#Unaccountability Machine

[collapsedsquid]

Consider, for example, the following situation. A characteristically modern form of social interaction, familiar from the rail and air travel industries, has become ubiquitous with the development of the call centre. Someone – an airline gate attendant, for example – tells you some bad news; perhaps you’ve been bumped from the flight in favour of someone with more frequent flyer points. You start to complain and point out how much you paid for your ticket, but you’re brought up short by the undeniable fact that the gate attendant can’t do anything about it. You ask to speak to someone who can do something about it, but you’re told that’s not company policy. The unsettling thing about this conversation is that you progressively realise that the human being you are speaking to is only allowed to follow a set of processes and rules that pass on decisions made at a higher level of the corporate hierarchy. It’s often a frustrating experience; you want to get angry, but you can’t really blame the person you’re talking to. Somehow, the airline has constructed a state of affairs where it can speak to you with the anonymous voice of an amorphous corporation, but you have to talk back to it as if it were a person like yourself. Bad people react to this by getting angry at the gate attendant; good people walk away stewing with thwarted rage, and they may give some lacerating feedback online. Meanwhile, the managers who made the decision to prioritise Gold Elite members are able to maximise shareholder value without any distractions from the consequences of their actions. They have constructed an accountability sink to absorb unwanted negative emotion.

[fatedroses]

Chance encounters in Costa del Sol.

[thursdayisbetterthanfriday]

The Unaccountability Machine

Information Theory and The Machine of the Economy

"things went off the rails starting in about 1970 when everyone decided that the way they were going to deal with complexity was basically to ignore it and to assume that the free market would solve all the problems because people you know from Hayek onwards in the economics profession have always regarded the market as being a magic all-purpose computer..."

"it's really weird that a profession that's based on the idea that there's no such thing as a free lunch is always so happy to help itself to an informational version of exactly the same that thing ... that the market is this giant information processing and decision making machine"

"the great tragedy of our friend Hayek is that he was thinking in a very sophisticated way about information in the economy but he was doing it in the 1920s and 30s and the concept of information Theory did not exist then"

"you know all of Hayek's works on information in the economy were before Alan Turing they were before Kurt Godel... they were before Shannon you know the concept of information was not on a sound kind of rigorous mathematic basis when he was doing these things"

"unfortunately all the economists who came after Hayek presumed that information in the economy was a solved problem. It was a done deal. " "It was the Socialist calculation problem everything that was interesting to say about it had been said in 1928 and so they never really got to grips with the idea that information is a quantity and as equally as important as balancing supply and demand is the ability to balance the information generated by the environment."

"the kind of chaos and variety and variability you know of the world with the capacity of the system that's meant to be regulating and managing that environment to process it because if those if your information balance sheet isn't balancing then the system has become unregulated and then not only is it going to go out of control but also because it's unregulated you cannot assume that your actions to try to control it are going to push it back to a steady state"

"it's quite often the case that you'll be pushing it out of equilibrium and you'll be causing you know what they call what you'd recognize as oscillation if it happened in an engineering framework because you're working on a broken model of reality..."

"and you know that's kind of my diagnosis of a lot of the state that we've got to which is that we're just working on a broken or insufficient model of reality and as a result very often we're making policy interventions that are just pushing things further away from our desired State without us really knowing that we're doing that" "The way in which the economics profession ignored most of the work done in information theory is striking. It ignored its own traditions relating to uncertainty and decision-making, instead ploughing ahead with a frighteningly simplistic view of the world in which everything could be reduced to a single goal of shareholder value maximisation."

- Dan Davies - The Unaccountability Machine

[track-maniac]

Author: The analogy with global warming is so clear that I needn't insult your intelligence by explaining it.

Me: 😐

what a complicated way to call me stupid

[stevensavage]

The Morals of Madness

(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, Steve's Tumblr, and Pillowfort.  Find out more at my newsletter, and all my social media at my linktr.ee)

I’m fascinated by cult dynamics, because they tell us about people, inform us of dangers, and tell us about ourselves. Trust me, if you think you can’t fall into a cult you can, and are probably in more danger if you think you can’t. Understanding cults is self-defense in many ways.

On the subject of the internet age, I was listening to the famous Behind the Bastards podcast go over the Zizian “rationalist” cult. One of the fascinating things about various “rationalist” movements is how absolutely confidently irrational they are, and how they touch on things that are very mainstream. In this case the Zizians intersected with some of the extreme Effective Altruists, which seemed to start by asking “how do I help people effectively” but in the minds of some prominent people became “it’s rational for me to become a billionaire so I can make an AI to save humanity.”

If you think I’m joking, I invite you to poke around a bit or just listen to Behind the Bastards. But quite seriously you will find arguments that it’s fine to make a ton of money in an exploitative system backed by greedy VC because you’ll become rich and save the world with AI. Some Effective Altruism goes all our into arguing that this is good because you save more future people than you hurt present people. Think about that - if you’ll do more good in the future you can just screw over people now and become rich and it’s perfectly moral.

If this sounds like extreme anti-choice arguments, yep, it’s the same - imagined or potential people matter more than people who are very assuredly people now.

But as I listened to the Behind the Bastards hosts slowly try not to loose their mind while discussing those that had, something seemed familiar. People whose moral analysis had sent them around the bend into rampant amorality and immorality? An utter madness created by a simplistic measure? Yep, I heard echos of The Unaccountability Machine, which if you’ve paid attention you know influenced me enough that you are fully justified in questioning me about that.

