Sylvia Wenmackers
@sylviawenmackers.be
Philosopher of science stuck between two infinities. ε<🦉<∞ Exploring the scenic route to wisdom. 🍀 Avatar: sketch by former student. Banner: Cousin's 1560 Livre de Perspective. 🦣>🦋 My primary social media account is https://scholar.social/@SylviaFysica
Freire in Education for Critical Consciousness (2002/1973): > If [people] are unable to perceive critically the themes of their time, and thus to intervene actively in reality, they are carried along in the wake of change. They see that the times are changing, but they are submerged in that change
I miss Helen’s energy and the enthusiasm that they brought to philosophy and everything they did. We could all do with being a little bit more Helen. 💜
What does it take to be an intellectually responsible scientist in the age of AI? I propose an epistemological framework grounded in intellectual virtues, such as curiosity and intellectual scrutiny, to guide the use of AI in science. In highly recommended Episteme! www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Navigating AI-Accelerated Science: An Intellectual Virtue Approach to Responsible Inquiry | Episteme | Cambridge Core
Navigating AI-Accelerated Science: An Intellectual Virtue Approach to Responsible Inquiry
cambridge.org
Join us for “The Future of Science: How Intellectual Virtues Guide AI-Accelerated Science” and the launch of our lab! 📍 Eindhoven, 5–6 November Abstract deadline: 15 October Free participation sikimiclab.com/future-of-sc...
The Future of Science: How Intellectual Virtues Guide AI-Accelerated Science
Eindhoven University of Technology, 5–6 November 2026Participation is free of charge. Abstract deadline: 15 October 2026. Register Submit an abstract Speakers Speakers and organizers are listed alp…
sikimiclab.com
I am really happy to share that I have started as PI of an @fwovlaanderen.bsky.social-funded 3-year project @clpskuleuven.bsky.social. I'll investigate how scientists conceptualize, model & measure environments across the life, cognitive, social & Earth sciences! #philsci #philsky #evosky #envhum 🧪
The prophesy said that the utilitarians' prosperity would take the perpetual misery of a single child. (But what about the ones who walk away? Joke's on them: they will be left behind!)
Politico@politico.com · 2w agoSam Altman to Decoded: ‘The world should accept some bad things happening’ for the benefits of AI politi.co/4rJE8dI
Sophisticated statistics can produce extremely precise nonsense when the design fails to identify the causal mechanism.
My short viewpoint article "The Enshittification of Mathematics" is out now in the Mathematical Intelligencer! link.springer.com/article/10.1... Gift link here: rdcu.be/5uYGc2uo454a Check it out and share it with anyone who might be interested! 💩🥳
The Enshittification of Mathematics - The Mathematical Intelligencer
The Mathematical Intelligencer -
link.springer.com
Have you been thinking about the main challenges or theoretical frameworks of #ALife? Do you want to discuss the current directions & future prospects of the field? Then come to Leuven & join us in a great interdisciplinary environment open to both scientists & philosophers #philsky #MolBiol #HPS 🧪
The Ramsey Lab@theramseylab.bsky.social · 3w agoAre you interested in the past, present & future of Artificial Life (ALife) as a scientific field? 🚨 We are hosting an interdisciplinary minisymposium this December, so send us your work & come along! Please share widely! 🔗 hiw.kuleuven.be/clps/events/... #philsci #academicsky #evobio #AI #HPS
Are you interested in the past, present & future of Artificial Life (ALife) as a scientific field? 🚨 We are hosting an interdisciplinary minisymposium this December, so send us your work & come along! Please share widely! 🔗 hiw.kuleuven.be/clps/events/... #philsci #academicsky #evobio #AI #HPS
Wonderful to see that Helen De Cruz has won the International Society for Science & Religion's General Readership Book Prize for her work, Wonderstruck! This illuminating book reveals how wonder and awe are catalysts that can help us reclaim what makes life worth living. Learn more: buff.ly/IYNfe0Q
My two brains: (1) Putnam's two brains: getting a bit crowded in this vat. (2) Boltzmann's two brains: poof! (and they're gone)
De Wereld van Sofie hoorde dat wiskundigen dobbelstenen hebben gemaakt waarmee je met één worp kunt bepalen wie een spel mag beginnen. Een nutteloze uitvinding, vonden ze. Ik mocht vertellen over het nut van schijnbaar nutteloos onderzoek. Vanaf 39:07: www.vrt.be/vrtmax/luist...
