Look, I have many hobbies and interests. Same as you. I'd love nothing better than pursue them all day, every day.
But there's a genocide going on. And despite the talk of a supposed ceasefire that conveniently/suspiciously happened just before the Nobel Peace Price was awarded (so that the narcissist Trump can get the same coveted award as Obama), the ceasefire was a farce and the genocide is still ongoing.
Look, I'd love nothing better than spending my evenings playing the piano after 9+ hours at the office.
I'd love nothing better than also practicing the guitar.
Since I don't learn new computer skills at my day job anymore, I'd love nothing more than spend my evenings learning new computer stuff.
I won't surrender reading books, but I'm neglecting my body, since I don't make sufficient time for sports or going to the sauna anymore, due to limited time.
I don't cook so often anymore as I used to.
There's hundreds of more stuff I'd like to do, but instead I spend every day chatting with genocide victims to give them emotional and financial support. If you could've had a direct line to Anne Frank while she was hiding in that attic, would you have turned away?
Since an entire population of 2 million people is genocided, and humans cannot have more than 150 close connections, wanting to help everyone who approaches me in public or in private is becoming more and more overwhelming.
But while others haven't uttered the words "#Palestine" or "#Gaza" or "#genocide" even just once during the past two years, and turn away… I won't do that. While others ignorantly just talk about the latest news in software engineering, or about their own app, or even just the latest tech gadgets, I won't ignore a genocide just so that I may focus on my hobbies (of which there would be many).
Palestinians are starting to notice a drop in their donations. Many are writing they haven't received a single donation in three days. They're asking if we grew tired of them.
I am starting to notice a drop in engagement with my posts. Is anybody even reading anymore? Or have you become tired of being asked for money every day? Like this post to show you still read me. And ideally follow up by donating to one of the genocide victims I boosted today.
I recommend you watch the movie "Schindler's list", which tells the story of how one person saved hundreds of humans from death during a genocide.
It's available from Apple TV for 10 bucks. You could have it ready on your device to watch within a minute.
Schindler, a wealthy man, gives away all his money to buy free imprisoned jews from concentration camps. He gives expensive gifts to corrupt guards; for example, an expensive watch to save two jews, a married couple. Since, to the corrupt guards, it's all the same whether they kill two less or more now, ten less or more now. Eventually they'll get them anyway, in their minds.
Towards the end, after the war is over, Schindler has an emotional breakdown. He realizes that he's still in possession of a car that he could have given away and rescued ten more people in exchange for it. He realizes he still has a button on his suit, a golden button. He could've traded that for one more person, rescued one more person and he didn't. Schindler—the man who had saved about a thousand of jews from certain death—has an emotional breakdown because he comes to tell himself that he could've done more but didn't. Think about that for a second.
Meanwhile, the jews he had saved, had melted their golden teeth to make a ring for Schindler, with the engraving "Whoever saves one live, saves the world entire."
Save one life and save the world entire.
I watched that movie in my room, on a 4K monitor. I'm sitting in my apartment, surrounded by expensive things, and I'm drinking cool refreshments, eating a little bit of ice cream. I'm surrounded by a MacBook, multiple Linux computers, a Nintendo Switch and an Xbox, a piano and a guitar … you get the point. All this fancy stuff. I don't know about you … thinking about Schindler, after watching that movie … did I do all I could? Could I've done more? Schindler, who started as a millionaire, gave away all his wealth to save lives.
Could I have done more? That's the question I ask myself. The question everyone will eventually ask themselves, at some point in their life, sooner or later. And the answer to that question is something everybody will have to live with for the rest of their lives. 1/2
#genocide #gaza #palestine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9vj2Wf57rQ
“Nice people made the best Nazis. My mom grew up next to them. They got along, refused to make waves, looked the other way when things got ugly and focused on happier things than politics.” — Naomi Shulman
"Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them." — Frank Herbert in Dune
For some people this quote seems to ring all too hollow. They fervently agree with it, and in the next moment they debate whether they should ask ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude, Perplexity or Gemini their mundane question, proving that they understood nothing.
#Introduction
I’m a data engineer (previously a ML engineer) and I’m highly critical of the unethical habitat-destroying use of AI.
More specifically, I'm an analytics engineer, something in-between a data engineer and a data analyst. I make sense of the raw data that my co-workers collect in the sense that I shape the raw data into business concepts like "customers" or "orders" or "payments" that are actually useful. The pure data engineers talk too little with stakeholders and have too little domain knowledge to do that and the analysts who I enable with that work lack the technical capabilities to do that (in the same quality I can do it). I write Python and SQL code. My job is to create a maintainable data architecture, ensure the reliability and trustworthiness of the data, and save data analysts from presenting flawed analyses and insights to executives who'll make decisions based on those analyses based on my shaping the data.
I come from sigmoid.social that I joined in Nov 2022, since most people due to whom I joined that instance quickly returned to X thereafter. Apart from GenAI art spam, that place seems largely inactive. It’s not the place I’d hoped it would be, and I don't feel at home there with my critical views of planet-boiling and water-sucking LLMs and generative AI.
I originally studied to become a ML engineer to, for example, use ML to translate the communication of sperm whales and do something good, but I realized that in today's context—GenAI devaluing work—I'd only be a useful idiot for those wealthy folks who want to access skill while denying skill the access to wealth.
I still believe in the uses of "classic" machine learning (from the pre-LLM era), at least for now, but even the interest in working in that area is dwindling with all these ignorant ML acolytes and techbro fanboys of billionaire CEOs that drove me away to data engineering, and with how these pattern recognition technologies are more and more being abused by authoritarian regimes worldwide (face recognition to persecute minorities and protestors, to give an example).
I realize that organizing data could also be considered problematic in context of ad-tech capitalism, but that skill can be used for sth other than surveillance.
German police¹ is using ChatGPT to fake images of injured police officers.
After a soccer match with believable hooligan violence against police officers, the German union of police officers (GdP) rightly condemns violence against police officers.
However, instead of using real footage for their press release² of the actual violence that was actually committed, they used some AI-generated fake image and denoted that fact only with a teeny-tiny note in the corner, saying "AI-generated: ChatGPT".
I find this very problematic.
The news report mentioned several injured police officers, some badly injured, and the fake image shows an officer bleeding from his forehead. I have no way to know if any officer was actually bleeding from his head or if this is an exaggeration to make a point. In a time when politicians call for ever more surveillance and ever more power for police officers, this can function as dangerous misinformation.
Especially considering that the Nazis are growing ever stronger and our so-called democratic political parties are building a police state for them. Manufacturing consent using fake images of violence against police officers is dangerous.
Although this was a soccer match, not an anti-genocide protest, and soccer matches occasionally attract violent hooligans, protests are almost always peaceful. At least until the police starts the violence and beats up anyone who protests against fossil fuels or genocide. If we allow police to use AI-generated images in their press releases, then we cannot believe them anything anymore at all. If people still believe them, anyway.
Condemning violence only when it hits them is also hypocritical.
Police is already instigating and inciting against imagined "violent radical leftists", even before/without the use of AI fakes.
The GdP isn't innocent. Just two months ago when the modern NSDAP wanted to start their Hitler Youth equivalent and people peacefully blocked the roads, whereafter the police played taxi for officially recognized Nazis, the GdP said "the radical leftists showed their ugly face and violence".
It's inacceptable for the police to fake images of violence against police.
¹ Sachsen, not even the infamous Berlin police
² https://www.gdp.de/sachsen/de/stories/2026/01/gewalt-im-fussballspiel-magdeburg-gegen-dresden
Look, I have many hobbies and interests. Same as you. I'd love nothing better than pursue them all day, every day.
But there's a genocide going on. And despite the talk of a supposed ceasefire that conveniently/suspiciously happened just before the Nobel Peace Price was awarded (so that the narcissist Trump can get the same coveted award as Obama), the ceasefire was a farce and the genocide is still ongoing.
Look, I'd love nothing better than spending my evenings playing the piano after 9+ hours at the office.
I'd love nothing better than also practicing the guitar.
Since I don't learn new computer skills at my day job anymore, I'd love nothing more than spend my evenings learning new computer stuff.
I won't surrender reading books, but I'm neglecting my body, since I don't make sufficient time for sports or going to the sauna anymore, due to limited time.
I don't cook so often anymore as I used to.
There's hundreds of more stuff I'd like to do, but instead I spend every day chatting with genocide victims to give them emotional and financial support. If you could've had a direct line to Anne Frank while she was hiding in that attic, would you have turned away?
Since an entire population of 2 million people is genocided, and humans cannot have more than 150 close connections, wanting to help everyone who approaches me in public or in private is becoming more and more overwhelming.
But while others haven't uttered the words "#Palestine" or "#Gaza" or "#genocide" even just once during the past two years, and turn away… I won't do that. While others ignorantly just talk about the latest news in software engineering, or about their own app, or even just the latest tech gadgets, I won't ignore a genocide just so that I may focus on my hobbies (of which there would be many).
Palestinians are starting to notice a drop in their donations. Many are writing they haven't received a single donation in three days. They're asking if we grew tired of them.
I am starting to notice a drop in engagement with my posts. Is anybody even reading anymore? Or have you become tired of being asked for money every day? Like this post to show you still read me. And ideally follow up by donating to one of the genocide victims I boosted today.
Please read this.
There have been some (unsubstantiated) accusations that @NouranKhaledGh@mastodon.social were a fake account. Even though she uploaded multiple videos of herself. Which, regarding those accusers, just lead to them accusing her of being "AI-generated".
Nouran is not fake. There are many scammers, unfortunately—that is true and very sad—but she is not one of them. She is a human being, suffering from one of the worst atrocities and crimes in human history. If you have any humanity in you, please don't discount her, and others in the same situation as her (like @Aseelsehwel@mas.to).
