iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Os Keyes

Yvonne Lam @yvonnezlam.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

read the thread

Os Keyes @okeyes.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Second talk went great except I forgot that the name of the big journal on the history of technology has Other Meanings and excitedly asked my co-presenter during the (recorded, live-streamed, Q&A) when we were "collaborating on doing something for ISIS". I am Definitely On Another Watchlist Now.

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Os Keyes @okeyes.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

events.berkeley.edu/bcnm/event/3... Anyone in the Bay, me and Jeff Nagy will be giving talks on AI and psychiatry and disability this evening (and one lucky attendee will get a free queer history relic!)

events.berkeley.edu

AI & Disability: A Roundtable Discussion feat. Jeff Nagy, Renée Cummings, and Os Keyes

Join BCNM for an AI and Disability roundtable feat.: Renee Cummings - AI, Data, and Tech Ethicist / Senior Fellow, Governance Studies, Brooki...

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Os Keyes @okeyes.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

It is extremely strange to be having a paper on AI and biosecurity doing the rounds while I recover from a talk on uhhh 60s kidney dialysis resource allocation decisionmaking. I contain multitudes (and confuse the hell out of committees)

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Os Keyes @okeyes.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

This is extremely validating to me in the worst way, because I am AT UMass, secured FOUR MILLION DOLLARS IN FUNDING, and when the USG cancelled my grant had to spend two years of my life fighting for them not to simply fire me.

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Os Keyes @okeyes.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I am back in San Francisco for the first time in a decade (?) and everything is worse than even I presumed. Every ad looks like this. Nobody knows what any of it means. There’s a coffee robot. It sucks.

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Michael McDonald @electproject.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

These allegations are a bombshell: the FBI informant claims Collins was in a pay-to-play scheme where donors to her Super-PAC were rewarded with government contracts. Trump stopped the investigation when he came into his office second term. As Collins would say, "concerning"

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Os Keyes @okeyes.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

For #histmed or #sts people in the Bay Area, I'll be giving a talk at UC Berkeley on the God Squad/birth of chronic hemodialysis on Friday: it's going to be a fun time featuring new archival resources and big reveals about Renée Fox getting it wrong (oooooh)

events.berkeley.edu

Dr. Os Keyes, “The Life and Death of the Life and Death Committee”

The story of the Seattle Artificial Kidney Center’s panel tasked with deciding who received treatment is a classic one within both the history of...

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TransActual @transactualuk.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

We’re asking our supporters across the UK to write to the Chief Commissioner of NHS Wales ahead of Tuesday, to demand that surgery is reinstated immediately while the investigation goes ahead, and to issue a formal apology for making such an irresponsible decision.

Text reads: Update on NHS Wales decision to pause gender affirming surgery. The NHS Wales Joint Commissioning Committee (NWJCC) will meet on Tuesday 22nd September to discuss the unprecedented cancellation of all transition-related surgeries and surgical assessments for adults referred via the Welsh Gender Service (WGS).

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Jess Miers 🦝 @jmiers230.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

"Sexy apocalypse problem" is such an great way to explain the current AI drama

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Os Keyes @okeyes.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Since we’re doing another round of “AI will destroy humanity” doom-hype, it’s a good time to announce a new paper myself and my postdoc advisor just had accepted by BioSocieties on just this. TL;DR: almost all the “AI can make bioweapons” literature comes ultimately from the Effective Altruists.

ironholds.org

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Os Keyes @okeyes.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

ironholds.org

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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

When Democrats attempt to triangulate on trans rights, it's my sense that many liberals and people in politics don't understand why many trans people are so upset. I wrote about the differences between then and now, what trans people have lost, and what we still stand to lose

autonomy.substack.com

This Is Not A Love Song

Explaining the “maximalism” of trans rights

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Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 10/09/2026

The fact that this guy who quit anthropic “for ethical reasons” had an exclusive about it in the Wall Street journal should have been the big warning. Instead it was the sign to take it seriously! Good stuff everyone

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Os Keyes @okeyes.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Tufts STS under @nickseaver.website continues to have excellent merch only slightly undermined by the department admin brightly informing me that “only faculty chuckle at that. Students don’t get it” and making me feel old as dirt.

