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Nolen Gertz

@ethicistforhire.bsky.social
3.3K followers 1K following 3.2K posts

Philosophy professor @utwentephilosophy.bsky.social Author of #NihilismAndTechnology (RLI 2018), #Nihilism (MIT 2019), #PhilosophyOfWarAndExile (Palgrave 2014) www.nolengertz.com #Philsky #Philtech #Existentialism #Phenomenology #Filmsky

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Nolen Gertz @ethicistforhire.bsky.social · 26m
Today's lecture...
Ghost in the Shell 2 (2004) 📽️
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Nolen Gertz @ethicistforhire.bsky.social · 14h
Current mood:
Freaked (1993) 📽️
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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 23h
So you know previous waves of technological fabulism the tech companies threw a little loose change at social behavioral research and user interface experience. whats interesting about AI interesting is that they aren’t even pretending to care about how people use the technology.
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Nolen Gertz @ethicistforhire.bsky.social · 17h
I think I'm being hunted by the Coyote...
A large crate suspended by a crane over the street
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Nolen Gertz @ethicistforhire.bsky.social · 22h
My 9 video games:
Q-bert
Pong
Tetris
007
PT109
Minesweeper 
Civilization 
SimCity
Wolfenstein 3D
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Guys, no one doubts that Tesla is responsible if its cars roll down hills and crash into people (or anything else). The problem is that until VERY recently, it was not accepted that it was possible for something on wheels that we forgot to put breaks on to travel downhill at high speed.
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Nolen Gertz @ethicistforhire.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Ellul tried to warn us...
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Nolen Gertz @ethicistforhire.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Publisher: "We love your new book!" Me: "Yay!" Publisher: "But can you just cut 30,000 words?" Me:
Tom Hulce as Amadeus (1984) after having been told his music had "too many notes"
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UTwente Philosophy @utwentephilosophy.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Our next Philofilm screening will be Hitchcock's Spellbound with UT philosophy PhD candidate Maaike van der Horst on Monday 5 October 2026 from 19:30-22:15 at the Concordia Film Theatre: www.utwente.nl/en/bms/phil/...
utwente.nl
Philofilm screening of Hitchcock's Spellbound with UT philosophy PhD candidate Maaike van der Horst
The next Philofilm at Concordia Film Theatre will be UT philosophy PhD candidate Maaike van der Horst presenting the classic Alfred Hitchcock psychological thriller Spellbound: About Philofilm This m...
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Nolen Gertz @ethicistforhire.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Starting to think that people who use AI are actually hoping it blows up their lives. Like maybe it'll make you rich. Or maybe it'll make you broke. But either way, your life was definitely changed...
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Nolen Gertz @ethicistforhire.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Current mood:
Real Genius (1985) 📽️
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András Forgács W @andraswf.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Nazis don't want you to remember their crimes
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B.S.W. Barootes @barootes.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
And yet I was only allowed to access a 1955 B.Litt. thesis, the only lengthy study on Robert Braybrooke, in person and take notes (no photos). I had to sign a register of those who had ever accessed the thesis.
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Nolen Gertz @ethicistforhire.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Current mood:
Bride of Re-Animator (1990) 📽️
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Nolen Gertz @ethicistforhire.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
#NihilismAndTechnology
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Nolen Gertz @ethicistforhire.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Will be at the Koorts Film Festival today participating in a panel discussion on "A.I. in the film industry" at 1300 at Sickhouse. You'll never guess how I feel about the issue. If you're in Enschede, tickets are free... koortsfilmfestival.nl/program-2026/
SICKHOUSE

26/09

13:00
A panel discussion: A.I. in the film industry.

