#tech-driven infrastructure

[presswoodterryryan]

Trump's Freedom Cities: A New Era of Sustainable Development

By Mr. Fluffernutter In an era of rapid technological advancement, economic shifts, and increasing urban congestion, former President Donald Trump has introduced a bold and ambitious vision—the creation of Freedom Cities. As part of his Agenda 47 policy framework, Trump proposes developing new cities on federally owned land, aiming to redefine urban living through cutting-edge infrastructure,…

[hinge]

Hinge presents an anthology of love stories almost never told. Read more on https://no-ordinary-love.co

[goodoldbandit]

Data Unbound: Embracing NoSQL & NewSQL for the Real-Time Era.

Sanjay Kumar Mohindroo Sanjay Kumar Mohindroo. skm.stayingalive.in Explore how NoSQL and NewSQL databases revolutionize data management by handling unstructured data, supporting distributed architectures, and enabling real-time analytics. In today’s digital-first landscape, businesses and institutions are under mounting pressure to process massive volumes of data with greater speed,…

[aipuconnects]

Innovative Computing and Engineers Association

The Innovative Computing and Engineers Association (ICEA) brings together professionals from the fields of computing and engineering to drive groundbreaking innovations, foster collaboration, and advance technological progress.

[howlsofbloodhounds]

If the Chromatic Crew had jobs in the Omega Timeline, what would they be?

I feel like Delta would work as some sort of mechanic, given his passion for technology and engineering. Perhaps he specializes in robotics, cybernetics, and biomechanical enhancements—particularly for monsters, hybrids, or even humans with prosthetics.

He could design and maintain cybernetic limbs or assistive technology for those who need mechanical augmentations.

Given that Omega Chara kinda cut him half, if his body still struggles to function in some way due to that despite its healing, and potential magical instability, he might experiment with integrating technology into his own recovery and mobility—like reinforced plating, internal stabilizers, or even minor cybernetic enhancements.

He might build AI-driven mechanical assistants to help him in the workshop, reducing the strain of overworking himself.

If the Omega Timeline likely has threats or conflicts, Delta could also potentially work as a weapon specialist, designing high-tech weapons, armor, and battle gear.

I think he’d likely refuse to create purely offensive weapons, instead focusing on defensive gear, shields, and non-lethal weaponry to prevent unnecessary deaths.

(And this is likely something Core agrees with if they allow him to build weapons in the first place. If Delta does make any offensive weapons, they’re likely hidden somewhere he deems safe.)

If the Omega Timeline has any advanced vehicles or transport systems, Delta would absolutely be involved in repairing, modifying, and upgrading them.

He might build experimental hovercrafts, motorcycles, or personal flight devices. I also think Delta is likely to take on side projects, where he builds things just because he can—whether it’s helpful inventions, weird gadgets, or impractical but cool devices.

He might experiment with combining magic and machinery, creating hybrid tech that blends the best of both worlds.

Given that Beta (his human half) grew up on the Surface and Sans grew up in the Underground, he might take inspiration from both human and monster engineering, leading to designs that take from both worlds.

Rather than working under a formal organization, i think Delta is more likely to be a self-taught, independent mechanic who runs his own private workshop or garage.

He might barter services instead of working for money, fixing things in exchange for food, materials, or favors.

Especially if he barters with Core and any members of the potential Council—ensuring their technology, infrastructure, and security remain secure and functional in exchange for housing where he either doesn’t have to pay rent/bills, or the Council covers that for him.

His workspace could be cluttered but functional, filled with half-finished projects, custom tools, and notes scribbled everywhere. He would probably refuse to take jobs from people he doesn’t trust, especially if he suspects they would use his work for harmful purposes.

Especially if we take into account the headcanon of how Killer used any weapons of Delta’s to fuel negativity for Nightmare and help the corruption expand his “organization.”

Color, however, I feel would be unable to work a traditional full time job, at least not for a long time.

And although Delta likely to insist on being the one to take care of everything and everyone in their household, willing to take on extra work if he has to, Color probably worries a lot about what would happen if he doesn’t “get better” and start “pulling his weight.”

Start behaving..like an “adult.” Again.

Will Delta leave him? Will he hate him and get mad at him, throw them out on the streets one day, because he realized how much of a drain Color has been on his life? The burden on his shoulders? Will Beta realize how pathetic he is, nothing worth looking up to? Will Sans look at Color, and be glad he didn’t make the wrong choices and end up like Color?

So at first—I think his best options would be remote work and self employment/commissions.

He could do writing like blogs, short stories, and transcription work. Data entry if he can manage long screen time, and even email-based customer service, not phone-based.

He could even sell any arts, crafts, or music online he makes—and before going on to paid work, he could even try out volunteering in an attempt to refamiliarize with being around people again. (Such as volunteering at the hospital with the children.)

And then eventually a part-time job with flexible hours, and it has to be low-stress, accommodating, and allow for breaks to prevent burnout, breakdowns, and physical collapses from Color.

Like working as a library assistant or a museum guide or doing archival work.

When he starts getting antsy about being trapped in the Omega Timeline, however, I do think he’d definitely be willing to push himself past his limits in regards to work if he views it as a means out of the Omega Timeline.

Perseverance definitely would make it near impossible to stop if it agrees with or shares Color’s desires to get out, or simply is particularly very ambitious on their job or helping Color, regardless of the strain or injury it could cause their shared body.

For Killer, at first I was considering something to do with the death care industry—like an embalmer or a mortician—but then I remembered how he tends to be towards the dead.

He doesn’t really show much respect or care for the dead, such as taking the souls of his victims or studying their dead bodies for his own purposes and ends without consent—and he’s trying to get better in this ending.

Keeping him around and trusting him to handle the Omega Timeline’s dead, tempting him, reminding him of what he’s been surrounded by for a long time now.

What he’s yearned for, what he’s done. Especially if he ever comes across any familiar faces or magical “signatures”…i doubt it’d be good.

So i definitely think he’d do something to do with animals. He loves animals, relates most to them, definitely has a lot more respect and care for them then he does for most other living beings.

He could potentially get a full or part time job in Ccino’s Cafe, working primarily with the animals—cats and dogs.

Especially since Ccino not only knows Killer through their shared connections with Nightmare, but Ccino also very likely has rapport with both Color and Epic.

And speaking of Ccino’s cafe and Epic, there’s Epic’s good pal, Cross.

Now I was a little stuck on potential jobs for both Cross and Epic, outside of the obvious ones—something science related for Epic, something Royal Guard or militaristic-like for Cross.

But I had a feeling that military work may not actually be as good mental health wise for Cross as it seemed, despite its familiarity, and I also felt that Epic had more potential options I just couldn’t see yet.

So I asked a friend of mine her opinions and thoughts on the matter, since she’s more familiar with the characters’ canon than I am at this moment, so I’ll paraphrase what they (@/zuzuelectricbugaloo) and down below:

Epic might take on a part-time role as a doctor since his ability to see Codes would be useful for treating cases where regular magic isn’t effective.

Additionally, he could run a daycare in the Omega Timeline, given his experience babysitting many kids like Palette, Goth/Vidal, Paperjam, and Gradient, and his genuine enjoyment of it.

As for Cross, he might initially consider a military-related job since he’s skilled in that area and likes feeling helpful. However, given the war-like trauma and PTSD he experienced in XTale/Underverse, it wouldn’t be the best choice for him.

He enjoys art and baking, so working part-time at a café could be a good fit. However, considering his past actions in Underverse—such as destroying AUs or causing harm, even indirectly—many Omega Timeline residents might not welcome him.

Because of this, he might prefer working elsewhere, like at Ccino’s café, where he has a good relationship with both Ccino and Epic. There, he could use his artistic side in baking and making drinks or even help with the animals. This setup would allow him to feel productive without overwhelming anxiety or the pressure of feeling like he’s doing everything wrong.

[paddedlittleparadise]

Burning Down the Planet for Fun and Profit

There are many reasons I (and many others) oppose the current AI hype, but I specifically urge everyone to learn about its staggering environmental impact. Here are a few choice excerpts from a recent piece in Harvard Magazine:

(About Meta's new data center in rural Louisiana) "Meta’s data center needs an estimated 2.2 gigawatts of power to sustain the tens of thousands of computer chips that will be used to train and run the company’s AI models. That’s roughly twice the energy used by the entire city of New Orleans during peak consumption—and it would require building $3 billion worth of new power infrastructure, such as gas plants and transmission lines, before the end of the decade."

