Celeste Ng

Your periodic reminder that one way to think about privilege is: who's allowed to make mistakes?

I must have walked by this fence hundreds of times but today I noticed that the posts are crowned with little snail sculptures of varying sizes and poses.

Flowers from my garden, in a moon jar I made myself ❤️ #flowerreport

So when thousands of women (and children) were being duplicated--including in non-consensual AI porn--it was no big deal. But it took "only a 15-sec clip" of these two famous white men to draw outrage and fear. Gotcha. Cool cool.

The New York Times @nytimes.com

It took only a 15-second clip of Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt duking it out on a crumbling rooftop — made by A.I. with a two-sentence prompt and the click of a button — to draw swift outrage, and sizable fear, from Hollywood. "It’s nothing short of terrifying," one scriptwriter said.

Why an A.I. Video of Tom Cruise Battling Brad Pitt Spooked Hollywood

A 15-second clip created by an artificial intelligence tool owned by the Chinese technology company ByteDance appears more cinematic than anything so far.

Here is a script you can use for any issue. Find your reps' # at reps.fyi or 5calls.org. Every time you see a news story that horrifies you: call, or something else about it. It matters to say what you believe. You are setting a norm.

I explained it to several young teens today: imagine we wanted you to become more self-sufficient in the kitchen, so we decided to charge you $20 every time you got takeout. But also we have no food in the house, we won't let you go to the store, and also you don't know how to cook.

The mayor of Boston, Michelle Wu, apparently worked all morning before going to the hospital to have a baby in the afternoon. 😳 That is some dedication. (Also, congrats Mayor Wu and family!)

*Jon Ossoff* just announced he's voting no. You think that happened out of nowhere? CALL YOUR SENATORS. 👇

If your boss or company tells you to do something unethical: don't say yes. Make them write it down.

Had convos w/ multiple people in the past 4 days who DID NOT KNOW that
1. AI doesn't "think" or know anything; it's a probability machine
2. It was created using massive amounts of work stolen from actual people including me
3. The environmental costs are astronomical
Spread the word, every time!

I haven't said much since Tues because I didn't have anything helpful to say. How do we keep going when America is sliding into authoritarianism? Then I realized: I've been thinking about this for years. I wrote a whole novel (OUR MISSING HEARTS) looking for ways to keep hope alive in darkness.

Hi, friends. I'm sad to report that my mom passed away on Sept. 22. She was peaceful and comfortable, which is a blessing, but I'll really miss her. She taught me the most important things--help others; be curious--by example, and I would absolutely not be the person I am without her influence.

It feels weird to post this with everything going on. But--in case it brings a moment of joy or distraction: I got a dog

Libraries are one of the most radical social institutions we have, because they’re based on the idea that *everyone* has the right to information, for free. It’s also what makes them crucial to democracy. I will never stop yelling about this!

Reply to @pronounced-ing.bsky.social

Been thinking about this a lot (not tagging the sender, for their privacy). Most of us won't have the chance for for grand, capital-R Resistance heroics. But every one of us will have a thousand small choices to make about how to live our lives and where to draw lines. Use them well.

It's cold and the turkeys would like to come in please

Throwing sand in the gears of terrible machinery is also resisting.

"We have informed the administration through our legal counsel that we will not accept their proposed agreement. The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights." FINALLY. Thank you, @harvard.edu, for FINALLY taking a stand.

Someone in my neighborhood got FED. UP.

My mom made this and put it outside her door (in her condo complex)

"But I'm a citizen," you say. "This doesn't apply to me." It's a pretty short step from deporting lawful residents without due process to "show me your papers, you don't LOOK like a real American to ME" on the street.

Her new thing is asking me to hold her hand. Sometimes she doesn't want pets or scritches, just wants me to hold her hand for a while while she gazes soulfully into my eyes 😂

I head someone explain this as “Good weird is being weird about your own business, bad weird is being weird about other people’s business” and I thought that summed it up pretty well.

Blue Heron Farm @blueheronfarm.bsky.social

Stop being the bad kind of weird. This place is for the good kind of weird only. 🦋

Spent the morning shoveling snow with my kid. We talked about how--because the world is increasingly stupid, unkind, and selfish--we need to work hard at being curious, kind, and helpful to others. Even if we're just starting with shoveling the walk for our community.