Nature is as much about the evolved connections between species as the actual species themselves. EcoSYSTEMS. 🌎

Thatcher’s claim, that there’s no such thing as society, although wildly wrong in 1987, is starting to smell a bit like a self-fulfilling prophecy

“This idea, that nature is a constant competition for life, is nonsense.”

Anthropologist debunks Darwin’s most abused idea | James Suzman

YouTube video by Big Think

youtu.be

Don’t threaten me with a good time

Fully-funded PhD position on the cultural evolution of environmental management! Link evolution, ecology and behavioral science in the ACE Lab timwaring.info Details: forms.gle/gZWK9BpwYfoG... @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social @alexmesoudi.com @hyperadapthyrax.bsky.social @michael.muthukrishna.com

ACE Lab: Applied Cultural Evolution Laboratory

culture, evolution, cooperation, and sustainability

timwaring.info

The number of resilient, purely individualistic societies so far discovered is zero.

Janne M. Korhonen@jmkorhonen.fi · 2y ago

A reminder I found online. Together we are strong. Now we just have to hang together, so that no one is hanged separately.

Not a novel observation, but the economic system we've adopted was developed by men like Musk to benefit men like Musk. That anyone else has benefitted at all is largely thanks to efforts to constrain that system.

James Woodfield@jameswoodfield.bsky.social · 2y ago

Perhaps our fundamental weakness is that our political/economic systems favour the elevation to power of execrable individuals who have no empathy and consider it a weakness.

What are the risks of extreme wealth? Join us on 6 March, 6.30pm for a panel discussion with Fernanda Balata, @ingridrobeyns.bsky.social, @garyseconomics.bsky.social, @deschuttero.bsky.social and Tania Burchardt as they explore the viability of an extreme wealth line. Register here:

Where do we draw the line? Exploring an extreme wealth line

Public event at LSE | Ingrid Robeyns, Olivier De Schutter, Fernanda Balata, Gary Stevenson, Tania Burchardt | Thurs 6 March, 6.30 to 8.00pm

buff.ly

Resilient societies have mechanisms to constrain sociopaths’ ambitions. Decades of neoliberalism have empowered rapacious sociopaths to the point that they can openly destroy what few constraints remain, and take all community resources. This is precisely the dynamic of late-stage cancer.

Dave Vetter@davidrvetter.bsky.social · 2y ago

Musk states "the fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy". Charles Darwin, who actually researched this stuff, showed it was empathy, specifically, that enabled humanity to flourish.

Is this a surprise? Didn’t Trump publicly say that “we’ll fix it so you won’t have to vote anymore” while campaigning?

Anne Applebaum@anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu · 2y ago

Every day, the goals become clearer: The point of DOGE is not efficiency, but regime change www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Nice. Now do culture.

Scott McGrath@smcgrath.phd · 2y ago

🧪 Evo-2, the largest AI model for biology, is here. Trained on 128K genomes, it can generate entire chromosomes and decode noncoding DNA linked to disease. Scientists see it as an "app store" for biology. 🧬💻

One of the hallmarks of cancer is immune system evasion.

The New York Times@nytimes.com · 2y ago

The IRS is expected to start laying off more than 6,000 employees on Thursday, according to people familiar with the plans, as part of President Trump’s broad effort to shrink the federal work force. Follow the latest updates on Trump's administration here.

Colleagues and I argue that the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) should not allow more carbon offsetting to address scope 3 emissions. Real solutions demand more ambition.

Scientists on why the SBTi should not allow more carbon offsetting to address Scope 3 emissions - edie

More than two-dozen scientists are urging the Science Based Targets Initiative not to permit companies to use offsetting to a greater extent to meet their climate targets. Exclusively for edie, they o...

edie.net

Important piece on the role of Ockham's razor in the modern world of scientific modeling in @pnas.org. Conclusion: Complex models can be quite useful, and parsimony and complexity can complement each other in helping us to gain new insights! doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

Is Ockham’s razor losing its edge? New perspectives on the principle of model parsimony | PNAS

The preference for simple explanations, known as the parsimony principle, has long guided the development of scientific theories, hypotheses, and m...

doi.org

Could there be any stronger indicator of an attempted transition to full-blown kleptocracy?

kate conger@kateconger.com · 2y ago

Russell Vought just told CFPB to shut down @rmac.bsky.social & @stacycowley.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/02/08/u...

