Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 10hChaplin's "Modern Times," understanding in 1936 that workplace surveillance would not look kindly upon private bathroom breaks. What it underplayed was how vulnerable bosses would feel if they were exposed to worker perception via a big screen. 000
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 03/10/2026Among this paper's many contributions, for someone working in ethics, is an indirect illustration of the psychological error behind the "bitter lesson" quest for preference "alignment" through ever more compute and behavioral data. 010
Reposted by Thomas ArnoldAnnette Yoshiko Reed @annetteyreed.bsky.social · 23/09/2026Shaul Magid @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social thinks with Benjamin Moser on Jewish anti-Zionism and erasures of Jewish history lareviewofbooks.org/article/anti...lareviewofbooks.orgSnow Globe Palimpsest | Los Angeles Review of BooksBenjamin Moser delivers biographical sketches of Jews who refused to abandon the Diaspora. 33314
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 20/09/2026I can't say "My agents are working. Are YOURS?" goes very far as an alternative. importai.substack.com/p/import-ai-... 020
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 13/09/2026The least inaccurate thing AI could convey in the first person.static.klipy.comDon Draper: I Don't Think About You At AllAlt: Don Draper: I Don't Think About You At All 021
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 09/09/2026Bluesky Works Consulted bsky.app/profile/rach... 080
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 09/09/2026This is snake-handling 101. The snake-handlers believe snakes can be deadly. But they also need you to be in awe of their faithful handling, to confer authority upon them as the special, spiritually gifted guarantors of Snake Safety/Governance. Fear, fascination, and protection reinforce each other. 39119
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 09/09/2026Reading "Foucault in California" and still trying to accept that, after a lecture at Claremont in 1975, the night after he trips balls in Death Valley with host Simeon Wade and his partner, Foucault is met by...Al Franken, who asks him "Who do you think will win the World Series?" 000
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 09/09/2026static.klipy.comBojack Horseman Contemplating the NightAlt: Bojack Horseman Contemplating a Star Wars fighting scene 030
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 09/09/2026static.klipy.comThe Office: Michael Scott's Unhappy Walk AwayAlt: The Office: Michael Scott's Unhappy Walk Away 020
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 07/09/2026It think it says something about the terms of its co-optation and costless, surface acceptance that a piece titled "How Derrida Saved Civilization" would have mystified and enraged both his devotees and haters in 2000. 040
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 07/09/2026If one substitutes "people whom they consider odd or exotic are in pain" for "something is made with AI" one faces how excruciating certain knowing would be (ghost workers and women in my field hurt, do I want to know more?), what theaters of intellectual sophistication might help me not have to do. 031
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 06/09/2026Ah, I see the successor to "My Bluesky # is _____ [contortion not to humblebrag]" is upon us. 000
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 04/09/2026ChatGPT Aspera opens up a link to "Ghost Work" then deletes itself. 000
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 27/08/2026I think @inbedwiththeright.bsky.social laid out the Sophoclean truth of it, which tracks with the WSJ uttering it with no clue as to what is entailed. 000
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 27/08/2026Someone who wouldn't want us to forget history lest we're doomed to repeat it? 010
Reposted by Thomas ArnoldJ. Nathan Matias @natematias.bsky.social · 18/08/2026How do governments rewire science & the tech industry by threatening scholars? And how can we be more resilient? Writing for @ucs.org, I report on efforts by @thecoalition.bsky.social, @knightcolumbia.org, @acm.org, & @aoir.bsky.social to support researcher rights blog.ucs.org/guest-commen...blog.ucs.org Protecting Science from Government Intimidation - Union of Concerned Scientists 26534
Reposted by Thomas ArnoldElaine Ayers @eayers0.bsky.social · 30/07/2026🌿🍄🌿 Finally went into the office + picked up my copy of Thinking With Plants + Fungi (and some other books). What a beautiful, colorful, joyful celebration of nature, history + science. Order your own copy + read my article on moss below (or on Amazon). 🌿🍄🌿 www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978067... 3175
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 12/08/2026Also fun are the triplicate items "we swear" we didn't have. 020
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 11/08/2026Nevins Library, Methuen MA One of many North Shore library gems. 010
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 09/08/2026"Art as Experience" has been a helpful late-diagnosis reader. The idea of idea-generation and brainstorming as chief obstacles (as opposed to sensitization) is...highly contextual. 090
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 08/08/2026And "responsible use" brings more refusal problems with it-- when does a system allow for refusal within an interaction? Where is real-time consent, safety shut-offs, silence, not "guardrails" but exits from the road of sycophancy before it's too late to turn around? dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1...dl.acm.org 010
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 08/08/2026static.klipy.comChef Slowik's Taco Tuesday from The MenuAlt: Chef Slowik's Taco Tuesday from The Menu 010
