Reposted by Michael HarrisPhil Tinline @philtinline.bsky.social · 11hDoctor Who has described the BBC's new AI-generated director general as "pretty good", and suggested that the technology now enabled the creation of content "at the standard of an unimaginative man who spent years working at McKinsey then Google". 110436
Reposted by Michael HarrisPrivacy International @privacyinternational.org · 15hGovernments all over the world have been building up arsenals of technologies to surveil and monitor migrants and asylum seekers. We conducted a global survey to map the various technologies reportedly used on people on the move. privacyinternational.org/report/5866/...privacyinternational.orgAn Arsenal of Surveillance: A Guide to the Technologies Harming MigrantsGovernments around the world are building increasingly sophisticated surveillance infrastructures to monitor migrants, asylum seekers and refugees at borders and within countries. 095
Reposted by Michael HarrisMedia Lens @medialens.org · 19hJonathan Cook forensically exposes how the 'mainstream' press is keeping our minds right for the security state's propaganda: jonathancook.substack.com/p/reporting-...jonathancook.substack.comReporting of the RAF Fairford arrests blows the idea of a ‘free press’ out of the waterWhen the establishment media deals with issues in which the West’s war industries are most heavily invested, it happily jettisons even the semblance of critical distance from the state 0118
Reposted by Michael HarrisMichael Spicer @michaelspicer.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Most TV is just this now. 15362841753
Reposted by Michael HarrisHelen McCarthy @glider.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Isn't this strongly reminiscent of an enormous amount of corporate activity? Just keep moving, nothing to see here ... 081
Reposted by Michael HarrisByline Times @bylinetimes.bsky.social · 30/09/2026🔴 NEW Times Higher Education, Sponsored by Orbán’s Hungary, Failed to Report James Orr Allegations By Samantha Asumadu Read below. ↓bylinetimes.comTimes Higher Education, Sponsored by Orbán’s Hungary, Failed to Report James Orr AllegationsThe publication signed a partnership with Viktor Orbán's government and has since published no coverage of the allegations around a Cambridge academic and former Reform UK policy chief whose foundation receives Hungary-linked funding 15633
Reposted by Michael HarrisLondon Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 30/09/2026‘Britain’s political class remains unified in its belief that energy infrastructure must be owned by the private sector. Since privatisation in the 1980s, successive leaders have rejected any suggestion of nationalisation.’ @arthurdowning.bsky.social: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...lrb.co.ukArthur Downing · Asset Sweating: Britain’s Energy CrisisBritain has private ownership while making the state responsible for planning via subsidies. The result is a zombie... 0165
Michael Harris @davidmichaelharris.bsky.social · 30/09/2026"Now that oil is the fuel of navies, those narrow seas, the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus, have assumed an enhanced importance, because there are rich oil-bearing lands beside them." www.marxists.org/archive/pank...marxists.orgThe Truth about the Oil War by Sylvia Pankhurst 1922 000
Reposted by Michael HarrisRobert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 30/09/2026It’s a mark of the corruption of our whole way of thinking about the world that trying to meet a planetary emergency is routinely described as “ideological”, while continuing to accelerate it is presented as “pragmatic” and “economic”. 181203429
Reposted by Michael HarrisScientists for Global Responsibility @responsiblesci.bsky.social · 30/09/2026The assault on science at US universities began long before the Trump administration. It was built on decades of efforts by libertarian donor networks, fossil fuel companies and think tanks to reshape university governance and increase outside influence. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...theguardian.comDecades of fossil fuel influence paved way for Trump’s assault on university research, study saysFossil fuel firms have spent years trying to regulate climate research by donating to US universities, study authors argue 035
Reposted by Michael HarrisDr Rebecca Wragg Sykes @lemoustier.bsky.social · 29/09/2026🏺🧪 🦣 Will absolutely be tuning in fo some of these excellent #HumanOrigins talks, hosted by one of my academic depts - online, open to all 0159
Reposted by Michael HarrisThe Cosmic Shambles Network @cosmicshambles.com · 29/09/2026The #NineLessons site is updated with some new guests as well as letting you know who's on which night! Loads more to come obv but new guests joining @robinince.bsky.social inc. @particleclara.bsky.social, Olga Koch, Mark Spencer and @romatheengineer.bsky.social Tix - cosmicshambles.com/ninelessons 11812
