iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Mark Hurst @markhurst.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

My review of "Move Slow and Upgrade" by @evanselinger.bsky.social and @foxcahn.bsky.social - a welcome corrective to Silicon Valley's hype. buttondown.com/creativegood...

buttondown.com

In praise of moving slow

"Move Slow and Upgrade," by Evan Selinger and Albert Fox Cahn, offers a corrective to tech mania

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Mark Hurst @markhurst.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

Excited to share my Techtonic interview w/ @evanselinger.bsky.social & @foxcahn.bsky.social about their book "Move Slow and Upgrade." Full episode: techtonic.fm/episodes/202... In the excerpt below, Evan describes how the tech oligarchs see themselves as world-historical geniuses:

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Evan Selinger @evanselinger.bsky.social · 14/03/2026

@profferguson.bsky.social’s new book is a must-read! In this interview, we talk about some of the main arguments, including Andrew’s position that some things should not be used as legal evidence—that is, they should be entirely “off-limits” “even with a warrant.”

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Kean Birch @keanbirch.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

New article! "Tokenization of everything? Exploring the limits of blockchain technologies in the governance of financial markets and assets" led by Anetta Proskurovska If you want to learn about #tokenization in #finance & #financialmarkets then check it out www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

cambridge.org

Tokenization of everything? Exploring the limits of blockchain technologies in the governance of financial markets and assets | Finance and Society | Cambridge Core

Tokenization of everything? Exploring the limits of blockchain technologies in the governance of financial markets and assets

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Evan Selinger @evanselinger.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

Not on this platform much, but for anyone interested, here’s my take on why it is irresponsible for LLMs to give any advice. My guiding principle is a version of Spider-Man’s mantra: With great authority comes great responsibility. #AIEthics www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/18/o...

bostonglobe.com

Don’t take advice from AI. Use it to brainstorm instead. - The Boston Globe

Chatbots are terrible life coaches because they have no stake in anything they tell you.

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Evan Selinger @evanselinger.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

For a long time, I’ve been trying to put my finger on what AI fundamentally can’t offer, even when it generates compelling writing. The answer is “existential solidarity”: comfort of hearing from others who can speak to struggles we identify with and care about. blog.apaonline.org/2025/11/06/s...

blog.apaonline.org

Seeking Existential Solidarity in the Age of AI | Blog of the APA

To say the least, it’s not a great time to be a writer. Historian and philosopher Yuval Noah Harari claims AI is already a “better storyteller” than we are. This ability is troubling, he insists, beca...

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Albert Fox Cahn 🦊 @foxcahn.bsky.social · 14/10/2025

British friends, excited that UK preorders for my 1st book are live! @evanselinger.bsky.social and I explain why the DOGE (move fast & break things) approach is broken and how we can fix huge problems by moving slow and upgrading. You can get 25% off until Friday! www.waterstones.com/book/move-sl...

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Evan Selinger @evanselinger.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

Thrilled that “Move Slow and Upgrade,” my new Cambridge University Press book written with Albert Fox Cahn, is available for pre-order this week at 25% off. www.waterstones.com/campaign/oct...

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Kean Birch @keanbirch.bsky.social · 05/08/2025

I have a new article out: "Do artifacts have political economy?" It's a riff on an old argument by Langdon Winner about the embedding of politics in technology #STS #sociology #technoscience #technology #innovation journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

journals.sagepub.com

Do Artifacts Have Political Economy? - Kean Birch, 2025

Harking back to Langdon Winner's now classic essay “Do artifacts have politics?,” my aim in this article is to ask a very similar question—namely, do artif...

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Evan Selinger @evanselinger.bsky.social · 20/07/2025

Thomas Carroll and I put our heads together to articulate the main ethical concerns with using AI to address the empathy crisis in medicine. “The Ethics of Empathetic AI in Medicine” is now out in IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society. ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/110...

ieeexplore.ieee.org

The Ethics of Empathetic AI in Medicine

The expression of empathy is an important part of effective and humane medical care. Modern medicine faces a significant challenge in this area, at least in part due to the ever-increasing demands on ...

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Evan Selinger @evanselinger.bsky.social · 07/07/2025

Wrote about why Robin Williams’s wisdom from Good Will Hunting is worth revisiting in the AI age: books and bots offer words that move us, but they’re not offering caring relationships. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/07/07/o...

bostonglobe.com

A chatbot can never truly be your friend - The Boston Globe

AI relationships may be useful and even enjoyable. But only a fellow human can offer the depth of understanding that real closeness comes from.

