Hello, hello! My prize-winning flash in which I reflect upon AI dropped a few days ago, amidst AWP happenings. Thanks to @fracturedlit.bsky.social and Gwen Kirby for plucking this out! CW: suicide, disordered eating fracturedlit.com/blackboxing/
Blackboxing | Fractured
fracturedlit.com
March 9, 2026 at 11:17 PM
Hello, hello! My prize-winning flash in which I reflect upon AI dropped a few days ago, amidst AWP happenings. Thanks to @fracturedlit.bsky.social and Gwen Kirby for plucking this out! CW: suicide, disordered eating fracturedlit.com/blackboxing/
'The ChatBot tells me I shouldn’t kill myself today.' Congratulations to @annablabs.bsky.social whose story, Blackboxing' is the winner of the @fracturedlit.bsky.social #flashfiction #competition ✨
#fiction #writingcommunity
fracturedlit.com/blackboxing/
#fiction #writingcommunity
fracturedlit.com/blackboxing/
Blackboxing | Fractured
fracturedlit.com
March 20, 2026 at 7:08 AM
'The ChatBot tells me I shouldn’t kill myself today.' Congratulations to @annablabs.bsky.social whose story, Blackboxing' is the winner of the @fracturedlit.bsky.social #flashfiction #competition ✨
#fiction #writingcommunity
fracturedlit.com/blackboxing/
#fiction #writingcommunity
fracturedlit.com/blackboxing/
it is really f---ing rich that ChatGPT keeps pilfering from my website where I've posted a decade's worth of writing critiquing blackboxing, "big tech," & providing examples of/recipes for alternative networks, small networks, slow networks, experimental/avant garde art, poetry, poetics, etc.
June 22, 2025 at 8:59 PM
it is really f---ing rich that ChatGPT keeps pilfering from my website where I've posted a decade's worth of writing critiquing blackboxing, "big tech," & providing examples of/recipes for alternative networks, small networks, slow networks, experimental/avant garde art, poetry, poetics, etc.
Imitating the results of human creative labour while blackboxing the processes behind (which largely consist of acts of appropriation, extraction, exploitation & waste of energy) is what genAI is all about. Presenting it is a neutral guide means depoliticizing a highly political technology
7/
7/
October 23, 2025 at 12:57 PM
Imitating the results of human creative labour while blackboxing the processes behind (which largely consist of acts of appropriation, extraction, exploitation & waste of energy) is what genAI is all about. Presenting it is a neutral guide means depoliticizing a highly political technology
7/
7/
June 1, 2026 at 6:02 PM
if you are at #4s2025 this afternoon, in the un-blackboxing AI session nina will explain how all of this marketing copy helps to render people into gelatinous blobs of undifferentiated labour
presented without comment:
September 6, 2025 at 7:31 PM
if you are at #4s2025 this afternoon, in the un-blackboxing AI session nina will explain how all of this marketing copy helps to render people into gelatinous blobs of undifferentiated labour
What these genAI and chatbots are is another layer of abstraction that they want us to simply accept. Its blackboxing something that we already interface with pretty efficiently. They don't want us to understand how a computer works. They want us to accept whatever their systems deliver.
I think one of the truly insidious things about the DLSS stuff is that it sort of... breaks a contract about computer usage we don't really even have a name for?
March 19, 2026 at 6:11 PM
What these genAI and chatbots are is another layer of abstraction that they want us to simply accept. Its blackboxing something that we already interface with pretty efficiently. They don't want us to understand how a computer works. They want us to accept whatever their systems deliver.
And it's so much easier to do in the age of climate change and "AI" blackboxing all the worst and least humane decisions
June 28, 2024 at 9:38 PM
And it's so much easier to do in the age of climate change and "AI" blackboxing all the worst and least humane decisions
Blackboxing is how tech nerds have always sought to gain and maintain control - honestly, there are too many of them now to not have a few Penn & Teller types who help you see that it really isn't magic.
March 27, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Blackboxing is how tech nerds have always sought to gain and maintain control - honestly, there are too many of them now to not have a few Penn & Teller types who help you see that it really isn't magic.
anyone who uses un-reconfigurable image subtitles and then picks "prettier text" rather than "readable text" should be shot
you should be letting the user make the decision, not assuming what they can and can't see
deets in the alt-text
you should be letting the user make the decision, not assuming what they can and can't see
deets in the alt-text
September 27, 2026 at 9:28 PM
anyone who uses un-reconfigurable image subtitles and then picks "prettier text" rather than "readable text" should be shot
you should be letting the user make the decision, not assuming what they can and can't see
deets in the alt-text
you should be letting the user make the decision, not assuming what they can and can't see
deets in the alt-text
corpo software development opted for blackboxing them into appliances that obscure a lot of the internal complexity from the user in sometimes self defeating ways.
And this kinda sucks because when they break in unexpected ways, it's a completely depowering struggle to understand why.
And this kinda sucks because when they break in unexpected ways, it's a completely depowering struggle to understand why.
November 22, 2025 at 4:25 PM
corpo software development opted for blackboxing them into appliances that obscure a lot of the internal complexity from the user in sometimes self defeating ways.
And this kinda sucks because when they break in unexpected ways, it's a completely depowering struggle to understand why.
And this kinda sucks because when they break in unexpected ways, it's a completely depowering struggle to understand why.