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ryan cooper @ryanlcooper.com · 31/08/2026

1) what about the competitive sanctity of women’s sports?! men are changing their genders so they can win at college swim meets!! our precious female athletes!!! 😭😭😭 2) Title IX is unfair discrimination against men [we are here] 3) women’s sports should be banned

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Dan Hon @danhon.com · 29/08/2026

look you can prompt an LLM to not hallucinate and it will still hallucinate but it will hallucinate less and I *still* maintain that part of the whole shitstorm around "this" is marketing allowing people to continue to believe LLMs have the accuracy of "computers" when they really don't & can't

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Ruth Pearce @notrightruth.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Reddit user pkunfcj has collated advice on what people in Wales can do to fight back against the trans surgical ban:: - writing to Senedd members and the First Minister (with an example email) - complain through patient advocacy services - complain to the health board - organise protests

reddit.com

pkunfcj's comment on "Welsh Gender Service Review - Cancelled surgeries"

Explore this conversation and more from the transgenderUK community

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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

From their perspective, if A.I. isn't going to get them a good job (and the A.I. narrative is boasting about eliminating good jobs) then college should at least match their idea of what it used to be -- personal, inspiring, chats on the quad, experiences. Then their class is all about tech.

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Victor Ray @victorerikray.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

I'll again note that the folks willing to sign a letter supporting a raging eugenicist (purportedly in defense of his academic freedom to be racist) aren't nearly as motivated when it comes to *actual* threats to academic freedom, like this.

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professor tools for commensality (red scare edition) @inquiline.myatproto.social · 23/08/2026

what about the researchers being forced to respond to (forcefully, repeatedly) discredited ideas? Cofnas' insistence on spreading shit around for others to clean up can be seen as an *abridgment of colleagues' academic freedom* we are not required to tolerate it endlessly bsky.app/profile/inqu...

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Kevin Cantú @killerswan.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

one reason for this is so they can get Congress out there debating Asimov’s laws or AI theology or some shit for 10,000 years from now, instead of just regulating what evil cops are allowed to do today with a glorified spreadsheet

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Lily Mason @lilymasonphd.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

If the government stops funding social sciences, it makes it harder to study the government.

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Helen Rosner @hels.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

I’m an anxious-avoidant writer (paralytically terrified of starting), I justify procrastination as “percolating” etc. And yet! whenever I force myself to actually sit down and barf shit out, the thoughts that emerge are totally fresh, previously unknown to my conscious mind, and often pretty good!

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Connor Ewing @cmewing.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

University leadership: We stand ready to support our faculty as they confront the disruptions & uncertainty caused by AI. Faculty: Great! We'll need smaller class sizes, especially for incoming students and— University leadership: Lol, no. We meant like subscriptions to Claude.

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Boxo McFoxo @boxobark.ing · 07/08/2026

When a user becomes convinced that ChatGPT is a god, it is called psychosis. When an OpenAI employee becomes convinced that it is a god, it is called groundbreaking safety research.

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Os Keyes @okeyes.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Stock’s take isn’t even new in the history of transphobia: Thomas Szasz‘s “mental Illness is socially constructed and therefore fake” position is what led him to so applaud Janice Raymond‘s “The Transsexual Empire”.

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Cal Horton (they/them) @fiercemum.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

If anyone who follows me isn't already following @notrightruth.bsky.social then you really need to question your life choices.

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Wiki Workers United @wikiworkersunited.org · 28/07/2026

Check out Wiki Workers United - CWA's press release. This is just the beginning! We are not done fighting for our rights. We remain united. We remain committed to one another. And we will continue organizing together. cwa-union.org/news/release...

cwa-union.org

Wiki Workers United US/CWA Will File for NLRB Election After Wikimedia Foundation Declines Voluntary Recognition

Wiki Workers United U.S. (WWU-US-CWA) has released a statement after announcing today that it will file for a union election with the NLRB after the Wikimedia Foundation declined the union's request f...

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Os Keyes @okeyes.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Today's incredibly cursed addition to my trans history archive: the copy of a John Money book that Janice Raymond used to write "The Transsexual Empire" and kick trans-exclusionary feminism into overdrive. It's got her handwritten notes and everything.

The front cover of a first edition of John Money and Patricia Tucker's "Sexual Signatures: On Being a Man or a Woman"

An inscription revealing that this copy of "Sexual Signatures" was owned by Janice Raymond.

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Anna Holmes @annabookwriter.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

It’s really something how people get up in arms about accessibility and equity when the thing in question is pervert glasses or Dark Clippy. I don’t see you folks showing up when Ticketmaster says there’s no way a wheelchair user can come to concerts or that sign language is “too distracting”.

