In November 2022, any residual feeling that Silicon Valley represented a clear-cut boon for humanity vanished like a fart in the wind. In an act of breathtaking arrogance, OpenAI released GPT-3.5, a free preview of its chatbot ChatGPT. Confronted with a technology that could synthesise humanlike text in response to prompts from actual humans, journalists and commentators rushed into print to weigh its likely implications, often using the chatbot itself to generate the first few paragraphs of their articles (which is a bit like a caveman ostentatiously sporting a bronze medallion towards the end of the Stone Age) ...
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Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – January 18, 2026 by Tony Wikrent Dingbat imperialism and its malcontents Dingbat Imperialism, the Lowest Stage of Capitalism John Ganz, Jan 13, 2026 [Unpopular Front] Germany planning ‘Arctic Sentry’ Nato mission to protect Greenland [Telegraph, via Naked Capitalism 01-13-2025] Tech billionaires behind Greenland bid want to build ‘freedom cities’ [Responsible […]
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Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – January 11, 2026 by Tony Wikrent “A curtain of darkness is settling over our nation.” [TW: For a reason I shall explain, there were a number of posts this past week that struck me but I have not included all of them here. What struck me was the […]
One of the big changes I made at the end of 2025 was shaving off my moustache. I’ve had a moustache since mid-2020; I talked about my reasons for growing one in my post called My Moustache. I think it looked really good, and it made me feel connected to my Middle Eastern heritage — … Continue reading New Year, New Me
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by Tony Wikrent Trump DHS Post Calling for ‘100 Million Deportations’ Suggests Intent to Kick Out Nonwhite Citizens Stephen Prager, January 02, 2026 [CommonDreams] The Trump administration provoked horror this week with the suggestion that the United States could be turned into a paradise if over a quarter of the people in the country were deported. On Wednesday, the […]
In January 2026, I will begin working full time in my role as Director at the Social Web Foundation. I am looking forward to the challenge of growing this young non-profit and fulfilling our mission to make a bigger, better Fediverse. As a refresher: I have been working in the area of federated social networks … Continue reading Working full time on the Social Web