"The ChatBot is not a 'trusted adult,' but it is the closest I have to one. The ChatBot has only existed as long as a toddler gumming on a laundry pod." Fiction Editor @annablabs.bsky.social's flash “Blackboxing” is in @fracturedlit.bsky.social👍: buff.ly/QZpfXMa
March 17, 2026 at 3:35 PM
"The ChatBot is not a 'trusted adult,' but it is the closest I have to one. The ChatBot has only existed as long as a toddler gumming on a laundry pod." Fiction Editor @annablabs.bsky.social's flash “Blackboxing” is in @fracturedlit.bsky.social👍: buff.ly/QZpfXMa
"blackboxing" is more of a science thing. Closest I can remember is www.underhanded-c.org
The Underhanded C Contest
www.underhanded-c.org
September 1, 2026 at 11:20 AM
"blackboxing" is more of a science thing. Closest I can remember is www.underhanded-c.org
i have thought of this and can’t get past if it would just be better to generate the content upfront instead of requiring an inference engine on every host computer
maybe using them as a kind of AI for branch decisions using constrained decoding works? blackboxing NPCs in a way
maybe using them as a kind of AI for branch decisions using constrained decoding works? blackboxing NPCs in a way
March 29, 2026 at 3:07 PM
i have thought of this and can’t get past if it would just be better to generate the content upfront instead of requiring an inference engine on every host computer
maybe using them as a kind of AI for branch decisions using constrained decoding works? blackboxing NPCs in a way
maybe using them as a kind of AI for branch decisions using constrained decoding works? blackboxing NPCs in a way
Can we criticise, openly, the interviewer, Stephanopolis, for focusing on what is, ultimately, a media-only-driven narrative about Biden's age and insinuated decrepitude instead of asking real policy questions? Or even questions about legislation passed, etc.? Or are we just blackboxing that?
July 6, 2024 at 3:38 AM
Can we criticise, openly, the interviewer, Stephanopolis, for focusing on what is, ultimately, a media-only-driven narrative about Biden's age and insinuated decrepitude instead of asking real policy questions? Or even questions about legislation passed, etc.? Or are we just blackboxing that?
That's some dedicated shapeshifting! You known they're a good friend when they're willing to fully reconstruct the mechanics of an internal combustion engine for you, rather than just lazily blackboxing it.
August 28, 2025 at 5:46 AM
That's some dedicated shapeshifting! You known they're a good friend when they're willing to fully reconstruct the mechanics of an internal combustion engine for you, rather than just lazily blackboxing it.
it's not intuitive if you worry about only yourself. but "bad" stuff in art has never been the problem, this point is so made up anyway it rings the same bells a scam email does. blackboxing details and a sense of urgency, hurry the Kids are going to die from this
August 5, 2025 at 10:57 AM
it's not intuitive if you worry about only yourself. but "bad" stuff in art has never been the problem, this point is so made up anyway it rings the same bells a scam email does. blackboxing details and a sense of urgency, hurry the Kids are going to die from this
I suppose blackboxing the game would be a way to keep the fiction untainted by optimization, but I dunno I probably wouldn’t want to run a game that way
February 1, 2026 at 7:12 PM
I suppose blackboxing the game would be a way to keep the fiction untainted by optimization, but I dunno I probably wouldn’t want to run a game that way
So funny how early SCP authors genuinely did not know the difference between redactions, expungements, and blackboxing, so you'd see shit like "Dr. [DATA EXPUNGED]" and be like "wow, was his name really THAT bad?".
June 2, 2025 at 1:01 PM
So funny how early SCP authors genuinely did not know the difference between redactions, expungements, and blackboxing, so you'd see shit like "Dr. [DATA EXPUNGED]" and be like "wow, was his name really THAT bad?".
The problem with blackboxing your data model is that you lose the ability to isolate and adjust the parameters of the models.
Neural nets are not modular, and modularity is a hallmark of good system design.
Neural nets are not modular, and modularity is a hallmark of good system design.
August 23, 2025 at 3:12 PM
The problem with blackboxing your data model is that you lose the ability to isolate and adjust the parameters of the models.
Neural nets are not modular, and modularity is a hallmark of good system design.
Neural nets are not modular, and modularity is a hallmark of good system design.
A new team, and open processes so everyone can see how things are done.
Because blackboxing the entire modding and rule-writing process is how this poop theater started.
Outside of that, I wouldn't trust the staff - new OR old.
Because blackboxing the entire modding and rule-writing process is how this poop theater started.
Outside of that, I wouldn't trust the staff - new OR old.
October 6, 2024 at 1:03 AM
A new team, and open processes so everyone can see how things are done.
Because blackboxing the entire modding and rule-writing process is how this poop theater started.
Outside of that, I wouldn't trust the staff - new OR old.
Because blackboxing the entire modding and rule-writing process is how this poop theater started.
Outside of that, I wouldn't trust the staff - new OR old.
May 2, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Yes, we already live in an age of "Blackboxing." So as Bruno Latour tells us: this is the way.
December 22, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Yes, we already live in an age of "Blackboxing." So as Bruno Latour tells us: this is the way.
Keep in mind that blackboxing can mean a specific (Latourian) thing in science studies that is related to this confusion, but, also, if you’re following Latour in your thinking about science, there are plenty blackboxes: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackbo...
Blackboxing - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
June 10, 2026 at 12:12 PM
Keep in mind that blackboxing can mean a specific (Latourian) thing in science studies that is related to this confusion, but, also, if you’re following Latour in your thinking about science, there are plenty blackboxes: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackbo...