I have no sleep schedule

Nikki | 20+ | icon by @watasemasaru | Multifandom, if you followed me for one thing no you didn't

[motherfucker-somewhat-limited]

[raccoonmilf]

When I was in grade school I used to send emails to biologists and zoologists asking them questions to get answers to include in school projects I was working on, and would cry when they did not respond because I thought I was stupid for thinking that some random kid would ever be deserving of a response from someone who does something as smart and cool and important as *checks notes* studies frog fungus.

Now, at 29, I’m lowkey having a panic attack because my academic email is filled with middle schoolers wanting me to answer their questions about pygmy raccoons and I keep putting off answering them because I’m so overwhelmed with all the other raccoon stuff I have to do.

Anyway, greatest apologies to any scientist I ever emailed as a child and also an adult.

[raccoonmilf]

I know your research is really important and I appreciate all you are doing but this is so fucking funny

[snowkissedmonsters]

Also on age verification: I have been on this website since 2011. Unless you think I started blogging at age 2, you KNOW I'm an adult.

[dreamerinsilico]

#the fact that 'can prove access to an online account at least 12 years old' or even 'account to be verified is itself fully 18 years old'#AREN'T accepted methods of age verification is such a telling sign of what the real purpose of age-gating laws is:#data harvesting and deanonymization and the buildout of state-controllable ways to restrict both content and internet access itself en masse (via @shinelikethunder )

⬆️

[kuropin]

The back to back weddings were a choice but I respect it

[depsidase]

[pirateprincessjess]

I was told that I’d get used to not having a headphone jack. I still want a fucking headphone jack. I hate that phones don’t have them. It’s stupid and awful and I hate it

[filmphotofranz]

[asteroidtroglodyte]

TIL the reason you don’t find much Lyme’s Disease in California is not because we don’t have Ticks, or Lyme Disease Vectors; but rather: because the Western Fence Lizard (if you live anywhere in California this is your regular Garden Variety Lizard) has adapted a passive immune response that makes their blood lethal to Lyme Disease Bacteria. Any Tick that feeds on one gets its gut cleansed of Lyme Disease as a side effect.

Fucking neat.

[iheartvelma]

There is a new vaccine going into Phase 3 trials from Valneva and Pfizer as well as a monoclonal antibody-based prophylactic treatment being researched at UMass!

[dragon-in-a-fez]

"the only cure for this weird disease is the special lizard blood" is a Star Trek TOS plot that escaped into the real world

[catchaspark]

californians, consider calling your state assemblymembers in order to object to the current budget proposal stripping Medi-Cal (our Medicaid) from asylees and refugee applicants except in emergencies. also, they’re agreeing to reduce the asset limit for many Medi-Cal recipients back to $2000. That number means that the maximum amount a Medi-Cal recipient who is aged, blind, or disabled can have in the bank at any time is $2000. That figure is obscenely low, and it’s actually lower by about fifty bucks than the amount they’re allowed to get each month in income.* if enacted this policy change will vastly hurt thousands of seniors and disabled people and i’m not kidding. please speak up if you can.

[depsidase]

[jarl-deathwolf]

If anyone would like to read a thorough take down of Sparta as a state not worth emulating, then ive got just the series of articles for you!

[heroineimages]

Reblogging because pissing on Sparta is one of my hobbies. And yes, totally check out the link above. Brett has a lot of great discussion and scholarship on why Sparta was proto-fascist garbage, and he presents it with both snark and accessibility.

[fierceawakening]

Holy shit. That’s… that’s worse than I thought it would be. Yikes.

[doctorjanedee]

Reblogging because more people should read the ACOUP Sparta takedown and fewer people should get their concept of history from fucking 300.

[fierceawakening]

No one should get their concept of history from 300, and I say that as someone who enjoyed 300. 300 is a comicbookification of a legend, and legends are already exaggerations.

[disorganisedautodidact]

A Great Divorce has also done an audio version of the ACOUP Spart takedown if audio is easier for you!

[feminist-space]

[feminist-space]

[feminist-space]

[feminist-space]

[feminist-space]

[feminist-space]

[feminist-space]

[feminist-space]

[baddywronglegs]

The people who insist AI is smarter than a human are doing their fucking damnedest to manifest that

[thefriendlyneighborhoodpervert]

This problem isn't AI. This problem originates with our terrible schooling system. It fails to prepare young people for existing in the real world, probably under the expectation that parents can do that themselves. The economy of this country has rendered parents basically incapable of spending hours and days teaching their kids how to exist, on top of those kids' ludicrous amounts of schoolwork.

Basically, the system has been designed to result in young adults with no ability to do much of anything besides basic manual labor, who rely on technology or other people's labor to cover the gaps in their own understanding.

