David Ewing Duncan

1) The membership of this work group contains no one from commercial publishing, in other words, the group that creates most of what the other groups consume. 2) Contrary to the contention that the comments are "out of scope", legality is an absolutely critical requirement that is in scope by definition. Does the NISO's enabling legislation even allow it to promulgate a standard that is known to be illegal? Todd Carpenter 3) The signatories are a Murderer's Row of organizations representing every aspect of commercial book publishing including agents, authors, and publishers from most parts of the world. In short, it looks to an outsider like the problem is that this group was convened with the wrong charter and the wrong membership. As Ms. Halperin suggests, it's a pity the process was allowed to waste two years of everyone's time.

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Here is a link to my latest post on Cultural Capital-Art, Politics, and Everything Else https://lnkd.in/eyxu7HJm

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It's the 40th anniversary of one of my favorite #StarTrek films, and the strongest argument against the old "only the even-numbered ones are good" theory. In this article, I look back at how #Spock actor Leonard Nimoy got to direct #TheSearchForSpock

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Here is a link to "Art and Life," my latest post on Cultural Capital-Art, Politics, and Everything Else https://lnkd.in/eDjWYngG

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Here is a link to my latest post on Cultural Capital-Art, Politics, an Everything Else https://lnkd.in/e8bkCyJQ

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The #WorldBank-IMF meetings are over. What did they actually accomplish? Depends on your perspective, though "not enough" seems to be the consensus from the people I spoke with. Check out my latest Newswire for more on the meetings.

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Four veteran senators are calling on Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) and his AI working group to develop a framework for addressing extreme risks posed by artificial intelligence, “including biological, chemical, cyber, and nuclear threats,” while offering several options for oversight of AI frontier models. “Congress should consider a permanent framework to mitigate extreme risks. This framework should also serve as the basis for international coordination to mitigate extreme risks posed by AI. This letter is an attempt to start a dialogue about the need for such a framework, which would be in addition to, not at the exclusion of, proposals focused on other risks presented by developments in AI,” according to the April 16 letter from Sens. Mitt Romney (R-UT), Jack Reed (D-RI), Jerry Moran (R-KS) and Angus King (I-ME). READ MORE: #artificialintelligence

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Just published this forum on Samuel Garrett Zeitlin's translation of Raymond Aron's _Liberty and Equality_. Princeton University Press, 2023.   https://lnkd.in/eFWiyJ9q Introduction by Michael C. Behrent, Appalachian State University; reviews by Sophie Marcotte Chénard, Carleton University, and Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins, Wesleyan University; response by Samuel Garrett Zeitlin, University College London. From the introduction: "Raymond Aron’s _Liberty and Equality_ is a short book. Yet, it feels like a long one. Short books with big words in their titles often have something bold and punchy to say. Yet while Aron’s reflections are always intriguing, he wanders from theme to theme, with no particular effort to connect them to an overarching thesis. He does have something to say about liberty and equality, but he covers plenty of other ground as well. He enumerates the fundamental liberties of contemporary Western societies, focusing on personal, political, and social liberties; he acknowledges that, while these liberties have an empirical reality, 'many individuals have the feeling of not being free' (21); he assesses the Marxist critique of liberty; he analyzes the 'moral crisis of democracy' in the contemporary West (49); he considers the merits of philosophical ideas about liberty; and he concludes by emphasizing the exceptional character of societies founded on liberal principles. Aron packs this all into 55 small-format pages. If the book manages to be both rambling and stimulating, it is because we are dealing with the mind of a fox, in Isaiah Berlin’s sense: that is, a thinker who, rather than embracing 'a single, universal, organising principle,' pursues 'many ends, often unrelated and even contradictory,' that are 'connected, if at all, only in some de facto way.' In this instance, the 'de facto' occasion of Aron’s musings was his final lecture at the Collège de France, delivered in April 1978. Aron, of course, was a French philosopher, sociologist, and political commentator who, in addition to being one of the twentieth century’s most prominent intellectuals, was also a lucid proponent of liberalism and moderation in an age of extremes. His lecture’s title, 'Liberty and Equality,' suggests some kind of definitive statement, in the vein of _On Liberty_ or _A Theory of Justice_. Yet, true to his foxlike nature, Aron eschews any all-encompassing claims. His instinctive pluralism is on display in the first sentence, when he announces that he will speak of 'liberty, or more precisely…liberties'."...

