Latest piece on UBI here: www.greshm.org/blog/we-must... @alexhowlett.bsky.social @karlwiderquist.bsky.social @scottsantens.com @theubiguy.bsky.social

@scottsantens.com @michaelalewis10.bsky.social @theubiguy.bsky.social @maxghenis.bsky.social @basicincomeearth.bsky.social @basicincomeaustralia.com

Essay about the the recent study of unconditional cash and child development the NY Times covered: www.linkedin.com/posts/michae... @socio-steve.bsky.social @alexhowlett.bsky.social @karlwiderquist.bsky.social @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social @etvpod.bsky.social @amycastro.bsky.social

Well, I didn't see this coming: www.sublationmag.com/post/why-i-h... I first encountered J. Church's work about 6 years ago and was inspired to write this: medium.com/@michael.a.l... @etvpod.bsky.social @karlwiderquist.bsky.social @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social @socio-steve.bsky.social

Me and @jordanmossbx.bsky.social on open mic night in the Bronx: www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8GY... @karlwiderquist.bsky.social @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social @kevinzollman.com @stevenstrogatz.com @lastpositivist.bsky.social @etvpod.bsky.social @cailinmeister.bsky.social

Have come across the book Modeling Social Behavior by P. Smaldino. Wondering if folks have read it and what those who have think of it as an intro to agent-based modeling. @kevinzollman.com @cailinmeister.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social

Over 8M NYers will soon be getting inflation relief checks, but do we need a crisis to justify cash aid? @michaelalewis10.bsky.social & Eri Noguchi argue that targeted help has its place, but basic income is how we build lasting economic security. rooseveltinstitute.org/blog/an-equa...

This rooseveltinstitute.org/publications... just out

This may be of interest: www.cnn.com/2025/04/11/h... @karlwiderquist.bsky.social @scottsantens.com @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social

Just read this piece on Mill's "free speech" argument: philosophicaldisquisitions.blogspot.com/2018/11/mill... I'm a fan of free speech but wonder if Mills needs to be updated in a world where "disinfo," "misinfo," etc. can spread on social media in a matter of hours. Have any of you philosophers

I’m writing an expository paper on Bayesian stats and had to include some graphs. Instead of using my rusty R skills to try to figure out the code, I asked ChatGPT for it. In a matter of seconds it came up with code which provided exactly what I needed. As programming goes, the stuff I need to do

Protest outside of Gillibrand and Schumer’s office #senators.

My attempt at philosophy of statistics/science. I did correspond with @kevinzollman.com about it to, hopefully, keep me from saying something too off. But if I still did, I'm the one to blame. @gizem-karaali.bsky.social @karlwiderquist.bsky.social @socio-steve.bsky.social @stevenstrogatz.com

@etvpod.bsky.social I meant to post this on here in celebration of you completing your dissertation on moral luck but am just getting around to it: www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_hx... 😊 Congrats again!

I just spent the past almost 24 hours with my Japanese in-laws. If they are representative, then what I’ve often heard is true. Teachers/professors really are revered in Japan. Here, not so much. 😊 😊@karlwiderquist.bsky.social @gdivinetz.bsky.social @stevenstrogatz.com @kevinzollman.com

Just read this: www.thegauntlet.news/p/bidens-usd... Also, ChatGPT (hopefully it wasn't "hallucinating") says the mutation rate (in units of mutations/genome/replication) of a genome is mu*L. Here "mu" is mutation rate per nucleotide per replication and "L" is the length of the genome in

"It might seem inefficient to give people a benefit if you’re going to essentially take it back from them in taxes, but what you actually end up with is a much more efficient program that is more easily administered and doesn’t leave anyone out." This is why UBI. 👇 www.vox.com/policy/39322...

Reading this report on the use of AI in allocating public benefits like SSI, SNAP, Medicaid, Medicare, etc.: static1.squarespace.com/static/65a1d... It's long but just by skimming it you'll see how AI can be a barrier to people getting benefits, they're entitled to.

Not exactly about UBI but I think in more or less the same "neighborhood": jacobin.com/2024/12/capi... @karlwiderquist.bsky.social @socio-steve.bsky.social @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social @etvpod.bsky.social @scottsantens.com

"The cash seems to motivate participation in community work, while the community work catalyzes the impact of the cash. We saw this especially in the formation of a labor union among the garbage collectors participating in our experiment in India." UBI 🤝 unions theconversation.com/we-cant-beli...

This piece www.weforum.org/stories/2017... by @scottsantens.com was written in 2017 soon after Trump’s first win. While rereading it, I was struck by what I think is Scott’s claim that a UBI might neutralize at least some of Trump’s appeal. Curious to hear what UBI folks think about this.

Statistician doing philosophy of probability: flowingdata.com/2024/12/19/p... @kevinzollman.com

You read this post and some part of you thinks he must be exaggerating, but no, they’re rolling out the “parents need the right to send their kids to religious schools so they get pregnant earlier” argument. Pretty ironic given the whole moral panic over teen pregnancies.

