John von Neumann Shot Lightning From His Arse

Pop-hereditarianism is built on selective credulity

Pluralistic: A tale of three customer service chatbots (12 Nov 2025)

Today's links A tale of three customer service chatbots: Two were worse than useless, one betrayed its masters. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: General strike; We won't fly

A Coalition For The Future

If we can keep it

5 recent, ominous signs for Generative AI

November isn’t even half over

Executive Brief: Why Co-Packaged Optics Uses External Lasers Instead of Integrated Sources

Video essay, bullet point summary, and Google Doc for your LLM use.

AI Video Should Be Illegal

Are we really going to destroy our trust-based society, just like that?

Pluralistic: Theodora Goss's 'Letters From an Imaginary Country' (11 Nov 2025)

Today's links Theodora Goss's 'Letters From an Imaginary Country': Short stories so expertly spun you'll hardly know you've been ensnared. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: "

Bridge Atlas Episode 3: Commons

Issue #70: A conversation with Yancey Strickler and Trent Van Epps

🌻 don't take the bait

vice signaling is eating silicon valley

Import AI 434: Pragmatic AI personhood; SPACE COMPUTERS; and global government or human extinction;

Welcome to Import AI, a newsletter about AI research. Import AI runs on lattes, ramen, and feedback from readers. If you’d like to support this, please subscribe. Subscribe now Language models don’t h

Pluralistic: "Flexible labor" is a euphemism for "derisking capital" (10 Nov 2025)

Today's links "Flexible labor" is a euphemism for "derisking capital": It's a zero-sum game. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: Corrupt CDs; 10,000 wax cylinders; EU wants cop

AI tutors should not approximate human tutors

5 principles of learning science

Why Co-Packaged Optics Uses External Lasers Instead of Integrated Sources

On-chip lasers for CPO are the holy grail, but a near-term pragmatic approach is to keep lasers external for thermals and reliability. A look at the physics, implementation, and solutions.

Aphyr on Understanding Chicago

I Want You to Understand Chicago “All uses of force have been more than exemplary,” Bovino stated in a recent deposition. He is, as Judge Ellis has stated, lying. Bovino personally threw a tear g

Filipa MV on In Praise of dhh

In Praise of dhh If the far-right succeeds in its project, when your wife gets sick you won’t be able to afford a doctor. Your kids or grandkids won’t be able to get an education. Should you beco

Language Machines as Antimeme

AI Log reviews Language Machines: Cultural AI and the End of Remainder Humanism

The pivot ⊗ We should all be Luddites ⊗ What is civil society, and why should we care?

No.378 — Reimagining the way the world works ⊗ Refusing generative AI in writing studies ⊗ World’s largest Indigenous-led conservation project ⊗ The Mighty Nein

Having Fun On Stage

Pondering why, despite the fact that bands and musicians have to do it every single night, many suck at stage banter—particularly, but not limited to, Elvis. Hey all, Ernie here with a refreshed piec

The Partial

Issue #69: Calibrating...

Pluralistic: Facebook's fraud files (08 Nov 2025)

Today's links Facebook's fraud files: 10% of gross ad revenue coming from fraudulent ads. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: FOIA for Theresa May; Paid patriotism; Antiusurpat

Oedipus is about the act of figuring out what Oedipus is about

Ok spoilers ahead. But Oedipus Rex a.k.a. Oedipus Tyrannus by Sophocles is almost 2,500 years old at this point so it’s fair game imo. The Oedipus story in a nutshell: Oedipus, who was secretly adopte

Sam Altman’s pants are totally on fire

Even for him, his latest whopper is something

ft.com on AI Hedge

Deutsche Bank explores hedges for data centre exposure as AI lending booms The German lender is looking at options including shorting a basket of AI-related stocks that would help mitigate downsi

Pluralistic: The enshittification of labor (07 Nov 2025)

Today's links The enshittification of labor: Pavlina Tcherneva, getting her peanut butter in my chocolate. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: 3D printing with tape-guns; TPP i

Washington Post on Sandwich Guy

Jury finds D.C. ‘sandwich guy’ not guilty of assaulting officer “The sandwich kind of exploded all over my uniform,” Lairmore said. “It smelled of onions and mustard.” This horror show did not

Reuters on Facebook fraud

Meta is earning a fortune on a deluge of fraudulent ads, documents show Meta internally projected late last year that it would earn about 10% of its overall annual revenue – or $16 billion – from

wptv.com on Trump appeals SNAP decision

Trump administration appeals order to fully fund SNAP benefits for November The Trump administration immediately appealed that order and earlier court decisions that required it to make at least

Dragoncatcher: Just give me a little break

Dragoncatcher: Bare metal

Pluralistic: The 40-year economic mistake that let Google conquer (and enshittify) the world (06 Nov 2025)

Today's links The 40-year economic mistake that let Google conquer (and enshittify) the world: If reality doesn't fit the theory, ignore reality. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object perman

What does the public really think about AI?

15 claims I think are (currently) true

Economic Times on $125 billion in 5 days

$125 billion in 5 days: Fed quietly floods banks with cash again Federal Reserve quietly pumped $125 billion into the U.S. banking system over five days, marking its largest short-term liquidity

OpenAI probably can’t make ends meet. That’s where you come in.

If you thought the 2008 bank bailout was bad, wait til you see the 2026 AI bailout

Bridge Atlas Episode 2: Paradigms

Issue #68: A conversation with Nils Gilman and Josh Stark

You Have No Idea How Screwed OpenAI Is

An exhaustive overview of the situation

Pluralistic: "Science Comics Computers: How Digital Hardware Works" (05 Nov 2025)

Today's links "Science Comics Computers: How Digital Hardware Works": Steampunk dinosaurs scratch-build a pressurized air-based, Turing complete, universal von Neumann machine. Hey look at this: Delig

The Internet You Missed: A Last 2025 Snapshot

TIP's community writing: Part 2 of 2

Executive Brief: An In-Depth Look at the Viability of X-rays as an Alternative to EUV Lithography (Discussion on the startup Substrate)

Video essay, bullet point summary, and Google Doc for your LLM use.

A Project Is Not a Bundle of Tasks

Current AIs struggle to create a whole that exceeds the sum of its parts

An In-Depth Look at the Viability of X-rays as an Alternative to EUV Lithography

Substrate - a California startup wants to take down both TSMC and ASML using X-rays to pattern leading edge nodes below 2nm. But how viable is their technology?