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This piece by Margaret-Anne Storey is the best explanation of the term cognitive debt I've seen so far. Cognitive debt, a term gaining traction recently, instead communicates the notion that …Simon Willison’s Weblog
جایی در کتاب جنگ و صلح تولستوی، شخصی پییر بزوخف را اینگونه توصیف میکند که «مثل پیراهن عقیده عوض میکند». این جمله و شخصیت پییر بسیار به دلم نشست. با تعویض عقایدم به این رسیدم که میتوان و باید ساختار منطقی داشت. عقاید و ایدئولوژیها نباید متناقض باشند. نمیتوان شیفتهٔ هیتلر یا اسرائیل بود و همزمان با نسلکشی و جنایت مخالف بود. سعی میکردم اصول اولیهای بدیهی، به عنوان فرض داشته باشم. مفروضاتی که به احتمال بالا درستند. حقوق بشر یکی از این مفروضات بود. کیست که منکر این شود که هر انسانی از حقوقی برخوردار است؟ سادهلوحانه در دنیای خودم پیش رفتم. سپس فهمیدم که انسان موجود منطقی و خوشرفتاری نیست. چنان که عدهای کروی بودن زمین را هم منکر شده و به آن ایمان دارند؛ در زمینههای اجتماعی وضعیت به مراتب بدتر است.
با خودم میگفتم هرکسی حق تعیین سرنوشت دارد. این را حتی خمینی اول و اکنون رضا پهلوی (خمینی دوم) هم جار میزنند. ساده است که بپذیریم اگر حکومتی را نخواهیم پای صندوق رأی از جلوی گلوله بهتر است. اما به چشم دیدیم که عدهای خلاف این اصل بدیهی سینه سپر میکنند. برای من این بدیهیست که پدوفیلها و جنایتکاران جنگی دلسوز ما نیستند. آن هم با آن سابقهٔ کثیف استعماری، اما بسیاری عاشقشانند. حتی دیدم کسی نوشت «عموهایم ترامپ و نتانیاهو». برای من بدیهیست اقلیتها هم حقوقی دارند؛ اما در منطق دیگرانی، هرکه مخالف است خونش مباح است. بدیهیترین اصول انسانی و حتی ریاضی و منطقی که به آن باورمندم؛ در خیابان مورد تجاوز قرار میگیرد.
برای همین غافلگیرم. هیچ نمیدانم با این وضع که فاشیسم باز آرام میخزد و صندلی قدرت محکمتر در آغوش میگیرد چه به روز ما میآید؟ نمیفهمم چرا ستمدیده عاشق ستمگر میشود؟ چرا انسان به سندروم استکلهم دچار میشود؟ چرا از گذشته یاد نمیگیریم؟ چند بار هیتلر در نقابهای جدید بیاید و برود تا بگوییم دیگر بس است؟
Fangen wir doch am Besten mit den Kindern rechts neben der Bundestagspräsidentin an.
Vielleicht haben die dann mal Zeit, ihren Job zu machen.
In der Erweiterung dann alle, die vor ihr sitzen…
The People’s War, launched exactly thirty years ago, has entered its thirty-first year today. On this occasion, our party is celebrating People’s War Day. On this historic day, our party offers its heartfelt tributes to all the immortal martyrs who sacrificed their lives in the course of the Nepalese revolution, expresses heartfelt respect for the disappeared, wounded, and disabled fighters and commemorates the unparalleled sacrifice and valor shown by the people of Nepal. Furthermore, we extend our cordial greetings and Red Salute to the families of the martyrs and disappeared comrades, entire party members, supporters and well-wishers, the respected masses of the people, fraternal parties, and the international working class.
The great people’s war, declared with the determination to accomplish a new democratic revolution against feudalism, comprador and bureaucrat capitalism internally, and imperialism and expansionism externally, and advance towards scientific socialism and then communism, had spread a new message of revolution and change not only in Nepal but throughout the world.
The masters of world imperialism and their puppets, the Nepalese reactionary class, were terrified by this great People’s War. But ironically, due to serious betrayal and treachery by the party’s top leadership against the revolution, the Nepalese revolution has turned into a counter-revolution. Yesterday, the people’s war that was capable of challenging globalized imperialism has now become a matter of history, and its leading figures have become accomplices of imperialism. This is the bitter reality of today.
