Reposted by Steven BosworthJonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 08/09/2026The Chief Rabbi speaks for Netanyahu, Ben-Gvir and their apologists in this country. Ed Miliband speaks for me and many other British Jews. 27809209
Steven Bosworth @sjbeconobot.bsky.social · 08/09/2026For all the hate this has got it’s almost right: we know that models work by mimicry, no debate there. But if you think (as I do!) that consciousness is qualitatively different then you need to elaborate a theory of consciousness which is ideally observationally distinct. It’s not a trivial problem! 001
Reposted by Steven Bosworth"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 24/08/2026I argue that the human tendency towards xenophobia, domination-politics and violence (to be clear, alongside our tendencies towards cooperation and altruism - we are complex!) comes from our long history of warfare. So let's talk about the evidence for how long that history is. 449019
Steven Bosworth @sjbeconobot.bsky.social · 26/08/2026Should have taken a class on welfare economics. They’ve got this 100% nailed down. 010
Reposted by Steven BosworthTony Yates @t0nyyates.bsky.social · 27/07/2026I think the issue is live again, somewhat, because of the poli-sci view that people really hated the covid inflation, which wasn't that far off IMO the best central banks could do under the circumstances. The alternative being less inflation and a big recession. 2213
Steven Bosworth @sjbeconobot.bsky.social · 12/07/2026Reminds me of Ali G /Borat or any of the SBC personas where the character wears thin pretty quickly but the comedy comes from people interacting with it seriously. If you wonder why people are laughing at the bin, they’re not, they’re laughing at you. 020
Steven Bosworth @sjbeconobot.bsky.social · 26/05/2026If I could associate YIMBY with one historical thinker it’d be Ricardo, so, close enough? 100
Steven Bosworth @sjbeconobot.bsky.social · 24/05/2026Wholly agree. And will add that this stems from UK elites’ cynicism about the possibility of materially improving the lives of the British public. We must keep feeding resentments & cultivating new ones! 053
Steven Bosworth @sjbeconobot.bsky.social · 20/05/2026Even Euston to Birmingham will have no meaningful impact on reducing WCML congestion, for that the whole way to Manchester needs to be finished. 100
Steven Bosworth @sjbeconobot.bsky.social · 15/05/2026Bikhchandani, Hirshleifer & Welch (1992) say it’s ok if the paper’s been cited by others, or so I’m told I haven’t read it /s 000
Steven Bosworth @sjbeconobot.bsky.social · 17/04/2026Conspiracy theory: the past 10 years of British political intrigue are Ed Miliband’s attempts to House of Cards himself into No 10 www.theguardian.com/politics/202...theguardian.comKeir Starmer faces ‘judgment day’ as Mandelson vetting debacle growsAs revelations mount and accusations fly, prime minister prepares for MPs’ anger and Olly Robbins’ testimony early next week 000
Steven Bosworth @sjbeconobot.bsky.social · 01/04/2026One of the least edifying parts of my job is having to snitch to the Home Office about whether international students are attending class. Consider that if someone is willing to pay £20k to not study maybe they should have been given a work visa. 140
Steven Bosworth @sjbeconobot.bsky.social · 31/03/2026I now pronounce the name of the letter “H” as if it begins with a(n) h 😬 010
Reposted by Steven BosworthOlúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 16/03/2026nearly wrote a long explanation of why one can agree with the general sentiment "all art is political" or even the more ambitious "everything is political" while also thinking that the sense in which Crash Bandicoot is political is different from the sense in which the Communist Manifesto is 1971175
Reposted by Steven BosworthSylvie Althoff @sylvie-althoff.bsky.social · 13/03/2026I wrote an article for Harper's Bazaar about what it's like for trans people in Kansas (spoiler: it's bad). Read, share, and send some love to your trans loved ones.harpersbazaar.comKansas Stripped Trans Citizens of Their Driver’s Licenses. Here’s What Happened NextFor trans people living in the state, existence has begun to feel like a high-stakes test with no right answers 02819
Reposted by Steven Bosworthlastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 09/03/2026Yeah I strongly dislike the left anti tax movement. There's no having a society just on the back of soaking the rich, even people far lower down the inequality ladder have to contribute. That's fine. We're all in this together. 2053562
Steven Bosworth @sjbeconobot.bsky.social · 24/02/2026The policy being announced here is putting higher marginal tax rates on married women's income which makes what he said even weirder than what you'd think based on the headline. 010
Steven Bosworth @sjbeconobot.bsky.social · 18/02/2026A leftist named Marx, praising every technology handed down from self-interested capitalists seeking only to enhance their power and profits. 120
Steven Bosworth @sjbeconobot.bsky.social · 13/01/2026Help my country is in a Condorcet cycle and can’t get out 000
Steven Bosworth @sjbeconobot.bsky.social · 24/12/2025Ok I wanna do this just for pizza. Over-rated: Impossible Under-rated (globally): New York style Under-rated (US specifically): Roman style Under-rated (🇺🇸&🌐): Chicago style Accurately rated: Neapolitan style (laudatory), St Louis style (derogatory) 010
Steven Bosworth @sjbeconobot.bsky.social · 21/12/2025What share of the present-day labour force would be necessary to produce the world GDP of 1800? 10% doesn’t sound like a bad guess. 000
Reposted by Steven BosworthFilipe Campante @filipecampante.bsky.social · 12/12/2025This is far from over, but I tend to agree. Authoritarian attempts are prototypical cases of multiple equilibria: when the key actors believe that it will succeed, they are more likely to join, which makes it more likely to succeed. When that belief crumbles, the probability of success vanishes... 514727
