Peter Musser

@petermusser.com

409 Followers 294 Following

EN, SP, 中文, FR // Librarian, OER person, once and future YouTubeEDU'er. US Navy Vet, dual🍁/🦅 Queer as heck🏳️‍🌈

Cover of a book, "As we fall through time," by million-copy-bestselling author Claire North, with a note that this will be available October 2026 but currently (in July of 2026) is not for sale. The cover art is two bodies falling toward each other, one from the bottom and one from the top.
Photograph of a to-go cup (filled with root beer, not pictured) from A&W that says "a Canadian classic since 1956"
Photo of the Chicago skyline from inside the loop, with the L in the foreground and a row of older tall buildings going into the distance. The photo was taken in the morning, leaving the buildings partially lit on their faces as they are also partially shaded by buildings to the east
Big crying emoji with the water level going up and up, as if it were flooding the screen
Photograph of a decorative statue of an owl in copper on top of Chicago public library's branch in the loop, looking more menacing than one would expect from a public library
Photo of a rusted door, too small for a grown up to walk through while standing up, and slightly open in a way that's perhaps more menacing than is necessary
Photo of the Obama Presidential Center's museum building from a nearby (relatively speaking) Metra stop. Blue sky with white fluffy clouds in the background, park greenery and train tracks in the foreground.
Close up photo of a fledgling starling on a balcony, whose expression is one of "don't bother me before I've had my coffee"
A photo of four pieces of art. In the bottom left corner is a collage of a combination of people's faces with the text "fashion's new Crush: This is the underwater fund that traps people." In the top right corner is a watercolor and colored pencil drawing of a mallard in a suit that says "don't forget to be as awesome as a duck in a suit" signed by Bethany Webb. In the top left corner is a postcard with a drawing signed by Alexis Nicole Nelson depicting a frog riding a bluebird which is carrying a basket of plant material. And in the bottom right hand corner is a postcard that has a picture of two frogs as soccer balls assigned by John Green.
Screenshot of a spreadsheet showing faceted classification framework for works of art including facets for dimensions, orientation, scale, duration, and type, with 72 possible permutations so far
Photo taken across a canal in Berlin. The image contains multi-story buildings in the background with trees and other greenery in front of them; below them is the wall of a canal. Probably most prominent in this photo is a three story mural, in white paint, of a gender ambiguoous person looking askance at the viewer with just the hint of a smile. Also lots of other marks of graffiti.
Picture of a river view on a cloudy day, with a stretch of narrow clouds reaching into the distance
Can't critique of AI live in the space between abstinence (or what you call refusal) and harm reduction? I think these can be more overlapping than binary choices, as use or intentional non-use is so context-dependent. Further, refusal does not always mean shaming users.
What does it mean to focus on the local and contextual when AI–in its impacts largely operating at global scales? I feel like this also ties into Peter’s comments about harm reduction versus refusal as frameworks, which also seems to deal with a tension between local and global.
Question text: The use of AI seems to occur where other social structures have failed–e.g., formal educational infrastructures–which is exactly where libraries have traditionally come in while also serve as a social space. So we can see AI as coming to replace many important functions of libraries. In that light, how do libraries co-exist with something that seeks to replace them, and displace the physical spaces that libraries provide?
screenshot of google search results for "shrug emoji" showing a box at the top of the results, letting users copy and paste the shrug emoji.
A photo of a gravel sidewalk that has recently had plants cut back on it to make space for pedestrians
The rear hatch of a White Hyundai Kona with a "project for awesome" bumper magnet and a British Columbia license plate, right of center, just below the Hyundai logo
Screenshot of a news headline saying "AI might make workers faster, but not necessarily more productive: 'They do it faster then go for coffee breaks'". Above the headline is an image of 3 people on a stage in what looks like a conference setting.
A large (compared to roly poly) arthropod in a person's hand
A child in a blue hat and shirt in gray pants busting a move on a path next to a road
a big pink flower with a bumblebee butt popping out of the center
Screenshot of the audiobook "Straight" by Chuck Tingle in the Libby app
A close up of a pill bug having just crossed a gap between two cinder blocks, with what looks like another one lying in wait in the gap?!
A video of a couple of pill bugs walking across a cinder block patio, with the talented filmographer narrating their journey
A photo of a hand holding a pair of glasses, from which the left armature has broken off and are being held awkwardly next to them. In the background are escalator stairs, suggesting that the photographer either likes to live dangerously by doing photography while riding sharp, moving objects or that the escalator ride is very long.
Jay Graber and Katie Drummond talking on the main stage at Web Summit Vancouver, photo taken over the heads of other attendees, with a background to the subjects in neon pinks and blues
The view up a mountain off the Buntzen ridge trail in British Columbia. Lots of tall trees and ferns on a cloudy day, very verdant.
Screenshot of the Libby app showing "Somadina" by Akwaeke Emezi, with 44 seconds of playtime to go.
Mosaic tile floor in the rough shape of overlapping circles or maybe flower petals, hard to tell
Stats about the Internet Archive projected onto a wall at Internet Archive Canada's location
Some lovely bright green moss with a red sprout of some sort coming out right next to it, shot in macro
a crow addicted to Timmy's screaming at buses in New Westminster
A sign promoting NDP candidate Peter Julian on a balcony surrounded by high rises
Screenshot of the Libby app showing the cover of the audiobook edition of Book and Dagger, by Elyse Graham
Two toddlers seen from behind looking at a tank of jellyfish. The tank is very blue and the jellies are glowing white
a yellow-green snail shell on a black wall, that has a black stripe following its spiral pattern. in the background greenery is visible but blurred. there's a metaphor in here somewhere.
Silhouette of a child with a pom pom hat looking out a dirty bus window at the sunrise
A photo of glow in the dark stars and a moon in a bedroom, glowing a bright blue-green
View over the Fraser River looking south on a foggy morning with Surrey skyscrapers peeking through in the distance and some conifers in the foreground. The sky is a healthy mix of blues and oranges with some clouds throughout.
screenshot of a tweet by twitter user @verysmallriver, on April 14 2022, which reads: i was on tumblr when yahoo had to sell it for $3 million after buying it for $1.1 billion. we were all a little bit responsible for losing yahoo a billion dollars. and with that type of collective effort, I believe we here on twitter can lose elon musk even more. it had 764 comments, 57k retweets, and 309k likes.
Chia plants in a pot on a balcony, looking not so great after all, but still pretty good considering they are not really equipped to deal with the temperate zone of Vancouver in late fall/early winter
Potted chia plants on a balcony
A life guard station on a beach with clear blue skies. Big block lettering on the back of the seat says "LIFE GUARD ON DUTY", upon which is perched a crow who probably is not the life guard
The Very Large Array in Socorro, New Mexico, with an extremely deep blue sky