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Kean Birch @keanbirch.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

"Science as Culture" (@sciasculture.bsky.social) has a new special issue on #TechOligarchy - you can find my introduction here and the rest of the papers under "Latest" articles || #assetization #techbro #bigtech www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

tandfonline.com

Tech oligarchy

Published in Science as Culture (Ahead of Print, 2026)

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Zeerak Talat زیرک طلعت (they/them) @zeerak.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Y'all absolutely the fuck not. In fact, I think this is makes a STRONG case for why conferences like CHI and FAccT should pull out of the ACM. I highly recommend that you tell ACM what you think about your work being co-opted into planet-killing misinformation machines.

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Cat Manning @catacalypto.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

deeply annoying that creative breakthroughs don’t come on schedule from direct work but from things like “open-ended conversations with interesting people” and “doing nothing”

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Os Keyes @okeyes.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Holy shit. A big influence on my first book and my current project, and one of my advisor’s committee members. The intro to “Pharmaceutical Reason” is still one of the best things I’ve ever read.

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In Medias Malone @professormusgrave.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

My methods training was okay to good but it definitely left me with the impression that analysis was something like 80% estimating 15% presentation 5% wrangling and it’s actually 96% wrangling

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Michael Ekstrand @md.ekstrandom.net · 08/07/2026

This article is a breath of fresh air, and brings substance and citations to something I’ve come to believe for several years. Treating a radicalization problem as polarization leads to inappropriate or even harmful solutions, and also dips into victims-blaming. 🧵

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Tomás Ojeda G. @tiojeda.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

“Constantly responding to attacks, correcting distortions, and defending the legitimacy of one’s own field of research can result in intellectual burnout”. Great piece by @massimoprearo.bsky.social on political fatigue and epistemic struggles in anti-gender research theloop.ecpr.eu/the-politica...

theloop.ecpr.eu

🌈 The political fatigue of doing feminist and queer research in anti-gender times

Anti-gender politics does not only attack rights. It attacks the knowledge that makes those rights intelligible. Massimo Prearo argues that anti-gender politics is an epistemic conflict as much as a p...

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Os Keyes @okeyes.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Don’t worry, they’ve heard people’s concerns about space for lecturers and solved it by implementing a complete hiring freeze university-wide.

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Serial Experiments Abigail @popeguilty.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

The actual Tavistock scandal was that the clinic had enormous waiting lists and too many young people were going without care. This article seeks to use a reference to it to make you think "oh yeah I heard there was a scandal" in your brain to legitimize the description of care as scandalous.

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Os Keyes @okeyes.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Visiting my university’s new, expensively-refurbished space for startup incubators and senior management and cannot imagine a better illustration of the American university at this moment in time than a breathlessly press-released “collaboration room” featuring a single desk and chair.

A room labelled “collaboration room” featuring a single desk and chair.

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Os Keyes @okeyes.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

My book editor just pointed out that I had replied to the concern "this book uses the passive voice too much" in the passive voice, so if you excuse me I need to walk into the ocean now.

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Salomé Viljoen @salome.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

folks said it couldn't be done, but they did it, they invented anti-woke living constitutionalism

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Dr Kate Cook @katexe.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

I think this quote really demonstrates for me something that is quite weird and hard about watching reactions to sector redundancies while precarious - because I am expected to do exactly this next year. And no one seems to find it a problem. (1/2)

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Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

even if it was good policy, this shit is completely ancillary to the goal of actually limiting the power of big tech. Elon Musk has a trillion dollars and is trying to start a global race war, your response to that can’t be “kids should be on their phones less”

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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

"Uncivil, a consortium of scholars and researchers of which Moreton is a member, found that 20 out of the 23 foundations most active in the pluralism and depolarization space also fund conservative policy networks or pro-Israel organizations."

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United Tech & Allied Workers @utaw.tech · 24/06/2026

BREAKING: Wikipedia workers in Britain are setting a global first by becoming the first group of workers at the online encyclopaedia to seek union recognition.

Infographic showing the UTAW and CWU logos and the following text:
British-based employees at the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) have requested recognition for their union from their employer. They are organising with UTAW and have a significant majority union membership at WMF.

Today's step towards unionisation is a global first for Wikimedia workers. It comes after a period of significant change at WMF, escalating workers’ concerns over transparency, trust, and the organisation’s future direction.

"Our union is proud to stand with these principled workers, who are initiating this process in the hope of creating a durable workplace grounded in transparency, accountability and participation across the WMF workforce.
We urge the organisation to meet them in this spirit of good faith and co-operation."

- John Chadfield
National Officer for Tech, CWU

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