Do you want to read up on topics that are covered in the Ghost in the Machine documentary? I'd start with Disabling Intelligences by @fractalecho.bsky.social, who also covers the legacies of eugenics that the documentary begins with. My lengthy reading thread: tbsky.app/profile/cgsu...

Lauren Woolsey (@cgsunit.com)

This will be my thread for thoughts while reading Disabling Intelligences by [@fractalecho.bsky.social](https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:qsavm6exsnbprmb2o5utdnst) this week. I'm all wrapped up in a f...

tbsky.app

when you work at the BPAF but you’re beginning to realize there’s not going to be a successful IPO

Seriously what the everloving fuck.

Benjamin Riley@benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 2w ago

As part of boot camp, Alpha School students apparently have their heart rates monitored as they watch recorded videos of their parents critiquing them. This activity takes place in front of their classmates, and students must keep their heart rates within 10 percent of their baseline to pass.

Holy. Shit.

Benjamin Riley@benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 2w ago

SPECIAL REPORT Last month, Alpha School invited people to follow student social media accounts "if curious about life in our high schools." I accepted their offer. What I've found shocks me. Forget the AI and ask instead: Is Alpha Schools a cult? Follow along for a summary of my findings.

Everyone claiming this is an "accessibility feature" for Deaf people, I urge you to familiarize yourself with the term "disability dongle." blog.castac.org/2022/04/disa...

Disability Dongle | Platypus

Disability Dongles are contemporary fairy tales that appeal to the abled imagination by presenting a heroic designer-protagonist whose prototype provides a techno-utopian (re)solution to the design pr...

blog.castac.org

Andrew Couts@couts.bsky.social · 2w ago

NEW: The new Apple Watches double as AI-powered listening bugs for generating convo "recaps" or transcripts of any previous 15 seconds. But fear not, Apple says, this data isn't sent to Apple/gets encrypted, speakers aren't ID'd, and there's a chime for the 15-second thing. @lhn.bsky.social reports:

Disabling Intelligences - Rua M. Williams, 2025. @fractalecho.bsky.social argues forcefully for an understanding of modern AI that incorporates the eugenicist histories involved, using disability as a lens and pivot point to understand the anti-human forces at play. Forceful, angry, and hopeful

You ever see a kid that looks exactly like a high school friend from 25 years ago - from his face to his body shape right down to his pigeon toed walk and think damn they're really just recycling avatars huh?

Why the fuck did my outlook just change to looking like gmail circa 2008.

In a short span of time we went from people speculating that companies were listening to their conversations to companies offering listening to your conversations as a feature.

Plaud is launching AI earbuds

An AI wearable, but for your ears.

theverge.com

#IACCAugust2026 #IACC career staff presenting summary of public comments now. They received comments from 4,778 people and orgs - they are giving a very high-level analysis of common themes in the comments. They coded the comments into 17 themes using AI-assisted analysis

The funniest (derogatory) thing about all of this is that these "tools" are not particularly difficult to use. The most difficult part is knowing what the fuck you are doing WITHOUT the AI so that you can argue with it effectively. And that's exactly what they are taking away from us!

Eb@ebthen.bsky.social · 4w ago

When I think about this I also think about the snow job being done on educational administrations because 19 years ago no one was like "the technology is evolving so rapidly; we must teach all the kids how to live in a world of smart phones." And that one wasn't actually built on overpromising.

I won't say I'm learning my lesson. But I'm definitely experiencing my lesson about not saying no to enough things.

Have you noticed how all of these think peices about over preponderance of disability and neurodivergence are about how The Young Women Are Wrong? Nobody's complaining that there are too many men getting autism diagnosis. Despite the fact that for decades we've known we are underdiagnosing women.

Some of you think "good trouble" means politely reminding folks in power, via established communication channels, that they might possibly maybe be making a mistake. It is very weird behavior. Anyway now I need an untitled goose shirt that says "goose trouble" and also a drink.

Every University that is being asked to calculate and prove "RoI" for their majors is being told to report on how the government has defunded education and gutted the economy and then blame themselves for it.

I met Jason Arday in induction week in my first permanent academic job, at the University of Roehampton. We had been appointed during the same mass hiring, and spent a week together in more or less useless training sessions that felt like components of some kind of deranged summer camp. 1/

I know I'm old now because even the new faculty look like babies.

A little preview of my session with the AAPD Technology Forum on Monday August 17th at Noon eastern US time. Register here: forms.gle/8vTpYXq5k4Ha...

Disabilitywashing or Disability Diversion as @fractalecho.bsky.social has defined. These pervert glasses should be broken wherever found

Ketan Joshi@ketanjoshi.co · last mo.

Meta is so unbelievably evil. They make a technology primarily designed to enable abuse, harassment and privacy violations, but also embed real disability aids. The tactic now is to use an entire community as human shields to defend against criticisms www.engadget.com/2236054/meta...

I'm sitting behind a car with a sticker that says "not a lesbian" and I have no idea what the point of that would be. But then I realized it is a Subaru... But no it still doesn't make any sense.

Starting to notice citations of my work so outrageously out of context they can only be AI slop references and I am begging you to verify the existence of AND THE CONTEXT OF references the bullshit engine gives you.

Yes, and also: these constructs are ableist systems which in which we are currently and historically embedded. Eugenicism never went away. If folks are interested, I suggest @fractalecho.bsky.social 's work on on Metaeugenics and also, their book DISABLING INTELLIGENCES

Disabling Intelligences

This book discusses the influences of eugenics on the AI industry and the impacts of AI opportunism on disabled people.

link.springer.com

Gregk Foley@gregk.co.uk · 2mo ago

The same people who have been working doggedly to reinstate a rigid gender binary are now trying to do so with regards to dis/ability, and it won’t stop there. Binaries are social constructs, not realities, and ideological efforts to contain human society within such frameworks are dangerous.

The same people who have been working doggedly to reinstate a rigid gender binary are now trying to do so with regards to dis/ability, and it won’t stop there. Binaries are social constructs, not realities, and ideological efforts to contain human society within such frameworks are dangerous.

Attention all academic burnouts who kept saying yes to things because they weren't until fall semester. It is now fall sester.

A Real Request: We need your 7th grader to locate and to bring in to school a rock that is approximately the size of a large adult male fist. If it is a little larger than a fist that will be fine, however, if it is too small then their project will not be as successful.

this is my new favorite diagram

Just to be clear this is a joke on the shitposting website Bluesky rather than serious economic analysis attempting to blame gungan rōnin and Sith lord Jar Jar Binks for the economic malaise of late capitalism

This event is going to be fun if you like robots, computers, or learning about how to do research differently! Also, the event is the day before my birthday, so you should come and wish me a happy birthday because I'm a Leo. Also, if you can't come live, registrants get a recording!

Rua M. Williams@fractalecho.bsky.social · 2mo ago

In this seminar, six scholars will discuss their research in Human-Robot Interaction and related research areas and describe how the Counterventions series supported their transformation and growth as researchers. purdue-edu.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

In this seminar, six scholars will discuss their research in Human-Robot Interaction and related research areas and describe how the Counterventions series supported their transformation and growth as researchers. purdue-edu.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

It’s really something how people get up in arms about accessibility and equity when the thing in question is pervert glasses or Dark Clippy. I don’t see you folks showing up when Ticketmaster says there’s no way a wheelchair user can come to concerts or that sign language is “too distracting”.