Mastodawn

Started writing thoughts on how I got to where I am now (and feel in no way alone) - lost & defeated, having fought a rear-guard action for 30+ years to use the internet for good and forestall all the easily anticipatable. erosions of civil society.

Turns out I could just read the inadvertently-mis-filed-as-spam @pluralistic mailout from April 11's titled "Don't Be Evil"

https://pluralistic.net/2026/04/11/obvious-terrible-ideas/

Identify strongly with "Tron-pilled," less sure we'll build "a new, good, post-American internet"

Pluralistic: Don’t Be Evil (11 Apr 2026) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

Scott Leslie 2d ago

this seems like a useful reference every public sector leader should have at hand - "Public Sector Decline and Support for the Populist Right" - https://catherinedevries.eu/NHS.pdf h/t to @pluralistic

Scott Leslie 6d ago

Found via an Instagram ad so have no sense of its quality, but bills itself as "Canadian-based AI" - https://augureai.ca/

Augure | Sovereign AI for Canadian Teams

Enterprise-grade intelligence. Full data sovereignty. Compliant with Quebec Law 25 and federal requirements.

Augure

Scott Leslie Apr 9

Sitting in a café next to two Boomers lamenting how their friends' 20-somethings aren't working, doing my damndest to not unleash my Gen X fury at them. Seriously, that generation is SO clueless about the world these kids are coming into.

Scott Leslie Apr 9

Michael Geist Apr 9

My Globe op-ed on the U.S.’s two-pronged strategy over data. First, leverage the CLOUD Act to assert jurisdiction over data wherever it is stored. Second, treat responses that involve data localization rules or sovereign AI initiatives as a trade barrier.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-the-us-isnt-happy-about-canadas-quest-for-digital-sovereignty/

Scott Leslie Apr 8

Gotta say did not have "AI generated Lego movie diss tracks from Iran" on my Armageddon Bingo Card, but they are kinda awesome

Scott Leslie Apr 7

I suspect this paper will be seen as significant though my quantum resevoir is feeling a tad empty right now

https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/r8ww-qw7j

Scott Leslie Apr 1

Finding it extremely difficult to feel anything about the Artemis launch. Read the room people!

Scott Leslie Apr 1

How many Copilots are there? Hysterical take https://youtu.be/KPtIx5ZFSOY?si=JGZkV57o8jI9or4r

The Copilot Problem

YouTube

Scott Leslie Mar 31

Stephen Rees

Mar 30

Millions of Canadians trust the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) to safeguard their futures, yet breaking research from Stand.Earth shows they have been investing our retirement savings in companies tied to ICE.

That means our pension funds are being used to profit off the violence ICE is unleashing in the US — kidnapping people off the street, separating families and ripping children out of their parents, arms, and violations of due process.

https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/tell-the-canada-pension-plan-divest-from-ice?source=direct_link&

Pluralistic: Don’t Be Evil (11 Apr 2026) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

Augure | Sovereign AI for Canadian Teams

The Copilot Problem

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