Esme Povirk @madewokherd@computerfairi.es
Joined Aug 2018
Esme Povirk
boosted
Heads up UK citizens overseas! The disgraceful ‘15 year rule’ which disenfranchised you is being binned TODAY! From 16 January you can now at long last register to vote, which you should do ASAP in view of in the upcoming general election, because *gestures at everything*
https://mailchi.mp/a6cd97a73d7e/3mn-brits-abroad-regain-right-to-vote-in-uk-elections?e=897c54e3ba
Esme Povirk
boosted
@b0rk Related: folks often think that you have to choose between building tools for experts that provide a ton of capability & information but are incredibly hard to use & intimidating, or building tools for less experienced folks that are simplified by removing information & capability, rendering them effectively useless.
I think it's a false choice, and that, while significantly harder, we build tools that are useful & usable to both newcomers & experts.
No private person should control enough money to subsidize an inherently expensive thing to the point that it seems cheap.
Esme Povirk
boosted
"AI companies are implicitly betting that their customers will buy AI for highly consequential automation, fire workers, and cause physical, mental and economic harm to their own customers as a result, somehow escaping liability for these harms. Early indicators are that this bet won’t pay off."
https://locusmag.com/2023/12/commentary-cory-doctorow-what-kind-of-bubble-is-ai/
Esme Povirk
boosted
The key to fighting pseudoscience isn’t mockery—it’s empathy
Evidence shows that shoving data in peoples’ faces doesn’t work to change minds.
plurality and hypnosis
We've decided to start designating a specific system member as fronting hypnotee and another as non-fronting spotter (basically keeping the hypnotee safe, comfortable, and reassured). It seems to work much better than ignoring plurality, at least with recordings.
I'm thinking about going through my bookmarks and organizing them into HTML and putting them online. Then I'd just have a place to put random stuff I find interesting.
Esme Povirk
boosted
Last boost: I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you love movies you need to have Kanopy. The film selection is excellent and you'll probably watch a few flicks you might not think of watching.
@mavica_again Based entirely on extrapolation from the proliferation of web apps, I assume HTML5 will grow until it takes over the entire desktop and kernel and x86 is a legacy compatibility mode.
@Sophie We think that not having others in our brain would feel lonely regardless of what external connections we have.
@hollie I mean, it kinda is that at least in our case, but the concepts of having separate identities, fronting/switching, and a headspace to interact in really work well for us.
Kinda wish there were a "hobbyists messing with their brains" wiki, encompassing meditation, hypnosis, psychedelics, magic systems..
@hollie I try to warn anyone who's questioning plurality and asking me advice that reaching out is likely to disrupt their life.
I don't think the idea that this is a goal of meditation is mainstream, but anyone teaching it with that goal should warn about the disruption IMO, especially if they're teaching it to people who aren't in a retreat environment and have responsibilities they need to keep up with. (2/2)
@hollie I suspect meditation circles would frame systemhood differently, and I only encountered those ideas because of the communities I was in. I also occasionally find stuff like this which to me sounds very plural: https://www.awakin.org/v2/read/view.php?tid=953
I know that when system members discover themselves, it tends to lead to a short-term lack of function as they adapt to their changing dynamic. (1/2)
@hollie Come to think of it, all of the adverse effects for us related to being a system and not knowing that.
@hollie Notes might help. I just watched through most of it.
I have little direct experience with meditation but I feel like it falls in a more general category of "brain hacking" which I do have experience with (mostly via hypnosis). I expected that to have risks, it did have (thankfully relatively brief) adverse effects, it's greatly improved my life now and don't regret any of it but there are a few things I wish I'd been specifically warned about.
@hollie Decided to scan through. The details that are interesting to me seem to start at around 17:00.
@hollie Kinda wish there was a form I could just read because I'm interested but I don't want to sit through a long video..
(I/we also have a very weird perspective on meditation, not sure how aware you are of that.)
Joined Aug 2018
