David Weinberger

Boston

Freelance Contributor at Freelance

I write/speak about how AI, the Net, etc.are shaping our ideas. Latest book: Everyday Chaos. Delirious pa and grandpa. (he/him) @[email protected]

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Articles

Flight of the Saints

3 weeks ago | acton.org | David Weinberger

C.S. Lewis once observed that the world is full of stories of people who say they have experienced miracles. What, though, are we to make of them? Can they be true? Are miracles even possible? Hagiographies sometimes convey extraordinary stories and legendary accretions, intended to leave devotees in awe. And then there are those tales of saints who flew.
The Dethroning of Deduction

1 month ago | kmworld.com | David Weinberger

Perhaps you’ve heard this one before:All people are mortal. Socrates is a person. Therefore: Socrates is mortal. This is the classic example of the West’s preferred form of reasoning— deductive logic. We have long professed to prefer it because of the certainty of its conclusions: If you’ re certain about the first two premises, known as the major and the minor premises, then you can be certain that Socrates is going to be pining for the fjords eventually.
Trump Considering Tooth Fairy Tariff

2 months ago | dailykos.com | David Weinberger

Donald Jehosiphat Trump today said that he's considering a tariff on the Tooth Fairy. "Why does she get to pull all those American teeth?”, he said in the course of an interview about the disadvantages of health care. “We don't even know where she offshores them."When asked for specifics about the tariff, Trump said, "Elon is working on an exact amount, but I told him it has to be high. So high that children keep up to 90% of their original teeth.
Links conquer the universe

Nov 3, 2024 | kmworld.com | David Weinberger

I’m a little proud to have been so early on the hyperlinks train. I first got my ticket punched in 1991, when the company where I was working, Interleaf, was developing a product that let you create digital documents hyperlinked to other documents on your office network. But the web supersized that feature—plus, it was open and free. Oops.
AI Doesn’t Think Like Us

Sep 23, 2024 | dweinberger.medium.com | David Weinberger

So says the Web site of the Institute for Creation Research, a Texas-based group that for fifty years has tried to scientifically support a literal, fundamentalist reading of the Bible. I decided to check its argument with another authority: chatGPT. This seems to me to be an admirable response. It identifies the source of the false idea, gives an unambiguous response to the question, justifies its response, and cites the commitment to literalism that explains why someone would believe it.
On Chat AI and BS

Sep 8, 2024 | kmworld.com | David Weinberger

Ethics and Information Technology ran an article in June 2024 titled “ChatGPT Is Bullsh*t” (doi.org/10.1007/s10676-024-09775-5) except without the asterisk. Let’s just call it BS. I disagree with this thoughtful article written by three philosopher researchers at the University of Glasgow—Michael Townsen Hicks, James Humphries, and Joe Slater.
La IA tiene una capacidad revolucionaria para analizar detalles. ¿Qué significa esto para las empresas?

Sep 6, 2024 | infobae.com | David Weinberger |Michele Zanini

La IA, como idea, nos permite ver el mundo en su especificidad y detalles siempre cambiantes (un torrente abrumador de particularidades, todas relacionadas entre sí en un paisaje de caos creativo y emergencia, que encuentra patrones más allá de nuestra comprensión). Nuestro crecimiento económico se derivará de esta nueva capacidad de comprometernos con lo particular (las diferencias específicas entre personas, cosas y situaciones). He aquí cuatro ejemplos rápidos. 1.
A quick guide for academics writing for a broad readership

Aug 9, 2024 | dweinberger.medium.com | David Weinberger

So, you’re an academic, a researcher, a scientist … a serious person. But you’ve decided to write a trade book — a book for the general populous — to amplify the effect of your work. Excellent!I edit the Strong Ideas book series for the MIT Press — books about the ways in which today’s digital technology is or may be changing how we think and behave. The readers are assumed to have no, or little, technical background, but the authors are generally academics and scholars.
The V.A.N.C.E System of Voting

Aug 1, 2024 | dweinberger.medium.com | David Weinberger

I am truly excited, right down to my authentic work boots, by the tremendous response to my theory of voting rights. And despite what the lying radical left press says, I have even gotten strong messages of support from self-avowed cat-ladies who admit they are a waste of a womb. (Sorry, ladies. I'm a truth-teller.)In response, I've decided to make public the full version of the Constitutional amendment I've been secretly working on for months.
AI Has a Revolutionary Ability to Parse Details. What Does That Mean for Business?

Jul 29, 2024 | hbr.org | David Weinberger |Michele Zanini

Humans have relied on generalizations forever as a mental shortcut — and a way of running a business efficiently. But just as advancements in AI are making it possible to move beyond a handful of customer personas to infinitely personalizable products and messaging, they are also revealing to us a broader world full of ever-changing unique detail.