DoomsdaysCWMay 5

Awww... 💌

Dear Readers: Yes, #PenPal programs still exist in a digital world

By HOLLY RAMER
Updated 5:27 PM UTC, May 5, 2026

Excerpt: " 'People are very interested in physical, analog things right now,” [Rachel Syme] said. 'I think it really has an appeal especially to a younger generation who grew up with a phone glued to their hand, to do something that’s more tactile, slower, more intentional, more mindful, but also just disconnected from the internet in every way.' "

Read more:
https://apnews.com/article/pen-pals-letters-comeback-bc87e1b9c229665bafd368e19751d6ca

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/P9gal

#PenPals #Handwriting #WrittenCorrespondence #Analog #LowTech #NeoLuddites

Pen pal programs endure in a digital age

A recent trip to New Zealand to visit her pen pal of 40 years made an Associated Press reporter from New Hampshire wonder about the history of programs that bring strangers together to write letters. While the program that matched them as teenagers folded years ago, others are still going strong. And even though the government postal service in Denmark recently stopped delivering letters altogether, some see signs of a letter-writing resurgence. More than 15,000 people signed up for a pen pal program created by a writer for The New Yorker during the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, an app called Slowly that mimics the anticipation of receiving a letter by delaying digital message deliveries has 10 million users.

AP News
Show threadWulfy—Speaker to the machinesApr 10

@cstross @EUCommission @0xtero

The costs and farms are stupendously overblown and conflated.
There is bad faith on both sides of the argument

The WAAAAH DATACENTRES mob conveniently ignores the current data centres ~50% of which are iclouds, AWS, dropbox, office365 and yes, mastodon, same issues, but oh these are the "good" data centres 🙄

Also while growth projection are nasty...model distilation and algo improvement MAY reduce the load significantly. Tech improves. Have you tested the water pressure tank on your steam car?
Its a safety issue.

Placing AI Data centres in orbit removes the heat, carbon and energy issue, but forest folk aren't happy about that either (Not a big fan of that either but for different reasons than you)
There is a small test inference engine up there already since December BTW.

Copyright and artist exploitation?
Oh yes, did you delete you pirated MP3 and MP4s? 🙄 Same folks who 4 years ago were chanting "Information wants to be free" are now guardians of corporate copyright.

So, yeah.
Ai is useful, x10 is real if you actually git gud.
#aislop #ai #llm #luddites #neoluddites

Wulfy—Speaker to the machinesMar 28

@GhostOnTheHalfShell

Ooouf... I'm an not going to dismiss Gabriele because of their age... There are smart people of their age... but for a person who uses #science in their content... they need to try harder.

They conflate a few things together in their #Aibad cauldron and stir with a ladel of emotion.

They conflate bots (not all #AI) with psychology (AI adjecent) and a couple of opinion pieces pushed as "Science"

Of course we lead with Kosmyna!

Kosmyna - The headline finding rests on six people's brainwaves.

Lee et al. - People self-reporting how much they thought is like asking dieters how much they ate.

Wan et al. - The authors say don't trust their own labels.

Nosta - A blog post having an existential crisis in a lab coat.

And thats in the 'further reading' description, lets hope they meant 'sources' because otherwise it looks like an emo blog source.

Lets hope that video doesnt get much more than the 12K it already has, its not doing the neo-luddites much good in the credibility stakes.

#AISlop #NeoLuddites

jpoesen | 🇪🇺 | 🏳️‍🌈Mar 11

Where do the #lowtech and #NeoLuddites hang out? The #permaculture and #bicycle geeks? The co-op and #RepairCafe heroes?

Looking for alternate scenes around alternate living: sharing, building, eating, and learning together.

Much obliged.

Alfred BoudryMar 3

RE: https://piaille.fr/@NuclearSquid/116161580975198288

#FuckAI 😡
#ButlerianJihadNow
#NeoLuddites

Thomas D. Embree 🇨🇦Jan 28

I am getting sick of performative anti-AI bullshit. If you don't like AI, then simply don't use it. Stop involving the rest of us in your insecurities. It's not going away just because you call it stupid and useless at every opportunity.

Go join an Amish colony if you hate technology so much.

#AI #Technology #Politics #Science #Automation #NeoLuddites

Show threadHeliographJan 15
@bazkie #neoluddites and #introverts have an interesting venn situation I'm certain 🤓
Show threadHeliographJan 15
@bazkie #neoluddites unite  (*separately, in their own homes  )
Thomas D. Embree 🇨🇦Jan 14

AI does not have agency. Anything created with AI is not somehow artificial; it is manmade. A human being had to imagine the outcome before any AI involvement. AI was just the tool, like a pen or paintbrush.

#AI #Technology #Science #Politics #Policy #Automation #NeoLuddites

stop6G.euJan 4
ha! ok ... :O) no problem!. #STOP6G
maybe its because we look like #antitech #neoluddites activists ... ok! fair enough. Enjoy the fight!