Two more days before the abstract submission portal closes. Join us for *Synthetic Sentience* in Perth, Australia, 16-18 July 2025 – the 5th Politics of the Machines conference.
Check the website. It features seven tracks to which you can submit.
All abstracts are due on March 29. https://www.pomconference.org/pom-perth-2025/
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Paul Thomas, Chris Speed and I are looking forward to your submissions to
Track 01.
#artscience #art #systemicdesign
#indigenous #quantumphysics
#cybernetics
Excellent Sunday afternoon read from Professor @drmichaellevin for Noema Magazine that takes a look at the metaphors we use to distinguish between organic and non-organic beings and challenges some of the assumptions around what we consider to be machines and/or living things.
Very much in the style of Donna Haraway, he advocates at once for #pragmatism, for empirically testing the methods we use for interrogating systems that imbricate the organic and the machine and to keep an open mind when categorising which is which.
For fans of Douglas Hofstadter, #cybernetics, #systems and #ConsequentialCategories.
https://www.noemamag.com/living-things-are-not-machines-also-they-totally-are/
To all who’re criticizing itself the mounting criticism of LLMs and who'd rather like to emphasize these models can also be used for good:
POSIWID (aka The Purpose Of a System Is What It Does) is very much applicable here, i.e. there is “no point in claiming that the purpose of a system is to do what it constantly fails to do”.[1]
For the moment (and I don’t detect _any_ signs of this changing), LLMs conceptually and the way they’re handled technologically/politically, are harmful, more than anything, regardless of other potential/actual use cases. In a non-capitalist, solarpunk timeline this all might look very different, but we’re _absolutely not_ in that world. It’s simply ignorant and impossible to only consider LLM benefits anecdotally or abstractly, detached from their implementation, their infrastructure required for training, the greed, the abuse, the waste of resources (and resulting conflicts), the inflation, disinformation, and tangible threats (with already real impacts) to climate, energy, rights, democracy, society, life etc. These aren't hypotheticals — not anymore!
A basic cost-benefit analysis:
In your eyes, are the benefits of LLMs worth these above costs?
Could these benefits & time savings have been achieved in other ways?
Do you truly believe a “democratization of skills” is achievable via the hyper-centralization of resources, whilst actively harvesting and then removing the livelihood and rights of entire demographics?
You’re feeling so very productive with your copilot subscription, how about funding FLOSS projects instead and help building sustainable/supportive communities?
How about investing $500 billions into education/science/arts?
Cybernetics was all about feedback loops, recursion, considering the effects of a system and studying their influence on subsequent actions/iterations. Technologists (incl. my younger self) have made the mistake/choice ignoring tech’s impact in the world for far too long. For this field to truly move forward and become more holistic, empathetic and ethical, it _must_ stop treating the above aspects as distracting inconvenient truths and start addressing them head on, start considering secondary and tertiary effects of our actions, and use those to guide us! Neglecting or actively denying their importance and the more-than-fair criticism without ever being able to produce equally important counter examples/reasons just make us look ignorant of the larger picture... Same goes for education/educators in related disciplines!
Nothing about LLMs is inevitable per se. There’s always a decision and for each decision we have to ask who’s behind it, for what purposes, who stands to benefit and where do we stand with these. Sure, like any other tech, LLMs are “just a tool”, unbiased in theory, usable for both positive and negative purposes. But, we’ve got to ask ourselves at which point a “tool” has attracted & absorbed a primary purpose/form as a weapon (incl. usage in a class war), and any other humanist aspects have become mere nice-to-have side effects, great for greenwashing, and — for some — surfing the hype curve, while it lasts. We’ve got to ask at which point LLMs currently are on this spectrum and in which direction they’re actively accelerating (are being accelerated)...
(Ps. Like many others, for many years I’ve been fascinated by, building and using AI/ML techniques in many projects. I started losing interest shortly after the introduction of GANs and the non-stop demand for exponentially increasing hardware resources and obvious ways how this tech will be used in ever more damaging ways... So my criticism isn’t against AI as general field of research, but about what is currently sold as AI and how it’s being pushed onto us, for reasons which actually have not much to do with AI itself, other than being a powerful excuse/lever for enabling empire building efforts and possible societal upheavals...)
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_purpose_of_a_system_is_what_it_does
New paper on the telegraph line is out! It’s a #microhistory of Strangways Springs//Pangki Warruna, exploring its evolution from a #pastoral property to a #telegraph station to a #railway stop, and how these transitions shaped innovation in #Australia 
We also highlight the importance of #water in creating and sustaining these innovations (as is the case for technologies of today like #AI 
).
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10761-025-00788-4
NEW EPISODE: Just as someone steering a ship adjusts the rudder based on feedback from the ocean, so too does good pedagogy depend on what our guest today, biology teacher Christian Moore-Anderson, calls “recursive teaching”, or a constant feedback loop of action, interpretation, and learning between teachers and students.
www.humanrestorationproject.org/podcasts/sensemaking-and-cybernetics-in-classroom-teaching-w-christian-moore-anderson #K12 #biology #science #cybernetics #edchat
New, Chemical View of Ecosystems
https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-new-chemical-view-of-ecosystems-20250305
Rare and powerful compounds, known as keystone molecules, can build a web of invisible interactions among species.
The majority of the AI users are third-order observers, and some are fourth-order observers.
Second and fourth-order observations invite gaming the system.
https://www.linkandth.ink/p/ai-enables-fourth-order-observations
I don't know why I never connected Kubernetes and cybernetics being from the same Greek word. I definitely recognized Kubernetes as Greek, but it wasn't until I saw cybernetics written in Russian that I realized they were from the same word.
