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Elmo

@tim-elmo

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18.09.2023
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Latest posts by Elmo @tim-elmo

the concept of a "real ID" violates the law of excluded middle, since it results in the existence of "IDs" which are not real IDs but also not not IDs...

06.03.2026 21:28 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Marie-Skłodowska Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Vienna We expect to have confirmation about successful applicants by 3 June. If you have not heard back from your potential supervisor by this date, let us know (please do not email the supervisor again).

Philosophers! I am now eligible to act as a supervisor for Marie Curie fellowships at the University of Vienna. If you’re interested in applying for one, you can find the details here: careers.univie.ac.at/en/research-...

06.03.2026 11:19 👍 18 🔁 13 💬 1 📌 0

A great new podcast with Kareem Khalifa from UCLA, who will join Pitt, HPS in Fall 2027! We talk about scientific understanding and of the role of misunderstanding in scientific progress. #philsci

06.03.2026 15:51 👍 9 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 0

Reminder: the deadline for contributed papers is coming up fast on 15 March!

05.03.2026 17:22 👍 15 🔁 11 💬 0 📌 0
10 Hours Ambient Drone - The Eccy road Co-op freezer Symphony (Sheffield, UK)
10 Hours Ambient Drone - The Eccy road Co-op freezer Symphony (Sheffield, UK) YouTube video by jackbomb

he could fix me [the freezer at the Sheffield co-op]: www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3Hb...

03.03.2026 21:17 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Ah, yes, the Mellon Foundation!

03.03.2026 18:12 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

okay but can you tell us the details?

03.03.2026 18:04 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Just edited the wikipedia page for probability axioms, wish me luck!

03.03.2026 15:31 👍 14 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

people love saying "we're moving past capitalism, into a system dominated by the relentless drive to accumulate capital". they can't get enough of it. they won't stop.

03.03.2026 02:49 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

we are not doing the fucking Sokal Hoax/Science Wars Again But With LLMs This Time. i fucking refuse.

03.03.2026 01:13 👍 51 🔁 4 💬 1 📌 0

structurally indifferent to truth is a good line

02.03.2026 14:43 👍 84 🔁 33 💬 3 📌 1

🙏

01.03.2026 23:58 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

There is zero reason anyone should care about what tech execs tell their kids, no matter what the content is. Even if it was good advice for mega rich kids (and there's no reason to think the execs are good at giving this advice), it wouldn't apply to normal people.

01.03.2026 17:03 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

luckily all the main metaethical views can be seamlessly exchanged into each other, as well as a stablecoin pegged to the daily vibes of one particular middle aged guy who has tenure at an undisclosed college on the Eastern Seaboard.

28.02.2026 21:30 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Xfinity is maybe the worst company ever. They proactively send me links to information I did not even ask for and the links 404! Truly next level incompetence.

28.02.2026 21:22 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

> Another of al-Jazari’s fantastical contraptions is of special interest to historians of science as it is regarded by many to be the first programmable “robot” in history.

www.nationalgeographic.com/history/hist...

28.02.2026 20:54 👍 68 🔁 20 💬 1 📌 1

Is there a comparison website that I can use to choose service providers based on who relies least on dysfunctional chatbots?

28.02.2026 20:19 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

I'm updating my deck so it includes a "repeated prisoner's dilemma" combo.

27.02.2026 15:50 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Among all the critiques of academic publishing, I don't see enough talk about how top journals (The Lancet, Science) make false claims about the research they publish to drum up hype. It's so sad. Two examples: bsky.app/profile/pwgt... and www.science.org/content/arti...

27.02.2026 14:49 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

Perfectly teachable example of the Clever Hans effect! Thank you for this write-up.

27.02.2026 14:44 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

on the syllabus it goes!

27.02.2026 14:42 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Many academics (perhaps especially anglophone philosophers) prefer paraphrase and summary with few direct quotations when relaying the claims of others. Maybe that often sounds better, but I think it's strictly inferior as support for your own claims. Including the receipts also helps the reader.

27.02.2026 14:38 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Amplifiers of Epistemic Posture Essays and writing on AI

I'm a cognitive scientist with an interest in epistemic vigilance, and this essay that's been going around gave me pause.

I don't think it's straightforward to apply the concept of epistemic vigilance to interactions with LLMs, as this essay does.

🧵/

sbgeoaiphd.github.io/rotating_the...

26.02.2026 13:18 👍 287 🔁 119 💬 7 📌 33
Preview
Artificial intelligence and illusions of understanding in scientific research - Nature The proliferation of artificial intelligence tools in scientific research risks creating illusions of understanding, where scientists believe they understand more about the world than they actual...

More broadly, the essay is a great example of the "illusion of understanding" that @lmesseri.bsky.social and I warned in 2024 would be a risk of using LLMs, especially as they become more capable

17/

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

26.02.2026 13:18 👍 121 🔁 27 💬 2 📌 1
Taft Postdoctoral Fellowship, College of Arts & Sciences Taft Postdoctoral Fellowship, College of Arts & Sciences

Postdoc opportunity at the Taft Research Center here at the University of Cincinnati for which philosophers are eligible to apply. See here for details and to apply: jobs.uc.edu/job/Taft-Pos...

26.02.2026 14:16 👍 18 🔁 13 💬 3 📌 0

There are also academics who frame the task of AI ethics as "making sure that the benefits of AI can be realized while minimizing harms"... no? The claim that any particular tech should exist needs to be the end point of an ethical inquiry, not the starting point! It's not a forgone conclusion...

26.02.2026 17:38 👍 24 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 0

Fantastic, I'll send you an email!

25.02.2026 22:41 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

love when the job posting contains multiple pieces of wrong information about how and where to apply...

25.02.2026 16:28 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

not gonna post it in case they search their own name and also I could be wrong

25.02.2026 14:51 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Found an interesting paper but suspected AI slop, then I found out the author has 20+ papers in 2025, including a retraction notice for irrelevant citations, and funnily enough multiple papers on "AI slop", including a taxonomy...

25.02.2026 14:26 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 2 📌 0