It’s been a tough few weeks. My 10yo daughter was diagnosed with a very rare, aggressive cancer called interdigitating dendritic cell sarcoma (IDCS). I’m reaching out to identify clinicians/patients who have encountered pediatric IDCS or other (non-LCH) dendritic or histiocytic sarcomas cases.

The neoliberal dream of fossil fuel billionaire Charles Koch was always the destruction of US democracy and the elimination of government (except for its repressive organs police, courts, prisons, military ofc), and now he has won. What now? A 🧵. 1/ t.co/FKxxmLyfce

I seem to remember this guy talking about how we need his EVs and rooftop solar to deal with climate change. Isn’t this contrary to his business interests?

Matt Ford@mford.bsky.social · 2y ago

They’re looting NOAA now. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Any thoughts on the new administration’s real strategic aims with their tariffs? Presumably they realise the costs to the US consumer; why do they want that?

Explain it to me like I’m ten years old: how can a company expect to successfully sue other companies for not buying their services?

Robin Whitlock@robinwhitlock66.bsky.social · 2y ago

The next chapter in Elon Musk's attempt to, in essence, force people to advertise on X. www.npr.org/2025/02/01/n...

Compelling and moving story. Thanks, @garyseconomics.bsky.social.

How to live in a collapsing economy

YouTube video by Garys Economics

youtu.be

I appreciate a distaste for bureaucrazy. I also note that every known resilient complex system is full of complex regulation mechanisms.

European Commission@ec.europa.eu · 2y ago

"We have to cut red tape. We will start with a first simplification omnibus proposal next month. Our goal is that by the end of the mandate, we will have made proposals that could save companies over €37 billion a year". — President @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu on the EU Competitiveness Compass

Do ideologues ever appreciate systemic complexity?

Katie Mack@astrokatie.com · 2y ago

I think some people hear “grants” and think that without them, scientists and government workers just have less stuff to play with at work. But grants fund salaries for students, academics, researchers, and people who work in all areas of public service. “Pausing” grants means people don’t eat.

There are now much more efficient ways to review and share research findings. Society would be richer if this industry were regulated out of existence.

Michelle Wille@duckswabber.bsky.social · 2y ago

Between 2019 and 2023, researchers paid $8.968 billion to make papers open access. Imagine what else could be done with this money if it wasnt paid to for profit publishing companies... 👉 arxiv.org/abs/2407.16551

"[A] democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is Fascism—ownership of Government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power." - FDR (1938)

a man stands at a podium with microphones that say wor on them

ALT: a man stands at a podium with microphones that say wor on them

media.tenor.com

Vet friend at a conference is trying to focus and this dolphin has other ideas

The supreme irony of Germany offering sanctuary and opportunities to scientists unable to work in fascist USA is knocking on the door.

If the purpose of the economy is to exploit and extract and generate as much inequality as possible, marketising everything does indeed seem to be optimal.

ЯoЬ J૯ωɿէէ ❄️🍾✊@robjewitt.bsky.social · 2y ago

I see the dystopia decided to ramp things up a bit www.theguardian.com/business/202...

First thing that comes to mind is the fire brigades scene from Gangs of New York, in which competition between providers takes precedence over fighting the fire. Those were amateur brigades. Should be much better when big money is at stake, right?

Matt Novak@paleofuture.bsky.social · 2y ago

“Will pay any amount.” Feels like one of those futile pleas we’re going to hear from wealthy people more and more in the era of climate change.

Does anyone understand why this is so common? Why do senior managers in academia so often insist on paying Drs and Profs their going salaries to do what could be done by people whose time is much cheaper?

Susan Michie@susanmichie.bsky.social · 2y ago

This is why funders should pay for project managers. For my recent multinational, 5-year project across 4 countries, NIH cut our only 0.5 administrator - so now all admin needs to be done by the researchers. Crazy.