iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Tom Chivers @tomchivers.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

OK. I'm not anti, I think cars have lots of positives even if I'd prefer more bikeable cities, and I think autonomous vehicles will be a huge improvement. So you discourage away, I'll encourage, and let's see who wins.

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Tom Chivers @tomchivers.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

it's not really. I know this is Waymo's own data, but it's all freely available and has been independently checked waymo.com/safety/impact/ they're just much safer. You know this, because when a Waymo kills one cat, it's a news story, but human drivers kill about 5 million cats/year in the US alone

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Tom Chivers @tomchivers.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

yes exactly! that was something some AI guy I met at a dinner said. You can free up all the parking space and have transport-as-a-service, suddenly roads are twice as wide and traffic is less of an issue

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Tom Chivers @tomchivers.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

felt it deserved a rare bloosk from me, or whatever a tweet is called on bluesky

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Tom Chivers @tomchivers.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

this is great. I get so frustrated with the anti-robotaxis stuff. They obviously work, they are obviously safer than human drivers, and if we're sensible about regulating them (which includes not strangling them with regulation) then they'll make cities better.

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Tom Chivers @tomchivers.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

actual thoughts by Daan Juijn, Stan van Baarsen, Judith Dada, Lily Stelling, Philip Fox, Alex Petropoulos, and Michiel Bakker. I just did the words, but there are quite a LOT of words, so, y'know, I helped.

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Tom Chivers @tomchivers.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

A bunch of European AI policy and engineering guys asked me to help out on this project and it's been fascinating and chilling: what happens to the EU if it doesn't step up on AI (in short, economic collapse and vassalage to the US/China) europe2031.ai long but I hope worth it!

europe2031.ai

Europe 2031 — What getting AI wrong means for us

A five-year scenario about AI and Europe's impending slide into irrelevance, with a 2034 epilogue that describes how the collapse of the European model could have been prevented.

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Tom Chivers @tomchivers.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

you're the second person to suggest it! I would like to if I find time

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Tom Chivers @tomchivers.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

ah I see! Sorry, total misinterpretation

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Tom Chivers @tomchivers.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

of course prices are deliberately set - someone has to go around and write them on the thingie. But this is just price discrimination. It's exactly what James is talking about: companies respond to incentives, and the key incentive is finding what people will pay en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_d...

en.wikipedia.org

Price discrimination - Wikipedia

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Tom Chivers @tomchivers.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

God bless @jamesomalley.co.uk for being a voice on the centre-left who consistently acknowledges that economics is a real thing that exists (and coming up with potential solutions rather than just accusing businesses of greed) open.substack.com/pub/jamesomalley/p/has-liam-byrne-had-his-weetabix-452

open.substack.com

Has Liam Byrne had his Weetabix?

Open data is better for consumers than moralising.

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Tom Chivers @tomchivers.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

thanks Brian! Didn't know you were a listener

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Brian Nosek @briannosek.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

Nice episode of Science Fictions summarizing SCORE papers from @tomchivers.bsky.social and @stuartjritchie.bsky.social. Minor point about the conclusion. The LHC actually has replication built in with two teams (ATLAS & CMS) operating independently. sciencefictionspod.substack.com/p/episode-10...

sciencefictionspod.substack.com

Episode 100: Replication, replication, replication

And reproducibility and robustness and stuff like that

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Tom Chivers @tomchivers.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

I'm VERY SPORADICALLY active. But I can't really be bothered keeping an eye on one feed these days; two is too much for me

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Tom Chivers @tomchivers.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

I haven't, but I think a good baseline is "all nutrition advice more precise than 'eat your greens' is made up". It's so hard to research because of confounding.

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Tom Chivers @tomchivers.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

we probably ought to do an alt med one some day

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Tom Chivers @tomchivers.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

George Boole turning in his grave

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Tom Chivers @tomchivers.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

Fun Bentham's Bulldog review of the very silly-sounding book The AI Con benthams.substack.com/p/the-ai-con... it really amazes me there are still people saying "AI is just a stochastic parrot and also it's racist" in 2026, as though they can't just log on and use one themselves right now

benthams.substack.com

"The AI Con" Con

The shockingly terrible arguments of the AI naysayers

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Tom Chivers @tomchivers.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

We really need to dial down the anti-free speech bullshit in this country. Police should almost never detain people over their choice of T-shirt! (And I would say the same if the political valence was reversed.) www.reddit.com/r/ThatsInsan...

reddit.com

From the ThatsInsane community on Reddit: Scotland police detain a man wearing an anti-Al shirt because it sounds similar to "Palestine Action"

Explore this post and more from the ThatsInsane community

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Mike Bird @birdyword.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

BIG NEWS: My book, The Land Trap, is coming out on Nov 4! I've been fascinated by this topic for years. The book tells the story of why land still occupies such a huge role in finance, economics and politics globally, and why that's a source of huge risk. You can preorder NOW!