But let’s assume I’m NOT gong to end up on a Behind the Bastards podcast about a guy obsessed with a book on Business Cybernetics, and repeat one point from that book – obsessive organizations kill off the ability to course correct.

The Unaccountability Machine author Dan Davies notes some organizations are like lab animals who were studied after removing certain brain areas. The animals could function but not adapt to change at all. Organizations that go mad, focusing on a single metric or two (like stock price), will deliberately destroy their own ability to adapt, and thus only barrel forward and/or die. They cannot adjust without major intervention, and some have enough money to at least temporarily avoid that.

The outlandish “future people matter, current do not, so make me rich” people have performed a kind of moral severance on themselves. They have found a philosophy that lets them completely ignore actual people and situations for something going on in their heads (and their bank accounts). Having found a measure they like (money!) they then find a way to cut themselves off from actual social and ethical repercussions.

If you live in the imaginary future and have money, you can avoid the real, gritty present. A lot of very angry people may not agree, but at that point you’re so morally severed you can’t understand why. Or think they’re enemies or not human or something.

Seeing this cultish behavior in context of The Unaccountability Machine helped me understand a lot of outrageous leadership issues we see from supposed “tech geniuses.” Well, people who can get VC funding, which is what passes for such genius. Anyway, too many of these people and their hangers-on go in circles until they hone the right knife to cut away their morality. Worst, they then loose the instinct to really know what they did to themselves.

Immorality and a form of madness that can’t course-correct is not a recipe for long-term success or current morality. Looking at this from both cultish dynamics and The Unaccountability Machine helps me understand how far gone some of our culture is. But at least that gives some hope to bring it back - or at least not fall into it.

And man I do gotta stop referencing that book or I’m gonna seem like I’m in a cult . . .

Steven Savage

www.StevenSavage.com

www.InformoTron.com

[wardensantoineandevka]

[gazing wistfully over the bright clouds of the Un] when will my husband, Jonas Spahr, return from the war

[welcometoqueer]

I haven’t really seen any of the more recent U.S. election news hitting tumblr yet so here’s some updates (now edited with sources added):

There’s evidence of Trump cheating and interfering with the election.

Possible Russian interference.

Mail-in ballots are not being counted or “recognized” in multiple (notably swing) states.

30+ bomb threats were called in and shut down polling stations on Election Day.

20+ million votes are still unaccounted for, and that’s just to have the same voter turnout as 2020.

There was record voter turnout and new/first-time voter registration this year. We definitely should be well over the turnout in 2020.

U.S. citizens are using this site to demand, not only a recount, but a complete investigation into election fraud and interference for the reasons stated above:

Here is what I submitted as an example:

An investigation for election interference and fraud is required. We desperately need a recount or even a revote. The American people deserve the right to a free and fair election. There has been evidence unveiled of Trump cheating and committing election fraud which is illegal. There is some evidence of possible Russian interference. At least 30+ bomb threats were called in to polling places. Multiple, notably swing states, have ballots unaccounted for and voting machines not registering votes. Ballots and ballot boxes were tampered with and burned. Over 20 million votes that we know of are unaccounted for. With record turnout and new voter registration this year, there should be no possibility that there are less votes than even in the 2020 election.

Sources (working on finding more links but if anyone wants to add info, it’s appreciated):

FBI addressing Russian interference and bomb threats:

Emails released by Rachael Bellis (private account, can’t share original tweet) confirming Trump committing election fraud:

Pennsylvania's Centre County officials say they are working with their ballot scanner vendor to figure out why the county's mail-in ballot data is "not being recognized when uploaded to the elections software:”

Wisconsin recount:

[ID:

Multiple screenshots and images.

The first is a screenshot with a link and information for contacting the White House directly regarding election fraud. The instructions include choosing to leave a comment to President Joe Biden directly and to select election security as the reason.

The screenshot then instructs people to include any or all of the following information in a paragraph as a comment to the president:

32 fake bomb threats were called into Democratic leaning poll places, rendering polling places closed for at least an hour.

A lot of people reporting their ballots were not counted for various reasons.

This all occurred in swing states.

This is too coincidental that these things happen and swing in his favor after months of hinting at foul play.

Directly state that an investigation for tampering, interference, fraud is required, not just a recount.

The second image is from the FBI Twitter account that reads:

The FBI is aware of bomb threats to polling locations in several states, many of which appear to originate from Russian email domains. None of the threats have been determined to be credible thus far. https://t.co/j3YfajVK1m — FBI (@FBI) November 5, 2024

The next four Gmail screenshots of an email sent to Rachael Bellis from Chris T. Spackman that read together as follows:

Dear BELLIS, RACHAEL E., The Dauphin County Board of Elections received a challenge to your absentee ballot you applied for in the November 5, 2024 General Election. The challenge argues that a provision of the Pennsylvania Election Code takes precedence over the federal Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), which requires states and counties to permit U.S. citizens who move overseas to vote by absentee ballot for federal offices based on their last U.S. residential address.

The full text of the challenge that was filed appears below this email.

You may respond to the challenge in any of the following ways:

1. Call the Bureau of Registration and Election at (717) 780-6360;

2. Email a statement to the Bureau at Election election@dauphincounty.gov. Any statement you submit regarding the period during which you lived in Dauphin County, any family or connections that you still have here, and why you are now residing abroad would be read into the record.

