Reposted by CullenTed Underwood @tedunderwood.com · 26/08/2026If you feel the moral stakes of this moment are “universities must be defended,” this may not be a reassuring post. It backs up to ask “why,” and finds the answer not self-evident. But strangely, honest wrestling with fundamentals reassures me more in the end than polemic. 1172
Reposted by CullenJessica Hullman @jessicahullman.bsky.social · 25/08/2026The uncertain future of academia got me interested in the history of US science policy. It's surprising how fragile the basic vs applied research distinction behind the postwar “social contract for science” is. There are takeaways for what it means to defend universities now🧵jessicahullman.substack.comWhat stories should we tell about scientific progress now?In search of the mysterious fruits of basic science 2487
Reposted by CullenJessica Hullman @jessicahullman.bsky.social · 12/07/2026An essay on sincerity and embarassment and cliché, inspired by a not-very-good documentary about the Counting Crows watched on a flight. jessicahullman.substack.com/p/embarrass-...jessicahullman.substack.comEmbarrass the skyWhat’s the value of sincerity? 2136
Reposted by CullenPavel @spavel.bsky.social · 08/02/2026Yes, and: this is what "data driven" means everywhere it is used, because determining how "data" is generated is a political decision 26518
Reposted by CullenJessica Hullman @jessicahullman.bsky.social · 05/02/2026I wrote about what it means to keep writing when more language feels like the last thing we need--as a computer scientist, but also as a writer.open.substack.comSoftly, effectively, in the age of AIOn dolphins and disobedience 3406
Reposted by CullenJessica Hullman @jessicahullman.bsky.social · 23/01/2026"Men who lack control over their own lives reach out desperately to drag women down, to control their emotions, to make them feel weak and dominated" Yup. I experienced this just this week w/a rogue commenter determined to take out his feelings of inadequacy on me. Who would want to empower this? 0103
Reposted by CullenBrian Eno News @dark-shark.bsky.social · 22/01/2026"What does the money machine eat? It eats youth, spontaneity, life, beauty, and, above all, it eats creativity. It eats quality and shits quantity." - William S. Burroughs #quote 27830
Cullen @cullenstephenson.bsky.social · 17/01/2026exquisite corpse drawings with the 8yo, making things together is always time well spent 021
Reposted by CullenJessica Hullman @jessicahullman.bsky.social · 16/01/2026I wrote an essay about platform complicity and other quiet kinds of self-loss: becoming legible, optimizable, successful while your inner compass goes quiet.open.substack.comDon't get any on youI am still what I meant to be 5459
Cullen @cullenstephenson.bsky.social · 16/01/2026Love Berkeley! Incredible plants and pastries, explaining to my 8yo that the moon is not an alien spaceship and dolphins are not typically portrayed as alien gods after an interesting Lyft ride 010
Reposted by CullenCharlie Thomas @cthomasjamh.bsky.social · 12/01/2026This is the sort of statement that was expected from every university president and law firm partner over the last year. That those statements weren’t made played a huge part in where we are now and people will remember. 201201004802
Cullen @cullenstephenson.bsky.social · 10/01/2026My dog and I have this ritual where I'll hear her drinking too much water, and I'll think "I should stop her before she drinks too much." But I don't. Then, without fail, she'll walk over to thank me for trusting her judgement and knowledge, then barf a little water on the floor. 010
Reposted by CullenDare Obasanjo @carnage4life.bsky.social · 10/01/2026This is why MAGA come up with so many anti-American ideas like hostility to immigration and feminism. The fundamental premise that all people are created equal is anathema to the MAGA mind. 2709
Reposted by CullenKat Tenbarge @kattenbarge.bsky.social · 09/01/2026I keep thinking about how a young woman DoorDash driver was charged and hauled into court for recording and posting evidence of her customer sexually harassing her, while nothing is happening to the droves of men using Grok to sexually harass women and children. The institutions are pro-perpetrator. 634187907
Reposted by CullenJessica Hullman @jessicahullman.bsky.social · 09/01/2026Wrote a summary of a great keynote by @zey.bsky.social at NeurIPS, arguing that we’re having the wrong nightmares about AI: not AGI or superhuman benchmarks, but good-enough genAI at scale threatens "load bearing frictions" society relies on to signal effort, authenticity, sincerity, credibility.open.substack.comZeynep Tufecki on having the wrong nightmares about generative AII was writing a blog post where I was going to reference Zeynep Tufecki’s 2025 NeurIPS keynote, and realized there isn’t a solid synopsis online. 28027
Cullen @cullenstephenson.bsky.social · 05/01/2026One thing I will say about AI, is that ever since they did that Tupac hologram show, nobody wants to go to concerts anymore. Everyone wants to stay at home, by themselves, looking at a hologram sing songs from 30 years ago. 010
Reposted by CullenMichael Lobel @mlobelart.bsky.social · 01/01/2026One of the most unforgettable images capturing the vibrant promise of the new year, by the great Bauhaus artist László Moholy-Nagy: 7 A.M. (New Year's Morning), c. 1930 www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti... 5776178
Reposted by CullenJessica Hullman @jessicahullman.bsky.social · 25/12/2025Merry Christmas from Chicago! 021
Reposted by CullenJessica Hullman @jessicahullman.bsky.social · 02/10/2025Also on substack jessicahullman.substack.com/p/howl-after...jessicahullman.substack.comHowl, after Allen Ginsbergfor the AI-headed hipsters 021
Reposted by CullenJessica Hullman @jessicahullman.bsky.social · 18/09/2025who fed it words, who watched it excrete words, who fed it excreted words again & again waiting, who ran the primitive nervous system with sloshing words & prayed & made words of excrement & finally brought it out to check the Time, & now mistake the words for heroes (more from my Howl rewrite) 1/2statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu More Howl, after Allen Ginsberg for the AI-headed hipsters | Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science 161
Reposted by CullenRebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 13/09/2025I wrote a thing. As someone who survived the 1970s and kept the receipts.theguardian.comShocked by Epstein’s birthday book? That culture was everywhere before feminism | Rebecca SolnitFeminism exposed the ubiquity of child abuse, rape, sexual harassment and domestic violence – and helped fight that culture 02783975
Cullen @cullenstephenson.bsky.social · 13/09/2025At the jazz show Jam Band: Oh look, we got a new boat, a funky boat, with pink sails Crowd: Yeah? Band: And stripes, we’re sailing it down a river… Crowd: So cool! Band: Uh oh, the river's picking up speed... something’s around the bend… ? Is it... some Rapids!?!! Crowd: Fuck yeah, some Rapids! 010
Reposted by CullenJessica Hullman @jessicahullman.bsky.social · 10/09/2025I rewrote Allen Ginsberg's Howl, but for the AI-headed hipsters👇 "I saw the best minds of my generation distracted by machines, shining-eyed delusional demo gods, rubbering through polished cities at dusk Capitalizing The Next Big Push to the end of Introspection, 1/N 1102
Cullen @cullenstephenson.bsky.social · 07/09/2025Nick Drake voice: Yeah it's a corn moon, Corn corn corn corn, Corn Moon 040