Capitalism has broken.

You're not aware of it until you put in your weekly online shop of a Friday morning. It all works fine until you come to pay, and then the spinner spins indefinitely, neither accepting not rejecting your card details.

You cancel and try the payment via Apple Pay instead. The same thing happens.

"Wow. Some programmer at ASDA is in hot water", you think to yourself, as you head to Sainsbury's site instead with a tired sigh. Why does everything not work so frequently these days?

Only, Sainsbury's site does the same thing. Fuck. Your heart sinks. Must be a bank problem.

You load up your banking app, and click on the chatbot which is what passes for customer help these days. "Online payments not working", you type, tersely. You jump the usual hoops -- no, the card isn't expired, yes, you're using your correct CV2 number.

"Please wait while we check the source of the issue," the bot relents. Then: "hold on, this is taking longer than usual." And: "thank you for your patience while we continue to check the source of the issue". You leave the app open, and make yourself the second cup of tea of the day, wondering what you can put together for dinner with what little you've got in. Tuna pasta bake it is.

The chatbot stops responding. You reload the app, ask to chat to a human instead. "We are experiencing an unusual load", it informs you. "We will aim to message you back within six hours."

Capitalism has broken. It cut too greedily, and too deep. Bots are programming, bots are manning the help desks. Nary a human to be seen, to be accountable. The system has chugged to a halt.
1/4

Today's fun with OpenStreetMap and route planners: A route planner for Denmark that refuses to drive on roads named after men.

About 40,000 Danish roads (= 35 % af all Danish roads) have been tagged with name:etymology:wikidata to tag into Wikidata's structured content.

Other ideas for funny restrictions? Roads named after politicians of specific political parties? Roads named after royals? (¡Viva la revolución!) Roads named after Swedes?

#OSRM #OSM #OpenStreetMap

✨European Summer School for Logic, Language and Information 2025✨ in Bochum, Germany:
- 47 courses & workshops
- 4 exciting evening lectures
- social events
- explore the Ruhr area
Early bird registration deadline: May 31!
#esslli2025 #esslli #logic #linguistics #compSci #nlproc #summerSchool #rub https://2025.esslli.eu/

Edit: Boosts appreciated 🤗

The future of AI-powered software development is here!

https://github.com/Zorokee/ArtificialCast

(Warning: don't stop until you've read the text below the subheading, "Why This Exists")

Q&A from a talk I gave last week.

Q: "What do you think is the biggest threat in cybersecurity right now? Is it post-quantum computing? Is it AI?"

A: Fascism. It's fascism.

Fantastic news! We've reached 1 million votes! But please keep sharing and voting in case some votes are invalid!

EU citizens, please sign this petition to ban so-called "conversion therapy" in the EU. It's a practice that's extremely harmful towards LGBTQ+ people.

The site is a little slow, but keep trying!

https://eci.ec.europa.eu/043/public/#/screen/home

It's already banned in some countries but we need a EU wide ban!

We now have eight countries past their thresholds, and we have at least 1,000,000 total votes.

So keep signing & voting!

https://eci.ec.europa.eu/043/public/#/screen/home

#lgbtqia #europe

People obsess about making sure that trains are full. Talk about moving warm air around during quieter periods of the day. Yet noone seems to point out the main competitor to rail travel involves traveling with a pair of arm chairs and a sofa, with a total number of passengers of 1. The inefficiencies of private cars are ridiculous.

As long as the whole train network, across the whole year and all services is >20% occupancy, it's more efficient than the competition.

“No computers.” the guard said harshly, holding out a metal box.

I put my phone in the box. He didn’t budge. I took off my smart watch and added it in.

“Are you sure you have no more computers? The detector sends out a brief EMP. It would be a shame to destroy any gadgets. Or injure you." He was staring at the side of my face.

Ah. I removed the Connex from my temple. I’d forgotten it was there.

He ushered me into what looked like an old electronic doorway, then pressed a button. A light flashed.

"You're free to enter. Enjoy." No smile.

I passed through a corridor to desk where a receptionist smiled. "First time?"

"Yes, is it obvious?"

"Don't worry. It's simple. Through the double doors there you'll find the main selection of books, by era and topic. It's colour-coded and easy to follow. You'll need these if you want to touch anything." She put a paper mask and thin laboratory gloves on the desk.

"Behind you is the iffy section, as we call it. Books printed after 2015."

"2015?! I thought AI printed books only appeared in the mid 2020s."

"That's probably true, but we can't be sure. Preserving authentic pre-AI knowledge is our raison d'être. We can't be too safe."

Her look turned serious and I saw the devotion to the cause in her eyes. Since the Big Corruption of '32, no digital files could be trusted to replicate original human knowledge. This library was a time capsule.

"Can books be taken out?"

"No, I'm afraid not. We couldn't let them back in, as they could be fakes."

"So, can I copy things? My phone and Connex were taken away. Do you have a camera to message me chapters?"

"No, we're strictly machine-free. but we have several scribes. They're very good." She was enjoying my puzzled look.

"They can copy down whole pages for you. With pen and paper," she answered my unspoken question.

"Pen and paper?" these were words of tales and myths.

"Come, I'll show."

#devotion #MastoPrompt #microfiction #AI #ArtificialIntelligence