Lisa, 30+, pipistrelle on ao3, gay cringe gremlin who believes love is real. star trek, xena: warrior princess, intersectional feminism, leverage, locked tomb, poetry and miscellaneous wlw content. thepipistrellepapers is my fanfic blog in case you want that.
I've been like,... totally obsessed with this TLT moby dick au fanfic by @neornithes ... the writing was so good that I had to paint some of that grody maritime necromancy
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it used to be that “fascism is aesthetics as politics” was the sort of thing that took several steps to demonstrate, but now everyone in roman-column twitter says “my ideal world is this AI generated picture of a centurion driving a spaceship” and you don’t even have to draw any connections to anything they just say it out loud.
why is there an upgrade button on gmail. why does twitter want me to scan my palm to get into my account. why is google a chatbot. why does the transit app make a transit app wrapped for me. why does youtube keep shoving its infinitely scrollable shortform content down my throat. why do my doctor and psychiatrist and therapist want to use an ai notetaker during our appointments. why do free trials want my credit card number. why are most scholarship websites just data brokers. how do i make capitalone stop sending me mail. why is my school making its own special chat gpt powered chatbot. why is every third video on instagram an undisclosed ad. why is nothing online real anymore. why is everything so FUCKING STUPID
gender essentialism is soooo funny bc it's like "this is what women are like" and you're like "I've met women and many of them, if not the majority, have not been like that" and it's like "well women SHOULD be like that" and you're like "why should women be like that" and its like "because that's what women are like"
The reason you can't be the next J R R Tolkien isn't because you don't have the talent, but because you're not the right kind of unwell. Tolkien wasn't bent for fantasy worldbuilding; he was bent for constructed languages, and got into fantasy worldbuilding in order to provide a material context in which to ground the notional evolution of the languages he invented. If you want to be the next Tolkien, you can't start with the worldbuilding; you've gotta find something extremely specific to fixate on, and develop it in such depth that inventing a world to contain it is genuinely the most logical next step.
#the best route is clearly to get really into a specific kink scenario and invent a world to justify it (via @salix03)
That's not even a joke. Developing a kink scenario so elaborate and so excruciatingly particular that it can only properly be contemplated in the frame of a world created specifically to contain it is genuinely closer to Tolkien's actual creative process than 99% of the stuff that plays at being heir to his legacy.
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it's meee I'm your guardian angel hiiiiii 😇 okay🙏 so. in about six months, you're gonna die of starvation. 🥺 and if I don't protect you, I will get: #fired! 🫢 and that is No Good 🙅♀️ hahaaa So. 🙏 I looked into causes of starvation, and it turns out: Your death is totally preventable! 😯 Uh oh! 😆 There's more than enough food to sustain you without interfering with anyone else's survival, but you're not allowed to have it! 🤨 Whaaat? 🤷♀️ Apparently, your death is premeditated by thousands of things called "shareholders." So. 🙏 I've been killing people,
soy yooo tu ángel de la guarda holiiiiii 😇 okay🙏 bueno. en como seis meses, vas a morir de hambre. 🥺 y si no te protejo, me van a: #¡despedir! 🫢 y eso No esta Chido 🙅♀️jajaaa Entonces. 🙏investigue acerca del tema y resulta que: ¡puedo prevenir tu muerte al 100%! 😯 ¡Uh oh! 😆 Hay más que suficiente comida para que sobrevivas sin que interfieras con la supervivencia de los demás, ¡pero no puedes teneral! 🤨 ¿Queeeé? 🤷♀️ Al parecer, tu muerte fue premeditada por miles de cosas llamadas "accionistas." Y bueno. 🙏 empeze a matar personas,
c'est moooi ton ange gardien coucooou 😇 bon 🙏 alors. dans genre six mois, tu vas mourir de faim. 🥺 et si je te protège pas, je vais me faire: #virer ! 🫢 et ça c'est pas Pas Super 🙅♀️ hahaaa Donc. 🙏 j'ai fait mes recherches sur les causes de famine et devine quoi: Ta mort est 100% évitable ! 😯 Oh-oh ! 😆 Il y a largement assez de ressources pour te nourrir sans interférer avec la survie d'autrui, mais tu n'y as pas accès ! 🤨 Quoooi ? 🤷♀️ Apparemment ta mort a été préméditée par des milliers de trucs appelées des "actionnaires". Du coup.🙏 j'ai tué pas mal de monde,