[vaspider]

The problem is indeed "AI," though other factors may be at play as well. Programs like chatGPT are actively designed to breed dependence, and are actively detrimental to the decision making and imagination parts of the brain.

The thing that people really need to understand is that the "product" that chatGPT and other "AI" chatbots create is "more interactions with chatGPT." Everything it does is engineered with that one end in mind. Think about how it's billed, and you'll see that's true, and why it's true. What do "pro" subscriptions give you? More inquiries, faster answers, etc. So its entire thing is "getting you to ask it more things, more often."

Will it say "I don't know?" No. You won't ask it things if it answers that. This is why hallucinations are built in, and cannot ever be eliminated.

These programs are machines meant to generate more inquiries, which means they will generate dependence in order to generate them.

The purpose of a machine is what it does.

[thefriendlyneighborhoodpervert]

I did not intend to defend AI LLM. It's total bullshit. I merely meant that a class of people who have been left functionally incapable by a broken system are more susceptible to a machine designed to make people more stupid.

[vaspider]

Right, and what I'm telling you is that this matters way less than you would like to think. Like, it doesn't matter. At all. You are not "less susceptible" to AI because of your education.

It really does not matter how well-educated you are, because this kind of endless flattery and dependence-creation isn't the kind of thing that "being educated" protects against. The idea that "kids these days" are specially vulnerable to ChatGPT due to a failure of general education is insultingly wrong, skips over the fact that a lot of highly-educated people from my generation and older have been sucked in to dependence and even psychosis by LLMs, and frankly makes it more likely that people will look at this "kids these days" thing and say, "Ahh, but I'm [older/better educated/built different], I'm not like Those Kids, AI's tricks won't work on me, or at the very least, I will be less susceptible to them!"

And that's just wrong.

ChatGPT is Wormtongue, in a very real, not metaphorical or exaggerated sense. The only way to truly avoid the way in which it rots your fucking brain is not to use it at all.

There is no amount or type of education which will protect you from the automated evil vizier whispering flattery and lies into your ear. Telling yourself or others otherwise is simply incorrect.

Trying to reframe it as "Kids These Days are more susceptible because they're 'functionally broken' by our education system" doesn't change the basic thesis statement.

And it's wrong.

[thefriendlyneighborhoodpervert]

... That's an excellent point. It's essentially using cult recruiting tactics, which I know work on even quite capable and independent persons.

[vaspider]

Basically, yes.

[odyver]

alright I've got to do some quick math to explain attitudes towards AI to my boss.

we're looking to create an AI policy, and when we were talking about this, my boss (older millennial) was genuinely shocked to hear that younger people do not (seem) to view AI positively (a la the recent commencement speakers being booed)

please rb for larger sample size!

Question 1/3

What is your age, and do you feel AI is a net positive or net negative in our lives today?

under 18, AI is a net positive

under 18, AI is a net negative

18-29, AI is a net positive

18-29, AI is a net negative

30-45, AI is a net positive

30-45, AI is a net negative

46-60, AI is a net positive

46-60, AI is a net negative

over 60, AI is a net postive

over 60, AI is a net negative

Remaining time: 4 days 12 hours

[odyver]

Question 2/3

How often do you visit or interact with museums/archives (whether in person or online)?

Frequently (multiple times per month)

Often (multiple times per year)

Occasionally (a couple times per year)

Rarely (once every couple of years)

Never :(

Remaining time: 4 days 12 hours

[odyver]

Question 3/3

If you saw a museum was using AI in exhibits, marketing, research, etc., would you be more or less inclined to visit that museum?

under 18, more inclined

under 18, less inclined

18-29, more inclined

18-29, less inclined

30-45, more inclined

30-45, less inclined

46-60, more inclined

46-60, less inclined

over 60, more inclined

over 60, less inclined

Remaining time: 4 days 12 hours

Thank you for helping with this data collection. Please rb for as big a sample as possible!

🫶

[thegaymertrainer]

Ribbon dancing I was not aware of your evolution 🤯

[gaybichon]

not even funny how true this is for me

[depsidase]

[orteil42]

given the current climate this pride especially i feel i must mention that i love my trans friends, i stand with trans people in the fight against transphobic legislation and those who would enforce it, and this blog is not a good place for you to be if you do not vibe with that

[kiwimintlime]

not aromantic but I believe in their beliefs.

"there's no platonic explanation for this" try harder bucko

[kiwimintlime]

love is a beautiful wonderful multifaceted nebulous thing that shouldn't be reduced to the strict bounds of Tier One: Romance and Tier Two: Friends. get weird with it. love your friends deeply, wildly, passionately and platonically. cowards

[beardedmrbean]