Ashe Dryden
@ashedryden.bsky.social
490 followers 290 following 360 posts
Studying the impact of tech on the most marginalized peoples informed by history, abolition, & my oversized heart. Made AlterConf & Fund Club. #STS #Sociology #PublicInterestTech #Tech #Surveillance #Inequality #AntiRacism #AntiCapitalist #AntiFascist
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An introduction! 🙆🏼‍♀️💕

I'm interested in how tech & society interact in ways that impact marginalized people.

I'm known for AlterConf & Fund Club.

I talk about sociology, tech, surveillance, anti-capitalism, & books. I’m interested in the history of white supremacy and anti-Black racism in the US.
Any remote (US) volunteer/part-time paid opportunities in criminal justice reform/transformative justice? Particularly interested in counteracting the use of police surveillance tools. My background is in sociology, computer science, and public interest technology. #JobSearch #NonProfitJobs
Reposted by Ashe Dryden
LMAO - so this "amazing new technology: is gonna be used for ads, porn, surveillance, and giving the illusion of efficiency (so greedy bosses fire half of their employees), while burning the planet? It definitely makes sense that universities are pushing it into every ffing task 🫠 #ResistAI
Oh good, ChatGPT is getting "erotica for verified adults" later this year
We made ChatGPT pretty restrictive to make sure we were being careful with mental health issues. We realize this made it less useful/enjoyable to many users who had no mental health problems, but given the seriousness of the issue we wanted to get this right.

Now that we have been able to mitigate the serious mental health issues and have new tools, we are going to be able to safely relax the restrictions in most cases.

In a few weeks, we plan to put out a new version of ChatGPT that allows people to have a personality that behaves more like what people liked about 4o (we hope it will be better!). If you want your ChatGPT to respond in a very human-like way, or use a ton of emoji, or act like a friend, ChatGPT should do it (but only if you want it, not because we are usage-maxxing).

In December, as we roll out age-gating more fully and as part of our “treat adult users like adults” principle, we will allow even more, like erotica for verified adults.
Reposted by Ashe Dryden
This is such a clever idea on taking kids to museums/galleries
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
Nadia from London has an idea that sounds such fun you'll be booking a day out asap.
"I've always loved museums," she says,
"but they can be overwhelming for children. For decades now, I've done something called 'playing postcards'
We do
the museum backwards, visiting the gift shop first. Each child gets to choose three postcards. Then they take it in turns to find that particular artwork in the museum and give us a little information about the piece from the details on the postcard, or from any gallery plaque. At the end of this treasure-hunt-style activity, we vote for our favourite in the cafe."
Reposted by Ashe Dryden
Reposted by Ashe Dryden
Tell me your bagel order and I will tell you *based on NYC cultural expectations* if you have won or lost your election for political office in NYC.
One of my favorite things about NYC is whenever anyone runs for office here they are required to disclose their bagel order.
These especially seem up my alley, thanks!
Yeah I would absolutely watch that
As always, I recommend looking at the trigger warnings in the links to TheStoryGraph before diving in <3

You can see the whole list here: bookshop.org/lists/micro-...

