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Why I Attribute
Stephen Downes, Ha, f an Hour, 2024/07/17

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While attribution may be morally good, the reason it's good is that it makes clear these layers of attribution. The very fact of these layers, and the necessity of of having an article (or an idea, or a 'truth') pass through them, is what grounds our understanding of the world. Without them, it's all just noise.

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AI-generated Crochet Scams
Maha Bali, Reflecting Allowed, 2024/07/17

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"I feel like we could use this example in class. In terms of how AI can be easily used to scam people when they aren't experts in something," writes Maha Bali. If you're already good at crochet you can probably spot the scam videos without a problem. But what if you're not an expert? Do you really need domain knowledge to spot the fakes? Jump the quiz - it's at the 14 minute mark of the video - and try for yourself. I got one answer wrong, which was pretty good considering I know nothing about how to crochet. The AI patterns are, well, patterns - you don't see the off-pattern characteristics of the human-created designs. I won't say that this logic always applies, or that there's some sort of AI-detecting critical thinking we can apply, but it also doesn't seem to be the case that spotting AI always requires domain-specific knowledge.

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Imagination, society, and the self
Amy Kind, Imagination and Experience: Philosophical Explorations, 2024/07/17

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Although it sometimes seems like we can imagine anything at all, as Hume argued in the 1700s, our imagination is limited by what we experience; it "cannot exceed that original stock of ideas, furnished by the internal and external senses." Amy Kind explores this idea from the perspective of imagining what we could be in life. "For example, when we try to imagine future paths for ourselves, the paths that seem open to us are shaped by the worldly experiences that we have had." That's why representation in media is so important; it's not merely about meeting quotas. "When different models of achievement become prominent, and when we see a diverse set of people modelling such achievement, it opens up the way that we can imagine future possibilities for ourselves." Though this chapter is open access the rest of the book does not seem to be. Image: vocal.media

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An ELT phenomenon - who is Dong Yuhui?
Nicholas Cuthbert, The PIE News, 2024/07/17

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I found this story interesting so you might too. In 2021 China's government banned most private online tutoring services (for some very good reasons). This article documents the story of one of those tutors who lost his job as a result. He found new employment as a technology marketer ("his eight years of teaching experience shone through... explaining products to his online audience as he might explain English vocab to his pupil) and he became a celebrity when another company tried to take credit for his work. When his CEO criticized the "culture of fandom around his presenters" the company replaced the CEO with the former tutor. Today, Dong Yuhui is a household name in China.

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TB871: Russell Ackoff as a systems thinking pioneer
Doug Belshaw, Open Thinkering, 2024/07/17

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Fun summary of Russell Ackoff, the person who developed the Data, Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom (DIKW) hierarchy. Some notable bits: "large social systems frequently aim for the wrong goals. For instance, the educational system prioritises teaching over learning, which obstructs the latter." And he "took pleasure in exposing the flaws of popular management trends like TQM, benchmarking, downsizing, process reengineering, and scenario planning. He criticised these trends for offering simplistic solutions to complex problems."

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We publish six to eight or so short posts every weekday linking to the best, most interesting and most important pieces of content in the field. Read more about what we cover. We also list papers and articles by Stephen Downes and his presentations from around the world.

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