Dr. Damien P. Williams: Magus, Werewolf, Cyborg, Bi
@wolvendamien.bsky.social
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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
For obvious reasons, I want Perry to hold strong and Mason to regain the lead, but I'll take the other seats too
Congratulations *Especially* to Danica Roem in VA for beating glenn youngkin's handpicked candidate, and fingers crossed for Dems to pick up the remaining 2 senate seats and the now 7 they need.
Not a bad night so far, in several places important to U.S. national politics.
Yeah I'm trying not to breathe too hard on them right now, but they're definitely in realm of possible and plausible
2 more to go in the VA state senate, still 9 to go in the VA house
Dems need 4 more senate and 9 more house seats in Virginia; hoping, praying, etc
It mentions social and economic equity & opportunity, but also there's no expungement 😕
A fifty-state strategy for anyone who isn't a coward 👇🏾
C'mon Dems, just be the weed, abortions, and loan forgiveness party
Like, seriously, this us a 50 state strategy
Hey ohio! You did it! Congratulations on your abortion and cannabis access!
Congratulations, ohio, on your renewed access to safe and legal abortions, and fingers crossed on your newly gaining access to legal cannabis 🤞🏾
Hey ohio! You did it! Congratulations on you abortion and cannabis access!
Congratulations, ohio, on your renewed access to safe and legal abortions, and fingers crossed on your newly gaining access to legal cannabis 🤞🏾
Congratulations, ohio, on your renewed access to safe and legal abortions, and fingers crossed on your newly gaining access to legal cannabis 🤞🏾
I told you back in 2016 that there was a very real possibility that several computer vision systems used in everything from those bullet-vibe security bots to autonomous vehicles very likely had trouble recognizing and categorizing children as human beings, and well, here you go:
Cruise Knew Its Self-Driving Cars Had Problems Recognizing Children — and Kept Them on the Streets
Cruise, General Motors’ self-driving division, knew its cars sometimes had problems detecting children — but kept the vehicles on the road.
theintercept.comGet a bunch of very bad social structures and paradigms all packed in together with the people in and out of which they're made and then chaos theory and cascade effects take hold and here we all are
Okay, new proposal for everybody to just shut the fuck up for a few weeks. No takes. No discourse. Just… sit real quiet and do nothing. JFC
For some reason this episode of the Flash Forward podcast is on my mind a lot lately gee I wonder why
www.flashforwardpod.com/2020/10/06/d...
Yep. All their stacks are turtle stacks
Yes? AND ALSO it will get even worse with people being able to imitate the voices and faces of loved ones with new tech.
Two things can be true at once. Have a good one.
The humans lived, btw. Just clarifying because that last line makes it sound like whales killed the people, which would have humans going all murder spree on the orca population. Again.
The orcas have done it again.
On Oct. 31, a pod of killer whales swarmed a yacht sailing in the Strait of Gibraltar. For 45 minutes, the orcas hit the vessel’s rudder and damaged the boat, according to the company that operated it.
Despite rescue efforts, the yacht never made it back to shore.
Orcas sink another boat in Strait of Gibraltar
Since 2020, orcas in the Strait of Gibraltar have been bumping and biting boats in dozens of incidents that have frightened mariners and confounded scientists.
www.washingtonpost.comDepends. Make a version about how how "AI" is trying to turn their grandkids woke, and maybe
So sorry friend, and right there with you
Gonna need the FTC and congress to pick up the pace on this one. And i mean we need fucken proactive PSA TV spots warning people about "AI" scams, like it's the goddam 1980s, in addition to whatever post hoc protections and remediations they implement.
An 82-year-old Houston man reportedly received a call that he believed was from his son-in-law. The caller convinced him to send him thousands of dollars. The voice turned out to be AI-generated.
AI-generated scam cons Houston-area man out of $17,000
An 82-year-old man reportedly received a call that he believed was from his son-in-law. The caller convinced him to send him thousands of dollars.
tinyurl.comThe venture brothers a show about a universe where exposure to magic, super science, or massive amounts of strange radiation can give you superpowers, messed up super powers, cancer, *Soul* cancer, or some combination of all of the above.
Today.
School board. City council. Mayor. Ballot measures on abortion access, school funding, various legalization and decriminalization measures. Vote.
Hey Americans, feeling politically powerless? You have an election tomorrow. Fascists are targeting those boring state and local positions and using them for everything from abortion restrictions to book bans to criminalizing trans healthcare. It's up to you to stop them.
