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Asst. Professor of Philosophy & Data Science, UNCC
Degrees in Science, Technology, & Society; Philosophy; Religious Studies
Thinking on Algorithms, 'A.I.,' Human Values, Marginalized Lived Experiences, Magic/Occult, Pop Culture
He/Him/His
Yep, I definitely see it (and yeah, I really wish they'd let you know to whom exactly you're replying in a thread >_<)
The problem is that even prescribed devices are leaky about data, in a way that HIPAA doesn't fully cover. Like, even pacemakers, which are the most established in this suite, have both technical and regulatory gaps which can be exploited to access that info:
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles...
Remote monitoring of cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs) has become routine practice as a result of the advances in biomedical engineering, the advent of interconnectivity between the devic...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.govWatching @sfdirewolf.bsky.social and W. Kamau Bell, again. Like one does.
Like, I'm never gonna ADVOCATE for letting a corporation put a chip in your brain. But in the united states as it currently exists, any technology you get put into, on, or around your body, for purposes of health, work, or school, is going to be managed by a corporation. And that is a PROBLEM.
Like, I'm never gonna ADVOCATE for letting a corporation put a chip in your brain. But in the united states medical system as it currently exists, any technology you get put into, on, or around your body, for health, work, or school, is going to be managed by a corporation. And that is a PROBLEM.
Maybe? But we also, again, live in a capitalist hellscape, where literally every part of our lives is commodified & sold back to us at a premium, & where the things we need to literally survive are often not supplied by the institutional systems meant to help us. Some people are just trying to live.
…well shit.
It's the time of year when dogs start going in the water in many places, so just be aware that if your dog has a topical flea treatment, it can wipe out the invertebrate ecosystem in whole ponds.
This alone should have Aileen Cannon recused if not outright fucking disbarred.
how a federal judge in Florida became Team Trump’s “favorite member of the Trump campaign” this year
Latest via @arawnsley.bsky.social and me for Rolling Stone:
www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
Aileen Cannon’s repeated delays have one Republican close to Trump calling the judge their “favorite member of the Trump campaign.”
www.rollingstone.comWearable brain monitors don't keep your data safe, neural chips are breaking down and breaking up inside people's heads, and BCI implementations continue to generally house just, y'know, a horrifying suite of implications when couched in this ongoing dystopian capitalist hellscape.
29 of 30 companies “appeared to have access to customers’ neural data without providing meaningful limitations on how they are allowed to share that information. Two-thirds allow for the sharing of customer data and almost another third left this unclear…”
A report found data privacy problems with the vast majority of 30 companies that sell neurotechnology devices to consumers. New US state laws aim to change that
www.newscientist.comI dunno man, i was really hoping we'd leave that crap back at twitter
Brain momitors don't keep your data safe, are breaking down and breaking up inside people's heads, and are generally just, y'know, a horrifying suite of implications when couched in this ongoing dystopian capitalist hellscape
29 of 30 companies “appeared to have access to customers’ neural data without providing meaningful limitations on how they are allowed to share that information. Two-thirds allow for the sharing of customer data and almost another third left this unclear…”
A report found data privacy problems with the vast majority of 30 companies that sell neurotechnology devices to consumers. New US state laws aim to change that
www.newscientist.com
The response i got still didn't explain why cops needed to come in in the middle of the night, in riot gear, to roust sleeping students.
And if you don't care about violence, understand that many in the public *very definitely do* which is why the admins & cops use that framing go justify their own
The response i got still didn't make a case for why cops needed to be brought in in the middle of the night, wearing riot gear, to roust sleeping students
My most political philospher trait is wanting to sit people down and explain the distinction between positive and negative rights, and then force thwm to define which they mean for every "right" they "cherish"
my most analytic moral philosopher thought is that this discourse would really benefit from a distinction between rights and virtues
maybe think of it "as a start." Bye.
Really tired of living in a society and on a world where fear and hatred are confused for "reasonableness" and the violent authoritarianism they breed is confused for "strength." Give me open, good faith striving, and loving compassion, worldwide, for fucking once.
I've talked a lot about how, to best understand the historical contexts & present moment of "AI," people really need to be taking up tools & conceptual frameworks from not just philosophy, psychology, sociology, neuroscience, &c, but religious & ritual studies, myth, & the occult. Here's what I mean
As part of a seed grant project funded by the AIAI Network, Damien P. Williams, assistant professor of Philosophy and Data Science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, will present his research on the intersection of AI and religious belief and practice. This event is free and open to the public. Dr. Damien Patrick Williams is an Assistant Professor of Data Science and Philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he teaches and researches how technologies such as algorithms, machine intelligence, and biotechnologies are impacted by the values, knowledge systems, philosophical explorations, social structures, and even religious beliefs of human beings. Damien has a PhD in Science, Technology, and Society from Virginia Tech, and an MA from Georgia State University in Philosophy and Religious Studies, specializing in the intersection of philosophy and the comparative study of religion, with a focus on occult theory and method. Damien's realms of expertise have led to him serving on the boards of non-profit organizations such as the Center for Democracy and Technology, and the Disability Inclusion Fund, and consulting for several universities and research and development groups such as Olin College and SRI International. He has been interviewed for multiple podcasts, news outlets, and popular publications, including TIME Magazine, and been invited to speak at dozens of international conferences. All of Damien’s research is concerned with how the knowledges and experiences of marginalized peoples affect and should be centered within the technosocial structures of human societies.
www.youtube.comCounterpoint: rich guys who have never had any actual problems should be allowed to do hallucinogens IF AND ONLY IF they do it in a setting where they are confronted by everyone for whom they, themselves, are the problem.