The limited democratic rights won by the Nepalese people on the foundation of the historic People’s War and the strength of the Mass Movement are being stripped away. The country’s trade deficit has skyrocketed, the economic crisis is severe, and remittances have propped up the national economy. The working-class laborers, farmers, and low-wage employees are struggling to make ends meet due to widespread unemployment and uncontrolled inflation, and a tiny group that exploits the country under the protection of the state power has amassed immense wealth. Corruption, black marketing, usurious exploitation, and cooperative fraud are rampant. It is becoming difficult for the actual farmers to recoup their investments, while middlemen are getting rich.
Amid these problems, after the US imperialist agents hijacked the leadership of the Gen-Z uprising, which erupted due to the ban on digital media imposed by the then Oli-led coalition government, and the formation of a puppet government led by Sushila Karki, the so-called parliamentary election for March 21, 2026, has been announced.
This parliamentary election is the latest step of US imperialism to bring legitimately to power the tested old agents of the parliamentary parties and the new agents created through the Gen-Z revolt. This election is based on the long-term strategy of US imperialism to take control of the entire state power of Nepal through its trusted agents, incorporate Nepal in its military alliances, including the SPP, and surround China by building military bases on Nepalese soil. This puppet government has been installed to implement the US strategy that counters the principles of Panchasheel and the non-aligned foreign policy that the country has adhered to until now.
Nepal has never been in such a serious situation as regards national independence. In today’s situation, when the very existence of the country is in danger, the only option is to dismiss this traitorous government and pave the way for a forward-looking move by holding a national political conference among all patriots, progressives, leftists and revolutionaries, building a united front, constituting an independent united government and drafting a people’s constitution.
In this situation, our party warmly calls on all patriotic forces to strongly boycott the upcoming so-called parliamentary elections and build a base to constitute an independent united government.
Comrade Gaurav
General Secretary
Revolutionary Communist Party of Nepal
Source : maoistroad.blogspot.com/2026/0…
abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=…#asia #guerrilla #nepal #peoplesWar #resistance
Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement, announced the martyrdom of commander Sami al-Dahdouh following an airstrike that targeted a group of civilians in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip. Residents of the city gathered for his funeral this afternoon. Several other civilians were also wounded in the attack.
This comes after medical sources in the Gaza Strip reported the martyrdom of ten Palestinians since dawn today as a result of airstrikes and artillery shelling by the Israeli occupation army in Khan Younis in the south and the al-Falouja area of Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip.
Al-Manar correspondent in Gaza also reported the martyrdom of one civilian and the wounding of several others in a drone strike on Beit Lahia in northern Gaza.
source: Al Manar
abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=…#alAqsaFlood #gaza #palestine #pij #repression #westAsia
Pink and gold sunset thunderheads, Woodtick Recreation Area, Scoville Reservoir, Wolcott, Connecticut. August 30, 2021, 7:38 PM.
#hiking #photography #outdoors #landscapephotography #nature #Connecticut #summer #forest #sunset #sunsetphotography #lake #summertime
One of the benefits of not being a sexist man-baby, is that I don't get my feelings hurt or cry when I read that several all-women SWAT teams competed at the UAE SWAT challenge, and that the women from China beat many all-men teams, including Orlando SWAT. 🤷🏿♂️
I can just say "respect" and move on.
youtube.com/shorts/sh4Iopch2EA
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.ItsPhoenix (YouTube)
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#Google's colourful, playful logo is imprinted on human retinas just under six billion times each day, 2.1 trillion times a year - an opportunity for respondent conditioning enjoyed by no other company in history.
Julian Assange
🎶 Ahora en Fedi Drama Radio:
Before The Rain — Singleton
💿 The High Seas
📻 Bloque: Sunset Hits
🔊 Escucha: radio.tuiter.rocks
📅 Programación: radio.tuiter.rocks/parrilla
#dramaradio #radio #music
Times have changed in research and if you are not using Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Wikipedia, #Google, and the like, you will be left in the dark.
Steven Magee
Jay Bryant likes this.
...large technologies such as #Google need to be broken up and regulated, because their consolidated power and cultural influence make competition largely impossible. This #monopoly in the information sector is a threat to #democracy...
