Last term I tried an experiment: I walked into my Tech and Design Ethics class, admitted that I had *no idea* what to do about ChatGPT - so I would let them figure it out. As in: their first project was to decide and write the ChatGPT policy for the class. Here's what happened:

NEW: The government does not track how often immigration agents grab citizens. So ProPublica did. We found more than 170 such incidents since the start of the second Trump administration. Our tally — almost certainly incomplete — includes nearly 20 children, two of whom have cancer.

When a chatbot gets something wrong, it’s not because it made an error. It’s because on that roll of the dice, it happened to string together a group of words that, when read by a human, represents something false. But it was working entirely as designed. It was supposed to make a sentence & it did.

Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.

A long long time ago, in a far away galaxy... the US used to tax the rich

📣 New event: Science, psychedelics, and society Join Nesta’s @raviguru.bsky.social and @ikhan.bsky.social‬, former Exec Director of the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics, as they unpack the science, politics & future of psychedelics. Register now: bit.ly/43BgwNP

Do you ever wonder what the world would have been like if we hadn't invented the concept of path dependency?

Today is a red letter day in media history where a major newspaper managed to passive voice the actual publishing of itself

Wait, is this -- is this real? They actually published a list of books that may or may not exist? (The Last Algorithm by Andy Weir is, for example, not an actual book!) Please, jfc, tell me this isn't real. I'm not finding it online anywhere, which makes me hope it's fake? Gotta be fake, please?

U.S. Military Bans Men With Girl Names From Combat theonion.com/u-s-mil...

Al has a lot of problems, but it's not wrecking our brains open.substack.com/pu... An exploration of why, among the many problems of #AI, panicking about the damage its doing to the brain is at best a distraction, at worst actively unhelpful

Many thanks to @leorroseman.bsky.social for his musings on psychedelics diffusion during our b2b (boat-to-boat) call. It sparked some thoughts, below (post includes a link to Leor’s excellent ICPR talk): 🌍🍄 substack.com/inbox/post/1... Got any good examples of psychedelics shaping culture?

"We would rather not look, especially if we feel powerless in the face of that which we are being asked to look at." Margaret Atwood - www.nytimes.com/2022/03/25/o...

People often claim psychedelics have been used globally, for millennia, & in rituals of psychological healing. In today's Guardian Long Read, I show what these stories get wrong & why the reality is far more interesting: www.theguardian.com/science/2025... From "Shamanism: The Timeless Religion"

The Varieties of Psychedelic Experience (w/ apols to William James) Sketching a 'psychedelic use' typology for my @mitpress.bsky.social book: therapy, creativity, community, spirituality, productivity, research, microdosing, fun Lots of overlap. Did I miss anything? Would love feedback; full post👇

And now @clayjak.substack.com has been fired for telling his story popular.info/p/fortune-50...

SWIM & Elf, M. (∞). The Revelatory Truth Within A Faberge Egg. Hyperspace 0.1.1.2.3.5.8.13.21.34.55.89.144.233.377 ....https://doi.org/00000/source

If you’re writing a book on psychedelics, what’s the correct APA format for citing revelations from DMT entities? Asking for a friend.

Been sent a few other ‘Essential Knowledge’ books by @mitpress.bsky.social as I prepare to write ‘Psychedelics’. Am I a caricature?

It's what he would have wanted 🙏⚽ www.bbc.com/sport/footba...

Congrats to TurboTax, which has worked for two decades to stop Americans from being able to file taxes for free. www.propublica.org/article/insi...

You might know that the word 'psychedelic' means 'mind-manifesting'... While researching my upcoming book, I went digging to see what its originator, Humphry Osmond, had to say about his new word in 1957. A lot of it feels like it could have been written yesterday👇

With Trump reportedly planning to end the IRS Direct File program, there's no better time to remember how TurboTax owner Intuit spent two decades fighting to prevent Americans from filing their taxes online for free. (Published 2019)

Just signed a deal with @mitpress.bsky.social to write a book on Psychedelics for their Essential Knowledge series (!) Science, culture, myths, meaning—trying to do it all in ~40,000 words. More soon; wish me luck!

Shortlist for the first Climate Fiction Prize has just been announced @climate-fiction.bsky.social - short thread

In an hour - come on over! #aaasmtg

GigSlave Goes Public With $84 Billion Valuation. Watch Full Onion News Network Segment Here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwlB...

Who’s in Boston this week for #AAASmtg?

The @simonsfoundation.org are funding 15x $30,000 collaborations between artists and scientists on the theme of 'Symmetry'. Deadline for apps is Feb 20 - get thinking! www.simonsfoundation.org/2024/12/10/s...

Without defects, your gemstones lose colors, your phone becomes paperweight, your solar panel no longer works, and your stainless steel spoons get rusty. Crystals are like people, it is the defects that make us unique and interesting. #ChemSky

Currently reading Permutation City by Greg Egan and feel like I'm following about 75% of it. If someone's able to explain the missing quarter I'd be very grateful!

I listened to this expecting to disagree. I canvassed in the election and the ‘undecideds’ I met seemed worried that the dems were too far left, if anything. But @faiz.bsky.social helped me see it another way - and I really agree that the progressive movement needs to be more working class.

Just learned about this meme and it’s my favourite thing ever

A world map of where you don’t need a permit to buy a gun. This belongs to a class of maps in which the US is (inexplicably, infuriatingly) highlighted and almost everywhere else isn’t. [brilliantmaps.com]

Ok I'm giving this a go! Tell me who are your favourite follows on here & why?

It took... a while. But this weekend is the launch of the first award for climate change novels, at the Hay Festival climatefictionprize.com, with Madeline Bunting as the Chair

More like daylight cravings time, am I right :/

same as it ever was

if you're on here, do you still check twitter as well? or have you totally moved over?

Cool new paper. Does ketamine have an anti-depressant effect when it's given to patients who are already under anaesthesia, and don't therefore experience subjective effects? No more than placebo. Gets around the 'blinding' problem of most psychedelic studies👇 www.nature.com/articles/s44...

It’s funny how many things we eat and drink are a few steps removed from mostly being just grass. Bread, steak, milk, rice, beer, cheese, cake, oatmeal…