Dear Fedi friends,
I'm really proud to share with you a video I made: "Introducing the Fediverse: a New Era of Social Media" https://news.elenarossini.com/fediverse-video/
In this 4-minute video I explain what the #fediverse is to people not familiar with it, mentioning some of its great features and benefits (interoperability, no ads, no surveillance...) and I set it in contrast to the world of Big Tech social platforms. I argue that, with the rise of Big Tech oligarchs and the current political climate, there has never been a better time to join the fediverse.
I hope you will enjoy this video and that you will find it useful (maybe as a tool to introduce your friends, family, colleagues, school administrators, local government officials to it).
The fediverse has truly changed my life, making me a better, more empowered digital citizen. I am endlessly grateful for it, so this is my contribution to the cause ❤️
I am also incredibly thankful for the work of @samaaberg and @patel.riyen who helped me bring my vision to life with their amazing cinematography skills and their assistance throughout the process, providing brilliant feedback to the script / edits from the POV of fedi newbies.
And I was also moved by the generous help of people of the Fediverse who volunteered to translate the script into many foreign languages: @jan @fritjof @erikkemp @sknob @severin @clabru @tarcisiosurdi @hongminhee @danielcasanueva @ainali @nacly
Lastly, I'm thankful for the opportunity I had to premiere the video last week at #FediForum - thank you @j12t and @anca
The video is up on my self-hosted PeerTube instance (thank you @yunohost) and for now it is unlisted as I have no idea how my VPS will hold up. I also included an alternate location in the blog post.
I hope you'll enjoy it! It's been a real labor of love (a month of full time work on it)... I see it as my love letter to the fediverse 💌
Edit/update: THANK YOU for all the people who volunteered to have their avatar show up in the last shot. There were 750+ submissions and only 135 spots - sorry I couldn't include everyone 🥲
#TheFutureIsFederated
Teaches and conducts research in AI, ALife, & intersections of computer science with cognitive science, evolutionary biology, physics, and the arts.
@interlisp The graphing functions of Interlisp-D were so easy to use, and that is one of the things I remember with most fondness from that development environment -- well, that and the in-core structure editor (I still don't understand why anyone would ever choose to edit files).
I've never found any tool in any other software environment that made it so easy to display data structures as graphs.
https://www.academia.edu/107695890/A_graphical_inference_mechanism
This was a great conversation and I'm looking forward to the Q&A session! https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7321304596109287425/
@ACM Some of the best conversations I've ever had about the nature of minds, brains and machines have been with Andy Barto. Congratulations Andy!!
https://mastodon.acm.org/@ACM/114110281975680007
Meet the recipients of the 2024 ACM A.M. Turing Award, Andrew Barto and Richard Sutton! They are recognized for developing the conceptual and algorithmic foundations of reinforcement learning - one of the most important approaches for creating intelligent systems.
Please join us in congratulating the two recipients! Learn more about their groundbreaking contributions here: https://www.acm.org/media-center/2025/march/turing-award-2024
Cute piece on the history of mix-ins (in the Lisp-flavored OO sense), and why the name comes from 🍦…
https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/02/25/1111238/the-mix-in-revolution/
@jeffehobbs @JoshuaACNewman @tankgrrl Fahey in the morning yes!
Output: Once was a time when life simple life simple was. Was beautiful. Unpredictable. Unforgettable. Beautiful. Unpredictable. Dream.
@farooqkz Lexicase selection uses a new shuffle of samples to select each parent, and usually you want to select many parents per generation. While selecting a single parent it is true that all programs that misclassify the first sample in the shuffle vanish, and then those who remain but misclassify the second vanish, and so on until only one remains (or if several remain you choose among them randomly). But for the next parent you bring everyone back and filter according to a new shuffle.
I do think this sounds like a job for lexicase selection, which among other things will probably maintain helpful diversity on its own. While using age has also been shown to be helpful sometimes, I think that the lexicase part usually does the most good and is easiest to do. Of course it's also possible that a better representation or other improvements would help... but from what you've shared I think it'd be a good idea to try lexicase selection.
It's worth considering how this applies in many domains, ranging from grading to evolution. And for others working in #AI, how it relates to lexicase selection and "particularity" more generally: https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.06812
Nice piece by Moshe Vardi in the current CACM on The Linear Fallacy: https://cacm.acm.org/opinion/the-linear-fallacy/
@OvercastFM Is it intentional that podcasts now appear in the "Current" list even when they have no current un-deleted episodes? They didn't until a recent update. Now I often have to click through lots of podcasts that don't have new episodes to find the ones that do.
Congratulations to DR. LI DING!! https://www.linkedin.com/comm/feed/update/urn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A7221687236302356480 @umass_amherst #AI
Video is now available, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66buJdho4bM
Those of you in Western Massachusetts might want to come to this event at Amherst College at 6pm on Tuesday. It is free and open to the public. #AI
@caranha Thanks! It's from an area near my house that frequently floods, and there are always new sights especially when things freeze and thaw. Also lots of interesting wildlife like eagles, bears and beavers.
Remembering Oliver Selfridge because a research train of thought led back to the Pandemonium architecture. He was a delight.