Reposted by Quantum
Who could have predicted that an early adulthood glued to the Barbelith Magick forum would leave me perfectly equipped to cope with the world of 2025?
"We need a killer AI use case."
"Say no more - I humbly present the Rex City-Zen simulator."
"We need a killer AI use case."
"Say no more - I humbly present the Rex City-Zen simulator."
December 17, 2025 at 1:24 PM
Who could have predicted that an early adulthood glued to the Barbelith Magick forum would leave me perfectly equipped to cope with the world of 2025?
"We need a killer AI use case."
"Say no more - I humbly present the Rex City-Zen simulator."
"We need a killer AI use case."
"Say no more - I humbly present the Rex City-Zen simulator."
Reposted by Quantum
Oh beautiful bridge on the river Moray!
You have fallen down, and I'm sorry to say
That our public finances are in such disarray
It seems (as of the date I write this rhyme)
You will remain down for a very long time
You have fallen down, and I'm sorry to say
That our public finances are in such disarray
It seems (as of the date I write this rhyme)
You will remain down for a very long time
That old stick about the Roman Empire, and how the actual sign of the collapse was a bridge falling down and nobody coming to fix it.
Replacing collapsed bridge 'nigh on impossible' cost for council
The Spey Viaduct was completed in 1886 but partially collapsed into the Moray river at the weekend.
www.bbc.co.uk
December 17, 2025 at 11:35 AM
Oh beautiful bridge on the river Moray!
You have fallen down, and I'm sorry to say
That our public finances are in such disarray
It seems (as of the date I write this rhyme)
You will remain down for a very long time
You have fallen down, and I'm sorry to say
That our public finances are in such disarray
It seems (as of the date I write this rhyme)
You will remain down for a very long time
Reposted by Quantum
Oh, you were worried about the replication crisis? Have I got news for you!
Did you know that from tomorrow, Qualtrics is offering synthetic panels (AI-generated participants)?
Follow me down a rabbit hole I'm calling "doing science is tough and I'm so busy, can't we just make up participants?"
Follow me down a rabbit hole I'm calling "doing science is tough and I'm so busy, can't we just make up participants?"
December 17, 2025 at 1:55 PM
Oh, you were worried about the replication crisis? Have I got news for you!
Reposted by Quantum
Reposted by Quantum
Quick question, did anything happen in 2008 that prompted the tightening of financial rules
Bessent: "These 2008, 2009, 2010 financial rules were too tight. They hamstrung the American financial system. It was time for a change ... we have to take the financial system out of this straitjacket ... the regulated system is too constrained."
December 16, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Quick question, did anything happen in 2008 that prompted the tightening of financial rules
Reposted by Quantum
I can't believe I have to say this, but please do not take revolutionary OPSEC advice from YA novels Cory Doctorow wrote almost twenty years ago.
December 16, 2025 at 12:54 AM
I can't believe I have to say this, but please do not take revolutionary OPSEC advice from YA novels Cory Doctorow wrote almost twenty years ago.
Reposted by Quantum
Oh. Oh no. Oh no.
Relevant to a convo here a couple days ago re: yuppies. Apparently The Youth who lack the context see the yuppie neighbors in Christmas Vacation as aspirational rather than deserving of everything that happens to them by dint of being yuppies
December 16, 2025 at 1:51 AM
Oh. Oh no. Oh no.
Reposted by Quantum
Why should other countries sign deals with the United States when this president is breaking **his own deals** after less than 6 months?
www.reuters.com/world/europe...
www.reuters.com/world/europe...
US suspends technology deal with Britain, FT reports
The United States has suspended a technology deal it struck with Britain earlier this year, which was intended to boost ties in artificial intelligence, quantum computing and civil nuclear energy, the...
www.reuters.com
December 16, 2025 at 2:07 AM
Why should other countries sign deals with the United States when this president is breaking **his own deals** after less than 6 months?
www.reuters.com/world/europe...
www.reuters.com/world/europe...
Reposted by Quantum
whoever is writing reality lately is really getting heavy-handed with it. no subtlety at all
WATCH: Replica of the Statue of Liberty topples due to strong winds in Guaíba, Brazil
December 15, 2025 at 11:25 PM
whoever is writing reality lately is really getting heavy-handed with it. no subtlety at all
Reposted by Quantum
AI doomerism is marketing and pure grift. AI doomerists talk about non-specific harms in a non-specific future, and never address today's harms because doing so would cut off their ability to make more money. They don't give a shit about you.
www.wheresyoured.at/ai-mythbuste...
www.wheresyoured.at/ai-mythbuste...