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Tom Chivers @tomchivers.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

It's just the Claire's Accessories, the simple Claire's Accessories, where you could buy a bracelet for your wife Farewell then Claire's Accessories, your retail staff can rest at ease, as you collapse in economic strife www.ft.com/content/b32d...

ft.com

Jewellery chain Claire’s UK business appoints administrators

High-street brand’s move puts more than 2,000 jobs at risk and comes after parent group filed for bankruptcy protection

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Tom Chivers @tomchivers.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

yes. It was that they assumed all my warplanes were examples of me bottling out of commenting on the gender wars. Which, to be clear, quite often they were! But women didn't have the luxury of bottling out because it was their rights under threat, was the theory.

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Tom Chivers @tomchivers.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

I had quite a few on here! x.com/TomChivers/s...

x.com

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Tom Chivers @tomchivers.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

quick, add one to your take thread alex

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Tom Chivers @tomchivers.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

well, quite. It seemed so odd.

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Tom Chivers @tomchivers.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

I know from being the subject of twitterstorms that having a few hundred people ganging up on you is not pleasant, and I sympathise, but if they're being polite then, frankly, you're on the internet having opinions, and people will disagree with them, so either defend them or use the mute button.

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Tom Chivers @tomchivers.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

it was male privilege, because women didn't have the option of not engaging in online arguments. (I know I sound like I'm making it up, but I swear I am not, and I really did find it very deflating)

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Tom Chivers @tomchivers.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

this is "no true scotsman" though. The reason I dislike that comic was that it was employed to say "stop asking me to back up my point/stand by my inflammatory claim about Not All Men" etc. I disagree that's not "really" what sealioning is; that's how it was used, in a large number of cases.

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Tom Chivers @tomchivers.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

🤝 I nicked the idea from Jesse Singal but his was really boring (sorry Jesse); just posting a picture of a pineapple each time. I felt it was ripe for improvement

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Tom Chivers @tomchivers.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

this is like when I had a thread of beautiful British warplanes, to which I would add an image every time I resisted the temptation to reply grumpily to someone's tweet. But then someone said it was [bad for culture war reasons], and that took all the fun out of it, so I stopped.

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Tom Chivers @tomchivers.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

the implication that politely asking people to back up their position is abusive. And, yes, "sealioning" was a popular term, but in my experience it often meant "yes I made a controversial claim, but I don't like you asking me to support it with facts and it is bigoted that you continue to do so"

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Nelson Amaya Durán @nelsonamayad.bsky.social · 03/08/2025

Just finished @tomchivers.bsky.social “Everything is predictable”. 5 stars because it manages history of science and intuition better than any other book on Bayesian analysis.

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Tom Chivers @tomchivers.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

that is true although that wasn't specified in your tweet (if you had said "the wrongest historical cartoon" I would have stayed silent) and so I assumed you'd wandered off the original topic

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Tom Chivers @tomchivers.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

honorable mention for this, which I don't think I can exactly say is "wrong" because it doesn't make any factual claims but I strongly dislike its implications

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Mike Leipe @mleipe.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

"A confident, precise prior that is contradicted by precise information from the world should result in a radically changed posterior probability" - @tomchivers.bsky.social, "Everything is Predictable" One of those delightful books that will change how I live in this world. Thanks.

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Brian Clegg @brianclegg.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

Absolutely fascinating Studies Show pod from @tomchivers.bsky.social & @stuartjritchie.bsky.social on psychological sex differences (biological, societal, both)- well worth paying for: www.thestudiesshowpod.com/subscribe - I just wish Stuart's profile had no pic: I prefer to see him as David Tennant

thestudiesshowpod.com

Subscribe to The Studies Show Podcast

A weekly podcast about the latest scientific controversies, with Tom Chivers and Stuart Ritchie. Click to read The Studies Show Podcast, a Substack publication with tens of thousands of subscribers.

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Tom Chivers @tomchivers.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

I heard that! I immediately thought "linear no threshold model" (and then "bullshit")

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Tom Chivers @tomchivers.bsky.social · 26/05/2025

like I say, that study could be badly done or wrong, but the idea isn't made up, and there seem to be a few others saying the same thing. And this ring company says that average ring size sold in Asia is 5 but in Europe it's 7, so I guess there must be something in it mygemma.com/en-gb/blogs/...

mygemma.com

The Average Ring Size For Men And Women | myGemma | GB

Find out the average ring size for men and women. We explain how to buy engagement rings if you don't know ring size. GB

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Tom Chivers @tomchivers.bsky.social · 26/05/2025

I don't think this is true. It's hard to do good research but the first study I came across found that Chinese people are on the lower end for average hand/wrist sizes (highlighted). The study is by people with Indian names, re the "vibes of white experts" thing pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

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