Do you have a favorite micro-history that I missed?
bookshop.org
The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson (app.thestorygraph.com/books/ce0f83...) An amazing tale of early epidemiological detective work, a doctor and a reverend in 1850's London attempt to unravel the mystery of why so many people are dying from cholera in a relatively concentrated area in Soho.
The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Steven Johnson
From Steven Johnson, the dynamic thinker routinely compared to James Gleick, Dava Sobel, and Malc...
app.thestorygraph.com
Inside the Dream Palace by Sherri Tippins (app.thestorygraph.com/books/29e77c...) Step into the storied life of New York's famed Chelsea Hotel. Home to Bob Dylan, Sid Vicious, Andy Warhol, Dylan Thomas, Dee Dee Ramone, Mark Twain, Janis Joplin, & Arthur C. Clarke. Its walls have seen a thing or two.
Inside the Dream Palace: The Life and Times of New York's Legendary Chelsea Hotel by Sherill Tippins
Winner of the Marfield Prize, National Award for Arts Writing "Tippins tells riveting stories abo...
app.thestorygraph.com
Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi (app.thestorygraph.com/books/f065e0...) This "definitive" book provides the evidence that racism isn't the result of some random ignorant people, but was an intentional, concerted effort to justify slavery and everything that would come after it.
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi
The National Book Award winning history of how racist ideas were created, spread, and deeply root...
app.thestorygraph.com
The Poison Squad by Deborah Blum (app.thestorygraph.com/books/a22ba5...) A companion to the previous. Covers the food adulteration rampant in the late 1800s/early 1900s, when capitalists realized they could stretch their product by adding fillers and hiding their rot with new chemical processes.
The Poison Squad: One Chemist's Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth Century by Deborah Blum
By the end of nineteenth century, food was dangerous. Lethal, even. "Milk" might contain formalde...
app.thestorygraph.com
The Poisoner's Handbook by Deborah Blum (app.thestorygraph.com/books/214c46...) A medical examiner and a toxicologist investigate deaths in 1920s NY. Cases include "a family mysteriously stricken bald, factory workers with crumbling bones, a diner serving poisoned pies" and more.
The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum
Deborah Blum, writing with the high style and skill for suspense that is characteristic of the ve...
app.thestorygraph.com
In the Kingdom of Ice by Hampton Sides (app.thestorygraph.com/books/1ca029...) Discover the North Pole with 32 men setting sail from SF! This is in an era when there was a widely-held theory that there was a hole at the top of the world that allowed people to travel into the world inside our own.
In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette by Hampton Sides
On July 8, 1879, Captain George Washington De Long and his team of thirty-two men set sail from S...
app.thestorygraph.com
Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall (app.thestorygraph.com/books/e91c94...) We don't often think about the consequences of geography. Take a tour through Russia, USA, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, Japan, Korea, Greenland, & more, revealing the almost predestined fate of these regions.
Prisoners of Geography, Volume 1: Ten Maps That Explain Everything about the World by Tim Marshall
In this New York Times bestseller, an award-winning journalist uses ten maps of crucial regions t...
app.thestorygraph.com
Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe (app.thestorygraph.com/books/257bf0...) Recounts the Troubles in Northern Ireland through the eyes of the people impacted by a Belfast mother's abduction by masked men. This is also a limited series on Hulu (US), though it was a little too violent for me.
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe
Masked intruders dragged Jean McConville, a 38-year-old widow and mother of 10, from her Belfast ...
app.thestorygraph.com
It's Friday, which means #FridayBookRecs! This week we are doing micro-histories, which are a social history of a specific thing. These are all written in a narrative-style, so if you're more of a fiction lover at heart, these will appeal to you, too. 📚
"Police spend considerably more time in Black neighborhoods, a disparity which persists after controlling for density, socioeconomics, and crime-driven demand for policing.[R]oughly half of observed racial disparities in arrests are associated with this exposure disparity" arxiv.org/abs/2109.12491
Smartphone Data Reveal Neighborhood-Level Racial Disparities in Police Presence
While extensive, research on policing in America has focused on documented actions such as stops and arrests -- less is known about patrolling and presence. We map the movements of over ten thousand p...
arxiv.org
I have not! I'll add it to my list <3
Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead (Oji-Cree, Canada) (app.thestorygraph.com/books/baaa75...)
Two spirit/Indigiqueer fiction. A cybersex worker in the city has to return to the reservation for his step-father's funeral, leading to a sense of growth and renewal.
Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead
WINNER, Lambda Literary Award "You're gonna need a rock and a whole lotta medicine" is a mantra t...
app.thestorygraph.com
Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich (Ojibwe, US) (app.thestorygraph.com/books/46502d...)
In a dystopian world where humans seem to be evolving backwards, a young pregnant woman is looking for her birth mom.
Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich
A New York Times Notable BookLouise Erdrich, the New York Times bestselling, National Book Award-...
app.thestorygraph.com
Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice (Wasauksing, Canada) (app.thestorygraph.com/books/3291f5...)
Another horror-ish novel part of a (currently) duology. The power goes out long-term in a remote Anishinaabe town. White men come seeking refuge, to disastrous results.
Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
A daring post-apocalyptic thriller from a powerful rising literary voiceWith winter looming, a sm...
app.thestorygraph.com
There There by Tommy Orange (Cheyenne & Arapaho, US) (app.thestorygraph.com/books/7cbab8...)
Follows multiple people on their way to the Big Oakland Powwow in CA. Each has their own struggles tied to histories of ancestral trauma, identity, and belonging.
There There by Tommy Orange
ONE OF THE 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR--THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW WINNER OF THE CENTER FOR FIC...
app.thestorygraph.com