danah boyd

Calling all science/tech folks: Do you have thoughts about xkcd? Parker Bach & I are trying to understand the role that xkcd plays in the scientific/technical community. Will you share your thoughts? https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=v4j5cvGGr0GRqy180BHbR64w9CfkmX9HrkRf2PpIZWBUQ1oxRERXVFFIRERIQUhJSDhDNVoxUU1CNS4u&route=shorturl And since we are doing a snowball sample, please spread the word!

"[The obsession with AI] fundamentally has to do with power, and certainly with the power to make life... The people involved in this are men and that they have very idealistic fantasies about creating thinking robots that will ... reach a human level within the next 40 years, quickly become superior to us, and finally realize that they can get along much better without us, and they will take over and we will disappear... This is an expression of a uterus envy." - Joseph Weizenbaum, 1996

Personal update: I'm joining Cornell as a Professor of Communication starting in Fall of 2025. ::bounce:: If you're curious about my thinking, see: https://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2024/10/29/im-joining-the-cornell-faculty.html

Ummm... This chart is TERRIFYING. Have the data centers that undergird AI already triggered this much of a shift in energy consumption? ::shudder:: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/03/07/ai-data-centers-power/

Can you help me identify everyday examples of mundane low-stakes data modeling failures. We've seen a lot of discussions of supply chain failures and labor shortages. But what about when companies are clearly getting their modeling wrong? (And do they care?) Here's some context and examples that I have to offer: @zephoria@medium.com

I finally got off my toosh and ported my newsletter. I only write sporadically, but it's free! Sign up here: https://made-not-found-by-danah-boyd.ghost.io

The myth that social media harms kids drives me bonkers. So I tried to frame my thinking of risks vs. harms in today's rant: https://zephoria.substack.com/p/risks-vs-harms-youth-and-social-media

What makes a social media site vibrant? It's not about the technology. It's about how the networks are nurtured into being. Here's some lessons from 20 years ago that Alt-Twitter designers need to consider: https://zephoria.medium.com/dear-alt-twitter-designers-its-about-the-network-3d6f7e8714dd

Anyone have visibility into what new contracts Palantir is getting across federal agencies? (And what contracts DOGE is canceling to give to Palantir?). Or Oracle for that matter?

Last week, I got to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Data & Society with old and new friends. I'm still teary-eyed thinking of how joyous that was. Here my recap: https://substack.com/home/post/p-149666577

Last week, I spoke with the amazing @taylorlorenz@mastodon.social about the contemporary moral panics surrounding young people and their use of social media (and why this does so much harm to young people). It was a great conversation. You can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TS1wax3KjnA (or listen to it on the Power User Podcast via your favorite podcast app)

Reminder: Microsoft Research sociotechnical internship apps due 12/2! (Postdoc apps due a week later!) These are great opportunities for advanced PhD students in the social sciences! https://socialmediacollective.org/2022/10/25/smc-interns-2023/

New paper by @cyberlyra@hachyderm.io and I in a Sociologica special issue on failure looks at how constraining time/money in public sector orgs like NASA and the Census Bureau can introduce risk. In short, resource binds can trigger legitimacy crises. https://sociologica.unibo.it/article/view/18894

Just as there's no singular public, there's no singular imaginary. In high stakes political situations, imaginaries are entangled and messy. Jayshree Sarathy and I examined four census controversies to explore different arrangements of imaginaries: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/08969205241270898

@kappazeta@mastodon.bida.im Weizenbaum, Joseph. “The Myth of the Last Metaphor.” In Speaking Minds, edited by Peter Baumgartner and Sabine Payr, 249–64. Princeton University Press, 1996. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400863969.249.