Today.
School board. City council. Mayor. Vote.
Hey Americans, feeling politically powerless? You have an election tomorrow. Fascists are targeting those boring state and local positions and using them for everything from abortion restrictions to book bans to criminalizing trans healthcare. It's up to you to stop them.
Or like, the sheer existential horror of how many authoritarian regimes are rising and their complete unwillingness to do anything about the climate crisis or…
And by "in all this," i mean putting massive public pressure on AMPTP until they fold like a fitted sheet:
With bad grace and after a lot of unnecessary hassle.
I joked about it before, but there really are philosophers & legal experts who saw the digital twin/”AI"/identity/Name-Image-Likeness Rights problem coming years ago, & one thing i think would help SAG-AFTRA in all this is putting in public the work of the experts with whom they've been consulting.
Yeah that's genuinely gross as hell
…can get things wronger & wronger over time as it focuses in on & exaggerates particular patterns humans tell it they like, & how that'll make for ever shittier movies.
People hear '"AI" threatens our jobs, craft, & livelihoods' but many people don't get *How*. Give folx a breakdown of the stakes.
Because SAG-AFTRA *are* consulting with experts.
Start mentioning in interviews the relevant cases the legal experts have told you about. Start talking about the moral harms and harms to individual dignity and self-determination and consent your philosophers unpacked for you. Talk about how "AI"…
I joked about it before, but there really are philosophers & legal experts who saw the digital twin/”AI"/identity/Name-Image-Likeness Rights problem coming years ago, & one thing i think would help SAG-AFTRA in all this is putting in public the work of the experts with whom they've been consulting.
"The language currently in the AMPTP’s offer would see the studios and streamers secure the right to use scans of deceased performers without the consent of their estate or SAG-AFTRA."
this is fucking gross. and makes me so mad i wanna go on strike again
As SAG-AFTRA Responds to Studio Offer, AI Protections for High-Earning Members Remain Sticking Point
According to multiple sources familiar with the state of the negotiations, entertainment companies are seeking to pay for scans, but not their use or re-use.
www.hollywoodreporter.comTo be fair, those collective 24 hours were in undergrad, and that was a VERY psychically charged time.
Ever been tooling around on google street view and realize that you dream with alarming frequency about a section of road on you probably spent maybe a total of 24 hours? It's wild, right?
Amazon really dropped the ball, because we are absolutely in the season where I would be in the market for an up-to-Gibson's-standards jacket or hoodie with a "Milagros Coldiron, SA" name and logo on it, and they could have sold that to me, direct.
C'mon Ohio, keep it up
God I would watch every episode of that at least twice
…But instead I get a new entry to the Orphan Black universe, the show that catapulted Tatiana Maslany to public fame, but which is now STARRING Krysten Ritter.
Which… I can't even be mad, you know? More Orphan Black, AND more Krysten Ritter??? JFC yes please.
But also: My nerd dreams :(
Sometimes I feel like this universe is taunting me. I've previously noted that one of the things I wanted from marvel TV stuff is a Jessica Jones/She-Hulk/Misty Knight crossover series still called "Defenders," so we could have Krysten Ritter, Tatiana Maslany, & Simone Missick all in the same show…
Reminder: Elon Musk's "AI" was always going to be shit because he steadfastly refuses to understand anything about the inculcation of values in technoscientific systems, processes, or contexts.
Cf.: afutureworththinkingabout.com?p=5710
Elon Musk has launched his epic bacon ChatGPT competitor and it has a "rebellious streak." It's got to be so expensive to run, and now he's giving it to every Twitter Premium Plus $16 a month goon. Amazing stuff. I hope it's the same AI that drives Teslas
I was literally just thinking that you and I should get together for a walk and a coffee :)
You did! And I'm glad :D
Once again that time of year where i repeatedly remind myself todo more exercising and get more full-spectrum bulbs and vitamind d supplements for the household and then a) repeatedly fail to do those things and b) wonder why my mood is so consistently shit.
Oh hey!
A lot of us keep talking like we have. 'S why I want demonstrations of practice.
And I'm just asking you not to bring them to me like i'm unaware of them, and to recognize that they're a start, and not the limit.
Also, politics is kind of the core of what this thread is.
Have a Good Sunday.
If you haven't spent time w/ The Hallucination, I really can't express enough how much you need to. The story & themes they've woven through the whole project, even down to multilevel wordplay is just… powerful.
Path of The Heel has them digging down further into the Halluci Nation/Alie Nation war
