I *want* to prioritise cognitive load management, because it is broadly related to some changes I am already trying to make. I have become increasingly aware of how busy-ness and rushing make it hard to find the sort of mental calm and space that lead to meaningful, creative thinking — so I have been deliberately adjusting my calendar, time-blocking, pacing, etc. to try to address this. I have also been trying to say ‘no’ more often, preserving my time only for the most important and impactful activities (including rest!). Additionally, I am aware that I not only volunteer for too many things but also take too much responsibility over each of those things — so I am trying to delegate and collaborate more, which has the added benefit of allowing others space to shine (and giving me an opportunity to learn from them). These are just a few examples but they show how cognitive load management is something I have been actively working on.
However, I think that I should perhaps be targeting ‘new media literacy’, with a specific focus on AI. I do try to stay informed, but, thus far, all my information is theoretical and not practical because I have really not wanted to engage with the AI tools themselves. At some stage, I realise I will need to overcome this, even if just in a few, small ways using a narrow range of tools. AI has become so ubiquitous that I cannot be a luddite forever if I want to effectively support my students and contribute meaningfully to debates.
“AI has become so ubiquitous that I cannot be a luddite forever if I want to effectively support my students and contribute meaningfully to debates.”
I definitely understand your position, Caitlin. You want to help people navigate the AI deluge.
My own position is that the current use of capitalist-funded generative AI based on GPT and LLM is destroying our society both through environmental degradation from energy and water use and the resulting pollution that is killing people. I guess it’s like my position on the Covid pandemic. I am still masking in public and using air filters in my home when people visit. Most people are just ‘getting on with it’ and accepting potential infection.
I could support the use of Gen AI if these are based on small, defined language models and if they are not energy intensive centrally-controlled black boxes. I know these exist and perhaps that is an area I will explore. The rampant rise of Gen AI tools is one of the reasons I will be shutting down this workshop series after the October cohort. I will need to figure out how we can individually and collectively make sense in the AI slop. I am thinking of a series of live sessions for small groups of inquiring minds.
I also chose New Media Literacy. Not Generative AI, but rather a byproduct of it: the wide variety of open-source automation tools, such as n8n and Automatisch, that can help me improve my workflows. For instance, I recently created a Python script — I’m not a coder; it only took a couple of prompts! — that transcribes Whisper audio notes that I record with my cellphone into Markdown notes on my computer. Similarly, I would like to automatically convert the highlights and annotations of PDFs/ePubs into Markdown notes so that I can process all my notes together once a week.
Regarding the neogeneralist, I prefer see myself as a plurispecialist, a word coined by the Spanish economist Juan Urrutia. I only found online an explanation of this in this book, here is the excerpt:
–_>
And thus we return to the figure which Juan Urrutia has called the plurispecialist, a typical member of a
demos within an economic democracy in the distributed networks world. A professional who, contaminated from many sides, in communication with many sources, rejects the conception of personal development as specialisation and understands his own life journey as a continual learning, not limited to any one field. And, in practice, as a series of different kinds of knowledge different kinds of learning within the community. Because, following an old utopian prophecy by Marx, the real equality of the demos actually amounts to the assumption that
“nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another
tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, to fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticize
after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, shepherd or critic”
Those who have only known traditional companies will still see this as something merely poetic and immaterial.
However, it will evoke everyday situations in those who have experienced the launch of a cooperative group or a
democratically-based technology business will.
I *want* to prioritise cognitive load management, because it is broadly related to some changes I am already trying to make. I have become increasingly aware of how busy-ness and rushing make it hard to find the sort of mental calm and space that lead to meaningful, creative thinking — so I have been deliberately adjusting my calendar, time-blocking, pacing, etc. to try to address this. I have also been trying to say ‘no’ more often, preserving my time only for the most important and impactful activities (including rest!). Additionally, I am aware that I not only volunteer for too many things but also take too much responsibility over each of those things — so I am trying to delegate and collaborate more, which has the added benefit of allowing others space to shine (and giving me an opportunity to learn from them). These are just a few examples but they show how cognitive load management is something I have been actively working on.
However, I think that I should perhaps be targeting ‘new media literacy’, with a specific focus on AI. I do try to stay informed, but, thus far, all my information is theoretical and not practical because I have really not wanted to engage with the AI tools themselves. At some stage, I realise I will need to overcome this, even if just in a few, small ways using a narrow range of tools. AI has become so ubiquitous that I cannot be a luddite forever if I want to effectively support my students and contribute meaningfully to debates.
“AI has become so ubiquitous that I cannot be a luddite forever if I want to effectively support my students and contribute meaningfully to debates.”
I definitely understand your position, Caitlin. You want to help people navigate the AI deluge.
My own position is that the current use of capitalist-funded generative AI based on GPT and LLM is destroying our society both through environmental degradation from energy and water use and the resulting pollution that is killing people. I guess it’s like my position on the Covid pandemic. I am still masking in public and using air filters in my home when people visit. Most people are just ‘getting on with it’ and accepting potential infection.
I could support the use of Gen AI if these are based on small, defined language models and if they are not energy intensive centrally-controlled black boxes. I know these exist and perhaps that is an area I will explore. The rampant rise of Gen AI tools is one of the reasons I will be shutting down this workshop series after the October cohort. I will need to figure out how we can individually and collectively make sense in the AI slop. I am thinking of a series of live sessions for small groups of inquiring minds.
I also chose New Media Literacy. Not Generative AI, but rather a byproduct of it: the wide variety of open-source automation tools, such as n8n and Automatisch, that can help me improve my workflows. For instance, I recently created a Python script — I’m not a coder; it only took a couple of prompts! — that transcribes Whisper audio notes that I record with my cellphone into Markdown notes on my computer. Similarly, I would like to automatically convert the highlights and annotations of PDFs/ePubs into Markdown notes so that I can process all my notes together once a week.
Regarding the neogeneralist, I prefer see myself as a plurispecialist, a word coined by the Spanish economist Juan Urrutia. I only found online an explanation of this in this book, here is the excerpt:
–_>
And thus we return to the figure which Juan Urrutia has called the plurispecialist, a typical member of a
demos within an economic democracy in the distributed networks world. A professional who, contaminated from many sides, in communication with many sources, rejects the conception of personal development as specialisation and understands his own life journey as a continual learning, not limited to any one field. And, in practice, as a series of different kinds of knowledge different kinds of learning within the community. Because, following an old utopian prophecy by Marx, the real equality of the demos actually amounts to the assumption that
“nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another
tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, to fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticize
after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, shepherd or critic”
Those who have only known traditional companies will still see this as something merely poetic and immaterial.
However, it will evoke everyday situations in those who have experienced the launch of a cooperative group or a
democratically-based technology business will.
https://gwern.net/doc/politics/2009-deugarte-phyleseconomicdemocracyinthenetworkcentury.pdf