Howard Rheingold
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hrheingold.bsky.social
Howard Rheingold
@hrheingold.bsky.social
2.5K followers 750 following 360 posts
Artist. Used to write books, teach college students, lecture. My current writing and art: patreon.com/howardrheingold
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Reposted by Howard Rheingold
hrheingold.bsky.social
I see that I was added to a blocklist because I posted this article about AI that isn't entirely negative. And I posted a neutral comment about my physician using AI. Is that really how it works around here?
December 19, 2025 at 5:33 PM
hrheingold.bsky.social
I see that I was added to a blocklist because I posted this article about AI that isn't entirely negative. And I posted a neutral comment about my physician using AI. Is that really how it works around here?
December 19, 2025 at 5:33 PM
hrheingold.bsky.social
My pcp looked at my chart on his computer screen while querying chatGPT on his phone

2025-physicians-ai-report.offcall.com
2025 Physicians AI report
The 2025 Physicians AI Report By Offcall. We polled 1,000+ physicians across 106 specialties to understand how physicians really feel about AI in medicine.
2025-physicians-ai-report.offcall.com
December 18, 2025 at 12:20 AM
Reposted by Howard Rheingold
hrheingold.bsky.social
1994: people.well.com/user/hlr/tom...
The Tragedy of the Electronic Commons
people.well.com
December 11, 2025 at 7:24 PM
Reposted by Howard Rheingold
hrheingold.bsky.social
Intention: Critical Creativity in the Classroom Foreword

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkJg...
Intention: Critical Creativity in the Classroom Foreword by Howard Rheingold
YouTube video by Amy Burvall
www.youtube.com
December 11, 2025 at 9:59 PM
hrheingold.bsky.social
Intention: Critical Creativity in the Classroom Foreword

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkJg...
Intention: Critical Creativity in the Classroom Foreword by Howard Rheingold
YouTube video by Amy Burvall
www.youtube.com
December 11, 2025 at 9:59 PM
hrheingold.bsky.social
1994: people.well.com/user/hlr/tom...
The Tragedy of the Electronic Commons
people.well.com
December 11, 2025 at 7:24 PM
Reposted by Howard Rheingold
hrheingold.bsky.social
Educational institutions proved not to be up to the task over a decade ago when they failed to teach crap detection around internet search.
December 7, 2025 at 11:51 PM
Reposted by Howard Rheingold
hrheingold.bsky.social
Bitter lesson of the degradation of the online commons: although vendors of digital media failed to recognize it, literacy and know-how are not externalities. Will llm vendors enable their media products to teach people how to use them?
December 7, 2025 at 11:50 PM
hrheingold.bsky.social
Bitter lesson of the degradation of the online commons: although vendors of digital media failed to recognize it, literacy and know-how are not externalities. Will llm vendors enable their media products to teach people how to use them?
December 7, 2025 at 11:50 PM
hrheingold.bsky.social
www.checkology.org

news literacy, crap detection for elementary school students
Checkology
www.checkology.org
December 4, 2025 at 11:38 PM
Reposted by Howard Rheingold
taonf.bsky.social
Exiles on Mind Street
• Spoonman
• Justin Hall
• Vagabond Jim
• Howard Rheingold @hrheingold.bsky.social

