mr.w0bb1t
The Luddite Club of Oberlin College · Oberlin #Luddites Reject “Year of AI Exploration” Adopted by School. Image credit: @loriemerson
10:39amWeb
Show threadAline F. 6h ago

@w0bb1t @loriemerson

Alt-Text

"Oberlin Luddites Reject “Year of AI Exploration” Adpoted by School

Dear President Ambar,

We are writing to you on a typewriter that is over 70 years old; this is a machine that we all know well. With it, we misspell words without the crutch of spell check or generative AI and we think intently about every phrase we pound out. As we force ourselves, for once, to slow down, we engage in a cognitive dialogue with ourselves, We do not seek perfection because we know that education is about the growing and challenging of our young minds' potential, not the chasing of institutional 'gold-star' approval.

We do not believe that your so-called ‘Year of AI Exploration’ providing enterprise ChatGPT and Google Gemini subscriptions to every Oberlin student aligns with our college's founding principles. You claim that this year will be one of experimentation, not adoption. But even just one semester of accepted (encouraged even) chat bot use will jettison our student body down a lazy and irredeem able tunnel of intellctual destruction.

We are a college grounded in learning and labor, which now risks straying from these rooted ideals. With ChatGPT at the helm, our emails, essays,and discussion posts will be generated for us, not by us. And let's not fool ourselves. This is precisely what these platforms will be used for by our busy, anxious student body. We see your vision for this year as advancing the college's 'businessification'--an alarming trend also seen in the takeover of our beloved library cafe by a 'bookstore' with no books in stock (just shiny merch) and an app replacing customer service. In one instance, the college assumes we want efficiency at all cost through automated rather than hand-pulled coffee. In the other lies the false belief that we simply desire to turn in an essay, regardless of how little we've written of it.

We need not stand by and witness the further atrophy of our liberal arts education. As you embark on your year of AI, we'll embark on our own year of self-actualization, of realizing the fruits of our Labor and embracing human imperfection and raw inquiry. We will boldly reject information technologies operating out of data centers that guzzle water and energy sources (that simply must contradict our campus's carbon-neutral devotion). We will turn instead to ourselves and embrace our natural intelligence, intentional hard work, and generative sweat rather than generative AI.

We urge anyone who feels similarly to risk disapproval, perceived backwardness and the outward appearance of naivete and join us. Let us not ask what AI can do for Oberlin students, but what Oberlin students can do ourselves, while we still have the brain capacity to think on our own.

Yours truly,

The Luddite Club of Oberlin College, Logan Lane, Charlie McLaughlin, Mary Claire McGreivey, Sawyer Van Dyck, Simon Puchner-Noel,and Marlowe Blantz"

Show threadLori Emerson4h ago
@Aline_Fuller @w0bb1t thank you for this!
Show threadtobadzistsini5h ago
@w0bb1t @loriemerson Alt text lacks the text? Nice ableist tactics there.
Show threadAlexTECPlayz4h ago
@tobadzistsini @w0bb1t @loriemerson alt text available here as post text: https://oldbytes.space/@fluidlogic/116292376642480875
Amin Girasol (@[email protected])

