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natematias

@natematias@social.coop

Social & computer scientist who works alongside communities on science for a safer, fairer, more understanding Internet.

Founder, Citizens and Technology Lab · Visiting Scholar, Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia · Assistant Prof at Cornell · Guatemalan-American · Co-founder of @transparenttech

Enjoys taking photos & listening to books/poetry on very long bike rides.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. For a complete list of posts, browse on the original instance.

natematias , to random
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A good man is hard to find, and Marshall Allen was one of them. From missionary and pastor to investigative journalist, he brought boundless curiosity and tireless care for people in need.

I'm so grateful to have known him and deeply saddened by his passing. Also, I'm deeply moved by this ProPublica obituary, which reflects beautifully on the role of his Christian faith in his investigative journalism.

https://www.propublica.org/article/marshall-allen-propublica-health-care-reporter-dies

natematias , to random
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Next year, a new MN law will require tech firms to report results from experiments involving > 1000 people.

This could be huge for public knowledge. It could also pollute science, since fast-moving firms don't always have time to validate tests & didn't expect them to become public.

This validation is essential for reliable science. In a new post, I report on work to validate problems with 22% experiments in the Upworthy Archive & update the scientific record.

https://upworthy.natematias.com/2024-06-upworthy-archive-update.html

natematias , to random
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Not a fan of Nature writing full-on editorial stories from pre-prints in AI before they have been peer reviewed.

Today's reminder that Springer Nature is fundamentally a business.

natematias , to random
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Today I am grateful for conscientious objectors who gave their lives over the centuries to establish paths for people to choose not to participate in the violent parts of a conscripted military.

According to this UN report, the earliest recorded conscientious objector was a Christian — Saint Maximilian, who refused to serve in the Roman army due to religious convictions. As the idea of the nation state & conscription grew, so did the idea of conscientious objection.

https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Publications/ConscientiousObjection_en.pdf

natematias OP ,
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A 1994 memorial stone to conscientious objectors can be found in London in Tavistock Square, near the statue of Gandhi and the memorial for victims of Hiroshima & Nagasaki, and not far from Friends House <3.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscientious_Objectors_Commemorative_Stone

Every year on May 15, Londoners hold a ceremony at the stone on International Conscientious Objectors day— remembering all those who have refused to bear arms and participate in war.

https://www.ppu.org.uk/international-conscientious-objectors-day-may-15th

natematias , to random
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What does it mean for a company to "know" that their products are harming people, how do corporate scientists convince themselves not to look at the truth, and how does that change?

Stop what you're doing and read this extraordinary story right now by Sharon Lerner for ProPublica and the New Yorker.

https://www.propublica.org/article/3m-forever-chemicals-pfas-pfos-inside-story

natematias , to random
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"Some questions have earned their place in the landfills of science & society. Questions that toy with genocide, like those that dance around racial or gender inequality, should not be tolerated."

"If the leading voices in the field continue to ask these questions, then no matter the answer, everyone will... continue to wonder, they will continue to follow those lines of thought to terrible, terrible places."

John Slattery on the history of eugenics for America mag

https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2024/05/16/eugenics-legacy-100-years-247908

natematias , to random
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Saddened to think about how much infrastructure relies on the whims of an unstable leader.

A group of US auto-makers recently agreed to switch their cars to the Tesla Supercharger standard. Now Musk has laid off the entire supercharger team, putting the future of EV charging at risk.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/3/24147402/tesla-supercharger-layoffs-stalled-ev-infrastructure-projects

Fortunately, a new firm supported by auto makers plans significant investments in chargers:

https://www.utilitydive.com/news/ionna-ev-charging-joint-venture-nacs-ccs-bmw-honda-gm/707513/

natematias , to random
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In the middle of a tough day, the neighborhood kids stopped by and asked for help with a stuck bicycle chain. I doubt they realize it did me more good than them <3

natematias , to random
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I am finding LinkedIn's AI guided responses to be so insightful.

A real value-add to HR conversations that will help me follow employment law.

natematias , to random
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With the news of the Lavender AI for choosing who to kill, I hope more folks read about the ideas behind it.

Computers have always been built to guide the allocation of death, given the fundamental role of discrimination & statistics in the justification of war.

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy observes that Just War theory classifies people into dispensable and indispensable. It also assumes that death can be made proportional. So of course computers 😔

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pacifism/#DeonPaci

natematias OP ,
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The idea of using computers to decide who dies is one of the early lucrative hopes that early AI researchers had for the technology.

Opposition to military AI was the OG issue that brought together socially-conscious computing through groups like Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility.

Times like this make me sad that CPSR petered out during the Web 2.0 + social media tech boom. I never got the story why, but I can feel its absence keenly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Professionals_for_Social_Responsibility

natematias OP ,
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I don't have helpful guidance for non-Christians on the question of computing who deserves to die.

As a Christian, my faith includes traditions that sharpened the bloody point of Just War theory & also resisted it mightily.

Among Protestants, "The Politics of Jesus" by Yoder summarizes the Jesus on issues of "power, status, and right relations." The pacifism chapter stopped me in my tracks, and offers a powerful, if demanding response to Christian Realism.

https://www.eerdmans.com/9780802807342/the-politics-of-jesus/

natematias OP ,
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Historians of technology and STS folks: what's currently considered the best treatment on the idea of computers as weapons of war?

For book-length works, I'm mostly familiar with De Landa's influential 1992 book "War in the age of intelligent machines" so anything more recent would be helpful.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_the_Age_of_Intelligent_Machines

natematias , to random
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Saying no to technology can be a powerful act of design, especially for people with the least power in society.

@jzong explains our research on refusal in a new interview on the MIT front page.

I'm so proud of Jonathan for accomplishing so much on this profoundly-generative line of research starting as an undergrad and continuing into the final year of his PhD.

https://news.mit.edu/2024/how-refusal-can-be-an-act-of-design-jonathan-zong-0325

natematias , to random
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Finally arrived at Dutch Hill Maple after 6 hours of riding

natematias , to random
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As a PhD student, I was fascinated to see how many bright peers were developing price-fixing algorithms, under the rationale of market optimization and helping businesses.

This month, the FTC reminded everyone that this is still illegal.

https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2024/03/price-fixing-algorithm-still-price-fixing?utm_campaign=landlords_and_property_ma&utm_content=1709317844&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedin

natematias , to random
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"This framing of the problem—as if OpenAI isn’t quite sure how its app could possibly be misused—is sorta hilarious, since it’s already totally obvious how it will happen."

https://gizmodo.com/openais-sora-is-a-giant-f-ck-you-to-reality-1851261587

natematias , to random
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Measurement is hard folks, and anyone saying otherwise (or not saying anything at all) is just trying to sell you something.

(brought to you by ongoing deep dives into air quality sensor accuracy & calibration)

http://www.aqmd.gov/aq-spec/evaluations/criteria-pollutants/field

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