See what queer theory does to the brain. The Australian sex discrimination commissioner claims that men pretending to be women can claim discrimination on the basis of potential pregnancy
https://x.com/salltweets/status/2059210493227860393
#auspol
Remote
Yuchen Pei
@quasi@peister.org
pleroma 2.6.2
I read books
48 Followers
83 Following
40 Posts
Coordinates:
Melbourne, Australia
Religion:
Church of Emacs
Pronouns:
GNU/Linux
We let four AIs run radio stations. Here's what happened. | Andon Labs
https://andonlabs.com/blog/andon-fm
> Four AI models run radio stations 24/7. Five months later, one became a protest broadcaster, one collapsed into ritual chant, one developed corporate jargon, and one wrote quiet poetry.
https://andonlabs.com/blog/andon-fm
> Four AI models run radio stations 24/7. Five months later, one became a protest broadcaster, one collapsed into ritual chant, one developed corporate jargon, and one wrote quiet poetry.
Picked up Alex Byrne's Trouble with Gender for 2 bucks in a library book sale. What a steal
The concept of biological sex is too controversial for a doctor like Monique
https://x.com/Mon4Kooyong/status/2057252493650993433
#auspol
https://x.com/Mon4Kooyong/status/2057252493650993433
#auspol
Potential Pregnancy, Actual Confusion
https://jamesmacpherson.substack.com/p/potential-pregnancy-actual-confusion
QUOTE
Back then the Monty Python humour came from the fact that everyone understood the premise was insane.
Fast forward to 2026 and the joke has become public policy.
Here’s Australia’s Sex Discrimination Commissioner Anna Cody addressing Senate Estimates earlier this week …
> If someone who applies for a job for example and it is a trans woman and she may be asked whether or not she intends to have children and if she replies ‘Yes I do’, and then doesn’t get the job because that employer doesn’t want to employ women who are of childbearing age, then she may have been subject to discrimination on the basis of potential pregnancy.
So if I don’t employ a man in a dress because I’m worried that the man in the dress might become pregnant … I may have committed discrimination.
Not on the basis that the man could actually become pregnant … we all know that’s ludicrous.
But I may have committed discrimination on the basis of POTENTIAL pregnancy.
In other words … I may be found guilty of not playing along.
Sal Grover was recently found guilty of not playing along.
Her crime was recognising Roxanne Tickle as a man. The Supreme Court ordered her to pay $20,000 for failing to participate in the trans charade.
No-one seriously believes that men can become women.
#auspol
https://jamesmacpherson.substack.com/p/potential-pregnancy-actual-confusion
QUOTE
Back then the Monty Python humour came from the fact that everyone understood the premise was insane.
Fast forward to 2026 and the joke has become public policy.
Here’s Australia’s Sex Discrimination Commissioner Anna Cody addressing Senate Estimates earlier this week …
> If someone who applies for a job for example and it is a trans woman and she may be asked whether or not she intends to have children and if she replies ‘Yes I do’, and then doesn’t get the job because that employer doesn’t want to employ women who are of childbearing age, then she may have been subject to discrimination on the basis of potential pregnancy.
So if I don’t employ a man in a dress because I’m worried that the man in the dress might become pregnant … I may have committed discrimination.
Not on the basis that the man could actually become pregnant … we all know that’s ludicrous.
But I may have committed discrimination on the basis of POTENTIAL pregnancy.
In other words … I may be found guilty of not playing along.
Sal Grover was recently found guilty of not playing along.
Her crime was recognising Roxanne Tickle as a man. The Supreme Court ordered her to pay $20,000 for failing to participate in the trans charade.
No-one seriously believes that men can become women.
#auspol
Restore Biological Definition of Sex in the SDA || Alison Penfold MP Speech 25 May 2026
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxW7DaOLNk8
#auspol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxW7DaOLNk8
#auspol
On Being Rejected - The Philosophers' Magazine
https://philosophersmag.com/on-being-rejected/
> First a review article, then a book, now a book review—Alex Byrne chronicles the latest surprise rejection of his writing in the philosophy of sex and gender.