[…]

"But during the past few years, the race to build Al data centers has driven an unprecedented demand for power that has made the old way of doing business untenable. In Texas alone, a single utility reported demand for 119 gigawatts of power from data centers, which is more than the current power generation capacity of the entire state.

"It's taken around 100 years to develop 82 gigawatts in Texas," says Eliza Martin, a legal fellow at the Environmental and Energy Law Program who coauthored the paper on Big Tech's energy demands with Peskoe. “It’s hard to fathom how we’re just going to double that in the next couple of decades. We’re talking about energy demand for entire cities regularly materializing out of thin air.”

[talenlee]

The World of Harrowed Night

Malvad is the setting for my custom Magic: the Gathering set, Harrowed Night. It’s a name chosen as a joke, but which I’m now fond of, because it’s a stupid name. Just as a heads up, though, this article is not going to feature any custom magic cards, and you don’t need to understand the rules of Magic: The Gathering to understand the setting. This article aims to explain commonalities through the factions and their interests, which will mean understanding some of the colour wheel of Magic: the Gathering, but I promise to summarise it.

This is a treatment of a city in a setting.

Content Warning: Made in September 2024, Harrowed Night wanted to capture the idea of criminal gangs in a magi-tech setting opposing a fascist dictatorship that wanted to control people’s ways of worship, living, self-identifying and loving, annd even the very ways history was remembered to hide the encroaching climate catastrophe swallowing the city.

Again, this was September 2024.

This might be a bummer!

Malvad

Monarchic megalopolis, The Exarch’s Prize, The City of Gangs

Geography

Malvad is a vast, sprawling city built atop a plateau that extends into a coastal mountain range. Once a patchwork of smaller towns, it fused into a single metropolis through relentless growth. It now fills this wedge of land at the edge of the sea, hemmed in by towering mountains that unleash snowstorms. Despite the frigid peaks, the coastline remains warm and tropical, thanks to ocean currents. The mountains, heavily mined over the years, are still cloaked in bush and trees—remnants of the forests once harvested to build the city.

Glossary

Exarch: The term used to refer to the plural ruling class of Malvad. ‘The Exarch’ are ostensibly a parliamentary body that act as one, but their identities are unknown to the public.

Formorian: A term used to refer to a gigantic thing, based on myths and stories of prehistoric giants.

Lifter: A type of magically-driven construct that needs a conscious, living pilot to operate. Lifters were made to save labor for the Glassworkers guilds. but their maintenance and construction became part of the infrastructure of that guild. A lifter is basically like a large robot or power armour, but with a visible pilot.

Memoricide: Magic that destroys the memory of a thing. To commit memoricide, you don’t attack the subjects you want to affect, you attack the thing that they are trying to remember. A person memoricided forgets themselves, but that is secondary considering they also usually forget how to breathe. Note that memoricide has a range: a person who is memoricided who left records outside the city will still leave those historical records, though records within the city will be magically unravelled.

“Necromancy:” In Malvad, any magic that directly alters a body—living or dead—is considered necromancy. However, magic contained within objects, such as potions that transform or heal, is exempt; in these cases, the magic is seen as residing in the item itself rather than acting upon the body. Under this ruling, most forms of magic—including personal protection and teleportation—have been reclassified as necromancy.

The Storm: Vaguely and euphemistically referenced, this refers to the years-long perpetual winter that has been hammering the higher-altitude parts of Malvad. It’s not a storm, it’s the changed climate resulting in a constant weather pattern of snow and extreme storms in the area.

The People Of Malvad

The cultures of Malvad vary but include all the typical heritages of a Magic: The Gathering city setting. There are some humans, some human-likes, some furries, ghosts, monsters, and some really fruity stuff. Out in the woods around Malvad there are true Cyclops (one-eyed humanoid giants) and Ursix (humanoid bears), and also some giants that have even made their way into the city life as well.

Within the city, there are also the Bugbears (larger Goblins), Webkin (humanoid frogs), and the Mogur. Mogur are werewolves whose ability to transform has been disrupted by something. Mogur hold that the magic of their bodies was corrupted by something the Exarch did, but as with many things in Malvad, the records are spotty.

Politics

In brief:

Malvad is a oligarchic absolute monarchy

Its rulership are unknown and have control over rumours and information

The nation is run under a form of full libertarianism with the state serving as a corporation that can charge access fees to roads and markets

There is no unifed police or justice system and such disputes are handled by the Exarch directly

The Exarch is the ruling class of the City of Malvad. The civic argument they present is that in order to optimally rule the city, their identities need to be secret, and their power needs to be absolute; otherwise, their best judgment could be clouded by fear of reprisal from the people of the city. This ideal, they explain in an ambassadorial presentation, was agreed upon by the people of Malvad at some point, though the specific time of when is not clear.

Malvad’s rulership is monarchistic and deeply hierarchical, built on the belief that those who remember the nation’s darkest moments must bear burdens the rest of the populace is spared. This position is one of political self-styled martyrdom—the Exarchs endure the nation’s sins and, in return, must be trusted to make its most vital decisions. This ideology fosters strong individualism and behavior suited to low-trust systems. For example, there is no central police force, as such an institution is viewed as unreliable when dependent on a singular authority’s ideology.

When the Emergency Powers took effect, the Exarch dismantled the existing police force and replaced it with their own chosen agents—individuals deemed loyal to the Exarch’s vision. According to the Exarch, this ensures that decisions are made by those with the best information, a system that, as far as anyone knows, has proven successful. After all, no records indicate the Exarch have ever failed to identify a guilty party in any criminal investigation.

Ideological Poles

The factions of the setting are modelled around five specific ideological outlooks, that then pull people into common cultural spaces. In this case, they’re representated by five, related colours that I’m going to use here as shorthand.

A sense of order, honour, and inherent value to structure, represented by the colour white.

A vision of fundamental perfection through optimal choices, represented by the colour blue.

A belief in the iconic importance of the self, even in the face of life or death, represented by the colour black.

A trust in one’s own emotions as a believable, trustworthy indicator of how a person should behave in their daily life, represented by the colour red.

A positioning of the self as part of a network of real natural relationships and ecologies, represented by the colour green.

These colours are then brought together to form synthesis of these ideologies. A red-black character is going to value, for example, their emotional reactions as a way of expressing something about themselves. A red-white character however, might see their emotions as integrating into a vision of fundamental cultural justice.

Also, these things tend to have areas of overlap and inter-relationship, and they have common bonds. If you think the world can be perfected through choices and information, you probably value pretty strongly an ordered, structured view of everything because that’s how you get all the information that lets you make correct decisions, and you probably view you, the agent who can make choices, as more important than other people’s emotional reactions or even the coherence of nature. That means in general, blue characters are going to commonly be able to agree with white and black characters, and less commonly agree with green or red characters.

Finally, there are plenty of shorthands for this model, but it’s not a model that in-universe most people really get. It’s not like all the people in the world know that these alignments exist, but they are aware of some common ground and some disagreement with almost everyone in their orbit. There’s disagreement within these factions, too, even within people who align very closely within these perspectives.

Factions

The most commonly understood way to interpret Malvad’s population is in term of its competing various political groups, labelled by the Exarch as gangs. The gangs don’t, usually, bother with this definition, but for this, the term gang refers to a group with the following traits:

They have a distinctive, notable identity, expressed with titles, names, language, a symbol, and distinctive gang colors

They exert control in an area. This means specifically, the faction is capable of displacing the existing power structures of the city in their territority.

They have a unified philosophical framework, an ideology they hold to that means that even isolated actors can be relied upon to behave predictably in accordance with the interests of the group as a whole.

The Exarch’s Chosen

The faction closest to being recognized as Malvad’s legitimate government—at least by the ruling class—the Exarch’s Chosen consists of informants, spies, and the noble families willing to exert force on the streets since the dissolution of the communal guard. These individuals often display unnatural strength, which Exarch propaganda claims is a byproduct of the city’s protection over its most worthy citizens.

The Chosen are unified by a magical treatment that leaves their eyes marked with glowing white sigils. Detached from the city’s everyday concerns, they embrace lofty idealism and wield the tools of memoricide. Their demeanor is aloof, often interpreted as cruelty—not because they consider themselves cruel, but because they believe their understanding of the city’s needs demands a certain coldness. That coldness, however, sometimes manifests as violent outbursts or indulgence in excessive hedonism.

