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Ben Allen

@evodynamics.bsky.social
1.9K followers 1.2K following 2K posts

Mathematical biologist studying evolution. Professor of Mathematics at Emmanuel College, MA. Queer, nonbinary (they/them). For social and ecological justice. Jewish as in Free Palestine. www.emmanuel.edu/emmanuel-mathemati…

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Reposted by Ben Allen
nick @unionnick.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
On the *same day* the Cornell Seven drugged and raped Jane Doe, Cornell banned four students (including the President of Cornell JVP) from campus for three years for nonviolent, pro-Palestine protests. The same Cornell officials let the rapists off with apology essays.
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Concerned Jewish Faculty & Staff @concernedjfaculty.bsky.social · 12h
Remarkable threat by the Deborah Project's legal director to sue and harass the students and alumni who signed this letter. These are not the words of an organization genuinely committed to combating antisemitism while protecting free speech. They are the words of a bully.
Text from Philly Inquirer article:

"Lori Lowenthal Marcus, The Deborah Project’s legal director, said in an email that accusing The Deborah Project of weaponizing antisemitism “evokes the rank racism of the pre-Civil Rights era when racists demanded the law not be used to shield Black Americans from harassment and other harms.”

The student and alumni group has no legal standing to make demands regarding the settlement, Lowenthal Marcus wrote. She added that they “could be subject to legal action if they insist on continuing on their path of tortious interference.”

