Salomé Viljoen

This resource and project absolutely rules wsit.work

sociopathy or Brian rot, a fun game you can play with anything a Silicon Valley exec says

Democracy is about elections, rights, and freedoms. But it also requires a balance of power---and that's the problem caused by billionaires today, says @hamiltonnolan.bsky.social. newrepublic.com/article/2169...

this piece is excellently written and infuriating

California friends, make a plan to make Mark Zuckerberg and other predatory, antisocial billionaires sad this election season. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/21/t...

With AI, fixating on apocalyptic scenarios ignores real-world problems involving the actually already existing AI. We have proven methods to address disruptive technology, but for anyone who opposes them, apocalyptic fantasies can be a useful distraction. My latest, in @liberalcurrents.com:

we really need to be taxing them so much more

We used to have a federal survey that measured hunger in America, but the Trump administration stopped conducting the survey right after the bill that cut food assistance was passed.

hell yeah New Mexico

NEW: "You can’t unscrape that content." With Meta’s new commercial terms set to take effect on October 30, more and more publishers and media advocates on both sides of the Atlantic are pressing Meta and regulators to stop them. www.niemanlab.org/2026/10/publ...

Do you know how bad the abuse has to be for a judge to remove kids from their birth mother? Just saw Amy Acton’s CNN interview about that Ramaswamy ad and , listen, I lived in NC through the Willie Horton ad era. I’m not precious. This is so disgusting that I wish I believed in hell. I really do.

Every Republican running for office in Ohio should be asked if they disavow the extremism of Vivek Ramaswamy

Vivek Ramaswamy's Wikipedia Page is a collection of some of the most horrifying sentences ever composed

this sign also captures why oligarchs are almost inherently hostile to democracy, they really hate not being Everyone's Boss All the Time

this is what I like to see from political leaders, putting it on the line and using their visibility and their power as a lever to raise up those whose vulnerability denies them visibility and power of their own

🚨 TODAY’S THE DAY 📚 After years of work, my new book HYPERSCALE is finally on bookshelves! It chronicles the data center boom just as the backlash is reaching a fever pitch. Get your copy today: hyperscalebook.com

Extreme wealth is a threat to global security. www.reuters.com/business/med...

someone tell the people of South Memphis all is well, the Colossus data center is being offset by a vague promise

I've mentioned before I've updated my contracts to make sure everything in the production of my books is done by humans and not "AI"; if you're wondering what such a thing looks like, here's a clause covering that from a recent contract.

lol

I am confident that this technology will be very racist www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

“.. He has to throw dirt on it if it doesn’t come out his way, period,” said Jonnie Smith, 69, a human resources manager from Johnson City, Tennessee, who typically votes for Republicans but opposes Trump. “He’s shown us that every time he loses.” www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Speaking of which: leiterreports.com/2026/10/15/d...

Andy Stone runs Comms at Meta. If you believe this, I have a Straight of Hormuz to sell ya. No, really, I *totally* own it. They took the whole account down and then upon restoring took 4 hours to actually allow owners access to post, while said owners were in constant touch demanding access.

I’m sorry to have to be the bad guy here but we need to recognize that we live in a compressed air thrusters world now. If you’re not finding ways to teach the critical use of compressed air thrusters in your classroom, you’re setting your students up to fail when you could be setting them up to fly

"Releasing over 700 files at once is not a demonstration of scholarship, but a demonstration of power. We urge mathematicians to discontinue their work with OpenAI and to return to a vision of science that centers human understanding." www.ahmath.org/statements

Many, many workers and communities organizing for a better tech future are not in the rich coastal cities. They deserve to be spoken with, not simply *about* in the pages and podcasts of NY and SF. It's a wide world out here friends!

I'm a longtime friend of @ainowinstitute.bsky.social but kinda bummed at the lineup for the People's AI Assembly tbh. It includes many people I really like! But Keshaun Pearson is the *only* speaker so far bringing a non-SF or NY perspective from a community directly impacted by data centers.

breaking: I am comparing the essay I'm writing to Irving Howe's This Age of Conformity; George Orwell's Politics and the English Language. Please everyone act accordingly

Facebook back in 2021 temporarily turned off the “drive people insane” setting and it completely changed what people were seeing. They turned it back on when engagement dipped by like 1 percent.

This is your occasional reminder that generative "AI" in particular could have been developed on public domain materials and/or licensed and compensated works but the major players intentionally, methodically and systemically chose to steal labor from working creative folks instead

Because of federal rules, children covered by Medicaid won't be able to access vaccines that are no longer recommended by the federal government, even as children with private insurance will.

Oh

for reference, in the Dobbs opinion, Alito was like, women generally don't _plan_ to get an abortion, so how could they have a reliance interest in abortion? which is kind of an extension of 'you want health insurance? what, you plan on being sick?'

I'm glad we're finally outsourcing the horrible bits of life like making plans with friends so we can have more time to consume ads.

Counterpoint: It would be great if people read some of the things that have been written about AI surveillance of workers! press.princeton.edu/books/hardco... www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/hilke... www.cambridge.org/core/books/q... www.ucpress.edu/books/uberla... jacobin.com/2026/09/amaz...

Pete Hegseth removing tenure protections shows precisely why they are needed. He wants to silence dissent by being able to fire anyone who questions his vision of the military. www.militarytimes.com/news/pentago...

Omigod, this is the most heartwarming story possible! Backpack (bear 89) is the son of the 2019 winner of Fat Bear Week, Holly (bear 435). In 2007, he injured his foot & a practice of riding on momma's Holly's back had a new meaning: he was mobility-restricted while it healed. So Holly moved him.

Tech industry is laser focused on solving the problem of humans enjoying each other’s company bsky.app/profile/down...

to be clear, the admin is alleged to have deported AT LEAST 25,447 individuals TO COUNTRIES THAT ARE NOT THEIR OWN with, evidently, ZERO PROTECTIONS. this is a scandal and crime of historic proportions.

many such cases