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willsh.bsky.social
John V Willshire. Runs smithery.com, a Strategic Design consultancy, teaches @ RCA & IED Barcelona Makes https://artefactshop.com Writes https://buttondown.com/artefacts Convenes https://lu.ma/stepscollective https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnvwillshire
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Remember all those posts telling us that "AIs climate impact isn't that bad" supported by some really funky math/perspective and/or numbers Sam Altman invented? Here's the actual impact. "AI" is a fossil fuel technology.

submitted 6 hours ago • 4 comments

#Weezer smartly playing a blue album heavy set at #glastonbury. They have done good things since, of course, but that debut album is near perfect. Have seen both kids listening to it in the last year too.

submitted 1 hour ago • 0 comments

The people who say “AI* is here to stay” are the same folks who said “NFTs are here to stay” and you know I’m just saying that it be be useful to think about the reasons they say these things and their track records in such proclamations. *they mean #GenAI, and so do I, but the term #AI is now 🤷🏻‍♂️

submitted 2 hours ago • 1 comment

Worth a watch: Head of Signal, Meredith Whittaker, on so-called "agentic AI" and the difference between how it's described in the marketing and what access and control it would actually require to work as advertised.

submitted 1 day ago • 177 comments

“No right is safe in the new legal regime the Court creates.” –Justice Sonia Sotomayor. One of the most chilling sentences I have ever read.

submitted 1 day ago • 179 comments

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Of all the weird ideas…

submitted 1 day ago • 2 comments

JESUS CHRIST NO……

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

WTF, Switzerland? That’s our game.

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

Burning the planet to make sand think harder. futurism.com/openai-altma...

submitted 5 days ago • 3 comments

Finally, the perfect accessory for cybertruck owners who long to be loathed more

submitted 7 days ago • 7 comments

You don’t Substack to build a bigger audience. You just need to stop writing the same derivative bilge and find something worth saying.

submitted 7 days ago • 1 comment

Substack reminds me so much of Medium. That perceived, imaginary network effect has a strong pull. I can’t fathom being platformed with Nazis in a little walled garden that gets a bigger and bigger wall as the VC money needs paying back. I can’t imagine losing all respect from my peers for that.

submitted 7 days ago • 7 comments

Go back and rewatch watchmen anyway, be ause the cops-in-masks theme is gonna make you go "oohhhhhh. …Shit."

submitted 7 days ago • 15 comments

“Carrying on an undertaking of great advantage but nobody to know what it is” is one of my favourite bubble memes. It comes from the copycat bubble companies which emerged in the South Sea Bubble carnage of the early 18th century. Worth reading - www.investorschronicle.co.uk/content/4817...

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

We really need some laws to make sure that if you’re wearing glasses that record video everyone knows it. Legally mandate that if you’re wearing smart glasses you also have to wear a cap with a propeller on it

submitted 7 days ago • 185 comments

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

What you definitely want in the mountains is a nav app which isn’t actually deriving its advice from the real world. 🤦‍♂️

submitted 8 days ago • 14 comments

In other news, on the way home last night in Bergen this cat was *staring* at me, intently. It was huge too. Norse gods taking feline form to disconcert the locals is clearly a thing. #bergen #cats

submitted 8 days ago • 2 comments

I'm willing to help folks pro bono move from Substack to Buttondown (used them for years). cal.com/jackyalcine/... to schedule time (starting in March)

submitted 122 days ago • 7 comments

To Bergen!

submitted 10 days ago • 3 comments

The Glasmagasinet was a popular woodwind instrument in 19th century Glasgow. A vital voice in a chamber ensemble, it also contained a detachable shiv for when players found themselves in a fight on the way home. Rare to find one in a UK music shop yet they have a whole store here. Kudos, #oslo.

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

This is just the Merchant Ivory version of the new Mission Impossible film.

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

Landed at 23:50 in Oslo… someone forgot to put the sun away after dinner.

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

Up in London teaching the the RCA today, before hopping on a plane to Oslo. Talking tomorrow there, then off to Bergen for talks on Thursday and Friday… which means for the first time I’m getting the amazing train between the two cities. EXPECT PHOTOS.

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

Eh? What am I missing? Why is this an Uber message?

submitted 11 days ago • 4 comments

Congratulating Gatwick on having no working water fountains in the south terminal.

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments