"Around the world, governments are going hard to present themselves as AI leaders willing to do whatever the industry wants to attract investment.

Last month, I spoke to Will Dunn on Tech Won’t Save Us about how this is playing out in the UK, where the government has gone so far as to use chatbots to drafts laws. France has gone all in too, presenting itself as the third pole of AI leadership between the United States and China. Now, my own country is making its bid to join the fray.

Canadian prime minister Mark Carney rolled out his government’s AI strategy earlier this month, annoyingly titled “AI for All.” But in it, I saw something novel: not just the aggressive pursuit of AI dollars by giving industry what it wants, but also reframing opposition to AI and hyperscale data centers as the product of a lack of AI “literacy.” If only the Canadian public was taught to use AI tools, the strategy suggests, they’ll come around to backing them.

As you won’t be surprised to hear, I think that’s a poor judgement that misunderstands why people have turned against AI so aggressively. I wrote up my thoughts recently for The Tyee, a fantastic progressive publication based in British Columbia. They’ve been kind enough to let me share them with Disconnect subscribers."

https://disconnect.blog/ai-opposition-isnt-the-product-of-a-lack-of-literacy/

#Canada #AI #GenerativeAI #BigTech #AntiAI #Neoluddism #Neoluddites

Student #ReadingAbility Spikes After Removing Tech From Class

"Remove all the #distractions and we can get our kids back."

By Frank Landymore
Published Jun 15, 2026

"Would you believe it: a teacher and her students say their reading ability soared after banning tech in the classroom.

"Maureen Mulvaney, an AP Literature and English teacher at Washburn High School in Minneapolis, started the low tech experiment last year after becoming frustrated with plagiarism, distracted students, and plunging literacy rates.

"And so, with the enthusiastic support of parents, she banned phones and laptops, requiring all coursework to be done with pencil and paper. The turnaround was quick and resounding, and despite some initial resistance from students, they quickly fell in love with the old, analog ways of doing things.

"In September, before the experiment started, just 46 percent of Mulvaney’s students said they felt confident about their reading ability. By February, that share shot up to 95 percent.

" 'We’re having a lot of trouble in education and I think what my kids told us was that there is a solution and the solution is to go #LowTech. Go back to the old ways of doing things,' Mulvaney told local TV news station KARE 11. 'Remove all the distractions and we can get our kids back.'

"Mulvaney let her students ease into a tech free environment. First, they started with just ten minutes of silent reading and writing by hand. Still, the first day was 'rough,' she wrote in an essay in The Minnesota Star Tribune. Most students quit after just half a page of longhand composition.

" 'I told the kids this is like lifting weights,' she told KARE 11. 'You don’t go in and you don’t start with 80 pounds.' "

Read more:
https://futurism.com/future-society/students-reading-improves-no-tech-class

#LudditeClub #NoTech #NoPhones #NoAI #Reading #Writing #Humans
#Smartphones are #DumbingUsDown #SolarPunkSunday #Handwriting #NeoLuddites #SmartphoneBan #Longhand

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

@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

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.

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

#FuckAI 😡
#ButlerianJihadNow
#NeoLuddites

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