@dawnnafus@mastodon.social
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dawnnafus

@dawnnafus@mastodon.social

Anthropologist at a big tech co. I do responsible AI for work. On good days that includes decarbonizing what I can, where I can. On bad days it includes pencil pushing and bean counting. What I care about not at work is ecosystems, permaculture, justice, and a good cat or fungi pic. A day in pajamas doing nothing at all is a day well spent.

#sts #anthropology #responsibleAI #climate #sustainability #AIethics #climatejustice

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dawnnafus, to random
@dawnnafus@mastodon.social avatar

Scope creep:

"No no, these recordings are only for student use."
also, "aaannnd now we'll use them against you in an HR dispute".

I suspect @davidthewid might have had a more embodied response. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/academic-freedom/2024/05/20/letter-says-unc-chapel-hill-secretly-records

mariafarrell, to random
@mariafarrell@mastodon.social avatar

From me and @robin

Our piece for Noema magazine:

We Need to Rewild the Internet

Today’s concentrated, monopolistic internet isn’t too wild, even if it sometimes feels like that. It’s not wild enough!

https://www.noemamag.com/we-need-to-rewild-the-internet/

dawnnafus,
@dawnnafus@mastodon.social avatar

@mariafarrell @robin this is utterly brilliant. Thanks for writing it!

inquiline, to Energy
@inquiline@union.place avatar

Beneath the silicon, the petroleum (always)

🎁 https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/03/13/climate/electric-power-climate-change.html?unlocked_article_code=1.c00.Ciho.8DpYO7B6bGc3&smid=url-share

dawnnafus,
@dawnnafus@mastodon.social avatar

@otfrom @inquiline "Utilities also note that data centers and factories need power 24 hours a day, something wind and solar can’t do alone."

They forgot the scare quotes around "need"

Daojoan, to random
@Daojoan@mastodon.social avatar

Thank God international women's day is over I was getting worried someone might actually suggest some policies

dawnnafus,
@dawnnafus@mastodon.social avatar

@Daojoan Don't worry! At work we got pictures of inspiring ladies making inspiring-looking hearts with their fingers, with an inspirational quote about what inspires them. No policies to see here.

(this is totally real. I work in an engineering lab).

dawnnafus, to random
@dawnnafus@mastodon.social avatar

This is super depressing. How publishers are foisting marketing responsibility onto writers, and making it a gatekeeping function in the process.

https://www.vox.com/culture/2024/2/1/24056883/tiktok-self-promotion-artist-career-how-to-build-following

dawnnafus, to random
@dawnnafus@mastodon.social avatar

We anthropologists are typically terrible public communicators. Nice to see @jasonhickel doing an excellent job. https://inv.n8pjl.ca/watch?v=HckWP75yk9g

dawnnafus, to random
@dawnnafus@mastodon.social avatar

Just got wind of this new horror of "biodiversity trading markets" -- where companies can buy biodiversity credits every time they destroy land somewhere.

We've got to raise more of a stink about this. Utterly horrifying that people are trying to legitimize destroying one species in one place and support another somewhere else.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adg6823

dawnnafus, to random
@dawnnafus@mastodon.social avatar

is coming up. There will be promises to use AI to monitor air quality.

It'll be so easy, right?

I found out the hard way why it isn't.

https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2023/12/01/when-more-is-less-what-makes-environmental-data-useful/

dawnnafus, to random
@dawnnafus@mastodon.social avatar

@emilymbender and @alex Candidate for Mystery AI Hype Theater? https://arxiv.org/pdf/2310.13798.pdf

I can't stop staring at it, it's so bad it's good.

dawnnafus, to random
@dawnnafus@mastodon.social avatar

Was watching Oregon Field Guide, a local show about all things outdoors. There was a segment about sea star die off, and the biologist was asked about why sea stars were important.

She said something utterly profound and beautiful:

"A species shouldn't have to justify to you why they should exist."
https://www.pbs.org/video/sunflower-sea-stars-sqam11/

dawnnafus, to random
@dawnnafus@mastodon.social avatar

So pleasant when the thing that is supposed to be a shared project becomes a territorial pissing match to make sure the "shared" project doesn't step on the toes of the people who your "collaborators" really work for.

inquiline, to random
@inquiline@union.place avatar

deleted_by_author

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    dawnnafus,
    @dawnnafus@mastodon.social avatar

    @inquiline yup. Broke kneecap, was immobilized so long it froze and muscle atrophied completely. Had to relearn walking entirely. Stationary bike, bike, and more bike. No matter how slow, gets things moving in the right way.