Safiya Umoja Noble, Algorithms of #Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce #Racism
The implications of such marginalization are profound. The insights about #sexist and #racist biases... are important because information organizations, from libraries to schools and universities to governmental agencies, are increasingly reliant on being displaced by a variety of web-based "tools" as if there are no #political, #social, or economic consequences of doing so.
Safiya Umoja Noble, #Algorithms of #Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce #Racism
#quote #quotes #google #antigoogle
This #monopoly of #information is a threat to #democracy...
Safiya Umoja Noble, #Algorithms of #Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce #Racism
#Google creates advertising #algorithms, not information algorithms.
Safiya Umoja Noble, Algorithms of #Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce #Racism
Museum bows to pressure from pro-Israel group to remove the term ‘Palestine’, a move scholars and activists say is part of a ‘systematic’ attack on Palestinian cultural identityKatherine Hearst (Middle East Eye)
pascal macaigne reshared this.
While we were distracted, President Trump cut a tentacle off the Military Industrial Complex as he terminated ALL government contracts with private weapons defense contracting company, Booz Allen Hamilton.Bridgett Fertig (X (formerly Twitter))
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#Google tracks their users even though their motto is ‘Don’t be evil.’
A.D. Aliwat, In Limbo
If #Google isn’t responsible for its #algorithm, then who is?
Safiya Umoja Noble, #Algorithms of #Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce #Racism
Video claims this was the only fatal nuclear ( power plant ? ) accident in United States history
m.youtube.com/watch?v=iorhSlFY…
Impaled by nuclear control rod
Gave employees much less training than usual
On January 3rd, 1961, emergency responders were dispatched to the SL-1 reactor at the National Reactor Testing Station near Idaho Falls after heat sensors tr...Storified (YouTube)
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You know something is profoundly wrong with our economy when Big Tech has a higher take rate than the mafia.
Ritchie Torres
Now is maybe an appropriate time to recall one of the (if not the) best openings of 2025:
> "As the Marxist pamphleteer Adam Smith wrote in his Leninist textbook The Wealth of Nations..."
mastodon.acm.org/@pluralistic@…
pluralistic.net/2025/10/09/pri…
This message is not about #NixOS
Pluralistic: California bans algorithmic price-fixing (09 Oct 2025)Cory Doctorow (Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow)
Where @pluralistic recognizes Adam Smith as a Marxist, David Graeber acknowledges him as an Islamist and a promoter of the Sharia law:
We designed #Google to be the kind of place where the kind of people we wanted to work here would work for free.
- Urs Hölzle
Steven Levy, In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives
My guess is (it will be) about 300 years until computers are as good as, say, your local reference library in search.
Craig Silverstein (Director of Technology, Google.com)
Trivia are not knowledge. Lists of facts don't comprise knowledge. Analyzing, hypothesizing, concluding from data, sharing insights, those comprise knowledge. You can't #google for knowledge.
Elaine Chaika
All of a sudden, we’ve lost a lot of control,’ he said. ‘We can’t turn off our internet; we can’t turn off our smartphones; we can’t turn off our computers. You used to ask a smart person a question. Now, who do you ask? It starts with g-o, and it’s not God…
Steve Wozniak
In the Information Age, the first step to sanity is FILTERING. Filter the information: extract for knowledge.
Filter first for substance. Filter second for significance. These filters protect against advertising.
Filter third for reliability. This filter protects against politicians.
Filter fourth for completeness. This filter protects against the media.
Marc Stiegler, David's Sling
Someone had to make all the Epstein documents actually searchable.So I did.t.co/D75u1M5pXB pic.twitter.com/gmyZ7In77F— Epstein File Search (@epsteinsearchin) February 13, 2026Epstein File Search (X (formerly Twitter))
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UK considers new Russia sanctions after Navalny frog toxin finding
Yes, it's bad to murder someone, but why aren't the sanctions already 100% when they're murdering hundreds of thousands with a rain of bombs and missiles?
theguardian.com/politics/2026/…
Yvette Cooper says claim against Kremlin ‘deeply serious’ while Russia dismisses western ‘feeblemindedness’Rachel Hall (the Guardian)
UK’s top prosecutor says ‘nobody above law’ amid claims against former prince Andrew
Yet in the USA, all billionaires are above the law.
theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/f…
> Director of public prosecutions says he is confident police would examine any evidence of potential misconduct
"Fascist boss tries to rescue beleaguered rockabilly singer
The anti-migrant march in Faversham last November led to some unfortunate consequences for up-and-coming local musician Dylan Kirk after he was unwise enough to take part – and to pose for a photograph with Paul Golding, the visiting leader of the far-right group Britain First.