to sam jaaa tvoj anđeo čuvar hejjjjjj 😇 ok🙏 dakle. za nekih šest mjeseci, umrijeti ćeš od gladi. 🥺 i ako te ja ne zaštitim, dobit ću: #otkaz! 🫢 i to Ne Može🙅♀️ hahaaa Dakle.🙏 proučila sam o uzrocima gladi, i ispalo je ovako: Tvoja smrt je totalno sprječiva! 😯 Uh oh! 😆 Ima dosta i previše hrane da te održi bez da ometa preživljavanje ikoga drugog, ali nije ti dozvoljena! 🤨 Štaaa? 🤷♀️ Izgleda da je tvoja smrt unaprijed isplanirana sa strane gomilu stvari koje se zovu "dioničari". Dakle. 🙏 Počela sam klati ljude,
Ich biiiiiiiins dein schutzengel hiiiii 😇 okeee 🙏 also. in so sechs monaten wirst du verhungern. 🥺 und wenn ich dich nich beschütz, werd ich: #gefeuert! 🫢 und das Wär Blöd. 🙅♀️hahaaa also. 🙏 ich hab mir mal die ursachen fürs verhungern angeschaut, und es stellt sich raus: dein tod is völlig vermeidbar! 😯 ohjemine!! 😆Es gibt mehr als genug essen um dich am leben zu erhalten ohne dass es das überleben anderer einschränkt, aber du darfst es nicht haben! 🤨 Wie jeeetzt? 🤷♀️ anscheinend ist dein ableben durch tausende von sogenannten 'Aktionären' vorgeplant. Also. 🙏 ich habe angefangen leute zu töten,
Det är jaaaag jag är din skyddsängel heeeejjjj 😇 okej 🙏 så. om ungefär sex månader kommer du svälta ihjäl. 🥺 och om jag inte skyddar dig blir jag: #avskedad! 🫢 och det är Inte Bra 🙅♀️ hahaaa Så. 🙏 jag kollade på orsakerna till svält och det visade sig att: Din död är helt förbyggbar! 😯 Ojsan! 😆 Det finns mer än tillräckligt med mat för att du ska klara dig utan att påverka någon annans överlevnad, men du får inte den! 🤨 Vaaaaaaaa? 🤷♀️ tydligen är din död orsakad av tusentals saker som kallas "aktieägare." Så. 🙏 Jag har dödat folk,
Se oon mä, sun suojelusenkeli tässä heiii😇 okei🙏 eli. noin kuuden kuukauden päästä sä kuolet nälkään.🥺 Ja jos mä en suojele sua, mä saan #potkut! 🫢 ja se Ei Oo Hyvä🙅♀️ hahaa Joten🙏 mä tutkin nälkäkuoleman syitä, ja kävi ilmi: sun kuolema on täysin vältettävissä!😯 Ohhoh! 😆 Maailmassa on enemmän ku tarpeeks ruokaa pitämään sut elossa ilman että se vaikuttaa kenenkään muun selviytymiseen, mutta sä et saa sitä! 🤨 Mitääää? 🤷♀️ Ilmeisesti sun kuolemas on suunniteltu juttu, toteutettu tuhansien niin sanottujen "osakkeenomistajien" toimesta. Joten.🙏 Oon tappanu porukkaa
The Phoenicia, built in 2007–2008, is a modern replica of a 600 BC Phoenician merchant ship.
Inspired by ancient shipwreck discoveries near Marseille, the vessel was constructed using traditional methods to recreate the maritime achievements of the Phoenicians—master seafarers who once transported gold from Africa, tin from Britain, and linen from Egypt across the ancient world.
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just watched a star trek episode about a planet that relied so heavily on it's computer system that they all forgot the basics of their own knowledge. and that allowed them to miss the fact that they were being posioned with radiation and nearly ending their civilization. because they couldn't use their own knowledge to figure things out. i bring this up for no reason in particular
The bureaucratic AI arms-race is mutually assured destruction
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
According to an Economist editorial, "AI is breaking the British state" by making it too easy to file complaints, demands and appeals, which will "drown the state" with "demands as well-crafted as a first-class lawyer's":
https://archive.is/VTrj9
Let's pause a moment to appreciate the Economist's touching credulity about AI's coming legal mastery. The law seems to be the area where AI is most prone to "hallucinate" (that is, "produce defective outputs"), which can only be sorted through by skilled practitioners whose experience gives them the discernment to distinguish useful arguments from foolish ones:
(And this requires those skilled practitioners to avoid the "automation blindness" that afflicts people who are asked to remain vigilant for things that seldom occur, a phenomenon that has turned every TSA agent into the water-bottle-detectingest motherfucker the human race has ever produced, who still misses 95% of the guns that red teams bring through the checkpoint):
More notable than the Economist's faith-based predictions about the impending army of hyper-competent robo-lawyers is the magazine's proposed solution to this looming crisis: "stop creating entitlements that are ripe for AI-fuelled claims…prune the mass of procedural rights." Above all, replace the bureaucrats who process your "complaints, demands and appeals" with more AI, which will arbitrarily decide who gets what, through "personalised welfare interventions" that are not based on any kind of guaranteed rights.