    Good luck! Knees can really suck.

    danmcquillan, to random
    @danmcquillan@kolektiva.social avatar

    "The greatest risk is that large language models act as a form of ‘shock doctrine’, where the sense of world-changing urgency that accompanies them is used to transform social systems without democratic debate". Read more of my evidence to Parliament at https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/124038/pdf/

    source: https://twitter.com/jamestitcomb/status/1718271967617331466

    dawnnafus,
    @dawnnafus@mastodon.social avatar

    @danmcquillan I could not agree more with all of this.

    dawnnafus,
    @dawnnafus@mastodon.social avatar

    @danmcquillan Excellent question! I'm trying to do some writing on this very topic now. I'm currently drawing inspiration from the "Computing Within Limits" https://computingwithinlimits.org/2022/ papers, and the growing community (https://permacomputing.net/). I've just started "Insolvent" by @cbecker and can't say enough good things about "Digital Energetics" by @zgtcooper and @Aepasek. My stuff focuses on carbon-aware orchestration, really not AI, until it's AI. https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/21/6917

    dawnnafus, to Futurology
    @dawnnafus@mastodon.social avatar

    My partner Dan Jaffee isn't on social media, but he's put out a new book, and with it, this piece in The Conversation.

    Too good not to share.

    https://theconversation.com/when-communities-face-drinking-water-crises-bottled-water-is-a-temporary-solution-that-often-lasts-years-and-worsens-inequality-214615

    jentrification, to random
    @jentrification@mastodon.social avatar

    Men took over a job fair intended for women and nonbinary tech workers

    https://www.npr.org/2023/10/05/1203845886/women-tech-conference-men-grace-hopper

    dawnnafus,
    @dawnnafus@mastodon.social avatar

    @Adirondack @jentrification oh hey, I think I recognize that number! https://silo.tips/download/free-libre-and-open-source-software-policy-support-flosspols-3

    Also, those of us lucky folks who weren't laid off had our support networks decimated. It's like a booby prize. Shittier work all around.

    dawnnafus, to ai
    @dawnnafus@mastodon.social avatar

    Join us Oct 5 for a panel on what happens when responsible AI meets sustainability.


    https://greensoftware.foundation/articles/balancing-power-and-responsibility-gsf-s-ai-environmental-panel-preview

    dawnnafus, to random
    @dawnnafus@mastodon.social avatar

    🚨 Big Data & Society panel on data & labor. Mark yer calendars! https://bigdatasoc.blogspot.com/2023/09/colloquium.html

    timnitGebru, to ai
    @timnitGebru@dair-community.social avatar

    The field of is such junk pseudo science at this point. Which other field has its equivalent of Nobel prize winners going absolutely bonkers? Between him and Hinton and Yoshua Bengio (his brother has the complete opposite view at least) clown town is getting crowded.

    dawnnafus,
    @dawnnafus@mastodon.social avatar

    @emilymbender @timnitGebru @khorish @alex

    The irony is that two of the authors wrote an entirely unhinged paper in 2013 about computing when sustainability efforts fail and civilizations collapse. That paper bases its premise on such significant and rigorous scholarship as... wait for it... Jared Diamond. (????)

    This is the most WTF thing I've seen all day.

    dawnnafus,
    @dawnnafus@mastodon.social avatar

    @alex @emilymbender @timnitGebru @khorish

    https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2493431

    To be fair there are other papers in that genre that are much better. Some of the other authors have gone on to do great work. This one, though... yikes.

    dawnnafus, to foss
    @dawnnafus@mastodon.social avatar

    H/t @lightweight this https://cacophony.org.nz/blog/75 is everything you could want in a tech project. You know they are for real when they feel no need to use the phrase "AI for good." Oh, and it's , and Dept of Conservation funded. What's not to love?

    dawnnafus,
    @dawnnafus@mastodon.social avatar

    @lightweight

    Other things to love include a totally readable normal person's explanation for how the AI works https://cacophony.org.nz/how-accurate-artificial-intelligence-predator-recognition

    dawnnafus,
    @dawnnafus@mastodon.social avatar

    @lightweight
    and some indication that there is a relationship with the relevant local indigenous group (Ngāi Tahu). https://cacophony.org.nz/cacophony-project-community

    alberto_cottica, to climate
    @alberto_cottica@mastodon.green avatar

    "If you believe in , the burden of proof is on you". 10 minutes well spent if you want to get a fix on the feasibility of green growth: @timparrique at

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vij3Q6bE6X4&t=6s

    Edited to add a mention of Parrique's Mastodon account.

    dawnnafus,
    @dawnnafus@mastodon.social avatar

    @alberto_cottica @timparrique Holy crap this is the best 10 minutes I've spent watching anything in a long while. And I've had my head in this issue for a non-trivial amount of time.

    dawnnafus, to random
    @dawnnafus@mastodon.social avatar

    This from @pluralistic is spot on. https://www.tni.org/en/article/seizing-the-means-of-computation

    dawnnafus,
    @dawnnafus@mastodon.social avatar

    @frankboon Thanks, Witek, I wasn't sure how to handle that, or if the link was sufficient. Appreciate the heads up.

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