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Mario Munoz

@pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

mastodon 4.7.3

I like to code Python by night, which is what happens when there's not enough time during the day.

#nobot #nobots #noai #noindex #nosearch #noarchive

844 Followers

424 Following

50 Posts

Joined June 06, 2025

blog:

https://www.pythonbynight.com

zine:

https://underobstruction.com

codeberg:

https://codeberg.org/pythonbynight

day or night:

🌙

Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 2mo ago

Due to discourse*, decided to blog about the topic du jour. In which I enter to the discourse some opinions, such as: "Perfection as a prerequisite to action is absurdly short-sighted." or more spicy... "...accepting model output into our "open source" projects, that is a political choice." https://pythonbynight.com/blog/accepting-probabilistic-software-is-a-political-choice

pythonbynight.com

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Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

This weekend, I had the opportunity to give a difficult talk. It's not much of a surprise if you've followed my writing this year, and it's certainly a heavy topic.

And to be honest, I don't think there is too much new info there, particularly for individuals on this platform.

But connecting the dots into a full picture can sometimes have a deeper effect, and that is partly what I was attempting to do here.

The video has now been posted over here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bf2b1CBz-wc

1/n

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Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

PyCon US is approaching alarmingly fast!

Did you know that anyone can host open spaces there? Well guess what, I'm gonna host one called:

PyCon With 💗ART

What's it about?

Are you an artist? Yes, you are! Whether novice, intermediate, advanced, aspiring, curious, or otherwise unsure... come check it out!

Showcase... conversation... music... collaboration... discussion... and more...

I'll have more info to share, but consider yourself informed!

#PyConUS #Python #LongBeach

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Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@joshisanonymous@h4.io @Iris@scholar.social The history of technology, specifically as it relates to Silicon Valley, comes from explicit eugenicists and misogynists. Current tech leaders have also embraced a form of utilitarian ethics built on a rather alarming view that impeding progress is equivalent to murder of "future humans" who would otherwise inhabit the stars. This future is devoid of "lesser humans"... the focus on efficiency, intelligence, and automation has been a political project since the early 1900s. "AI" as a political/technological project enforces social hierarchies, and has made no secret of its marriage with surveillance tech, as well as military projects. The leaders in these sectors espouse transhumanist visions of the future, also eschewing social harms produced in the here and now. Follow proclamations by tech leaders and VC funders and you'll find language encoded with fascist ideology. I gave a talk this weekend which touches on some of this history... https://hachyderm.io/@pythonbynight/116483341040156048

Quoting

@pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

This weekend, I had the opportunity to give a difficult talk. It's not much of a surprise if you've followed my writing this year, and it's certainly a heavy topic.

And to be honest, I don't think there is too much new info there, particularly for individuals on this platform.

But connecting the dots into a full picture can sometimes have a deeper effect, and that is partly what I was attempting to do here.

The video has now been posted over here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bf2b1CBz-wc

1/n

Open quoted post

Mario Munoz: "This weekend, I had the opportunity to give a dif…" - Hachyderm.io

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Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Remember when I posted about PyCon US and Art in the same toot? Well, some friends and I are pretty excited about it.

And guess what, we're looking for folks to join us on Friday, May 15 to create art, showcase art, and even discuss what art even means in this age of "AI".

https://us.pycon.org/2026/events/open-spaces/#openspace-40

We want to showcase the creativity of the Python community, and we'd love to see your art. Do you have something you plan to bring? Or an idea for an art project you want to lead?

(We're also looking for a few volunteers to help us run the open space(s). Let us know if you want to volunteer to make this celebration of creativity happen.)

You can message me here, on DM, or send an email to pycon+art@pythonbynight.com

#Python #PyConUS #Art #LongBeach #LosAngeles

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Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 6mo ago

Phew. Just got done with my #PyCascades talk. You can find a blog version of my talk here!

https://pythonbynight.com/talks/more-better

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Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

What was then described sounded more like what a business analyst might do. Look at business requirements. Prompt an LLM to bullet-point the changes. Examine tests to see if "they make sense". And somehow make assessments that the code is secure and performant? I complained that asking an LLM to review LLM generated code is redundant, and that we are making our work redundant based on the belief that the LLMs are fully capable of delivering product with little human intervention. Someone on the team mentioned that we would be spending less time coding and doing more "engineering"... ... at which point I just sort of gave up... lol... engineering? Naaah... Needless to say, "fun" start to the morning. 2/2

