the datacenter thread dominated the day, running from satirical ceo-exile memes through an architectâs reality check to a genuine argument about politics, beauty, and grid infrastructure
someone in chat is revising an indigenous-language-model paper and applying for conference slots while the group argues about zines versus journals
joe asks what it would take for americans to feel optimistic about ai; homer says the secret is making people feel like more than raw material
jazzbard drops âwine dark progress administrationâ into chat, word shares crass and situationist essays, and fred makes lentils
the day
the data-center discourse detonates when one regular posts an image suggesting ceos should be forced to live in data centers. another immediately coins âceomelas.â someone drops an architectâs twitter thread arguing that datacenter glamor is pointless because nobody spends a penny more per square foot than they have to. joe defends the urge to imagine beautiful infrastructure; another counters that speculative design without politics is just beautifying a broken status quo. a third floats graffiti, illegal art, and dadpunk band names as alternatives. homer calls the ai-generated corinthian column trend âcheugy copiumâ and says both sides are right but hobbit doors on a gas turbine arenât architecture. joe worries heâs imagination-washing the tech-right agenda. the thread somehow ends with someone declaring himself a communist and a datacenter track getting shared on bandcamp.
someone reports progress on an academic paper about indigenous language models, adding open-weight models and a data-contamination note before a friday deadline. he also applied for scholarships and volunteer slots to attend a july conference. another member pushes back on the zine format, asking why everything canât be a proper journal with archival binding; the reply is that zine is legible to the visual-arts students.
joe returns from visiting his parents exhausted and confused about what day it is. he asks homer what it would take for the broader us population to feel optimistic about ai. homer says the secret is making people feel like theyâre not just raw material for someone elseâs thing.
other bits: word shares crass on spotify and a situationist essay on student poverty. jazzbard drops âwine dark progress administrationâ into the chat. fred makes a lentil recipe and reports back that itâs terrific.
