And here - in one simple diagram - is why most of the “free speech” debating is insincere posturing. It’s not free speech the right supports. It’s control over the means of communication.
In our Perspectives on Science Seminar on March 2, Inkeri Koskinen & Santtu Kauppila (TINT / Helsinki) will give a talk titled “Towards a Satisfactory Social Epistemology of AI-based Science: Forward-looking trust in collective pursuit”. More here: tint-helsinki.fi/2026/02/24/2...
#philski #philsky
We are organising a pre-conference workshop on Values in science in the rest of the world in Helsinki in August, just before ENPOSS 2026. Please consider submitting an abstract!
I just did the dumbest thing of my entire career to prove a much more serious point.
I tricked ChatGPT and Google, and made them tell other users I’m a competitive hot-dog-eating world champion
People are using this trick on a massive scale to make AI tell you lies. I’ll explain how I did it
I do the same when discussing clearly pseudoscientific publications. I don't want to give them citations, and Google Scholar, Scopus, Web of Science etc. don't recognise the difference between primary sources and literature - they just count references.
Our Perspectives on Science Seminar schedule for Spring 2026 is here. All are warmly welcome! #philsci #philsky
If you read one thing today, it should be this
Iran report says 16,500 dead in ‘genocide under digital darkness’
www.thetimes.com/article/01ba...
a bunch of MEPs: trump's threats on Greenland are unacceptable. we must consider using the anti-coercion instrument
me: that sounds reassuringly bureaucratic and not too anxiety-inducing. i should look that up
wikipedia: "also known as the Trade Bazooka"
visenyaism on tumblr: "Honestly fuck A1 for making me have to go on and on defending the dignity of toil like I'm some kind of protestant"
[...] Keskeistä on väite, ettei vakiintuneita tiedolisia instituutioita edustavaan asiantuntijaan tule luottaa.
[...] Se on siis tosiaan siirto(yritys) tietopelissä, ja näemmä aika tehokas sellainen. Keskeistä ei ole väitteen sisältö (se "näin"), koska sen voi aina vaihtaa. Salaliittoteoreetikotkaan eivät hätkähdä siitä, että joku teoria osoitetaan perättömäksi – he vaihtavat vain seuraavaan. [...]
[...] Epäluottamus on hyvä esimerkki asenteesta, joka on yhtä aikaa tunnepitoinen ja tiedollinen. Epäluottamus voi myös olla rationaalista (jopa tilanteissa, joissa se on aiheetonta). "Näin nämä asiat koetaan" on siirto, jolla horjutetaan vakiintuneiden tiedollisten instituutioiden asemaa. [...]
[...] Korruptoituneen (tai vaihtoehtoisesti naiivin) asiantuntijan juttuja ei tietenkään ole syytä kuunnella. Nähdäkseni "näin nämä asiat koetaan" on usein siirto, jolla asiantuntija torjutaan. Siksi artikkelin vastakkainasettelu rationaalisuuden ja tunteiden välillä on harhaanjohtava. [...]
Enpä tiedä josko paremmin, mutta ehkä lisään, että "näin nämä asiat koetaan" on usein epäluottamuksen ilmaus. Epäluottamus on välillä tiedollista mutta vielä useammin moraalista: asiantuntijoita ja vakiintuneita tietoa tuottavia instituutioita epäillään korruptoituneiksi tai pahantahtoisiksi. [...]
Yet another AI slop paper in a journal of a gigantic "academic" publisher that makes outrageous profit. It seems that e.g. Springer has no interest in even trying to control this.
An email from Martin Peterson to university administrators.
Martin Peterson's creative response to being banned from teaching Plato (shared with his permission).
"I’m going to pause here just to review: an institution that purports to be a university has told a philosophy professor he is forbidden from teaching Plato."
surreal times
dailynous.com/2026/01/06/t...
Olen nähnyt et:n kasvun epäpätevien opettajien heittopussista ammattitaidolla opetetuksi hienoksi oppiaineeksi, jolla on kunnon ops ja materiaalit. Huoli sen kohtalosta on iso, jos yhteinen katsomusaine käsitetään uskontojen esittelyksi. Toivottavasti yhteinen aine rakennetaan et:n pohjalta.
I finally got some time to flesh out my rant about these headlines...
TL;DR: age differences ≠ aging
jenndowd.substack.com/p/does-adole... #demography #episky #medsky #neurosky
I deeply regret that this explainer thread about Finnish radical right racists insulting pretty much all Asians, and the “moderate” right parties being spineless servants of their financiers as usual, remains relevant.
I can only say that the majority of Finns are appalled and ashamed too.
Dismantling NCAR. Denying the science is not enough - they will destroy it. The Trump administration has gone full Lysenko. If the US is ever won back, this will be spoken of in the same way in the history books.
An academic disliked an Oxford Very Short Introduction (145 pages) in his field so much that he wrote a 200 page book review attacking it. www.pierre-legrand.com/ewExternalFi...
The number of global deaths of children under-5 is projected to increase this year (from 4.6m to 4.8m) for the first time this century. (FT)
The price of aid cuts.
Even the the damn twitter card for this Nature Scientific Reports is clearly AI Slop.
Forthcoming chapter in The Routledge Handbook of Values and Science, edited by Kevin Elliott and Ted Richards.
Thank you!
Thanks!
Has anyone analysed the current anti-science movement from an agnotological viewpoint? I'd like to read analyses of how research ends up increasingly in the hands of the private sector, which allows businesses to play an even stronger role in deciding what we do and do not have knowledge about.
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
