I watched #OneBattleAfterAnother last night. Interesting to see it as an American living in Hong Kong. Obviously the cultural and political elements hit hard, but my geographical remoteness allows a viewing that’s perhaps less immediate. Still processing, but some thoughts. Slight spoilers 1/9

Guy whose definitely going to go 10 minutes over in his talk: we’re already a little late, so I’ll keep this brief

I’m attending a consultation for the Christian Conference of Asia on AI I. Malaysia. I’ve already done my portion, and we’re off to a good start! www.cca.org.hk/news/interna...

#NihilismAndTechnology This is bleak. Let’s burn the forests to make our students stupider in the name of capital.

When I went to Hong Kong to work, everyone I knew warned me about being careful what I say. Weird how a territory of China has more liberty than Texas

One of the surreal things about staying in hotels in different places in Asia is seeing what’s on TV. There seems to always be one English-language channel but it either only shows Australian programming or low-budget thrillers.

Putting “You absolute” before Asian pastry names yields a whole new level of insult

So nearly all flights to Taipei tomorrow are canceled due to #TyphoonRagasa except mine which either means I’m very lucky or, as one colleague pointed out, I may die🤷‍♂️

I’m cited on the Social Anthropology page, but whoever cited me probably didn’t read my article.

There’s a 45-50 year-old woman in a skin-tight dress dancing on the metro to the music in her AirPods and it’s probably the closest I’ve been to living a David Lynch movie

One of the best rhetorical victories of the industrial age was making the popular uprising of the Luddites synonymous with being anti-tech and socially regressive. We need to reclaim narratives

Participated in this consultation I last week in Pocheon-si South Korea. It was a very rewarding experience and I’m grateful I could contribute to the WCC’s response to AI. A communique will be forthcoming. And you can spot me at the podium in this thumbnail. www.cwmission.org/news/spotlig...

This is the same energy as comic book writers declaring Batman is a super genius while he fails to understand rudimentary connections between local poverty and crime rates. When you don’t understand the limits of your own understanding, it’s easy to be dazzled by sophisticated bullshit

Given that Wyatt Earp basically invented the Western, and given that it’s all based on two specific events in Tombstone and Dodge City, I think it’s safe to say the whole US gun fetish owes its legacy to one washed up lawman advising Hollywood studios 100 years ago.

I may be wrong about this, but I feel like one of the reasons transhumanism is such a vapid philosophy is it lacks any real soul. I don’t know that transhumanists really have hearts that beat in their chests. All their art is kitsch, their anthropologies culture-less, and their futures bleak.

New article just published in NanoEthics on #AIEthics from a specifically Asian perspective, including specific Asian concerns and Asian philosophical frameworks. rdcu.be/eyMoN

Yes, certainly, but let’s also note how amazingly stupid this is. I currently do control my computer with hand gestures. What the hell do they think typing is? Hopefully this fails worse than their Second Life knock-off corporate simulator

I think we don’t talk about how big of a phenomenon #ThePrinceofEgypt was. You had Val Kilmer, Jeff Goldblum, Ralph Fiennes, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sandra Bullock, Steve Martin and Martin Short all voicing this religious kids’ movie.

A point I made in my dissertation, which I think is still deeply relevant, is the way we imagine the future. Consider these two Peaceable Kingdom artworks.

One of the funniest things about being back in the States is hearing Americans tell other Americans that their journey from one time zone away is “really far”

I’ve been involved in ecumenical and interreligious conversations around AI for over 5 years, and it’s really interesting how different denominations think about the technology. Surprisingly, the biggest difference I’ve notice in intrareligious rather than interreligious. Some observations:

“Tim Fletcher, professor of urban ecohydrology at the University of Melbourne, said 19.7 gigalitres accounted for about 4 per cent of Melbourne's total water use, and would be a "substantial" increase if approved” www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07...

New British swears just dropped

Enjoy some doodles. The second is my daughter’s recreation of the Anakin-Obi Wan lightsaber duel, and the one following is Obi Wan-Greivous

How much LLM evangelizing comes down to promoting a less accurate, more environmentally destructive version of Wikipedia?

Behold, I teach you the Overman. K-pop is something to be overcome. What have you done to overcome it?

Spotted in the wild at #SPT2025, my co-edited book with Benedict Chan on Asian approaches to AI

Yesterday’s in-person panelists in the symposium on democratic technologies in Asia at #SPT2025. Highlights include energy communities in South Korea, technological perceptions around aging in Hong Kong, and sex workers’ use of CCTV

It’s honestly weird to promote technoprogressivism while deliberately denying the role of the Church in infusing this value in Western culture. Like you really believe in Utopianism while rejecting the worldview that fosters this.