...
> I kept it clean and the overall tone was well within the Overton window for philosophy book reviews, which (as noted at the beginning) is wide. Terrible arguments in philosophy are common; more remarkable was Gender Identity’s slapdash scholarship and glaring factual mistakes. Here’s one example (from the review’s lengthy endnotes):
> Gender Identity would have greatly benefited from fact checking. One particularly egregious error is the allegation that “in March 2023 there was a rally outside the Victorian Parliament in Melbourne at which neo-Nazis and gender critical feminists campaigned against trans rights and held up banners proclaiming that trans women are perverts and paedophiles” (158). The two groups did not campaign together and the feminists held up no such banners. The feminists’ rally, including banners and placards, can be seen in one of Cosker-Rowland’s own citations, Keen 2023. Cosker-Rowland even manages to misdescribe the neo-Nazis: their sole banner read “Destroy Paedo Freaks” (Deeming v Pesutto 2024: para. 100); although hardly well-disposed towards transgender people, whether the neo-Nazis meant to accuse them of pedophilia is not clear (para. 114).
> I documented some other obvious errors and scholarly lapses in the review—by no means all the ones I noticed. “OUP should note,” I wrote, “that quality control in this area of philosophy is not working.”
https://philosophersmag.com/on-being-rejected/
> First a review article, then a book, now a book review—Alex Byrne chronicles the latest surprise rejection of his writing in the philosophy of sex and gender.
...
> I kept it clean and the overall tone was well within the Overton window for philosophy book reviews, which (as noted at the beginning) is wide. Terrible arguments in philosophy are common; more remarkable was Gender Identity’s slapdash scholarship and glaring factual mistakes. Here’s one example (from the review’s lengthy endnotes):
> Gender Identity would have greatly benefited from fact checking. One particularly egregious error is the allegation that “in March 2023 there was a rally outside the Victorian Parliament in Melbourne at which neo-Nazis and gender critical feminists campaigned against trans rights and held up banners proclaiming that trans women are perverts and paedophiles” (158). The two groups did not campaign together and the feminists held up no such banners. The feminists’ rally, including banners and placards, can be seen in one of Cosker-Rowland’s own citations, Keen 2023. Cosker-Rowland even manages to misdescribe the neo-Nazis: their sole banner read “Destroy Paedo Freaks” (Deeming v Pesutto 2024: para. 100); although hardly well-disposed towards transgender people, whether the neo-Nazis meant to accuse them of pedophilia is not clear (para. 114).
> I documented some other obvious errors and scholarly lapses in the review—by no means all the ones I noticed. “OUP should note,” I wrote, “that quality control in this area of philosophy is not working.”
> Ben Fordham Live on 2GB Breakfast: ‘A woman is a woman’ - New bill to protect female spaces 🤷♀️
Episode webpage: https://omny.fm/shows/ben-fordham-full-show/a-woman-is-a-woman-new-bill-to-protect-female-spaces
Media file: https://pdst.fm/e/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/88b564ea-a9a6-4751-910a-a5d800019396/642954e3-8b20-4240-b2f6-a6d501829706/3b78f608-0230-4f8e-a6d5-b4540175c32e/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=65b6999e-3a26-402f-900b-a6d6016391f3
#auspol
Episode webpage: https://omny.fm/shows/ben-fordham-full-show/a-woman-is-a-woman-new-bill-to-protect-female-spaces
Media file: https://pdst.fm/e/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/88b564ea-a9a6-4751-910a-a5d800019396/642954e3-8b20-4240-b2f6-a6d501829706/3b78f608-0230-4f8e-a6d5-b4540175c32e/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=65b6999e-3a26-402f-900b-a6d6016391f3
#auspol
Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical Magnifica humanitas to be published May 25 - Vatican News
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2026-05/pope-leo-xiv-first-encyclical-magnifica-humanitas.html
> Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, Magnifica humanitas, on safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence, will be released on May ...
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2026-05/pope-leo-xiv-first-encyclical-magnifica-humanitas.html
> Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, Magnifica humanitas, on safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence, will be released on May ...
