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Stephen Chrisomalis

@schrisomalis.bsky.social
2.9K followers 2.4K following 2.4K posts

Linguistic anthropologist, Wayne State University. Numbers, cognition, writing and literacy, mathematics. Left, 🇨🇦, he/him. glossographia.com phrontistery.info

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Reposted by Stephen Chrisomalis
Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Interested in a graduate degree in a collegial, holistic, community-engaged anthropology department, or know someone who is? Wayne State is holding its annual Open House on Zoom on 10/19, 4:30pm EDT. See the flyer below, or register at tinyurl.com/3xdmcuwt. DM me with any questions. Share widely!
Wayne State University Dept of Anthroplogy Graduate Open House, Monday October 19, 2026, 4:30-6:00pm (Eastern), Virtual on Zoom; Deadline to apply for Fall 2027: January 15.
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Reposted by Stephen Chrisomalis
Erin L. Thompson @artcrimeprof.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Top-tier weird little guy on an incantation bowl from Nippur, Iraq, c 500 BCE, in the Penn Museum.
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Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
A new Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology has just been published, in which it is claimed that the human species is polytypic: not only is race biologically meaningful but the races are distinct enough to be considered subspecies. Published by Elgar. In 2026.
Chapters in Part III take stock of the current state of evolutionary psychology, by casting wider attention to other social and behavioral sciences and assessing the field's influence on them. In Chapter 11 ('Evolutionary psychology and anthropology'), Heiner Rindermann identifies three major forces that oppose scientific anthropology: Religion, National Socialism ('Nazism'), and woke leftist ideology. Ironically, in this sense, woke left ideologues, who include most anthropologists themselves, geneticists, and other university academics, share much in common with the Nazis in their common opposition to scientific anthropology.
Rindermann's extensive review of the literature leaves no doubt that humans are genetically polytypic and contain different biological races or 'subspecies' At the end of the chapter, Rindermann delivers devastating rebuttals to all potential arguments against the notion of races/subspecies among humans.
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Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Thinking about the ethnographic work of Lucy Suchman and others at Xerox back in the day. Verbal "abuse" of technology is a longstanding social practice!
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A secret third thing @secretthirdthing.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
"chatGPT thinks I am a genuis" is just the modern version of "I think this stripper is in love with me"
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Fair Vote Canada 🗳️🍁 @fairvote.ca · 06/10/2026
Quebec’s election saw one of the most distorted election results in Canadian history: the PQ won 46% of seats with 28% vote, while the CAQ got zero seats with over 500,000 votes. Read our write-up to see how proportional representation fixes this. www.fairvote.ca/06/10/2026/p...
fairvote.ca
Parti Québécois wins 46% of the seats with 28% of the vote
Quebec election 2026 with first-past-the-post. Parti Québécois wins 46% of the seats with 28% of the vote.
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Linguistic Society of America @lingsocam.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Are you a student, new graduate, or early in your career? Under the LSA's new income-based dues, if you make less than $100K, your membership just got more affordable, so you can stay connected to your field without the financial strain. Join or renew today! www.lsadc.org/membership  #Linguistics
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Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
I learned that Jim Bakker, Dennis Hastert, and Jeffrey Archer all died in the last couple days. I thought they were all already dead. The ranks of ultra-privileged criminal shitbirds has been diminished by three.
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Alison Gopnik @alisongopnik.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
This is an excellent article by Leif Wetherby - why AI is a cultural technology not a collection of human-like agents (citing our work on this). And why the anthropomorphism is a distraction from the very real risks and dangers and the way to deal with them. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/01/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | Stop Talking About A.I. Like a Human (Gift Article)
If we want to figure out the proper way to control A.I. models, we need to recognize what they really are.
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Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Nobody believes that "writing IS thinking". People do (correctly) believe that writing is a critical *form* of thinking, one that is cognitively useful, aesthetically powerful, and that cannot simply be substituted or abandoned without serious consequence.
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Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Interested in a graduate degree in a collegial, holistic, community-engaged anthropology department, or know someone who is? Wayne State is holding its annual Open House on Zoom on 10/19, 4:30pm EDT. See the flyer below, or register at tinyurl.com/3xdmcuwt. DM me with any questions. Share widely!
Wayne State University Dept of Anthroplogy Graduate Open House, Monday October 19, 2026, 4:30-6:00pm (Eastern), Virtual on Zoom; Deadline to apply for Fall 2027: January 15.
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Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Nobody believes that "writing IS thinking". People do (correctly) believe that writing is a critical *form* of thinking, one that is cognitively useful, aesthetically powerful, and that cannot simply be substituted or abandoned without serious consequence.
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Reposted by Stephen Chrisomalis
U of T Centre for Medieval Studies @uoftcms.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Congratulations to Shannon McSheffrey and Walid A. Saleh, who have been elected Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada. www.medieval.utoronto.ca/news/shannon...
Walid Saleh, Shannon McSheffrey
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Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I'm not saying that what I do is of no practical use (I promise!). But there is something to be said for spending an evening reading 100-year-old advertisements from the Mount Barker Courier and Onkaparinga and Gumeracha Advertiser.
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Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Won't anyone out there please think about the poor folks of Anguilla?
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Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Exactly right. I thought there was a law requiring contiguity, but apparently there is none, although that's really the only riding that disobeys it in a non-trivial way. And of course, part of the reason for the anomaly is that that NL-QC is still sort of contested.
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Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%B4...
en.wikipedia.org
Côte-Nord—Kawawachikamach—Nitassinan - Wikipedia
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Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I assure you that water is entirely irrelevant to this particular geographical anomaly.
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Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Shall I provide a clue?
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Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Nope.
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Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Water isn't really relevant to the district I'm thinking of, but no, you couldn't travel between the parts by water either, without going overland through another riding.
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Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Right, not counting water / islands - the one I found is a riding where you could in principle travel by land to the other parts of the riding, but only by passing through one or more other ridings.
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Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
(Discovered this evening by staring at electoral projection maps based on the most recent polling data and thinking 'that can't be right, must be AI' - but it definitely is true.)