Interesting Economic Index paper from Anthropic, based on 1m+ Claude.AI conversations. Analysed through O*NET classifications, shows #AI use in over 36% of occupations.
Thoughts:
1. This analysis would ordinarily be undertaken by government labour departments. Analysis of the use of #AI tools is now predicated on companies releasing this data. Anthropic has released *some* of the data used for analysis - but not all - e.g. the actual prompts.
https://huggingface.co/datasets/Anthropic/EconomicIndex
2. This data is linked to US occupational classifications (O*NET), and AFAICT, there is no way to identify in the dataset (I looked) what the geography of the user is. That means this analysis can't be used to analyse **Australian** patterns of AI use - which links to the #sovereignAI discourse.
3. Given Anthropic's outsized role in the industry, and the push for adoption by e.g. Microsoft of tools like e.g. CoPilot, I wonder if this economic analysis will become a *target* - following Goodhart's Law. Which would increase AI usage, which would benefit Anthropic.
4. I found the distinction between automation and augmentation in this analysis useful. Drawing from #cybernetics, automation can be viewed as first-order - the user directs the intent. Augmentation is more reflexive, with the intent negotiated. What are the implications of #LLM involvement here?
5. The pattern of increasing use among higher-skilled professions - up to the cliff of those requiring advanced degrees (e.g. surgeons) where usage dropped off - indicates to me that advanced degrees still provide a "moat" - but for how long?
6. I really loved the feedback form Anthropic provided for researchers to suggest new research directions and to give feedback on the format of the dataset that was released. This connects research with practice - praxis.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfDEdY-mT5lcXPaDSv-0Ci1rSXGlbIJierxkUbNB7_07-kddw/viewform
Announcing our event next week Wednesday!
Sign up at: https://forms.gle/AjSp1RXzW1ZUeKNQA
@tante
#gamification is the manipulation of behaviour
Mostly without knowledge or consent of the people involved
Including game elements in learning is not gamification. I often get the impression that people think that every game element means gamification. But is is not the same
Gamification comes with addiction & you are played by rules you are not able see or change
It is rooted in #cybernetics and is one of the reasons that so-called #socialmedia can be used to destroy whole societies
What do @1sabelR and @theEllamo do in between podcasts?
Here’s a catch up on our 2024 publications:
Ella’s honours research on understanding #audience in #sciencecommunication
https://lnkd.in/gpj3UZS9
Isabel’s contributions to an #essay about using #textualanalysis to studying #science in #popularculture
https://lnkd.in/gEYG2c_3
Isabel’s work in a #research article on #telegraphy, #industrialarcheology and #cybernetics
https://lnkd.in/gnkBRbx8
Dear all, I hope to embark on a small US tour in the spring, so far with dates in Boston, Buffalo, College Station and Dallas. Between those last two I still have a gap in my schedule from Thursday the 27th to Sunday the 30th of March, would anybody have a suggestion for a place to screen my most recent film or give a talk or - even better - both, preferably in Texas or in a state not far from Texas ? 1/2
I need to be clear that my #math skills are embarrassingly limited and something I've always struggled with as an #ADD and dyslexic person. Going through school, subject after subject was presented as, "Now memorize this because you have to." Which was not very compelling without the context of what it can really be used for. I tried, I got high marks, but I wasn't included in the better classes with better teachers which created a cycle of disinterest.
As I read, "Dark hero of the information age : in search of Norbert Wiener, the father of cybernetics" which tells the stories of how mathematics, biology, electrical engineering, electronic engineering, and computing were brought together to holistically in the 1940s to examine problems that span subject matter, it makes me want to go back and restart my mathematics journey looking at the contextual challenges those solutions were applied to. I think I could probably overcome many of my limitations by taking a different learning route.
Does anyone have other interesting books on mathematicians or resources that can build up math skills with independent study? Are there corners of the #fediverse that I can look at? I would appreciate recommendations.
I don't ever expect to be very good, but I would like to challenge myself to be more mathematically capable if I take the time to learn more behind the equations themselves.
i'm rehydrating my 20 year old readings on cybernetics, with some history i didn't know of back then.
TIL stafford beer and dozens of chilean programmers and engineers built a cybernetic economy simulation computer and software, designed to help coordinate/plan Chile's manufacturing sector and economy in 1975. it ran custom software on an IBM 360, which collected data from 500 telex machines, operated by factory employees.
the control room, designed by gui bonsiepe, is a modernist wonder to behold (this illustration is uncredited)
So - there is more #happines to spread:
I am happy to inform you that #Komona invited my to have my talk "Burn, planet, burn?" at the #38C3 !
TNX!- Especially bc I was taken a much needed #holiday when the official #cfp was happening
Looking forward to meet & discuss with the #ccc lot!
Lets discuss #power #technology #sustainability #cybernetics #counterinsurgency and #resistance
Bc this #planet is to #wonderful to let it burn!
PS: bring your #masks to spread only happiness & resistance
Hadn't noticed Yuk Hui's new book "Cybernetics for the 21st Century Vol. 1" with a great collection of articles by quite a few of my fav authors. #cybernetics
My team and I have been working hard this year to establish our #research in the #academic literature, alongside all the public talks and workshops etc. 
This is the first in a series of #papers about historical #technology in #Australia - bringing together #cybernetics, #archaeology and the Overland Telegraph Line 
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03122417.2024.2437190
1/2
The book "The Limits to Growth"¹ from 1972 is one of the most important texts of the environmental movement. It is also interesting for its role in computer science and cybernetics history because it is based on a computer model of the whole world called World3².
1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth
2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World3
