@pluralistic@mamot.fr
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pluralistic

@pluralistic@mamot.fr

By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C)
@doctorow.

Archived at pluralistic.net

I post long threads. If you don't like these in your timeline but want to read them, I suggest unfollowing me here and subscribing to my RSS, or my newsletter, or any of my various long-form feeds. Links at https://pluralistic.net.

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maia, to random
pluralistic, to random
@pluralistic@mamot.fr avatar

One of my favorite nuggets of writing advice comes from James D Macdonald. Jim, a Navy vet with an encylopedic knowledge of gun lore, explained to a group of non-gun people how to write guns without getting derided by other gun people: "just add the word 'modified.'"

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/27/cmon-do-it-again/#better_to_remain_silent_and_be_thought_a_fool_than_to_speak_and_remove_all_doubt

1/

18+ Bananaphone,

@pluralistic I’m chuckling to myself while imagining an author taking that advice to satirical extremes, while picturing gun nuts just seething. “Her modified .22 revolver sent shockwaves through the building as she fired 10, 15, 20 shots, non-stop, ripping basketball sized holes through the concrete walls, and shattering windows in every building on the block”

mattdm,
@mattdm@hachyderm.io avatar

@pluralistic

This is also a great tactic when running a D&D game! Inevitably, no matter how clear the clues you think you are dropping for your clever puzzle, the players will come up with some complicated complely wrong answer.

Solution: don't even bother with more than a vague idea of the right answer. Go with what the players come up with (maybe after foiling an idea or two to make it a challenge). Now, you've done less work, the players feel satisfyingly clever, and think you clever too!

MattMerk,
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

@mattdm @pluralistic We’ve all been guilty of this at some point. 😆

baldur, to random
@baldur@toot.cafe avatar

Not going to link to the actual review because I don’t care and will not care about the movie in question, but I find it interesting how quickly and thoroughly the meaning of “AI” in the public vocabulary as shifted from “futuristic automated intelligence” to “bad and lazily made”

Npars01,
@Npars01@mstdn.social avatar

@baldur

The word I see used most often is enshittification.

As @pluralistic points out monopolies produce worse outcomes not better. Even the elevated profits have life spans of a mayfly. Brief.

AI is wasteful conspicuous consumption combined with an anti-democracy movement, profligate energy usage, and anti-worker ideology.

nixCraft, to random
@nixCraft@mastodon.social avatar

Google Ad from 1999. https://www.instagram.com/blackcactusx/p/C4llg93IaGb/

pluralistic, to random
@pluralistic@mamot.fr avatar

Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: Against Lore; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/27/cmon-do-it-again/

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megmuttonhead,
@megmuttonhead@mas.to avatar

@pluralistic I’m reading it now!

It’s excellent, and the vision of how we could begin to express the best we could be instead of the worst is both inspiring and terrifying—terrifying because I am on tenterhooks with worry about the harm a backlash might cause the protagonist and his allies.

I love it, but it’s also a scary, scary book to read, because its hopefulness makes clear what we have to lose (now as well as in the near future of the book).

ricmac, to random
@ricmac@mastodon.social avatar

An increasingly familiar discussion about link rot, this one initiated by Rafe Needleman on LinkedIn (hat-tip @pluralistic and @judell). https://www.linkedin.com/posts/rafeneedleman_pluralistic-linkrot-21-may-2024-activity-7199527942530490368-qRc-?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios

ricmac,
@ricmac@mastodon.social avatar

@pluralistic @judell I did a big archive project on my old ReadWriteWeb articles back in 2017, linking them all to @internetarchive versions. And that was before RWW got onsold to a scammer gambling company! So glad the Wayback Machine exists. I also have offline backups of all my articles. But of course, I wish I had backed them up at the time, instead of many years later. https://ricmac.org/2017/07/12/creating-an-archive/

MattMerk, to random
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

This may be my favorite @pluralistic post of all. A must read for writers and artists!

The “modified” hack is definitely going into my toolbox.

I loved seeing a Leverage reference (a show I worked on for years).

I loved the bit on comedy: “[The audience member’s] mind is furiously trying to defuse the comedian's bomb before it detonates.” Having done stand up myself, when they do diffuse it first, you are the one that bombs!

And much, much more… https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/112514085581355762

cadellin,
@cadellin@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

@MattMerk @pluralistic this is excellent. It reminds me a lot of the guidelines for writing SCPs- the use of blackout text should be reserved for moments where the reader's imagination is scarier than anything you could put down in that space.

Lumii, to random

📖 Fantastic book! 🎧

The Internet Con | @pluralistic

Via my local
Check out The Internet Con on hoopla digital.
https://www.hoopladigital.com/title/16165919

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

Not enough people realize that the "Turing Test" as originally presented was "can a gay English man in 1945 tell the difference between a chatbot and a femme-coded woman" over a teletype connection.

