Outer Wilds. Completely new narrative form I hadn't considered, in service of an emotional payoff. And there's no "save game" because the state of the game lives entirely inside your head. Wild indeed!

Sophia_Nyx 🐰@sophianyx.bsky.social · last wk.

Name a videogame that changed the way you see games.

It really is a better algorithm -- not just controllable, but actually finds good stuff.

Renee DiResta@noupside.bsky.social · 2w ago

I’m biased but this has become my default feed now. I read almost every article it surfaces for me.

We built a new social media algorithm from the ground up that gives you full control. And we figured hey, while wer're doing that, let's design it to help people out with their conflicts. www.betterconflictbulletin.org/p/the-first-...

The First Social Media Algorithm You Control is Designed for Constructive Conversation

GreenEarth is an open, controllable feed algorithm that is scientifically tested to reduce polarization

betterconflictbulletin.org

Finished my NeurIPS position track metareviews. - 6 submitted - 2 bench rejected for LLM use - 3 rejected - 1 accepted

We still don't know the full results of mass literacy, let alone how this whole loom thing is gonna end up shaking out.

GreenEarth is the first feed which gives you full control over the algorithm. Here's our new "post sources" control panel, which lets you adjust the mix of in-network vs. out-of-network posts. Have you tried it yet? go.greenearth.social/r/ptryit

neilknet.bsky.social I think you asked about this?

Jonathan Stray@jonathanstray.com · 3w ago

We've said many times that the GreenEarth feeds are designed for "constructive" conversation. Here's what that means to us, how we implemented it, and what our fancy future plans are. www.greenearth.social/p/what-does-...

I'm not here for politics, I'm here to see posts from people who did things with a bike that society says you need a car for.

Me: I’m working on AI and human conflict BigLab employee: Cool, like multi-agent games? Me: No, like human conflict BigLab: Cool, so like simulating people’s responses? Me: no, like actual human field experiments 🤷‍♂️

Feed controls design question: We have different sources of posts in GreenEarth, such as people you follow, topics you've liked, most popular posts, etc. Do you want to adjust raw percentage from each source -- regardless of quality -- or have the feed adjust proportions based on algo ranking?

Deduction: All beans in this bag are white. These beans are from this bag. So these beans are white. Induction: These beans are from this bag. They are white. Maybe all beans in this bag are white? Abduction: All beans in this bag are white. These beans are white. Maybe they came from this bag?

This is an important article about the limits of media criticism.

Liberal Currents@liberalcurrents.com · 3w ago

"It would be a mistake to conclude that victory would be within our grasp if only we could get the media to say the right things. The audience has agency too. A media strategy is just that: a strategy, with both strengths and limits." www.liberalcurrents.com/the-audience...

So this is not an easy question, but I continue to say that the answer is "more polling", and that the conclusions from more polling can be relatively straightforward For example:

Nicholas Grossman@nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 3w ago

If you’re going to write about electability, and rely on polls saying many voters think the Democrats are “too left-wing,” you have to figure out what that means. Too supportive of unions? Has Black, Latino, Muslim, and gay people, including in leading positions? Anti-military? What does it mean?

My even spicier take is that book publishing and reading is going to continue to decline, full stop. Lots of newer ways to tell long form stories, and lots of more efficient ways to learn deep non-fiction.

Last night, I was endorsed by a Democrat, a Republican, and an Independent in Arlington, TX. We really are building a new kind of politics — and now there’s a word for it: TRIPARTISAN

Classic

I changed my GreenEarth feed settings, forgot that I did that, then wondered all day why I was seeing crap posts! I've occasionally been told this is a reason the platforms never gave us control. I think we can do better, with a "revert to defaults after X days unless you save" kind of feature.

We've said many times that the GreenEarth feeds are designed for "constructive" conversation. Here's what that means to us, how we implemented it, and what our fancy future plans are. www.greenearth.social/p/what-does-...

What Does Constructive Mean?

How our “bridging” algorithms actually work, and our future plans.

greenearth.social

This stop motion nightmare shows a monster sofa devouring its victim, one frame at a time. Pure practical horror.

just had a very productive call with dijkstra. goto is back on the table

A teenager was excluded from a 2022 TikTok algorithm update designed to reduce rabbit holes of harmful content -- along with 10% of all users -- and then committed suicide after being served depressing videos. This raises many complicated ethical questions... 🧵 www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

TikTok Withheld a Safety Feature From Millions. One Died by Suicide

A confidential document says an algorithm adjustment was kept from many users “by design,” as part of an experiment to measure engagement.

bloomberg.com

Would you like to try the first ever algorithmic feed with CONTROLS? GreenEarth is built to serve you, not the platform or anybody else. Now in beta. www.greenearth.social/p/welcome-to...

Welcome to the GreenEarth Feeds

Social media algorithms built for people who hate social media algorithms

greenearth.social

Have you ever felt like Spotify's personalization is putting you into a musical rut? Do you wish the top playlists for any search were human not algorithmic? Well, Spotify is experimenting with prompt-based control, and one of their examples is "Make it non-personalized."

Post a perfect album from the 90s that isn't nirvana, soundgarden, pearl jam, or alice in chains.

John Scalzi@scalzi.com · 4w ago

Post a perfect album from the 90s that isn't nirvana, soundgarden, pearl jam, or alice in chains.

This may be the first widely deployed AI conflict mediation system. It's used by Chinese citizens in Hangzhou to resolve disputes with businesses. We're going to be seeing a lot more of this. www.sohu.com/a/932941980_...

One of the goals of the GreenEarth project is to build models that let feed designers quickly estimate the effects of their algorithms on addiction, polarization, depression etc. With your permission, of course. www.greenearth.social/p/measuring-...

Measuring the Effects of Social Media Without Expensive Surveys

GreenEarth is building models that turn survey experiments into cheap A/B tests

greenearth.social

Star Trek dreamed up communicators and we got smartphones. Miyazaki dreamed up magical creatures and we get...

Chris Paxton@cpaxton.bsky.social · last mo.

I love this

I love this

I've seen it before but every time I do I'm kind of staggered by just how bananas this chart is. Starting in mid-2021 or so, something began making people unhappier with the economy than you'd expect, and continued to get worse and worse nonstop until the present day, spanning all income brackets.

Keegs@littlekeegs.bsky.social · last mo.

Not at all-there is still a vibecession among the rich and poor!

The AI models of today are the worst they will ever be. And yet, pretty much every "AI will never..." claim has now been shattered. I don't understand people who still bet against AI. How much more evidence do you need that these machines are going to be smarter than us in every way?