@fabio@manganiello.social, @aral@mastodon.ar.al, and many others are doing incredibly valueable, life-saving work. They are heroes of our time. Please follow them if you have any seed of morals in you.
And do what is in your power to help the suffering victims of this genocide.
At the very least, don't just block an account straight away if it looks a bit fishy. At the very least, talk to them, ask for clarification. Imagine it were you trying to survive, and everyone would just block you.
@mutualaid@a.gup.pe
#genocide #palestine #gaza
https://manganiello.social/objects/22c60d76-3d61-488c-a0a1-ed1b3722ee29
I recommend you watch the movie "Schindler's list", which tells the story of how one person saved hundreds of humans from death during a genocide.
It's available from Apple TV for 10 bucks. You could have it ready on your device to watch within a minute.
Schindler, a wealthy man, gives away all his money to buy free imprisoned jews from concentration camps. He gives expensive gifts to corrupt guards; for example, an expensive watch to save two jews, a married couple. Since, to the corrupt guards, it's all the same whether they kill two less or more now, ten less or more now. Eventually they'll get them anyway, in their minds.
Towards the end, after the war is over, Schindler has an emotional breakdown. He realizes that he's still in possession of a car that he could have given away and rescued ten more people in exchange for it. He realizes he still has a button on his suit, a golden button. He could've traded that for one more person, rescued one more person and he didn't. Schindler—the man who had saved about a thousand of jews from certain death—has an emotional breakdown because he comes to tell himself that he could've done more but didn't. Think about that for a second.
Meanwhile, the jews he had saved, had melted their golden teeth to make a ring for Schindler, with the engraving "Whoever saves one live, saves the world entire."
Save one life and save the world entire.
I watched that movie in my room, on a 4K monitor. I'm sitting in my apartment, surrounded by expensive things, and I'm drinking cool refreshments, eating a little bit of ice cream. I'm surrounded by a MacBook, multiple Linux computers, a Nintendo Switch and an Xbox, a piano and a guitar … you get the point. All this fancy stuff. I don't know about you … thinking about Schindler, after watching that movie … did I do all I could? Could I've done more? Schindler, who started as a millionaire, gave away all his wealth to save lives.
Could I have done more? That's the question I ask myself. The question everyone will eventually ask themselves, at some point in their life, sooner or later. And the answer to that question is something everybody will have to live with for the rest of their lives. 1/2
#genocide #gaza #palestine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9vj2Wf57rQ
“Nice people made the best Nazis. My mom grew up next to them. They got along, refused to make waves, looked the other way when things got ugly and focused on happier things than politics.” — Naomi Shulman
"Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them." — Frank Herbert in Dune
For some people this quote seems to ring all too hollow. They fervently agree with it, and in the next moment they debate whether they should ask ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude, Perplexity or Gemini their mundane question, proving that they understood nothing.
”You can be intelligent and a Nazi. Then you are not decent. You can be decent and a Nazi. Then you are not intelligent. And you can be decent and intelligent. Then you're not a Nazi.“ — Gerhard Bronner
#Introduction
I’m a data engineer (previously a ML engineer) and I’m highly critical of the unethical habitat-destroying use of AI.
More specifically, I'm an analytics engineer, something in-between a data engineer and a data analyst. I make sense of the raw data that my co-workers collect in the sense that I shape the raw data into business concepts like "customers" or "orders" or "payments" that are actually useful. The pure data engineers talk too little with stakeholders and have too little domain knowledge to do that and the analysts who I enable with that work lack the technical capabilities to do that (in the same quality I can do it). I write Python and SQL code. My job is to create a maintainable data architecture, ensure the reliability and trustworthiness of the data, and save data analysts from presenting flawed analyses and insights to executives who'll make decisions based on those analyses based on my shaping the data.
I come from sigmoid.social that I joined in Nov 2022, since most people due to whom I joined that instance quickly returned to X thereafter. Apart from GenAI art spam, that place seems largely inactive. It’s not the place I’d hoped it would be, and I don't feel at home there with my critical views of planet-boiling and water-sucking LLMs and generative AI.
I originally studied to become a ML engineer to, for example, use ML to translate the communication of sperm whales and do something good, but I realized that in today's context—GenAI devaluing work—I'd only be a useful idiot for those wealthy folks who want to access skill while denying skill the access to wealth.
I still believe in the uses of "classic" machine learning (from the pre-LLM era), at least for now, but even the interest in working in that area is dwindling with all these ignorant ML acolytes and techbro fanboys of billionaire CEOs that drove me away to data engineering, and with how these pattern recognition technologies are more and more being abused by authoritarian regimes worldwide (face recognition to persecute minorities and protestors, to give an example).
I realize that organizing data could also be considered problematic in context of ad-tech capitalism, but that skill can be used for sth other than surveillance.
David Culley