Tuesday links, AI-bent

Venkatesh Rao: Cognitive Farmsteading. From the man who came up with premium mediocre (2017), the cozyweb (2019), and the Internet of beefs (2020) here is another tone-setting phrase. He spent the better part of this decade working on sloptraptions (guess who his co-author is there) so I lost interest, but this article is fully Rao in every sense, even if his preferences in AI use — discussed in the article — are far, far removed from my own. Cory Doctorow: Discernment. Doctorow’s preferences, on the other hand, match mine to a T, spell checking and all (would a regular spellchecker note the missing greater-than sign in my Hugo notation?) What I don’t yet have is my very own on-device chatbot — have you seen the RAM prices these days? — but that is coming, with or without the bubble bursting. Debbie Millman: If You’re Over 40, You’re Ready to Use A.I. The thesis is in the title, and it is downright stupid. Persons over a certain age — 65? 75? I don’t know for sure and there are…