@ben@werd.social
@ben@werd.social avatar

ben

@ben@werd.social

I lead technology at ProPublica and write speculative fiction. This is a personal account.

Every day, I write about tech, democracy, and society at https://werd.io.

More about me: https://about.werd.io

#indieweb #opensource #journalism #writing #fiction #blogs #blogging #startups #openweb #web #fediverse #socialweb #ethics #product #writingcommunity #philadelphia #sanfrancisco

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SwiftOnSecurity, to random

🧵 Europeans are subject to something called the Bread Tax. It's when cultures do not adapt to technological progress. European bread goes bad in a day or two, whereas American bread is good for weeks. For this reason, Europeans are forced into dense housing to be near new bread.

ben,
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@SwiftOnSecurity Good lord, these comments.

ben, to random
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There have been a whole bunch of Apple releases. But we're getting an event from them, soon, right? Which means they're going to talk about something else then.

(Man, their marketing is on point.)

ben, to ai
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“Rather than pointing to some future utopia (or robots vs. humans dystopia), what we face in dealing with programs like ChatGPT is the further relentless corrosiveness of late-stage capitalism, in which authorship is of no value. All that matters is content.” https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2023/05/15/chatgpt-artificial-intelligence-theft-245283?utm_source=werd.io&utm_campaign=mastodon&utm_channel=mastodon

ben, to random
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👀

ben, to random
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Good news: I was randomly sent a nice check.

Bad news: it’s from a class action suit because the lab that did my genetic testing to see if I had a terminal illness leaked everyone’s results.

ben, to random
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Giving people the tools to build community without being exploited for profit could change the world.

ben,
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@markmetz Hey, this very network is a sign that things are changing.

ben,
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@writingslowly They very much do. Agree on every point.

ben, to ai
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“Moreover, researchers have also discovered that it’s probably mathematically impossible to secure the training data for a large language model like GPT-4 or PaLM 2. This was outlined in a research paper that Google themselves tried to censor, an act that eventually led the Google-employed author, El Mahdi El Mhamdi, to leave the company. The paper has now been updated to say what the authors wanted it to say all along, and it’s a doozy.” https://softwarecrisis.dev/letters/google-bard-seo/?utm_source=werd.io&utm_campaign=mastodon&utm_channel=mastodon

ben, to random
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Remembering my mother today (and every day). https://werd.io/2021/what-do-i-want-you-to-know-about-ma

ben, to random
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Not proud.

ben,
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@AUROnline All in it’s 0.99€ per vote + tax to vote from the US.

ben,
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@AUROnline Nope. It’s Eurovision knowing its international audience a little too well.

ben, to random
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WHAT https://eurovision.tv/about/voting

liaizon, to random
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> "As for the people who live on planet ACAB, I'm afraid there's not much hope for them."

good thing I don't operate on hope and instead operate by helping with mutual aid projects, putting my time behind things I believe in and striving to live by my morals. planet ACAB is lovely this time of year

ben,
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@liaizon Yikes. Who said that? I think I know but ... [watches through fingers]

ben, to random
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New laptop sticker!

ben, to random
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Just as long as everyone who doesn't want search and analytics knows that this will prevent most organizations from using the platform, we're all good.

Adoption, for them, means justifying use to their bosses.

ben, to random
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Parents: I love the message behind Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes, but the text is ableist and the illustrations are in need of an update. What’s a more modern and inclusive book for small children that has a similar message?

cstross, to random
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Want a signed copy of SEASON OF SKULLS? Your go-to place for ordering them is my local indie SF bookstore, Transreal Fiction!

https://transreal.wordpress.com/2023/05/06/new-charles-stross-book/

ben,
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@cstross Transreal is one of the things I miss most about Edinburgh. Good choice!

ben, to random
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Interesting to see what creating a new startup entails in 2023. https://www.swyx.io/my-new-startup-checklist?utm_source=werd.io&utm_campaign=mastodon&utm_channel=mastodon

joshsternberg, to random

Twitter's new CEO, whomever she will be (my longshot is Erika Nardini, CEO of Barstool), is set up to fail. She won't be able to undo all that Elon did, and what Elon did destroyed the company.

ben,
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@joshsternberg And he’s sticking around as chair and CTO, right? So it’s ornamental.

Teri_Kanefield, to random

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    ben,
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    @Teri_Kanefield For what it's worth my understanding is that Jack is looking more closely at Nostr than Bluesky right now. I don't think he's actively involved.

    All these protocols do take different philosophical approaches. AP is more community-centric than AT. On one hand, that allows tight-knit communities to bloom. On the other, it makes it hard for organizations to justify their use to higher-ups, because analytics are next to impossible. So Mastodon is likely to remain less commercial.

    ben,
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    @Teri_Kanefield My take is still: it's all gravy. I do think Jay Graber and team are going about this with good intentions. I also, obviously, feel that way about Mastodon / AP.

    What I think is death is if these networks start taking pot shots at each other rather than lifting each other up. The bigger mission is a decentralized, open source social media landscape, not favor a particular technology.

    Very likely, both will win. Collaboration > competition.

    ben,
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    @fifilamoura @Teri_Kanefield Fair - but he's been taking pot shots on Nostr, so I think it's maybe not as active as we might imagine. (And this is what I understand from insiders.)

    anildash, to random
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    Okay, everybody tell us what your favorite file type is.

    ben,
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    @anildash Windows 3.1 HLP files.

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