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Evan Selinger @evanselinger.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

Not much on social media these days. But if anyone is interested in why I think the entire paradigm of human-like AI is wrong, here’s a short post at the APA Public Philosophy blog. They leaned into the “shit on a stick” story for the cover art. 😆 blog.apaonline.org/2025/07/01/t...

blog.apaonline.org

The Precautionary Approach to AI: Less Human, More Honest

Have you ever caught yourself thanking Siri or saying please to ChatGPT? If so, you’re not alone. Evolutionary forces, social norms, and design features all make us naturally inclined to treat these t...

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Los Angeles Review of Books @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

"The profit-driven nature of life outside the classroom makes students wonder why we even bother discussing the ethics of technology in class." @evanselinger.bsky.social reads Daryl Campbell's "Fatal Abstraction" with the realities his students face in mind. lareviewofbooks.org/article/what...

lareviewofbooks.org

What Can Enlightened Coders Really Do? | Los Angeles Review of Books

Evan Selinger reads Darryl Campbell’s “Fatal Abstraction: Why the Managerial Class Loses Control of Software” with the realities his students face in mind.

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Evan Selinger @evanselinger.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

Can enlightened altruistic coders save us from the oppressive tyranny of corporate managerialism? Alas, I don’t think so. My argument in a review essay of Darryll Campbell’s “Fatal Abstraction: Why the Managerial Class Loses Control of Software.” lareviewofbooks.org/article/what...

lareviewofbooks.org

What Can Enlightened Coders Really Do? | Los Angeles Review of Books

Evan Selinger reads Darryl Campbell’s “Fatal Abstraction: Why the Managerial Class Loses Control of Software” with the realities his students face in mind.

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Rosamunde Van Brakel @rosamundevb.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

What a great event on law enforcement use of #FRT with fantastic presentations & provocative keynotes by @petefussey.bsky.social @hartzog.bsky.social @evanselinger.bsky.social & closing words of Karen Yeung! Many thanks to wonderful @clequesne.bsky.social for the impeccable organisation! #AI

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Evan Selinger @evanselinger.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

The attack on universities mirrors our blind spot with supply chains. Because both operate invisibly, misconceptions abound. The profound contributions of universities often go unnoticed—and, just like supply chains, we risk only recognizing their value when they're diminished or fail.

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Evan Selinger @evanselinger.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

The main thesis is that the hermeneutic circle (no, they don't use this phrase!) haunts AI consciousness claims. Our theories of mind are built on pre-theoretical experience of consciousness. And yet companies insist they can replicate what they can't even define independently of that experience.

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Gaia Bernstein @gaiabernstein.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

Please tune in to my conversation with Andrew Keen on the risks of AI companions.

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Gaia Bernstein @gaiabernstein.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

Last opportunity to register to Seton Hall Law School's AI Companions online symposium tomorrow, Tuesday, Feb. 18 ,12 pm-2:30 pm EST. You can register here: : bit.ly/40Ztl2j

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Evan Selinger @evanselinger.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

Growing up in the 80s makes me a sucker for underdog stories. I loved reliving Karate Kid vibes with Cobra Kai! Question— Does celebrating beating the odds risk minimizing how stacked the deck is? Or is that view overblown b/c life poses many challenges, and we need many inspirational stories?

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Nathalie A. Smuha @nathaliesmuha.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

It's out! You can now access The Cambridge Handbook of the Law, Ethics and Policy of #AI: www.cambridge.org/core/books/t... 20 #openaccess chapters covering topics on AI, ethics, philosophy, legal domains and sectoral applications. Huge thanks to all the authors who made this possible!

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Evan Selinger @evanselinger.bsky.social · 16/02/2025

Narrating counterfactuals is necessary to make the invisible legible. Tragically, though, I suspect many will find such stories too abstract and hypothetical to resonate. When people are hurting, it's hard to point out that things could have been worse, and much is taken for granted.

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Evan Selinger @evanselinger.bsky.social · 15/02/2025

It’s hard for some to appreciate this because, tragically, they only associate governance with one thing: a scolding headshake. “The second fallacy we’ve heard is that AI requires a tradeoff – between safety and progress, between competition and collaboration, and between rights and innovation.”

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Evan Selinger @evanselinger.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

Lack of trust in universities has opened the door to the current political attempts to control research. To add to @ibogost.bsky.social’s brilliant insights, for too long too many scientists & engineers acted as if only folks in the humanities had something to prove to the public.

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Evan Selinger @evanselinger.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

Companies, organizations, and politicians rushing to AI and blaming "human inefficiency" often ignore an inconvenient truth. Poor working conditions limit human potential. In so many situations, the solution to better work is investing in people, not replacing them.

