iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Dan Williams

andrewxu87.bsky.social @andrewxu87.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

In my latest podcast, @danwphilosophy.bsky.social says we’re all biased, yes. But not just because we crave comfort. We’re pushed and pulled by our tribal identity. Our minds instinctively work to help us fit in, win approval, and signal our allegiance. Listen now: open.spotify.com/episode/2XYM...

open.spotify.com

Dan Williams on Why We Believe What We Believe

Frames of Space · Episode

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Dan Williams @danwphilosophy.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

New essay! On how most of the huge questions about the coming AI revolution aren’t really about AI in a narrow, technical sense - and why it will be a golden age for polymaths, philosophers, and moderate epistemic despair. www.conspicuouscognition.com/p/most-quest...

conspicuouscognition.com

Most Questions About AI Aren’t About AI

Why the AI revolution is a golden age for polymaths, philosophers, and moderate epistemic despair

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Dan Williams @danwphilosophy.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

New episode! Henry Shevlin and I chat with Fin Moorhouse about whether AI progress might trigger an "intelligence explosion" in the near future that compresses a century of technological process (or more) into a decade. www.youtube.com/watch?v=GP7f...

youtube.com

Navigating the Intelligence Explosion (with Fin Moorhouse)

YouTube video by Conspicuous Cognition

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Reposted by Dan Williams

Rob Sica @robsica.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

🔪"just as the goal of witchcraft accusations is not to persuade the targets of such accusations, members of dominant coalitions are likely motivated to propagate system-justifying ideologies in order to maintain their reputation for pro-sociality and generosity *among each other*"

academic.oup.com

The Social Roots of Popular Delusions

Abstract. Chapter 4: The Social Roots of Popular Delusions begins developing our positive account of popular delusions. We introduce the concepts of “socia

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Dan Williams @danwphilosophy.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

@henryshevlin.bsky.social and I chat with Judith Dada, co-author of 'Europe 2031', about rapid AI progress, slow institutional adoption, Europe’s dependence on American models, compute sovereignty, data centres, energy and regulation, and the geopolitics of AI: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPdC...

youtube.com

Who Will Control Europe’s AI Future? (with Judith Dada)

YouTube video by Conspicuous Cognition

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Reposted by Dan Williams

Dan Williams @danwphilosophy.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

New conversation with @robertwrighter.bsky.social and @henryshevlin.bsky.social about Bob's fascinating new book on AI, 'The God Test'. We chat about AI progress, superintelligence, the US-China race, global coordination, evolution’s purpose, and consciousness. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bfky...

youtube.com

Can Humanity Survive Superintelligence? (with Robert Wright)

YouTube video by Conspicuous Cognition

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Reposted by Dan Williams

Rob Sica @robsica.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

👏"purely intrapsychic benefits are irrelevant to fitness... our alternative social framework [...] avoids evolutionary implausibility by drawing a more transparent explanatory connection between pop delusions & the kinds of strategic, social goals we would expect human beings to have on evo grounds"

academic.oup.com

The Puzzle of Popular Delusions

Abstract. Chapter 3: The Puzzle of Popular Delusions introduces what we call the “functional delusions puzzle”: why healthy, otherwise rational communities

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Dan Williams @danwphilosophy.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

youtube.com

Can Humanity Survive Superintelligence? (with Robert Wright)

YouTube video by Conspicuous Cognition

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Reposted by Dan Williams

Rob Sica @robsica.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

"Whereas when I think about the evolution of all life on earth, it doesn’t seem to be culminating in a really unified, bounded, coordinated system in the way you find with an individual organism, at least as of now."

conspicuouscognition.com

Can Humanity Survive Superintelligence? (with Robert Wright)

Robert Wright on AI as humanity’s “God Test”: AI progress, superintelligence, the US-China race, global coordination, evolution’s purpose, and consciousness.

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Rob Sica @robsica.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

🔪"For this reason, our book on delusions might have the strange consequence of convincing readers that there is much less delusion in the world than people think."

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Rob Sica @robsica.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

✨"if our accounts of why people embrace and hold onto popular and clinical delusions are correct, they demystify such beliefs and reveal that those who endorse them are much less irrational than they initially appear"

academic.oup.com

The Social Roots of Delusions

Abstract. The Social Roots of Delusions argues that human sociality—our nature as highly social animals—is crucial for understanding what delusions are and

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Andy Masley @andymasley.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Studying philosophy turned out to be consistently just so ridiculously useful for me

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Prof Nichola Raihani @nicholaraihani.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

This was a really interesting read by @danwphilosophy.bsky.social , touching on many of the issues we've been grappling with in our research of late. www.conspicuouscognition.com/p/how-tribes...

conspicuouscognition.com

How Tribes Construct Rival Realities

Henry Nowak, George Floyd, and the hidden interpretive machinery that drives political conflict.