Kirk, a Rockabilly singer and pianist with a band called the Killers, had been making a name for himself locally and nationally, until his open support for the far right led to the cancellation of six gigs (out of an eight-date tour), one of which was to have been at Liverpool’s Cavern Club. We wrote about it here."
searchlightmagazine.com/2026/0…
Paul Golding with Dylan Kirk The anti-migrant march in Faversham last November led to some unfortunate consequences for up-and-coming local musician Dylan K ...Searchlight Correspondent (Searchlight)
🤬
Gay Days was going on before it was cool 😒 fuck this orange menace and his henchmen with a flaming cactus
GayDays Orlando, the long-running event known for turning theme parks pink, pool decks packed and dance floors sweaty, announced it is postponing its June 2026 celebration. Organizers cited changes to their host hotel agreement, the loss of key sponsors and wider challenges affecting LGBTQIA+ events across the country.
orlandoweekly.com/news/orlando…
GayDays Orlando organizers cited the loss of key sponsors and wider challenges affecting LGBTQIA+ events across the country.Juanita Olarte (Orlando Weekly)
N. E. Felibata 👽 reshared this.
I wonder how much of the current AI bubble is really a front to build power infrastructure and data centres, so that we no longer have operational devices anymore and must resort to using their cloud services.
Classic rent seeking behaviours.
A call to revive western colonialism received a standing ovation from European leaders. There is a false perception that #Europe is more progressive than the #US . That is false. It’s a founding partner in imperial barbarity.
x.com/RaniaKhalek/status/20231…
#GlobalMajority #Africa #Asia #LatinAmerica #MiddleEast #Imperialism #Fascism #USA
@politics #uspol #socialmedia #canada #mastodon #humanrights #resistance #activism #SOLIDARITY #MULTIPOLARITY #politics #geopolitics @blackvoices #blackhistorymonth
A call to revive western colonialism received a standing ovation from European leaders. There is a false perception that Europe is more progressive than the US. That is false. It’s a founding partner in imperial barbarity. t.Rania Khalek (X (formerly Twitter))
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like this
Trump’s Concentration Camp Build-Out Includes Nearly $40 Billion for Warehouse Conversions
“Germany’s concentration camps didn’t start as instruments of mass murder, and neither have ours,” wrote talk show host Thom Hartmann recently. “History isn’t whispering its warning: It’s shouting.”
commondreams.org/news/list-of-…
from #CommonDreams
Feb. 13, 2026
President Donald #Trump’s anti-#immigration agenda has supercharged opposition in cities where he has deployed federal agents to conduct raids, and communities in states including New York and Missouri are already working to block the next step the Department of Homeland Security plans to take in its push for mass #deportations: acquiring massive warehouses across the country to use as #immigrant detention centers.
#AbolishICE
#ImmigrantRightsAreHumanRights
#DefendRuleOfLaw
#DueProcessForAll
#StopTheDeportations
#ICE #USA #US #USpol #politics #news
The Trump administration's aggressive anti-immigration agenda has sparked fierce opposition in cities where federal agents conduct raids.julia-conley (Common Dreams)
The Palestinian Prisoners Club reported that the number of martyrs of the captive movement, since the start of the extermination war, has risen to 88, including 52 detainees from Gaza, with the announcement of the death of the detained ambulance offDAILY YEMEN
US Military Helping Trump to Build Massive Network of ‘Concentration Camps,’ Navy Contract Reveals
The Department of Homeland Security is using a repurposed $55 billion Navy contract to convert warehouses into makeshift jails and plan sprawling tent cities in remote areas.