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Brett Frischmann @brettfrischmann.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

Yes, sadly they do. It’s been built and enabled over decades. Techno-social engineering of humans and society at scale, as described at length in 2018 book, Re-Engineering Humanity. @evanselinger.bsky.social

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Evan Selinger @evanselinger.bsky.social · 08/02/2025

Working on philosophy exams reminded me why we should be wary of AI grading. Appreciating student writing often requires understanding what’s between the lines, e.g., connecting what they said to class discussions or recognizing when they're expressing a sophisticated thought with imprecise wording.

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Evan Selinger @evanselinger.bsky.social · 08/02/2025

Maybe institutions would feel less cynical if they directly and consistently admitted, "We follow the money and bend to those with power,” instead of performing ethical theater that touts principles they’re destined to abandon.

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Dave Karpf @davekarpf.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

My latest blog roundup, on the lies that Silicon Valley tells itself, and mounting resistance when everything is collapsing everywhere. open.substack.com/pub/davekarp...

open.substack.com

Bullet Points: Everything is Collapsing Edition

Plus, a few ideas about the role of ideas in Silicon Valley

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Casilli @casilli.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

Hey folks, it seems that Nature has selected my book 'Waiting for Robots' (University of Chicago Press, 2025) as one of its best science picks of the week! www.nature.com/articles/d41... PS. Pairs nicely with the excellent review in Science a few weeks ago. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

nature.com

Poetry on Mars and robots on Earth: Books in brief

Andrew Robinson reviews five of the best science picks.

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Will Oremus @willoremus.com · 07/02/2025

I tried something! Let me know if this works for you. This is a handbuilt list of journalists, academics, industry figures, activists et al on Bluesky who are focused on tech — especially online platforms, social media and AI. Click "Pin to Home" if you find it worthwhile: bsky.app/profile/will...

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Lynne Tirrell @lynnetirrell.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

New BOOK, by the brilliant @michael-p-lynch.bsky.social on truth in politics & why we need truth for democracy. Insightful analysis and helpful forward-looking advice at the end. Destined to be classic, but URGENT reading now. PRE-ORDER, and it will arrive soon! bookshop.org/p/books/on-t...

bookshop.org

On Truth in Politics: Why Democracy Demands It

Why Democracy Demands It

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Evan Selinger @evanselinger.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

Meanwhile in the CA system as education becomes more botified, Sonoma cut grad and undergrad programs and eliminated departments of art history, economics, geology, philosophy, theater and dance, and women and gender studies. Other cuts at other CA schools could happen, too.

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Clive Thompson @clivethompson.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

I can’t i just … i can’t www.404media.co/anthropic-cl...

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Evan Selinger @evanselinger.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

Passion is the key to great teaching. You need to spend so much emotional energy in class that you feel like you ran a marathon! Tragically, teaching conditions have led to mass, passion-destroying burnout. This is why schools are so vulnerable to adopting mere AI simulations of enthusiasm.

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Evan Selinger @evanselinger.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

“Tech companies have pushed industrial values and measures (such as optimizing for efficiency and productivity) into domains of life where they don’t belong. According to Carr, this mismatch keeps giving us the wrong tools for our deepest human needs.”

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Evan Selinger @evanselinger.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

Nicholas Carr’s verdict on social media? “Pretty much a disaster for society and culture” that can’t be fixed. His recommendation? “Excommunication”! We discuss his new book “Superbloom” at The Boston Globe. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/01/26/o...

bostonglobe.com

Excommunication sounds pretty good about now - The Boston Globe

Technology critic Nicholas Carr says the benefits of social media will never outweigh its downsides.

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Evan Selinger @evanselinger.bsky.social · 25/01/2025

A tree just drew this! That’s how Paul Bartow and Richard Metzger, two-thirds of an artistic collaboration, described their work at last night’s exhibition—a project tracing nonhuman expressions of time along the Erie Canal from Albany to Buffalo.

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Evan Selinger @evanselinger.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

Bad ideas never truly die. Every time you think aha, this time they’re a goner, they rise again hungry for fresh minds. Or opportunists...

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Evan Selinger @evanselinger.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

Cleaning the house and found a binder with old grad school papers, including one from a 1997 seminar on Derrida. Looking at “The Danger of Safety: Derrida’s Analysis of Crisis in Husserl,” I have no idea what any of it means. Trying to dialog with yourself across time can be a weird experience. 😦

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Evan Selinger @evanselinger.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

Systems of exhaustion are strategies, not accidents. When you're burned out just trying to survive each day, forget having the energy to resist and create change. Power often works by imposing fatigue--not through blatant displays of force.

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Evan Selinger @evanselinger.bsky.social · 12/01/2025

This thesis is a large part of Nick Carr’s new book, Superbloom: sharing doesn’t lead to empathy; instead, familiarity breeds contempt, thanks to “dissimilarity cascades” and “environmental spoiling.”

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