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Dan Williams @danwphilosophy.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

New essay: I argue that political differences often reside not primarily in different factual beliefs, values, or high-level ideologies, but in the competing systems of interpretation and misinterpretation through which we select, ignore, frame, narrate, and explain political reality.

conspicuouscognition.com

How Tribes Construct Rival Realities

Henry Nowak, George Floyd, and the hidden interpretive machinery that drives political conflict.

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Sara Hobolt @sarahobolt.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

And if you are interested in reading more about the enduring legacy of Brexit identities, see our book 📕Tribal Politics. How Brexit Divided Britain global.oup.com/academic/pro...

global.oup.com

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Reposted by Dan Williams

Sara Hobolt @sarahobolt.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

📣 On the eve of the 10th anniversary of the Brexit vote, listen to this excellent BBC R4 programme by James Tilley @politicsoxford.bsky.social on how Brexit created two new political tribes: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

bbc.co.uk

BBC Radio 4 - Currently, Ten Years After Brexit: Tribal

Ten years on from the Brexit referendum, how tribal thinking created two new identities.

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Dan Williams @danwphilosophy.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

New conversation with Benjamin Todd and Henry Shevlin. We discuss whether transformative AI might arrive by 2030, feedback loops that could compress decades of progress into a few months, and how to navigate the explosive change that might unfold in the near future. www.youtube.com/watch?v=mr8C...

youtube.com

What If Artificial Intelligence Progress Explodes? (with Benjamin Todd)

YouTube video by Conspicuous Cognition

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Reposted by Dan Williams

Neil Stenhouse @nstenhouse.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

As @danwphilosophy.bsky.social said www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

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Dan Williams @danwphilosophy.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

In a new guest post at Conspicuous Cognition, Tibor Rutar reviews what the evidence actually says about the relationship between immigration and crime - and explains why it doesn't support simplistic culture war narratives. www.conspicuouscognition.com/p/in-europe-...

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Reposted by Dan Williams

Sara Hobolt @sarahobolt.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

British politics is resembling the rest of Europe: • Multi-party competition has replaced two-party dominance • Challengers are on the rise, esp. the populist right • Political realignment centres on identity politics (incl Brexit) But FPTP is poorly suited to this fragmentation

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Dan Williams @danwphilosophy.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Apologies if you have something different in mind, though, and I misunderstood!

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Dan Williams @danwphilosophy.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

There's a common argument where people declare with certainty that AI systems can't do things that all behavioural evidence suggests they can, justified by appeal to the claim they're "just" doing X. But it's unclear why doing X at one level of abstraction would stop it doing those other things.

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Dan Williams @danwphilosophy.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

This doesn't seem a useful way of framing things. They're explicitly reinforced to follow instructions through post-training, hence why they're generally very good at doing so. Not perfect, obv, but clearly getting much better over time. I think your model is less predictive of how they behave.

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Reposted by Dan Williams

Thomas Prosser @prossertj.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

🚨🚨NEW🚨🚨 This week’s elections raise questions about the long-term development of Welsh politics. After years of limited press coverage and voter interest, is Welsh politics finally maturing? www.thepathnottaken.net/p/welsh-poli...

thepathnottaken.net

Welsh politics may be finally maturing

On Thursday, elections for the Welsh parliament (Senedd) will take place.

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Reposted by Dan Williams

Andy Masley @andymasley.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

New post on data centers and land use, where I go into my manifesto for why we should trust farmers less open.substack.com/pub/andymasl...

open.substack.com

Data center land use issues are fake

We have plenty of land, data centers provide more revenue per unit area than any other building, and we should have way less farmland

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Dan Williams @danwphilosophy.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

New conversation with the brilliant David Kipping focusing on the search for aliens, the Fermi paradox, the simulation argument, anthropic reasoning, the role of AI in science, whether "AGI" or “superintelligence” are imminent, and much more. www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUQ4...

youtube.com

Aliens, Superintelligence, and the Future of Science (with David Kipping)

YouTube video by Conspicuous Cognition

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Reposted by Dan Williams

lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

I don't get why a bunch of people on BlueSky instantly concluded this assassination attempt was fake? I mean, like, I guess it could be, wouldn't be the strangest thing to have happened ever. But probably not, surely? What would even be the point of that? Just - why the weird conspiracy brain stuff?

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Rob Sica @robsica.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

🔪"And if you have been reading this smugly thinking that this is just true of those foolish people on the other side, then think again, because almost all the consequences of tribalism that we reveal in the book are symmetrical"

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Reposted by Dan Williams

Ethan Mollick @emollick.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

Every system that was regulated, either explicitly or implicitly, by the fact that they were effortful for humans (letters of recommendation, government filings, essays, or, as this paper finds, lawsuits) will break under a wave of AI.

