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Librarianshipwreck
@libshipwreck
PhD, former librarian, pessimistic utopian. History of tech, disasters, & doom-saying. Wrote my dissertation on Y2K (currently turning that into a book).
The Library
Joined February 2013
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    “If the Luddites had never existed, their critics would need to invent them.” - Roszak. If you oppose AI, eventually someone is going to call you a Luddite, so you might as well be ready to respond with “sure, I oppose machinery hurtful to commonality.”
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    Who needs Black Mirror when you have reality?
    "Stop Hiring Humans" billboards around SF 🧵
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    I know we’re all tired of being on Zoom, but some important Zoom etiquette reminders: - everyone wants to see your cat - don’t just say “my cat is here,” hold your cat up to the camera so we can see it - when your cat is on camera, either say “cat” or type “cat” in the chat
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    As a historian the hardest part of my job is that I am constantly building statues, as statues are the only way people learn about history.
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    I’m not trying to romanticize the era of this picture, but I genuinely believe our relationship to computers was healthier (for ourselves and for society) when the computer was more of a work/school/household appliance as opposed to something that is always on us and always on.
    There was a time when we respected the computer
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    One of these pictures is of a dramatic threat to public school students, the other is of a bear.
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    Remember: when people say that it’s impossible to regulate AI they are lying.
    China shuts down AI tools during nationwide college exams theverge.com/news/682737/ch…
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    I am begging you all to realize that the reason you can joke about Y2K today is because there was a massive mobilization of people who worked their butts off to ensure the kind of things that are happening today didn’t happen when 1999 became 2000.
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    Bears are not lazy, they’re bears. That humans have created an economic system wherein every waking moment must be used productively and efficiently is not an indictment of animals who “seem born to laze” it’s an indictment of that economic system.
    Scientists found that wild grizzlies, like humans, seem born to laze. The findings suggest that the innate urge to avoid exertion plays a greater role in how all creatures, great and small, typically behave. nyti.ms/39RVVZr
    00:00
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    A lot of the “red states” that people are starting to angrily bash this morning aren’t really “red states” they’re “voter suppression states” - and that’s an important distinction to remember.
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    Let’s say it again... Studying history will sometimes disturb you. Studying history will sometimes upset you. Studying history will sometimes make you furious. If studying history always makes you feel proud and happy, you probably aren’t studying history.
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    Don’t use AI generated art! Use art already in the public domain! Great resource:
    Need art for your game but can't afford custom art? Free public domain art might work! Here are some resources to get started: skeletoncodemachine.com/p/public-domai…
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    That so many people are emotionally and intellectually exhausted by their workday and wind up only having energy for idle distraction at the day’s end is not an indictment of those people but an indictment of the society they live in that keeps them so wrung out…
    Willem Dafoe says more challenging movies don’t do as well on streaming. “People now go home, they say, ‘Hey, honey, let's watch something stupid tonight.’” (Source: theguardian.com/film/2024/jan/…)