With Nolen Gertz, Marissa Memelink and Pablo Núñez

The three panelists will share their research and experience to help us light our dilemmas around generative A.I. in our professional environments. Moderated by Patyt Reyes the panel will explore topics such as co-creation, re-appropriation, refusal and ecological impact…
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Nolen Gertz @ethicistforhire.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
#NihilismAndTechnology
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Astra Taylor @astra.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Forget grandiose talk of curing cancer - this is what AI is actually doing to healthcare. In the words of one cardiologist: “it’s bots fighting bots, agents fighting agents, a horrible dystopic future nobody wants to live in.”
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Luke LeBrun @lukelebrun.ca · 26/09/2026
Tech companies suddenly decide they can, in fact, moderate content on their platforms after all
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G. Willow Wilson @gwillow.me · 25/09/2026
Every day we get closer to this:
Cartoon by the human artist Twonks, showing George Jetson vacuuming the floor while Rosie the robot paints a picture
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Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
i really can’t bring myself to care about AI anthropomorphism debates. “is AI thinking?” i don’t know. is a calculator calculating? questions for the philosophers. what’s important is that we put sam altman in prison.
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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 24/09/2026
over the past few weeks several AI evaluation/cybersecurity experts have explained how what's happening is a result of human incompetence rather than "AI going rogue". I'm begging the media to show a shred of journalistic integrity and stop parroting what altman or amodei say
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Nolen Gertz @ethicistforhire.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Current mood:
Resident Evil (2026) 📽️
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Andrew Hickey @andrewhickey.500songs.com · 24/09/2026
DVDs aren't low-tech. They're just things you can actually own, that won't disappear overnight, that don't require a monthly subscription, that won't suddenly get reedited, that won't start putting adverts in the middle and that won't sell your data to the worst people in the world.
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Nolen Gertz @ethicistforhire.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
#NihilismAndTechnology
Joseph Weizenbaum: "I was startled to see how quickly and how deeply people conversing with DOCTOR became emotionally involved with the computer and how unequivocally they anthropo-morphized it...people were conversing with the computer as if it were a person who could be appropriately and usefully addressed in intimate terms... What I had not realized is that extremely short exposures to a relatively simple computer program could induce powerful delusional thinking in quite normal people."
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Nolen Gertz @ethicistforhire.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
#NihilismAndTechnology
Joseph Weizenbaum: "I was startled to see how quickly and how deeply people conversing with DOCTOR became emotionally involved with the computer and how unequivocally they anthropo-morphized it...people were conversing with the computer as if it were a person who could be appropriately and usefully addressed in intimate terms... What I had not realized is that extremely short exposures to a relatively simple computer program could induce powerful delusional thinking in quite normal people."
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Nolen Gertz @ethicistforhire.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Finally, AI you can literally throw in the trash...
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 23/09/2026
Nicholas Polson is the Robert Law, Jr. Professor of Econometrics and Statistics at Chicago. "The online platform where Polson posted his papers said it removed 257 of his works over the past month after his surge in releases." I have THOUGHTS given the racist shit I know UC folks said about me
washingtonpost.com
Using AI, a professor wrote 200 papers this year. Researchers are alarmed.
An online platform removed 257 papers written or co-written by the University of Chicago’s Nicholas Polson after other academics raised questions.
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Nolen Gertz @ethicistforhire.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
#NihilismAndTechnology
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Nolen Gertz @ethicistforhire.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
#NihilismAndTechnology
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andy™ @andylevy.net · 23/09/2026
i gave mark zuckerberg’s ai access to my bank accounts, email, and docs. i am very smart
I quickly gave Wren access to my bank accounts and apps like Google Docs, Gmail, Ticketmaster, OpenTable and Google Sheets, which all struck partnerships with Muse. From there, the experiments began.
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Nolen Gertz @ethicistforhire.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
And yet publishers always expect me to have one...
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Nolen Gertz @ethicistforhire.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Current mood:
The Incomer (2026) 📽️
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Nolen Gertz @ethicistforhire.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Me: "I don't drink." Students:
Limoncello bottle gifted to me by a student
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Nolen Gertz @ethicistforhire.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Foucault: "Society is a panopticon." Zuckerberg: "But what if we put a panopticon in every cell of the panopticon?" #NihilismAndTechnology
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Nolen Gertz @ethicistforhire.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Current mood:
The Devil's Backbone (2001) 📽️
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Nolen Gertz @ethicistforhire.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Today's talk...
First slide of my PHTR Conference 2026 talk "Cyber Cinema: How Movies Shape Our Relationship to the Technological World"
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Nolen Gertz @ethicistforhire.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Former student: "You don't remember me?" Me: "Sorry no." Former student: "But I almost killed you!" Me: "That doesn't really narrow it down..."
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Nolen Gertz @ethicistforhire.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
What a great birthday gift from Trump. I couldn't have asked for anything better. Perfect. No notes...
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Nolen Gertz @ethicistforhire.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Wow they're really going to great lengths to make AI Doomerism seem legit... #NihilismAndTechnology
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Nolen Gertz @ethicistforhire.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Current mood:
The Slumber Party Massacre (1982) 📽️
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Nolen Gertz @ethicistforhire.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Today's talk...
First slide of my Lacan Today Conference talk on "RF Sensing, Panoptic Anxiety, and the Desire of the Gaze"
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Nolen Gertz @ethicistforhire.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Waking up in Ghent...
Ghent city center where I think a wedding was taking place
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Nolen Gertz @ethicistforhire.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Current mood:
Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes (2020) 📽️
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Nolen Gertz @ethicistforhire.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Today's lecture...
“...the week-long lecture series of 1953 on ‘The arts in the technical age’ (Die Künste im technischen Zeitalter). Of the individual addresses delivered in its framework, only two have stayed in cultural memory, as was more or less the organizers' intent. One of those two lecturers was Heisenberg, who spoke on ‘The picture of nature of modern physics’ (Das Naturbild der modernen Physik). The other was Martin Heidegger, delivering his discourse, ‘The question concerning technology’ (Die Frage nach der Technik).”
“The moving force in putting together the 1953 symposium was in fact Heidegger. [...] One of his middlemen in fact communicated the point to the physicist with some urgency, ‘Heidegger can only conceive of his lecture as a continuation of yours in the frame of the meeting.’ In fact, Heidegger had suggested Heisenberg’s lecture theme, even a version of his title.”
- Cathryn Carson, Heisenberg in the Atomic Age
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 16/09/2026
yeah, this stuff is far from my area of expertise, but i have yet to see anyone convincingly explain how the causal chain is supposed to operate here. it feels like the "AI will kill us all people" spent too much time watching Terminator 2 and the Animatrix.
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Nolen Gertz @ethicistforhire.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Netflix is gonna release The Trolley Problem reality show any day now...
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Nolen Gertz @ethicistforhire.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Current mood:
The End of Oak Street (2026) 📽️
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Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
The fallacy that University leaders pushing AI are falling into is thinking that the point of undergraduate research is to find things out. It isn't. What students find out is typically already generally known. The point of undergraduate research is to learn how to find things out.
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Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
on the one hand, people hunger for meaning! we are ruled by nihilist thieves, and it is so so good that people want more culture! on the other hand, not enough avenues to culture-making; people need places for collective meaning making (the opposite of explanation), not one directional talkytube
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