3. Appear in person at a Board of Elections hearing scheduled for Friday, November 8 at a time to be determined in the Commissioners Public Hearing Room, 4th floor of Dauphin County Administration Building, 2 S 20d St, Harrisburg, PA 17111. The meeting is also likely to be livestreamed on Facebook on the Dauphin County channel.

Sincerely,

Christopher T Spackman

TEXT OF CHALLENGE BEGINS

Dear Dauphin County Board of Elections,

I am submitting this challenge to an absentee ballot application pursuant to 25 Pa. Stat.

3146.8(f).

25 Pa. Stat. 3146.8(f) Any person challenging an application for an absentee ballot, an absentee ballot, an application for a mail-in ballot or a mail-in ballot for any of the reasons provided in this act shall deposit the sum of ten dollars ($10.00) in cash with the county board, which sum shall only be refunded if the challenge is sustained or if the challenge is withdrawn within five (5) days after the primary or election. If the challenge is dismissed by any lawful order then the deposit shall be forfeited. The county board shall deposit all deposit money in the general fund of the…

The rest of the forwarded email is cut off.

The last image is a screenshot of the official statement from the Centre County, Pennsylvania Board of Commissioners released on November 6, 2024 that states:

Centre County Working with Ballot Scanner Vendor to Export Election Results.

(Bellefonte, PA) -Centre County Elections Office is working continuously to provide mail-in ballot data in order to post unofficial results.

To this point, all ballots have been scanned, including all mail-in ballots.

Centre County's Election team and IT team have identified that the data are successfully being exported from the mail-in ballot scanners, but that the data is not being recognized when uploaded to the elections software.

Centre County's Administrator, John Franek, Jr. stated, "We have not stopped working, and we will continue to work until unofficial results are posted and reported to the Pennsylvania Department of State."

As a next step, Centre County has begun working with the equipment vendor to adjust configurations to make the two systems-the mail-in ballot scanner and the elections software where data are uploaded -compatible with one another.

We will provide updates as we make progress.

/end ID]

[judgingbooksbycovers]

The Unaccountability Machine: Why Big Systems Make Terrible Decisions—and How the World Lost Its Mind

By Dan Davies.

[nextwavefutures]

Designing organisations that work

Designing organisations that work—the lessons of Stafford Beer’s Viable Systems Model for organisational design. New post on Dan Davies’ book The Unaccountability Machine.

Nine chapters into his book The Unaccountability Machine, Dan Davies makes a little self-deprecatory joke. He had intended to write a detective mystery about cybernetics, he says, but has spent eight chapters describing the construction of the murder weapon. The question that Davies starts out with is about how it is that the modern organisation has become structured in structured in such a way…

[nerdygirlramblings]

There's always the filthiest, unholiest, shit-wreakiest smut about Simon, John, Kyle and/or Jonny. Especially with poly!141

So what if they have the filthiest, unholiest, shity- wreakìest sex, maybe even a punishment, but reader is overwhelmed and uses the safe word or move.

Are the boys immediately stoppung or are they so cock and pussy drunk that reader needs to say it twice?

How are they treating reader? After care?

I just need a little comfort because the last few days were shitty as fuck 💗

Hi nony! So in my head, despite how pussy-drunk the guys (👀ghoap👀) are, they will listen to their partner. They may be big tough war machines, but they are still marshmallows for their beloved. Hope this makes the shitty days a little better.

cw: oral (m! and f! receiving), mutual masturbation, light bondage, mild dom/sub dynamics, overstimulation, poorly executed accents an: active consent is sexy, define your limits before engaging in sexual activity

You have no idea what the current count is. Somewhere after four mind-blowing orgasms, one from each of your lovers in quick succession, your brain short-circuited. You didn't black out, but the moments, the minutes that tick by as you float, are fuzzy. Clothes are shucked off, limbs manipulated into position, supplies gathered.

You're aware of the rough scrape of beard between your thighs, John feasting on you like a buffet to a starving man. The smooth chest propping you up is Kyle's, as are the hands keeping your knees open for his Captain's pleasure. There are wet smacking sounds behind you, and from the rumble rippling through him, Kyle's receiving a different kind of mouth-to-mouth. That's three of your four lovers accounted for, but what happens next depends on missing member of your polycule.

If it's Johnny unaccounted for, he's probably going for more toys, for John to use on you or for him to use on one of the others. If it's Simon not in the room - Simon whose sole focus is always on how much pleasure he can push on his partners before they break - if Simon's the one not here, then you may very well be in the best kind of danger.

As if summoned, Simon is in the doorway with a plain brown bag in hand. "Found us somethin' new," he says quietly, "if yer up fer it." The kissing behind you stops, and John pulls back from your pussy, slick coating the coarse hair of his beard.

"Wha' da' ye got, lt?" Johnny asks breathlessly.

Simon pulls out several pair of fuzzy handcuffs: black, pink, leopard print. His gaze darts between you and the bed's headboard and footboard. You all immediately know what he's suggesting. You've played with bondage before. For his last birthday, all John wanted was to wrap you in ribbon, shibari style, for them all to unwrap and enjoy later. The memory of it, being on display and played with, unable to respond with anything more than your voice, makes you wet. The handcuffs in Simon's hand promise just as much pleasure.

Simon and John look at you, and behind you, Kyle whispers, "Color, love?"

You glance over your shoulder to his dark eyes, Johnny just behind him practically salivating. You meet Simon's eyes and whisper, huskily, "Green."

"Good girl," Simon purrs. He cocks his head and the bed shifts behind you. You're lowered onto your back, and John helps push you up the bed. You can't watch them all, so you settle for watching John and Kyle each gently grab an ankle and click a set of handcuff on. Simon passes each man a tea towel, "Fer around the post so's we don't nick the wood." A pair of rough hands carefully takes yours and slides the fuzzy material around them.

When you're all trussed up between the bedposts, your lovers loom over you. John looks ready to worship at the altar of your body. Johnny grips his cock, red tip peeking over the top of his fist. Kyle has hearts in his eyes. And Simon. Simon's gaze is dark and dangerous. It sends heat racing through you. He smirks at you. "Simon says look at me, love," and you comply without question. "Yer gonna lie back and let us take our pleasure, yeah?"

You nod quickly, mind already in the hazy space where you know they'll take care of you.

"Ya know we need words, sweet girl," John reminds you.

"Yes!" you practically shout, the word erupting from you. Kyle's smile grows wider, predatory, and Johnny lets out a bark of laughter. "Yes, please, take your pleasure," you continue.

"Good fuckin' girl," Simon says. And like a switch is flipped, all four descend on you. John is right back between your thighs, mouthing your clit. Kyle's down there with him, both men's broad shoulders fitting easily between where you're splayed against the bed. You feel a probing finger at your ass; Kyle's long digit lubed up and working its way in as you fall apart on John's tongue. You can't twist away thanks to the handcuffs.

Meanwhile Johnny has propped a pillow under your head as he brackets your head with his knees, leaning over to feed his dick into your mouth. The angle allows you to take him deep, and you suck with the same speed and desperation John's using on you. With your field of view blocked by Johnny's balls, you can't see Simon until you feel teeth graze your side, right where you're ticklish.

"Och! Watch it, lt! Dinnae want 'er to take a bite 'a mah cock jus' cuz ye teased 'er," Johnny scolds, panting. You tell yourself you wouldn't, but when Simon's teeth graze the same spot, you see stars and aren't sure Johnny's wrong.

Simon chuckles darkly, telling them, "Fine. 'll find somethin' else ta do wit' my mouth." Lips skim over your side and upper belly before kissing their way up between the valley of your breasts. A hand lands heavily on your right breast, tugging on the nipple, as the left is enveloped in wet heat.

Suddenly you're coming again. You shout, and the sound is lost around Johnny's cock. "Beautiful," Kyle whispers, two fingers deep in your ass as John's mouth keeps working. Your spasms bow your back and take Johnny deeper, burying your nose in the curls at Johnny's base. You watch as his balls pull up before he's coming too, cum hot, salty, and thick on your tongue. Through it all, Simon keeps sucking on your nipples.

The handcuffs don't give you any room to move away, to stop the unceasing stimulation. You can't move your hand to tap Johnny and can't say anything with his dick still down your throat.

John's moved his face away, and you think for a moment the stimulation that now borders on painful will stop. Until you feel several fingers swipe through your folds before they bury themselves in your cunt. Kyle still has his fingers in your ass, and fingers are in your pussy, and Simon's mouth is still on you, and some of Johnny's cum leaks out the side of your mouth around his dick.

Tears start to gather at the corner of your eyes. It's all too much.

Johnny finally pulls back, and as his softening cock slips past your lips, you shout "Red light!", so overwhelmed you do it three more times despite once being more than enough for them to all stop their movements and pull back to check on you. You feel bereft without their hands on you, but this is what you asked for.

Simon's the first to break the silence, calling your name. "What do you need?"

You can't stop the tears as they slip down the side of your face. Kyle moves before checking himself. You know he wants to wipe the tears away, but he won't put his hands on you - none of them will - until you say it's okay for them do to so.

"I- It's...too much," you stutter. "It was all too much." Your breath hitches, but you don't start crying. Your body doesn't know which signals to listen to, but you're holding off the tears for now. Though you know it isn't necessary, and in fact will be ignored, you apologize.

"Dinnae be sorry, lass," Johnny says. "We didnae, Aye didnae, give ye the chance to stop before it got to be too much." As he talks, the others undo the cuffs from around the bed, leaving them attached to you until you give them permission to touch you again.

"It's okay, Johnny," you say, voice wobbling. "It was perfect until it wasn't, and you stopped the moment I asked." You give them all a watery smile. "Can you please take the cuffs off?" and four pairs of hands divest you of the restraints in record time.

You pull your limbs back to you, curling in on yourself a little. "I'm okay now," you reassure them, but no one makes a move towards you. "Really," you insist, "I'm okay." To prove it, you reach out and put a hand on Simon's wrist. "Really," you say as you tug gently on him. "I don't want to be here alone." Your smile is their absolution, and soon all four are back in bed with you, running their hands over your hair and down your arms, soothing you with their touch.

You murmur words of love and receive them in return as you slowly drift to sleep.

main masterlist

[collapsedsquid]

The decision-making system of a modern corporation has a particular dysfunction: one of its signals has been so amplified that it drowns out the others. The ‘profit motive’ isn’t something that can be ascribed to corporations – they don’t have motives. What they have is an imbalance between the two key higher functions – here-and-now versus there-and-then. They aren’t capable of responding to signals from the long-term planning and intelligence function, because the short-term planning function has to operate under the constraints of the financial market disciplinary system. Either a corporation has a survival condition based on needing to make a monthly interest bill, or there’s an implicit threat from the financial environment that if it fails to behave in a particular way, it will be taken over by an outside entity. If you take away that pressure, it’s quite likely that the natural equilibrium of corporate decision-making systems will be less hostile to human life. Viable systems fundamentally seek stability, not maximisation. In the era of capitalism that J. K. Galbraith and Herbert Simon described, the giants of corporate America were content with being big and important; they didn’t feel the need to get every last bit of cash that could possibly be extracted. And although there were undoubtedly pockets of laziness and corruption, it wasn’t all bad. As well as corporate jets, they funded lavish research labs. As well as making agreements to stitch up markets, they tried to compete on quality and innovation, not just price. If you compare the allegedly sclerotic era of Galbraith’s ‘technostructure’, before the leveraged buyout boom, with the modern era of dynamism and pressure, you might be surprised to see which one performed better – even in terms of economic growth.