(Turing was very gay and had a sex-segregated education and then work life: he basically didn't know women and his alienation is palpable. But today's techbros don't have any such excuse, and the emphasis on femme-coded AI is ... telling.)
https://mastodon.xyz/@pmorinerie/112506480363973206

davidho, to random
@davidho@mastodon.world avatar

Lamppost EV chargers are the answer to how you charge your vehicle in cities.

This is possible because when energy intensive street lamps were replaced by LEDs, there’s excess power for charging EVs.

All cities should do this. ⚡️

h/t Robert Llewllyn

lumii, to Podcast
@lumii@fediverse.fun avatar

🎧 – @pluralistic craphound.com: Wanna Make Monopolies Even Worse? Kill

Episode webpage: https://craphound.com/news/2024/05/26/wanna-make-big-tech-monopolies-even-worse-kill-section-230/

Media file: https://ia902908.us.archive.org/3/items/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_468/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_468_-_Wanna_Make_Big_Tech_Monopolies_Even_Worse_Kill_Section_230.mp3

pluralistic, to random
@pluralistic@mamot.fr avatar

It's the start of a long weekend and I've found myself with a backlog of links, so it's time for another linkdump - the eighteenth in the (occasional) series. Here's the previous installments:

https://pluralistic.net/tag/linkdump/

--

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/25/anthology/#lol-no

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Niall,
@Niall@mastodon.nz avatar

@weaselx86 @pluralistic that's a fantastic response to a disingenuous threat.

weaselx86,
@weaselx86@mastodon.social avatar

@pluralistic

“[t]he LAPD is not expected to like the existence of ‘Fck the LAPD’ merchandise. But their sole remedy is to not do things that result in people wanting to buy and wear ‘Fck the LAPD’ merchandise.” That may be difficult, he conceded, “[b]ut I promise you it would still be easier than trying to get a court to rule” that these shirts are infringing.

https://www.loweringthebar.net/2024/05/lol-no-explained.html

sfoskett,
@sfoskett@techfieldday.net avatar

@weaselx86 @pluralistic Mike Dunford is an American hero!

tanyatussing, to random
@tanyatussing@mastodon.social avatar

What a wonderful North Star. May we find a way to that reality, @janhoglund

"technology operated by and for the people who use it."
— @pluralistic

https://mastodon.nu/@janhoglund/112505686320693585

pluralistic, to random
@pluralistic@mamot.fr avatar

Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: Inkjump Linkdump; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/25/anthology/

1/

steve_zeke,
@steve_zeke@freeradical.zone avatar

@pluralistic
Love the photo! My wife is a fiber artist and she’s created boro-inspired work (along with many other styles). I can’t wait to show her your photo.

bruces, to random
@bruces@mastodon.social avatar

"Humor is a human phenomenon"

*Is this actually true? It must be true of verbal humor -- but maybe there are animals funnier than people, when seen by animal standards

ramsey,
@ramsey@phpc.social avatar

@bruces @pluralistic I don’t know about humor, but animals certainly do things for the fun of it. When it snows, my dog can’t wait to go out and run in it; she’s old but acts like a puppy in the snow. I saw a recent article about the orcas attacking boats, and it seems more likely that it’s a group of juveniles having fun. The same article mentioned a group of orcas who started wearing salmon on their heads, just for fun.

joquid, to random
@joquid@mstdn.social avatar

@pluralistic

Never judge a book by its cover!

One would think, based on the title, that would be an inherently bleak outlook of our future in the climate catastrophe - this couldn't be further from the truth!

Upon finishing this novel, I'm left with hope and reinvigorated optimism for what we can achieve in the battle for this planet's future.

bruces, to random
@bruces@mastodon.social avatar

*What would "animal humor" even look like -- practical jokes, deception, physical slapstick, mime, camouflage, maybe some comic songs

polotek, to random
@polotek@social.polotek.net avatar

We got solar on the house last year. It wasn't necessarily about saving money for me. It became important to me to take a concrete step towards combatting climate change.

But something else started to dawn on me too. The fact that I'm now generating my own power, from an essentially unlimited source, is a truly radical act. I've been thinking a lot about creating a society centered around abundance instead of scarcity. It's not just theoretical.
https://assemblag.es/@theluddite/112496059286904697

virtuous_sloth,
@virtuous_sloth@cosocial.ca avatar

@tastyraspberry @polotek @pluralistic Indeed. Me too. Coincidentally, I'm re-reading Walkaway right now because I got interrupted 7 years ago.

lproven, to random
@lproven@vivaldi.net avatar

Asset strippers. Darlings of the stock markets, and the worst scum in the world, more evil than any robbers or thieves.

Investors – The Markets – drive the military-industrial complex that is killing the planet & humanity. These people are killing our children.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/23/spineless/ by @pluralistic

dbrand666,
@dbrand666@mastodon.social avatar

@markslater @lproven @pluralistic
At least you know you don't have a proper pension. Pity the poor saps who thought they had security til the vultures swooped down on their pension funds.

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