March 2023
Image Not Shown: Three casually dressed people in an urban space, receiving plastic bottles from a crowd
Calls for a âgreenâ Ramadan revive Islamâs long tradition of sustainability and care for the planet from The Conversation
Many other mosques and centers are discouraging large or extravagant evening meals altogether. The fear is such communal events generate food waste and overconsumption and often rely on nonbiodegradable materials for cutlery, plates and serving platters.
Hashtags: #Ramadan #Sustainability
I donât know that it ever occurred to me how much we collectively waste on holidays, but Iâve always had some awareness that I have celebrated them by going overboard for no reason. It makes sense, though, since holiday traditions typically have their roots in either celebrating transitory abundance (such as harvest festivals) or using extravagance as a pretext to get people together. I like that we can see some organized efforts to fix that.
12:07 â Tue 28 March 2023
The old condition is passing away. The new dawn of another civilized nation is breaking into the lives of the human race.
Hashtags: #Quotes #WomensHistory
8:24 â Wed 29 March 2023
Posted to Mastodon and đĽđ Cohost
Database API Service?
Fellow software people: In prototyping a small project, Iâd like to store modest amounts of data remotely. Does some company offer a service (ideally with a free tier) that exposes an API for database operations?
I feel like people have told me about such things, but canât find them when searching.
Hashtags: #Programming #Database
I alluded to this question in Mondayâs developer diary, and figured that I should really open up the question to a wider audience, to get this done.
9:03 â Wed 29 March 2023
Content Warning: US Politics, Authoritarianism
Image Not Shown: Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump meet at the G20 Summit 2019 in Osaka, Japan
Republicans still have âtremendous affection for dictatorsâ from openDemocracy
From Trumpâs bromance with the brutal ex-Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte to the fawning enthusiasm of many on the US right for the zealously anti-LGBTIQ Hungarian prime minister Viktor OrbĂĄn, or the invitation to ex-Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro to speak at this yearâs CPACâŚ
Hashtags: #Authoritarians #USPol
I donât think that I can add anything to this. They make it abundantly clear how they see governance.
12:03 â Wed 29 March 2023
Who honestly believes that he or she is extravagant? Not one, believe me. We all have our little ways of saving string, of doing without something, from early strawberries to diamond tiaras, which lead us to believe we are in the saving class.
Hashtags: #Quotes #WomensHistory
9:04 â Thu 30 March 2023
Image credit: Photograph in the public domain, background artwork by Miriam A.
One-hundred years later: Reflections on Syrian poet Nizar Qabbaniâs centenary from Global Voices
Nizar Qabbani embarked upon his literary journey in 1943 and did not stop writing until periods of profound sorrow and grief overtook him, such as the day his son Tawfiq passed away or when his Iraqi wife Balqis al-Rawi was tragically killed in 1981.
Hashtags: #Syria #Poetry #Centennial
Other than marveling at the wild story, I again donât have much of anything to add.
12:02 â Thu 30 March 2023
Toilers live the life of animals â that is work, and sleep, with short intervals for food. Now let us put our heads together and see if this is right; if things out to, and will, go on forever in this way.
Hashtags: #Quotes #WomensHistory
9:06 â Fri 31 March 2023
Image Not Shown: Michigan's flag, flapping in the wind
Michigan just became the first state in 58 years to repeal a âright to workâ lawâa win for unions from Fast Company
The second-term governor also signed legislation restoring a prevailing wage law that had been repealed by Republicans in 2018. It requires contractors hired for state projects to pay union-level wages.
Hashtags: #Work
Congratulations to Michigan, here. I hope that the state has plenty of company, soon.
12:04 â Fri 31 March 2023
I can not believe that the great mass of Americans, who fought for freedom and who love justice, are awake to the shocking and systematic subversion of all law and order in the South.
Hashtags: #Quotes #WomensHistory
Bonus
Because it accidentally became a tradition early on in the life of the blog, I drop any additional articles that didnât fit into the one-article-per-day week, but too weird or important to not mention, here.
Image Not Shown: Drawn poorly zine : diagnosis. Issue 3, where a patient asks a doctor three times "you know what it is, yet?" appearing as a ghost the final time
Zines from the in-between from the Wellcome Collection
Chronic pain complicates our understanding of health and illness â we expect pain to be a sign of something being wrong, an example of cause and effect, and imagine that once we are better, it will stop hurting. As the title of this zine, âWhen Language Runs Dryâ, suggests, chronic pain is an experience that is sometimes hard to communicate.
I never had much interest in âzines, even though youâd think that it would fit neatly with a lot of my other interests, but I think that this does a nice job of showing what fans of the form love.
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Credits: Header image is Circular diagrams showing the division of the day and of the week from a manuscript drafted during the Carolingian Dynasty.
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