RETVRN

[mostlysignssomeportents]

AI can’t do your job

I'm on a 20+ city book tour for my new novel PICKS AND SHOVELS. Catch me in SAN DIEGO at MYSTERIOUS GALAXY on Mar 24, and in CHICAGO with PETER SAGAL on Apr 2. More tour dates here.

AI can't do your job, but an AI salesman (Elon Musk) can convince your boss (the USA) to fire you and replace you (a federal worker) with a chatbot that can't do your job:

https://www.pcmag.com/news/amid-job-cuts-doge-accelerates-rollout-of-ai-tool-to-automate-government

If you pay attention to the hype, you'd think that all the action on "AI" (an incoherent grab-bag of only marginally related technologies) was in generating text and images. Man, is that ever wrong. The AI hype machine could put every commercial illustrator alive on the breadline and the savings wouldn't pay the kombucha budget for the million-dollar-a-year techies who oversaw Dall-E's training run. The commercial market for automated email summaries is likewise infinitesimal.

The fact that CEOs overestimate the size of this market is easy to understand, since "CEO" is the most laptop job of all laptop jobs. Having a chatbot summarize the boss's email is the 2025 equivalent of the 2000s gag about the boss whose secretary printed out the boss's email and put it in his in-tray so he could go over it with a red pen and then dictate his reply.

The smart AI money is long on "decision support," whereby a statistical inference engine suggests to a human being what decision they should make. There's bots that are supposed to diagnose tumors, bots that are supposed to make neutral bail and parole decisions, bots that are supposed to evaluate student essays, resumes and loan applications.

The narrative around these bots is that they are there to help humans. In this story, the hospital buys a radiology bot that offers a second opinion to the human radiologist. If they disagree, the human radiologist takes another look. In this tale, AI is a way for hospitals to make fewer mistakes by spending more money. An AI assisted radiologist is less productive (because they re-run some x-rays to resolve disagreements with the bot) but more accurate.

In automation theory jargon, this radiologist is a "centaur" – a human head grafted onto the tireless, ever-vigilant body of a robot

Of course, no one who invests in an AI company expects this to happen. Instead, they want reverse-centaurs: a human who acts as an assistant to a robot. The real pitch to hospital is, "Fire all but one of your radiologists and then put that poor bastard to work reviewing the judgments our robot makes at machine scale."

No one seriously thinks that the reverse-centaur radiologist will be able to maintain perfect vigilance over long shifts of supervising automated process that rarely go wrong, but when they do, the error must be caught:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/01/human-in-the-loop/#monkey-in-the-middle

The role of this "human in the loop" isn't to prevent errors. That human's is there to be blamed for errors:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/30/a-neck-in-a-noose/#is-also-a-human-in-the-loop

The human is there to be a "moral crumple zone":

https://estsjournal.org/index.php/ests/article/view/260

The human is there to be an "accountability sink":

https://profilebooks.com/work/the-unaccountability-machine/

But they're not there to be radiologists.

This is bad enough when we're talking about radiology, but it's even worse in government contexts, where the bots are deciding who gets Medicare, who gets food stamps, who gets VA benefits, who gets a visa, who gets indicted, who gets bail, and who gets parole.

That's because statistical inference is intrinsically conservative: an AI predicts the future by looking at its data about the past, and when that prediction is also an automated decision, fed to a Chaplinesque reverse-centaur trying to keep pace with a torrent of machine judgments, the prediction becomes a directive, and thus a self-fulfilling prophecy:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/09/autocomplete-worshippers/#the-real-ai-was-the-corporations-that-we-fought-along-the-way

AIs want the future to be like the past, and AIs make the future like the past. If the training data is full of human bias, then the predictions will also be full of human bias, and then the outcomes will be full of human bias, and when those outcomes are copraphagically fed back into the training data, you get new, highly concentrated human/machine bias:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/14/inhuman-centipede/#enshittibottification

By firing skilled human workers and replacing them with spicy autocomplete, Musk is assuming his final form as both the kind of boss who can be conned into replacing you with a defective chatbot and as the fast-talking sales rep who cons your boss. Musk is transforming key government functions into high-speed error-generating machines whose human minders are only the payroll to take the fall for the coming tsunami of robot fuckups.

This is the equivalent to filling the American government's walls with asbestos, turning agencies into hazmat zones that we can't touch without causing thousands to sicken and die:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/19/failure-cascades/#dirty-data

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/18/asbestos-in-the-walls/#government-by-spicy-autocomplete

Image: Krd (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DASA_01.jpg

CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

--

Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[sk3tch404]

Yandere Donnie Darko Hcs

A/n: I finally came around to watching Donnie Darko while I was styling my hair this morning. It was so good and omgg HIS CHARACTER!!! Love it 💜 What he voices in where he rebels against authority resonates with me in the most honest and straight up sense, it's crazy.