Interview by R.U. Sirius @rusirius.bsky.social
Photos by RE: DESIGN
#Mondo2000 #Cyberpunk
archive.org/details/Mond...
In some sense, they're part of a community of idealistic exiles from Hotwired, hired there to build a cutting edge webzine only to be shunted aside for taking the medium where it wants to go. But in the process of dreaming a beautiful web of communities, they couldn't stop dreaming. And so there evolved Jonathan Steuer's Cyborganic, a web and In-Real-Life community that has succeeded in becoming a vital center among the younger techno-hippie types. And there's the other exiled Hotwired web-master, Brian Bellendorf's own Organic Online, running in parallel to Cyborganic—more a link in the Web than a competitor. And now, here comes the man his-self, the boomer Editor-In-Chief of networking idealism, dOOds and gurls... it's Howard! He of the infamous psychedelic tennis sneakers, now electric Kinko's. He edited the Whole Earth Review for many years and was deeply involved in the influential online community, The Well. When The Well, under new management, showed a disinterest in the opinions of its netizens, he lead a small troop of pilgrims off to form The River, a cooperative bbs that hasn't quite jelled yet, but is still trying. And now, he's front page techno-news with Electric Minds, a webzine-in-progress with some apparent wallop. With his partner, Randy Haykin, founding vice president of sales and marketing for Yahoo!, providing business cred, Electric Minds announced itself BIG as "pioneer-ing the social Web... the next phase of the Virtual Community Movement." Of course, press releases are supposed to be declamatory. In person, Howard Rheingold carries a degree of skepticism, partly the result of being portrayed as a naïve, over-optimistic fool. I can relate. Howard's team is a kind of who's who of net activism, ranging from the ridiculously young to the boomerly, with voices ranging from utopian (Mark Pesce) to cynical (Bob Rossney). Camped on the outskirts of San Francisco's trendy Silicon Gulch, down by the waterfront in the old software district, the Electric Minds office is in chaos when I arrive. They're still moving in. Furniture is upended. There's no receptionist. Howard throws himself down on a beanbag chair and introduces me to the staff members who happen to be available for today's discussion. I'm a little disappointed that it's a boys club. They all remain at their computers-talking and tapping at keys simultaneously—supergeek parallel processing. Let's meet them: • Spoonman: No, not that really old guy in the Soundgarden video who plays with spoons. In his forties, this Spoonman (aka Mark Petrakis) is famous in the Bay Area for his big chaotic live Electronie Vaudeville spectacles. His Cobra Lounge performance gatherings are living proof that performance art can be big fan. A networking veteran, he was putting together a San Francisco-based SF/Telecircus, originally for inclusion in Hotwired, when the winds of change shifted. So now he's putting together the multimedia Worldwide Jam section for Electric Minds. • Justin Hall: Don't let his unconscionably pretty face and generally sweet disposition fool you. 22-year-old Justin Hall can be a sharp young smartass when he wants to be. The kid virtually conquered the Web with "Justin's Links from the Underground." In those prehistoric days of the Web about a year or so ago, you might have heard his name whispered in awe among net surfers. Too young to have a Curriculum Vitae, he may never need one in the conventional sense. • Vagabond Jim: Previous to designing the entire website for Sega at the age of 19, Jim's basic experience was being a kid and then being a young man in college. Oh yes, and being an acid head. Now he's the Production Manager. Pace: Some will probably bristle at having Electric Minds portrayed largely as a vision-in-exile from Hotwired but what the hell, anything for a good title. And I just wanted to be able to say "USE THE FORCE, HOWARD!" —R.U. Sirius HOW DID THEY GET LIKE THIS? R.U. Sirius: Howard, there seems to be a trajectory around your involvement in net community activism. It runs from The Well to a period where you attempted to edit Hotwired. And then you started The River, a co-op bbs made up primarily of wellheads distressed by the activities of the new owner, Jonathan Katz. And now you're into Electric Minds. Howard Rheingold: The Well experience was one where the notion that users can create the content 1st became deeply ingrained. And participating in a public discourse online is certainly something I like to do. It's a habit that I've had for more than ten years now... hours a day! So, despite an increasing awareness of the pitfalls, I'm still a believer in the potential of the Internet for many-to-many communications. Some of that is just for business. Mostly frivolity. But sometimes community actually happens. That's the foundation. See, it's not just, "Here we are. We're the publishers. We’ll sell you this stuff and you give us your money. And we'll sell your attention to advertisers." It's a new kind of medium where the audience becomes part of the show. Now, the whole Hotwired debacle had it's roots in a time when Jonathan Steuer was a grad student at Stanford. He had the keys to a terminal room that had a bunch of work stations and a Tl connection. So people would head down to Stanford from San Francisco late at night, bring a bunch of junk food and some tunes. We'd sneak into this room and have fun with the Net… So I got drawn into creating Hotwired through Jonathan. It was really Jonathan and I and Louis and Barbara planning out the original design. But, ultimately there were two conflicting visions. There was the vision of people who really live online, a populist vision of this many-to-many medium. And then there was the idea that it's a franchise of Wired… Anyway, some of the things that I wanted to do when I first saw the Web, and didn't get to do for Hotwired, I still want to do. HR: Wouldn't it be great if Americans supported the artists with their tax dollars? Wouldn't it be great if we didn't have to sell ads in order to pay people decently? If you're an artist in the Netherlands, the money appears in your bank account every month. Of course, there's a 60% income tax rate… So, the question, is this commodification? Yes it is. I wish it didn't have to be. What's the solution? The working classes are going to revolt and set up a dictatorship of the proletariat and then resources will be allocated fairly? RU: But just looking at it from a really broad perspective, not taking it so personally. Looking at the amount of money being made off the Net and the Web. Contrast that with the value being put into this system by content providers and what we're getting in return. Shouldn't some of this money go back in the other direction? It could be a resolution to the unemployment problem... lots of people paid to be content providers.. HR: Yeah, I like the idea. We're trying to do just that. It starts with a minority of people being paid to make great conversation. That's a start. The whole idea of The River is exactly that. The people who make the conversation, which is the content, which is the product, own and govern it. It's a co-op. Of course, the thing is that co-ops are really raucous and endlessly argumentative. Endless boring arguments till the only people left are the ones who like to argue. Either way, there's problems. I think one thing that's uniquely American is that we think that problems have solutions. VJ: But one of the things I love here is that every time I come to work, something new happens that changes how you think about things. Different approaches to design. Things come up that I wouldn't think of if it weren't for the creative environment and collaboration. Things happen in your brain that wouldn't ordinarily happen. It's why I like drugs and it's why I like collaborations. The people around you modify your brain.
November 29, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Reposted by Howard Rheingold
hrheingold.bsky.social
www.patreon.com/collection/1...
Art Making and the Life Force | Collection from Howard Rheingold | 6 posts
Get more from Howard Rheingold on Patreon
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November 25, 2025 at 12:50 AM
hrheingold.bsky.social
www.patreon.com/collection/1...
Art Making and the Life Force | Collection from Howard Rheingold | 6 posts
Get more from Howard Rheingold on Patreon
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November 25, 2025 at 12:50 AM
Reposted by Howard Rheingold
hrheingold.bsky.social
If you want to see how chatGPT can be both incompetent and dishonest:

chatgpt.com/share/6920be...
ChatGPT - Printable Cardboard Zip‑Glider with Ring Target
Shared via ChatGPT
chatgpt.com
November 21, 2025 at 7:38 PM
hrheingold.bsky.social
If you want to see how chatGPT can be both incompetent and dishonest:

chatgpt.com/share/6920be...
ChatGPT - Printable Cardboard Zip‑Glider with Ring Target
Shared via ChatGPT
chatgpt.com
November 21, 2025 at 7:38 PM
Reposted by Howard Rheingold
hrheingold.bsky.social
Read and support my writing and art-making at patreon.com/howardrheing...
Howard Rheingold | Patreon
creating Links, videos, paintings, magical objects of paint & li
patreon.com
November 19, 2025 at 8:51 PM
hrheingold.bsky.social
Read and support my writing and art-making at patreon.com/howardrheing...
Howard Rheingold | Patreon
creating Links, videos, paintings, magical objects of paint & li
patreon.com
November 19, 2025 at 8:51 PM
hrheingold.bsky.social
Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/19/o...
Opinion | I’m Building an Algorithm That Doesn’t Rot Your Brain
www.nytimes.com
November 19, 2025 at 6:30 PM
hrheingold.bsky.social
intlekt.io/2025/11/14/h...
Human Intelligence, the Secret of Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence is mysterious: we speak to it and it seems to understand what we say. Proof that it understands is that it responds with text or speech that makes sense, and sometimes more …
intlekt.io
November 14, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Reposted by Howard Rheingold
hrheingold.bsky.social
Patreon recently enabled me to group my posts into thematic collections:

AI

Cooperation Theory

Social Media

Creative Process

Howard's Artobiography

Learning

Technology Criticism

www.patreon.com/posts/collec...
Collections of my posts | Howard Rheingold
Get more from Howard Rheingold on Patreon
www.patreon.com
November 13, 2025 at 10:45 PM
hrheingold.bsky.social
Patreon recently enabled me to group my posts into thematic collections:

AI

Cooperation Theory

Social Media

Creative Process

Howard's Artobiography

Learning

Technology Criticism

www.patreon.com/posts/collec...
Collections of my posts | Howard Rheingold
Get more from Howard Rheingold on Patreon
www.patreon.com
November 13, 2025 at 10:45 PM
Reposted by Howard Rheingold
linasrivastava.bsky.social
Today is the 4th anniversary of the @cftchange.bsky.social . To celebrate, we are launching our framework, "Narrative Infrastructure for Narrative Power."
A brief introduction to the "Narrative Infrastructure for Narrative Power" framework from the Center for Transformational Change, to support those dedicated to building the systems behind narrative change and narrative power.
September 29, 2025 at 4:42 PM
hrheingold.bsky.social
www.noemamag.com/we-failed-th...
We Failed The Misinformation Fight. Now What? | NOEMA
Defending democracy in the digital age will require moving beyond the focus of fighting online misinformation.
www.noemamag.com
November 9, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Reposted by Howard Rheingold
hrheingold.bsky.social
20 years ago, I gave a TED talk calling for an interdisciplinary study of cooperation. 15 years ago, I taught an online introduction to cooperation studies Now the University of Arizona launches the cooperative Futures Institute.

www.cooperativefutures.org
Cooperative Futures Institute
The Cooperative Futures Institute (CFI) unites researchers, innovators, and communities to co-design technologies, policies, and practices that make cooperation work—from human–AI systems to disaster ...
www.cooperativefutures.org
November 7, 2025 at 7:17 PM