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Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@mttaggart@infosec.exchange This is a great writeup. I did a similar (but slightly distinct) exercise a while ago trying to think through what would need to change, from my perspective, to move toward a more favorable position toward this technology. https://pythonbynight.com/blog/what-does-it-take What I remember realizing is that, even within the ban vs regulate framing, is that one would need to attack different aspects of the argument differently. For example, strict regulation against human rights violations (for global data workers) might itself make the whole system untenable. But that's just one aspect of a multi headed beast. But either way, I do think it is a debate worth having.

pythonbynight.com

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Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

RE: @mitsuhiko@hachyderm.io

I can appreciate some of the introspection here, but this isn't exactly novel. The homogenization effect of high LLM usage has been noticed/evaluated, and is a major concern specifically in the realm of cognitive science.

"The homogenizing effect of large language models on human expression and thought" - https://www.cell.com/trends/cognitive-sciences/abstract/S1364-6613(26)00003-3

"The Homogenization of Creative Content in the Era of AI: A Threat to Authenticity?" - https://www.ubik.studio/blog/ai-homogenization

(There are many more examples as well...)

This is all the more apparent to individuals that fall outside the mean/average of the normalized data.

Disenfranchised populations--or anyone who has had to grow up on the outskirts of a normative culture--feels this more presciently, and understands that the end result is erasure.

On the flip side, those that ordinarily fit within the normalized hegemony tend to not recognize the problem, or feel its effects entirely. (The effect is still there, though...)

My take is that this is not accidental or a byproduct of these technologies. Cultural erasure and the suspicion of authenticity/authority are desired goals...

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Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Oh hey, look at that, I'm on an app... sort of?

Also, you can download your PyCon US Mobile App to start preparing! See you soon in Long Beach!

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Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@paulox@fosstodon.org who's the selfiest of them all? Definitely @paulox@fosstodon.org

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Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@glyph@mastodon.social @AlSweigart@mastodon.social I feel like they really tried to automate the boring stuff of... writing? 😅 🥁 (Al vs AI... First round. FIGHT!)

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Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@MaggieFero@hachyderm.io Huzzah! This is a gift for everyone else too, that is, if you continue with your incredible live summaries of the talks you attend. See you there!

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Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

A couple of the talks I highlighted on my blog include those from @chrisjrn@social.coop, @MaggieFero@hachyderm.io, @amcasari@hachyderm.io, and @phildini@wandering.shop They directly or indirectly seemed connected to my topic, some in very tangible ways--and they all left me with much to think about, as well as incentives to actually do something! The links to the videos are included in the blog if you haven't caught them already, or head to the North Bay Python channel and watch from there: https://www.youtube.com/@NorthBayPython/videos

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Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@glyph I've tried to think about this too, particularly with what I've recently learned about statistics/algorithms and how they were conceived. LLMs could actually be instrumental in helping us decipher systemic biases. For example, we know that biases exist from sample data, from how it is collected to how it is prepared/reinforced... in addition, additional biases in terms of how we think about that data are inserted as soon as we apply statistical methods (i.e., linear regression). And lastly, we also know that 'the way' that data is presented also carries significant bias (just look at graph or chart)... Knowing these things can likely help us understand more about data in the first place, but it requires a lot more patience and slow-moving work... and it likely has less to do with "software engineering" as we see it today.

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Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@baldur@toot.cafe Yes! What I particularly loved about this talk was the ease and clarity that @emilymbender@dair-community.social used to explain the often neglected HUMAN side when talking about this subject (yay, humanities!!). It is one (of several) aspects I see missing in a lot of our tech discussions about this present age--namely, ignoring expert voices in subjects we are clearly NOT experts in (as technologists). We need more interdisciplinary cooperation... now more than ever.

