Baudrillard ‘was convinced that all [AI] really does is enable us to experience the “spectacle of thought” rather than engaging in thought itself. Doing so means we can put off thinking forever.’ French philosophers on ChatGPT theconversation.com/how-the-fren...

They could have called it The Charles Babbage Nondisruptive Lab at least :/

Just been invited to the launch event of a report considering the 'future of the UK's research system' where they will be considering the creation of disruption labs named after Ada Lovelace and the report will be introduced by a panel of five men

Looking forward to speaking at this event next week on a more community based economy. Featuring @anooshc.bsky.social @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social @patrickhurley.bsky.social @jamestplunkett.bsky.social & more. Register here www.powertochange.org.uk/event/event-...

Gift link: on.ft.com/4455d0e

FT editorial is right to ask questions about governance and the Board at the BBC on.ft.com/3WQmPJr

Mark Damazer having a doubly good day today being (1) chair of the Booker trustees and (2) not at the BBC

‘If multilingualism builds resilience against ageing, then encouraging additional language learning in schools, protecting migrant and minoritised languages… could be as important as campaigns that promote physical activity, or smoking cessation," www.thetimes.com/article/9b5b...

I wonder if people know that Joyce the MuskDestroyer (she really did) is 87.

What's lost when we lose staff, departments, programmes and faculties in Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, and what's that got to do with organ donation? Amid the looming losses faced by Cardiff, Edinburgh, Lancaster, Leicester and Nottingham (among many others), here's a worked example. 1/8

‘Is it institutionally biased? No. Is it institutionally unimaginative and insufficiently curious to all radical political ideas? Yes.’ @lewisgoodall.com on you know what goodallandgoodluck.substack.com/p/the-truth-...

At a time when humanities and social science courses are facing severe cutbacks I’ll be mounting a defence of them and their role in shaping a better future at this lecture at De Montfort University on 27 November. All welcome www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/shaping-a-...

Huge respect for the KFC in East Grinstead

What’s Alex Mahon up to these days? www.ft.com/content/a6e2...

New map compiled by archaeologists charts twice as many Roman roads as the standard reference work. Their sources include ancient travel itineraries, 19thC camel routes, Soviet military charts, Ottoman surveys and declassified American spy-satellite images. www.thetimes.com/article/335a...

If you liked that chart you may like this cartoon

‘When Adam Smith wrote “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer or the baker that we expect our dinner but from their regard to their own interest,” he omitted any discussion of the unpaid work of his mother (& later his sister) that went into cooking his dinner.’ on.ft.com/4olyOut

If you are feeling down about the state of Britain this has some cheery material about our strengths as seen from overseas including arts & culture, music, sport, universities and skills/talent economist.com/britain/2025...

If you are feeling down about the state of Britain this has some cheery material about our strengths as seen from overseas including arts & culture, music, sport, universities and skills/talent economist.com/britain/2025...

New map compiled by archaeologists charts twice as many Roman roads as the standard reference work. Their sources include ancient travel itineraries, 19thC camel routes, Soviet military charts, Ottoman surveys and declassified American spy-satellite images. www.thetimes.com/article/335a...

Am at the opticians but worried I got run over and I’m actually in the Bad Place

The inactivity rate for people aged 16 to 64 in July 2025 was 21%, lower than at any point before Nov 2018. Since 1971, there has been only one 15-month period – Dec 2018 to Feb 2020 – when inactivity was lower than today.

‘In China’s 2025 compendium, data ranges from the amount of algae-related products produced in Liaoning province (536,000 tonnes) to the total drainage area of all the inland rivers in Inner Mongolia (311,378 sq km) and the total exports of live animals ($488mn).’ It weighs 2.6kg on.ft.com/4qU7dT5

Huge respect for the KFC in East Grinstead

Write for us! Here are 26 ideas of articles we'd like to commission. www.worksinprogress.news/p/more-artic...

Jokes aside, ending scarcity is logically impossible. Scarcity of what? Vanity? Sexual encounters? Offspring? Japanese Wagyu? Tickets to Mars? Anyone who sells such a prospect, whether it's Marxists or tech billionaires, looks sus as hell.

Less than an hour to go before our screening of @markcousinsfilm.bsky.social’s A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things. This documentary dives into the life & art of Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, a visionary 20th-century artist who saw the natural world in new ways www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/events/livin...

