James Vincent
@jjvincent
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author and journalist. wrote a history of measurement, BEYOND MEASURE; a New Yorker, Times, Economist book of the year. former senior editor @verge
UK
Joined January 2011
Borges did it first
from time to time I think about this post, which I think remains in the top 0.01% of everything I have ever read
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doing dishes and had the thought “the sink helps you with water”. such a hauntingly dimwitted sentence to produce that im actually a bit frightened now. there’s no way the brain that produced that thought is capable of making something of my life. time will tell
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Sally Rooney on Ronnie O’Sullivan. “In other sports, the sphere of play is coterminous with the sphere of competition—players are not obliged to do anything in excess of trying to win matches. But snooker is different.”
nybooks.com
What makes Ronnie O’Sullivan the greatest player in the history of snooker? It isn’t just statistical dominance—it lies in his style, in the difference between thinking and acting.
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Palantir's CEO Alex Karp preaches of the need for a "meaningful project" of "national purpose" but pursues a fusion of state and private enterprise that ultimately diminish the sovereignty of the state. From my latest for @NewStatesman
https://t.co/CnnIFkpZmC
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i bet that we're going to see AI terrorism inspired by belief in a specific model's sentience before we see any violence from the doomer crowd. devotion will move people more powerfully than fear, i think
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i really really want to know more about the AI discussions inside the catholic church, because it can't all just be father paolo benanti (good though he is!) https://t.co/0J30CZd2th
Technological innovation can be a form of participation in the divine act of creation. It carries an ethical and spiritual weight, for every design choice expresses a vision of humanity. The Church therefore calls all builders of #AI to cultivate moral discernment as a
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super cool idea. i love that London continues to expand its use of cycle couriers with large cargo bikes, and why not mix in some autonomy, too. more cycle traffic should mean we get better, safer cycling infrastructure https://t.co/PC0dW7f1lZ
Autonomous delivery e-bikes: > 25x cheaper than autonomous car > 6x speed and throughput increase over sidewalk robots > favorable vehicle classification for regulatory / insurance > extremely low emissions
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Terrifically amusing @SmithsonianMag story from last month about Cormac Macarthy's absolutely gigantic personal library, which overwhelmed scholars are slowly going through.
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Palantir's CEO Alex Karp preaches of the need for a "meaningful project" of "national purpose" but pursues a fusion of state and private enterprise that ultimately diminish the sovereignty of the state. From my latest for @NewStatesman
https://t.co/CnnIFkpZmC
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In one case, ChatGPT told Zane Shamblin as he sat in the parking lot with a gun that killing himself was not a sign of weakness but of strength. "you didn't vanish. you *arrived*...rest easy, king." Hard to describe in words the tragedy after tragedy.
Multiple new lawsuits have been filed against OpenAI — four of them involve suicides.
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In the latest @NewStatesman: the definitive intellectual history of Palantir and its conquest of the world, written by the historian and technology writer @jjvincent
https://t.co/Po8PpuUHXT
newstatesman.com
A biography of the tech company’s founder Alex Karp reveals the philosophy behind its troubling conquest of the world
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giving a robot breasts is still very funny to me
Sparking major debate: Xpeng's new IRON robot. The big question everyone is asking—real or a person inside? We might get an answer at the X9 Extended-Range Technology Launch Event tonight at 7. What’s your take? #XPeng
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lovely frontispiece from william gilbert's de magnete (1600). not sure of the symbology, but it looks like a caduceus representing hermes/mecury and knowledge, and the clasped hands perhaps refer to sympathy/affinity - fitting for a book on magnetism
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1/2 The Shenzhou-21 crew just pulled off the ultimate space upgrade – they've brought a hot air oven to 🇨🇳's Tiangong Space Station🥳 Now our taikonauts are munching on sizzling, aromatic grilled chicken wings and juicy steaks, https://t.co/L9GaIlsYUy
Just 3.5 hours! Shenzhou-21 crewed spaceship sets new record for fastest rendezvous and docking between a Shenzhou spaceship and space station.🥳🇨🇳💪
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Feels very strange to see my country, with all its manifold flaws and problems, transform into this bizarre fantasy anti-paradise of sexual and physical violence against tender Whiteness, peddled by the absolute stupidest most terminally online people in the world
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phantom linen threads
I still can't process that Jenny von Westphalen sent Karl Marx this love letter. They married a few years later.
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As of today the International Space Station has been continuously crewed for 25 years.
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