Reading

Sounds Bad

http://www.eschatonblog.com/2022/12/sounds-bad.html
Created
Wed, 28/12/2022 - 03:30
I was informed by a guy at Vox whose salary was paid by money from SBF that all of this was just "profound failures of judgment." So many Effective Altruism marks. And why not? It paid their bills!!!

How Non-Librarians Imagine a Librarian’s Typical Workday

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/how-non-librarians-imagine-a-librarians-typ…
Created
Wed, 28/12/2022 - 03:18

Our 15th most-read article of the 2022.

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Originally published February 3, 2022.

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6 a.m. Wake up and put on knit cardigan, slacks, and sensible shoes. Feed my cat, Mr. Foibles. Have tea and English muffin while I read Shakespeare and listen to symphonies.

7 a.m. Get into twenty-year-old Corolla, turn on NPR, get rattled by news and switch to listening to a Charles Dickens book on tape read by Alistair Cooke.

7:15 a.m. Arrive to an exact replica of your hometown library, or what you imagine a library to look like, basically where Giles from Buffy works.

Funding for Work on Technologies to Improve Reasoning in Government Intelligence

https://dailynous.com/2022/12/27/funding-for-work-on-technologies-to-improve-re…
Created
Wed, 28/12/2022 - 01:03
Steven Rieber, a former philosopher who is now a program manager at Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), a part of the United States government’s Office of the Director of National Intelligence, is heading up a new research program that might be of interest to philosophers. The program, “Rapid Explanation, Analysis, and Sourcing Online” (REASON) aims to “develop novel technologies that will enable intelligence analysts to substantially improve the evidence and reasoning in draft analytic reports.” It is seeking research teams to fund that will build systems to help “analysts discover valuable evidence, identify strengths and weaknesses in reasoning, and produce higher quality reports.” Here is some more information about the project: Intelligence analysts sort through huge amounts of often uncertain and conflicting information as they strive to answer intelligence questions. REASON will assist and enhance analysts’ work by pointing them to key pieces of evidence beyond what they have already considered and by helping them determine which alternative explanations have the strongest support.

Welcome to the Middle-Aged Restaurant. Please Stop Complaining

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/welcome-to-the-middle-aged-restaurant-pleas…
Created
Wed, 28/12/2022 - 00:26

Our 16th most-read article of the 2022.

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Originally published May 2, 2022.

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Welcome to the Middle-Aged Restaurant, a place designed around a Gen-Xer’s current lifestyle or lack thereof. Our often-overlooked establishment offers you respect, acknowledgment, and a menu that adapts to what your stomach can no longer tolerate these days.

Features of our hot spot (perimenopause joke intentional) include:

No small-font menus. Put away the readers and flashlight app, and any worries about accidentally ordering “filet chignon” with a side of “mostatoes” here, because everything is in forty-eight-point type, which also may be your age.

Mini-Heap

https://dailynous.com/2022/12/27/mini-heap-504/
Created
Wed, 28/12/2022 - 00:02
The latest additions to the heap… “I have a no-laptop, no phone policy in all my classes, and have yet to hear good reasons to give that up. Maybe you can give me some” — Harry Brighouse (Wisconsin) explains “How does the death spiral of one or more social media platforms impact philosophy?” — reflections from Helen de Cruz (SLU) “ChatGPT has no interest in you whatsoever. It isn’t curious about your goals or motivated to help you meet them. It lacks the good faith to tell you when your goals are misplaced” — today’s AI doesn’t care about you, and that limits its utility, argues Evan Selinger (RIT) “In one way or another, you are moved to imitate and share the things that speak to you, that seem, in one way or another, to be alive with beauty in a way that makes you feel alive” — Nick Riggle (San Diego) on beauty “The use of AI in science presents novel opportunities and challenges. One principle challenge has been how to determine when a given AI model is trustworthy” — Eamon Duede (Chicago) on why scientific trust in AI is different from its trust in experts, instruments, or methods “It’s not the pace of life I mind.

A New Age Of Vertical Integration

https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/niyBMplQItBEZeitwU7OynMq2h3ehXEp
Created
Tue, 27/12/2022 - 23:46
A New Age Of Vertical Integration

There was a time when companies preferred vertical integration: they wanted to own their supply chain. Then, for a long time, the mantra was to concentrate on one’s core business and let other specialists take care of all the non-core parts of your business.

Well…