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@sy I guess to me it's more about setting boundaries for which actors you're targeting with various tactics? like I don't think Microsoft can be made to concede to a grand accounting of their entire consumption apparatus, (however more precise that may be). Could they be made to concede that ChatGPT is a waste of resources, maybe?? Whereas putting a dent in what's fucked in mining to me is a matter of land reparations and dismantling the global military industrial complex more than Apple.

@sy totally, though in this case I'm specifically thinking about how to target the ongoing dodge of large (ostensibly) software companies who I think can probably be more effectively held to account for data center consumption than other parts of the supply chain

your company can have midjourney or email but it can't have both

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it has been pretty easy to convince people that proof of work crypto's resource use is A Problem because it concentrates wealth toward a legible discrete group of people w/o broader benefit but I think tech that 1) mostly is killing creative jobs and 2) at best diffuses profits to CEOs and shareholders is not really that different!

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@inquiline@union.place now just have to figure out how to convince a society that presumes infinity growth is the best idea ever that maybe it's a bad move

still testing this out/trying to figure out how to phrase it: maybe we should just focus on the electricity and water use of computation instead of extrapolating to carbon because 1) companies flimflam with offsets/power purchase agreements and 2) a future of net zero carbon electricity sources will necessarily be constrained

@janet we were not sure about the vet's suggestion to maybe prescribe her a sedative but it is starting to seem like a good option for all parties

it is truly astonishing how hard it is to get any work done when an anxious german shepherd is barking at you because she's stressed out by changes to her routine and requires frequent reassurance that she is not in fact in trouble

to the tune of Mr Brightside 

I have claws and compound eyes / cause I'm Mr Carcinized

@timelfen holy shit I went to high school with Hosna, this is amazing

Join us this Saturday, 5/27 at 8 p.m. for a screening of 'Machines in Flames' (2022, 50min), a film about a clandestine group of French computer workers in the 1980s. We'll have a virtual Q&A with the filmmakers afterward. Presented by the South Philly Autonomous Cinema Association. https://iffybooks.net/event/machines-in-flames/

climate pol 

earlier today I was in a conversation about how tech could support climate justice movements and I believe I deserve a little treat for showing restraint and not saying "cyberattacks on oil and gas infrastructure for sure"

academic/tech gripe 

you do not, under any circumstances, gotta make kin with the large language model

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academic/tech gripe 

I know it is very rude and not cool of me to hold this position and yet I will never be able to take people trying to make "feminist AI" a thing seriously

Google really fired Timnit Gebru only for its CEO to recycle her warnings as talking points every two weeks a few years later.

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pol feels 

feels pretty dumb to be working on my silly little research into supply chains and climate change stuff when states are trying to legislate people I care about out of existence!!

academia shitpost 

a provost implies the existence of a convost

@Wolven that being said: doing a PhD is maybe a slightly different genre of horseshit

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Horsin' Around

This is a hometown instance run by Sam and Ingrid, for some friends.