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Dan Williams @danwphilosophy.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

Much discussion about AI risks focuses on the dangers increasingly advanced AI systems pose to us. But what about the dangers we might pose to them? Many people think discussing "AI welfare" is absurd. I disagree! Discussion with Henry Shevlin and Rob Long here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEMf...

youtube.com

Should We Care About AI Welfare? (with Robert Long)

YouTube video by Conspicuous Cognition

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Antoine Marie PhD @a-marie-sci.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

Our paper just hit 50 citations 🎯: "Political conspiracy theories as tools for mobilization and signaling", Current Opinion in Psychology, 2022, with @m-b-petersen.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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Huw Price @huwprice.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

Interesting piece here, citing among other folk the excellent @danwphilosophy.bsky.social

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Dan Williams @danwphilosophy.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

With Henry Shevlin, we discuss: - How we became interested in philosophy and AI - Recent advances in agentic AI - AI, politics (e.g., Anthropic vs Trump administration), and public hostility to AI www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEJG...

youtube.com

Time To Start Panicking About AI?

YouTube video by Conspicuous Cognition

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Reposted by Dan Williams

Anna Alexandrova @annaalexandrova.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Thank you for the platform! I don't like the phrase 'money can't buy x' (for any x), it's just too vague and not true when taking literally. It was great to juxtapose the ideas abt wellbeing @markfabian.bsky.social and I have been developing with those of @lfitouchi.bsky.social and moral psychology.

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Matthew Sheffield @matthew.flux.community · 09/03/2026

It's largely an article of faith among center-left people that LLMs will lead to more disinformation and falsehoods, however, as @danwphilosophy.bsky.social argues, there are key ways that LLMs facilitate public beliefs in expert consensuses. This is why Elon Musk is so upset about "woke AI."

conspicuouscognition.com

How AI Will Reshape Public Opinion

Social media democratised public opinion, shifting influence away from elites and experts to ordinary people. LLMs will partly reverse this trend. They are a powerful, new technocratising force.

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Kyle Saunders @kylesaunders.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

@danwphilosophy.bsky.social has the best framing I've seen of what LLMs do to public opinion—anti-social media, technocratizing, epistemically converging. I'm (mostly) with him. But "epistemically converging" is the load-bearing claim, so, some thoughts... kylesaunders.substack.com/p/expert-lev...

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Seb Krier @sebkrier.com · 25/02/2026

is it safe to come back here or will any view sympathetic to AI be met with rude/aggro replies

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Alexander Hohlfeld @alhohlfeld.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

"Social media democratised public opinion, shifting influence away from elites and experts to ordinary people. LLMs will partly reverse this trend. They are a powerful, new technocratising force" @danwphilosophy.bsky.social www.conspicuouscognition.com/p/how-ai-wil...

conspicuouscognition.com

How AI Will Reshape Public Opinion

Social media democratised public opinion, shifting influence away from elites and experts to ordinary people. LLMs will partly reverse this trend. They are a powerful, new technocratising force.

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Reposted by Dan Williams

Evolutionary Psychology (the podcast) @epthepod.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

This week, we talk to @pdurkee.bsky.social about status and personality. youtu.be/JdkKYiLfWog www.podbean.com/eas/pb-ax9c2... podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

youtu.be

Status and Personality with Patrick Durkee

YouTube video by Evolutionary Psychology (The Podcast)

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Reposted by Dan Williams

Fluffy Cyborg, IInd of the name @avel.kairos-research.org · 21/02/2026

1/6 Excited to share the call for posters & registration for the 2nd XSCAPE Workshop: "Varieties of Externalism" ! 📅 Friday, April 10th, 2026 — Gallery Room, Bramber House, University of Sussex Registration is free but places are limited. 🧵

Poster for the call. All relevant information is in thread

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Anil Seth @anilseth.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

Really enjoyed this conversation 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽

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Stefan Schubert @stefanschubert.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

In today's newsletter: According to the Doomsday Clock, we've been dancing on the edge of doom since 1947. That doesn't make sense. If there isn't any disaster year after year, you have to infer the risk was lower than you thought. 1/5 www.update.news/p/the-doomsd...

update.news

The Doomsday Clock is broken

Plus: the Democrats need to win more swing states from 2032, the urban transformation in the nineteenth century, and more

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Dan Williams @danwphilosophy.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

Links in next post (2/2) - YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_l5T... - Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/53bomYF... - Apple podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c... - Rss feed: api.substack.com/feed/podcast... - Transcript and links: www.conspicuouscognition.com/p/ai-session...

youtube.com

AI Sessions #8: Misinformation, Social Media, and Deepfakes (with Sacha Altay)

YouTube video by Conspicuous Cognition

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