Such a key point about cutting back on language provision - it’s not good for science and it’s not good for growth www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Pretty interesting job to run @jrf-uk.bsky.social - social change organisation proposing policy interventions that address poverty; and supporting social innovation. £165k. Based in York starfishsearch.com/jobs/jrf-gro...

‘Al could end scarcity, end humanity - or boost trend growth by 0.2 percentage points’ Well that’s the best chart of the year in this @johnthornhill.bsky.social column and basically sums up where we are on.ft.com/4qMMkJd

‘Al could end scarcity, end humanity - or boost trend growth by 0.2 percentage points’ Well that’s the best chart of the year in this @johnthornhill.bsky.social column and basically sums up where we are on.ft.com/4qMMkJd

‘A lot of male actors get offended if you don’t want to fuck them, and then the punishment starts.’ Gotta love Jennifer Lawrence’s clarity www.theguardian.com/film/2025/no...

Pretty interesting job to run @jrf-uk.bsky.social - social change organisation proposing policy interventions that address poverty; and supporting social innovation. £165k. Based in York starfishsearch.com/jobs/jrf-gro...

It’s easy to feel despondent and powerless about environmental issues. I’m chairing this event to consider the role that we can play individually and in our communities without letting politicians, regulators and business off the hook. 20 Nov - book here www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/events/livin...

Over the last months, we’ve entirely rebuilt search on Our World in Data — we just launched it: ourworldindata.org/introducing-... Let me know what you think. Does it work for you?

Looking forward to speaking at this @powertochange.org.uk event to launch essays on building stronger communities. Great panel includes @anooshc.bsky.social @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social @jamestplunkett.bsky.social @nickplumb.bsky.social. 18 Nov 6.30pm powertochange.typeform.com/to/L2W7DYk9?...

I am hearing that @uniofnottingham.bsky.social is suspending (i.e shutting down) *all modern language courses* in 2026-27. One of the largest departments in the UK. A shocking short sighted move that damages regional and national prospects @britishacademy.bsky.social @hetanshah.bsky.social

‘Responses to Britain’s labour-force survey, which helps central bankers set interest rates, have fallen from 70% in the late 1990s to 20% now.’ @economist.com on the rise and fall of the humble survey economist.com/britain/2025...

Coverage in The Times of our concerns about how languages will fare under the proposed changes to the national curriculum www.thetimes.com/article/9b0f... @britishacademy.bsky.social @cforsdick.bsky.social

Climate adaptation from 4,000 years ago www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Been a fun day (including chairing a session) at the LSE / Anthropic Economic Futures Symposium. Here’s Anna Valero summing up some of the discussions of the day

‘The recommendation to abandon the English Baccalaureate at GCSE would eliminate one of the few remaining safeguards for language provision in England’s schools and risk narrowing education for the next generation.’ Our response to the curriculum review www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/the-uks...

Some pretty useful charts in this Martin Wolf column on tax including UK's tax burden is close to the median for advanced economies; UK taxation has reached high levels by historical standards; and the top 10 per cent of earners pay 60 per cent of income tax on.ft.com/47nYFvX

Turns out this news was in the public domain yesterday but no one has covered it as far as I can tell. Does no one care about our national library anymore? It was much the same with the cyberattack. If this was a bit of 'science' infrastructure can you imagine? www.pcs.org.uk/news-events/...

This is fascinating from @mjruehl.bsky.social on how Western sanctions on Russia have led to hundreds of ‘zombie trusts’ in Liechtenstein as all the directors have had to resign on.ft.com/47TTGTL

Wider engagement on this disaster-by almost all media, government but also universities themselves-has been self-indicting for the last two years. No one does indeed seem to care about our national library.

Hetan has a point. Not only is the crisis at the BL a story but so is the general threat to our whole data/info infrastructure. No point doing stories about misinformation and the latest AI chatbot unless you are covering this.

Whoa Rebecca Lawrence has resigned as Chief Executive of @britishlibrary.bsky.social. Sorry that this might mean more turmoil at an institution that is a critical part of UK research infrastructure www.bl.uk/about/press/...

Quite like the idea of a two shift night with a waking break theconversation.com/why-we-used-...

‘If the industrial strategy is to succeed, we’ll need English graduates as well as engineers, historians alongside computer scientists, and social scientists together with health professionals.’ www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/do-we-n... @timeshighered.bsky.social