@[email protected] Oberlin Luddites Reject “Year of AI Exploration” Adpoted hy Schual Dear President Ambar, We are writing to you on a typewriter that is over 70 years old; this is a machine that we all know well. With it, we misspell words without the crutch of spell check or generative AI and we think intently about every phrase we pound out. As we force ourselves, for once, to slow down, we engage in a cognitive dialogue with ourselves, We do not seek perfection because we know that education is about the growing and challenging of our young minds' potential, not the chasing of institutional 'gold-star' approval. We do not believe that your so-called ‘Year of AI Exploration’ providing enterprise ChatGPT and Google Gemini subscriptions to every Oberlin student aligns with our college's founding principles. You claim that this year will be one of experimentation, not adoption. But even just one semester of accepted (encouraged even) chat bot use will jettison our student body down a lazy and irredeem able tunnel of intellctual destruction. We are a college grounded in learning and labor, which now risks straying from these rooted ideals. With ChatGPT at the helm, our emails, essays,and discussion posts will be generated for us, not by us. And let's not fool ourselves. This is precisely what these platforms will be used for by our busy, anxious student body. We see your vision for this year as advancing the college's 'businessification'--an alarming trend also seen in the takeover of our beloved library cafe by a 'bookstore' with no books in stock (just shiny merch) and an app replacing customer service. In one instance, the college assumes we want efficiency at all cost through automated rather than hand-pulled coffee. In the other lies the false belief that we simply desire to turn in an essay, regardless of how little we've written of it. We need not stand by and witness the further atrophy of our liberal arts education. As you embark on your year of AI, we'll embark on our own year of self-actualization, of realizing the fruits of our Labor and embracing human imperfection and raw inquiry. We will boldly reject information technologies operating out of data centers that guzzle water and energy sources (that simply must contradict our campus's carbon-neutral devotion). We will turn instead to ourselves and embrace our natural intelligence, intentional hard work, and generative sweat rather than generative AI. We urge anyone who feels similarly to risk disapproval, perceived backwardness and the outward appearance of naivete and join us. Let us not ask what AI can do for Oberlin students, but what Oberlin students can do ourselves, while we still have the brain capacity to think on our own. Yours truly, The Luddite Club of Oberlin College, Logan Lane, Charlie McLaughlin, Mary Claire McGreivey, Sawyer Van Dyck, Simon Puchner-Noel,and Marlowe Blantz

OldBytes Space - Mastodon
Show threadDressToKILT2h ago
@tobadzistsini @w0bb1t @loriemerson yes, very ableist to :checks notes: put the full text in the first comment.
Show threadLori Emerson2h ago
@dresstokilt @tobadzistsini @w0bb1t full alt-text posted here - I needed help figuring out how to circumvent character limits: https://kolektiva.social/@Aline_Fuller/116295063165409755
Aline F. :nyancat_rainbow: (@[email protected])

@[email protected] @[email protected] Alt-Text "Oberlin Luddites Reject “Year of AI Exploration” Adpoted by School Dear President Ambar, We are writing to you on a typewriter that is over 70 years old; this is a machine that we all know well. With it, we misspell words without the crutch of spell check or generative AI and we think intently about every phrase we pound out. As we force ourselves, for once, to slow down, we engage in a cognitive dialogue with ourselves, We do not seek perfection because we know that education is about the growing and challenging of our young minds' potential, not the chasing of institutional 'gold-star' approval. We do not believe that your so-called ‘Year of AI Exploration’ providing enterprise ChatGPT and Google Gemini subscriptions to every Oberlin student aligns with our college's founding principles. You claim that this year will be one of experimentation, not adoption. But even just one semester of accepted (encouraged even) chat bot use will jettison our student body down a lazy and irredeem able tunnel of intellctual destruction. We are a college grounded in learning and labor, which now risks straying from these rooted ideals. With ChatGPT at the helm, our emails, essays,and discussion posts will be generated for us, not by us. And let's not fool ourselves. This is precisely what these platforms will be used for by our busy, anxious student body. We see your vision for this year as advancing the college's 'businessification'--an alarming trend also seen in the takeover of our beloved library cafe by a 'bookstore' with no books in stock (just shiny merch) and an app replacing customer service. In one instance, the college assumes we want efficiency at all cost through automated rather than hand-pulled coffee. In the other lies the false belief that we simply desire to turn in an essay, regardless of how little we've written of it. We need not stand by and witness the further atrophy of our liberal arts education. As you embark on your year of AI, we'll embark on our own year of self-actualization, of realizing the fruits of our Labor and embracing human imperfection and raw inquiry. We will boldly reject information technologies operating out of data centers that guzzle water and energy sources (that simply must contradict our campus's carbon-neutral devotion). We will turn instead to ourselves and embrace our natural intelligence, intentional hard work, and generative sweat rather than generative AI. We urge anyone who feels similarly to risk disapproval, perceived backwardness and the outward appearance of naivete and join us. Let us not ask what AI can do for Oberlin students, but what Oberlin students can do ourselves, while we still have the brain capacity to think on our own. Yours truly, The Luddite Club of Oberlin College, Logan Lane, Charlie McLaughlin, Mary Claire McGreivey, Sawyer Van Dyck, Simon Puchner-Noel,and Marlowe Blantz"