CW: Characterizing of psychosis without research (I am in no way claiming this is how individuals who suffer some psychosis or with schizophrenic symptoms act or feel like. This is simply a work of fiction and how I see Donnie's mental state affect the scenario), Donnie is actually very tame here except for his obvious criminal record and acts of violence, and YALL HES A MENTALLY ILL TEENAGE BOY so he's a lowkey soft okay. Y'all see him with Gretchen? So caring and passionate ugh, love him sm. <33 I try to write as close to canon as possible, but sometimes that leads to really soft yans and I kind of doubt my writing. Despite that. I like to think that not all yanderes need to be possessive killing machines in order to fit into the troupe. Everyone's got their own way of dealing with obsession, and so I think I did decently with this one lol.

Proof read a few times, so sorry for wordy/run on sentences and possible wonky grammar.

I feel like Donnie is very observant and patient with his darling. He's quite analytical for a teenage boy which leads him to take time to consider the variables that weigh within your possible relationship.

Donnie is still an awkward kid, so dont be surprised when you accidentally find him staring at you for a considerable period of time in class. In school, he doesn't approach you, seeing as the setting is already suffocating enough. He'd try to catch you after school or when you two have a little bit of privacy.

He's kinda shy and clumsy at first glance--- too talkative in his speech and self-aware of his minor fuck ups. Over time, he'll be more open to what he wants with you. Donnie might not really understand how to handle love and all of its complexities, but hell try really hard to make it work.

Yeah, y'all saw how fast he dived in for that kiss in the film?... Embarrassing, but it's true that he's quite excited to show his affection for you. He'll be "so chill with it," and he is to an extent--- not too clingy at all--- but when he's around he gives you guard dog privileges. Stays at your side and defends you from any brain rotting comments made from the guys around the neighborhood. Donnie isn't much of a fighter, but he's damn well capable of planning and executing a crime if it calls for it. One count of arson, another unaccounted for, severe property damage, and murder? Don't doubt it for one second that he won't consider further acts in the future to come.

His psychosis affects him directly when it comes to you--- as it also does with most things. He already feels so shitty with how things are going in his life, Frank voicing the many thoughts he has about you day to day stresses him further. Sometimes Donnie is scared Frank will convince him to hurt you as the countdown progresses. Despite that fear, he can't keep away from you.

This distress causes Donnie to rebel more often. As he spirals down the rabbit hole Frank keeps digging for him, the anxiety that follows with what will happen to you once the world ends lingers late at night in his bed.

Donnie's main love language is quality time. He walks with you from school and chills with you pretty much wherever. He's pretty book-smart, so he'll pitch in with your projects and homework assignments. His parents don't really seem like they care what he does most of the time, so if he's given the chance, he'll crash at your place for a few before they think he's off sleepwalking or some shit.

Donnie already knows he's slipping off the rails, placebo medication or not, Frank stays to stir the pot. He's almost scared, scared to death that you'll think he's an insane lunatic and he'll scare you off. But at the same time, why be scared if it's the truth? He has evidence, the book, and his own visions. That anxiety doesn't go away when he rambles on about the six-foot-tall bunny rabbit and how that thing has led him to the method of time travel.

You're just left there dumb founded as he stares on at you with that deadpanned look. Too late to back out now. World's ending and you don't got a boyfriend. Well, you got Donnie... and Frank's there too sometimes, but either way, you're all each other's got. You don't want to be alone do you? Donnie knows he doesn't.

He trusts you more than anyone else. Yeah he's on meds, and sure he's loony, but everyone knows that already; not that they seemed to care too much anyway. He feels like he can just exist with you around. All that pent up frustration with the looming guilt of his actions festering inside can be washed out like waves on a cold shore. Of course, it's not a cure-all, but it's damn nice compared to the bone headed friends he got and the tense dinner table back at home.

He has scratch paper in his drawers that are just filled with messy sketches of you. Not sure if he'd be the type to use sketchbooks, but he is pretty organized in his own room. Donnie just finds you so easy and beautiful to draw. Art block has nothing on this boy. He hates it when his sisters barge into his room and see any unfinished piece of you lying around. They tease him so bad about it, he wishes they'd just leave him alone.

"Ooo, is this the girl you're always wasting your time with?"

"No, gimme it. It's none of your business, and get out of my room."

"Geez, fine. Not like that's the freakiest thing you got in here anyway."

Donnie wouldn't be the extreme stalking type, but if he caught a glance of you, he wouldn't be able to look away. He'd also take into account what your daily patterns are as well as your likes and dislikes. He notices your little habits like if you constantly apply too much pressure to your mechanical pencil, making your lead break. He's always have had a passive opinion on the school uniform, but you made it look good, great even. Donnie likes it even more seeing you in street wear. He takes note on your style and even thinks of taking some inspiration from it to feel closer to you.

He's sensitive in places a teenager would be in most. He's irritable and closed off much of the time, even to you if it gets bad enough. Of course, it's not your fault usually. It only makes sense to be defensive in the case of anything he may perceive as a threat, even if that means any possibility of you breaking his heart.

Donnie may be a bit shy in his advances, but what he isn't is hesitant. He's quite bold in his thoughts and feelings. While he is afraid of your judgement in particular, he doesn't mind doing many things in front of you. Your collar is crooked, so let him just fix it up real quick. Talk about something that's got him thinking? He's letting his thoughts pour out like it's happy hour. He sees no issue in doing what he wants to, so if you're feeling unsure or nervous about something, he'll be the one to do it for you. Not many questions asked unless it's got his serious attention.

