Unfitforpurpose

@unfitforpurpose.net

"[The Computer] has no pretentions to originate anything. It can do whatever we know how to order it to perform." - Ada Lovelace #COYS User guide. https://bsky.app/profile/unfitforpurpose.net/post/3kz4ok5tcrs2a

This is worth amplifying (also this podcast is rad), that Roman slavery was, y'know, slavery. In fact, all slavery is horrifying, but the broader 'Mediterranean' slavery tradition (which is also, by the by, the ancestor of Atlantic slavery) is one of the *more extreme* such traditions.

Claire E. Aubin@ceaubin.com · last wk.

Next time someone tries to tell you that Roman slavery was different or better than other forms of slavery, tell them to listen to last week’s episode of @thisguysucked.com and/or buy Emma’s book.

in 2016 Elon Musk said he would build a fully automated factory in Fremont, California for the upcoming Model 3 and he then spent on the order of $2 billion on production lines that didn't work, forcing Tesla to assemble cars by hand in a tent but sure, now he's gonna do it on the moon

"TikTok’s algorithm pushed him thousands of videos about suicide, sadness, hopelessness and loneliness, right up until he killed himself." The company did this "by design" to test the effect on "daily active users" "one of the top data points by which Wall Street judges social media companies"

So they are cutting the procurement questions which might bar companies like Palantir or Fujitsu from winning bids and penalising UK SMEs for not subsiding Potemkin jobs to win contracts Well done Weimar Labour, well done. www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Government contracts to require job creation instead of green targets under new rules

Louise Haigh says taxpayer money must benefit local communities amid backlash from environmental groups

theguardian.com