Thats right! How dare the Church set us back by *checks notes* establishing universities, protecting libraries, patronizing the printing press and requiring its priests to be literate?

It’s really easy to forget Hong Kong is a concrete jungle surrounded by an almost literal jungle, until you walk into your twelfth floor bathroom at 11:30PM and find a gecko bro chilling in the corner

Americans really need better history lessons, and a better philosophical worldview. Evil does not equate to stupid. The Nazis embraced science. Supporting science doesn’t make you automatically good. In fact, that’s just a byline from eugenics, which is, in fact, bad.

Education has been one of America’s most important services in the past 50 or so years. Aside from this being a swan dive toward societal collapse, it’s also hamstringing the economy. But hey, Hong Kong is swooping in like a vulture to capture these displaced academics!

It’s a strange feeling to see the Pope discussing the same problems you’ve been working on for years. Let’s hope people in power listen more to the Pontiff than the glamour of silicon riches! www.vatican.va/content/leo-...

I don’t normally do a lot of self-promotion, but with Pope Leo XIV’s focus on AI and economic and labor justice, my work of the past 6 or so years is very timely. Starting off my monograph, which is specifically about poverty and AI. www.jstor.org/stable/jj.57...

The term “brainwash” is a literal translation of 洗腦, which typically refers to purifying the mind before important rituals in Confucianism and Daoism. It was picked up by American GIs in the Korean War who used it to describe mental conditioning to unconditionally support communism.

Should we stop taking tech bros seriously? “Can tech bros for once read something from a person who’s actually studied the issue? Do they even know how to?” our poster asks. “Many AI experts I know would say no, not yet, not even close. But I was intrigued.”

20,000 in ruby red Utah on their feet, in community, and ready to organize for a better world. A better world is possible.

In preparing a talk for a recent conference at Gonzaga, I briefly experienced the realization that the best analogy for AI ethics is battling a wildfire: most of it is trying to control damage or reduce destruction, but not really about promoting something good.

Delivered my first key note address. Odd experience, given that I took a sharp turn from the attitudes of most presenters in the conference, but it seemed to go over well enough!

In the US for a conference I’m keynoting. Weird experience. I almost called the airport bartender 老闆

If you didn’t know, the way we measure intelligence is a product of eugenicists inventing a new pseudoscience to prove white people were superior. Always keep that in mind when people laud the heights of artificial “intelligence.” It’s just digital phrenology via.library.depaul.edu/cgi/viewcont...

The truly scary thing is Altman’s deep divorce from reality doesn’t stop him from wielding great power, influencing politicians, hoarding billions of dollars and shifting public worldview to buy in to the AI true believer narrative. Btw, “superintelligence” is the world‘s most unimaginative idea.

After the state department cut reneged their grant like a capricious 5 year-old, they asked me to fill out this OMB report, and I honestly didn’t know how to answer this question without saying “Well, we *were* working with such an organization, but you just pulled our funding.”

Gave a talk this Monday at Tsinghua University in AI’s underlying instrumental rationality and how it is inherently anti-poor. Great feedback (and inspiration) from Chinese colleagues reflecting on what this means for China’s AI policy.

Gave a talk yesterday at Renmin University (中国人民大学) on Critical Theory, Jacques Lacan and how China can avoid “keeping up with the Joneses” in AI. Interesting engagement from the faculty and students and I hope this conversation can continue!!

Taught an interdisciplinary group of (mostly Chinese) humanities PhD students about liberation theology today. I’ve forgotten how much of my “evangelical” side is just “God became flesh and pitched his tent among us, and if that doesn’t blow your gourd, I don’t know what will.”

A few years ago, I had the lyric #It’sAllALotOfOystersWithNoPearls stuck in my head, and I couldn’t place it. And Google was worse than useless at helping me because it no longer functions as a search engine. Just listened to Counting Crows’ “Long December” and found it. Thnks 4 nuthin, Google!

It’s really amazing how much of before January, the left said: We need to stand up to extremism. And the right said: We’re going to crush everyone left of the KKK. And liberals shrugged and said both were exaggerating and now are shocked the boot is on *their* neck.

I’ve been asked to fill this questionnaire by the US state department for a grant. I’m wondering how I should answer this given that the government itself has been heavily involved in mass migration…