Autodidacts Newsletter #26

We’ve been distracted these past few months by getting certified as wildland firefighters, learning to drive excavators, competing in running races, and suffering from technological breakdowns. Now, these activities have abated, allowing us to spend enough time staring into space to produce another batch of articles.These articles are still part of #100DaysToOffload, but a few of them are more in-depth.My favourites are probably Curation and Its Side Effects and Treat People as Flowers. Runners up: my list of petty (and not so petty) grievances with AI, and the story of my lifelong, Sisyphean struggle with bookworm pronunciation syndrome. There are several others that I really enjoyed writing, which I’ll let you discover for yourself.Underrated reasons to dislike AIThe big arguments for and against AI have been endlessly discussed, and I don’t feel I have much to add. AGI and existential risk; human obsolescence; power use; cybersecurity; safety + censorship; slop; misinformation.…