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 07/08/2026This is all incisively prophesied in "The Memory Police" *checks author* OH NO 020
Reposted by Thomas ArnoldThomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 03/08/2026Looking forward to speaking with Christian Miller about honesty, AI, and virtue in a "This is fine" fire age. DM me for host promocode, still have some remaining. #philsky interintellect.com/salons/the-h...interintellect.com[Upcoming Event] The Honesty Crisis in a Deep Fake Age: A Conversation with Christian B. MillerFakes, frauds, and cons are not recent inventions, but our contemporary age is bringing new zeal, technique, and scale to such enterprises. Beyond intentional scams, however, are even more unsettling ... 011
Reposted by Thomas ArnoldMatthew A Kraft @matthewakraft.com · 06/08/2026Brown just opened a cluster hire for two tenure-track positions in Education Policy. Come join our vibrant community of scholars at @brownedudept.bsky.social & @annenberginstitute.bsky.social! apply.interfolio.com/190527 Please help spread the word. 03326
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 04/08/2026The recommendation of Sara Teasdale now seems unrealistic because of its restraint, rather than-- as it did in high school-- the breadth of the machine's poetic references. 010
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 03/08/2026Looking forward to speaking with Christian Miller about honesty, AI, and virtue in a "This is fine" fire age. DM me for host promocode, still have some remaining. #philsky interintellect.com/salons/the-h...interintellect.com[Upcoming Event] The Honesty Crisis in a Deep Fake Age: A Conversation with Christian B. MillerFakes, frauds, and cons are not recent inventions, but our contemporary age is bringing new zeal, technique, and scale to such enterprises. Beyond intentional scams, however, are even more unsettling ... 011
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 29/07/2026Granted, the video "Bow Chicka Bow-wow" is generative AI, but, like Joe Rogan incisively notes about such videos, the fact it represents something I could totally see the shadow home secretary doing is basically verification. 010
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 29/07/2026The Coen Brothers have already done the Odyssey, it's time to let them plumb Minnesota darkness with Berryman's Dream Songs. 041
Reposted by Thomas ArnoldRobin Z @firepile.bsky.social · 26/07/2026Really disappointed not to see @jgcarpenter.com quoted or cited here- sure seemed like she broke at least half this story on here almost 2 weeks ago 02611
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 26/07/2026"I cannot imagine how you detectives live like this day after day," the widow mused, languidly tapping her ashes into my coffee cup. "This is simply what we do." 010
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 25/07/2026Aoyama's What You Are Looking For Is In the Library 010
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 24/07/2026It took 9 years, but it seems this @tcarmody.bsky.social theory has manifested. kottke.org/17/12/lebron...kottke.orgLeBron James and the Philly Beard TheoryLeBron James, as a basketball player, is arguably better now than he’s ever been. More importantly, LeBron James’s beard is inarguably better now than it’s 030
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 23/07/2026One of the many small details in @karenhao.bsky.social's Empire of AI that has stayed with me, amid many more gruesome others, is how OpenAI took the term "red-teaming" from cybersecurity without any adherence to its criteria and standards-- it just sounded cool, adversarial, accountability-coded. 020
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 20/07/2026Showing Morass sums up so much of AI vibe-metaphysics 020
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 18/07/2026I started writing a joke about the Odyssey in translation but then I saw on my screen "Chapman's Homer Beat Yanks 5/4" so I stole a better writer's joke. 021
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 17/07/2026Join us for this conversation (DM me for host promocode). This got me to look back at More's Utopia, where I realized Sebald's "Austerlitz" might be riffing off it-- both start with meeting a mysterious man in Antwerp, who unveils truths from colonial exploration. interintellect.com/salons/nowhe...interintellect.com[Upcoming Event] Nowhere Good: Rethinking Utopia in the 21st CenturyUtopia translates from the Greek outopos as ‘no place’. It is somewhere that can only be reached through the imagination. When he coined the term in his 1516 book Utopia, Thomas More told a story of a... 020
Reposted by Thomas ArnoldJulie Carpenter, PhD @jgcarpenter.com · 16/07/2026As a robotics researcher, learning scientist, and author who has followed Realbotix for years, I'm compelled to do a Bluesky thread on this whole pivot that Realbotix is now trying, turning from humanoid sex robots to classroom "education" robots. Buckle up. nysfocus.com/2026/07/14/n... 🧵nysfocus.comRural NY School To Launch Humanoid Robot TeacherPlans to deploy a "lifelike" robot and avatar teaching assistant at Salamanca High School have sparked debate over the role of technology in schools. 41904513
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 15/07/2026Especially because a cat jerk is preferable to a cat creep. 010
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 13/07/2026Would prefer a less depressing motel scene, like in No Country for Old Men. 010
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 10/07/2026Ecclesia Abs Initio: Defending a Strong Core for Christian Doctrine 040
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 09/07/2026Come on, join me in avoiding writing. #philsky 182
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 06/07/2026And birth is just embarrassingly suboptimal production. 110