Michael Harris @davidmichaelharris.bsky.social · 29/09/2026"163 articles were published on Jason Arday in the week after he resigned – compared to 13 articles by the same media outlets on James Orr in the week after the broadcast of the undercover filming he was featured in." www.bylinesupplement.com/p/the-two-pr...bylinesupplement.comThe Two Professors and a ‘War On Ideas’The different stories of the Cambridge academics Jason Arday and James Orr reveal the wider cultural and ideological forces around hierarchies and structural power – and who gets to belong 000
Reposted by Michael HarrisRebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 23/09/2026This is a great piece about animal communication research, with experts in the field largely explaining why they don’t use AI. Bonus: includes audio clips of dolphin whistles and elephant rumbles www.theguardian.com/technology/n...theguardian.comUsing AI to ‘talk to animals’ might make us feel clever – but what, if anything, does it do for them?As animal behaviorists increasingly use AI in their research, they grapple with how to wield the technology responsibly 0127
Reposted by Michael HarrisDr Rebecca Wragg Sykes @lemoustier.bsky.social · 27/09/2026The problem isn't rogue #AI models, it's *negligent companies*. If a biomedical firm put their product in public water supply because they wanted to test it 'in the real world', they'd be treated as criminal at corporate & individual level. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...theguardian.comOpenAI halts training of latest models as reports mount of AI agents going rogueDecision follows disclosures that OpenAI agents searching government websites had acted in unexpected ways 20815324
Reposted by Michael HarrisRebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Since we’re talking about the politicisation of science, another laughably bad “national IQ” paper has just been published in Evolutionary Psychological Science. This paper barely even pretends to be science yet is published by a mainstream publisher, with prominent academics on the editorial board 54610
Reposted by Michael HarrisKetan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 29/09/2026Your daily reminder - the Norwegian Consumer Council has really, really solid work on how to be anti-enshittification www.forbrukerradet.no/breakingfree/forbrukerradet.noBreaking FreeIn the new report Breaking Free: Pathways to a fair technological future, the Norwegian Consumer Council has delved into enshittification and how to resist it. 07828
Reposted by Michael HarrisFriends of the Earth Europe @foeeurope.bsky.social · 29/09/2026We're launching the Atlas tomorrow, join us (and leading international experts) online for a much needed conversation on corporate power! 👇 0127
Reposted by Michael HarrisDr Katie Twomey @k2mey.eurosky.social · 28/09/2026This is quite cool. My university is the first organisation in the world to force Microsoft to allow us to turn off copilot summaries in Word 365, after a backlash against it from staff (including, very vocally, me). That cannot have been easy for our heroic IT people so hats very much off to them! 895439933
Michael Harris @davidmichaelharris.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Emma Goldman, 'Patriotism: a menace to liberty' (1910) theanarchistlibrary.org/library/emma...theanarchistlibrary.orgPatriotism: a menace to libertyEmma Goldman Patriotism: a menace to liberty 1910 000
Reposted by Michael HarrisUniversity and College Union (UCU) @ucu.org.uk · 28/09/2026£140m in cuts. Up to 1,800 jobs at risk. 93 programmes set to go. UCU members at the University of Edinburgh begin five weeks of strike action today. We back our branch. We need you to do the same. Education belongs to all of us. 02213
Reposted by Michael HarrisMedia Lens @medialens.org · 29/09/2026Another stellar edition of ColdType: www.coldtype.net/Assets23/PDF... 023
Reposted by Michael HarrisPavel @spavel.bsky.social · 27/09/2026The idea of a "tech industry" has always relied on "computer" being a special kind of medium, akin to alchemy. And if tech demands to be king, AI hype has now elevated LLMs to a king of kings. But the solipsism has hit a dead end. The only way forward is to recognize that computers are not special.productpicnic.beehiiv.comLLMs are just normal technology. But tech is just a normal medium.The more we focus on a particular technology, the more we lose sight of what normal people actually care about. 1034095
Reposted by Michael HarrisQuinn Slobodian @quinnslobodian.com · 28/09/2026Deacademicization is an ugly word we will have to learn to pronounce. 34012
