JOB ALERT: Come work with me in the History Department and Africana Studies Program at Carleton! We are hiring a TT assistant professor in African history. The position is open to all geographical and thematical subfields in African history. 🗃️ #EduSky #Blackademics africanstudies.org/jobs/tenure-...

I’ve spent more than a year reporting on how the fossil fuel industry has infiltrated academia over the last 30 years, shaping fundamental paradigms on how to address climate change. My first story in the new @propublica.org and @drilledmedia.bsky.social series, “Carbon Captured”, is out today.

Once again tapping the book cover

Three things said about AI and social science: it's a topic to study, a thing to critique, a tool to use. My new Daedalus essay argues these aren't three conversations; they're one. A 🧵 on "Field Theory: AI as Social Science Question, Object, and Tool." www.amacad.org/publication/...

It's publication day for The Broken Machine (@mitpress.bsky.social)! The book explores the intertwined histories of breaking machines, social order, and the self in the modern Atlantic, revealing how failing technologies have also shaped our world. mitpress.mit.edu/978026255334... #sts #histtech

Funny how people complain that the new arXiv policy is too harsh. If anything, it's still way too lenient. Getting caught with AI slop should result in a permanent, publicly viewable (in the form of a hall of shame) ban and retroactive redaction of all previous arXiv submissions. #AcademicSky (1/4)

Preprinted! Been working on this for ~1 year w wonderful coauthors Nancy & Mark: > Understanding Artificial Neural Networks: Mysterianism about Known Mechanism is Mysticism doi.org/10.5281/zeno... Have you noticed many experts say they don't understand AI? What's going on? 🤯 Let us tell you... 1/

Last weekend I received the Troland Research Award from the @nationalacademies.org. I’m so grateful to the communities who made this work possible. It's strange to receive this award at a time when much of the work being recognized is not eligible for federal funding. My remarks 👇 and a 🧵>>

The summer semester just started here in Berlin, which means our annual speaker series is about to kick off. If you're in the area, feel free to join us at the JFK Institute for any (or all) of these colloquium sessions (Wednesdays at 4pm). Link: www.jfki.fu-berlin.de/en/faculty/l...

In the Stanford Daily today. stanforddaily.com/2026/04/13/a...

WHAT WE KNOW, 11pm: —Liberals flip seat on Wisconsin supreme court. —Also flip important school board seats in WI, OK, MO. —Dems win Waukesha mayor race. —GOP defends MTG's seat, but Dems way overperform. —Big MO county rejects property tax freeze.

Alt text: a function to match negative keywords. Instead of using the large language model which it literally is, a constant called negativePattern that is just a shitty 2000's forum style regex of cuss words: looking for the word shit(ty|ttiest) or (shit|crap|junk) or what the (fuck|hell|fucking)

Congratulations to The Drift’s Senior Editor @erikmbaker.bsky.social! His book, “Make Your Own Job,” just won the 2026 Merle Curti Intellectual History Award from the Organization of American Historians. www.oah.org/2026/03/26/o...

Hivemind: looking for a couple of readings to add to a #histstm class regarding FDA and its founding. #histmed #sts. Suggestions welcome!

The answer is to amend the constitution of the AHA, striking VII.4 (which allows vetoes) and adding a new part of V.2 with a mechanism for membership to place something on the agenda even over objection of the council-it could be like a discharge petition (eg on the Epstein files.)

Back in the late 1960s, Mondale proposed creating a national Council of Social Advisers, which would draw on social science to support a liberal reform agenda. This initiative's failure symbolized the collapsing faith in the possibility of well-informed progressive state muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/artic...

With great joy—and a touch of nervousness—I’m thrilled to share that my first academic monograph will be published by @mitpress.bsky.social in May 2026! It examines the organism–environment relationship in biology from an integrated #HPS perspective: mitpress.mit.edu/978026205282... #evosky #philsky

Silicon Valley is a creature of the Cold War, nourished for decades at the trough of funding provided by the DoD.

A social sciences and humanities reading list on AI in education 🧵

Public Policy Research Fellow position ('25-'27) at the Centre for History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Leeds! Come work with me on my Wellcome Research Project on 'Moral Babies' and the 'Science' of Infancy in 19th-century America and Britain. jobs.leeds.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...

A fluff piece for Mechanical Turk “robots” “the technician spoke for Neo and remotely guided its hands via a virtual reality headset and two wireless joysticks. Robots are still learning to navigate the world on their own. And they need a lot of help doing it” www.nytimes.com/2025/04/04/t...