Rich guys who have never had actual problems should never be allowed to do hallucinogens because it always confirms their pre-existing belief that they are divine
Counterpoint: rich guys who have never had any actual problems should be allowed to do hallucinogens IF AND ONLY IF they do it in a setting wher they are confronted by everyone for whom they, themselves, are the problem.
Going to bed. Here's some Björk for all the lucky ones, but most especially for the ones who missed out:
youtu.be/y41yGE17NCw?...
Widescreen- Lyrics in the video description, Aurora, from the album Vespertine (2001) http://www.bjork.com/ Film used in this video edit: 'The silence beneat...
youtu.beDrove around for a while, but the most of the aurora we got to see was some faint pink/purple hazing around the northern horizon.
Been a minute since I've had to say this but, fuck you David Zaslav.
FUCK YOU deadline.com/2024/05/scav...
Scavengers Reign has been canceled at Max after its first season
deadline.comMastodon: The Bad Faith as a Service Social Network
Happy 71st Birthday to my dear f-fellow traveler, Mr John "Conjob" Constantine.
I'm gonna drop this right here, but also say that if you're a journalist who wants to talk to me about really understanding this stuff, I'm more than happy to walk you through it.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8JH...
Feel like I gotta tag @wolvendamien.bsky.social here.
Spoiler alert: the next OpenAI updates aren't GPT-5 or a search engine, according to Sam Altman.
www.businessinsider.com
I just… Mm.
Welp, guess it's a good thing this is up and public for people to respond with:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8JH...
As part of a seed grant project funded by the AIAI Network, Damien P. Williams, assistant professor of Philosophy and Data Science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, will present his research on the intersection of AI and religious belief and practice. This event is free and open to the public. Dr. Damien Patrick Williams is an Assistant Professor of Data Science and Philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he teaches and researches how technologies such as algorithms, machine intelligence, and biotechnologies are impacted by the values, knowledge systems, philosophical explorations, social structures, and even religious beliefs of human beings. Damien has a PhD in Science, Technology, and Society from Virginia Tech, and an MA from Georgia State University in Philosophy and Religious Studies, specializing in the intersection of philosophy and the comparative study of religion, with a focus on occult theory and method. Damien's realms of expertise have led to him serving on the boards of non-profit organizations such as the Center for Democracy and Technology, and the Disability Inclusion Fund, and consulting for several universities and research and development groups such as Olin College and SRI International. He has been interviewed for multiple podcasts, news outlets, and popular publications, including TIME Magazine, and been invited to speak at dozens of international conferences. All of Damien’s research is concerned with how the knowledges and experiences of marginalized peoples affect and should be centered within the technosocial structures of human societies.
www.youtube.comOf course! And thank you friend ^_^
I have personally reviewed grants which have received the highest marks, & which work fit the RFP so perfectly it was amazing, AND which wasn't being done anywhere, *AND* which was recommended to be funded by all reviewers. And which still didn't get funded. I have real dark thoughts about all this.
Scientists often talk about how the bar is increasingly raised in grant review. YET, we get/give reviews that say "The Broader Impacts are outstanding, but largely filled by existing programs."
WE can stop this. Outstanding is outstanding--we don't have to keep asking for NEW and HIGHER.
several emails and some grant budget fuckery later, I'm going the fuck to bed. G'night. Go listen to some Suzanne Vega:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kD7T...
Music video by Suzanne Vega performing Caramel. (C) 1996 A&M Records
www.youtube.com
There's this now too:
bsky.app/profile/wolv...
Oh hey! If you wanted to check out my talk "Religious Belief and Practice in the Age of 'AI'" but were unable to attend in person, it's been published online! I hope you enjoy it:
Oh hey! If you wanted to check out my talk "Religious Belief and Practice in the Age of 'AI'" but were unable to attend in person, it's been published online! I hope you enjoy it:
Oh hey! If you wanted to check out my talk "Religious Belief and Practice in the Age of 'AI'" but were unable to attend in person, it's been published online! I hope you enjoy it:
Anyway. I hope you enjoy it:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8JH...
As part of a seed grant project funded by the AIAI Network, Damien P. Williams, assistant professor of Philosophy and Data Science at the University of North...
www.youtube.com
I guess that's between you and the person I shared it from? 🤷🏾♂️
Here's a direct link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8JH...
As part of a seed grant project funded by the AIAI Network, Damien P. Williams, assistant professor of Philosophy and Data Science at the University of North...
www.youtube.com…Seriously engaging with tools and concepts from religious studies, mythology, ritual studies, and the occult to help elucidate both major contextual cues about a LARGE swathe of past and present-day "AI" and tech culture, and also potential insights for how to both react to & shape those contexts.
Oh hey! If you wanted to check out my talk "Religious Belief and Practice in the Age of 'AI'" but were unable to attend in person, it's been published online! I hope you enjoy it:
This was such an amazing conversation, & the audience had some really wonderful questions to think with. I'm so thankful to have gotten the opportunity & such a receptive & engaged audience for a topic I've always thought was crucial, & which I think will only be more important in the coming years…
Oh hey! If you wanted to check out my talk "Religious Belief and Practice in the Age of 'AI'" but were unable to attend in person, it's been published online! I hope you enjoy it:
Oh yeah, it just goes that way
@vox-magica.bsky.social you might dig this one
Installed a new car radio in my very not new car, this past weekend. Had to disassemble a dashboard, tap-splice wires, and reconfigure a wiring harness. I also lost a 7mm socket head inside my dash panel which is, y'know, a good reminder to stay humble, I guess.
I need just like, a solid two weeks where nothing is on fire and no one needs anything from me
I remember you mentioning that! I'm so glad you got to watch what you missed :)
Oh no, no toes stepped on at all! It was just a little bit of a shock to see you were that enthusiastic about posting it! Usually I'm the first one to get the link up anywhere, and pushing it around all over; this time, not so much 😂