Ryan Anderson
@anthropologia.bsky.social
Cultural, environmental, and economic anthropologist. All things coastal. Photography. Some baseball too.
In our course and book _Calling Bullshit_, we posit that If something seems too good, or too bad, to be true, it probably is. Now as a college professor I'm pretty confident that overreliance can AI can harm our thinking ability, but just ten minutes of use? Let's dig into this this study a bit.
Using AI for just 10 minutes erodes your ability to persist at hard things - Berkeley News
A UC Berkeley researcher co-authored a study that raises profound questions about how we interact with artificial intelligence in education — and daily life.
news.berkeley.edu
folks we’re gonna need better studies than this news.berkeley.edu/2026/10/09/u...
Using AI for just 10 minutes erodes your ability to persist at hard things - Berkeley News
A UC Berkeley researcher co-authored a study that raises profound questions about how we interact with artificial intelligence in education — and daily life.
news.berkeley.edu
This section of the route is a good example of a case where storm surge and high tides reveal and amplify existing problems. All the riprap tells you this has been a problem area for a while. The stretch along the Del Mar bluffs is another one that will have to be dealt with in coming years.
Matt Novak@paleofuture.bsky.social · 2d agoI love taking the train between San Diego and Los Angeles since it's such a gorgeous view but there's just no way it'll still exist on the same track a generation from now. www.instagram.com/reels/DeSCAh...
In San Francisco we're voting on whether to keep a former beachfront road a public park or reopen it to cars. One of the arguments against the latter is that the Pacific is going to eat it anyway. Sand dunes keep eating the southbound stretch that is still open, too. Also, cool video.
Prop. G, to return cars to Great Highway, will remain on the ballot, judge rules
Judge finds park advocates did not meet ‘incredibly high standard’ to yank qualified measure away from voters. They may yet appeal.
missionlocal.org
I love taking the train between San Diego and Los Angeles since it's such a gorgeous view but there's just no way it'll still exist on the same track a generation from now. www.instagram.com/reels/DeSCAh...
In the vein of "public libraries could never be created today," a pitch for a calculator would get you thrown out of the boardroom. What do you mean, it just maths? Where are the ads supposed to go? How does it send usage telemetry back if it doesn't even have wifi? There isn't even a leaderboard.
Rich Burroughs@somewhattolerable.com · 2d agoAnother massive difference is that a calculator isn’t answering your questions in a way that’s specifically designed to get you to continue using the calculator.
We are soon going to have to come to grips with the fact that this shit is asbestos for the mind
Using AI for just 10 minutes erodes your ability to persist at hard things - Berkeley News
A UC Berkeley researcher co-authored a study that raises profound questions about how we interact with artificial intelligence in education — and daily life.
news.berkeley.edu
Today we built a tiny radio station in the forest. These are the networks I favor.
Shannon Mattern@shannonmattern.bsky.social · 4w agoA program with the great Greta Byrum at the METRO NY Library Council's Library Field on Friday October 9! Join an in-person workshop on FM transmission as a model of collective sense-making, navigation, and relational learning.
So, umm, for all of you arguing that progressive leftists are ruining the social sciences (Vandy report and its sub-reports), what's your take on this? www.science.org/content/arti...
‘Complete devastation’: How NSF gutted its social sciences research
Agency body that funds sociology, linguistics, and archaeology studies in U.S. gave 90% fewer new grants this year
science.org
I realized that one of the threads linking some of the different aspects of things I work on is the problem of mistaking or conflating fiction with reality. This includes everything from manufactured beaches in LA to folks seeing a film like 'The Endless Summer' and seeing it as a reality to chase.
The Association for Human Mathematics (AHM) statement on OpenAI’s October 6 release of mathematical documents just dropped! www.ahmath.org/statements
Trying to figure out if the fuckin war dot gov commercial that's playing ad nauseum during the baseball game is AI. Some of the scenes are probably real actors, but also filmed in a garage with a fifty dollar scenery budget. I will also bet dollars to donuts that Hegseth wrote the script himself
Fascinating window into where Brazilian election discourse is at the moment. The gist for those who do not understand Portuguese is: "everything is expensive. if we vote Bolsonaro and sell out Brazil to Trump we can buy cheap gadgets again"
Sanddra Olíveira ♈🧿💗@sanddraoliveira.bsky.social · 6d ago
I came across this parody of a rumored upcoming press release by OpenAI: "OpenAI Releases the Final Ten Minutes of 500 Previously Unreleased Films, Ushering in a New Era of Movie Watching" : x.com/Endings500/s...
