Links #152

Terence Eden’s small collection of text-only websites. Fun. Reminds me of Gemini (the protocol, not Google’s slop machine), which I still think about though I haven’t yet done anything with it. If any of you have, let me know! I’d love to hear about it.

Stand with Minnesota. I meant to post this weeks ago. I cannot wait until Stephen Miller is gone — not to mention our criminal-in-chief and all his other cronies — and I hope ICE is brought to heel soon. (I do try to keep these link posts from veering political all the time, but goodness, these are not ordinary times.)

John Gruber on the names they call themselves. “‘Fascist’ and ‘Nazi’ weren’t slurs that were applied to them by their political or military opponents. That’s what they called themselves, and their names became universally recognized slurs because the actions and beliefs of the Fascists and Nazis were universally recognized as reprehensible and evil. And because they lost.”

Brandon Sanderson on the hidden cost of AI art and how artmaking changes us. “The purpose of writing all those books in my earlier years wasn’t to produce something I could sell, it was to turn me into someone who could create great art. It took an amateur and it made him a professional. I think this is why I rebel against AI art products so much: because they steal the opportunity for growth from us.”

Bhaskar Mitra on AI madness and leaving Big Tech because of “an unprecedented concentration of power in the hands of those in Big Tech who want to deliberately enact (or, at least, are incapable of imagining anything other than) a techno-fascist future.” Yep.

Baldur Bjarnason on LLMs. Particularly the list of downsides. (If it feels like these link posts are becoming anti-AI all the time, by the way, you’re not wrong. The hype is ridiculous and needs to be deflated, and I believe there are serious risks that are being glossed over much of the time. But I also don’t want the overall feel of this blog to skew negative, so after this I may take a break from linking to AI posts, at least for a little while.)

Robin Sloan on flood fill vs. the magic circle. Enjoyed this take on how even if AI continues to proliferate, it still won’t affect everything in life. “A pleasing image: if indeed AI automation does not flood fill the physical world, it will be because the humble paper jam stood in its way.”

Marcin Wichary on Switch Angel making a trance track in Strudel. Enjoyed both the video (wow!) and Wichary’s commentary, and dang, Strudel is intriguing.

Neil Sainsbury on mathematics for the self-learner, with book recommendations. After reading through the list, I immediately ordered four of the Dover editions. Read at your own risk!