Kisses are passionate and deep. (Tbh when I first watched the movie I was like, "DAMN dont eat her face- shit.") I dont know if Donnie has had previous experience or not, but he's definitely got the enthusiasm. He tries to match your rhythm if you seem to have trouble following. Not too much tongue, but best believe he's devouring your lips like it's the last 6 hours in the universe. His hands are roaming around your body, feeling the dips and curves so cautiously because Jesus, you're just rocking his fucking world. If you tell him to slow down, he will. Donnie never wants to force you to do anything you wouldn't want to.

Words of affirmation aren't really a thing for him. If he says something to you, it was probably on his mind anyway. If you say "I love you" to him, he'd be almost stunned but wouldn't have a problem reciprocating that energy. He just felt like that connection between you two was already clear enough. No need to say it so directly. Although, it's nice. He really loves and cares for you. Would take a bullet for you--- cross his heart till he dies, all that sappy shit.

If you reject him, let's just say Frank and Donnie will be speaking more often. It pushes him off the edge. Frank isn't in Donnie's head just to do evil shit, but it's not like his presence doesn't perpetuate Donnie's behavior further. He wouldn't go on a killing spree or anything excessively violent like that. He'd be hyper-focused on the time travel aspect of his situation and become more forceful in his methods. He'd demand answers to make sense of all of it. To cope with the fact you didn't want him like how he needed you. Why didn't you like him enough? What didn't he do? Actually, what did he do? His mind feels like its on the brink of breaking as he tries to rationalize all the negativity in his life. He's already done too much, his world feels like it's collapsing in on itself before the actual day could even come. You were a majority of that world, and now it's just broken.

Donnie is so distraught and confused about his adolescent experiences, he almost doesn't know what to do. The only thing to do from then on is to focus on the countdown. Time travel, and how to fix it all. Otherwise, not only would he be left alone, but you would be too. Donnie wouldn't want that for you, not ever. Even with all the pain and frustration stowed away inside his still beating heart, he would never wish to hurt you; one of the only people on Earth who didn't suck so much as everyone else did.

[stevensavage]

The Responsibility Machine

(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, Steve's Tumblr, and Pillowfort.  Find out more at my newsletter, and all my social media at my linktr.ee)

I’ve been preaching the virtues of the book The Unaccountability Machine to the point I bought copies to give people for Christmas. You, my regular readers, shall be spared anything but a reminder - it’s about how organizations go insane following simplistic ideas and shield leadership from accountability. I mean I’m still going to talk about it, but I’ll be taking a new tact and pushing it less.

The thing is someone has to take responsibility in governments, companies, etc.. If everyone goes hands off, everyone dodges responsibility, the organization will continue to fall into insanity. Backside-covering does a lot to keep an organization going, but the insanity will predominate. The organization might fall apart, get bought out, get sold, become completely financialized, etc.

I’d wager we’re going to see a lot of that in the next decade or two. We’ve already seen it from the Tories in the UK to Sears.

But anyway someone has to take responsibility. That means, ironically, the more Unaccountability in a system, the more there has to be some responsibility. The Unaccountability Machine is also a Responsibility Machine. People need to step in to do the right thing, even as others don’t.

You’ve probably been there. You might be the person who is the Responsible one - come to think of it, if you’re one of my subscribers, you probably are.

This Taking of Responsibility can happen for a number of reasons. Some people just can’t stand to see things done wrong. Others like a challenge. Others really care about the system. People have a certain responsible streak in them, if only out of sheer irritation of seeing something done wrong.

This urge to take Responsibility isn’t necessarily benevolent either. A chance to take Responsibility can be a chance to advance in one’s career - to where one can finally enjoy the benefits of Unaccountability. Responsibility can be a way to angle for a raise or bonuses. It can be a way to show off or put someone in their place. Don’t assume everyone rushing to prop up the various bad decisions in an organization is motivated by principle.

But the key thing is there’s only so many heroes and opportunists at any organization. It also means that unless the payoff they want - from seeing something work to a fat raise - needs to be coming. If it doesn’t come, there’s going to be less and less people taking Responsibility and more giving up or even seeking areas of Unaccountability

And no one can cause more damage or grift the system better than someone that actually knows how stuff works - and gave up. They’re also the ones that warn others to not fall into the Responsibility trap or to not even get hired or join up. Even the more evil of the once-Responsible types don’t want any competition.

However the people enjoying Unaccountability can coast on those taking Responsibility long enough to get a payout and leave.

So if we wonder how organizations persist when they’ve gone insane with Unaccountability (beyond money and influence), look for the people who are being Responsible. If you can’t find any then you may want to stop looking and get away.

Take a look at the world now and think that over.

Steven Savage

www.StevenSavage.com

www.InformoTron.com

[focusontheheart]

Under the cut, please find the complete ending guide to reach the romantic ending in Petra's route, including descriptions from route writers behind the decision. Please note that during gameplay, answers may appear in a different order than indicated.

We all know Aloy’s always busy with endless tasks, but this answer shows she’s willing to spend some time with her favorite engineer and Oseram civic leader (not that she’s at a point to outright say that yet).

While these answers were similar, this is the answer that isn’t focused only on Aloy figuring it out on her own. It’s a more open-ended wistfulness that shows the events of Burning Shores left her more open to how she interacts with people.

This answer shows that Aloy wants Petra to come with her as an equal, rather than just grudgingly accepting her along or bringing her with as a sidekick.

