I’ve been reading the translation of Günther Anders’s “The Obsolescence of Man” off and on recently. As a philosopher, I was struck by how often he ascribes these mental states to others without engaging in their arguments (I.e., straw men). However, I’m starting to think he hit the nail on the head

At the #AustralianMuseum, you can make your own dinosaur. This one somehow looks uncannily like another famous predator.

Published a commentary on the Pope’s encyclical #MagnificaHumanitas in the #HongKong English-language diocesan paper: www.examiner.org.hk/2026/06/26/m...

Hong Kong academia believes in adherence to metrics with a dogmatism that would make hour Catholic Nona blush. Statistically, no more than 30% of students should be A range. What does that mean? In any given class, we shouldn’t give more than 30% As. That isn’t how averages work 1/9

Welp. First black rainstorm of the year😳 今年嘅第一次 黑雨

Finally put my thoughts on the new banger of an encyclical #MagnificaHumanitas to words. www.ethicsoftech.com/post/a-pope-...

If you ask me, one of the most interesting things about #MagnificaHumanitas is you get to see how Catholic teaching changes, at least if you’re paying attention. Let me explain. 1st, Catholic teaching can obviously change with new things added to it. 1/11

I’ve been working with the Holy See for the past 6 years on issues related to AI, so I’m very excited to see #MagnificaHumanitas come to light. No, I didn’t have any hand in writing it. But I can see traces of conversations I’ve been party to playing out in the text.

Not a surprise for those who know me. Probably not a surprise for my students even.

I started my first academic job 12 years ago. I worked at that school for 7 years. The first 3, I hoped they’d transition me to tenure track. The last 4, I ended up being a union organizer and liaison, the only way I saw a COLA during my time. #AcademicSky

Yes, it’s true that AI steals your data, uses your water, worsens your climate, destabilizes your systems of trust, replaces your job, tells you lies, reinforces biases against at you, and raises your taxes, but it makes AI companies and their partners money, so it can’t be that bad!

So Google has announced both that they’re replacing search with AI, and are re-trying their famously hated glasses. These announcements come within a week of Larry Page getting seriously booed at the U of Arizona graduation for his speech praising AI. This doesn’t feel like a very wise move.

My small tip for people writing papers—do not start your paper being submitted to a journal on philosophy of technology with any variation of the following: “Artificial Intelligence is the most important/an inescapable/the defining technology/transforming everything/technology of the future…”

Name your top 15 tv shows ever. Gut instincts only Maniac Eureka Community The Boys Wilfred Living with Myself Todd Margaret Arrested Development Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency American Gods Umbrella Academy Sliders Lovecraft Country Watchmen Twin Peaks

New article in the current issue of Techné on Critical Theory of Technology and why a Lacanian reading of Herbert Marcuse helps us recognize that there is no true liberation (but we should still try). doi.org/10.5840/tech...

The DNC right now only has to *not* fuck up monumentally, but as history has proven, that’s sometimes too big of an ask of them

I keep seeing people on social media loudly proclaim they’re Catholic and they don’t stand with the Pope. This strikes me as a rather Evangelical attitude, as if you can just shop for a different Pope if the current one doesn’t cater to your sensibilities.

One supposes Vance prayerfully dissents from the CDF’s Instruction on the Ecclesial Vocation of the Theologian. www.vatican.va/roman_curia/...

The impression I get of this is (excuse my language), Barron saw Trump’s crash out and had his own like: fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. Trump said WHAT? How the fuck am I supposed to defend that?! I don’t want to be another fucking STRICKLAND!

It’s really funny that “Conclave”’s vision of a progressive pope was that he’d be intersex, but in real life the American Pope pisses off all sorts of conservatives for just saying the most normal Catholic things.

While it’s good to point out when Westerners get nonsensical tattoos in another language like Chinese or Arabic, what I’ve learned in Asia is the reverse phenomenon is absolutely true, though with t-shirts. Nothing like seeing a “Boston, Massachubatts” or “To live is a fuck” in public.

Happy Good Friday! Did you know Blackie Lawless, the lead singer of WASP who wrote songs like “Fuck Like a Beast” and “Harder, Faster” became a Christian late in his career and wrote one of the most powerful crucifixion ballads I’ve heard? youtu.be/lq5UQ8gWU-A?...

Sex work is legal in Hong Kong. Within limits. One of the most common charges against sex workers then, is “working without a visa.” But it’s *mostly* trafficked people who are arrested on that charge in stings like this. I wish ImmD would focus on real crime www.thestandard.com.hk/news/article...