This piece is interesting ravenmagazine.org/magazine/why... and I predict that academic freedom and freedom of speech will become much more of a thing in the coming months. I liked a lot of what the author said in the piece, but also found some of it troubling. His view is that in order for our

Just read an engineer's response to the question of whether math is discovered or invented. He said that axioms are invented, their consequences (theorems) are discovered, and that it's no big deal philosophically. Then he said that the consequences of axioms "have to be there" in some sense.

A Trump-appointed judge just struck down a Biden rule expanding overtime pay to 4 million working people. It's really surprising how little media coverage this has received. Trump faced no real questions about this issue during the campaign. 1/ (link) newrepublic.com/article/1886...

Might be of interest to the academic types on here: fnl.mit.edu/1736/the-pro... @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social @kevinzollman.com @stevenstrogatz.bsky.social @karlwiderquist.bsky.social @socio-steve.bsky.social @etvpod.bsky.social @seanmcarroll.bsky.social @cailinmeister.bsky.social

I just listened to this www.cmu.edu/dietrich/soc... about CMU's newish institute. What @kevinzollman.com says near the end about multidisciplinary work is exactly what I've tried to do. Where was your institute when I was starting out 30 years ago? 😊 😊

Think @kevinzollman.com might be interested in this too.

A nice overview of what philosophers have to say about luck here: www.voidpod.com/podcasts @etvpod.bsky.social @karlwiderquist.bsky.social @socio-steve.bsky.social @alexhowlett.bsky.social @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social

I think those Swifties might be on to something 😊: www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5Ic... Love this song. @socio-steve.bsky.social @karlwiderquist.bsky.social @kevinzollman.com

My criticism of the automation-argument for Basic Income, "Why wait until the robots take our jobs? We need a basic income now" is out on OpenDemocracy, 23 September 2024 @scottsantens.com @michaelalewis10.bsky.social

If you’re interested in the math behind machine learning, the book Why Machines Learn by Anil Ananthaswamy is very good. Well, the half I’ve read so far is. @kevinzollman.com @seanmcarroll.bsky.social @socio-steve.bsky.social

Near the end of the book Making Democracy Count by Ismar Volic; highly recommend it. And the Electoral College is even worst than I'd remembered. @kevinzollman.com @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social @karlwiderquist.bsky.social @scottsantens.com @alexhowlett.bsky.social

Next week, Michael Lewis (@michaelalewis10.bsky.social) will moderate a panel on UBI and Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) with me, Scott Santens (@scottsantens.com), and Karl Widerquist (@karlwiderquist.bsky.social). You'll leave the session with more questions than answers! www.thebigconference.org

Listened to street epis epi of ETV and moral realism came up. For philosophers who are moral realists, what are the objectively true moral claims? I suppose that "it's wrong to torture people for fun" might be one or some generalized version of that. Others? @etvpod.bsky.social @kevinzollman.com

This: plato.stanford.edu/entries/demo... was an interesting piece to read, as I'm thinking about how many people are saying that "democracy will be on the ballot" this fall. Wish for more attention to economic democracy, [email protected] @kevinzollman.com @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social

Reading about latent class analysis and wondering about the metaphysical assumptions on which that approach is based. One of you philosophers somewhere must've written something about this, right? @kevinzollman.com @erikangner.com

Anyone on here heard of BP International? My colleague got an email from them encouraging her to have a paper the two of us did published as a book chapter. I read the email and it sounded kind of “scamy” to me. @kevinzollman.com

Do any of you philosophers on here know of a paper, book, or something which tries to analyze the concept of “settler colonialism” in the way that you philosophers are known to do? @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social @kevinzollman.com

1) This may fall into the category of dumb questions but here goes. Although I have had covid twice, in the last 4 years I’ve only had 2 or 3 common colds. Part of that time was in lockdown. But part of it I’ve been out in the world. I’ve also had all the covid vaccines one can get. Here’s the

Listened to a podcast by @seanmcarroll.bsky.social where he discusses his view that LLMs don't think like humans. Is there anyone claiming that they do think like humans, assuming they think at all? @etvpod.bsky.social

Been hearing a lot recently about settler colonialism. For those who study this or adjacent areas, is colonizers racializing the colonized considered a necessary feature of this type of colonialism? @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social @kevinzollman.com @karlwiderquist.bsky.social

For you philosophers on here, what are the most important ideas from philosophy of science/social science, you think social scientists should be familiar with? @kevinzollman.com @etvpod.bsky.social

Lately, I’ve reading about probability as extended logic, the Jaynes stuff, that is, and I’m finding it pretty intuitive. Wondering what you folks in philosophy and decision theory think about it. @jowolff.bsky.social @kevinzollman.com

For the phil on here. I’m a non-pro philosopher with an interest in phil currently reading Guy Axtell’s book Objectivity, in which he discusses Kant’s distinction between noumena and phenomena. How do contemp phil of sci regard this distinction? @kevinzollman.com

1/ Reading about what phil have to say about theories of truth and objectivity and think I’m a realist. Theory ladennes, background knowledge, etc. influencing our interpretations notwithstanding, what we believe and what is really the case can be diff. Does any contemporary phil really deny this?