“A madman is not someone who has lost his reason but someone who has lost everything but his reason” ― G K Chesterton

So, THIS is happening "Rewild the Internet: How to Resist Big Tech" will be published by Simon & Schuster in NY and Bloomsbury in London. Every bit of power we take from Big Tech takes it away from autocrats like Trump. Showing how is what I'm doing to meet this moment. (tk u @robin.berjon.com)

It has been the honor of my work life to serve the people of Colorado as a professor at CU Boulder, and to have my colleagues' support—today, with a medal recognizing tenure. I'm wearing a sweater from my grandfather, an earlier Prof. Schneider.

The best cognitive bias is the bias blindspot, though other people seem to have it much more than me.

Looking forward to this book!

excited to share that we are following through on our earlier commitments and putting together an independent+neutral organization to house the DID PLC system, includes the directory service

I am thrilled to have taken a position with the @princetoncitp.bsky.social and the @princetonainews.bsky.social. I am still on the hunt for something permanent. If you hear of any tenure-track positions in AI ethics, philosophy, STS, information & data science or similar, please let me know!

Strong agree. This applies to science and tech as well (and probably lots of other domains)

Useful distinction on care vs choice: "The logic of choice is detached and disinterested, ignoring the relational contexts in which people are situated" Care, on the other hand, "represents a critique of liberal individualism by emphasising relationality and interdependence"

Epic brainstorming session! From deep technical knowledge to broad networking for ecosystem collaborations, we're super grateful for @bmann.ca 's above-and-beyond guidance 💙

We live in insane times

Clay Higgins sent a letter to Bluesky and other social media sites threatening investigations if they don't censor speech critical of Charlie Kirk. They don't even know who Jay is because they addressed her as "gentleman." clayhiggins.house.gov/wp-content/u...

Some serious cooking with @bmann.ca & @ronent.bsky.social about Semble. Never thought I’d hear Boris say “my brain is mush” from too much #atproto talk. Excited to share out our roadmap for all of this.

Had a great time today IRL brainstorming with @nickmvincent.bsky.social around collective bargaining x researcher-owned data x semble.so @cosmik.network @pouriade.com @wesleyfinck.org

This. Much of the "AI Scientist" community focuses on an instrumentalist rather taylorist approach to science. What about the goal of "knowing" and "understanding" the world? 1/15 #ScienceOfAIMediatedScience #ScAISci #AI4Science

We need new rules for publishing AI-generated research. The teams developing automated AI scientists have customarily submitted their papers to standard refereed venues (journals and conferences) and to arXiv. Often, acceptance has been treated as the dependent variable. 1/

Such a wise and timely essay. 1) Attending is a moral skill. Human flourishing requires “the capacity to attend—steadily, generously, and well.” >

"Either we increase our capacity for learning at scale, or we may be forced to abandon the projects and ideals of an open society—with disastrous consequences ... We have little choice but to learn new ways to make sense of the world together, in a new kind of public sphere."

Jazzed for some IRL co-working time with the @cosmik.network Vancouver crew (@wesleyfinck.org @pouriade.com) and @bmann.ca at @z-space.ca ! ✨

Met up with @bmann.ca and met some of the folks behind @cosmik.network @wesleyfinck.org and @pouriade.com today in Vancouver. Love hearing about all the new things going on in the #atproto community. Also @z-space.ca is pretty sweet. Thanks for having me! Hopefully see y’all again soon!

“Ultimately, intelligence isn’t the problem, so superintelligence isn’t the solution. What we need is a political and economic movement that can deeply democratize all aspects of life” Finished Why we fear AI by @hagenblix.bsky.social & Ingeborg Glimmer and I heartily recommend it! Some thoughts >🧵

Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia: doi.org/10.5281/zeno... We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity. 1/n

Yeah sure why not

Micropublishing -> Mycopublishing 🍄

Microdosing knowledge with micropublications🍄 Micropublications are a powerful concept but with poor branding. They are still pretty niche, and even for those who know about them, they don’t have a great rep - they’re seen as preliminary results that aren’t as polished or exciting as full papers. >

We're ramping up our funding efforts at @anew.social to ensure we can run Bridgy Fed and Bounce for the long run. As a non-profit, we want to be as community-funded as possible, so we're focusing on ways to make that easier. A quick thread about where we're at in terms of funds: (1/3)🧵

Productivity tools need community more than AI, @stephango.com, @obsidian.md CEO.

