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Ryan Anderson

@anthropologia.bsky.social
3.5K followers 2.4K following 1.8K posts

Cultural, environmental, and economic anthropologist. All things coastal. Photography. Some baseball too.

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Reposted by Ryan Anderson
Antonio E. Porreca 🐳 @aeporreca.org · 15h
The Association for Human Mathematics (AHM) statement on OpenAI’s October 6 release of mathematical documents just dropped! www.ahmath.org/statements
AHM Statement on OpenAI’s October 6 Release of Mathematical Documents

Yesterday, on October 6th, 2026, OpenAI – which is currently defending lawsuits against accusations of illegal plagiarism, copyright infringement, and trademark dilution – released a repository of manuscripts purporting to contain solutions to a number of high-profile problems in mathematics.

Mathematicians did not ask for this work to be done. The Advisory Group on Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence, from whom OpenAI has claimed to derive its legitimacy, opened their initial advisory statement by saying that frontier AI corporations should not test advanced mathematical problems on internal models. In ignoring the central premise of the Advisory Group’s position, OpenAI has indicated total disregard for the norms of scientific research — norms that guarantee that mathematics remains trustworthy, ethically researched, and in the public interest.

Mathematicians have a particular vision of progress that is informed by history and field-specific considerations. We reject OpenAI's assertion that this release advances our subject, and we urge mathematicians and the public to view the value of this publication model with due skepticism. 

Releasing over 700 files at once is not a demonstration of scholarship, but a demonstration of power. We urge mathematicians to discontinue their work with OpenAI and to return to a vision of science that centers human understanding.

