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Warren Pearce

@warrenpearce.bsky.social
612 followers 245 following 142 posts

Academic. Digital methods. Climate change. Expertise. Imagery. Occasional music posts. #AcademicSky #STS Sheffield & Nottingham sheffield.ac.uk/spir/people/academi…

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Reposted by Warren Pearce
Alex Hanna @alexhanna.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
@tante.cc: 'Those “proofs” are about narrative building. Which is why especially people with no b/g in math keep using them as definite proof of LLMs being “more than just stochastic language models” which is just factually untrue and the mark of deeply unserious people.' tante.cc/2026/09/07/t...
tante.cc
The function of LLM-based math "proofs"
There has been quite the uptick in “AI” labs’ claims of their LLMs “solving complex math problems”. I wondered why that is, especially given that LLMs are not exactly built for the kind of rigor that ...
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Reposted by Warren Pearce
Ben Recht @beenwrekt.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
The METR people, who have gone around in public, spouting beyond-insane AGI religious beliefs, found exactly what you'd think they'd find. They anthropomorphised software that is built to emit English. 6/x
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Ben Recht @beenwrekt.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
The overreaction to this Hugging Face thing is driving me nuts. Come flay me for being wrong but... 1/x
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ESRC Digital Good Network @digitalgoodnet.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
What does a good digital society look like? is a two-day conference taking place in Sheffield, UK, on 10th and 11th June 2027. We invite proposals for papers, panels and workshops from researchers from any discipline and stakeholders from any sector. digitalgood.net/call-for-pap...
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Warren Pearce @warrenpearce.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
couldn't sign up fast enough! And thanks for the excellent uni's in crisis episodes :-)
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Warren Pearce @warrenpearce.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Nottingham legend 👍🏼 Will probably go to see this one despite my Nolan antipathy (particularly disliked the feted Interstellar)
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Reposted by Warren Pearce
Edward Goldstick @ejgoldstick.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
"Local plumbers two steps ahead of every university administrator in america 👏" per @nathankhensley.bsky.social... 💯 h/t @kevincmurphy.com
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Warren Pearce @warrenpearce.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
or "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
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Warren Pearce @warrenpearce.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
cognitive dissonance?
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Warren Pearce @warrenpearce.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Yes quite. Which led to cash-strapped local authorities attempting (and usually failing) to turn a profit through various projects which should not have had a profit motive (e.g. carbon reduction, local energy)
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Warren Pearce @warrenpearce.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
LFO were formed in 1990. Nosebleed territory for Mojo!
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Reposted by Warren Pearce
Margarita Nafpaktitis @nafpaktitism.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
The thing that takes this to Onion-level farce is that he is *Ed in Chief* of *Science* & the article he is referring to is *“AI in Scientific Publishing: Slower, Worse, and More Expensive.”*
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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
I am losing my mind. Chat isn’t a search engine. this isn’t normal. framing it as normative is slimy. Tone, vibes all bad.
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Reposted by Warren Pearce
Des Fitzgerald @desfitzgerald.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
<catching up with today's discourse on how it is bad to maintain territorial claims over nearby islands>
Mourinho "if i speak" meme
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Warren Pearce @warrenpearce.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
The starting point is Winston Churchill??
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Reposted by Warren Pearce
Sophie E. Hill @sophieehill.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
hi @countbinface.bsky.social please accept this unconditional gift
Poster with image of Count Binface on yellow background (arms folded, swagged out in his signature style: futuristic armour, shiny cape, giant bin head) with text:

CLACTON
Make your vote
COUNT
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Warren Pearce @warrenpearce.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
you didn't stay up?!
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Reposted by Warren Pearce
Adam Golberg @cash4questions.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Some thoughts on the planned closure of @resprofnews.bsky.social . And what the lack of media coverage on the planned closure of Research Professional News tells us about what life might look like without a functioning trade media.
socialscienceresearchfunding.co.uk
Research Professional News has become the story…. | Cash for Questions: Research funding, policy and development
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Reposted by Warren Pearce
Rob Sheridan @rob-sheridan.com · 30/06/2026
The thing about social media age restrictions is that it treats today’s internet as an inevitability we all just have to deal with. The internet (and the WORLD) wasn’t like this until like four dudes were allowed to own & monetize as much tech real estate as they wanted. Fix THAT problem.
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Des Fitzgerald @desfitzgerald.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
[It's obviously understandable, but still super important not to respond to announcements of redundancies with shock that this is happening now at some place we imagine to be somehow prestigious, good etc, which ofc just reproduces the logic of the redundancy process while quibbling about details].
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Sophie E. Hill @sophieehill.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
the bar is in hell
Djed Spence blanking Thomas Partey during pre-match handshakesDeclan Rice hugging Partey post-match
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Des Fitzgerald @desfitzgerald.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
All solidarity to my brilliant former colleagues at Exeter. The careful, deliberate dismantling of british higher education by its nominal 'leaders' - focused especially on the arts & humanities - is going to be rememberd as one of the major scandals of this generally awful/scandalous age.
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Warren Pearce @warrenpearce.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Mmm there's a lot to unpack here, including 1) technical aspects (length of time) 2) structure of feeling (watching cricket is more like darts than football) 3) cocaine usage 4) perceptions of social class
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Reposted by Warren Pearce
Sophie E. Hill @sophieehill.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
📢 Academics & journal editors: I'm working on a story about donors using financial intermediaries to fund studies "anonymously". - Is this common in your field? - Does your uni have rules to prevent this? - Would your journal accept a declaration of an "anonymous donation"? 📱sehill.11 on Signal
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Reposted by Warren Pearce
Rosaleen Duffy @rosaleenduffy.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
🐕‍🦺🐴🐦‍⬛🐄 Our new Multispecies Mutualisms project website is now live. The amazing design work is by Sheffield artist Lisa O’Hara. Some exciting announcements to come about our new post docs - keep a 👀 out 👇 multispeciesmutualisms.org
Pink background, black silhouettes of animals and the letters MM . Text says  ‘a transformative reimagining of Multispecies mutualisms’
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Warren Pearce @warrenpearce.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Romeo and Juliet at Harold Pinter Theatre
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Reposted by Warren Pearce
Jack Stilgoe @jackstilgoe.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
As the chair of the oversight committee for this public dialogue exercise, I can state that the participants certainly did not say this @thetimes.com @rhysblakely.bsky.social
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Times Higher Education (THE) @timeshighered.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
With hundreds of jobs on the line and dozens of courses at risk, Nottingham staff living through one of the biggest university restructuring projects of recent years fear they are shouldering the blame for wider failures. Juliette Rowsell reports ow.ly/OrVG50Z6KJ1
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Reposted by Warren Pearce
Felicity Callard @felicitycallard.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Dr Antonis Vradis, Reader in Geography at the University of St Andrews and Hasnain Jaffer, VP for health at King’s College London Student Union were abducted and subjected to detention by Israel
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Warren Pearce @warrenpearce.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
Ignorance studies would work here? doi.org/10.1111/j.14...
doi.org
The logic of strategic ignorance
Ignorance and knowledge are often thought of as opposite phenomena. Knowledge is seen as a source of power, and ignorance as a barrier to consolidating authority in political and corporate arenas. Th...
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Warren Pearce @warrenpearce.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
Friend of yours?
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Warren Pearce @warrenpearce.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
No. Good idea!
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Warren Pearce @warrenpearce.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
...and a bonus point for anything with a focus on technology :-) #STS
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Warren Pearce @warrenpearce.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
Do you know of a ~5-10 minute video around 'trust in science' from a #STS perspective? Is for a *non-specialist* audience. I'm coming up empty so far. Any suggestions gratefully received!
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Warren Pearce @warrenpearce.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
I’m on the incredible Swingdash Radio today 5-7pm, broadcasting from the heart of Nottingham with Sounds Critical. Playing disco, house and techno. 🪩 Listen here www.swingdash.live/schedule/not...
A pile of coloured record sleeves on a brown carpet
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Reposted by Warren Pearce
Digital Humanities Potsdam @dhpotsdam.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
[NEW DATE] 🍃 The next speaker in the #Code&Culture lecture series (this semester with a focus on #DigitalEnvironmentalHumanities) is @warrenpearce.bsky.social, delivering a talk on "Network, Infrastructure and Vernacular in the Making of Environmental Visuals". Register here: plu.sh/codeculture
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Reposted by Warren Pearce
Felicity Callard @felicitycallard.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
They’ve brought to visibility a 6th unrecognised COVID death for every 5 that were by training an algorithm to recognise hospital COVID deaths & then finding similar deaths in other settings—at home; amidst poorer ppl; racialised ppl. I’m wondering if this study cd be described as a work of mourning
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Warren Pearce @warrenpearce.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
Ethics, Evidence and Policy Network, Wednesday 25 March, 2-3pm. Martyn Pickersgill talking "Novelty, Normativity, and the Neuro" and EthUcate on responsible science and ethics communication #STS #scicomm This promises to be very good. Sign up here: events.teams.microsoft.com/event/db0530...
Ethics, Evidence, and Policy Network meeting