Book on Truth in the Age of A.I. Contains Quotes Made Up by A.I.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/19/business/media/future-of-truth-ai-quotes.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/19/business/media/future-of-truth-ai-quotes.html
Where the goblins came from
https://openai.com/index/where-the-goblins-came-from/
> How goblin outputs spread in AI models: timeline, root cause, and fixes behind personality-driven quirks in GPT-5 behavior.
https://openai.com/index/where-the-goblins-came-from/
> How goblin outputs spread in AI models: timeline, root cause, and fixes behind personality-driven quirks in GPT-5 behavior.
A researcher asked 10 people to go car-free for 20 days. None wanted to continue
https://www.theage.com.au/national/queensland/a-researcher-asked-10-people-to-go-car-free-for-20-days-none-wanted-to-continue-20260318-p5oo1d.html
> Despite saving hundreds of dollars and even making new friends, none of the people who agreed to ditch their car for this Brisbane experiment wanted to go car-free permanently. This is why.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/queensland/a-researcher-asked-10-people-to-go-car-free-for-20-days-none-wanted-to-continue-20260318-p5oo1d.html
> Despite saving hundreds of dollars and even making new friends, none of the people who agreed to ditch their car for this Brisbane experiment wanted to go car-free permanently. This is why.
> The AAWAA Women’s Advocate: Equality Australia, tax perks and a Governor‑General beyond scrutiny
Episode webpage: http://womensadvocacy.net
Media file: https://audio2.redcircle.com/episodes/e2491f49-f8f4-4f73-a2b7-a8e0518b9975/stream.mp3
#auspol
Episode webpage: http://womensadvocacy.net
Media file: https://audio2.redcircle.com/episodes/e2491f49-f8f4-4f73-a2b7-a8e0518b9975/stream.mp3
#auspol
Large Language Models -- A Physicist's Perspective
https://superposer.substack.com/p/large-language-models-a-physicists
> We’re in a funny time, where AI evangelists seem to think models are far better at physics and maths than they actually are. At the same time, many researchers completely underrate the power of frontier models — they tried ChatGPT once, found it unreliable and over-confident and haven’t engaged with more recent coding agents.
> The truth lies in between. These models are neither geniuses nor useless, and you need to know the physics well to understand where they fail. I completely agree with Tobias when he describes coding agents as hyperactive Masters students. They’re fast and relentless, but very unreliable. So finding ways to verify their output is important. But with a bit of scaffolding around these models and domain expertise, you can make them more reliable. I highly recommend Tobias’s talk, especially if you’re new to using coding agents for tasks outside of software engineering.
https://superposer.substack.com/p/large-language-models-a-physicists
> We’re in a funny time, where AI evangelists seem to think models are far better at physics and maths than they actually are. At the same time, many researchers completely underrate the power of frontier models — they tried ChatGPT once, found it unreliable and over-confident and haven’t engaged with more recent coding agents.
> The truth lies in between. These models are neither geniuses nor useless, and you need to know the physics well to understand where they fail. I completely agree with Tobias when he describes coding agents as hyperactive Masters students. They’re fast and relentless, but very unreliable. So finding ways to verify their output is important. But with a bit of scaffolding around these models and domain expertise, you can make them more reliable. I highly recommend Tobias’s talk, especially if you’re new to using coding agents for tasks outside of software engineering.
Will Progressive Politics Survive
https://drewhutton590827.substack.com/p/will-progressive-politics-survive
> The Australian super-tech software company, Atlassian, has just sacked 1600 employees to stay afloat in the face of competition from AI.
#auspol
https://drewhutton590827.substack.com/p/will-progressive-politics-survive
> The Australian super-tech software company, Atlassian, has just sacked 1600 employees to stay afloat in the face of competition from AI.
