Thierry L'Orange

Butlerian Jihad Appreciator

[Zara Zhang @zarazhangrui]

This paper gives a fancy name to a problem you can already feel in your bones

"The Tragedy of the Cognitive Commons." Checking AI output requires deep expertise. Deep expertise comes from doing grunt work for years. And grunt work is the first thing AI eats

So we're building systems that need expert supervision while dismantling the only known process for making experts

The paper calls the shared pool of human expertise the "cognitive commons." Every profession drinks from it. Nobody's refilling it.

By eliminating junior roles, each company is acting totally rationally, and the collective result: a profession that can't catch AI's mistakes anymore because it never learned to do the work in the first place

Who checks AI's homework in 15 years?

[Claire Penis @ZeroSuitCamus]

I love that the foundation of the US economy is a trillion-dollar death cult which aims to eliminate things like jobs, privacy, art, relationships, emotions, bodies, places, etc.

[Michael Thomas @curious_founder]

This week I found permits and satellite photos suggesting Amazon is backing what could be the largest gas power plant ever built in the US.

I just got off the phone with the company and confirmed they're behind it.

Amazon confirmed that it has acquired a site in Pecos County, Texas called GW Ranch, where it plans to build an AI data center campus powered by a 7.65 GW gas plant. It would initially be entirely disconnected from the Texas electric grid.

In January, GW Ranch received a permit from the state of Texas allowing the gas power plant to emit 33 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

If the project emitted that much CO2, it would be the largest single source of pollution in the United States—emitting more greenhouse gases than the country’s largest coal plant. It’s worth noting that companies rarely emit as much as their permits allow.

The paper trail linking Amazon to GW Ranch surfaced earlier this week when Amazon filed three construction permits with the state. The permits showed Amazon’s plans to build three data center buildings with construction beginning immediately.

Cleanview reviewed satellite imagery to look for the project and discovered that land clearing had begun at the site described in GW Ranch’s air permit records.

We reached out to Amazon and the company confirmed it had acquired the GW Ranch site and plans to buy power from the plant, which is being developed by Pacifico Energy.

Partnering with GW Ranch marks Amazon’s first major investment in an off-grid data center. In doing so, the company joins Microsoft, Google, and Meta who have all invested significantly in natural gas power this year.

Data center developers have announced nearly 60 behind-the-meter gas power projects since the beginning of 2025 with a combined capacity of 90 GW, according to Cleanview’s latest report.

Not all of these projects will be built, but in recent months a growing share of them have begun construction and signed key tenant deals.

Amazon’s project in West Texas is unlikely to be its last bet on large-scale natural gas power. Yesterday, the company confirmed that it is in talks with the developers of a 4.5 GW gas power plant in Homer City, Pennsylvania.

When the developers of the Homer City gas plant first announced their project, they said it would be the largest gas power plant in America.

Now it’s just one of many giga-scale power plants that have been proposed across the country.

[Janel Comeau 🍁 @VeryBadLlama]

if I was a young person being told that the best our economic system can ever offer me is working longer and longer hours to live with more and more roommates and eat worse and worse food, I might start getting this crazy idea that we need a new economic system

[Laiken Jordahl @LaikenJordahl]

ALERT: DHS contractors are bulldozing Big Bend National Park this morning. They have broken ground on their multi-billion dollar corruption scheme to build a slew of pointless roads and useless "vehicle barriers" that will destroy the park & cut off river access.

[Andy #Rejoin #Climatejustice #NHS @andycorneys]

For anyone who has climate anxiety my advice is this. Read the science & accept it. Once you do that you’ll see how close to death we are & why if our leaders continue to fail we’re screwed. Once you accept the inevitability of our predicament, you’ll be ok & become a protester.

[Laiken Jordahl @LaikenJordahl]

BREAKING: Bulldozers are arriving in Big Bend National Park near Santa Elena Canyon to plow through border barriers & roads.

The irreversible destruction of Texas' crown jewel national park is unfolding and virtually no national media is paying attention. 📷 Natialie Newman

[Fuck You I Quit @fuckyouiquit]

BREAKING: CEO discovers why people work for a company

[Elizabeth🦒 @oceana_roll]

Is this good?

[Geppetto San Martín 🚬🌭𓅸 @SmalltimeJones]

5p-8500 is the mpn for the cat heavy machinery key. they all use the same key. it can be purchased directly from them for less than $9. all heavy machinery brands use a master key. all can be purchased legally for less than you would think

[🅲🅷🆄🅲🅺 @benigma2017]

How is this story not all over the place?

https://t.co/YLywtUnbbU

[Thierry L'Orange @OrangeThierry]

@atumalaca62093 @leftypol_org Unless....https://t.co/dMp7nU3fvZ

[killian @hellokillian]

https://t.co/Ps2DNjJXtc

[Ciarán @androgynator]

your critique of ai cannot be entrenched in aesthetics because there will be a time when you see an ai image or hear an ai song and think "that looks/sounds good". your critique of ai must always be entrenched in the poisonous effect it has on people's brains and the planet.

[Ari🦋✨ @Ariszn12]

The middle class was a 50-year fluke designed to prevent revolution. Now the threat is gone, so the elites are dismantling it. You aren't falling behind. You're being pushed back.

[theleahfiles @leahfiles]

They tell you Flock cameras are there to fight crime.

So I pulled the actual police logs from my new favorite website (haveibeenflocked . com). 233 million searches that they have been able to get via FOIA requests and here's what "fighting crime" actually looks like:

> 84% had no case number at all
> The most common reason a cop typed in the box? Blank, nothing
> Only about 9% were even tagged as a real crime.
> "Test" and "training" show up as reasons, run on real people's cars
> The FBI and Homeland Security were wired into local camera networks your town never signed off on.

So what is Flock?

FLOCK: 100,000+ plate cameras bolted to poles across America. They read your plate everywhere you drive and never forget.

NOVA: Flock's AI that turns your plate into you. Your name, address, family, everyone you know, in seconds, no warrant.

SIGNALTRACE: a competitor's tool that tracks the Bluetooth off your phone, your AirPods, your watch. Doesn't even need your plate.

Then I followed the money and the lead investor behind Flock also funds an Israeli company that can hack cameras and change the footage. Another lead investor backs a 911 app that flips on your phone's camera and mic. Trace it all the way back and you hit a former Israeli prime minister and Jeffrey Epstein's money.

Full article with photos and receipts is on my Substack now (link in bio). Enjoy!

[unusual_whales @unusual_whales]

"Nearly a third of workers admit to sabotaging their company’s AI," per FORTUNE

[Rory Blank @BoneJail]

I designed an extremely aggressive and difficult to parse out new shirt about a plague that is ravaging the country, please help me raise awareness.

[Lien @Jacksonsrule]

The real reason America has no high-speed rail has absolutely nothing to do with geography or technology. It is the result of a single lobbying contract worth $400 million signed in 1955. You are told the country is just "too big" or too spread out for bullet trains. That is a fabricated lie. The American
automotive and oil cartels literally bought
the government to systematically remove
public transit. They ripped up existing
rail networks and paved over the nation
to guarantee people would rely on cars,
insurance, and fuel just to participate in
society.