Crownless

Symbol: A broken crown

Colours: White and Green.

The Crownless are a mutual support network spanning multiple residential districts, parts of the market district, and various parks. Their decentralized nature means they often underestimate their own numbers, prioritizing generosity over caution. While this openness aids recruitment and fosters an abundance of human effort, it doesn’t translate to wealth—Crownless members can find people to do tasks that need doing (like caring for people, building structures, tending to parks), but accumulating resources on a large scale remains a challenge.

The Crownless believe that they don’t need a top-down organisational body to run things, they just need a shared ideological and philosophical framework that’s willing to accept the burden of caring for one another, and tolerate anyone that can comply with that shared framework.

Despite lacking vast territory, the Crownless may be one of the largest factions in terms of sheer membership. Their presence is threaded through nearly every neighborhood, meaning even non-members likely know someone within their ranks. Though their ability to wield direct violence is limited compared to other gangs, they excel at social exclusion—shutting out those unwilling to abide by their everyone-shares mentality.

The biggest flaw within the Crownless is their inability to identify and remove their own worst members. They recruit those who follow the rules, but those rules don’t stop bad actors until after they’ve abused trust.

Groundsharks

Symbol: A wall with a shark fin jutting out of it.

Colours: Blue and Green.

The Groundsharks are a coalition of druids who venerate a pre-city text that first taught them magic. With traditional nature magic lost, they have adapted, animating sections of the city—chunks of road and infrastructure—to fight for the people’s benefit. Their craft requires meticulous study, mapping which streets they can control and lock down with their elementals.

As a result, the Groundsharks are among the most well-informed individuals regarding the city’s structure, yet surprisingly laissez-faire about shaping its future. While the city may claim authority over its form, the Groundsharks argue that its true shape emerges organically, growing into something more suited for the people. Of course, this also reqires cultivation and culling, and the Groundsharks are very confident that the Exarch needs to be removed to ensure the life of the city.

The harshest criticism leveled against them is their devotion to the city over its inhabitants. To them, people die every day—but the ancient being that is the city perishing would be a far greater tragedy. Cull the rot, shape the growth.

Hackgears

Symbol: A single shape that’s a gear and wrench stuck together.

Colours: Blue and Red.

The Hackgears began as a technical labor union, originally formed by glassblowers specializing in mass production—first of widely desired goods, then of niche creations. Over time, the union expanded, drawing in highly skilled professionals: perfectionists who understood the value of precise rules and measurements, as well as artists and designers eager to express themselves.

To support their work, the Hackgears developed technical machines—magically powered constructs and vehicles used to manage warehouses full of materials and products. These machines, known as Lifters, are now instrumental to their operations, serving as powerful agents capable of countering cavalry and monsters alike.

Strictly speaking, the Hackgears are no longer just a glassblowers’ union. Their ranks include chemists, lifter pilots, engineers, and warehouse laborers. Initially, they had little interest in political conflict, preferring to wait for the next ruler—so long as they were free to make and sell their creations. The Emergency Powers act locked them out of many markets, and stifled the kinds of art or tools they were permitted, radicalising them in the name of artistic freedom.

The harshest critique of the Hackgears is that they are at their core, a business. Were the Exarch willing to leave them alone, they might have remained neutral. But the Exarch’s restrictions have forced them into rebellion—not out of ideological conviction, but because their ability to create and share their work has been threatened.

New Dawn

Symbol: A pair of wings spreading under a rising sun.

Colours: White and black.

The new Dawn are a secret organisation hiding amongst the nobility and authoritive class of the city of Malvad. The nobles hold parties, make deals, negotiate positions and spend money that slushes into their funds from the workers underneath them. The New Dawn are people in these positions of powers – or rather, the memories of people.

The New Dawn were formed when the Exarch memoricided a wrong target; specifically, they tried to kill a trans woman by wiping out the memory of her deadname. The effect was to leave a whole individual who now had the definition of a mysterious past, trying to determine what had happened to her, and then, in unravelling the mystery, hatching a plan to invisible a whole cohort like her. People with lost identities, who could have their old identity destroyed by memoricide would then be invisible to the Exarch’s agents, and that presented a chance to take control of the city away from them.

The worst thing you can say about the New Dawn is that they’re terrible recruiters, and every single agent they have is a deliberately obfuscating asshole with an addiction to smug coyness. That’s just a social thing, though, since their #1 task is recruiting people who can be successfully hidden from the Exarch through identity destruction, meaning their number are made up of some of the stranger losers. You need to be able to respect the rules, the reasons for the secrecy, you need to get it that the structure of the organisation is a good thing, but you also need to be very good at being independent, and probably you also need to be willing to kill people.

New Dawn are one of the smallest factions in the city, but thanks to their invisibility to the authorities, they can express outsized power. After all, if they kill anyone, that person was killed by nobody. The witnesses would see nobody, too.

Razorwings

Symbol: A clawed wing.

Colours: White and Red.

The Razorwings were once prosperous armoursmiths and weaponsmiths, growing rich as the Exarch invested heavily in military expansion, outfitting knights and city leaders. But when the Exarch banned most weapon manufacturing, the Razorwings found themselves suddenly without a market, left with a surplus of master craftsmen—many of whom viewed their craft as a form of artistry—with nowhere to sell their work. Rather than compete within the narrow constraints imposed on them, the union banded together to start a new project.

If they couldn’t sell their weapons, they would give them away.

The Razorwings offer a blunt, pragmatic solution to the power wielded against them. They leave weapons in public spaces, branded with their sigil, strategically placed where they believe chaos will follow. A disgruntled worker fired from a business might walk out the front door to find armor and arms waiting—equipment perfectly suited to turning their frustration into open rebellion.

This approach grants the Razorwings an outsized influence; they arm dissenters against the city, yet remain untouched themselves, hidden among the populace as a tight-knit community of artisans. The weapons they distribute become the tools of their supporters—people who, whether driven by desperation or ideology, hold up their cause. And now, there are many wielding Razorwing-forged steel.

The harshest criticism of the Razorwings is simple: they are placing weapons where anyone can take them. They believe that most people in the city want to fight injustice, and that an armed populace are a polite populace. Time will tell if their faith in people is misplaced.

Stonehearts

Symbol: A heart wrapped in barbed wire.

Colours: Black and Red.

The Stonehearts are a cult of body transformation enthusiasts, shaped by necessity that then shaped an unbreakable ideology. When the Exarch banned most forms of medical magic under the guise of restricting “Necromancy,” many who relied on such magic to care for themselves were forced into more extreme methods—ones the Necromancy laws had yet to catch.

Their success stems from two interconnected techniques: Gorgon Diving and Gargoyle Blood. Gargoyles—monstrous constructs crafted by the Exarch for surveillance—are not truly alive, yet their bodies contain magic-infused blood. Stonehearts hunt gargoyles, drain them, and inject their blood into their own veins. Gorgon Divers follow a different path, willingly allowing trusted gorgons to slowly transform them into living stone. Used in tandem, these processes reshape a Stoneheart into a malleable, sculpted entity—a living statue capable of carving and modifying themselves at will.

Recognizing the value of these practices, the Stonehearts steadily militarized to hunt gargoyles across cathedrals and to defend their gorgon allies. But as the city cracked down on them, those with only modest interest or curiosity abandoned the gang. Those who remained were those for whom giving up meant death—those who had undergone irreversible transformations, those who controlled their identity through the process, and those whose hunts were their only survival skill. These were those for whom the alternative to the Stoneheart process was death. Some Stonehearts shape themselves into beautiful artworks, some into horrifying monsters, and some strike a middle ground of sexy monster people.

That’s when the Exarch learned that they had inadvertently created a group of extremely determined autonomous extremists who were being presented with a choice of kill or die and they knew what they’d rather. That’s when actual members of the Exarch started to die, in public places.

The worst thing you can say about the Stonehearts is that they do not negotiate. If you don’t understand their pursuit of radically absolute bodily autonomy, they will not waste time convincing you. That is your problem.

Tin-Stars

Symbol: A simple, clean five-pointed star.

Colours: White and Blue.

When the Exarch dismantled the city’s law enforcement, the impact rippled through its foundations. The guards and police had once operated under a prestigious magistrate system—an institution venerated by the city’s education system and embedded in the noble class’s sense of virtue. Training as a guard or officer was not merely a profession but a mark of status, resulting in nobles well-versed in combat against gangs. Oh, you wouldn’t wind up a street guard, please, you’ve got some standing, some breeding, you had to be available to do a noble’s duties—but many families had a child who did time as an officer and even getting into street fights or opposing crimes.

By privatizing law enforcement, the Exarch unraveled this system entirely. Knights and lawyers of this old order watched as the framework they had believed in crumbled, leaving the city vulnerable to monsters and horrors—supposedly from outsider forces. Stripped of the Gold Crest, the emblem of law’s cathedral, they chose to act directly. Their new symbol, the Tin Star, became a defiant statement. You can no doubt find all sorts of smart people working in libraries and desk jobs who want to tell you how smart the tin star is, as a symbol. Do you like reading lore essays? These people write lore essays about their own gang.

The worst thing you can say about the Tin Stars is that, despite becoming a gang fighting to protect the people, they remain wedded to an outdated vision. They see salvation not in revolution, but in restoring a system where nobles became judges, the working class became enforcers, and the working poor remained victims.

Unruled

Symbol: A hear in the middle of a jagged ring.

Colours: Red and Green.

Somewhere, away from here, people learned from their mistakes.

The Unruled are paradoxically one of the city’s largest factions, yet among the least present within its borders. When they recognized the Exarch’s abusive rule and the environmental devastation unfolding—the endless storm, the boiling sea—they chose to leave. While they still tag locations within the city, to them, it is merely a place to raid, rescuing those trapped in its grim reality.

A gang of anarchists wholly severed from the city’s power structures, the Unruled rely on nothing from Malvad—not its resources, not its people. Their communities stretch across the forests, carving out their own existence, adapting to the storm, and even forging alliances within it. They found the real Cyclops in the forest, they befriended the Ursix, and where they spread their stories, rebellions follow.

The harshest truth about the Unruled is simply: who? Their departure was so complete that many in the city fail to realize an entire movement succeeded in building a communalist society beyond its reach. If they know anything about The Unruled it’s as a terrorist group—thery show up, do incredible harm to something in the city that the citizens think of as essential infrastructure, like a prison, or a church, or a work-house, and then they flee the city with everyone who wants a better life.

Whisperers

Symbol: An eye, rolled up to look upwards, with four eyelashes looking like fingers reaching up, and a ‘thumb’ to the left side.

Colours: Blue and Black.

The Whisperers are the unseen force lurking behind cryptic graffiti—the “Who” that most people reference without truly understanding. They operate much like the New Dawn, but while the New Dawn recruits from existing identities embedded within the city’s structures, the Whisperers craft their members from something else entirely: ideas that exist but have not yet been named. Only a small number of people become Whisperers, dissolving their names in profane rituals to hide from the Exarch, but they bolster their numbers with ideas made manifest.

This brings with it some truly horrifying madnesses. Whisperers struggle with their own identities, as the reality of what they think they should be tries to assert itself over the reality they share with everyone else. A Whisperer is a person who can, at worst, make you experience their hallucinations.

Whisperer magic builds on this—they pull immaterial concepts into reality. This small, conspiracy-driven collective fixates on the secret of memoricide, obsessively seeking to understand its mechanisms and how lost knowledge might be recovered. Bound by their relentless pursuit of answers, they have unintentionally birthed horrors composed entirely of people’s imaginings.

The most horrifying thing about the Whisperers is that their ability to pull fictions into place mean that there are more than a few Whisperers that are people who weren’t Whisperers originally, but who lost their names thanks to Whisperers turning them into concepts.

The worst thing you can say about the Whisperers is that they are surrounded by horrifying, nameless fears.

Yard Hounds

Symbol: A jawbone and ten teeth.

Colours: Black and green.

Necromancy! The Exarch calls it necromancy—any magic that affects the body, any damage to the vessel of life’s purity. It’s a control measure, nothing less, a classification to criminalise a swathe of the populace and to centralise power over the people who need those mages. What’s more, it’s disrespectful to the expertise of the city’s existing faction of necromancers, the Yard Hounds.

Before the Exarch’s emergency measures, the Yard Hounds were little more than a scattered group—corpse freaks, death cultists, homeless wanderers, and mushroom enthusiasts. But when the Exarch’s decree swept across the city, suddenly everyone from medics to apothecaries, nurses to werewolves, fell under the same label and had to be moved to the same location. The Yard Hounds, the Exarch reasons, would turn that excess population into a much more manageable pile of corpses.

The Yard Hounds exploded in population instead.

What had once been an obscure, fragmented group became a vast, furious collective. Their uniting force was a shared resentment—against death itself and against the Exarch. Nurses and Necromancers are both fighting the end, after all, they just do it in different ways. Fears that the Yard Hounds would cannibalize their new followers proved unfounded; corpses weren’t what they needed. Instead, the boom in membership gave mushroom farmers buyers, werewolves people to protect, and necromancers new links to deeper histories. Even just ordinary people sentenced to the Yards was valuable because they brought new expertise to the Hounuds.

The worst thing you can say about the Yard Hounds is that they are necromancers who want to try and overcome death, using ghosts and zombies to attack their enemies.

The problem with this ‘worst thing’ is the Yard Hounds agree with it entirely.

Non-Factional People

The important thing to remember about all of the organisation in this city is that these guilds, these organisations are structuring the power they have access to in a way that makes sense to them, but every guilded person and every member of the Exarch’s chosen is a fraction of the overall population of the city. The people who live in areas controlled by the Tin Stars aren’t Tin Stars unless they pledge to the faction and offer material support.

Conclusion

This is the writeup of these factions that tries to show that an equal, structurally informed faction design doesn’t need to sacrifice for its symmetries. These are eleven factions at war with one another, but there’s an asymmetry in terms of power; everyone can agree on a worst faction, and everyone has a meaningful reason to do what they’re doing, but that doesn’t mean that they can get along

The Unruled and the Crownless both are huge communities of people who can grow their own food and don’t respect the crown, but one of them thinks they should be getting out of the city and the other thinks they need to dig in. The Whisperers and the Tin Stars both investigate crimes, but one wants to do it to protect the community and the other wants to do it to work out just how the crime works. The Groundsharks and the Razorwings both extol the importance of the city itself, and both are thoughtless about human harms. The Yard Hounds and the Hackgears both focus on how they can benefit their people in their struggle, but those struggles are about life and death or poverty, which are similar enough to matter but too different to align.

With all that, then… which of these groups do you think you’d want to join?

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[mariacallous]

AI’s energy use already represents as much as 20 percent of global data-center power demand, research published Thursday in the journal Joule shows. That demand from AI, the research states, could double by the end of this year, comprising nearly half of all total data-center electricity consumption worldwide, excluding the electricity used for bitcoin mining.

The new research is published in a commentary by Alex de Vries-Gao, the founder of Digiconomist, a research company that evaluates the environmental impact of technology. De Vries-Gao started Digiconomist in the late 2010s to explore the impact of bitcoin mining, another extremely energy-intensive activity, would have on the environment. Looking at AI, he says, has grown more urgent over the past few years because of the widespread adoption of ChatGPT and other large language models that use massive amounts of energy. According to his research, worldwide AI energy demand is now set to surpass demand from bitcoin mining by the end of this year.

“The money that bitcoin miners had to get to where they are today is peanuts compared to the money that Google and Microsoft and all these big tech companies are pouring in [to AI],” he says. “This is just escalating a lot faster, and it’s a much bigger threat.”

The development of AI is already having an impact on Big Tech’s climate goals. Tech giants have acknowledged in recent sustainability reports that AI is largely responsible for driving up their energy use. Google’s greenhouse gas emissions, for instance, have increased 48 percent since 2019, complicating the company’s goals of reaching net zero by 2030.

“As we further integrate AI into our products, reducing emissions may be challenging due to increasing energy demands from the greater intensity of AI compute,” Google’s 2024 sustainability report reads.

Last month, the International Energy Agency released a report finding that data centers made up 1.5 percent of global energy use in 2024—around 415 terrawatt-hours, a little less than the yearly energy demand of Saudi Arabia. This number is only set to get bigger: Data centers’ electricity consumption has grown four times faster than overall consumption in recent years, while the amount of investment in data centers has nearly doubled since 2022, driven largely by massive expansions to account for new AI capacity. Overall, the IEA predicted that data center electricity consumption will grow to more than 900 TWh by the end of the decade.

But there’s still a lot of unknowns about the share that AI, specifically, takes up in that current configuration of electricity use by data centers. Data centers power a variety of services—like hosting cloud services and providing online infrastructure—that aren’t necessarily linked to the energy-intensive activities of AI. Tech companies, meanwhile, largely keep the energy expenditure of their software and hardware private.

