There are these quite large, spiny plants along a trail I frequent. Even those of use who are thorny and unfriendly occasionally dress up nice.
ɕ
Some sort of thistle? →
Scattered about →
Around the U.S., about 90,000 tons of nuclear waste is stored at over 100 sites in 39 states, in a range of different structures and containers.
~ Gerald Frankel from, How and where is nuclear waste stored in the US?
slip:4uteho4.
This is probably silly, but I’ve always imagined that one day we’d master nuclear fusion. (Fission is “splitting” versus fusion which is “combining.” Our currently nuclear generation is a very complex chain reaction of the fission variety.) To run a fusion reactor requires—literally—the temperatures inside the sun. I’d always hoped we’d be able to dump (teeny tiny amounts) of our current nuclear waste into our fusion reactors… we’re everything is stripped apart to protons and electrons. The perfect waste disposal system. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
ɕ
I saw Titans →
And then the light of an older heaven was in my eyes
~ Doug Muir from, Occasional paper: The Light of an Older Heaven
and when my vision cleared, I saw Titans.
— Alan Moore
slip:4ucooa2.
A wonderful quote to open a wonder-filled article.
ɕ
Not easy →
I don’t often snap photos in ice cream parlors, but when I do it’s because their character is clearly on display.
ɕ
Try being useless →
This is the paradox of our time: the very tools designed to free us from labor are trapping us in an endless cycle of escalating work. As our productivity increases, our standards and expectations rise even faster, creating a psychological Jevons Paradox that threatens to consume our humanity in the pursuit of ever-greater output. We become victims of our own efficiency.
~ Tina He from, Jevons Paradox: A personal perspective
slip:4usupe9.
After I looked up Jevons Paradox, I couldn’t agree more with He’s point. It seems the way to break the paradox is to simply sit in “not doing”— To simply be useless. Perhaps not all of the time, but definitely some of the time.
ɕ
Shifting perspective →
No one doubts human beings are special—indeed unique. After all, people are (to our knowledge) the only ones pondering evolution, not to mention creating symphonies and skyscrapers. Still, that is not saying much: All species are unique, or else they would not be distinct species in their own right. Each species can do things humans only dream of, whether flying or diving deep under the sea.
~ Alexander Werth from, The Problems of Evolution as a “March of Progress”
slip:4usabi2.
Anthropocentrism is one perspective. There are many others worth considering too because the more one learns, the better one is able to make moral choices.
ɕ
People are really good at inference →
As we gathered data, surveyed people and set up experiments, it became clear that those tiny shortcuts – sometimes hailed as a hallmark of efficient communication – undermine relationships instead of simplifying them.
~ David Fang from, Why you should think twice before using shorthand like ‘thx’ and ‘k’ in your texts
slip:4utewy1.
After I thought about this a bit, this seems to be a clear benefit: We’re really good at trying to imagine (and predict) what other people are really thinking. We pick up subtle clues from body language and more, and we do it subconsciously. So why wouldn’t we also pick up subtle clues in a medium like text?
ɕ
Subservient →
Only with Substack does anyone perceive creator branding as being subservient to the platform — something that ought to be seen merely as an interchangeable CMS — like that.
~ John Gruber from, Daring Fireball: The Substack Branding and Faux Prestige Trap
slip:4udate3.
I’ve tried a few different things on Substack. (None of them ever took off, and each of them I subsequently moved to web sites I directly control.) I’ve always felt something was off, and lately I’ve been souring more on the whole platform. This piece by Gruber puts a clear, fine point on what I dislike about Substack.
ɕ
Too human? →
Here’s the actual thing. Robots: Make incorrect assumptions. Misinterpret clear direction. Claim they know when they don’t. Make mistakes. Lie.
Who else does this all the time? Every single human. Like. Always.
~ Michael Lopp from, Every Single Human. Like. Always.
slip:4urabo1.
This is what makes the LLMs feel different. So far, computers have always been perfect—except when they’re wrong/broken. That’s fundamentally not how people are. LLMs came along and they’re imperfect. Always. Just like people.
ɕ