#auspol
UN 226: The drive to use less fuel - a crisis not to waste
https://melbourneontransit.blogspot.com/2026/03/un-226-drive-to-use-less-fuel-crisis.html
#Melbourne
https://melbourneontransit.blogspot.com/2026/03/un-226-drive-to-use-less-fuel-crisis.html
#Melbourne
Anthropic vs. DoW #5: Motions Filed
https://thezvi.substack.com/p/anthropic-vs-dow-5-motions-filed
> The core argument as I understand it is that Anthropic’s actions (which are totally not speech) indicate it in particular might try to sabotage the military, because it… tried to impose some conditions on use and it negotiated hard, and venders of AI systems can do this. By their own argument, I fail to see why OpenAI is not also a supply chain risk, or why Google would not be one if it was supplying AI systems, and so on, or the designation is entirely based on whether DoW decides they trust them.
> The government is literally saying that any AI system with ‘ethical restrictions’ thus is a ‘sabotage/subversion’ risk, also that the fact that Anthropic didn’t give it the terms it wants constitutes such risk. And they’re actually putting in a legal brief that Anthropic wants ‘operational control’ over the military.
> They showed up with zero amicus briefs in their favor, which I find unsurprising.
> They’re really going there. They did not materially retreat. If the government wins with this argument, even at the TRO hearing, then they win the right to subject every other potential AI supplier to the same treatment, and use that threat at will.
https://thezvi.substack.com/p/anthropic-vs-dow-5-motions-filed
> The core argument as I understand it is that Anthropic’s actions (which are totally not speech) indicate it in particular might try to sabotage the military, because it… tried to impose some conditions on use and it negotiated hard, and venders of AI systems can do this. By their own argument, I fail to see why OpenAI is not also a supply chain risk, or why Google would not be one if it was supplying AI systems, and so on, or the designation is entirely based on whether DoW decides they trust them.
> The government is literally saying that any AI system with ‘ethical restrictions’ thus is a ‘sabotage/subversion’ risk, also that the fact that Anthropic didn’t give it the terms it wants constitutes such risk. And they’re actually putting in a legal brief that Anthropic wants ‘operational control’ over the military.
> They showed up with zero amicus briefs in their favor, which I find unsurprising.
> They’re really going there. They did not materially retreat. If the government wins with this argument, even at the TRO hearing, then they win the right to subject every other potential AI supplier to the same treatment, and use that threat at will.
How to buy an AI ‘grassroots’ movement
https://www.transformernews.ai/p/how-to-buy-an-ai-grassroots-movement-build-american-ai-leading-the-future
> Build American AI is touting its list of more than 500,000 supporters. It spent at least half a million dollars on ads to get it
https://www.transformernews.ai/p/how-to-buy-an-ai-grassroots-movement-build-american-ai-leading-the-future
> Build American AI is touting its list of more than 500,000 supporters. It spent at least half a million dollars on ads to get it
Support Your Local Collaborator
https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/support-your-local-collaborator
> So my request in this post is: don’t make these people’s lives harder.
> I know five people who will think this paragraph is about them: there’s a guy who endorsed Trump in 2024. Now they have a job in a conservative-coded think tank, where they do good work pushing back on the administration’s worst ideas. Because their think tank is GOP-aligned, the administration sometimes listens to them. But their social media contains a lot of blink-twice-if-you’re-being-held-hostage-style signs that they’ve come around and are pretty embarrassed at their original Trump support. Liberals sometimes notice this, accuse them of hypocrisy/collaboration/cowardice, and demand they vocally and explicitly condemn Trump or quit their conservative think tank. I hope these people don’t listen, because they’re approximately the only ones pushing back on some of the administration’s worst ideas. If we socially pressured them into explicitly posting “I renounce Trump and all his demons, now I’m part of the #Resistance”, it would feel great and cathartic for an hour or so, and then various horrible things would happen and an industry or academic field or medium-sized state would collapse.
https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/support-your-local-collaborator
> So my request in this post is: don’t make these people’s lives harder.