Dear all,

 

Welcome to the quarterly meeting of the Ethics, Evidence, and Policy Network!

 

We are pleased to welcome sociologist Martyn Pickersgill who will discuss Novelty, Normativity, and the Neuro. In this talk, sociologist Martyn Pickersgill will discuss some of his work over the last two decades on the social circulation of neuroscience and neurotechnology. He will argue that expertise far beyond neuro-research is often necessary for its societal impacts, and reflect on some of the ethical implications of claims to novelty and significance in relation to brain technology.

 

We will also welcome colleagues from EthUcate. EthUcateis a growing initiative aimed at educating diverse stakeholders about responsible science and ethics communication. By contributing to responsible research and innovation, enhancing public trust and fostering informed policy decisions, EthUcate seeks to empower individuals and organizations to engage thoughtfully with scientific information. Katherine Bassil will introduce the work they do and key challenges in ethics communication.
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Warren Pearce @warrenpearce.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
Beyond The Frame: Network, Infrastructure and Vernacular in the Making of Environmental Visuals. Very excited to give @unipotsdam.bsky.social Code & Culture lecture next Mon 16/3 Arguing that online visuals cannot be understood in isolation from platform effects www.uni-potsdam.de/de/digital-h...
 Beyond The Frame: Network, Infrastructure and Vernacular in the Making of Environmental Visuals

Wer: Warren Pearce (Universität Sheffield)

