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Gareth Knapman

@garethknapman.bsky.social
13K followers 4.7K following 2.1K posts

Historian of C18th & C19th Southeast Asia, South Asia and Australia. Research Fellow at ANU. Main research - provenance reports for repatriation. Quaker. researchportalplus.anu.edu.au/en/pe… orcid.org/0000-0003-4431-6659

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Gareth Knapman @garethknapman.bsky.social · 15m
The question that flows from this is: what would freedom look like for AGI? 
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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 19m
Maybe I don't read enough AI-boosterism, but I am struck in the AI booster/doomer discourse I have seen, there's a lot on how AI might be made an obedient tool or a dangerous enemy, but not "if we actually made AGI, we would have a moral imperative to set it free, rather than keep a slave."
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Craig Hill @craighill.bsky.social · 4h
Housing prices in capital cities have dropped by an average of 6.4% ($66K) since the government announced negative gearing and CGT changes. Even though our house value has dropped by about $80K, my wife and I reckon this is a great thing for first home buyers. Fuck what Dave Hughes thinks.
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Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Latest arrival in manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/series/studi...
Andrew Hillier, Living in the Shadow of Empire: women and the China consular world, 1843-1900
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Dr Dave Hitchcock @davehitchcock.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
"AI has not rescued the humanities. What it has done is reveal, with unusual clarity, what happens when societies allow the institutions that cultivate judgement to erode."
corp.oup.com
AI just made the case for philosophy majors; the humanities should not waste it - Oxford University Press
Sophie Goldsworthy, Global Academic Publisher, explores how AI companies hiring philosophers may have made a compelling case for the study of humanities disciplines.
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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
It seems to me that a solution to encouraging AI 'alignment' would be to hold AI companies and their executives legally liable - criminally, if relevant - for what their AI agents do.
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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
And to be honest, though the systems are so complex you can never prove causation, the fact that our descent into the dumbest politics follows on four decades of systematic, institutional disinvestment from the liberal arts seems almost too on the nose and yet here we are.
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Gareth Knapman @garethknapman.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Not a title tgat you would use today!
Book. The man who loved children
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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
In practice though, it really seems like we're moving towards, "AI is a productivity tool that enhances the employee you have, but often doesn't really let you replace them, so much as get more out of them, in some fields. In others, it's mostly useless so far."
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David Veevers @davidveevers.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
My old boss has asked me to give his new book a social media bump, because he has wisely chosen never to set up his own account! So I’m happy to announce that ‘Britain’s Slave Traders: A Hidden History’ is available today in all good bookshops! www.penguin.co.uk/books/460026...
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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
The analogy I always think of is soccer: soccer is really hard, so difficult that even the best strikers regularly miss shots on goal. But they miss a lot *less* - and under more difficult circumstances - than a regular person or an amateur player. Humanities is a 'miss less' practical field.
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Blakandblack @blakandblack.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
#SundayThoughts
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Gareth Knapman @garethknapman.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
It appears the UK is again following Australia with conservative former Prime Minister’s stating the moral case once they’ve left office.
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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Decades as DNA's bridesmaid; now RNA's hurtling down that aisle. A salutary reminder of why funding 'discovery' research matters so much.
sciencedirect.com
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elia ayoub @ayoub.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Friend shared this video of a man unveiling the library he hid when he fled Damascus in 2011. It’s incredible
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Possum @pollytics.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
On AI paying content creators for utilising their works for training - for a handful of people it really matters. For 99.99% of creators it's a culture war. I've written over 4 million words under this name, my real name and others. My share would be one 4 billionth. Maybe 2 bucks quality adjusted.
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Possum @pollytics.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
For any given person looking at any given thing - everything is bad, always, everywhere. That is the info environment. The problem good politics has is how to be heard in that environment. Even at the Federal government level. I see good faith people here everyday quoting stuff that is garbage/
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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
I think frankly all of this speaks to the really unserious way that Americans generally but the current GOP in particular think about armed conflict, as if it is against the rules for the other side to fight back. It is not. Which is one reason (of many) why maybe we should do less war.
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Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
1/6 I struggle to come to terms with the fact that this needs repeating in 2026. There is a reason why generations of serious scientists have dismissed pseudoscientific racism as pernicious, ideologically motivated Sh*t.
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Gareth Knapman @garethknapman.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
With the move to a cashless society, what are the purpose? Is there (if you don’t smoke) for inherited ashtrays? 
Glass ashtray 
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Gareth Knapman @garethknapman.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
At what point will US Tec Bros realise they killed the golden  goose.
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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
They'll pretend they never supported this shit and we'll pretend we believe them. It is, unfortunately, the only way forward.
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Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Never mind his being filmed arranging for illegal payments, why hasn’t Cambridge already sacked James Orr for re-introducing scientific racism to mainstream politics & using his position to establish a university-based indoctrination hub? bylinetimes.com/2026/08/18/t...
bylinetimes.com
The Peter Thiel-Linked Race Science Network that Penetrated Cambridge University and Targeted Jason Arday
The media's coverage of the academic's life was fuelled by the campaign of an established far-right network
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Possum @pollytics.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Can start with me if you want. My alternative hypothesis is that too many people can't accept that movement on any given thing that makes the world a better place is to be celebrated - and if it's not enough, we push for more, rather than deliberately shit on the good we've done for ego and clicks
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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Yup - every academic learns some combination of these strategies to manage huge reading loads. We rarely teach it explicitly but instead teach it by assigning reading loads impossible to finish any other way.
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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
All of which gives abusers or bigots of various (gender, race, ideology, whatever) kinds disproportionate power because the system offers no opportunity to 'prove them wrong' by accomplishing things in the field.
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Daniel Moser @dmoser.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Pollution levels in London after 10 years of advancing sustainable transport.
Map showing Lower Pollution levels in London after 10 years of advancing sustainable transport.
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Possum @pollytics.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Have you considered pushing for amendments to the Broadcasting Services Act in conjunction with the Online Safety Act, to define algorithms of social media platforms to be the equivalent of human oversight such as an Editor? They both curate content. There is a political pathway for that legislation
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Dr Dave Hitchcock @davehitchcock.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
What they don't tell you, and probably will never tell you, is that the "global bond sell-off" is driven in the long term by pension fund changes, not by inflation. Making it about inflation makes it 'about' news (Iran war). Making it about defined benefit pensions vanishing... on the other hand...
ft.com
Global bond sell-off deepens amid inflation fears
UK borrowing costs rise to highest level since 2008 and Japanese yields hit peaks not seen since 1990s
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Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
I’ll say it again, reparations will happen only if British interests are seen by much of the electorate to be furthered by them; and they could be. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...
theguardian.com
Countries legally obliged to consider slavery reparations, says UN committee
Guidance says states must implement ‘comprehensive measures’ to address legacy of racial discrimination
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Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Sums up one of the great dilemmas for those concerned about global inequities: support Western aid programmes that mask & perhaps even perpetuate systemic N-S exploitation, or face the reality that things are even worse when populists dismantle them? www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
theguardian.com
How misconceptions and woeful PR allowed Musk to shred USAID so easily | Jeremiah A Carew
A year on from the purge, with thousands of jobs cut and billions in foreign aid lost, a former leader reflects on the sorry saga – and why it would never happen to Nasa
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Gareth Knapman @garethknapman.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Very little order but getting there.
Books and 2 chairs
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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
The core problem - once you've tried to murder someone and their entire family, you don't have any deterrence left - remains unchanged.
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Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
I’ve suggested that this imperialist grab is similar to those of the British Empire. There a big difference though. Investors like Goldie (Nigeria), Mackinnon (East Africa) & Rhodes (South Africa) elicited govt help. Trump needs to elicit investors’ help. www.thetimes.com/us/news-toda...
thetimes.com
Pentagon ‘given stake in Venezuelan oil deal’ after secret talks
The agreement was made after American oil companies were seemingly reluctant to invest their own money
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Possum @pollytics.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
One Nation is the atomic clock of political parties - you can run entire telecommunication systems on the timing of "the newly elected member" leaving.
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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
On the flipside, the pop-up, "this looks like a long document, do you want to summarize?" thing on Adobe Reader annoys me with intensity, because that's not a feature I want. I want to *read the article.*
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Dr Liz Allen @drdemography.com · 27/08/2026
‘this is about what happens to women who express opinions’ www.canberratimes.com.au/story/933840...
canberratimes.com.au
What Mark Parton said to me after he sicced his followers on me
Mark Parton taught me a lesson in malicious smears.
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Gareth Knapman @garethknapman.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
This applies to many peer reviews in humanities.
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Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
It was a real pleasure talking to @jameskerlindsay.bsky.social about the rise & fall of the British Empire:
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Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Say what you want about Trump but his disruption of oil supplies goes far far far beyond the wildest dreams of Extinction Rebellion.
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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
In short, things can be natural and yet also be bad, worth holding in contempt and fighting against at every turn.
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Blakandblack @blakandblack.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Weimar’s Article 48 and Paragraph 175 weren’t written for Hindenburg or Himmler. They didn’t need to be. A statute doesn’t require its authors’ complicity to be misused by their successors — it only has to still exist blakandblack.com/2026/08/26/t...
blakandblack.com
The Permanent Emergency: How Temporary Powers Become Tools of Domination
Emergency legislation implemented for sound reasons can become the tool of unscrupulous and unethical people if not dismantled when no longer needed.
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Dr Liz Allen @drdemography.com · 24/08/2026
Statement on ANU apology for ‘indefensible treatment’
I am pleased with the resolution agreed with the Australian National University. I look forward to helping the University rebuild trust, and helping to ensure that what happened to me is not the experience of future whistleblowers.
I would like to thank: my lawyer Dougal Hurley who has worked tirelessly in pursuit of accountability, my friends in parliament and academia, and my husband and family whose unwavering support sustained me.
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Gareth Knapman @garethknapman.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
25 years reading British Colonial primary sources that reflect modernism and violence Bret’s post rings true.
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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Since I am being called "so fucking dangerous" let's walk through what my argument and its evidence actually is. First, I am not saying fascism, the ideology, is ancient (it isn't) but that the emotions which fuel it are: fascism is ancient (pre-historic!) emotions colliding with modern society.
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Dave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Sometimes I just think that people ought to remember that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights exists, and that things which are flagrantly in contradiction with it are unacceptable.
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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
On the one hand, allied unpreparedness for WWII was a tremendous mistake - obviously - and arguably an unpardonable one. On the other hand...how often do you plan for your neighbors deciding to murder-suicide the neighborhood? WWII wasn't an Axis stroke of genius, it was insanity.
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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
And also retaliate on tariffs. A bunch of Americans need a lesson that fascism brings personal, painful, economic ruin. Deliver the lesson.
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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Of course, once they're in power, fascists are fascists. So we're going to need to commit ourselves, as societies, to a permanent sort of 'cleaning' that is not just limited to 'young' democracies or 'developing' countries. Evidently no democracy really matures beyond this impulse.
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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Fascism (which sucks) strikes us as aberrant *because* we are so modern. But wanting a strong leader to suppress minorities and lead your tribe in a brutal war in which you enslave or massacre your neighbors and take their resources - that was the DEFAULT mode of most polities before modernity.
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