Nick @internic@social.cleverlibre.org

Details emerge of surprise board coup that ousted CEO Sam Altman at OpenAI https://arstechnica.com/?p=1985097

Just read something discussing what the writer hoped for from a Denis Villeneuve adaptation of William Gibson's 'Neuromancer,' and in it the writer discusses the core premise of the text as being about the dangers of escaping into virtuality, saying they feel that Villeneuve would be best able to communicate that in film. Thing is, I think that reading misses something crucial, and i think what exactly it misses is really quite telling.

Neuromancer as a book and cyberpunk as a genre aren't (just) analyses and critiques of digital escapism, they're analyses and critiques of the material conditions which LEAD to that escapism. And unfortunately people lost hold of THAT understanding long before they lost hold of the "Do Not Uncritically Fetishize These Aesthetics" part; in fact, they lost the latter SPECIFICALLY BECAUSE they lost the former. It has "punk" in the name for a very specific and conscious reason.

The continued lack of critique of capitalist and hegemonic structures, here, is part of why C2077 and even the most recent GitS series just didn't work for so many people: Netrunners, Street Samurai, Console Cowboys, and Cyborg Mercenaries are all vocations of desperation, not pure choice. If you need to be those things, it's because the world has foreclosed itself to you and disenfranchised you in a crucial, fundamental way.

This is also why analyses of cyberpunk as a genre and aesthetic which don't include race, gender, and disability are inherently facile, to me.

Cyberpunk asks, "What if we take all the social structures of the 1970s and '80s, all the burgeoning technologies, and like… hyperrealized them?" And the answer is something that is dazzling, awe-inducing, brutal, heartbreaking, and even potentially a little comforting in its reappropriation of agency from the jaws of alienation.

It is also increasingly, starkly familiar to anyone looking outside their window, or existing aware in the world, right this moment, today.

But you already knew that; I'm just talking it out.

(Also, as a sidebar: the idea that millennials aren't familiar with Neuromancer is Weird™, to me, to say the least.)

Elon Musk Promises “Thermonuclear Lawsuit” After Big Brands Pause Ads On X https://deadline.com/2023/11/elon-musk-promises-thermonuclear-lawsuit-after-big-brands-pause-ads-on-x-1235617887/

“Man the Hunter has dominated the study of human evolution for nearly half a century & pervaded popular culture. [But] it was the arrival of agriculture that led to rigid gendered roles & economic inequality. Hunting belonged to everyone.”

The Theory That Men Evolved to Hunt & Women Evolved to Gather Is Wrong https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-theory-that-men-evolved-to-hunt-and-women-evolved-to-gather-is-wrong1/ #science #history

OpenAI President Greg Brockman quits as shocked employees hold all-hands meeting https://arstechnica.com/?p=1985047

No American should have to log into a private platform which requires to give away privacy to read official statements of Representatives or US officials — much less pay. Continued unique uses of X by state, local, & federal government is a single point of failure. Congress & White House should cross-post to alternative social networks, after negotiating terms of service for federal use that require open archives through an API & create an open archive for social media. https://e-pluribusunum.org/2019/12/20/the-us-government-should-preserve-the-social-media-history-of-officials-not-delete-them/

Report: Sutskever led board coup at OpenAI that ousted Altman over AI safety concerns

Microsoft CEO Nadella "furious"; OpenAI President and three senior researchers resign.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/11/report-sutskever-led-board-coup-at-openai-that-ousted-altman-over-ai-safety-concerns/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

Awoken at 4:45 am by an insistent voice ordering all at the hotel to go down to the air raid shelter. So here we are. Someone showed me an app to download: as you can see, agrees with the order to stay sheltered. So here we all are down in the basement of the hotel. Coffee machine. Loungers. People laughing and chattering quite happily. No sound of drones or inbound missiles that I can detect…

@Popehat Same is mostly true for me. I do still try to check in here every day or so if I can though.

Also, I have a big list of Bluesky invites if people want one. I even made a form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdte6A37KM2od72wkoQHT_1IIwgtgl9hvCg-W9PJNQffs6XFQ/viewform

I don't post on here much any more, or monitor it much, so probably better to find me on Bluesky if you need me.

De gustibus etc. No platform is perfect. But I feel more comfortable there, and less like I'm likely to get screamed at for using Latin without a CW or something.

I'd love to hear from people with experience defending against SIM swaps about the new FCC rules. Will they provide any meaningful protection? Why or why not?

https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-398483A1.pdf

Disney also reportedly among the big entertainment corporations halting spending on Twitter/X.

Valve celebrates 25 years of Half-Life with feature-packed Steam update

New MP maps, widescreen/Steam Deck support, and more come amid "free to keep" weekend.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/11/valve-celebrates-25-years-of-half-life-with-feature-packed-steam-update/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

One day after Elon Musk agrees with a great replacement Jews "hatred against whites" tweet, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League thanks Elon for his "leadership in fighting hate" because he's suspending X users who post the phrases "decolonization" or "from the river to the sea"

New Post: Privacy for Students on a Budget (Guide)
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Join the discussion below 👋 https://discuss.techlore.tech/t/privacy-for-students-on-a-budget-guide/6112

Well, I choose neither. Privacy is not a premium feature, but everyone's right.

This is also likely illegal.

#Facebook #Meta #Extortion #Privacy

Measles rises globally amid vaccination crash; WHO and CDC sound the alarm https://arstechnica.com/?p=1984844

Just remembered that time in my Google job interview when they asked me what my favorite forensics tool is and I said it was grep.

Protip: You don't have to leetcode or invent a new kind of physics to land a senior engineer job, just knowing how stuff really works is great.

My tiktok account is locked in a rather Schrodinger state of simultaneous suspended existence and nonexistence, absolutely nobody in support can figure out how to recover it, and IDK man, I think the PRC hates me too.