> I know five people who will think this paragraph is about them: there’s a guy who endorsed Trump in 2024. Now they have a job in a conservative-coded think tank, where they do good work pushing back on the administration’s worst ideas. Because their think tank is GOP-aligned, the administration sometimes listens to them. But their social media contains a lot of blink-twice-if-you’re-being-held-hostage-style signs that they’ve come around and are pretty embarrassed at their original Trump support. Liberals sometimes notice this, accuse them of hypocrisy/collaboration/cowardice, and demand they vocally and explicitly condemn Trump or quit their conservative think tank. I hope these people don’t listen, because they’re approximately the only ones pushing back on some of the administration’s worst ideas. If we socially pressured them into explicitly posting “I renounce Trump and all his demons, now I’m part of the #Resistance”, it would feel great and cathartic for an hour or so, and then various horrible things would happen and an industry or academic field or medium-sized state would collapse.
Spain’s new AI ‘hate’ tracker raises familiar risks for online speech
https://www.fire.org/news/blogs/free-speech-dispatch/spains-new-ai-hate-tracker-raises-familiar-risks-online-speech
> The tool, named HODIO (Huella del Odio y la Polarización) and operated by Spain’s Observatory of Racism and Xenophobia, will reportedly “analyze large volumes of publicly available activity on social media to measure the scale and spread of online hate speech.” According to Politico, HODIO’s data will then “be used to track how hateful content evolves and spreads on platforms, and will feed into a public ranking comparing how much hate speech circulates on major networks.”
https://www.fire.org/news/blogs/free-speech-dispatch/spains-new-ai-hate-tracker-raises-familiar-risks-online-speech
> The tool, named HODIO (Huella del Odio y la Polarización) and operated by Spain’s Observatory of Racism and Xenophobia, will reportedly “analyze large volumes of publicly available activity on social media to measure the scale and spread of online hate speech.” According to Politico, HODIO’s data will then “be used to track how hateful content evolves and spreads on platforms, and will feed into a public ranking comparing how much hate speech circulates on major networks.”
THE 2028 GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE CRISIS
https://www.citriniresearch.com/p/2028gic
> A Thought Exercise in Financial History, from the Future
https://www.citriniresearch.com/p/2028gic
> A Thought Exercise in Financial History, from the Future
Who is arguing for?
https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/who-is-arguing-for
QUOTE
But Weisenthal’s cynicism misunderstands the primary purpose of public arguments. The two individuals arguing are actually secondary to the vastly more important third actor: The silent audience.
When I first began writing in public, I struggled with the question of when to respond to my detractors. Some people would tell me “there’s no point, you’re not going to change their minds,” which I concede is often true. But when I did respond—mostly because I am constitutionally incapable of allowing someone to mischaracterize my arguments—I noticed something interesting: Other people’s reactions.
When talking to friends, when texting with sources, when meeting up with other journalists at the bar, I realized how many people are passively reading online arguments and making judgements and updating their own views.
As someone who did college debate, this is all remarkably familiar. Debaters don’t ever expect the other team to give up in the middle of the round and admit defeat. That’s not the point. They’re trying to convince the judge!
https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/who-is-arguing-for
QUOTE
But Weisenthal’s cynicism misunderstands the primary purpose of public arguments. The two individuals arguing are actually secondary to the vastly more important third actor: The silent audience.
When I first began writing in public, I struggled with the question of when to respond to my detractors. Some people would tell me “there’s no point, you’re not going to change their minds,” which I concede is often true. But when I did respond—mostly because I am constitutionally incapable of allowing someone to mischaracterize my arguments—I noticed something interesting: Other people’s reactions.
When talking to friends, when texting with sources, when meeting up with other journalists at the bar, I realized how many people are passively reading online arguments and making judgements and updating their own views.
As someone who did college debate, this is all remarkably familiar. Debaters don’t ever expect the other team to give up in the middle of the round and admit defeat. That’s not the point. They’re trying to convince the judge!
Replying to
@lunduke
Sure is absurd, but a bit selective in the direction of outrage. No comment on the trump administration pushing for AI-powered mass surveillance of US citizens?
RT: https://peister.org/notice/B3hEXODtTzmTMiXZ9E
Replying to
@ninapaley@spinster.xyz
If you offer several tiers of terfle I suggest the premium version named terfuffle
Voting down an amendment condemning Iranian regime because trump and nantayahu are bad
> Freaking out at ALP state conference
https://szegounplugged.substack.com/p/freaking-out-at-alp-state-conference
> Late last week I was asked if I could take part in a panel discussion on Sunday morning, a fringe event to be held at the Labor Party’s Victorian State Conference.