“Thank them for supplying their names and affiliations, so we know how to reach them,” Lowenthal Marcus wrote. "
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Jeremy Van Cleve @vancleve.theoretical.bio · 29/09/2026
My group is recruiting a Ph.D student for Fall 2027! We're a friendly group of mathematically-minded and computationally-inspired biologists studying topics including social evolution, host-pathogen interactions, genetics, and demography. See vancleve.theoretical.bio for more info!
vancleve.theoretical.bio
van cleve research group
Van Cleve Research Group – theoretical evolution & ecology at the University of Kentucky
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Amber Ying 應 緣 @amberying.com · 29/09/2026
maybe the problem with college campuses weren't all the safe spaces but the rape culture
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Jim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
as a satire on so-called late stage capitalism how could one beat investors pouring a trillion into a company offering to wipe out humankind
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Ben Allen @evodynamics.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
NEW PUBLICATION: “Adaptive Dynamics of Discriminate and Indiscriminate Mating”, with Sam Rothberg & Brian Lerch. We model and analyze the evolution of indiscriminate mating—where organisms mate with others regardless of their sex. academic.oup.com/evolut/advan...
academic.oup.com
Adaptive dynamics of discriminate and indiscriminate mating
Abstract. Same-sex sexual behavior (SSB) occurs across many animal taxa. Some instances of SSB likely arise from animals’ mating indiscriminately and/or wi
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Ben Allen @evodynamics.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
My kid just defined philosophy as "meaningless questions that can be used in meaningful ways"
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Will Ratcliff @wcratcliff.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
New paper out with @kaylastoy.bsky.social: academic.oup.com/evlett/advan...
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Ben Allen @evodynamics.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
NEW PUBLICATION: “Adaptive Dynamics of Discriminate and Indiscriminate Mating”, with Sam Rothberg & Brian Lerch. We model and analyze the evolution of indiscriminate mating—where organisms mate with others regardless of their sex. academic.oup.com/evolut/advan...
academic.oup.com
Adaptive dynamics of discriminate and indiscriminate mating
Abstract. Same-sex sexual behavior (SSB) occurs across many animal taxa. Some instances of SSB likely arise from animals’ mating indiscriminately and/or wi
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Ben Allen @evodynamics.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
(I am large, I contain multisets)
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Ben Allen @evodynamics.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Suppose we take the AI companies' "kill all humans" warnings at face value. There's still a creepy subtext of "and we're gonna be the ones who do it". You get the sense that the worst case scenario for these tech lords would be if their competitors kill all humans before they do.
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 26/09/2026
Does my Speak-n-Spell feel pain when I type O-U-C-H? The jury is out. Philosophers and neuroscientists say that's fucking stupid, but I called a guy from the Center for Pretending that Household Electronics Are Sentient and he said there's no way to know for sure.
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John C. Baez @johncarlosbaez.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Wow, more progress on the Riemann zeta function! We know in our bones that for all positive integers n, ζ(n) = 1⁻ⁿ + 2⁻ⁿ + 3⁻ⁿ + ⋯ is irrational. But it's only been proved for n even, n = 3, .... and now, it seems, n = 5. This may seem small, but it's huge. zenodo.org/records/2282...
zenodo.org
ζ(5) is irrational
We prove that ζ(5) is irrational. The proof constructs integer polynomials Qₙ of degree 37n with 0 < Qₙ(ζ(5)) < exp(−139n²/5) for all sufficiently large n. These polynomials are rationally normalized ...
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Ben Allen @evodynamics.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Huang does a sneaky bait and switch here. He is asked about AI undermining learning. His response is "Oh yeah, kids don't really need to learn long division or square roots anymore". But AI learning loss isn't just for long division. It's *anything* you try to learn without doing the work yourself.
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Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The appearance of “bread” and “potatoes” on this list of imminent shortages is historically the background of collapse and revolution.
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Wtaf is this question my university just asked me about my project?
Does the project involve any work that could be interpreted as promoting DEIA, climate change research, or non-compliant to any Presidential Executive Orders?
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Ben Allen @evodynamics.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
So much for the "only democracy in the Middle East" talking point
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Ben Allen @evodynamics.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Just signed this. My arXiv manuscripts are for the community of scholars and researchers (broadly construed to include those inside and outside of academia), not for plagiarizing bots.
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Ben Blum-Smith @benblumsmith.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Ask arXiv to add a toggle to state whether chatbots can train on your work: math.mit.edu/~elmos/petit...
math.mit.edu
Give Authors Control — A Petition to arXiv
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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 22/09/2026
Republicans are about to learn the hard way why anti-trans politics are a luxury belief. Focusing on a tiny minority like this that doesn't materially affect anyone's actual life only works when the economy is generally doing well. The trans sports issue doesn't work at $6/gallon gas.
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Ben Allen @evodynamics.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Real question: Do captchas actually work for keeping out robots? Especially since the same captchas are used to train said robots?
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Adam Kucharski @adamjkucharski.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Rather than being a great democratiser, AI is currently forcing organisations to put up more gates and barriers to keep out the low quality avalanche.
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 22/09/2026
Sen. Susan Collins helped steer millions in federal defense contracts to Navatek, whose CEO illegally funneled thousands of dollars to her campaign. The FBI sought to launch a probe and was eyeing Collins and other lawmakers. Then Trump gutted the unit in charge. THREAD 🧵
Martin Kao, CEO of defense contractor Navatek, poses next to Sen. Susan Collins for a photo. Collins is holding a model of a boat in her hands. Behind them is a large sign with the Navatek logo.
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Gro-Tsen @gro-tsen.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Stop trying to send the signal that you've “solved math”: this is impossible anyway, and you've only succeeding in making problem-solving as completely worthless as producing endless hours of AI slop videos.
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ꭓle Ormsby 𓆙 @e-infinity.space · 21/09/2026
You see, when a number and a shape love each other very much....
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Felix @ostrasyn.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
"'I'm engaging with the world,' I say, as the world flies off beneath my feet and I am flung into the aether called Content."
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Ben Allen @evodynamics.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Linear algebra is the mother of all mathematics
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SMB - Society for Mathematical Biology @smbmathbiology.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Join us for the next MathBioNexus webinar! Dr. Fred Adler will present “Cells, Bureaucracy and Corruption,” featuring research from the Bulletin of Mathematical Biology. 📅 September 23 ⏰ 1:00 PM EDT 🔗 Register: buff.ly/yWXSHNa
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Joe Bak-Coleman @jbakcoleman.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
We can simulate fish schools or ants in ways that solve complex problems (gradient detection, bridge building, nest selection) but no one would create this weird soul/no-soul dichotomy to argue they these that multi-agent swarms of extremely simple rules are “thinking”.
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Mike the Mad Biologist and Trump's Press Corps Approver @mikethemadbiol.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Just to add to this excellent piece by @tressiemcphd.bsky.social, "AI as incipient godhead that can only be placated (perhaps) by the techpriests" and "AI as potentially dangerous, underregulated product with inadequate safety testing" lead you to very different policy responses.
nytimes.com
Opinion | A.I. Is a Threat, but Not in the Way You Think (Gift Article)
The threats from A.I. are real — and they’re ones we know how to deal with.
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Rochelle @uberwensch.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
You, there! Boy! What day is it? Why, it's #MathCoffeeSelfie day, sir
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Matthew Haugen @mjhaugen.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
It seems like a lot of the loudest voices about AI existential risk absolutely love LLMs and may have cooked their brains a little bit. That doesn't mean they're wrong about AI being dangerous, but it certainly affects what actual harms they care about and what solutions they will to accept.
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Nathan K. Hensley @nathankhensley.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
never forget that our universities fired and expelled people for opposing this
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Ben Allen @evodynamics.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
AI *is* a grave threat to humanity, but not because it's going to spontaneously decide to enslave us or turn us into paperclips or whatever. It's because malevolent and/or irresponsible people will use AI, whether intentionally or just recklessly, to do horrific damage.
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The Onion @theonion.com · 18/09/2026
Trans Teen Hatches Nefarious Plot To Undergo Years Of Medical Treatments And Counseling To Win At Swimming theonion.com/trans-teen-hatches-nef…
Trans Teen Hatches Nefarious Plot To Undergo Years Of Medical Treatments And Counseling To Win At Swimming
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nathanpboston @nathanpboston.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
I'm attending De-ICE Action Network's event, “Boston Dynamics: Don’t trust ICE with Spot Robot Dogs” - sign up now to join me! www.mobilize.us/deicecitizen...
mobilize.us
Boston Dynamics: Don’t trust ICE with Spot Robot Dogs · De-ICE Action Network
Join the De-ICE Action Network–which is evolving from the De-ICE Citizens Bank campaign– to send a message to Boston Dynamics to not trust ICE with their Spot Robot Dogs. Organizers will have flyer...
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Concerned Jewish Faculty & Staff @concernedjfaculty.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
That Robert Kraft and his stadium-owner buddies are fine with "Heil Hitler" but not "Free Palestine" tells you everything you need to know. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/09/17/a...
Text from Boston Globe article:

"Or Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, who has expressed admiration for Hitler and the Nazis and released a song called “Heil Hitler.” Ye played last month at sold-out Soldier Field, an NFL stadium in Chicago, and is scheduled to perform in the coming weeks at NFL stadiums in Houston, Arizona, and at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, where the Dallas Cowboys play.

The Cowboys are owned by Kraft friend and confidant Jerry Jones. When Sheeran performs at AT&T Stadium next month, Macklemore will not be on the bill. "
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Arula Ratnakar @arula-ratnakar.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
God I highly recommend taking the math PhD probability classes man undergrad probability and statistics classes are HIDING things from you.
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Simon McNeil @simonm223.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
It's kind of darkly amusing that, after more than a decade of pinkwashing apartheid in Israel, the Jerusalem Post is just "gay people are enemies to Israel."
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Ben Allen @evodynamics.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Proud to have signed this letter (and been quoted in this piece!) "We are fed up with having our identity be exploited in the service of a political state that is committing atrocities."
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Ben Allen @evodynamics.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
"If all carbon dioxides were eliminated tomorrow, there would be no meaningful climate impact" I mean sure, if you don't view the entirety of life on earth as "meaningful"...
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Liℤℤy Kodpuak née Acid Lich (can’t spell sheaves without she) @acidlich.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
It’s easy to forget that mathematics is play
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Dr. Cara Berg Powers @clbergpowers.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
One of the most frustrating parts to me is Kraft doing this fascist protection racket under the banner of protecting other Jews as opposed to because he's a billionaire that can throw money and influence at anything that makes him feel icky. Even if it actually makes other Jews *less* safe.
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Joshua Grochow @joshuagrochow.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Math is not its artifacts. Those are merely a partial record of the human endeavor and community of mathematics.
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it's charloh! (it/its) @charloh.online · 15/09/2026
*clears throat* don't you mean the United Americas of America
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A.R. Moxon @juliusgoat.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Arrest him?
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Ben Allen @evodynamics.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Always have been, but it's never been brought out so starkly as now
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Kevin Gannon (now a Moo Deng fan account) @thetattooedprof.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
One thing you can say about this regime is that they protect their own
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hoptimus @hoptimusprime.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
we go live to trump's economic plan
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