Endings Fivehundred (@Endings500) on X
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 6th, 2026 OpenAI Releases the Final Ten Minutes of 500 Previously Unreleased Films, Ushering in a New Era of Movie Watching
x.com
A new study of Iron and Viking Age "body-objects" reveals a significant amount of violence in Scandinavia. 🏺🧪
Live Science@livescience.com · 6d agoArchaeologists discover a child's skull built into the floor of a 2,500-year-old Scandinavian house www.livescience.com/archaeology/...
If you think about the data that is constructed about a person by observing their public behavior as a kind of "affordance" or "handle" for doing things on or to that person (including compiling further information about them), the technicized use of public data is inherently nonconsensual.
I have some thoughts about choosing Big Sur (and Point Sur specifically) for this photo shoot. Lots going on there.
Carl Quintanilla@carlquintanilla.bsky.social · last wk.Cover. @vanityfair.com www.vanityfair.com/story/sam-al...
By somewhat problematic I mean VERY.
Ryan Anderson@anthropologia.bsky.social · 6d agoI also just finished Adam's book, which I highly recommend if you're interested in learning more about the *somewhat problematic* beliefs and ideologies of the folks who are key players in this whole AI scene right now. Link: www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/adam-...
Quant data funding without Qual contextual inquiry leaves a lot of data undiscovered. Unfortunately, the consequences of these decisions will impact us—and not in ways they expected. Quant data can only count what is visible. Qual discovers the invisible so it can be counted.
Dan Garisto@dangaristo.bsky.social · 6d agoNEW: In March the White House released an FY27 budget request that zeroed out the National Science Foundation's directorate of Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE). For months it was unclear what would happen. Now, with FY26 over, the damage to SBE is coming to light. My reporting:
In addition to spending less money and making fewer new grants, SBE also dramatically narrowed where it made those new grants. Areas such as economics, sociology, and archaeology received few to no grants.
NEW: In March the White House released an FY27 budget request that zeroed out the National Science Foundation's directorate of Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE). For months it was unclear what would happen. Now, with FY26 over, the damage to SBE is coming to light. My reporting:
‘Complete devastation’: How NSF gutted its social sciences research
Agency body that funds sociology, linguistics, and archaeology studies in U.S. gave 90% fewer new grants this year
science.org
Thanks for the boost! There is also this one from us: (2025) "External Intelligence: Oracles, Divination and Animism, and the Use of #LLMs/#Generative #AI By Michael D. Fischer; Sally A. Applin; Sridhar Ravula" www.emerald.com/books/edited... #genai
External Intelligence: Oracles, Divination and Animism, and the Use of LLMs/Generative AI
Abstract. Applying Symbolic Interactionist (SI) and Anthropological theory, this chapter relates divination and oracle consultation as these manifest withi
emerald.com
Michael D. Fischer and I have a chapter out in the new "Handbook of Anthropology and Artificial Intelligence."Open Access (free). Click on purple retangle: www.e-elgar.com/shop/usd/han... See Chapter 5, Anthropology of artificial intelligence: agency, powerful knowledge, and the algorithmic other."
Handbook on Anthropology and Artificial Intelligence
‘Anthropology at its best – this collection looks beyond AI hype and panic to explore what specific challenges AI offers in different communities of practice, ranging from educating, healing to fighti...
e-elgar.com
*listened, of course.
Ryan Anderson@anthropologia.bsky.social · 6d agoJust listed to @adambecker.bsky.social's podcast episode with @emilymbender.bsky.social and I highly recommend it. One thing that really resonates with me is when Dr. Bender says that she was just doing her work and 'minding her own business' and then this whole AI thing went sideways. Can relate.
Just listed to @adambecker.bsky.social's podcast episode with @emilymbender.bsky.social and I highly recommend it. One thing that really resonates with me is when Dr. Bender says that she was just doing her work and 'minding her own business' and then this whole AI thing went sideways. Can relate.
This is getting a lot of quotes, so I feel I should correct this a bit (sorry @anildash.com!) “AI” was 100% born toxic! The first AI workshop was born from the field of “automata studies”, and…1/ (Pictured: the folks who convened for the first workshop. Notice anything notable here?)
Anil Dash@anildash.com · last wk.I can’t emphasize this enough — “AI” wasn’t born corrupt and toxic. For ~75 years, it was mathematicians and scientists doing interesting, thoughtful work and trying to solve problems, making only the usual human mistakes. What “AI” did to machine learning is as tragic as what it did to artists.