Association for Human Mathematics
Communications Working Group
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Kevin Gannon (now a Moo Deng fan account) @thetattooedprof.bsky.social · 14h
Trying to figure out if the fuckin war dot gov commercial that's playing ad nauseum during the baseball game is AI. Some of the scenes are probably real actors, but also filmed in a garage with a fifty dollar scenery budget. I will also bet dollars to donuts that Hegseth wrote the script himself
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Louis Römer @lromeranth.bsky.social · 20h
Fascinating window into where Brazilian election discourse is at the moment. The gist for those who do not understand Portuguese is: "everything is expensive. if we vote Bolsonaro and sell out Brazil to Trump we can buy cheap gadgets again"
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
I came across this parody of a rumored upcoming press release by OpenAI: "OpenAI Releases the Final Ten Minutes of 500 Previously Unreleased Films, Ushering in a New Era of Movie Watching" : x.com/Endings500/s...
x.com
Endings Fivehundred (@Endings500) on X
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 6th, 2026 OpenAI Releases the Final Ten Minutes of 500 Previously Unreleased Films, Ushering in a New Era of Movie Watching
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Kristina Killgrove @killgrove.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
A new study of Iron and Viking Age "body-objects" reveals a significant amount of violence in Scandinavia. 🏺🧪
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Anthony Moser @anthonymoser.com · 06/10/2026
thread
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ve, the ghost of info past @vortexegg.com · 06/10/2026
If you think about the data that is constructed about a person by observing their public behavior as a kind of "affordance" or "handle" for doing things on or to that person (including compiling further information about them), the technicized use of public data is inherently nonconsensual.
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Ryan Anderson @anthropologia.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
this x 1000 right here
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Ryan Anderson @anthropologia.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
I have some thoughts about choosing Big Sur (and Point Sur specifically) for this photo shoot. Lots going on there.
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Ryan Anderson @anthropologia.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
By somewhat problematic I mean VERY.
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Dr. S.A. Applin @anthropunk.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Quant data funding without Qual contextual inquiry leaves a lot of data undiscovered. Unfortunately, the consequences of these decisions will impact us—and not in ways they expected. Quant data can only count what is visible. Qual discovers the invisible so it can be counted.
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Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
In addition to spending less money and making fewer new grants, SBE also dramatically narrowed where it made those new grants. Areas such as economics, sociology, and archaeology received few to no grants.
Grantmaking gutted
The National Science Foundation’s Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) awarded far fewer new awards than typical in fiscal year 2026—just 91. (The fiscal year runs from 1 October to 30 September.) Most of the new grants focused on cognitive science and artificial intelligence, in alignment with White House priorities; offices that support fields such as economics, sociology, and research ethics, as well as postdoctoral fellowships, awarded no grants at all.
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Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
NEW: In March the White House released an FY27 budget request that zeroed out the National Science Foundation's directorate of Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE). For months it was unclear what would happen. Now, with FY26 over, the damage to SBE is coming to light. My reporting:
science.org
‘Complete devastation’: How NSF gutted its social sciences research
Agency body that funds sociology, linguistics, and archaeology studies in U.S. gave 90% fewer new grants this year
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Dr. S.A. Applin @anthropunk.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Thanks for the boost! There is also this one from us: (2025) "External Intelligence: Oracles, Divination and Animism, and the Use of #LLMs/#Generative #AI By Michael D. Fischer; Sally A. Applin; Sridhar Ravula" www.emerald.com/books/edited... #genai
emerald.com
External Intelligence: Oracles, Divination and Animism, and the Use of LLMs/Generative AI
Abstract. Applying Symbolic Interactionist (SI) and Anthropological theory, this chapter relates divination and oracle consultation as these manifest withi
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Dr. S.A. Applin @anthropunk.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
Michael D. Fischer and I have a chapter out in the new "Handbook of Anthropology and Artificial Intelligence."Open Access (free). Click on purple retangle: www.e-elgar.com/shop/usd/han... See Chapter 5, Anthropology of artificial intelligence: agency, powerful knowledge, and the algorithmic other."
e-elgar.com
Handbook on Anthropology and Artificial Intelligence
‘Anthropology at its best – this collection looks beyond AI hype and panic to explore what specific challenges AI offers in different communities of practice, ranging from educating, healing to fighti...
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Ryan Anderson @anthropologia.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
*listened, of course.
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Ryan Anderson @anthropologia.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Just listed to @adambecker.bsky.social's podcast episode with @emilymbender.bsky.social and I highly recommend it. One thing that really resonates with me is when Dr. Bender says that she was just doing her work and 'minding her own business' and then this whole AI thing went sideways. Can relate.
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Margaret Mitchell @mmitchell.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
This is getting a lot of quotes, so I feel I should correct this a bit (sorry @anildash.com!) “AI” was 100% born toxic! The first AI workshop was born from the field of “automata studies”, and…1/ (Pictured: the folks who convened for the first workshop. Notice anything notable here?)
A group of white men, sitting on the grass and smiling at the photographer. Black and white photo (1956).
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Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
I'm about to lose it guys
The Giant/Fireman from Twin Peaks says ‘It is happening again’
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Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
And yes, the 'machine' is a puree of ideas and thoughts stolen from you, me, and half the people on this site, so they're actually riding on *our* shoulders 3/3
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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 03/10/2026
Killed. NSF’s SBE was killed, in violation of law. The President does not have the power to choose to kill programs at a whim by defunding them. The imperial presidency was a mistake and we are in a separation of powers constitutional crisis.
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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Lol
A report of the Battle of Poitiers composed by an anonymous Iberian Christian in 754 describes Charles Martel’s forces in Latin as Europeenses.[2] This is odd: use of the terms “Europe” and “European” was rare in this era. After the Persian Wars continents had been left for the most part to the geographers. As late as the first century BCE some Roman geographers were still unsure whether Europe and Africa were separate continents.[3] And in an empire that stretched across them all the concept was largely irrelevant.
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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 03/10/2026
www.tumblr.com/thevaultofth...
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
There are a lot of Trump officials who need to be impeached, but Russell Vought -- the quarterback of all the Project 2025 fuckery and a central player in the administration's overreach -- really needs to be at the top of the list.
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Lisa Messeri @lmesseri.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