Office of @raskin.house.gov provided a letter template to officially request your federal personal data from DOGE in accordance with the Privacy Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552a(d)(1) and this could be interesting jamieraskin.com/doge-privacy...

New from me: radleybalko.substack.com/p/three-thin...

Out a bit late for the 50th Anniversary of #Asilomar-- my #openaccess article on its local resonances in the Greater Boston Area and its impact on the development of #biotechnology. Come for the orange eyed monsters, stay for the financial engineering. #histSTM #STS link.springer.com/article/10.1...

The first issue of History of Social Science (brand new journal with @pennpress.bsky.social) is published in free access. Please share widely! muse.jhu.edu/issue/54109

First issue of the brand-new journal History of Social Science. Decompartmentalising the history of social science is a really good thing. Lots of great-looking articles! Long live this new journal : muse.jhu.edu/issue/54109

For some reason the Chicago author of this “heterodox” doesn’t mention economics in the list of fields that used their specialized knowledge and overreach inquisitivemag.org/articles/the...

McKnight Foundation stands up for core values - this is how its done! mailchi.mp/mcknight/com...

Don't forget to register for the Yale Gilder Lehman Center's conference next week on Universities + the Histories of Race, Science + Medicine. I'm speaking, along with @ayahnerd.bsky.social, @jowiph.bsky.social, Carolyn Roberts, David Blight + more! macmillan.yale.edu/glc/2025-ann...

The National Academies have scrubbed their action plan for diversity equity and inclusion. For archival purposes, does anyone have a pdf?, nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/2691...

Coming around to the view that a certain kind of narcissist simply needs Musk to be a genius rather than a fraud, because they want to believe there’s a hereditary Brahmin class of accomplished, beautiful minds—and that they’re a part of that class.

From an idea in 2008 to a book in 2025, ECHOES OF CARE: DEAFNESS IN MODERN BRITAIN has been published by @mcgillqueensup.bsky.social ! It explores how changing perceptions of deafness intersected with healthcare, disability, and eugenics in 19th-century Britain. www.mqup.ca/echoes-of-ca...

Look, I'm hardly one to defend DEI, but this is an incredibly poorly-reasoned article that bases its prescriptive argument on *incredibly* flimsy grounds. www.vox.com/politics/399...

BREAKING: Federal judge temporarily blocks NIH indirect costs rate cap issued Friday as applied to states that sued over the act this morning. Judge Angel Kelley, a Biden appointee, ordered further briefing as well, and set a hearing on Feb 21 in the case. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

I am beyond excited to announce the imminent arrival of my book. Operationism in Psychology. An Epistemology of Exploration: press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo... Brief chapter summaries below (1/10)

Hello All, I have an essay out in the LA Review of Books, on ‘The Politics of Pigmentation.’ lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-... Huge thanks to @emilam.bsky.social, John Jackson Jr, Bill Jordan, and the Cornell STS group for comments.

BU suspends PhD admissions in American and New England studies, anthropology, classical studies, English, history, history of art and architecture, linguistics, philosophy, political science, religion, Romance studies, and sociology. www.insidehighered.com/news/admissi...

Hi everyone, I am happy to report that my review of Hans-Jörg Rheinberger's 2023 book (Split and Splice: A Phenomenology of Experimentation) is now online #philsci, #philbio, #philpsy, #hps, #sts, #histsci, #histSTM

I'm putting together a history of medicine (broadly defined) starter pack. Please let me know if I missed you. And please share and make suggestions for people to include And remember - "medicine" is a lot bigger than orthodox medicine/biomedical science, despite what they say go.bsky.app/KzT74Ai

@himself.bsky.social really killed it with this latest essay on the inputs and outputs of LLMs. Feels like this ought to be read in tandem with Ted Chiang's recent piece on A.I. and art. www.programmablemutter.com/p/after-soft...

The definitive piece on what Trump's mass deportation plan would involve is by @radleybalko.bsky.social who understands the stakes and has no fantasies about the law and the courts radleybalko.substack.com/p/trumps-dep...

More support for the theory that OpenAI is equal parts “never have an original idea” + “steal other people’s work because you’re constitutionally incapable of imagining anything on your own”—with a hefty dollop of “fetishize women and refuse to take no for an answer.”

This essay covers a lot of the same ground as you'll find in my dissertation: questions about knowledge, what makes a mind, trust, beliefs & values, politics, perception, & "AI" technology, & warnings & recommendations about what we need to do about all of it. Oh & i wrote it over 7 years ago. 🙃🫠🤷🏾‍♂️