Some attempts to quantify AI’s energy consumption have started from the user side: calculating the amount of electricity that goes into a single ChatGPT search, for instance. De Vries-Gao decided to look, instead, at the supply chain, starting from the production side to get a more global picture.

The high computing demands of AI, De Vries-Gao says, creates a natural “bottleneck” in the current global supply chain around AI hardware, particularly around the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the undisputed leader in producing key hardware that can handle these needs. Companies like Nvidia outsource the production of their chips to TSMC, which also produces chips for other companies like Google and AMD. (Both TSMC and Nvidia declined to comment for this article.)

De Vries-Gao used analyst estimates, earnings call transcripts, and device details to put together an approximate estimate of TSMC’s production capacity. He then looked at publicly available electricity consumption profiles of AI hardware and estimates on utilization rates of that hardware—which can vary based on what it’s being used for—to arrive at a rough figure of just how much of global data-center demand is taken up by AI. De Vries-Gao calculates that without increased production, AI will consume up to 82 terrawatt-hours of electricity this year—roughly around the same as the annual electricity consumption of a country like Switzerland. If production capacity for AI hardware doubles this year, as analysts have projected it will, demand could increase at a similar rate, representing almost half of all data center demand by the end of the year.

Despite the amount of publicly available information used in the paper, a lot of what De Vries-Gao is doing is peering into a black box: We simply don’t know certain factors that affect AI’s energy consumption, like the utilization rates of every piece of AI hardware in the world or what machine learning activities they’re being used for, let alone how the industry might develop in the future.

Sasha Luccioni, an AI and energy researcher and the climate lead at open-source machine-learning platform Hugging Face, cautioned about leaning too hard on some of the conclusions of the new paper, given the amount of unknowns at play. Luccioni, who was not involved in this research, says that when it comes to truly calculating AI’s energy use, disclosure from tech giants is crucial.

“It’s because we don’t have the information that [researchers] have to do this,” she says. “That’s why the error bar is so huge.”

And tech companies do keep this information. In 2022, Google published a paper on machine learning and electricity use, noting that machine learning was “10%–15% of Google’s total energy use” from 2019 to 2021, and predicted that with best practices, “by 2030 total carbon emissions from training will reduce.” However, since that paper—which was released before Google Gemini’s debut in 2023—Google has not provided any more detailed information about how much electricity ML uses. (Google declined to comment for this story.)

“You really have to deep-dive into the semiconductor supply chain to be able to make any sensible statement about the energy demand of AI,” De Vries-Gao says. “If these big tech companies were just publishing the same information that Google was publishing three years ago, we would have a pretty good indicator” of AI’s energy use.

[saywhat-politics]

The S&P 500 fell during a volatile session, after President Donald Trump’s declaration that tariffs on Canada and Mexico would proceed as planned, as well as a negative reversal in bellwether stock Nvidia following earnings.

The S&P 500 dropped 1.6%. The broad market index remains in the red for the week and month. The Nasdaq Composite pulled back 2.8%, with Nvidia’s 8.5% slide pulling the tech-heavy index lower. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 0.5%.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump announced the proposed tariffs of 25% on Mexico and Canada will take effect on March 4 after the one-month moratorium ends. Trump claimed that the two countries had yet to curb the flow of drugs over the border by enough. The president also stated that China, which already faces 10% tariffs from the U.S., would face an additional 10% levy.

“We’re in a stalled, range-bound, slightly irrational market as we wait for policy clarity,” said Jay Hatfield, CEO of Infrastructure Capital Advisors.

Shares of Nvidia fell even after the chip giant exceeded fourth-quarter estimates on the top and bottom lines. The AI play also issued strong guidance, reflecting continued demand driven by the artificial intelligence race. However, the company posted a decline in gross margins for the quarter and its smallest revenue beat in two years, raising questions about whether the bull market leader could keep its momentum going.

“Nvidia earnings were outstanding, but they come during an extremely jittery stock market,” said James Demmert, chief investment officer at Main Street Research.

Besides Trump’s tariff declaration, a jump in jobless claims also subdued sentiment, adding to recent concerns of economic softening. Jobless claims for the week ending Feb. 22 came in at 242,000. This was up 22,000 from the previous week’s revised level and higher than the Dow Jones estimate for 225,000, according to a Labor Department report Thursday.

[milfstalin]

more incredible reporting from the bbc

Mr Ma's downfall had preceded a broader crackdown on China's tech industry.

Companies came to face much tighter enforcement of data security and competition rules, as well as state control over important digital assets.

Other companies across the private sector, ranging from education to real estate, also ended up being targeted in what came to be known as the "common prosperity" campaign.

The measures put in place by the common prosperity policies were seen by some as a way to rein in the billionaire owners of some of China's biggest companies, to instead give customers and workers more of a say in how firms operate and distribute their earnings.

enforcing laws is a crackdown apparently

Instead of a return to an era of unregulated growth, some analysts believe Monday's meeting signalled an attempt to steer investors and businesses toward Mr Xi's national priorities.

The Chinese president has been increasingly emphasising policies that the government has referred to as "high-quality development" and "new productive forces".

Such ideas have been used to reflect a switch from what were previously fast drivers of growth, such as property and infrastructure investment, towards high-end industries such as semiconductors, clean energy and AI.

The goal is to achieve "socialist modernisation" by 2035 - higher living standards for everyone, and an economy driven by advanced manufacturing and less reliant on imports of foreign technology.

Mr Xi knows that to get there he will need the private sector fully on board.

"Rather than marking the end of tech sector scrutiny, [Jack Ma's] reappearance suggests that Beijing is pivoting from crackdowns to controlled engagement," an associate professor at the University of Technology Sydney, Marina Zhang told the BBC.

"While the private sector remains a critical pillar of China's economic ambitions, it must align with national priorities - including self-reliance in key technologies and strategic industries."

controlling the national bourgeois and forcing them to supplicate to the communist party and weaponizing them to develop society in pursuit of attaining greater and greater living standards? waoh basedbasedbasedbasedbasedbasedbasedbased

21 February 2025

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Just a list of a few Biden accomplishments: And FFS, enough. There was no “cover up” by the Biden family, his team or the mainstream media, who instead, HAMMERED Biden on every gaffe and stammer for months, instead of focusing on the many achievements of the broader administration. Biden is good man, and was a great president. He was decent. He did great things. His fatal flaw might be that he cared too much and worked too hard. The administration was doing great work so fast and on so many fronts.

But you would never know all the good work they did because the only story the media pushed was about Biden’s “decline.”We had the best post-COVID economy in the world by every metric, hundreds of new infrastructure projects, meaningful progress on climate, a big increase in new manufacturing jobs, a HUGE push for labor protections, monopoly busting, etc. It was one of the most progressive and successful administrations in decades

But the mainstream media instead decided to play into right-wing narratives and make it seem like Biden was asleep at the wheel. They ignored all the good things in order to drive outrage, clicks, and advertising revenue instead of reporting on the policies, legislation, and programs that were helping the poor and middle class. This created just enough of an advantage for the right-wing disinformation media machine to dominate narratives and convince voters that Trump, a clear fascist threat, would magically swoop in and save the day. The Times should have been hammering on Project 2025, not playing games with profit-driven editorial decisions.

Now the government is being dismantled, people are being disappeared, Evangelical Dominionists who wrote Project 2025 are manipulating Trump, calling the shots, destroying scientific research and innovation, reversing civil rights, attacking voting protections, increasing wealth inequality, destroying foreign relations, dismantling consumer protections, etc. At the same time, the data-hungry tech accelerationists at DOGE want to enslave us to AI systems, and have infiltrated almost every government agency. They could weaponize our personal data to enforce obedience now that they’ve connected the dots between all our personal records across agencies.

And yet the media is STILL running hit pieces against Biden… and the Democrats! Does leadership at the MSM understand they might be some of the first people the regime lines up barefoot against a wall? Are they truly this disconnected from the reality of what is unfolding before our eyes?

Biden gave 50 years to public service. He was, happily retired, but after four horrid years under Trump, he came back, slayed the Trump monster, and gave us 4 years of prosperity, dignity, values and healing. He fixed infrastructure, brought us back from covid, built strong ties worldwide, helped vets and encouraged brotherhood. What Jake Tapper is now doing is just more bottom feeding, serving no one but himself. Despicable. It is truly the most repugnant effort to discredit one our most effective, decent presidents while there is a clear and present danger, in the White House. Yet, we still don’t see an opinion piece or an actual researched article on the real insanity currently stinking up the oval office. We may never get the stench out.