Writing on his blog, the political scientist Henry Farrell tells us where this will inevitably end up: with AI-based robot wars in which increasingly stingy and pernickety robo-bureaucrats create demand for progressively more aggressive robo-lawyers:
As Farrell writes, this end-time was foretold by the prophet Alan Moore with his 1980s 2000 AD character Abelard Snazz, "the man with the two-storey brain":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abelard_Snazz
Snazz "solves" the street crime epidemic on the planet Twopp with "Big Police Robots," who spiral out of control, arresting the citizens of Twopp for trivial crimes like wearing brown shoes with a blue suit ("breaking the laws of good taste"). To solve this new problem, Snazz invents "Big Criminal Robots" whose "cunning, efficient" crimes "take up all the police's time."
Twopp is left in a state of high-stakes Big Robot crimewars, in which the most efficient criminals imaginable battle the most ruthless robocops science can deliver, with the Twoppians caught in the crossfire, collateral damage in a robotic forever war (on crime).
As Farrell writes, this is already afflicting the US health system, where an army of insurance company robo-claim-deniers have been countered with a doctors' army of robot-claim-appealers:
The point being that people need health care, people need public services, and while there will always be some waste at the margins (whether due to incompetence or dishonesty) responding to this by beefing up the system's defenses with more advanced red tape just requires the people who legitimately need these services to employ more aggressive tactics.
In support of this, Farrell points to a great, long essay by Dan "Accountability Sink" Davies for the Niskanen Center, "'The Problem Factory' – Preemptive risk aversion in infrastructure planning and the role of professional services":
Davies' essay describes how increasing bureaucratic defenses against frivolous or dishonest claims drives the participants in these processes to assume a war footing and approach the system as a battlefield, leading to the very runaway cost inflation that the bureaucratic process was instituted to prevent.
(Davies, a cybernetician, has some fascinating advice about how to structure planning processes to minimize this, but that's out of scope for this particular post.)
This reminds me of nothing so much as the spam wars. There was a time when it was very easy to set up a mail server and provide email access for anyone who wanted it – including spammers. Increased spam begat increased anti-spam countermeasures, notably the creation of blocklists that allowed mail administrators to automatically reject email from "insecure" mail servers.
Inevitably, spammers figured out how to send spam from "secure" servers, resulting in stricter, more onerous standards for mail server configuration. Spammers – for whom the ability to send spam is an existential matter – figured out how to meet these standards, so the security demands jumped again – and again, and again.
Today, sending and receiving mail is so technically challenging that most of the internet's email is run by a handful of giant, mostly US-based corporations. If any of these companies decides your mail server is spamming, you effectively disappear from the internet and good luck getting them to acknowledge an error. Meanwhile, these companies emit an avalanche of spam, but no one will ever block their servers, because to do so would be to cut off billions of legitimate email users:
https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/10/dead-letters/
And since most of these companies are US-based, they are liable to being weaponized by Trump, who has taken to ordering his tech giants to block foreign officials whose policy decisions make him angry:
Another parallel is the content moderation wars that saw the large platforms coming up with progressively more detailed rules about what constituted harassment and hate speech, only to have dedicated trolls master these rule-books. Trolls – for whom harassment was a full-time vocation – became the world's greatest experts on the platforms' speech policies, which let them skate right up to the line when abusing their victims, and to get those victims kicked off the platforms if they could be lured into putting a single toe over the line in response:
Farrell criticizes the Economist's answer to the (allege) looming robo-lawyer threat as "solutionism," Evgeny Morozov's word for "Recasting all complex social situations either as neat problems with definite, computable solutions":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_fix
Using AI to root AI-generated bureaucratic appeals sacrifices the system's putative purpose – delivering services – in the name of defending that service from abuse and misuse of the system's resources. As the pioneering cybernetician Stafford Beer famously wrote, "the purpose of a system is what it does." If your bureaucracy is more concerned with fighting fraud than delivering service, then it isn't a service delivery system at all – it's a service denial system.
As Farrell writes, the people of Twopp can tell you how this ends – in a war of giant robots in which we are all collateral damage.
(A brief postscript: Farrell is a font of science fictional analogies to modern policy issues. This weekend in the FT, he and Dan Wang published an excellent editorial on the relevance of the paranoid, claustrophobic fiction of Philip K Dick to our present political reality:)
characters in movies love to wake up from surgery and immediately start ripping off all their medical equipment like theyre a sexy werewolf breaking their chains. brother you dont know if that tube is the only thing keeping you alive right now. calm down.
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