The web was always social
Diving into the idea of bridging different social networks and protocols like ATproto and ActivityPub to enhance the web. Looking back at my personal web journey, from Web 2.0 to now, emphasizing that building connections can strengthen online communities.
https://herve.bzh/the-web-was-always-social/
The web was always social
Diving into the idea of bridging different social networks and protocols like ATproto and ActivityPub to enhance the web. Looking back at my personal web journey, from Web 2.0 to now, emphasizing t…
Could have stopped with “Development is not truly human…” without the “if.” It’s never not been about “increas[ing] consumption for some while shifting costs and burdens onto others, or relegat[ing] entire regions to subordinate roles, preventing them from realizing their full potential.” That’s “development.”
https://simonwillison.net/2026/May/25/encyclical-on-ai/
Notes on Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical on AI
Dropped this morning by the Vatican: Magnifica Humanitas of His Holiness Pope Leo XIV on Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence. This is a very interesting …
…so very attractive to traditionalists. The best of this lot brings Aurel Kolnai to mind, whose political philosophy might prevent il-/anti-/post-liberal futures from being completely closed to the reality and necessity for civil debate and real dissent.
Perhaps not the worst outcome, compared to Idiocracy and Plutocracy, but I would not call it good.
It will be anti-anti-racist if not openly racist. It will be for “localism” not universal human solidarity. It will blend humanism with chauvinism. It will be authoritarian where it feels entitled. This tendency is most apparent in the dogmatic moralism of people who imagine themselves lefties or progressives who want to enforce their ideologies by absolutely excluding or even criminalizing dissent. It’s not a reliable or real centrism or anything other than a new old reactionary turn…
Plenty of good thoughts and intentions, but this is a tradition that has a long history of getting labour, national conservatives, and enough of the so-called centre to align. It is probably leading toward a “green fascist” future some have predicted for a while. It may be effective in its way and better than pure plutocracy, but it can be counted on to be corporatist and not an ally to general emancipation…
With the pope weighing in on AI and immediately connecting with the church’s century-old tradition of social teachings on labour and dignity, plus the job protectionism resentment that seems to drive pop anti-AI politics (among people who never cared about the environmental costs before) what seems to be emerging or re-emerging is the tired old fake third way politics of a centre that fundamentally leans right.
An official statement from the desk of ricmac:
https://ricmac.leaflet.pub/3mn2v6eggh22t
Open social web: horses for courses - ricmac's leaflets
Rethinking my open social web setup after dealing with AI haters.
A thought: if "software engineering" happened to be as regulated as civil engineering, it wouldn't have produced such an unsafe, insecure, crazy mess, and "software engineers" would not just now be trying to project a mythic, non-existent moral standing for themselves to denounce AI — as if the tech and underlying economics haven't always been what they are.
The fediverse needs filters for all the self-righteous and dogmatic denunciation, preaching, and griping. Probably anything mentioning “AI” or “the left.”
Jeremy Herve
Richard MacManus