ginahelfrich - Network

A fun way to see how #ChatGPT doesn't understand the real world is to present it with a classical logic puzzle with a twist.For example:...

A fun way to see how #ChatGPT doesn't understand the real world is to present it with a classical logic puzzle with a twist.

For example: the Monty Hall problem, but you literally open all the doors and show what's behind them before choosing a door. Or the wolf/goat/cabbage across a river problem, but you've got 3 friends to help and there are 3 bridges across the river.

Facebook has been so thoroughly #enshittified that when I load it, it will literally only show me *one* single post of someone I’m FB...

Facebook has been so thoroughly #enshittified that when I load it, it will literally only show me *one* single post of someone I’m FB friends with, or a group I’m in, or an event I’ve responded to, and then *every single other post in my feed* is suggested content and ads.

I had a good experience #onhere crowdsourcing information, even with just a few hundred followers (compared to a few thousand on the bird...

I had a good experience #onhere crowdsourcing information, even with just a few hundred followers (compared to a few thousand on the bird site). People are really kind with their RTs — was a nice community-feeling moment here on masto! 😊

#Help me out, please. I have been using WellBefore KN95 masks in their small size, which fit my face well. But we moved to the UK and they...

#Help me out, please. I have been using WellBefore KN95 masks in their small size, which fit my face well. But we moved to the UK and they don’t ship here. My supply is dwindling quickly.

Can anyone recommend a brand of masks available to ship to the UK that will fit a smaller face well and comfortably? Bonus if there are both behind the ears and behind the head options.

Thanks in advance!

#covid #WearAMask

We had friends visit from the States and along with tortillas and salsa they brought us (well, me) Covid. I can’t be sure if it was from...

We had friends visit from the States and along with tortillas and salsa they brought us (well, me) Covid. I can’t be sure if it was from the plane/airport or if they picked it up on arrival, but we pretty much abandoned all our usual protocols to accommodate them while they were here. On some level I feel like this validates that what we were doing before was working well, and we should just keep sticking to those principles even when it’s socially very difficult to do so. #covid #keepmasking

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/06/30/averie-bishop-miss-america-texas-platform-diversity/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/06/30/averie-bishop-miss-america-texas-platform-diversity/

Online conferences are awful and I think we all just need to be honest with ourselves about this.

Online conferences are awful and I think we all just need to be honest with ourselves about this.

"Without safeguards in place, [generative AI-powered advertising] in the hands of unscrupulous marketing firms would likely also learn...

"Without safeguards in place, [generative AI-powered advertising] in the hands of unscrupulous marketing firms would likely also learn to make ads that were false. And, if it improved ads’ effectiveness at converting views into clicks, they would soon learn to discriminate in their targeting too."

An important piece on the dangers of generative AI in the context of surveillance advertising, from Ranking Digital Rights' Zak Rogoff.

https://democracyjournal.org/arguments/generative-ais-overlooked-risk-ads/

RT birdsite“This is HUGE. CDC, for the first time ever, has set a minimum ventilation target (5 air changes per hour) for all occupied...

RT birdsite

“This is HUGE.

CDC, for the first time ever, has set a minimum ventilation target (5 air changes per hour) for all occupied indoor spaces. The CDC released new and updated guidance on ventilation in buildings this morning”

#CDC #ventilation #covid

Content warning:Spoilers for Zelda: Tears of the KingdomHonestly the best thing so far is that the stable still had all my old horses!!!!...

Content warning:Spoilers for Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Honestly the best thing so far is that the stable still had all my old horses!!!! #bestsurprise 🐴 #zelda #TearsoftheKingdom

The use of LLMs to voice NPCs in adventure games is a grave threat to gamer meme culture. #arrowtotheknee

The use of LLMs to voice NPCs in adventure games is a grave threat to gamer meme culture. #arrowtotheknee

“If A.I. is as powerful a tool as its proponents claim, they should be able to find other uses for it besides intensifying the...

“If A.I. is as powerful a tool as its proponents claim, they should be able to find other uses for it besides intensifying the ruthlessness of capital.”

https://www.newyorker.com/science/annals-of-artificial-intelligence/will-ai-become-the-new-mckinsey

#AI #capitalism

“Why do they believe death or injury is an appropriate response to human fallibility? Public life shared with terrified and/or entitled...

“Why do they believe death or injury is an appropriate response to human fallibility? Public life shared with terrified and/or entitled and/or angry and/or disaffected men is untenable.”