![Doomerism Is Marketing, and Superintelligence is Bullshit
Please note that the people who talk about the “dangers of AI” very rarely talk about anything happening today, because talking about what’s happening today would require them to do something. Those who claim “we’re not ready for powerful AI” are simultaneously promoting the current slate of LLM tech, hinting strongly that LLMs will, at some point, magically wake up and turn into a conscious computer, all so that you can look to them for what to do next.
At that point they don’t tell you anything, other than that we should be terribly afraid, and that you need to keep inviting them places so that they can give talks about how “rogue AI will manipulate people to stop it from being switched off.”
While there are some that might be good-intentioned, I believe a lot of AI doomerism comes from a deeply cynical place — the knowledge that regular people are genuinely scared that the people who run tech companies are evil and may be on the brink of creating a powerful superintelligence that they control.
LLMs do not “know” anything. They have reams of training data and they are, at their core, predicting what the thing they’re meant to spit out is based on what you feed them. And when you understand that, they become a lot less scary.
AI doomerists don’t talk about this because it’s blatantly obvious that there’s no way to logically jump from LLMs to anything they’re talking about, and thus they must keep things vague, like any good con artist or cult leader. You must remain scared, confused, untrusting but also directionless, other than your continued fealty and willingness to spread the gospel of “something might happen one day.”
And nowhere was that more egregious than in the creation of AI 2027, a blog that should have its authors [redacted].](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:qc6xzgctorfsm35w6i3vdebx/bafkreif5iqx3gi3axinlu6i7rrxns4ybu6qb754u5sgl2yre2y6ymvdebm@jpeg)
December 15, 2025 at 6:38 PM
AI doomerism is marketing and pure grift. AI doomerists talk about non-specific harms in a non-specific future, and never address today's harms because doing so would cut off their ability to make more money. They don't give a shit about you.
www.wheresyoured.at/ai-mythbuste...
www.wheresyoured.at/ai-mythbuste...
Reposted by Quantum
Art by • Greg Staples
December 16, 2025 at 5:48 AM
Art by • Greg Staples
Reposted by Quantum
John Oliver really was not kidding about the overwhelming rebellious power of just saying “Fuck you, make me.”
we can kill them all if we just work together and ✨believe💫
December 15, 2025 at 8:49 PM
John Oliver really was not kidding about the overwhelming rebellious power of just saying “Fuck you, make me.”
Reposted by Quantum
This world needs an intervention.
Art by Martin Hoffman for The Visitors (Clifford D Simak, 1980)
Art by Martin Hoffman for The Visitors (Clifford D Simak, 1980)
December 16, 2025 at 8:17 AM
This world needs an intervention.
Art by Martin Hoffman for The Visitors (Clifford D Simak, 1980)
Art by Martin Hoffman for The Visitors (Clifford D Simak, 1980)
Reposted by Quantum
Absolutely summarises my approach to forcibly "licensing" my copyright to LLMs.
I don’t want 0.0000001p. That doesn’t help.
I want you to fuck off.
I want you to fuck off.
December 16, 2025 at 9:53 AM
Absolutely summarises my approach to forcibly "licensing" my copyright to LLMs.
Reposted by Quantum
95% of the population are against it, but then the other 5% are rich and important, so: an impossible choice to make 🤷🙏
December 16, 2025 at 11:05 AM
95% of the population are against it, but then the other 5% are rich and important, so: an impossible choice to make 🤷🙏
Reposted by Quantum
When 97% is 'no clear consensus', and 52% is 'the will of the people', it's time to face facts that Governments do what Governments want to do regardless of what their people actually want.
December 16, 2025 at 9:30 AM
When 97% is 'no clear consensus', and 52% is 'the will of the people', it's time to face facts that Governments do what Governments want to do regardless of what their people actually want.
Reposted by Quantum
My first post’s a painting of a Brighton Pavilion bus stop.
November 13, 2024 at 5:45 PM
My first post’s a painting of a Brighton Pavilion bus stop.
Reposted by Quantum
This week’s column on the rise and normalisation of racism in both social and political discourse, and why that’s not just a right problem. The political establishment (and Labour in particular), is entirely absent or reckless when it comes to tackling racism, and how it is linked to immigration.
Welcome to the twilight zone where Nigel Farage can be accused of racism yet still lead the polls | Nesrine Malik
Welcome to the twilight zone where Nigel Farage can be accused of racism yet still lead the polls | Nesrine Malik
After weeks of allegations of schoolboy racism, the Reform leader is doubling down. And our political establishment is allowing it, says Guardian columnist Nesrine Malik
www.theguardian.com
December 15, 2025 at 11:47 AM
This week’s column on the rise and normalisation of racism in both social and political discourse, and why that’s not just a right problem. The political establishment (and Labour in particular), is entirely absent or reckless when it comes to tackling racism, and how it is linked to immigration.
