The Phil-Sci Archive at Pitt is now pushing papers out on Bluesky. Follow the account below to see them @philsci-archive.bsky.social

Had an absolute blast writing this paper with Thomas, Hans, and @jamesowenweatherall.com! GR turns out to be way more deterministic than previously appreciated. The past determines the future not only up to isomorphism but up to *unique* isomorphism! 🤯

Hey folks -- this is of "historical importance"! Formal proof and epistemic value open.substack.com/pub/siliconr...

Hello! I just started at new center at UCI! Some main foci will be misinformation, metascience, and equity! www.socsci.uci.edu/newsevents/n...

Just had the surreal experience of finding my own (not very common) name in the von Neumann papers.

New Element just published! Philosophy of Cosmology and Astrophysics, by Siska De Baerdemaeker. Open access until 10/3. Tell your friends! www.cambridge.org/core/element...

#philski #philsci Quick Q: anyone know what semantic glue is supposed to be? Can I get it on Amazon or do I have to go to like a crafts store?

I love this interview Nathan Ballantyne just posted with Pen Maddy. Pen is one of my all-time favorite philosophers (and most influential mentors). This captures her outlook and personality beautifully. www.the-workbench.ca/interviews/p...

new motto for zfc just dropped

I keep coming back to the Gaetz nomination for AG in light of all this Epstein stuff.

Have you ever wanted to visualize how belief polarization might occur in scientific communities? Then check out this simulator, based on the model developed by @cailinmeister.bsky.social and @jamesowenweatherall.com in their (2018) paper on polarization #philsci #philsky #metasci

Tell me you've never cared for a toddler without telling me you've never cared for a toddler. (Descartes' fourth rule governing collisions, from Principles of Philosophy [1644].)

Very excited for this summer school on my forthcoming book with Chris Smeenk, The Aims and Structure of Cosmological Theory!! The book is very nearly finished. Let us know if you'd like to give feedback on a draft. www.usi.ch/en/education...

Information dynamics on Twitter are incredible right now. Israel and Iran are both very good at viral disinformation, and it is easy to find bubbles where everyone is convinced each side is definitely winning. Plus the red-pilled, conspiracy-curious right is split in two and arguing like mad.

@bostonreview.bsky.social just published a Forum on a recent (critical) post-mortem of US COVID policy, with responses from me and @cailinmeister.bsky.social, along with @adamjkucharski.bsky.social, Adam Gaffney, and @jonathanpjwhite.bsky.social. V. interesting! www.bostonreview.net/forum/how-di...

Who was this said about? "He is undoubtedly a genius, but he is also exceedingly temperamental and has almost ludicrously bad judgment."

Richard L. Garwin, a Creator of the Hydrogen Bomb, Dies at 97 www.nytimes.com/2025/05/14/s... Dick Garwin was such an incredible scientist and engineer, but he was very often in the shadows. Though I am very sorry to hear he has passed, I love the long and well-deserved obit from NYT.

I am dismayed to report that @cailinmeister.bsky.social now has a lower Erdos-Bacon number than me. There are no words. I appreciate privacy during this difficult period. That said, if anyone is looking for a young Tom Selleck in an upcoming Kevin Bacon film pls DM me.

Three new papers out on the philsci archive! Natural Theories, with Eleanor March (philsci-archive.pitt.edu/25019/) Spacetime Models for Cosmology (CLMPST 23, for Roberto Torretti -- philsci-archive.pitt.edu/25018/) On (Some) Gauge Theories of Gravity (PSA 24 -- philsci-archive.pitt.edu/25017/)

@cailinmeister.bsky.social Nice mention in the Atlantic today! www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Anyone been to uci.edu lately?

Undergrads interested in philosophy of science? Please share that applications are open for our summer development program! lpssdp.com?fbclid=IwY2x...

Surprised by this Munich to London leg of my trip from Irvine to Bangalore.

Two new papers out today on "determinism" co-authored with the foundations of (a)symmetries dream team: @jimweatherall.bsky.social, Hans Halvorson, and Thomas Barrett. #philsci #philsky philsci-archive.pitt.edu/24881/ philsci-archive.pitt.edu/24883/

The deadline to register for Foundations of Physics 2025, in Gdansk Poland, is coming up next week! The process is confusing. To submit your abstract, you need to register for the meeting (no fee is charged!). Abstract submission is part of that process. philosophyofphysics.org/2024/11/foun...

#philsky #philsci Videos from the workshop on Symmetry and Structure that Clara Bradley and I organized in Irvine in September 2023 are now available online. Some very interesting stuff there! Enjoy! jamesowenweatherall.com/symmetry-and... youtube.com/playlist?lis...