one of the reasons that I warn researchers away from adapting commercial LLMs into their pipeline is that Big Tech has a history of sunsetting popular, usable products and replacing them with worse ones. (i'm trying to ween myself off of google scholar, but it is hard).
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Dave Zirin @edgeofsports.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
It has been a difficult stretch of authoritarianism - of all political stripes - on the march. But "the power of tyranny is overestimated (not in the short run, but in the long run), and can be overcome by the unity and the determination of apparently powerless people." - H. Zinn
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 29/08/2026
i have been given a bunch of world war ii era film and i have been scanning it for the last few weeks. it's very cool!
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Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
So glad that this quote can be added to my forthcoming article on AI and Epistemic Dispossession because I had to say that they will absolutely be using AI to erase science and history but I didn’t yet have the ‘he admit it’ smoking gun
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
There's a long discussion going on in my mentions about whether or not "LLMs" (quotes explained in a sec) apparently getting mostly* correct answers to arithmetic questions is "inconsistent" with the stochastic parrots metaphor. >>
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Ryan Anderson @anthropologia.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Good thread here on this issue. The strong negative reactions to the term 'stochastic parrot' are a bit hard to grasp. As explained below, it's an accurate description of how these things work (repeating back info based upon probability).
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Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.blacksky.app · 29/09/2026
Oh look. More things that makes sense happening in these United States.
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Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Not a single perspective here from someone who didn’t write the report. This isn’t journalism, it’s an author’s abstract. Every para is just “this is what the paper says.” It’s exactly what you would get if you asked an undergrad to read it and write a summary. Or get one from a chatbot.
theguardian.com
AI godfathers warn of runaway ‘intelligence explosion’
OpenAI chief scientist also among authors of report on prospect of ‘most consequential technological development in history’
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Lisa Messeri @lmesseri.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I took the time to read this (and the appendices). Didn’t love it! But in the spirit of constructive engagement, a few take aways (and would love other anthropologists' thoughts as well)...
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Debt Collective 🟥 @debtcollective.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of student debtors are being kicked off an affordable repayment plan and put into more expensive plans tomorrow. Many are trying to find payment plans that work for them. Here's the repayment calculator today.
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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I participated in some public library ai courses. I’m telling you that the state of literacies and the complexity of lives deeply enmeshed in the bowels of late stage capitalism cannot find a use case for an agent & if they could, people don’t have the scaffolding to imagine one that could be useful
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Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
This thread is so important because it gets at the AI industry’s central failure of imagination. While I’ve met exceptions to the rule in Silicon Valley, most human beings do not reduce their sense of being alive to a stream of successive task completions, and find it a truly alienating vision.
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Colleen Morgan @clmorgan.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Solidarity with folks at Edinburgh!
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Louis Römer @lromeranth.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
This man is a walking PSA for the importance of Humanities education
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Ryan Anderson @anthropologia.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Just a huge failure here. It's unreal that *someone* on his staff doesn't take the time to look into other folks they may want to contact.
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Faine Greenwood @faineg.com · 27/09/2026
I regret to inform you all that Bernie Sanders is in fact taking meetings with noted rationalist wacko Eliezer Yudkowsky over what AI regulations should look like. x.com/SenSanders/s...
Sen. Bernie Sanders @SenSanders
Will Al become smarter than humans?
If so, is humanity in danger?
I went to Silicon Valley to ask some of the leading Al experts that question.
Here's what they had to say:
ERNIE ANDERS
02:19
The Als are much, much, much more powerful.
4:02 PM • Mar 4, 2026 • 1.3M Views
• 600
[1 463
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Eliezer Yudkowsky
@ESYudkowsky • Mar 4
My thanks to Senator Sanders; as to other legislators on all sides of any political aisle, and to any human being on Earth who now stands
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Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
It is a profound indictment of most media coverage of Big Tech that your best bet for getting an informed understanding of AI and its dangers is following a decently curated list of Bluesky shitposters
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 26/09/2026
Does my Speak-n-Spell feel pain when I type O-U-C-H? The jury is out. Philosophers and neuroscientists say that's fucking stupid, but I called a guy from the Center for Pretending that Household Electronics Are Sentient and he said there's no way to know for sure.
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Anthony Moser @anthonymoser.com · 27/09/2026
"we can't uninvent this" we can't uninvent my car either but it still doesn't go anywhere without gas in the tank
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Dr. Sarah Parcak @indyfromspace.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
So you can learn about engineering disasters
image of Bent Pyramid of Dashur Egypt against a blue sky with some clouds
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Ryan Anderson @anthropologia.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
If MLB is looking for ways to turn away even more fans and kill the sport, this just might do it.
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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Please try to reclaim your precious precious attention, at all costs. Do puzzles. Take walks without a phone. Dear god, try to read, almost anything that isn’t a manifesto will really do. You are going to need your brain.
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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Don’t believe people who tell you ai can be liberatory or any other misappropriation of movement talk or justice frameworks. Find some people who are preparing to rebuild and cast your lot with them. Then read a bit more. Just keep your wits about you because they are trying to run game.
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Ryan Anderson @anthropologia.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Shout out to the folks at the @anthroencyclo.bsky.social! I am using a few different entries for my culture/media class, including Daniel Miller's 2023 piece on digital anthro and the new entry on the anthro of AI. I appreciate all the work you do. www.anthroencyclopedia.com/entry/artifi...
anthroencyclopedia.com
Artificial intelligence | Open Encyclopedia of Anthropology
Introduction
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Lisa Messeri @lmesseri.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
For those of us trained to think about tech as nodes in broader sociotechnical systems, this was (as John says) obvious. But few people have intuitively think this way. I see tremendous opportunity to change the narrative about tech benefits to be about the collective, not the individual.
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Dr. Angry Anarchist (Free 🇵🇸) @archhelmer.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This video adds really important context! The "construction equipment" is actually a sediment coring rig. These are definitely archaeologists
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