Once again, the media is trying to deflect and distract from the four alarm fire we are living in, a fascist regime causing permanent damage to our nation.

[Elizabeth Spurlock Lambert]

[mostlysignssomeportents]

"Open" "AI" isn’t

Tomorrow (19 Aug), I'm appearing at the San Diego Union-Tribune Festival of Books. I'm on a 2:30PM panel called "Return From Retirement," followed by a signing:

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/festivalofbooks

The crybabies who freak out about The Communist Manifesto appearing on university curriculum clearly never read it – chapter one is basically a long hymn to capitalism's flexibility and inventiveness, its ability to change form and adapt itself to everything the world throws at it and come out on top:

https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch01.htm#007

Today, leftists signal this protean capacity of capital with the -washing suffix: greenwashing, genderwashing, queerwashing, wokewashing – all the ways capital cloaks itself in liberatory, progressive values, while still serving as a force for extraction, exploitation, and political corruption.

A smart capitalist is someone who, sensing the outrage at a world run by 150 old white guys in boardrooms, proposes replacing half of them with women, queers, and people of color. This is a superficial maneuver, sure, but it's an incredibly effective one.

In "Open (For Business): Big Tech, Concentrated Power, and the Political Economy of Open AI," a new working paper, Meredith Whittaker, David Gray Widder and Sarah B Myers document a new kind of -washing: openwashing:

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4543807

Openwashing is the trick that large "AI" companies use to evade regulation and neutralizing critics, by casting themselves as forces of ethical capitalism, committed to the virtue of openness. No one should be surprised to learn that the products of the "open" wing of an industry whose products are neither "artificial," nor "intelligent," are also not "open." Every word AI huxters say is a lie; including "and," and "the."

So what work does the "open" in "open AI" do? "Open" here is supposed to invoke the "open" in "open source," a movement that emphasizes a software development methodology that promotes code transparency, reusability and extensibility, which are three important virtues.

But "open source" itself is an offshoot of a more foundational movement, the Free Software movement, whose goal is to promote freedom, and whose method is openness. The point of software freedom was technological self-determination, the right of technology users to decide not just what their technology does, but who it does it to and who it does it for:

https://locusmag.com/2022/01/cory-doctorow-science-fiction-is-a-luddite-literature/

The open source split from free software was ostensibly driven by the need to reassure investors and businesspeople so they would join the movement. The "free" in free software is (deliberately) ambiguous, a bit of wordplay that sometimes misleads people into thinking it means "Free as in Beer" when really it means "Free as in Speech" (in Romance languages, these distinctions are captured by translating "free" as "libre" rather than "gratis").

The idea behind open source was to rebrand free software in a less ambiguous – and more instrumental – package that stressed cost-savings and software quality, as well as "ecosystem benefits" from a co-operative form of development that recruited tinkerers, independents, and rivals to contribute to a robust infrastructural commons.

But "open" doesn't merely resolve the linguistic ambiguity of libre vs gratis – it does so by removing the "liberty" from "libre," the "freedom" from "free." "Open" changes the pole-star that movement participants follow as they set their course. Rather than asking "Which course of action makes us more free?" they ask, "Which course of action makes our software better?"

Thus, by dribs and drabs, the freedom leeches out of openness. Today's tech giants have mobilized "open" to create a two-tier system: the largest tech firms enjoy broad freedom themselves – they alone get to decide how their software stack is configured. But for all of us who rely on that (increasingly unavoidable) software stack, all we have is "open": the ability to peer inside that software and see how it works, and perhaps suggest improvements to it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBknF2yUZZ8

In the Big Tech internet, it's freedom for them, openness for us. "Openness" – transparency, reusability and extensibility – is valuable, but it shouldn't be mistaken for technological self-determination. As the tech sector becomes ever-more concentrated, the limits of openness become more apparent.

But even by those standards, the openness of "open AI" is thin gruel indeed (that goes triple for the company that calls itself "OpenAI," which is a particularly egregious openwasher).

The paper's authors start by suggesting that the "open" in "open AI" is meant to imply that an "open AI" can be scratch-built by competitors (or even hobbyists), but that this isn't true. Not only is the material that "open AI" companies publish insufficient for reproducing their products, even if those gaps were plugged, the resource burden required to do so is so intense that only the largest companies could do so.

Beyond this, the "open" parts of "open AI" are insufficient for achieving the other claimed benefits of "open AI": they don't promote auditing, or safety, or competition. Indeed, they often cut against these goals.

"Open AI" is a wordgame that exploits the malleability of "open," but also the ambiguity of the term "AI": "a grab bag of approaches, not… a technical term of art, but more … marketing and a signifier of aspirations." Hitching this vague term to "open" creates all kinds of bait-and-switch opportunities.

That's how you get Meta claiming that LLaMa2 is "open source," despite being licensed in a way that is absolutely incompatible with any widely accepted definition of the term:

https://blog.opensource.org/metas-llama-2-license-is-not-open-source/

LLaMa-2 is a particularly egregious openwashing example, but there are plenty of other ways that "open" is misleadingly applied to AI: sometimes it means you can see the source code, sometimes that you can see the training data, and sometimes that you can tune a model, all to different degrees, alone and in combination.

But even the most "open" systems can't be independently replicated, due to raw computing requirements. This isn't the fault of the AI industry – the computational intensity is a fact, not a choice – but when the AI industry claims that "open" will "democratize" AI, they are hiding the ball. People who hear these "democratization" claims (especially policymakers) are thinking about entrepreneurial kids in garages, but unless these kids have access to multi-billion-dollar data centers, they can't be "disruptors" who topple tech giants with cool new ideas. At best, they can hope to pay rent to those giants for access to their compute grids, in order to create products and services at the margin that rely on existing products, rather than displacing them.

The "open" story, with its claims of democratization, is an especially important one in the context of regulation. In Europe, where a variety of AI regulations have been proposed, the AI industry has co-opted the open source movement's hard-won narrative battles about the harms of ill-considered regulation.

For open source (and free software) advocates, many tech regulations aimed at taming large, abusive companies – such as requirements to surveil and control users to extinguish toxic behavior – wreak collateral damage on the free, open, user-centric systems that we see as superior alternatives to Big Tech. This leads to the paradoxical effect of passing regulation to "punish" Big Tech that end up simply shaving an infinitesimal percentage off the giants' profits, while destroying the small co-ops, nonprofits and startups before they can grow to be a viable alternative.

The years-long fight to get regulators to understand this risk has been waged by principled actors working for subsistence nonprofit wages or for free, and now the AI industry is capitalizing on lawmakers' hard-won consideration for collateral damage by claiming to be "open AI" and thus vulnerable to overbroad regulation.

But the "open" projects that lawmakers have been coached to value are precious because they deliver a level playing field, competition, innovation and democratization – all things that "open AI" fails to deliver. The regulations the AI industry is fighting also don't necessarily implicate the speech implications that are core to protecting free software:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/04/remembering-case-established-code-speech

Just think about LLaMa-2. You can download it for free, along with the model weights it relies on – but not detailed specs for the data that was used in its training. And the source-code is licensed under a homebrewed license cooked up by Meta's lawyers, a license that only glancingly resembles anything from the Open Source Definition:

https://opensource.org/osd/

Core to Big Tech companies' "open AI" offerings are tools, like Meta's PyTorch and Google's TensorFlow. These tools are indeed "open source," licensed under real OSS terms. But they are designed and maintained by the companies that sponsor them, and optimize for the proprietary back-ends each company offers in its own cloud. When programmers train themselves to develop in these environments, they are gaining expertise in adding value to a monopolist's ecosystem, locking themselves in with their own expertise. This a classic example of software freedom for tech giants and open source for the rest of us.

One way to understand how "open" can produce a lock-in that "free" might prevent is to think of Android: Android is an open platform in the sense that its sourcecode is freely licensed, but the existence of Android doesn't make it any easier to challenge the mobile OS duopoly with a new mobile OS; nor does it make it easier to switch from Android to iOS and vice versa.

Another example: MongoDB, a free/open database tool that was adopted by Amazon, which subsequently forked the codebase and tuning it to work on their proprietary cloud infrastructure.