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Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Apparently there is no law in Canada that requires electoral districts to be geographically contiguous. There is a district that has inhabited parts you can only access by travelling through other ridings and then back in. Anyone care to puzzle out which one? (I'll answer yes/no questions).
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Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Definitely I expose my senior undergrads and grad students to L&J; may not be right for this student but I'll mull it over as I think it's essential for linguists to think about cognitive issues.
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Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Thanks, I'll check it out!
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Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
It really is wonderful, isn't it? Such a nice counterpoint to both sides of the 'anything goes' and 'rigid uniformitarian' false binary.
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Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Thanks for the suggestion! Is that new?
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Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Haha, yeah, you definitely don't need to sell me on Levinson - probably would be on the reading list one way or another regardless.
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Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Ooh, that's a very cool idea! Maybe not the first book I'd put in a young teen's hands, but one that gives such a strong sense of the work, rather than just the rules.
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Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
That's a really interesting idea. Steve's work is much closer to my own perspective than many others in linguistics and it would be interesting to see what a bright novice would take from it. Haven't actually read it but I can imagine what it says.
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Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Part of my personal narrative is that linguistics in the early 90s was far too Chomskyan for my taste, hence me ending up in anthropology. But for some students that view of grammar is still very appealing.
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Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I do love that book. Weirdly enough, it may be too simple/popular for the student I'm thinking of - but probably still worth reading.
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Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Oh, that's a blast from the past (for me). Not that that's bad necessarily! But good from a more developmental / cognitive perspective rather than super formal.
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Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
This is exceptionally well deserved. Helen is incredibly missed across such a wide network of folks across multiple disciplines.
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Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Good idea, although I would need to balance it with something that is a little less rigidly Chomskyan, I think.
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Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Anyone have any ideas of articles or books that a really bright, really interested, kid (roughly 12-14 yo) might read in linguistics, to help get them interested in the field? Probably stuff that is more cognitive / formal than socio? I have ideas (of course) but suggestions would be welcome!
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Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Good news! I woke up this morning and realized that a serious admin issue that would require my chair's immediate intervention was solely a product of my dream. Bad news! I woke up to an email that a different, more serious admin issue has arisen, and is very real.
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Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I have been working on the most personally appealing new course idea I've had in years, an interdisciplinary cognitive/historical seminar aimed at grad students across disciplines, including humanities and sciences, called "Human Minds and Cultures". Now if only bureaucracy doesn't get in its way.
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Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This episode of @manymindspod.bsky.social featuring @damianblasi.bsky.social is IMO the best I've listened to, and I'm saying that despite having been a previous guest on the podcast! I'll admit to some bias as a fellow-traveller in this field, but still, it's absolutely a banger!
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Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
AP Stylebook warns against anthropomorphizing AI systems: “Avoid language that gives them human characteristics… Instead, explain what a system does, how well it performs, who built it and who could be affected by it.”
APStylebook @APStylebook
X.com
Artificial intelligence systems do not think, feel, want or understand. Avoid language that gives them human characteristics. This is called anthropomorphizing, when we ascribe human traits, emotions or behaviors to non-human things, such as animals or inanimate objects.
Instead, explain what a system does, how well it performs, who built it and who could be affected by it.
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Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz.com · 23/09/2026
www.nytimes.com/2026/09/22/s...
nytimes.com
Mathematics Isn’t Just a Game to Let A.I. Solve. History Shows Why. (Gift Article)
In our field of applied mathematics, the long, human process of trial and error — not just the solutions themselves — is often what has led to progress.
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Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Yeah, I've read some of that and got the same takeaway, although as an outsider I don't have the mathematical chops to evaluate any of it. I would be very interested to know whether mathematicians outside those involved feel the same way about it.
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Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I mean this question earnestly; I don't know the answer. Do mathematicians who use LLMs to generate new proofs/results have a different view of the aesthetics of mathematical work, than those who don't? Are we just reliving four-colour theorem angst, on steroids?
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Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
As an official professor of numbers, I can only marvel at this presentation by @paulrobalino.bsky.social on the latest @smartypants.dropout.tv and wonder what parts of it I can scam ... err ... repurpose for scholarly inquiry.
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Standplaats Kraków could really use some cash! @standplaatskrk.pl · 14/09/2026
Discord:
evil f skeleton:
"bro so like
I was in my college class and they don't let you use ai right
and so like I started using chatgpt in my head analyzing the article and shit it was like
I was using chatgpt in my head
u feel me?"

harkits:
"motherfucker thats called thinking"
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Steven (with a PH) @sjksalisbury.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Christening a baby is nothing like christening a ship. I know that now. Once again I can only apologise.
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Ken Jennings @kenjennings.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I don’t usually meddle on the writing side of Jeopardy!, but tonight I called in a favor for our Bluesky viewers.
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Stephen Chrisomalis @schrisomalis.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Mark Carney should wake up every morning and thank the powers that be that Donald Trump is an idiot. 70% approval rating. 70. What a world.
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Alex Ip 葉清霖 @alexip718.com · 18/09/2026
INBOX: Science retracted a news article this week after editors found that the author (likely an AI agent) impersonated the identity of an established science journalist, both with editors and sources in the story. Furthermore, two of the quotes provided were plagiarized: (h/t @wudan.bsky.social)
science.org
Your heartbeat quietly shapes how your brain processes information
Frequently ignored bodily rhythms may be skewing neuroscience experiments
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