Reposted by Michael HarrisSarah May @sarahmay1.bsky.social · 28/09/2026This kind of nonsense (What's described, not the post) is part of preparing the country for war. Appeals to an enduring 'National Character' - especially one that trusts authority and is calm in a crisis - are always worrying, but especially now. 1141
Reposted by Michael HarrisDefend Our Juries @defendourjuries.bsky.social · 27/09/2026BREAKING: 94 year old Jewish human rights barrister, Margaret Owen arrested under the Terrorism Act outside Andy Burnham’s Labour Party conference. UK taxpayers are funding these arrests while masked men terrorise the streets in coastal towns. Lift The Ban on Palestine Action. 18772042995
Reposted by Michael HarrisQuinn Slobodian @quinnslobodian.com · 27/09/2026As Slobodian put it, “the tech barons may not care about democracy, but democracy cares about them.” I'll take that final word, thx @eduardoelreportero.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/technology/n...theguardian.comDemocracy blindsides Silicon Valley’s power players looking to transform the world with AI‘The push against datacenters speaks to the frustration of people who don’t feel they are making the choices in their lives’ 213546
Reposted by Michael HarrisUniversity and College Union (UCU) @ucu.org.uk · 28/09/2026Our members at Edinburgh University commence a 5 week strike today over crippling job cuts. Please show them solidarity as they head onto picket lines this morning. 36845
Reposted by Michael HarrisAdam McKay @ghostpanther.bsky.social · 27/09/2026Watched this yesterday and am still haunted by it. This kind of tech is only possible because of 100’s of years of work by generations of scientists. The idea that now that legacy of knowledge has passed into the hands of sociopathic bros and blind profit junkies is terrifying. 119519
Reposted by Michael HarrisPeter Gleick @petergleick.bsky.social · 27/09/2026Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" was released on this day 62 years ago. I have a first edition & come back to it often, including this paragraph in the chapter "Obligation to Endure." It's worth reading. "We urgently need an end to these false assurances, to the sugar coating of unpalatable facts." 511037
Reposted by Michael HarrisScientists for Global Responsibility @responsiblesci.bsky.social · 24/09/2026 📢 Official Disinformation: Can science overcome political spin, silence and corporate greenwash?' 🗓️ 14 Oct 2026, 4–6pm BST (with AGM to follow) Hear from the Union of Concerned Scientists, ClientEarth, DeSmog & SGR. More details to follow… 🧪 www.sgr.org.uk/events/offic... 155
Reposted by Michael HarrisBy Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 24/09/2026Ron Cobb’s original signage designs for Alien, made with felt tip pen and graph paper. humanoidhistory.tumblr.com/post/8286472... 71355374
Reposted by Michael Harris404 Media @404media.co · 23/09/2026The statements, taken together, are some of the most damning indictments of the ways LLMs were trained, how they worked, and the immediate threat they pose to human labor. @jasonkoebler.bsky.social reports. Listen now: www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KI3... 21818391
Reposted by Michael HarrisDave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 23/09/2026We are a solar-powered household! Thanks Pete, Devon, Stuart, and Arturo, who's from the Philippines. Fuck fascism! 0121
Michael Harris @davidmichaelharris.bsky.social · 23/09/2026Equinoctial Greetings! [Image: Ring of Brodgar, Sigurd Towrie] 000
Reposted by Michael HarrisEmily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 22/09/2026From @timnitgebru.blacksky.app and me on what we should take from the 2026 summer of AI hype: www.technologyreview.com/2026/09/22/1...technologyreview.comDon’t be fooled by this summer of AI hypeBreathless claims about AGI and new capabilities fall apart pretty quickly under scrutiny. 8345192
Reposted by Michael HarrisLuke Ontario @coolhand.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Oh my God, I agree with WSJ opinion Oh my God, shoot me in the face 371506302
Reposted by Michael HarrisNabil Salih @nabilsalih.bsky.social · 18/09/2026"I turned to the back page, where someone had drawn a cartoon figure throwing a swastika and axe into a bin. ‘This book is trash,’ they had written. ‘Fuck Benito and Fascists.’ At the bottom, in smaller writing, they had added: ‘Nice museum, though!" In @lrb.co.uk www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...lrb.co.ukDani Garavelli · Diary: Cult of MussoliniA couple of days before I arrived in Predappio, I read that Hitler’s birthplace in Austria had been compulsorily... 072