#TrumpNaziDeathRegime
commondreams.org/news/military…
Military Helping Trump to Build Massive Network of 'Concentration Camps,' Navy Contract Revealsstephen-prager (Common Dreams)
🌈Magical Thinking reshared this.
like this
N. E. Felibata 👽 reshared this.
Chris Dickinson
in reply to Simon Willison • • •I am sure you’ve read this, but in case you haven’t, Peter Naur’s article on “Programming as Theory Building” has been very useful to me in talking about the maintenance of ai-augmented systems:
pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/Naur.…
Ian Wagner
in reply to Chris Dickinson • • •Gustavo Bicalho
in reply to Chris Dickinson • • •David Nicholson
in reply to Chris Dickinson • • •@isntitvacant yup
cekrem.github.io/posts/program…
And this why coding LLMs as they are currently engineered will remain little more than autocomplete on steroids; even though many SWEs insist on failing the Turing test when they see LLM-generated code, a statistical model of (programming) language(s) will never have theory of mind
Programming as Theory Building: Why Senior Developers Are More Valuable Than Ever
cekrem.github.ioTad Lispy
in reply to Chris Dickinson • • •Bruce Elrick
in reply to Simon Willison • • •Jed Brown
in reply to Simon Willison • • •I appreciate you writing about this, specifically because a lot of people in LLM-positive coding circles look to you for advice.
This is a key part of why many open source maintainers (myself included) have been averse to these products from the jump (reaffirmed by our interactions with people who have thrown in). We cannot faithfully execute the role of maintainer without clear understanding of tacit assumptions, limitations, and nuance of leaky abstractions. While some can be addressed through documentation and tests, PR review is an important medium in which to disseminate understanding within the community, and possibly conceptualize better approaches. The trust of the community depends on performance of these cognitive processes.
I believe the effect you describe becomes more insidious in larger projects, with distributed developer communities and bespoke domain knowledge. Such conditions are typical in research software/infrastructure (my domain), and the cost of recovering from such debt will often be intractable under public funding models (very lean; deliverables only for basic research, not maintenance and onboarding). Offloading to LLMs interferes not just with the cognitive processes of the "author", but also that of maintainers and other community members.
Clark Breyman (he/him)
in reply to Simon Willison • • •Simon Willison
in reply to Clark Breyman (he/him) • • •chartroom/SPEC.md at 0.2.1 · simonw/chartroom
GitHubThermophilus
in reply to Simon Willison • • •Joanna Bryson
in reply to Simon Willison • • •panu
in reply to Simon Willison • • •Glenjamin
in reply to Simon Willison • • •I’ve been thinking about this in terms of coherence.
Maintainable software has coherent internal models and patterns - it’s unclear to me if current gen tools are able to achieve this - especially if they’re being used to rapidly increase the volume of software
Rob Flickenger ⚡️
in reply to Simon Willison • • •"Claude, walk me through this part of the implementation" can be helpful, both to understand what it has been up to and identify things that can be consolidated.
And particularly useful in other people's code bases.
It's a fine line between getting out of the way, and losing control. Why waste time on an out of date mental model, if the details aren't actually important?
Orb 2069
in reply to Rob Flickenger ⚡️ • • •@hackerfriendly
Look at you, thinking that an LLM can 'explain' "what it has been up to". It's almost like you think it's a person or something.
Maybe if you use these tools without understanding how they work, you're not the best judge of what details are unimportant?
SensibleOtter
in reply to Simon Willison • • •I am going through exactly the same thing with actual humans.
The lack of decision RECORDING is a huge impact on even simple code.
The lack of validation of WHY we reach a decision is massive.
With humans the individual remembers, and it also remember it’s ow hallucinations (I THINK they mean this)
Ironically I had Agentic AI spitting out every decision made into Markdown, that is a tangible teaching tool to my team.
Simon Willison
in reply to SensibleOtter • • •@OtterlySensible yeah losing track of the reason behind decisions is really painful
I eventually started using lengthy GitHub issue threads to record decisions, which helped for my own stuff but doesn't help when other people making decisions don't have the same habits!
Martijn Faassen
in reply to Simon Willison • • •Related is the wall of jello non AI software development runs into when adding feature after feature without stepping back and thinking once every while. The human + AI can run into it too, just faster.
I was wondering about a practice where you have explicit code reading moments - spending an hour or day reading the code and refactoring without the aid of AI on a regular basis.
Josh Bleecher Snyder
in reply to Simon Willison • • •Review the reviews
commaok.xyzStefan Prandl
in reply to Simon Willison • • •