Our workshop Humans, Math, and Machines is coming up this weekend. In-person registration is closed (because we are full!), but you can still register for remote participation. The event will not be recorded. I will distribute a Zoom link prior to the meeting. www.lps.uci.edu/workshops/ai...

New Element in Philosophy of Physics just published! Karen Crowther's "Why Do We Want a Theory of Quantum Gravity?" is available for free online for two weeks. www.cambridge.org/core/element...

@tobymeadows.bsky.social gave the coolest talk today in our Logic seminar. I feel like everything that has ever kept me up at night about theoretical equivalence has been resolved.

Workshop announcement! #philsci #philsky #ai #math Jesse Wolfson (UCI Math, LPS) and I are organizing a meeting on what math is for and how AI can contribute. March 7 & 8, with a great interdisciplinary lineup! www.lps.uci.edu/workshops/ai...

Another great new Element! This one is Gauge Theory and the Geometrisation of Physics, by Henrique Gomes. Free for two weeks, so get it now! #philsky #philsci ⚛️ www.cambridge.org/core/element...

Very happy to share the newest entry in the Elements in Philosophy of Physics series: Causation in Physics, by Christopher Weaver. This one is permanently open access, courtesy of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champagne. www.cambridge.org/core/element...

I really vibed with today's connections.

Excited to share that LPS is hosting a workshop in two weeks to mark the publication of Jeff Barrett's new book, Self-Assembling Games, which extends his paper with Brian Skyrms with the same title. Book link isn't up on Oxford's site yet, but workshop info here: www.lps.uci.edu/workshops/sa...

Re: some of the takes On Here about how climate denialism works/has worked, putting a plug in for @jimweatherall.bsky.social and @cailinmeister.bsky.social’s book, which details the history of what I’d call weaponized bothsidesism and whataboutism in the lobbying world:

I just heard Robert Waldinger say that the Boston Strangler (!) was part of the Harvard Study of Adult Development cohort?! Is this common knowledge?

Friends and followers in the UC system (especially quarter campuses, but also Berkeley and Merced): how much chatter are you hearing about the systemwide push to move to semesters? Have there been any announcements or opportunities to provide feedback? Are you aware that it's happening?

@cailinmeister.bsky.social and I will be presenting at the upcoming @apsphysics.bsky.social STP/JNIPER Joint Virtual Community Hour on Jan. 14 from 2 to 3 P.M. ET. Register here: apsphysics.zoom.us/meeting/regi... We will be talking about curation as misinformation (see link). Come join us!

#academicsky UC Irvine is looking for a new Vice Chancellor of Research. It's an exciting place to work, with a truly exceptional culture of interdisciplinarity and a lot of research talent and energy. Anyone interested, DM me and I will share the position profile.

#philsci #science New NAS report out today on Understanding and Addressing Misinformation About Science. One good feature is that it emphasizes a systems-level perspective: mis/disinformation are ecological effects, and not isolated pieces of info. www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/und...

#philsci #philsky #science

Craig Callender just described this as the "dream team of agnotology": @naomioreskes.bsky.social, @jevinwest.bsky.social, @cailinmeister.bsky.social, @katestarbird.bsky.social, and other stars not on bsky. UCSD Disinformation Summer Institute applications due Jan 31! tinyurl.com/5n8ndkxb

An 18-chapter volume on Levels of Explanation, co-edited with Katie Robertson. It's out in hardback on 31 Dec, but it's also open access and the PDF is already free to download: global.oup.com/academic/pro...

In this new article in American Psychologist we respond to critics in detail and clarify two key points for the field; (1) The prevalence of misinformation in society is substantial when properly defined. (2) Misinformation causally impacts attitudes and behaviors. psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...

"The Malament-Manchak theorem shows that we can’t know how time began – or even if it began." #physics #philsky #philsci

In London for about 24 hours, then Oxford for 24 hours after that. Very excited for the BLOC pre-read workshop tomorrow on my recent papers with Sam Fletcher and Eleanor March. So much philosophy, so little time!!

I don't think I disagree with this. I would only say that the epistemic value comes from the process of us engaging with the work and coming to understand and extend it, not from the generation of true propositions or their proofs.

Rather, it would be more like a mathematical collaborator: we would converse with it, ask it to find proofs, tell it why we found some proofs unsatisfactory even if correct, and so on. That is, we would have to be actively in the loop rather than just receiving the end product.

Another possibility, which I think may be closer to your view, is that the best one could hope for is an algorithm that is much more interactive. We would not be able to set it up once and for all and then use it as a wonderful discoverer and teacher of mathematics.