"Mycorrhizae play such a fundamental role in transmitting information between plant and fungal organisms that some researchers have drawn parallels between the Common Mycorrhizal Network (CMN) and our internet network, leading to talk of the Wood Wide Web (Read, 1997)"

Ok I think we've raced far enough to the bottom. How about we race to the top now

Great piece, also good to reflect on for those of us working on sensemaking technology "It’s possible, in fact, that the DIKW pyramid might work in reverse, ... I think this is what T. S. Eliot meant when he asked ... 'Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?'" harpers.org/archive/2025...

I really think imagining what it would mean to develop technology for life, rather than for profit is a serious task of the political imaginary. The way things are now are so dire and dreadful, but there is also so much room beyond capitalist realism here

America built a country around driving a multi-ton metal box at extremely high speeds, and then said, well it would be too cruel to take away the right to drive the box from anyone, they need that box to get to work and get food. In a sensible country connected by transit, she'd lose her license.

A really interesting interview with the head of Cloudflare about content distribution. Not about social directly, but lots of connection points here. If he's right, the world of publishing is going through quite a transformation real quick. There will be impacts on "us".

Interesting (and visceral) thought... "a decentralized, market Stalinist bureaucracy, is far more Kafkaesque than one in which there is a central authority." From "Why We Fear AI" @hagenblix.bsky.social (loving it so far!) www.commonnotions.org/why-we-fear-ai

Too many academics and researchers think they have to come in the room already knowing the answer to everything and that's not good for organizing. Cuz organizing often involves trying to figure out what to do together.

she slayed www.cnbc.com/2025/08/29/b...

@cosmik.network is building a new network for scientific research on top of AT Protocol — leveraging both the growing science community on Bluesky and its open source, decentralized infrastructure. Semble is worth keeping an eye on! 👀 cosmik.network

I finally read computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum’s 1976 classic “Computer Power and Human Reason.” This book deserves a massive revival in our current age of grotesque and largely thoughtless AI creep into everything:

Think about what kind of experience you can build ON TOP of AT Protocol to build a new relationship with readers beyond mere “engagement” ✨ #ProtocolsForPublishers

Put another way, it's as if someone made a real life version of AI-slop in an effort to align reality with the slop.

I love this quote. Noticing that it actually works really well as a general approach for wicked problems Tired: Techno-solutionism Wired: Rilke-solutionism

Holy fucking shit

“On legacy platforms, every dollar spent goes to the coffers of capricious billionaires - on Graze, it goes to the people [the feed operators]” 1) no idea ROI was so low on other platforms, yike 2) ad $ spent goes to normal humans running feeds for communities - not billionaires LOVE TO SEE IT 💖

Just two random headlines on the same day

🚨BREAKING: We filed a lawsuit in California state court against OpenAI for defective product design and wrongful death after ChatGPT encouraged and aided a 16-year-old California boy’s suicide — including by providing detailed instructions on how to hang himself in the final hours of his life. 🧵

Great essay from @frank.computer! "A chair orders you to sit and sit in a particular way, by its design. Your being is intended through the tool: you are intended to sit still, face forward, and behave. Artificial intelligence works in exactly the same way."

Answer (b) of course! "commitment to build a system of our own" 💪

"For academics trapped in the moribund ecosystem of scholarly publishing and its various “transformative” models, which will come first—the collapse and ruin of decrepit budget models, or a collective refusal and commitment to build a system of our own?" katinamagazine.org/content/arti...

New paper w/ @spold.bsky.social. We introduce new methods to critique linguistic interfaces of AI chatbots, theorize one of ChatGPT's central engagement mechanics as the "praise/prompt envelope," and preview artworks that attune users to see its aesthetics of engagement dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...

My drawn statement on Ai as standalone from my now finished minicomic as syllabus for new liberal studies class! As promised this is shareable, printable - all from my site, feel free to make use of it, cite me & let me know how it’s received. Share away all here! spinweaveandcut.com/fall-2025-sy...