solarpunk

tired: petrostate

wired: petromafia

based: #solarpunk

I have what I think is a good example of how useless ‘AI’ is for understanding. I am tagging widely. I searched “how to identify mushrooms” on DuckDuckGo, which then so helpfully spammed my screen with this lovely advice (see image with alt text). The source of much of my knowledge is mushroomexpert.com, managed by Michael Kuo.

“A mushroom is identified by its characteristics”. I could get semantic here too about the definition of a mushroom, but talk about a pretty useless statement. Fine though. That’s well enough and good if you want an explanation that is super entry level. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though I don’t remember telling the ‘AI’ that I wanted only entry level information.

Then it talks about the danger in attempting to ID mushrooms because of the potential for poisoning. It tacitly assumes that my wanting to ID a mushroom means I want to eat it. I don’t. I just like mushrooms. I have a problem with the whole ‘some are poisonous’ throw-in, like its something their lawyers required them to include. How many are poisonous? 90%? 5%? We have no idea, and that’s OK. I didn’t tell the ‘AI’ that I wanted information on whether or not they were poisonous. But, as I’ll get to, the fact that this is included is not my problem. My problem is what they don’t include.

I think mushrooms are awesome. I think the fact that some of them are poisonous is relevant only based on the human-centric assumptions ‘AI’ is so obsessed with and what it’s dataset is built on. I don’t see the value in a mushroom based on whether or not I can eat it, and it chaffs me that they don’t also include any information about their ecological roles. You know what is a great way to identify a mushroom (including if I want to eat it)?!?!?! Their ecology (essentially, their ‘behavior’)!!! Let’s be sure to not mention that, #TechBros.

Ok let’s keep going, cause we’ve made it this far. It suggests talking to a #mycologist. It turns out that I don’t have any experienced mycologists on call. Mycologists are helpful but busy people. And I’m more likely than most of the population to know mycologists. You might as well say, ‘don’t bother trying to ID the mushroom’. Way to kill my interest immediately in something I’m trying to get into. If you really want to learn to ID mushrooms for foraging, there are sources you can look up to help you.

I’ll get to my main point. Identification of certain mushroom forming fungi to species is essentially impossible. Look up Amanitas or Russulas on mushroomexpert.com (phenomenal source, old school blogging). There is no clear delineating of what a mushroom forming species even is. Scientists argue over and reclassify bird subspecies all the time. Imagine the black box that is mushroom forming fungi, which most of the time is a web of single-cell wide threads hidden in the soil. Some mushrooms historically were ‘IDed’ (scientifically) by taste or color, which as you all know everyone experiences these things the same, all the time. And, darnit, I happened to leave my DNA sequencing kit at home (as if there aren’t issues with classifying mushroom forming fungi on their DNA alone).

If ‘AI’ were functional, to me, it would include the suggestion that one option is, instead of focusing on species, focus on species groupings (this also applies to foraging for mushrooms if done thoughtfully). Species groupings can be more useful, as is sometimes saying: “I don’t need to know exactly what this is. I’ll just focus on it’s ecology instead of obsessing over an arbitrary definition”. This nuance is not something that can be corrected with better algorithms or more training data (in fact, its going to get worse), because #LLM s are designed to spit out the lowest common denominator.

In the end, given all the questions I brought up, the biggest problems I have with ‘AI’ is that it falsely assumes something gigantic about the question I am asking and gives a simplified and highly misleading perception of how much we actually know. I think it makes a big mistake assuming that I am uncurious and want a bare-minimum answer. And when it comes to the grand total of all there is to know about mushroom forming fungi, we know next to nothing. Of course, 'AI' cannot say that because 'AI' doesn't know what it doesn't know.

You know who can identify and communicate all of these nuances? Humans.

#nature #mushrooms #fungi #AI #technology #artificialIntelligence #ecology #solarPunk #EcologicalReciprocity

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"Despair is a black leather jacket that everyone looks good in. Hope is a frilly, pink dress that exposes the knees." @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social

#hope #hopepunk #solarpunk #fascism

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#Solarpunk picks of the day:

➡️ @solarpunkpresents - Podcast on trying to create a sustainable future

➡️ @FullyAutomatedRPG - Free open source RPG with solarpunk theme

➡️ @alxd - Co-author of Solarpunk Prompts podcast

➡️ @susankayequinn - Speculative fiction author, hopepunk & solarpunk

➡️ @arndell - Works at NGO Medecins Sans Frontieres, solarpunk enthusiast

➡️ @greenfediverse - Listing Fediverse servers running on more sustainable energy sources

🧵 1/3

Hey #solarpunk people from outside of the Global North!

@SolarpunkConference would like to hear your voices on why they should allow you to watch their online #conference without having a credit card compatible with the US payment system!

Do we have anyone from #Ukraine or anywhere in #Africa ? #Brazil ? #India ? #southAmerica ? #southEastAsia ?

https://mastodon.world/@SolarpunkConference/113957600020215218

#globalSouth #socialJustice #climate #climateChange #event #futurism #hope #hopepunk #anarchism

Small anecdote regarding Food Rescue in our town.

We have a bakery that we've started working with. They bake fresh each day and at night they would have to throw away anything they didn't sell.

So we partner with them every evening and pick up the baked goods that they would normally throw away and either take it to another org that makes hot food for folks or to the free fridges in town for people to pick up on their own.

They call us each evening before close to let us know if they have any food for pickup. If they don't call, it's generally because they sold out that day (yay for them!).

An interesting pattern emerged though. We would get regular calls on some days and other days were completely silent. We would never receive calls on those evenings. Week after week.

So I asked about it one time when doing a pickup and the baker told us that those days were staffed by a woman who had experienced a lot of trauma. She specifically would not call even if they had food to pick up because she never wanted to be in a position where she was alone with a man after close.

That seemed very prudent, reasonable, and safe of her given her circumstances and experience.

We took the time to learn about our neighbors and worked with the woman to meet her needs for safety and comfort. We found out that she was much more comfortable with another woman or femme presenting person doing the pick up. We found a couple of gleaners that were willing to do the pickup and they went over during business hours when it was slow and just got to know the baker.

They built trust and established safety guidelines and now we have regular calls during these evenings as well.

The lady was very very very happy that she could help feed people and was very happy that we were willing to work with her to find a solution that brought her comfort, peace of mind, and actual safety.

I thought y'all might like to hear that. We'll find a way to take care of everyone.

#solarPunk #mutualAid #foodRescue

'Times may be getting tougher, but a hell of a lot of people are committed to doing good. And the best of the good is the #nature that makes up our planet.' ▶️ https://steadyhq.com/en/naturematchcuts/posts/718b5dba-b9d3-448b-96a7-38e99d4ef017

My new blog post about #writing in hard times, developing a story, messy mind palace rooms, #accents, and the sweet poison of #passion. @writers @writing

#storytelling #podcasting #blog #naturelovers #accent #languages #interviews #moreThanHuman #creativity #journalism #solarpunk #hopepunk #author

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