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Thomas Arnold

@thomasarnold.bsky.social
711 followers 667 following 482 posts

HRI, AI, religious studies, pragmatism | ethics-sullying at Tufts Institute for AI | he/him | current pencil: Tombow 2558 H | end theory: low | realism: visceral thomasarnold.scholar.st

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Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 10h
Chaplin'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.
Charlie Chaplin playing a worker whose boss glowers at him from a big screen installed on the bathroom's wall.
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Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Among 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.
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Reposted by Thomas Arnold
Annette Yoshiko Reed @annetteyreed.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Shaul Magid @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social thinks with Benjamin Moser on Jewish anti-Zionism and erasures of Jewish history lareviewofbooks.org/article/anti...
lareviewofbooks.org
Snow Globe Palimpsest | Los Angeles Review of Books
Benjamin Moser delivers biographical sketches of Jews who refused to abandon the Diaspora.
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Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
I can't say "My agents are working. Are YOURS?" goes very far as an alternative. importai.substack.com/p/import-ai-...
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Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Ghee tier cases ironically clarify little
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Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
The least inaccurate thing AI could convey in the first person.
static.klipy.com
Don Draper: I Don't Think About You At All
Alt: Don Draper: I Don't Think About You At All
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Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
...which implies the existence of ditto-eds
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Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Bluesky Works Consulted bsky.app/profile/rach...
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Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
This 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.
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Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Reading "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?"
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Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
static.klipy.com
Bojack Horseman Contemplating the Night
Alt: Bojack Horseman Contemplating a Star Wars fighting scene
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Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
static.klipy.com
The Office: Michael Scott's Unhappy Walk Away
Alt: The Office: Michael Scott's Unhappy Walk Away
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Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
It 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.
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Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
If 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.
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Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Ah, I see the successor to "My Bluesky # is _____ [contortion not to humblebrag]" is upon us.
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Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
ChatGPT Aspera opens up a link to "Ghost Work" then deletes itself.
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Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
LinkedIn posts as grimoire
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Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
I 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.
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Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Someone who wouldn't want us to forget history lest we're doomed to repeat it?
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Reposted by Thomas Arnold
J. Nathan Matias @natematias.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
How 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
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Reposted by Thomas Arnold
Elaine 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...
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Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Also fun are the triplicate items "we swear" we didn't have.
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Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Nevins Library, Methuen MA One of many North Shore library gems.
Arched ceiling and stained glass of Nevins Library reading room, along with second-level wood-paneled study cartels.
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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.
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Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
And "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
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Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
static.klipy.com
Chef Slowik's Taco Tuesday from The Menu
Alt: Chef Slowik's Taco Tuesday from The Menu
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Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
This is all incisively prophesied in "The Memory Police" *checks author* OH NO
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Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Looking 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. Miller
Fakes, 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 ...
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Matthew A Kraft @matthewakraft.com · 06/08/2026
Brown 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.
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Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
The 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.
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Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
The "Hey Ma, meatloaf!" argument.
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Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Looking 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. Miller
Fakes, 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 ...
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Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Granted, 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.
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Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
The Coen Brothers have already done the Odyssey, it's time to let them plumb Minnesota darkness with Berryman's Dream Songs.
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Robin Z @firepile.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Really 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
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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."
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Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
Aoyama's What You Are Looking For Is In the Library
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Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
It took 9 years, but it seems this @tcarmody.bsky.social theory has manifested. kottke.org/17/12/lebron...
kottke.org
LeBron James and the Philly Beard Theory
LeBron 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
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Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
One 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.
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Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
culturally inappropriate
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Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Showing Morass sums up so much of AI vibe-metaphysics
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Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
I 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.
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Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Join 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 Century
Utopia 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...
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Julie Carpenter, PhD @jgcarpenter.com · 16/07/2026
As 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.com
Rural NY School To Launch Humanoid Robot Teacher
Plans to deploy a "lifelike" robot and avatar teaching assistant at Salamanca High School have sparked debate over the role of technology in schools.
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Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Especially because a cat jerk is preferable to a cat creep.
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Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
Would prefer a less depressing motel scene, like in No Country for Old Men.
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Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Ecclesia Abs Initio: Defending a Strong Core for Christian Doctrine
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Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Come on, join me in avoiding writing. #philsky
A five panel sequence from John Oliver on General Hospital, showing him interrupted, slapped and stunned by a character. My text is Wittgenstein commenting on logical form then getting slapped by Piero Sraffa à la his famous Sicilian gesture for which he asked W for logical form.
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Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
parrotologiekritik carbon credits
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Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
And birth is just embarrassingly suboptimal production.
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