This is a major plot event in Vernor Vinge's Book, Rainbows End. It now looks astonishingly prescient. Also, there is a plot 'twist' at the end involving the Geisel Library at UCSD that alone makes it worth reading, if you have ever seen that building. www.news.com.au/technology/o...

AI labs buy, scan, shred millions of rare books

If you have retreated to physical books because the internet is too full of AI slop, bad news — now they’re shredding the books to feed their AI slop machines.

news.com.au

About to do the annual Applying for Philosophy PhD Programs session. If you have undergrads or MA students, now is a great time to start thinking about application prep. Guide here: www.hkandersen.com/applying-for... #philsky #philsci

Applying for Ph.d. programs

​These notes were developed over the years for the annual "Applying to a PhD program" session for Simon Fraser University Philosophy MA students. This offers a perspective on how to prioritize your...

hkandersen.com

Go Tammara Soma! BC Academic of the Year! #philsci #sfu cufa.bc.ca/award/2026-w...

Writing a food security paper raising issues for techno-optimism about space food tech, with kick-ass co-author Tammara Soma. And citing Alien Clay by Tchaikovsky! It's the first but definitely not the last time I'll find a way to cite his work in a philosophy paper. #philsci #philsky

Fuck yes. And if you don't like it, move back to whatever shittier state you came from a couple years ago

Erin Reed@erininthemorning.com · 4mo ago

1. In a landmark ruling, the Montana Supreme Court has declared that the constitution, one of the most progressive in the nation, entirely protects transgender people. The ruling is even insulated from SCOTUS decisions, due to how state constitutions work. Subscribe to support our journalism.

Happy #transdayofvisibility! If there is anyone (yourself, friend, family member) who seems bemused by "this whole trans thing", a great book to get them is The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks. It is a fantastic book anyway, and walks through that thinking and out the other side, very effectively

Eid mubarak! Los Angeles palm trees and moon.

Eldest child drew me this amazing snail blorbo on my notebook cover, had to share

Blue hour Academic Quadrangle on the walk home #sfu

ok damn this is a good speech. paulwells.substack.com/p/the-carney...

The Carney doctrine

Open comment thread on the PM's Davos speech

paulwells.substack.com

Just gotta point out that "Canadian content" got us both Strange Brew and Heated Rivalry which combo is an amazing Canadian taxpayer contribution to society en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadia...

It takes special bravery in a family game of Apples to Apples for a teen to play the "Your mom" card.

Eldest child made this arcane lore christmas meme. Happy christmas eve!

Preprint for "Foundations of Causation", from my 2024 talk at the Minnesota CPS. I've been saying this offhand for years, so it was good to finally get specific and into the weeds about what it means to branch out a new science of causation. #philsky #philsci philpapers.org/rec/ANDFOC-2

Holly K. Andersen, Foundations of Causation - PhilPapers

Drawing on historical episodes where new fields of science branch out of philosophy, I offer six distinctive developments involved in such episodes as a template that can be applied to the ...

philpapers.org

Kid 2 got a plasma ball birthday gift. Here it is in slo mo.

Heads up to PhD letter writers and to programs using My Liason system for grad letter submissions. I am not receiving any emails from Liason to my SFU address, even to reset my password. IT Services can't find anything; this happened last year also. You might need to go looking! #philsky #philsci

Giving a talk today! I am excited to be working out how to structure this overall argument, lots of moving pieces and not in any final form yet. And definitely longer than 1 paper. In the meantime, here's the bit I am focusing on now. #philsci #philsky philosophy.ubc.ca/events/event...

I got myself a neuron scarf for my talk in Bloomington at IU HPS and it is so awesome. Bringing to attention of philosophers of science if you want to support small biz artists #philsci

Artologica aka Michele Banks @artologica.net · 9mo ago

Hey guys! I'm having a sale on all my silk #sciart scarves and ties 😊 🐡🧪🧠

Eldest child discussing queer characters in lit is 🔥👍. Described Sir Gawain as "sadboy rizz". Still wonders why Moby Dick doesn't get the "oh no, queer!" ban in the US. We wondered how many creatives might've counted as aro-ace (Eldest: "they'd be more locked in") and I realized...KANT

One upside of the week's news is that I am reading cool historical stuff on Rosalind Franklin and her work #philsci

The crows in Bloomington do the same evening commute through the sky together as they do in Burnaby. A river of flying crows at sunset. View from @jordicat.bsky.social 's office: there were dozens to hundreds per tree.

Bloomington is a very lovely place in the fall. Had some fantastic philosophy of science discussions today and set up for even more tomorrow

Flying out of Vancouver is pretty much always some flavour of gorgeous

Spent my extra hour last night watching the finale of The Residence, had to know whodunnit. Great show, exactly the right kind clever funny escapism. In contrast, have been watching The Foundation series while cooking, and keep thinking, can't Harry Seldon just die and stay dead already please

Can't help but laugh at the idea that anyone is taking seriously this "but is she REALLY your aunt" and the fact that this is the only straw they could grasp. If you spell out the details for how you are related to your aunty you sound like Merry and Pippin

Call for Papers for the Society for Exact Philosophy conference in Vancouver in May 2026. @hkandersen.bsky.social is one of the keynotes! meta.phil.ufl.edu/host/sep/mee... #philsky

I accidentally Gettier'd someone today. Person: I knew you were married to a a Norwegian! Me: How could you possibly have known that P: Your last name, it's the Norwegian spelling. Me: But mine is Danish. And his last name is completely different. Yes, though, married to a norwegian. #philsky

This is fantastic context for the protests. I remember this way back in the 90's. I graduated high school in 1995 in NW Montana and you could tell so much sometimes by the town some picked to move to after graduating. Portland was a slightly fringe choice and it was all this attitude

Claire E. Aubin@ceaubin.com · 10mo ago

What The Hell Is Going On, a thread: I’ve seen some thinkpieces and posts about Portland protests that fail to understand the long-term hyperspecificity of Portland culture/humor, and frame it as a sort of shitposting meme-pilled ironic thing. Which is wrong. So I’m gonna give you my breakdown.

Heading into the long weekend with some atmosphere. Philosophers: do have a strong, or mild, preference for reading papers when its one paper with that hang together at 14k-ish words, or two shorter papers that each have less in terms of a point but also are only 7-8k each? #philsci #philsky

Happy Mid-autumn harvest festival weekend! I made fusion mooncakes, cookie outside with a paste of dates and four kinds of nuts inside. Metro Vancouver style energy snacks, because I absolutely have to finish this draft today.