iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Les Carr @lescarr.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Every so often the cost of living crisis rears its head in unexpected places - I’m going out for Sunday lunch at a pub tomorrow and the menu is offering “Roast Turkey with Pig in Blanket”.

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Les Carr @lescarr.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Got an advert in the post from Waitrose this week - book your Christmas slot on Sept 23rd! But following the QR code leads to a page “booking opens on Sept 30th”. What? Am I a gullible fool for staying up till 1am just to book a shopping delivery 3 months in advance?

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Les Carr @lescarr.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I’ve just explored the likely implications with CoPilot. I’m not convinced I’m getting tip top advice either.

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Les Carr @lescarr.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

But now I realise that the failure to communicate important information, the inability to make people notice you and people disappearing from the workplace is actually a satire on University life.

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Les Carr @lescarr.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Lots of online discussion about the implications of AI solving the Navier-Stokes Millenium Problem. But spending $15,000,000 to get a $1,000,000 prize is just business as usual for OpenAI.

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Les Carr @lescarr.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Phew - my pension lives to fight another day.

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Les Carr @lescarr.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

I’ve just read There Is No Antimimetics Division, and while it was a wild ride exploring some great ideas at points I felt like I was reading The Laundry Files or even Hitchhikers Guide. Ultimately I thought that the brilliant setup left the story stranded with a cheap wish fulfilment ending. 6/10.

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Les Carr @lescarr.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

Just catching up on a paper about an AI system doing autonomous research. This quote from the "Limitations" section tells you everything about the AI field's current attitude to rigour - the fact that a technology isn't particularly good now is proof that it's going to be brilliant in a few years!

"That said, often in machine learning, once something begins to work (even with clear flaws), in a few short years with scale (for example, of compute and data), better core models and better techniques, the capabilities of a system become surprising and can exceed human performance levels. In assessing the impact of a technology, it is, thus, important to keep in mind its probable future trajectory."

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Les Carr @lescarr.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Calling all university researchers! I’m looking for qualitative research that uses chatbots to support the research, but where AI isn’t the focus of research. I’ve trawled through hundreds of papers in Scopus and I’m tempted to conclude that AI is only ever used to write papers about AI!

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Les Carr @lescarr.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Saint Sebastian was one of the early proponents of “arrow-maxxing”, a practice that allowed the Holy Fathers to really show off their abs.

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Les Carr @lescarr.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Homestly those just starting to worry about the AI “backlash” really shouldn’t have spent 4 years lashing the public about how worthless their jobs and their novels and their music and their their safety are. open.substack.com/pub/bloodint...

open.substack.com

Why the AI backlash has turned violent

And why it's probably only going to get worse from here.

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Les Carr @lescarr.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

How we stood on the shoulders of deaf people to get to the moon. vm.tiktok.com/ZNRVFr9fP/

vm.tiktok.com

TikTok - Make Your Day

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Les Carr @lescarr.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

I don’t normally put much credence in these phenomena, but it’s Easter Sunday and my wife has found an undeniable face in her potato.

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Les Carr @lescarr.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

Today I went to see Project Hail Mary, a film of a book that every science fiction fan seems to love. Although the plot is something about microbes eating the sun, its main focus is the hardest science question of all - can nerds have friends?

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Les Carr @lescarr.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

I have found out the hard way that brand distinctions are an important factor in successful baking.

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Les Carr @lescarr.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

There simply isn’t enough Banjo Beale content in the world, even with the new Ulva hotel restoration series on BBC. Can I subscribe to a dedicated Grampa-the-dog cam feed? Take my money you impetuous, ambitious, visionary pair of adopted Scots!

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Les Carr @lescarr.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

One of my favourite holiday filmed is “Spirited” with Will Ferrell. His big song, and the question the whole movie turns on, is “Am I Forever Unredeemable”. Of course, it should have been “Am I Forever Irredeemable”, which is ironically something they can never put right.

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Les Carr @lescarr.bsky.social · 01/01/2026

I'm reading around on vibe coding to develop some teaching materials for my undergrads. The first book starts with a canonical example of writing an app to estimate the time to read a podcast script, based on its word count. GENUINELY who would *write an app* to solve this problem? This is insane!

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Les Carr @lescarr.bsky.social · 21/12/2025

Don’t forget the reason for the season - it’s the tilt of the earth’s axis! So I’m about to watch sunrise over Stonehenge on the English Heritage YouTube channel www.youtube.com/live/FEnQmoc...

youtube.com

Winter Solstice 2025: Sunrise Live from Stonehenge

YouTube video by English Heritage

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Les Carr @lescarr.bsky.social · 20/12/2025

From Aunty Beeb to Aunty Trans is a heck of a shift to government censorship.

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Les Carr @lescarr.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

Hey ChatGPT show me a successful publisher to invest in vm.tiktok.com/ZNReHWCh2/

vm.tiktok.com

TikTok - Make Your Day

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Les Carr @lescarr.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

My university students interviewed me about LLMs and this is the key frame that they chose on YouTube.