Use this gift link to read the piece without a subscription: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/04/opinion/jordan-neely-killed.html?unlocked_article_code=MHXo64716H0qM_Gcx_A_V6IN0cHvVwYGZtLulQCNYC5QB90rgf9d9Y-YCf5wcsDyBSMJ1deL3dby2yL-T1o0b0V6BdSSRt5nMZkUgyNx-gc9VVOoG60UEwtdd_tCWS-Ct8ogZchvblC5dMoELRklEIbgfUJ0AFYrzQSTfcjgf0t31lZ0GVS2oVryBwmjVV-AY9FNUYN8ZX5f38r_HdGJqr96dGnPXWwbwxW_HM4R2MibYLr9_WiGgmHPbi5dQEF5Lfh9TLSTSmiUPPaoz0vMhCOCtJrrV3mQ8cnGsRFDvcAzVMyV8_XABPWThKULx0x4mdfd9l-mPmp3Yg_XpA&smid=tw-share

My latest column for the Scotsman is out. This time a reflection on how technological tools can change our expectations and relationships,...

My latest column for the Scotsman is out. This time a reflection on how technological tools can change our expectations and relationships, and not always for the better.

#surveillance #trust

https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/columnists/smartphone-surveillance-may-be-bad-for-parent-child-relations-dr-gina-helfrich-4125645

So anyways, except for the terrible horrible no good very bad gender politics+ontology, and a few other aspects of Robert Jordan's...

So anyways, except for the terrible horrible no good very bad gender politics+ontology, and a few other aspects of Robert Jordan's writing that tend to bother me (only saying an important plot point once, then assuming you'll remember it forever so he can obliquely refer to it later over and over again; pathetic character development that just re-emphasizes superficial qualities over and over; excessive attention to what everyone's wearing), I am enjoying this re-read of #WheelofTime. (7/7 end)

The thing that really had me losing it was a scene where a very formal (female) Aes Sedai ceremony is happening, and before they can conduct...

The thing that really had me losing it was a scene where a very formal (female) Aes Sedai ceremony is happening, and before they can conduct any business, they have to first prove that everyone in the room is a woman.

Guess how they do this. Guess.

Yep, every person in the room has to take her top off and show her boobs, which obviously *proves* she is a woman!

I mean I can't, I just can't.

(6/n)

And of course, the White Tower is all women Aes Sedai, and all male Aes Sedai are hunted down and "gentled" (cut off from the...

And of course, the White Tower is all women Aes Sedai, and all male Aes Sedai are hunted down and "gentled" (cut off from the Power) until Rand, at which time Rand creates a Black Tower of all men Aes Sedai.

The symbol for Aes Sedai is a yin yang, which makes sense if you were a young person in the 90s, but otherwise is probably a gross misappropriation of an important Asian cultural symbol.

I'm getting off-topic, back to the gender essentialism of the #WheelofTime. (5/n)

In the different societies in the #WheelofTime books, there are gender-homogenous groups of women or men involved in governing various...

In the different societies in the #WheelofTime books, there are gender-homogenous groups of women or men involved in governing various places.

So Emond's Field has a Women's Circle and a Council (all men). The Aiel have the Wise Ones (all women) and Far Dareis Mei/Maidens of the Spear (all women) and then there are ELEVEN other all-male warrior societies. The Aiel clan chiefs are always men. The Aiel holds have something called "roof mistresses." (4/n)

Perhaps just as bad, the way all this is described is utterly heteronormative. Women "surrender" to saidar. Men must violently...

Perhaps just as bad, the way all this is described is utterly heteronormative. Women "surrender" to saidar. Men must violently seize saidin.

There's also a lot of emphasis on how different women are to men, and how they can never seem to understand one another. There is the most utterly hackneyed trope of "Rand didn't understand women -- that was Mat and Perrin." And then from Mat's POV, the same thing but it's Rand & Perrin who are good w/women, and the same thing again but with Perrin. (3/n)

The #WheelofTime books insist on a gender binary. The Power (i.e. magic) has two halves: the female half (saidar) and the male half...

The #WheelofTime books insist on a gender binary. The Power (i.e. magic) has two halves: the female half (saidar) and the male half (saidin). Only women can wield saidar, and only men can wield saidin.*

*There's some small side-plot about a reincarnated bad-guy in a woman's body using saidar but I haven't gotten to the details of that yet for where I am in the books.

There is no acknowledgment of any space for third gender, non-binary, or trans identities at all. (2/n)