Reposted by Quantum
Just so I'm clear on this, computer memory has tripled in price because a bunch of it that hasn't been produced yet has been ordered to populate GPUs that aren't installed in data centers that aren't built yet in order to service a demand that doesn't exist to make profits that don't happen.
December 15, 2025 at 12:21 PM
Just so I'm clear on this, computer memory has tripled in price because a bunch of it that hasn't been produced yet has been ordered to populate GPUs that aren't installed in data centers that aren't built yet in order to service a demand that doesn't exist to make profits that don't happen.
Reposted by Quantum
Please feel free to share! We want to understand how to better support autistic and or ADHD undergraduate students at UK universities. The entire study team is neurodivergent (as you can imagine we had some excellent meetings!)
We are a team at the University of Manchester researching what UK undergraduates with ADHD and/or autism would like to see in university staff training on ensuring undergraduate courses are accessible to them.
Study link: www.qualtrics.manchester.ac.uk/jfe/form/SV_...
Study link: www.qualtrics.manchester.ac.uk/jfe/form/SV_...
December 15, 2025 at 1:27 PM
Please feel free to share! We want to understand how to better support autistic and or ADHD undergraduate students at UK universities. The entire study team is neurodivergent (as you can imagine we had some excellent meetings!)
Reposted by Quantum
95%!
Can you think of anything else that 95% of the British public would agree on? We can't even agree whether to put the cream or the jam on first...
Can you think of anything else that 95% of the British public would agree on? We can't even agree whether to put the cream or the jam on first...
🚨 The UK government just published a breakdown of the responses to its consultation on AI & copyright:
- 95% of respondents want AI companies to pay for their training data (made up of 88% saying strengthen copyright law, & 7% saying leave it as is)
🧵 1/2
- 95% of respondents want AI companies to pay for their training data (made up of 88% saying strengthen copyright law, & 7% saying leave it as is)
🧵 1/2
December 15, 2025 at 2:08 PM
95%!
Can you think of anything else that 95% of the British public would agree on? We can't even agree whether to put the cream or the jam on first...
Can you think of anything else that 95% of the British public would agree on? We can't even agree whether to put the cream or the jam on first...
Reposted by Quantum
Christmas is fast approaching! 🌟❄️
Still looking for gift ideas?
Get them Private Eye!
📕 2025 Annual available here: www.private-eye.co.uk/books/annual
➡️ Give a subscription: checkout.private-eye.co.uk/SingleItem?I...
Still looking for gift ideas?
Get them Private Eye!
📕 2025 Annual available here: www.private-eye.co.uk/books/annual
➡️ Give a subscription: checkout.private-eye.co.uk/SingleItem?I...
December 14, 2025 at 2:33 PM
Christmas is fast approaching! 🌟❄️
Still looking for gift ideas?
Get them Private Eye!
📕 2025 Annual available here: www.private-eye.co.uk/books/annual
➡️ Give a subscription: checkout.private-eye.co.uk/SingleItem?I...
Still looking for gift ideas?
Get them Private Eye!
📕 2025 Annual available here: www.private-eye.co.uk/books/annual
➡️ Give a subscription: checkout.private-eye.co.uk/SingleItem?I...
Reposted by Quantum
The modern myth of Narcissus sucks so bad
December 14, 2025 at 2:44 PM
The modern myth of Narcissus sucks so bad
Reposted by Quantum
Figure CEO: So the aim is to build a robot that blends in to human environments and doesn't freak people out.
Engineer: Sorry what were you saying? Hey look what I made it do.
Engineer: Sorry what were you saying? Hey look what I made it do.
Always important to remember that this is because these robots are "faking" being human
Theyre actually capable of way more and way weirder stuff
Theyre actually capable of way more and way weirder stuff
December 6, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Figure CEO: So the aim is to build a robot that blends in to human environments and doesn't freak people out.
Engineer: Sorry what were you saying? Hey look what I made it do.
Engineer: Sorry what were you saying? Hey look what I made it do.
Dear Wizzard,
How can the snowman bring the snow?! The snow has to come first so the snowman can be made from it! He can't bring it, that makes no sense, why do you keep promulgating this obvious nonsense and via innocent children no less!
Merry Christmas
Ben
How can the snowman bring the snow?! The snow has to come first so the snowman can be made from it! He can't bring it, that makes no sense, why do you keep promulgating this obvious nonsense and via innocent children no less!
Merry Christmas
Ben
December 14, 2025 at 11:34 AM
Dear Wizzard,
How can the snowman bring the snow?! The snow has to come first so the snowman can be made from it! He can't bring it, that makes no sense, why do you keep promulgating this obvious nonsense and via innocent children no less!
Merry Christmas
Ben
How can the snowman bring the snow?! The snow has to come first so the snowman can be made from it! He can't bring it, that makes no sense, why do you keep promulgating this obvious nonsense and via innocent children no less!
Merry Christmas
Ben