Steven Bosworth @sjbeconobot.bsky.social · 17/11/2025Remember when Larry Summers made the lazy inference that fewer women in science means they must be less able? @mardelgiu.bsky.social and I wrote a paper exploring the consequences of this lazy inference for occupational segregation which we term the "Larry effect:" www.iza.org/publications...iza.orgWhen Matthew Met Larry: Explaining the Persistence of Gender Underrepresentation in High Status OrganizationsWhat explains the persistent under-representation of women at the top organizations within high status occupations? The phenomenon has been documented... 051
Reposted by Steven BosworthTed Underwood @tedunderwood.com · 01/11/2025Imagine you time travel back to 1847 and you find the left response to industrialization is a) machines will never be as good as human weavers or b) we need to copyright loom patterns or c) it’s a speculative bubble. You’d say “Y’all. Not helping. What you need is obviously a labor movement.” 1726469
Steven Bosworth @sjbeconobot.bsky.social · 27/10/2025Economists think of ourselves as social scientists. It’s other social scientists who seem to think we are STEM, or think that we think of ourselves as STEM. We also do cite other socsci. fields, though fwiw there is a clear asymmetry in feelings of not being cited appropriately. 140
Steven Bosworth @sjbeconobot.bsky.social · 15/10/2025If I understand correctly, Senate R’s have a trilemma between a) not succeeding in taking away health insurance from the working poor, b) getting rid of the filibuster, or c) letting Trump nuke Article 1 of the constitution and are going to choose c) 0175
Steven Bosworth @sjbeconobot.bsky.social · 12/10/2025An outsider may be forgiven for assuming the British love rules. They hate them in fact. But they also hate each other so it cancels out. Revealed preference only gets one so far.. 010
Steven Bosworth @sjbeconobot.bsky.social · 08/10/2025Anyways consultants are not paid because they possess useful advice. They are hired to stand behind what the buyer wants to do and accept blame / verify good money was paid for it. 000
Reposted by Steven BosworthSenior PowerPoint Engineer @ryxcommar.bsky.social · 29/09/2025A friendly reminder as Nobel season approaches, the Nobel Prizes are not real Sveriges Riksbank Prizes in Memory of Alfred Nobel. 3699
Reposted by Steven BosworthJonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 25/09/2025@robfordmancs.bsky.social argues that the unpopularity of Reform's proposals offer the government an opportunity - but I'd add that they will squander that if they introduce what just looks like a watered-down version of those proposals. 44612
Reposted by Steven Bosworthghost malone ergo propter bones @proptermalone.bsky.social · 22/09/2025neurodiversity is Good Actually. just want to say that 142612521
Steven Bosworth @sjbeconobot.bsky.social · 22/09/2025A policy truly befitting a reality TV politician: Let’s just periodically vote people off the island. 010
Steven Bosworth @sjbeconobot.bsky.social · 19/09/2025This guy, of all people, is the voice of reason about immigration in UK politics. 010
Reposted by Steven BosworthJenny Wren @pintmoss.bsky.social · 17/09/2025Excellent point made in this article - "The government can, at any point, amend the 2010 Equality Act to clarify it. This could be as simple as passing a revised version with a single sentence added stating that its gender definitions include trans people." www.liberalcurrents.com/britains-bat...liberalcurrents.comBritain’s Bathroom BanThe UK has gone from a bathroom ban being unthinkable to a Labour government implementing an extraordinarily authoritarian one—without a vote. 13012
Steven Bosworth @sjbeconobot.bsky.social · 16/09/2025One lesson to draw from Brexit is that Theresa May was not rewarded for delivering the most reasonable version of the bad idea she thought the British people wanted. 030
Steven Bosworth @sjbeconobot.bsky.social · 16/09/2025In knowing we are each of us mad but altogether sound but in doing we are each of us sound but altogether mad (Condorcet, Arrow). Is this how AI can know everything and still not be able to do anything? 120
Reposted by Steven BosworthConnor Lynch @connorlynch.bsky.social · 10/09/2025"I/we am/are better than this" is fine as an aspirational statement. it is better to have good aspirations than bad ones. 1552
Steven Bosworth @sjbeconobot.bsky.social · 10/09/2025Me, delegating on the basis of what I want to hear: hahaha f yeah yes! Me, experiencing the decisions made by an entity selected on this basis: wtf 000
Steven Bosworth @sjbeconobot.bsky.social · 04/09/2025It is my sincerest hope that the invention of the LLM will sever our identification of humanity/sentience/intelligence with the ability to produce language. Language is only a shadow of humanity, and even a cardboard cutout can have a shadow. 020
Reposted by Steven BosworthDavid Roberts @volts.wtf · 28/08/2025A non-zero-sum worldview is, in my mind, the core of what it means to be "on the left." You believe that through cooperation & solidarity, we can *all* benefit. Indeed, if you look back through history, you find that non-zero-sum cooperation is the root of pretty much every human advance! 14870126
Steven Bosworth @sjbeconobot.bsky.social · 29/08/2025whoa www.axios.com/2025/08/27/d...axios.comScoop: Democrats weigh mini-convention before 2026 midtermsIt could create a national stage for Democrats running in key House, Senate and governors' races to frame their arguments against President Trump and his MAGA Republicans. 010
Steven Bosworth @sjbeconobot.bsky.social · 26/08/2025Dems should run 2026 on a platform of impeaching Trump, Vance, and the 6 justices who put their names to an opinion he is king. But they need a popular primary for intended House Speaker to pull it off. 000