Reposted by Michael HarrisByline Times @bylinetimes.bsky.social · 22/09/2026An apocalyptic worldview – blending racial hierarchy, genetic “optimisation” and even climate-driven population culling – circulated inside the elite, founder-linked networks shaping Silicon Valley (and the AI industry) today. @nafeez.bsky.social bylinetimes.com/2025/12/05/h...bylinetimes.comHow Epstein Channelled Race Science and 'Climate Culling' Into Silicon Valley’s AI EliteThe Epstein files expose how racial hierarchy, genetic “optimisation” and even climate-driven population culling circulated inside Big Tech circles 714285
Reposted by Michael HarrisSocial Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 21/09/2026A theatre in Barcelona has been banned from promoting a stage adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own on Instagram and Facebook because the work includes “social topics.”* www.theguardian.com/technology/2... * "any mention of civil rights, feminism or social reform"theguardian.comMeta bans ads for Virginia Woolf play in Spain because they relate to feminismTheatre told that Facebook and Instagram filter out ads mentioning ‘social topics’ such as civil rights or feminism 98249
Reposted by Michael HarrisDundee UCU @ducuuo.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Day 1 of 25 - Massive turnout today on our picket line. Thanks to Heather Anderson MSP and @maggiechapman.bsky.social for your support on the picket line this morning. And for all our amazing students from Students Against Cuts. No compulsory redundancies. #SaveDundeeUni 12616
Reposted by Michael HarrisMargot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 21/09/2026'In the most notable case, the University of Nottingham’s University and College Union (UCU) branch has declared strike action of 67 days, expected to last for the majority of the autumn term, as the institution looks to cut 600 full-time equivalent jobs.'timeshighereducation.comUK universities face autumn of chaos as ‘prolonged’ strikes plannedUnprecedentedly long strikes at Nottingham, Edinburgh and Dundee could be the shape of things to come, observers say 14432
Reposted by Michael Harrisqmackie @qmackie.bsky.social · 21/09/2026What could possibly be wrong with an AI generated map of first peopling of the Pacific? Almost everything. From Richards et al 2026 "Lessons from pseudoscience in the Pacific in face of GenAI" www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.... 🏺 (open access) #archaeology 55623
Reposted by Michael Harris404 Media @404media.co · 21/09/2026When chatbots become our closest “friends,” what happens to our capacity to care? @samleecole.bsky.social speaks to Professor Sherry Turkle, a licensed clinical psychologist and the founding director of MIT's Initiative on Technology and Self. Watch now: www.youtube.com/watch?v=whqD... 1017657
Reposted by Michael HarrisPaul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 21/09/2026It's all a bit Amity Mayor stuff. Keep the beaches open... 67328
Reposted by Michael HarrisHistory and Heritage Yorkshire @handhyorkshire.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Laura Kuenssberg's question at the weekend "Is it for people who are singers, songwriters, artists to be taking public positions on very very controversial, difficult, complicated issues" was the most insulting, patronising, appalling question I have had the misfortune to have heard in years. 2929949
Michael Harris @davidmichaelharris.bsky.social · 21/09/2026The RNLI expresses the principle in six words: “Anyone can drown. No one should.” That is remarkably close to the universalism Kropotkin identified. And that is why the argument over the RNLI is about considerably more than boats. freedomnews.org.uk/2026/09/21/k...freedomnews.org.ukKropotkin’s lifeboats: Mutual aid VS welfare chauvinism - Freedom NewsThe RNLI’s cosmopolitan philosophy undermines a cornerstone of the far right’s worldview ~ Roderick McMillan ~ Royal. 000
Reposted by Michael HarrisDave Vetter @davidrvetter.bsky.social · 20/09/2026Your regular reminder that Matthew Syed, who has his own BBC radio show, enthusiastically endorses the white supremacist Great Replacement Theory. 26283107
Reposted by Michael HarrisWorking Class History @workingclasshistory.com · 19/09/2026#OtD 19 Sep 1981 250,000-500,000 marched in Washington, DC in support of air traffic controllers who were fired by president Ronald Reagan for striking for safer conditions, shorter shifts, a 32-hour week and better pay stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1259... 05528
Reposted by Michael HarrisWill Davies @will-davies.bsky.social · 19/09/2026Has George Osborne ever met the people who actually work in museums or wondered what their politics might be? www.theguardian.com/politics/202...theguardian.comGeorge Osborne ‘thought Peter Thiel’s Bayeux tapestry visit would be secret’British Museum chair tells Big Brue festival he thought no one would find out about the private viewing 1417949