Category: HBlog

Scientific American: One of the Biggest Problems in Biology Has Finally Been Solved

Really interesting read on the connection between game theory and AI-assisted biology.

“Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis explains how its AlphaFold AI program predicted the 3-D structure of every known protein”

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/one-of-the-biggest-problems-in-biology-has-finally-been-solved/

Cory Doctorow: How to Leave Dying Social Media Platforms

That’s because the Benevolent Dictators can sometimes turn malignant. Some of the policies that Big Tech insists keep its users safe actually endanger those users’ lives.

Source: How to Leave Dying Social Media Platforms

This is one of the articles that started me on my way to reclaiming a space online just for me.

Welcome

My name is Heather Flyte and I am a writer and PhD student in English. Currently I am a teaching fellow at Lehigh University and I’m currently (finally) reading for my comprehensive exams.

I’m pulling back from posting my thoughts, images, etc. on various social media sites and hope to make this the home to everything digitally me. For a while, I’ll be posting here and there as a way to see how I like working in both formats. This experiment may be short lived or forever. We’ll see.

Social Media Exile

I don’t think social media is really all that healthy.

I’ve been positive in dealing my own rhetoric, especially in class. I’ve tried to discuss its functions conceptually, that there are benefits if you curate well and hypervigilant, but the labor costs outweigh the benefit.

I have been mindful of how I feel when I’m on a platform. Twitter is now where I feel the worst; Facebook is pretty neutral as I’ve culled my friends list down considerably. Instagram and TikTok are still relatively positive, if not actively negative. But I want to re-evaluate how *I* want to use platforms, what *I* want to say.

Right now, dunno, ya know?

This is going to be tricky as I read in Digital Composition and Rhetoric. There are more media out there than just social media channels, but like the sewage systems of most metropolitan areas, everything runs into them. Those channels are drivers of discourse now. We build cites based on how fast our shit flows underneath.

(Perhaps that’s not the best metaphor – but you see what I mean.)
I will be thinking a lot about how we pull back, as a society. How we maintain important connections, but not add to or get inundated by the garbage. Maybe it’s time to just go full in on a personal web-site. Keep all of my postings there and worry less about enGagEmeNT and more about cultivating a space for me.