This is a pretty straightforward one. Aloy wants to give Petra a way to keep up the flirting even when they’re apart.

Aloy knows Petra is an independent soul, so instead of putting her in a situation that takes away her control (riding on the same Charger), she offers to start slow so that Petra can become more comfortable with riding on her own.

Petra’s an engineer with a love of invention. This option shows that Aloy wants to make sure Petra understands how to use the Focus fully, rather than just as a tool to call her or follow a trail.

Aloy knows Petra is worried about her friends, and wants to comfort her before they get back on their Chargers to follow the trail.

The Grand Canyon presents a stunning view, but this answer shows that while Aloy wants to spend time just enjoying their surroundings, she knows that it isn’t the time right now with Petra’s friends still unaccounted for.

This option is the one where Aloy doesn’t brush aside Petra’s worry. Aloy’s told her the dangers of the last damaged and lightning-creating machine she’d dealt with, so Petra is understandably worried, and Aloy shouldn’t ignore that.

While Petra is back waiting for Aloy, this fight needs to be done carefully, as we all know how easy it is to damage parts in the middle of the fight (…Frostclaw sac webbing, looking at you).

We all know that Aloy is a loot-hoarder, but this time she’s got Petra and friends waiting for her. Because of this she’s gonna make the ultimate sacrifice and grab only the part that’s needed.

We hope you enjoyed your journey through the romantic Petra route! Now that you know how to best get a smooch, try to mix and match other options to get different endings as well! If you reached the romantic epilogue, we encourage you to give it another look, and really… Focus.

[avasem]

Hi everyone, I've been brainstorming a Arcane season 2 AU. I loved season 2 but these past three years I was impatient to know what would have happened so I looked a bit into the game lore and came up with some theories.

In my mind, I assumed that they would have gone over the machine herald story line. They did do it in the end, but i imagined there would have been more time for Viktor to be the machine herald of Zaun before his come to Jesus moment.

So here is my concept.

1. The hexcore and the council attack

The Au diverges after the explosion at the end of season one: Viktor is heavily injured but it’s not fetal. His body reacted with Mel magic so that in the explosion is losses his left arm and leg (his right arm and leg were transformed by the hexcore so they are intact) .

The hexcore has expanded his presence on Viktor (transforming his flesh purple up to his neck) and while healing Viktor, the hexcore attracted various metal pieces in the laboratory and fused to him (like the hex claw ) and fuses his back brace to his torso.

2. The memorial

Viktor is still recovering and decide to not partecipate at the memorial. The attack happens and he decides to intervene after Vi run to the lab in search for the gauntlets.

When Jayce is being fatally attacked by Renni with her chainsaws , Viktor uses the hexclaw to laser her. It works but the beam is too strong and laser thought the memorial statue in the back and damage the ceiling.

The ceiling starts crumbling done but Vi come to the rescue and use the gauntlets force fields to protect her and Jayce.

Here a short rough animatics of how I imagined the scene to turn out.

3. Salo’s accusations.

In the aftermath of the attack , salo is talking with Ambessa how that attack could have happened.

Salo: “ how did those animals even got in , I thought we checked every person who got in”

Ambessa: “ we did have guards at every entrance , they must have had someone inside letting them in “

Salo: “ a mole …?

Ambessa nods.

Salo: “ was there anyone unaccounted for after the attack “

Ambessa: “ of the people present after the attack , Viktor didn’t appear on any entrance’s registry”

Just like at the end of ep 1 the council reunite to discuss what to do with under city.

In the original Mel , the councilor with the gold gears on her neck, salo and Ambessa are present. In this one Jayce and Viktor are present too because hextech and weapons are to be discussed .

Salo accuses Viktor of being the mole . The other councilors aren’t 100% with salo but take in the possibility .

Jayce takes Viktor defense ( saying something along the lines “ he was injusted too in the attack “)

In the end they all agree to take away the gem Viktor is using to power up his leg prosthetic .

Jayce : “ it’s until we prove you have nothing to do with that attack”

Viktor :” I don’t have anything to prove “

After the exchange they go back to discusse what to do with the underciy and Caitlyn comes in with her idea of using a specialized squad with hextech weapons to find jinx.

Viktor tries to oppose the idea .

Salo : "What? Seems like you wants us unprepared “

Viktor leaves outraged . Jayce goes after him and they have a fight .

[On a narrative level]:

I like the idea of having this interaction between Salo and Viktor because I like how this would contrast how viktor and salo treat each other in the commune.

In my mind this au is inbetween season 1 and the time skip of season 2.

So it would be even more weird to see how different Salo treat Viktor, from seeing his as an enemy to view him as a saviour.

And Jayce would be even more weirded out by Salo when the meet at the rune accelerator.

Viktor is done with Piltover.

All his problems were in one way or another caused by this city:

- his illness/disability was cause by the pollution of the undercity (caused by piltover)

- his technology has been weaponised (by the piltovian council)

- not even his death was granted to him as he intended ( jayce, a piltovian, took his body autonomy from him)

So he leaves for the undercity.

4. Zaun and Shimmer.

First thing he does once arrived in Zaun, he visit him old home. Inhabited and run down, he goes back to his house in Emberflit alley.

Just like the rest of the undercity the building is a shell of what it used to be. Most widows are broken, part of the walls have crumble the the bricks inside are open to the air. The roof let in more air, sunlight, and rain than it keeps out.

PART 2 WILL BE POSTED SOON.

Here some anticipations