chadlevinson.com
Academic in DC (Virginia Tech SPIA) nee CHI, NYC, omnivore, decent cook, novice gardener, currently between dogs, he/him
Echo System: How Foreign Policy is Sold to Americans (book forthcoming 2026 with Harvard University Press)
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"Pulled" implies the target did the deed.
The military was pushed. By Trump.
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And the part that's harder to pull off is the simulation in which their experienced consciousness lives. The destruction of the rest of humanity is much easier.
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It seems like a lot of people (not everyone) say it's inevitable because it gives them permission to do something they know is unethical
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This is what drives me mad about people who say AI will "inevitably" continue down its current disastrous path, and that everyone has to learn how to make the most of it.
There are actual people with agency making decisions about AI, and they're mostly sociopaths.
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There was one paper that tested this via simulation, and after something like 9 generations the LLM started babbling about jackrabbits.
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All that thing actually does is pass a Turing test
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I love when people tell me not to read what they didn’t write
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So we’re going to give hospitals money for nothing instead of giving it to them in exchange for providing patient care?
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"Patient zero" is the tell. He thinks of policies he disagrees with as diseases.
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In writing, reading, and editing, it's useful for people who want to avoid certain kinds of thinking so they can make more money (either for themselves or someone else)
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It's like someone watched this montage and said "that, I want to turn education into that" youtu.be/wB1X4o-MV6o
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It was a folder full of blank pages. This presidency is gonna be a four-year blooper reel with nuclear weapons and an army of masked thugs kidnapping people off the street.
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Somebody please ask Eric where they manufacture the phones
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Literally my first protest was against the Iraq War in NYC, and we numbered in the hundreds of thousands. I don't recall if it was before or just after the invasion.
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Democratic politicians are also asked to answer for the behavior of Republicans.
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Celebrate the Army by making a select batch of suckers march in the concrete swamp
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After seeing a Broadway show starring Ethan Hawke, went for drinks and a late dinner at a nearby restaurant. Stepped outside for a smoke, and on my way back in, thanked the shabbily dressed guy holding the door open for me. The shabbily dressed Ethan Hawke.
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Sure, it can be both, but I'm not going to read nuance into posts where it doesn't exist.
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HISTORIC?!?!?!?!
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In case you or anyone else following this thread hasn’t seen it: youtu.be/urTfEEsGHds?...
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Top-notch post, there Gary. Now maybe learn to read a bio before you assume anything about what someone may or may not know.
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By 10 years ago, I think he means 2008 (early November)
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Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them
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Also we should get in the habit of calling him King Kapo
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In doing research on local elections, I came across a list of incorporated political parties that started with the "All Day Breakfast Party" and dammit, the whole point of the freedom of assembly is that if they wanted to take to the streets on behalf of their one issue, they have that right.
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I was priced out of this hobby in my 20s but the retina was my favorite. Cheap to purchase, quiet as a mouse, with a removable Schneider lens.
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Gaming gets more expensive if you play like a rube and pay real money for in-game purchases that give your character a Jason mask or some shit like that. Calling it one of the most expensive reveals a break with reality.
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I want everyone of my superiors, all the way up to the Provost of Virginia Tech, to know that I will refuse to do anything with AI in the classroom or knowingly allow any of my students to use AI for any assignment, reading or writing. This is like forcing students and teachers to smoke in class.
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For the most part, yeah, that's what I recall. I was an English major, but my friend who got me into tech was a math major, and my professional mentor was a Philosophy major who taught himself programming hanging out at Radio Shack in high school.
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Worked in tech in 1990s-2000s NYC (we tried to call it "Silicon Alley") and half the industry was English majors and theater people. They didn't teach web development in CS programs for the reason you state.
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I have an idea en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nurembe...
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Sadly, I suspect a lot of parents (with white collar jobs) are using GenAI to draft and read emails, memos, public-facing copy, etc., and imagine such skills are necessary on the job market.
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Some of y’all can’t handle 2 high agency males going at it and it really shows
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I just keep thinking of that oval office photo of her from the other day, with the Curb your Enthusiasm song playing in the background
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Rat-leg is cringe
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I had the opportunity to teach my summer session students about Weber's concepts of charismatic and rational-legal authority last week, and I took it
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Asked someone in Japan if they prefer 7/11 or Family Mart. Answer: both; 7/11 egg salad sandwich with Family Mart chicken cutlet in the middle.