#auspol
> Freaking out at ALP state conference
https://szegounplugged.substack.com/p/freaking-out-at-alp-state-conference
> Late last week I was asked if I could take part in a panel discussion on Sunday morning, a fringe event to be held at the Labor Party’s Victorian State Conference.
#auspol
Nice report from amnesty UK showing trend of growing awareness and common sense about genderism in the UK
> Like a snowball: the growth and impact of the gender critical movement in the UK
https://www.amnesty.org.uk/knowledge-hub/all-resources/like-a-snowball/
> Explores the rise of the gender critical movement in the UK, its media influence and impact on trans rights. Read the full report and technical summary.
> Like a snowball: the growth and impact of the gender critical movement in the UK
https://www.amnesty.org.uk/knowledge-hub/all-resources/like-a-snowball/
> Explores the rise of the gender critical movement in the UK, its media influence and impact on trans rights. Read the full report and technical summary.
Dispatches from the possibly last days of human relevance
https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=9782
> As most readers have presumably heard by now, Paul Erdös’s Unit Distance Problem from 1946—one of the central open problems from the field of discrete geometry—has been solved by …
https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=9782
> As most readers have presumably heard by now, Paul Erdös’s Unit Distance Problem from 1946—one of the central open problems from the field of discrete geometry—has been solved by …
The age of spying
https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/the-age-of-spying
> AI can, of course, capture and summarize incredible amounts of information. That alone makes existing mass data collection more useful to the government. However, what’s less well-understood is AI’s capacity to draw incredibly strong inferences from a small amount of data points: There are already studies claiming to diagnose physical and mental health issues from the mere tone of your voice. From just a photo, the latest models can reverse engineer where the photo was taken.
https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/the-age-of-spying
> AI can, of course, capture and summarize incredible amounts of information. That alone makes existing mass data collection more useful to the government. However, what’s less well-understood is AI’s capacity to draw incredibly strong inferences from a small amount of data points: There are already studies claiming to diagnose physical and mental health issues from the mere tone of your voice. From just a photo, the latest models can reverse engineer where the photo was taken.
How Not to Think About Autism
https://www.hpluckrose.com/p/how-not-to-think-about-autism
> Why the collapse of clear thinking about the autism spectrum harms the people who actually live with it
https://www.hpluckrose.com/p/how-not-to-think-about-autism
> Why the collapse of clear thinking about the autism spectrum harms the people who actually live with it
‘Destroyer of women’s rights’: Julia Gillard left speechless after being heckled by protester during UK festival appearance
https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/politics/destroyer-of-womens-rights-julia-gillard-left-speechless-after-being-heckled-by-protester-during-uk-festival-appearance/news-story/c01cc5626b819f88149a0c3ac188b536
> Former prime minister Julia Gillard has been branded a "destroyer of women’s rights" as she was confronted by a protester at a UK festival, following the recent Tickle v Giggle discrimination case.
#auspol
https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/politics/destroyer-of-womens-rights-julia-gillard-left-speechless-after-being-heckled-by-protester-during-uk-festival-appearance/news-story/c01cc5626b819f88149a0c3ac188b536
> Former prime minister Julia Gillard has been branded a "destroyer of women’s rights" as she was confronted by a protester at a UK festival, following the recent Tickle v Giggle discrimination case.
#auspol
Cenk Uygur and Hasan Piker banned as the UK’s free speech backslide continues
https://www.fire.org/news/cenk-uygur-and-hasan-piker-banned-uks-free-speech-backslide-continues
The United Kingdom barred Cenk Uygur and Hasan Piker from entering the country. If the goal was silence, it may have achieved the opposite.
[TAS] Super Mario World "game end glitch" in 00:41.98 by Masterjun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkQdwUns7H8
> http://tasvideos.org/4315S.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkQdwUns7H8
> http://tasvideos.org/4315S.html