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Here is a link to my latest post on Cultural Capital--Art, Politics, and Everything Else https://lnkd.in/ewj7idVA

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I'm publishing two extracts from a draft forthcoming book chapter on investigative journalism and AI. The first part, mapping the various branches of #AI and how they've been used in investigations, is now live...

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You're probably already taking in a lot of information on how to cover this year's elections. These guides are aimed at helping you talk through that information with your news organization, and strategize or decide on how you'll navigate different scenarios long before they arise and leave you thinking, "I wish we'd talked about how we'd actually handle this." Our first two guides help you consider your coverage of misinformation and polling, and we've got more in the works! Let us know if there are other topics you'd like to see addressed.

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Baltimore-area readers: SAVE THE DATE! July 6, 2024, from 6:30-8 pm, at Snug Books in Baltimore, author John Maly will read from his debut novel, JURIS EX MACHINA. Audience discussion about the implications of AI will follow. Register today for free tickets at www.snugbooks.com Here's a teaser: With a click, the bread fell into the toaster. One circuit fired the heating coils. Others monitored bread temperature and color. Yet another circuit was quite unlike all the rest- as exotic as it was sinister; when it activated, 368 people would die. In the 22nd century, the justice system is airtight in the domed city of Arcadia. Human error has been removed. Yet somehow, a well-intentioned young kleptomaniac named Rainville falls through the cracks and is wrongfully convicted of mass murder. He is exiled to Wychwood Prison, a crumbling necropolis beyond the dome where the dead outnumber the living, where the inmates are also the guards. News of the crime follows him, and he becomes a marked man. Rainville's only hope for survival is becoming the first inmate in history to escape Wychwood. Can he do it? The fate of Arcadia depends on it. Can't make the event? You can grab your copy today at https://lnkd.in/ewRP8SP4, which also benefits Snug Books, an independent, woman-owned bookstore. #whattoread #ai #artificialintelligence #scifinovel #cyberpunk

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The editor-in-chief is a big deal for a publishing company, big or small, so when one leaves, it's significant - for the reason(s) for their departure, for whomever is to take over the role following them, and also for where that editor-in-chief goes next. Earlier this month, news came out that IDW Publishing's editor-in-chief Jamie S. Rich - who took the role just 13 months prior - has left the company. First reported by Bleeding Cool writer Rich Johnston, this departure came following the departure of two other senior editors at the company. Since the news of Rich's departure went public, speculation has been rampant - for journalists, for comics pros, for pundits, and for fans - about what's happening at the company. This has led to significant speculation about what this means for IDW has its 13 months removed from a self-described "reset" which resulted in 39% layoff of its employees. So to cut through the speculation and hyperbole, we went to the source. We asked now-former IDW Pubishing editor-in-chief Jamie S. Rich what was going on. As it turns out, he too has been reading the idle speculation which some has misattributed as news, and wants to correct the record. Read the full story here: https://lnkd.in/eKursTgH

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Here is a link to "Images of Order," my latest post on Cultural Capital-Art, Politics, and Everything Else https://lnkd.in/er252s5J

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The War on Free Speech and the Weaponization of the Law - Free speech is under threat in unprecedented ways in the U.S. University campuses deny platforms to those who dissent from progressive orthodoxies. Tech firms block heterodox news and opinion on grounds of "disinformation." Companies discipline employees for challenging nostrums about race, sexuality and gender. How did it get this way? What can be done to reverse the tide? On this episode of the #FreeExpressionPodcast, law professor and legal analyst Jonathan Turley talks with me about his new book, "The Indispensable Right," on the centrality of free speech to human life, and also about other threats to American rights and values including the ‘lawfare’ that is increasingly waged in American politics. https://lnkd.in/eaAcFbf8

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