A still frame with me (the interviewee) and a caption "the problem" underneath

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Les Carr @lescarr.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

Some physics humour for your timeline: Heisenberg, Schrödinger and Ohm in a car… vm.tiktok.com/ZNRJWJRN7/

vm.tiktok.com

TikTok - Make Your Day

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Les Carr @lescarr.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

Recent anecdotal evidence* shows it’s impossible not to feel happy when listening to this clip *listening to it on a rainy Monday morning youtu.be/CLP15B43uNA

youtu.be

It Feels Like Christmas - Fall Out Boy

YouTube video by piggy

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Les Carr @lescarr.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

Enjoy Christmas Science Comedy cheer with Dr Paul Conway explaining the Moral Psychology of Santa's Naughty List! Our professional comedy headliner is a cancer scientist that The Guardian described as "deliciously funny". www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/southampto...

eventbrite.co.uk

Southampton Science Comedy!

A December evening of science-themed stand-up comedy, stories, and silliness from some of Southampton’s funniest and nerdiest people!

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Les Carr @lescarr.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

My iPhone’s FaceID is refusing to recognise me today and my ego is taking it badly.

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Les Carr @lescarr.bsky.social · 16/11/2025

A bit of musical science comedy for your timeline - what could be better? vm.tiktok.com/ZNdEgoqU2/

vm.tiktok.com

TikTok - Make Your Day

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Les Carr @lescarr.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

Calling all Women in STEM! November's Southampton Science Comedy features women in STEM who rap, control AIs and electrocute men - because science! Come along and bring your friends!! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/southampto...

eventbrite.co.uk

Southampton Science Comedy!

An November evening of science-themed stand-up comedy, stories, and silliness from some of Southampton’s funniest and nerdiest people!

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Les Carr @lescarr.bsky.social · 12/10/2025

Southampton Science Comedy is back this week, on Thursday 16th October. Get your tickets to see the brilliant Farah Sharp perform with researchers and students from @unisouthampton.bsky.social www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/southampto...

eventbrite.co.uk

Southampton Science Comedy!

An October evening of science-themed stand-up comedy, stories, and silliness from some of Southampton’s funniest and nerdiest people!

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Reposted by Les Carr

Rebecca Coleman @rcecoleman.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

Brilliantly thought-provoking workshop on critical and ethical sociological engagement with LMMs in Naples this morning led by @jessogden.bsky.social @lescarr.bsky.social @sociodigfutures.bsky.social @bdfi.bsky.social #rc33 #isa #11ICSSM #Methodology

Photo of workshop on sociological engagement with Large Language Models

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Les Carr @lescarr.bsky.social · 21/09/2025

I just got a fast train from Milan via Rome to Naples that serves Napoli Afragola - a new mainline station that has no facility for taxis and that no-one in Naples has ever heard of.

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Les Carr @lescarr.bsky.social · 21/09/2025

I’m in Naples for the 11ICSSM conference to run a workshop on LLMs and give a paper about social scientists responses to AI with @susanjhalford.bsky.social .

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Reposted by Les Carr

Warren Pearce @warrenpearce.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

Scraping tools like @digitalmethods.net Zeeschuimer, @lescarr.bsky.social WDRA are *vital* for social media research but how widely are they used? 🤔 If you use these tools or similar in your work, please reply 'teaching' 'research' 'both' 👇🏽 or via email if preferred 🤗 #AcademicSky

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Les Carr @lescarr.bsky.social · 14/09/2025

Southampton Science comedy is back in October. Get your tickets to see the brilliant Farah Sharp perform with researchers and students from @unisouthampton.bsky.social www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/southampto...

eventbrite.co.uk

Southampton Science Comedy!

An October evening of science-themed stand-up comedy, stories, and silliness from some of Southampton’s funniest and nerdiest people!

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Les Carr @lescarr.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

Me: my research demonstrates the benefits of large language models for qualitative research Also Me: The Last Teams Meeting

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Les Carr @lescarr.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

I’m just planning a computer science undergraduate training session called “friends don’t let friends vibe code” @softwaresaved.bsky.social

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Les Carr @lescarr.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

Also “Sam Altman said GPT5 is like having a PhD-level expert answer all of your questions, which might be true if the expert in question lives somewhere with a gas leak.” @gregk.co.uk

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Les Carr @lescarr.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

Please stop all this “PhD-level” nonsense when talking about how much an LLM “knows”. A PhD is about being able to systematically create new knowledge. Knowing everything in that field is just a small part of the qualification.

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Les Carr @lescarr.bsky.social · 03/08/2025

Who says LLMs can’t do comedy? I just tried to use ChatGPT to convert my little #edfringe spreadsheet of shows into an ICS file for my calendar. It wrote a python program with a missing import module, and blamed my data formatting. Now that’s funny!

Screencap of python invocation
Module not found error: no module named ics.

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Les Carr @lescarr.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

Let me get this straight… scientists discovered a radioactive wasps nest outside a abandoned military research laboratory and declared it safe because there werent any wasps in it… ANY MORE? www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

theguardian.com

Radioactive wasp nest discovered at nuclear waste storage site in South Carolina

Wasp nest was destroyed and disposed of after discovery near tanks used to store liquid nuclear waste

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Les Carr @lescarr.bsky.social · 29/07/2025

So far this afternoon at the #edfringe website trying to buy tickets I’ve had slow/no access, cloudflare errors, Fetch errors and a GraphQL error. I’m going to use this as a case study in next term’s devops course.

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Les Carr @lescarr.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

I’m just trying to organise my t-shirts for the summer. You (a perfectly well-integrated member of society): what colour is in this season? How can I show myself part of the in-group? Me (a socially awkward computer nerd): I’ll hedge my bets.

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