Tootfinder

On the radio, I hear the German research foundation #DFG defend its recent move to allow #AI in project reviews, just with local setups, just for language clarity – lots of reservations.
I then listen to the most recent episode of Mél’s Data Fix podcast. An anonymous guest (🔥) talks about their daily…

Offloading, with [Anonymous]
For this episode, I interviewed someone who asked to be made anonymous (and voice altered) in order to openly discuss their complicated feelings of regularly offloading work tasks to an AI chatbot.…

This is a very reasonable question:
https://pouet.chapril.org/@Zekovski/116844176606612240
The truest and most honest answer is •we have no idea how the hell learning works•, not really, only in hints and glimpses. The mind is full of mysteries, and we only have clues.
A good first step is to imagine some alternatives to the conduit metaphor — all also flawed, also tending toward misunderstanding if we take them too far, but having multiple metaphors helps us get unstuck from one:
- What if learning is like •exercise•: the strain of sustained effort stimulates muscle growth?
- What if learning is like •resonance•: what your mind perceives or experiences makes your mind echo that thing, like a string picking up sympathetic vibrations?
- What if learning is like •filling a toolbox•: problems cause your brain to seek out new tools, which give it the capacity to solve similar problems more easily in the future?
…etc etc. A fun exercise is to try to come up with metaphors of your own, think about what they imply, and notice where they fall apart.

I have a problem with the House of Commons floor crossers, as I think most people do.
But I havent been able to come up with a more palatable alternative or at least a different scenario.
The biggest problem, for me, is the act of poaching. The trickle of MPs.
It gives the impression, falsely or not, that these people needed just a little more time, a little more convincing, a little more... ? to eventually turn on their constituent's choice of party.
What would be more pallatable? How about a group? Rather than a trickle.
People tallk, it is naïve to think it isn't known between individuals who may be thinking of leaving or switching parties.
So if there is more than one with that thought I think it would be better for our democracy if those MPs banded together and made their concerns known privately in their caucus first, then if nothing changes, they communicate to others including the public, and make it clear this is something that could happen en masse.
Then at least it takes away the transactional nature of it and frames it more as a democratic choice, informed by whatever situation is happening and done for the benefit of constituents and Canadians.
How does this change get made? Unfortunately that's the hard part. It would be hard or maybe inappropriate to "legislate".
It would need to be an expectation, a habit, a "norm".
It could happen. Though today, politicians following "norms" seems to be a little out of vogue.
#canPoli #cdnpoli #canada #democracy #houseofcommons
https://halifax.citynews.ca/video/2026/04/13/floor-crossing-raises-questions-on-canadian-voting-stability/