The value of open tooling as a stickytrap for creating a pool of developers who end up as sharecroppers who are glued to a specific company's closed infrastructure is well-understood and openly acknowledged by "open AI" companies. Zuckerberg boasts about how PyTorch ropes developers into Meta's stack, "when there are opportunities to make integrations with products, [so] it’s much easier to make sure that developers and other folks are compatible with the things that we need in the way that our systems work."

Tooling is a relatively obscure issue, primarily debated by developers. A much broader debate has raged over training data – how it is acquired, labeled, sorted and used. Many of the biggest "open AI" companies are totally opaque when it comes to training data. Google and OpenAI won't even say how many pieces of data went into their models' training – let alone which data they used.

Other "open AI" companies use publicly available datasets like the Pile and CommonCrawl. But you can't replicate their models by shoveling these datasets into an algorithm. Each one has to be groomed – labeled, sorted, de-duplicated, and otherwise filtered. Many "open" models merge these datasets with other, proprietary sets, in varying (and secret) proportions.

Quality filtering and labeling for training data is incredibly expensive and labor-intensive, and involves some of the most exploitative and traumatizing clickwork in the world, as poorly paid workers in the Global South make pennies for reviewing data that includes graphic violence, rape, and gore.

Not only is the product of this "data pipeline" kept a secret by "open" companies, the very nature of the pipeline is likewise cloaked in mystery, in order to obscure the exploitative labor relations it embodies (the joke that "AI" stands for "absent Indians" comes out of the South Asian clickwork industry).

The most common "open" in "open AI" is a model that arrives built and trained, which is "open" in the sense that end-users can "fine-tune" it – usually while running it on the manufacturer's own proprietary cloud hardware, under that company's supervision and surveillance. These tunable models are undocumented blobs, not the rigorously peer-reviewed transparent tools celebrated by the open source movement.

If "open" was a way to transform "free software" from an ethical proposition to an efficient methodology for developing high-quality software; then "open AI" is a way to transform "open source" into a rent-extracting black box.

Some "open AI" has slipped out of the corporate silo. Meta's LLaMa was leaked by early testers, republished on 4chan, and is now in the wild. Some exciting stuff has emerged from this, but despite this work happening outside of Meta's control, it is not without benefits to Meta. As an infamous leaked Google memo explains:

Paradoxically, the one clear winner in all of this is Meta. Because the leaked model was theirs, they have effectively garnered an entire planet's worth of free labor. Since most open source innovation is happening on top of their architecture, there is nothing stopping them from directly incorporating it into their products.

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/leaked-google-memo-admits-defeat-by-open-source-ai/486290/

Thus, "open AI" is best understood as "as free product development" for large, well-capitalized AI companies, conducted by tinkerers who will not be able to escape these giants' proprietary compute silos and opaque training corpuses, and whose work product is guaranteed to be compatible with the giants' own systems.

The instrumental story about the virtues of "open" often invoke auditability: the fact that anyone can look at the source code makes it easier for bugs to be identified. But as open source projects have learned the hard way, the fact that anyone can audit your widely used, high-stakes code doesn't mean that anyone will.

The Heartbleed vulnerability in OpenSSL was a wake-up call for the open source movement – a bug that endangered every secure webserver connection in the world, which had hidden in plain sight for years. The result was an admirable and successful effort to build institutions whose job it is to actually make use of open source transparency to conduct regular, deep, systemic audits.

In other words, "open" is a necessary, but insufficient, precondition for auditing. But when the "open AI" movement touts its "safety" thanks to its "auditability," it fails to describe any steps it is taking to replicate these auditing institutions – how they'll be constituted, funded and directed. The story starts and ends with "transparency" and then makes the unjustifiable leap to "safety," without any intermediate steps about how the one will turn into the other.

It's a Magic Underpants Gnome story, in other words:

Step One: Transparency

Step Two: ??

Step Three: Safety

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5ih_TQWqCA

Meanwhile, OpenAI itself has gone on record as objecting to "burdensome mechanisms like licenses or audits" as an impediment to "innovation" – all the while arguing that these "burdensome mechanisms" should be mandatory for rival offerings that are more advanced than its own. To call this a "transparent ruse" is to do violence to good, hardworking transparent ruses all the world over:

https://openai.com/blog/governance-of-superintelligence

Some "open AI" is much more open than the industry dominating offerings. There's EleutherAI, a donor-supported nonprofit whose model comes with documentation and code, licensed Apache 2.0. There are also some smaller academic offerings: Vicuna (UCSD/CMU/Berkeley); Koala (Berkeley) and Alpaca (Stanford).

These are indeed more open (though Alpaca – which ran on a laptop – had to be withdrawn because it "hallucinated" so profusely). But to the extent that the "open AI" movement invokes (or cares about) these projects, it is in order to brandish them before hostile policymakers and say, "Won't someone please think of the academics?" These are the poster children for proposals like exempting AI from antitrust enforcement, but they're not significant players in the "open AI" industry, nor are they likely to be for so long as the largest companies are running the show:

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4493900

I'm kickstarting the audiobook for "The Internet Con: How To Seize the Means of Computation," a Big Tech disassembly manual to disenshittify the web and make a new, good internet to succeed the old, good internet. It's a DRM-free book, which means Audible won't carry it, so this crowdfunder is essential. Back now to get the audio, Verso hardcover and ebook:

http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/18/openwashing/#you-keep-using-that-word-i-do-not-think-it-means-what-you-think-it-means

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[renatoferreiradasilva]

Fascism, Economic Elites, Big Tech, and the Massacre of Children in Palestine

The relationship between fascism, economic elites, and indifference to human suffering has deep roots in global political and economic history. This essay aims to explore how these forces interact in contemporary contexts, using the massacre of children in Palestine as a central point of analysis. Over the past decades, the expansion of Big Tech’s influence has significantly contributed to controlling information and reinforcing the power of economic elites at the expense of truth and human dignity. In this context, the systematic disregard for the suffering of Palestinian children goes hand-in-hand with close monitoring of financial and technological markets.

Fascism and Economic Elites: A Brief Historical Overview

Fascism, both as an ideology and as a system of government, is notorious for its brutality and disregard for human life, especially when that life is seen as an obstacle to economic progress or national and racial dominance. However, the close relationship between fascism and economic elites has often gone under-examined. Fascist regimes such as Benito Mussolini's Italy and Adolf Hitler's Germany relied on the support of large corporations and the industrial class, who saw these governments as a means to ensure social stability and protect their financial interests. The fear of communism and labor strikes drove industrialists to support authoritarian governments that promised to suppress internal opposition and preserve the economic order.

In this context, economic elites often turned a blind eye to the atrocities committed by fascist regimes, from political repression to genocide, such as the Holocaust. This same kind of indifference, driven by the logic of capital preservation, can be observed today regarding the massacre of children in Palestine. Large corporations and investors prefer to focus their attention on stock market performance, ignoring the human cost of wars and occupations that ensure their economic benefits.

The Economic Dynamics of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

The massacre of children in Palestine occurs within a global economic and political context, where the Israeli-Palestinian conflict takes on multiple dimensions. Israel, with its advanced and modern economy, heavily relies on the defense and security sector to maintain its geopolitical and military dominance in the Middle East. Major foreign investments and collaboration with Western powers ensure the continued prosperity of its economy, even during times of conflict.

On the other hand, Palestinians, especially in Gaza and the West Bank, live under extreme economic hardship due to the Israeli military occupation. Economic blockades, restrictions on movement, and the absence of basic infrastructure leave the Palestinian people in a constant state of vulnerability. In this oppressive environment, massacres of children and other forms of violence against civilians are seen by some as inevitable or even acceptable as long as they maintain geopolitical stability and protect global economic interests.

The Role of Big Tech: Controlling Information and Strategic Indifference

In the 21st century, Big Tech companies such as Google, Facebook (Meta), Amazon, and Microsoft play a central role in controlling information and shaping public discourse around global conflicts. These companies, through sophisticated algorithms, determine what people see, read, and talk about. In the case of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, content showing the realities of violence, particularly the suffering of Palestinians, including the massacre of children, is often suppressed or censored.

This control of the narrative is crucial to protecting the interests of economic elites who benefit from the status quo. By restricting access to information that could spark popular outrage or global movements, Big Tech ensures continued economic and political stability, even in the face of crimes against humanity. Moreover, Big Tech companies have direct interests in the defense and security economy, signing lucrative contracts with governments, including the Israeli government, to provide surveillance, intelligence, and weaponry technologies.

