John Laudun
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laudun.bsky.social
John Laudun
@laudun.bsky.social
250 followers 95 following 210 posts
People get around thanks to information. Information gets around thanks to people. It's all people and information.
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laudun.bsky.social
John Laudun @laudun.bsky.social · Sep 18
Not fair. You need to wait until I retire and come take workshops with you.
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laudun.bsky.social
John Laudun @laudun.bsky.social · Sep 17
@pbs.org's various Youtube channels are well worth checking it. Here's one from PBS Terra: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hxp...
These Ancient Footprints Rewrite North American History
YouTube video by PBS Terra
www.youtube.com
laudun.bsky.social
John Laudun @laudun.bsky.social · Sep 15
Same here! I tried to call in a prescription because I knew I was going to be traveling. I was too early. I waited 48 hours and I had entered that magical sweet spot. Next time I'm in, I am going to ask how early is too early!
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laudun.bsky.social
John Laudun @laudun.bsky.social · Sep 10
Yes, this.
laudun.bsky.social
John Laudun @laudun.bsky.social · Sep 9
If you want bleak, check out the punkrot genre of TTRPGs. There is such amazing creativity on display there (in the bleakest of ways).
laudun.bsky.social
John Laudun @laudun.bsky.social · Sep 5
I would like Apple News better if I could follow the WSJ reporting and never have to see a WSJ opinion. Anyone know how to do this?
laudun.bsky.social
John Laudun @laudun.bsky.social · Sep 5
To add a bit, and perhaps echo @dmimno.bsky.social, one thing to consider is the fuzzy boundaries of DH vis-a-vis computational social science(s) and information science(s). To some degree this resolves in the DIFI model of field as "who goes to the DH conference reliably."
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laudun.bsky.social
John Laudun @laudun.bsky.social · Sep 4
If this involves an old-fashioned printing press, color me green with envy. One of my dumbest moments was turning down the offer of a tabletop press. (To be fair I was in grad school and about to move and couldn't imagine loading it into my Toyota along with everything else.) Sigh.
laudun.bsky.social
John Laudun @laudun.bsky.social · Aug 30
All the "crazy" (racist, homophobic) uncles were dealt with in the usual way—uncomfortable silence, not invited to all events—until the internet made it possible for them to affirm each other.
laudun.bsky.social
John Laudun @laudun.bsky.social · Aug 27
Loading a 482MB audiobook onto my phone, I thought to myself, "Well, that would have fit on a CD." And I realized I have a host of obsolete measurements in my head: 4.7GB on a DVD. 360k on a single-sided floppy. What measurements do others still carry around?
laudun.bsky.social
John Laudun @laudun.bsky.social · Aug 26
Is it wrong that my first thought was: "Where is this code? I must try to blow up the planet."
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laudun.bsky.social
John Laudun @laudun.bsky.social · Aug 25
Well played, Best Choice. Well played.
laudun.bsky.social
John Laudun @laudun.bsky.social · Aug 25
I remember Henry Glassie once exclaiming that the phone book — remember those? — should include the times one was available to be phoned. I am reminded after a series of texts from an eager grad student starting at 10:30 last night. Different bio-clocks; different assumptions.
laudun.bsky.social
John Laudun @laudun.bsky.social · Aug 25
As someone who came into the profession as it was beginning to shrinking, I now realize that all the economic and demographic study was so much theater to undermine and dismantle higher education. The shift to MBA-oriented administrators only sped things up.
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laudun.bsky.social
John Laudun @laudun.bsky.social · Aug 22
Yup.
notalegalrecord.net Bony Skeletino 💀 @notalegalrecord.net · Aug 22
LLMs are purely statistical engines that operate on purely formal objects (character strings). We can “train” an LLM to distinguish true from false or fact from opinion or warranted from baseless just as soon as we can figure out how to reduce semantics and epistemology to syntax (which is never)
laudun.bsky.social
John Laudun @laudun.bsky.social · Aug 22
I should add that I understand you can add an author by first adding an editor and then changing them to an author, but, wow, that seems like unnecessary steps.
laudun.bsky.social
John Laudun @laudun.bsky.social · Aug 22
Why oh why is it so hard to add an essay published in a collection (edited by someone other than the essay author) to @zotero.org? A "Book Section" does not have a separate field for author. What am I missing?
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laudun.bsky.social
John Laudun @laudun.bsky.social · Aug 22
Helluva cover. I think I'm more interested in David Golumbia's book — because I think it offers greater insight — but that doesn't mean this book doesn't do some necessary work:
laudun.bsky.social
John Laudun @laudun.bsky.social · Aug 22
For those not familiar with Knowledge Commons, they offer an impressive array of features — digital repository, blogging, microblogging, and more — and at little to no cost. And they are building a foundation for the long haul.
kcommons.bsky.social Knowledge Commons @kcommons.bsky.social · Aug 22
Fun fact: did you know Knowledge Commons is a fully academy-run project? 😀 We're a small team based out of Michigan State University, but our team is spread all across the globe. 🌎

Learn more about Knowledge Commons here: about.hcommons.org
Knowledge Commons - Your Home for Digital Scholarly Work
For researchers, by researchers
about.hcommons.org
laudun.bsky.social
John Laudun @laudun.bsky.social · Aug 20
Is it weird that I am regularly surprised that macOS can't remember where I prefer windows when I switch from the docked monitor to just the laptop. It's always just one screen, and I pretty much put my windows in the same place (and size). This is something the OS should just do. @sixcolors.com
laudun.bsky.social
John Laudun @laudun.bsky.social · Aug 19
I say this having found that courses focused on things like "narrative games" make students uninterested in AI/LLMs. I know not everyone can, or wants to, make this switch. (I'm not a literature scholar but a folklorist.) But it's a good moment to rethink stale/staid curricula.
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laudun.bsky.social
John Laudun @laudun.bsky.social · Aug 19
I agree that writing will either retain or regain its value, but I don't think the same will be said for the gruesome composition courses that are the foundation of too many English department's raison d'etre. 1 / 2
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laudun.bsky.social
John Laudun @laudun.bsky.social · Aug 19
I've always enjoyed teaching Dick's "A Maze of Death" in my course where we explore disembodied AI. The readings stretch from Forster's "The Machine Stops" to Leinster's "A Logic Named Joe" through Ellison's "I Have No Mouth" and, of course, "The Forbin Project" to whatever texts are current.
jdp.extropian.net John David Pressman @jdp.extropian.net · Aug 19
Oh I see Philip K. Dick *is* the most relevant sci-fi author of the current moment. I'll have to look into this.
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Reposted by John Laudun
tedunderwood.com
Ted Underwood @tedunderwood.com · Aug 18
Nathan is trying to create a sputnik panic single-handedly, and I am here for it even if I'm actually more scared of most of these logos than of China
natolambert.bsky.social Nathan Lambert @natolambert.bsky.social · Aug 18
I made a snarky Western list to show how far behind we are in fostering an ecosystem vis a vis China.
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laudun.bsky.social
John Laudun @laudun.bsky.social · Aug 15
One of the fun parts of teaching an introduction to text analytics, especially in the era of LLMs and everything feeling solved, is students realizing just how hard it is to quantify so many dimensions of a text. (As a folklorist, I of course have a deep commitment to context.)
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