kolektiva.social
Show threadmr.w0bb1t2h ago

@dresstokilt @tobadzistsini

Just to clarify, there’s a character limit on alt text, so it couldn’t fit the full text from the image there.

The full alt text is shared by @Aline_Fuller here: https://kolektiva.social/@Aline_Fuller/116295063165409755

Aline F. :nyancat_rainbow: (@[email protected])

@[email protected] @[email protected] Alt-Text "Oberlin Luddites Reject “Year of AI Exploration” Adpoted by School Dear President Ambar, We are writing to you on a typewriter that is over 70 years old; this is a machine that we all know well. With it, we misspell words without the crutch of spell check or generative AI and we think intently about every phrase we pound out. As we force ourselves, for once, to slow down, we engage in a cognitive dialogue with ourselves, We do not seek perfection because we know that education is about the growing and challenging of our young minds' potential, not the chasing of institutional 'gold-star' approval. We do not believe that your so-called ‘Year of AI Exploration’ providing enterprise ChatGPT and Google Gemini subscriptions to every Oberlin student aligns with our college's founding principles. You claim that this year will be one of experimentation, not adoption. But even just one semester of accepted (encouraged even) chat bot use will jettison our student body down a lazy and irredeem able tunnel of intellctual destruction. We are a college grounded in learning and labor, which now risks straying from these rooted ideals. With ChatGPT at the helm, our emails, essays,and discussion posts will be generated for us, not by us. And let's not fool ourselves. This is precisely what these platforms will be used for by our busy, anxious student body. We see your vision for this year as advancing the college's 'businessification'--an alarming trend also seen in the takeover of our beloved library cafe by a 'bookstore' with no books in stock (just shiny merch) and an app replacing customer service. In one instance, the college assumes we want efficiency at all cost through automated rather than hand-pulled coffee. In the other lies the false belief that we simply desire to turn in an essay, regardless of how little we've written of it. We need not stand by and witness the further atrophy of our liberal arts education. As you embark on your year of AI, we'll embark on our own year of self-actualization, of realizing the fruits of our Labor and embracing human imperfection and raw inquiry. We will boldly reject information technologies operating out of data centers that guzzle water and energy sources (that simply must contradict our campus's carbon-neutral devotion). We will turn instead to ourselves and embrace our natural intelligence, intentional hard work, and generative sweat rather than generative AI. We urge anyone who feels similarly to risk disapproval, perceived backwardness and the outward appearance of naivete and join us. Let us not ask what AI can do for Oberlin students, but what Oberlin students can do ourselves, while we still have the brain capacity to think on our own. Yours truly, The Luddite Club of Oberlin College, Logan Lane, Charlie McLaughlin, Mary Claire McGreivey, Sawyer Van Dyck, Simon Puchner-Noel,and Marlowe Blantz"

kolektiva.social
Show threadDuckbilled Plattypus.4h ago

@w0bb1t @loriemerson

Bravo Oberlin Luddite Club. Now is the time to define a Luddite as an anti-corporatist, pro-climate defiantly pro-human stance.

Show threadThe Turtle3h ago
@w0bb1t @loriemerson "Year Of AI Rejection" would be more prudent for colleges.
Show threadGreybeaver3h ago
@w0bb1t @loriemerson
Lol, "businessification" is just another cover name for enshitification. Take a great system and make it shittier for both the customers (students) and employees (educators.)
All hail Ned Ludd!
Show threadGemma ⭐️🔰🇺🇸 🇵🇭 🎐1h ago
@w0bb1t @loriemerson Adpoted.