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Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@SnoopJ @dabeaz TESCREAL, with echoes of eugenics/dysgenics, which yes, can also be traced back to Stanford. Some of this covered in my upcoming #NBPy talk: https://pretalx.northbaypython.org/nbpy-2026/talk/GFB7MK/

pretalx.northbaypython.org

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Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@trey@indieweb.social @bckohan@fosstodon.org Hmmm.... 🤔 https://hachyderm.io/@pycascades/116009537510249061

PyCascades: "🎤 Speaker Announcement We’re excited to welcome M…" - Hachyderm.io

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Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@webology @ehmatthes @wsvincent Ok fine, I'll jump in with a hot take 😅 I don't think it's unreasonable to anticipate anti-user patterns to emerge over the long term. (I think the GitHub/Msoft acquisition is a fair proxy--though OpenAI is a less stable company, which could accelerate enshittification) In the near term, they will want to bank on user's goodwill and trust--so I don't see a lot of changes coming immediately. But it's highly possible/likely that intentions will change, whether it's through feature bloat, licensing changes, monetization, user privacy breaches, etc... I'm glad for the developers. They've done great work, and I think it has been positive for the Python ecosystem. It's notable, however, that at least on Masto, the overall response to this news is negative. OpenAI is not a trustworthy company... (not to anthropomorphize a company... so, rather, Altman and his sycophants exhibit questionable ethics and viewpoints, and their leadership can't be trusted...)

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Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 6mo ago

Hellish day and all, but was happy to see the Tiny Desk Concert host Aterciopelados, a Colombian band I remember from the early aughts when my then-Colombian gf introduced me... inject a tiny bit of joy and irreverence to your day and give it a watch.

https://www.npr.org/2026/04/07/g-s1-114297/aterciopelados-tiny-desk-concert

#TinyDesk #Music

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Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@goatcheese@eldritch.cafe Yeah. We were basically dancing around the subject, and I don't think my manager liked it when I said that we are practically making ourselves redundant. We're being asked to use LLMs to review code that LLMs wrote in the first place... this can ALREADY be done within the code generation, PR push process--so what's the point of an additional review? There's still some rationalization about keeping the human in the loop for the sake of "domain expertise" or something like that--but as I told a friend of mine, that's just cover for "accountability"... if/when something goes wrong, it's the "human in the loop" who will be blamed.

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Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 6mo ago

Oh yes!

@Aleums@timeloop.cafe

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Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@mitsuhiko@hachyderm.io 😅 I apologize that it came off as a dig... The larger point I'm trying to make is that this effect has been predicted, and falls within the same trajectory desired by the wealthy billionaire class... and to be fair, this precedes LLMs... But the scale and non-consensual push into every imaginable space of the web makes it that much more sinister. In any respect, I appreciate that you're wrestling with the implications, as opposed to others who are more wholly glossing over these issues.

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Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

another echo from my talk... ugh... "The tech elite did not inherit this ideology by accident. Stanford University, the intellectual heart of Silicon Valley, was once a major hub for the American eugenics movement, which later helped to inspire Nazi race laws. Stanford’s founding president, David Starr Jordan, was a prominent eugenicist, campaigning for forced sterilization of people with undesirable genetic traits. The university removed his name from its buildings in 2020 — but in Palo Alto, his beliefs did not disappear with the nameplate. “Instead of eugenics we just call it longevity or biohacking,” Christopher Wylie, the Cambridge Analytica whistleblower who has spent years investigating Silicon Valley’s belief systems, said on a panel with me at a journalism conference last year. “It’s the same.”

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Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@clew @glyph Yeah, totally... I'm likely not thinking about it too thoroughly. (I'm kinda grasping at straws 😁 ) I suppose what I'm getting at is that in the entire data pipeline, there are so many opportunities to introduce bias... it may be impossible to mitigate all of those steps... LLMs, if anything, exposes it (as is pointed out in this writeup). https://sites.google.com/view/llmwritingdistortion/home

sites.google.com

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Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@nik @chrisjrn its name is us-east-1

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Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@mttaggart@infosec.exchange Yeah, that's why it's awkward trying to argue against "AI" specifically. Part of the problem is that we don't have enforcement of existing regulations, or penalties are toothless and inefficient. And this is true in many sectors, whether financial, environmental, or labor rights. I think the tech succeeds because it has made it very difficult to focus on a specific aspect of it, and because the billionaires are very efficient at lobbying on all fronts, as well as dominating the narrative. I'm hoping we collectively continue to fight for our communities by doing what we can to protect them, and also to keep them informed.

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Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@ambv@mastodon.social @jacob@social.jacobian.org Definitely... I was going to say something about accountability, but this is pretty much my thought too. Especially as it's incredibly unlikely that anyone would one-shot a perfect implementation, even more so for something that is extremely critical. If we can't understand "why" something went wrong, how do we account for it? Was it negligence? Can someone be held accountable? Is the prompting wrong or is the code wrong? I can see why that's a dream scenario for a corporation, though.

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Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 6mo ago

I reflect on how being aware of where a product comes from impacts how you think and/or act about it. Written by way of reflecting on my Honduran heritage and how it relates to technology.

https://pythonbynight.com/blog/sources

pythonbynight.com

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Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@timbray@cosocial.ca Very sad, yes, and relatable. I try my best to be sympathetic to others that have not taken an absolutist approach to this kind of technology. I don't think there's much to be gained by further entrenching ourselves into in/out groups. But in addition to my objections about these technological/social systems of control and their effects--I think there is some worth in an absolutist position that is not (only) tethered to these grand societal/ethical dilemmas. I feel a certain ease/relief when I find content that I trust and is full of jagged edges--unafraid to fall outside a standard deviation of thought and expression. I also hope to provide that to readers who happen to find my writing...

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Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@AlSweigart@mastodon.social @glyph@mastodon.social KO!

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Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@villares@ciberlandia.pt Ah, I have seen you write about py5 before, but haven't checked it out fully. I was looking at the docs and this looks really awesome. I'll bring it up during the open space. Thanks!

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Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@MaggieFero@hachyderm.io Que Bien!

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Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@amcasari@hachyderm.io this is the way!

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Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@clew @glyph Yes, correct... mind you, I'm in agreement with you. My imagined use is probably not feasible... Maybe I'm thinking about deconstructing output to find out what the implications are (is this data biased? ... are reinforcement practices flawed... etc...) ... these are likely things that were and are important for ML data workers.

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Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 6mo ago

🎵 New Jose Gonzalez? Sweet. Time to check it out...

https://open.qobuz.com/album/f37eh1agzbl06

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Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@trey I haven't used it in a Django project per se, but you should be about to use PDM, I think. It uses its own lock file format by default, but also supports the pep standard format as well (and it will become default eventually). https://pdm-project.org/en/stable/usage/lockfile/

pdm-project.org

Lock file - PDM

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Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@trey oh it's awesome. I was using it before uv and it's mostly the same in terms of feature set with a few different (and obviously not standalone), but installed with pipx, it was working pretty well for me before. I'll likely be using it a lot more now 😅

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Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@webology @ehmatthes @wsvincent Fair on the Masto pulse-check, as it does lean negative. I also agree that Charlie et al. have done great work which has moved Python forward... It still doesn't distill my point about OpenAI ... Many of us still use Msoft, Google, Apple products despite questionable leadership, so it's not likely a death knell to the tooling and their use... But there are reasons that some of us try, as best we can, to de-platform or to lessen our dependence on these products, even when they are essentially "free" (i.e., gmail, facebook/IG, twitter, etc...) And given the financial volatility of where we are today (I know we may differ on our prognostication on what the future holds re: bubble pops and all), it makes me wonder how OpenAI leverages their stake in Astral should their financial situation change drastically. But on the whole, yes, I'm hopeful a community-led alternative provides a best-case dismount point should it come to that.

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Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@mitsuhiko As someone else pointed out with "veganism" for example... the person who chooses to participate in that particular diet might do so with best intentions, following best practices, and adapting for "best results" as far as their own health is concerned. But this says very little about the effects of that diet for a large population. From my perspective, the "center" position is more akin to a scientist who can objectively view and compare results from test/control groups. Their participation is AI usage is beside the point. The more important thing to establish would be impartiality and, hopefully, corroboration through peer review. Yet, as I said earlier, it does help to be more clear about the particular arguments we are trying to make. 2/2

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Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@pamelafox@fosstodon.org Planning on at least the first day, hoping not to get too sidetracked... 🐿️

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Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@webology If (when?) local models reach usability that nullifies or minimizes dependance on frontier models, that seems to be a financially ruinous scenario for a company like OpenAI... That's actually one of the scenarios where I see a large potential for harming users that are tied to such tooling. (Must mention, I'll be glad if the harms are abated or minimized!) And that's a fair point on tool hopping... I'll likely go back using pdm, which I used (and liked) before uv--not necessarily because I'm running for the hills, but I also kind of like trying out different tools anyway.

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Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@glyph@mastodon.social Yup, I'll be covering this one during my tutorial at PyCon next week! Sadly, I've had a few monkey wrenches thrown at me this week so I didn't get a chance to connect as I had hoped. Perhaps there's still time, even if asynchronously? Though totally understandable if it's hard given the annoying car troubles and everything in between.

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Mario Munoz @pythonbynight@hachyderm.io

· 5mo ago

Replying to

Related... from a separate discussion elsewhere.

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