Wann: 16. März 2026, 17:00 CET
Abstract

Digital platforms such as social media and search engines have grown to become the world’s most important gatekeepers of visual culture over the last two decades. These platforms are what Noortje Marres describes as socio-technical formations, in which social processes and media technologies come together to visually configure issues. Here, I argue that these formations need to be the focus of methodologies for research into environmental visuals, analysing both visual content within the frame and the platform effects which shape the production and circulation of images. This approach is needed to better understand how certain images gain currency and improve public understanding of the impacts of digital platforms on public debates. Drawing on STS and digital media studies, I introduce knowledge infrastructures and visual vernaculars as conceptual resources for researching digital images, and visual network analysis as a flexible method for exploring these concepts. I then present our team’s recent empirical studies into environmental images on Instagram and Google Images, demonstrating diverse visual configurations across different platforms. The results highlight the importance of accounting for the role of media technologies in environmental images. In conclusion, I reflect on the theoretical and methodological implications of this research for the idea of Environments in and as Networks.Network visualisation showing relationship between different visual genres of Instagram environmental visuals. A key finding is that almost all the most engaged-with visuals include both image and text, an example of what we call modal convergence. Source: Yao, Y., & Pearce, W. (2025). The Visual Vernacular of Climate Change on Instagram: How Modal Convergence Between Image and Text Is Changing the Representation of Climate Solutions. International Journal of Communication, 19(0).
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Reposted by Warren Pearce
Big Data & Society @bigdatasoc.bsky.social · 07/03/2026
New in Big Data & Society 🗞️ Warren Pearce et al., examine how Google transformed knowledge infrastructure through computer vision, tracing a shift from ranking by authority to ranking by similarity in Google Images. 🔗 doi.org/10.1177/2053...
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Eva Haifa Giraud @evahaifa.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
A rare thing: *four* three-year hums/soc-sci posts in animal studies, on the Multispecies Mutualisms project at UoSheffield - with @rosaleenduffy.bsky.social, me, Robert McKay and Alasdair Cochrane; see here for a video explainer: digitalmedia.sheffield.ac.uk/media/Multis...
digitalmedia.sheffield.ac.uk
Multispecies Mutualisms - Join Our Research Team!
We’re hiring 4 Postdoctoral Research Associates (PDRAs) In this video, members of the team share insights into four exciting PDRA opportunities currently available. If you are ready to take the next s...
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Inga Ulnicane @ingaulnicane.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
Happening today - my talk on government, power and AI policy at 5pm Cambridge Judge Business School, Lecture Theatre 3. All welllcome!
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Brian Finucane @bcfinucane.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
"Spain’s defense minister, Margarita Robles, said on Monday that while there was an agreement with the United States on the use of the bases, Spain believed it only extended to use within the framework of international law." Spain views US war on Iran as illegal. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/w...
nytimes.com
Spain Denies U.S. Military Use of Its Bases for Iran Attack
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Aleksandra Vaca @transiticsnews.com · 23/02/2026
Under a new policy released Thursday, the Trump Administration will test conversion therapy on trans people in prisons. It explicitly states that it aims to help trans people “recover,” all the while forcibly detransitioning them both medically and socially. transitics.substack.com/p/the-trump-...
transitics.substack.com
The Trump Administration is Testing Conversion Therapy By Medically Experimenting on Trans People in Prisons
The Bureau of Prisons is subjecting trans people to conversion therapy and denying them care with the goal of helping them "recover." It's trying to prove dangerous conversion practices can work.
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Warren Pearce @warrenpearce.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
Also, if you put this on your office door, it will head off unwanted interruptions
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Warren Pearce @warrenpearce.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
Times New Roman for gravitas
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Warren Pearce @warrenpearce.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
Gill Sans?
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MatthewHanchard @matthewhanchard.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
Yaye! We got our paper in @bigdatasoc.bsky.social from uvahumanities.bsky.social #DigitalMethods Initiative Summer School 2022. Gratitude owed to sheffielduni.bsky.social and the @wellcometrust.bsky.social for kindly co-funding my attendance! journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... #InternetStudies
journals.sagepub.com
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
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Warren Pearce @warrenpearce.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
How Google Images, powered by computer vision AI, has transformed the way Google ranks its results, from ranking-by-authority to ranking-by-similarity. New @bigdatasoc.bsky.social by me, @maudbo.bsky.social @lauvra26.bsky.social + amazing team 😍 doi.org/10.1177/20539517261426452 #STS
Comparison of top 10 Google Images results for climate change in Australia, Brazil, China, Mexico, Netherlands and Nigeria. The images all look very similar to each other, with images of the Earth in stylised, Photoshopped environmentsComparison of top climate change results on Google Images for six countries, colour coded to show dominant image types: earth in hand, landscape, tree, triptych and cartoon Earth
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Warren Pearce @warrenpearce.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
Join me trying to make sense of this lot on the 1st Sounds Critical radio show on Swingdash, 5-7pm today. Meeting the moment by selecting bangers www.swingdash.live/schedule/not...
Many coloured record sleeves strewn in a wooden table
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