Economic Elites: Profit Over Human Life

Global economic elites, comprising investors, multinational corporations, and financial conglomerates, exert a decisive influence on international policies and conflicts. Capital is often directed toward regions and sectors that promise the highest financial returns, regardless of the political or social conditions. These elites profit from the perpetuation of conflict and instability while remaining largely indifferent to the human suffering that ensues.

The massacre of Palestinian children is a tragic consequence of a system in which financial markets and economic interests are prioritized over human life and dignity. Economic elites, backed by Big Tech’s control over information and fascism’s historical precedent of collusion with industry, enable a world where profits trump the moral obligation to protect innocent lives. In this context, the indifference to the suffering of Palestinian children reflects a broader failure of global economic structures to prioritize humanity over capital.

[goodoldbandit]

The Future is Now: 5G and Next-Generation Connectivity Powering Smart Innovation.

Sanjay Kumar Mohindroo Sanjay Kumar Mohindroo. skm.stayingalive.in Explore how 5G networks are transforming IoT, smart cities, autonomous vehicles, and AR/VR experiences in this inspiring, in-depth guide that ignites conversation and fuels curiosity. Embracing a New Connectivity Era Igniting Curiosity and Inspiring Change The future is bright with 5G networks that spark new ideas and build…

[nandinishenoy]

IT Advantage at Hiranandani Parks Oragadam: A Niranjan Hiranandani Development

Hiranandani Parks, Oragadam, stands as a testament to modern urban living, blending smart infrastructure with a sustainable lifestyle. Strategically located in Chennai’s rapidly growing Oragadam region, this integrated township caters to IT professionals, entrepreneurs, and businesses seeking a future-ready environment. Spearheaded by Dr Niranjan Hiranandani, the project reflects his vision of creating self-sufficient, IT-driven communities that redefine urban living.

This article explores why professionals and investors choose Hiranandani Parks as an ideal destination for growth and a superior quality of life.

Strategic Location: The IT & Industrial Corridor Advantage

Oragadam is widely recognized as Hiranandani Chennai  fastest-growing business and industrial corridor. As home to global automobile, manufacturing, and IT companies, it offers immense career growth opportunities for professionals. Boasting seamless connectivity to major IT hubs, industrial parks, and Special Economic Zones (SEZs), the region attracts top multinational corporations and leading tech firms. The location of Hiranandani Parks Oragadam ensures:

Proximity to major IT hubs like Mahindra World City and Tidel Park.

Excellent road connectivity via GST Road and two major highways.

Upcoming infrastructure developments, including the Chennai Greenfield Airport and improved rail networks.

This strategic positioning enables residents to live close to work, reducing commute times and enhancing productivity. This further strengthens Oragadam’s position as a prime real estate and business hub.

Smart Infrastructure & Sustainable Urban Planning

At Hiranandani Parks Oragadam, sustainability and modern infrastructure go hand in hand. The township is designed with eco-friendly elements and contemporary urban planning, making it an ideal choice for professionals looking for IT-friendly real estate in Chennai. Featuring state-of-the-art amenities, energy-efficient buildings, and expansive green spaces, the township offers a perfect blend of technology and sustainability. 

Some key infrastructure highlights include:

Sustainable design with vast green spaces, rainwater harvesting, sewage treatment plants, solar energy utilization, and eco-friendly construction practices.

Energy-efficient residential towers with modern technology integration.

Digital connectivity ensuring seamless work-from-home and remote operations.

By incorporating sustainable and smart urban solutions, Hiranandani Parks Oragadam offers an ideal work-life balance for professionals who seek a future-ready living experience.

Work-Life Balance: A Township Designed for IT Professionals

While Hiranandani Parks is not an IT-integrated township, its proximity to Chennai’s major employment hubs makes it an excellent residential choice for IT professionals. The township promotes a balanced lifestyle, offering:

Spacious and well-designed apartments, villas, and plots.

Proximity to educational institutions, healthcare centers, and commercial zones.

Premium sports and recreation facilities, including a 9-hole golf course, cricket and football grounds, cycling tracks, and a fully equipped clubhouse.

For professionals seeking convenience, comfort, and accessibility, Hiranandani Parks Oragadam IT opportunities lie in its ability to offer a holistic living environment near Chennai’s expanding IT corridors.

Niranjan Hiranandani’s Vision for Growth & Development

Dr. Niranjan Hiranandani, a visionary leader, is known for developing world-class integrated townships that redefine urban living. His philosophy focuses on sustainability, infrastructure excellence, and community-driven living. Hiranandani Parks exemplifies this philosophy by fostering a self-sustained township where residents can live, work, and thrive in a tech-driven environment. The project aligns with the broader vision of creating world-class urban landscapes that support India’s digital transformation.

Key aspects of his vision include:

Encouraging real estate investments in high-potential corridors like Oragadam.

Building communities that support industrial and IT professionals.

Ensuring sustainable development with green initiatives.

With Hiranandani Parks, his focus remains on enhancing urban landscapes, promoting a higher standard of living, and ensuring connectivity to employment hubs.

The Future of Hiranandani Parks & Oragadam Growth

Oragadam is rapidly transforming into a prime investment destination, with expanding industrial and IT sectors driving real estate demand. Hiranandani Parks Oragadam stands out as a well-planned township, offering long-term value for both residents and investors.

Factors contributing to its future growth include:

Increasing demand for premium residential spaces near employment hubs.

Continued infrastructure developments boosting connectivity.

Oragadam’s rise as a major economic center in South India.

For those looking to invest in real estate for IT professionals by Hiranandani Communities, this township presents an excellent opportunity for long-term appreciation and rental yield.

Conclusion

Hiranandani Parks Oragadam is not just another residential project—it is a carefully curated township designed for professionals and families who seek an elevated lifestyle with excellent connectivity. With its proximity to Chennai’s IT and industrial hubs, sustainable infrastructure, and top-tier amenities, it is setting new benchmarks for integrated townships. Dr. Niranjan Hiranandani’s vision has always been about creating vibrant, self-sufficient communities, and Hiranandani Parks is a testament to this commitment. Whether you are an IT professional, an entrepreneur, or an investor, Hiranandani Parks Oragadam offers a future-proof living experience with unmatched benefits.

FAQs

1. What makes Hiranandani Parks an ideal place for IT professionals?

Hiranandani Parks is strategically located near major IT hubs, offering professionals seamless connectivity, premium residential options, and a holistic lifestyle.

2. How has Dr. Niranjan Hiranandani contributed to IT-focused urban development?

Dr. Niranjan Hiranandani has pioneered integrated township models that support professional communities by ensuring proximity to business districts and employment hubs.

3. What are the unique IT-friendly features of Hiranandani Parks?

While not an IT-integrated township, it offers reliable digital connectivity, premium residential infrastructure, and smart urban planning, making it ideal for IT professionals.

4. How does Hiranandani Parks support work-life balance for IT employees?

With spacious homes, green spaces, sports amenities, and easy access to workplaces, it enables IT professionals to maintain a healthy work-life balance.

5. Why is Oragadam emerging as an IT hub?

Oragadam is gaining prominence due to its growing industrial, manufacturing, and IT sectors, along with upcoming infrastructure developments like the Chennai Greenfield Airport and suburban rail corridors.

[tieflingkisser]

Israel’s use of AI in Gaza should terrify us all | Op-ed by Antony Loewenstein

Antony Loewenstein, independent journalist, best-selling author, and co-founder of Declassified Australia, explains how Israel’s wars are not fought alone, but with the backing of powerful foreign players who fund, arm and shield it from accountability. While western governments provide billions in weapons and diplomatic cover, Loewenstein argues that what’s far less understood is the extent of corporate interests behind the Israeli war machine. Tech giants like Google, Microsoft and Amazon have embedded themselves within Israel’s military-industrial complex, supplying AI-driven tools and cloud infrastructure that fuel mass surveillance and warfare against Palestinians. This partnership, driven by profit and ideological alignment, has turned Gaza into a testing ground for cutting-edge military technology. But as Loewenstein warns, it won’t stop with Palestinians. He argues that Israel has provided a blueprint for how to control and subjugate entire communities with AI-driven efficiency and little accountability. As governments around the world look to replicate these methods, the implications for vulnerable populations become even more alarming. Loewenstein concludes that the unchecked spread of Israel’s digital warfare model is not just a threat to Palestinians, but to the entire world.