Free registration! ICAEW and Hong Kong Baptist University Ethics Series Webinars: cae.hkbu.edu.hk/academic-act... 23 April 2026: @lchecketts.bsky.social 14 May 2026: @bwwong.bsky.social 3 June 2026: @drybis.bsky.social 30 July 2026: @gillianchuphd.bsky.social 20 August 2026: Dr Rachel Robertson

One of my biggest flaws is I tend to talk about faith when I’m drunk, but skirt around it when I’m sober. On the whole, the paranoiac, “Deus Vult” masochistic Christians of brittle but loud faith embarrass me. But in my deepest heart, I love my Jesus who stoops down to heal the broken sinner.

Kind of weird to see your face on a big banner

Going to give a bunch of lectures in Seoul next week on AI and climate change, and Critical Theory of Technology and Liberation Theology.

Just saw this review of my book in @jmoraltheology.bsky.social . Always a bit surreal to read people discussing my work, but I’m honored at the fairly positive appraisal by Professor Traina here! jmt.scholasticahq.com/article/1550...

As a Utahn, I’m regularly embarrassed by the state and have no intentions in my life to permanently resettle because of the absolutely regressive politics running the show. To think, another world was once possible… en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christi...

This essay is, imo, a good peel back of the cultural and academic tensions at play at Notre Dame. The two events in question happened during my undergrad years, but Smith’s delayed outrage seems misbegotten given how they were resolved in their time www.commonwealmagazine.org/kaveny-young...

In HK, many grocery stores and convenience stores sell condoms right at the register. My 8-year-old asks me what they are, and I don’t really answer to avoid a conversation in the checkout I don’t want. Eventually she ask, “Is it for false mating?”

When you understand this, you see there are two types of AI ethics discussions: 1. Purely fantastical thought experiments about machine gods and moral machines. 2. Practical discussion about real harms caused by these technologies to specific people. 1 is navel gazing. 2 is real-world engagement.

As a parent, I think the thing about Weapons that seems most realistic is that 3rd grade is absolutely the age when kids would be peak feral horror

If you want to understand why John Woo is one of the all time bests, all you need to know is in this scene. youtu.be/3Sqfj5_hnHY?...

Happy Lunar New Year to all who celebrate! 新年快樂！ 새해복많이바드세요!

4 most recent HK Bishops’ coats of arms: Stephen Chow (current bishop), Michael Yeung, John Tong, and Joseph Zen. I love that almost all of them have the HK skyline, but I’m bewildered at ++Chow’s giraffe and Golden Gate Bridge? Maybe it’s a bridge between HK and Chinese Mainland, but a giraffe?

Recent government documents prove that there *is* a minority population in the US who are far more likely to commit serious crimes and whom you should seriously distrust simply for their belonging to this group. Unfortunately, billionaires control politics and the economy, so don’t expect justice

Having lived in Hong Kong for now 4 years, I decided to go back to Sleeping Dogs to see how it compares. First impression is the city in the game is nothing like HK. Obviously vg maps are never as big the place they represent, but even the geography, is messed up. Here are real and in-game districts

It really feels like the past decade is shrouded with this fog of amnesia. How did Americans elect Trump a second time? How did they forget the anger at Obama’s deportation and war policies? How did they forget about the Proud Boys and other fascist agitators?

Remember when China was seen as this reckless country with no safety standards and a penchant for the cheap over the reliable?

So a guy I mentioned in the opening of my chapter on why AI guys are perverts shows up in 4000 of the Epstein files…

In Hong Kong, we have this store called Muji which is kind of a Japanese IKEA + Uniqlo and also sells some foodstuffs, and for some reason plays Irish music for their in-store playlist.

It’s really wild to watch what’s happening in the US now because if it had been any other country, the red-blooded right wingers would likely be the first to call out government coverups and obvious state overreach.

We’re having a conference on peace and conflict at my school this week which we’ve been planning for months now. Speakers coming from Europe, across Asia, Middle East, US. I wonder how often Mr Trump’s actions will be mentioned in these two days?

I had a student retake my class this semester. I didn’t know what to expect from her this time around, but as I’m marking her exam, I see she knocks the first essay question out of the park. Second one is also strong, but a bit off. Last one is totally parallel but written with confidence.

I’ve been saying for a while that AI is not inevitable, nor is it something we should just allow to happen. Proof that we need to stand up and that those in power don’t want us to www.commondreams.org/news/ai-data...

I watched The Running Man while sitting next to a 60 year-old Hong Kong woman who made occasional comments about Glenn Powell in Cantonese to me, and honestly, this is the only way to watch movies

A movie that takes place where you’re from. (I was surprised to discover this, btw)

Some personal news: I won an outstanding teaching award for my faculty!

The guy who gave HK its cinematic prowess for the latter half of the 20th century because no Hollywood project would give him a lead role, even for the show he created.