De wereld van Sofie - woensdag 23 september 2026 om 10:00 | VRT MAX
De wereld van Sofie - Beluister De wereld van Sofie met VRT MAX via de site of app.
vrt.be
Earlier this year, Alicja Kwade had a magnificent solo-exhibition in museum M Leuven. In the catalogue, I compare her sculptures with scientific models: "In the sway of a simple model; A philosophical reflection on Alicja Kwade’s pendulum". Pdf: www.sylviawenmackers.be/documents/We... #Art #PhilSci
Column voor Eos: Dat mag niet! Over de Doomsday-formule, delen door nul en extrapolaties. www.sylviawenmackers.be/blog/2026091...
Postdoc in history of physics @ Radboud University in The Netherlands on "Origins of Irreversibility" part of larger grant to explore fundamental questions concerning entropy, chaos, & irreversibility #HPS ⚛️ Deadline: 14 October 2026 Duration: 2 years, starting 2027 www.ru.nl/en/working-a...
Postdoc Positions: Origins of Irreversibility | Radboud University
Do you want to work as a Postdoc at the Faculty of Science? Check our vacancy!
ru.nl
🔬 RESEARCH SHOWCASE | Is scientific research really becoming less disruptive? VUB & KU Leuven researchers uncovered how missing citation data exaggerated the reported decline, using VSC high-memory computing to analyse millions of papers. 👉 www.vscentrum.be/post/a-hidde... #HPC #Research
A hidden peak behind the decline in scientific disruption
A new Nature study by researchers from VUB and KU Leuven challenges the reported decline in scientific disruption. Using VSC’s high-memory CPU nodes to analyse citation networks with hundreds of milli...
vscentrum.be
Both basic and applied research suffer from overpromising rhetoric, says integrity researcher and psychiatrist Joeri Tijdink. He calls for more honest communication in which #reliability, #rigour and #reproducibility are the main product of science. 👇 www.horizons-mag.ch/2026/09/03/a...
Admitting uncertainty is the real breakthrough
Horizons (EN) - Back to basic research
horizons-mag.ch
It was the yearly cake baking competition. Sally made her usual: a mulberry cake without eggs, because she was allergic. Jimmy made cakes in creative shapes, like a dinosaur. And Tina just liked to try new things. She didn't enter the competition last year, because her experiments usually failed.
Back in 2015, my footnotes in "Children of the Cosmos" were mentioned in the jury report of the @fqxi.org essay competition. I still believe it was mainly due to this one. 🤠💃
Kenny Pearce@kennypearce.bsky.social · last mo.Academics, share your best footnote! Here's mine.
Interesting 📰 @theguardian.com by @samanthsubramanian.bsky.social on non-neural cognition: www.theguardian.com/news/ng-inte... Confronted with this polarizing debate, @philosobio.bsky.social & I wrote a balanced take on basal #cognition from an #evobio lens 👇 link.springer.com/article/10.1... #HPS
‘This is dangerous’: slime moulds and the bitter debate over the nature of intelligence
The long read: Scientists are battling over whether supposedly simple organisms should be considered ‘intelligent’. The outcome could reshape our understanding of the natural world – and our own place...
theguardian.com
Love this quote: “I have really always thought of science fiction - from Margaret Cavendish and Mary Shelley onwards, through Ursula Le Guin, Octavia Butler, and, of course, Margaret Atwood - as a women’s genre. It is a way of talking about the world as it could be, not as it is.
Naomi Alderman@naomialderman.bsky.social · last mo.about my new novel which is out in a couple of weeks! naomialderman.substack.com/p/i-am-publi...
A bit of an inspection paradox: 🤓 I was part of 5 thesis defenses today and didn't see any women there. Yet, for the other jury members, their colleagues' gender distribution was 50/50, and for the students, jury's gender imbalance was never <1/3. Anyway, my working day didn't pass the Bechdel test.
TFW you get asked for a #SciCom event: AMA! 🤩 But the format is: an AI answers first and then you can discuss it. 😭 I refused & said this is irresponsible. First layer of truth sandwich is missing here. Anchoring effect, automation bias & bullshit asymmetry all work against expert in this format. 😩
First author of the critique @vincentholst.bsky.social presented "How Open Code and Data Unveiled Errors in Measuring Scientific Disruption" at STI 2024 in Berlin. Slides available here: data.research.vub.be/sites/defaul... Yes, we firmly agree on the importance of open science in these matters! 🔓
data.research.vub.be
Research on Research Institute (RoRI)@rorinstitute.bsky.social · 2mo agoIs science losing its disruptive edge, or is the metric flawed? @scurry.bsky.social and @ludowaltman.bsky.social look at the debate over measuring scientific disruption and make the case for fully open metadata and modern peer engagement: researchonresearchinstitute.substack.com/p/disruption...
The program is out! Looking forward to three days of great talks on the history of philosophy of technology! All welcome in Maastricht #philtech #histtech #sts #hopos #hopot2026
Society for the History of the Philosophy of Technology (HPT)@hptsociety.bsky.social · 2mo agoThe program for the conference of the History of the Philosophy of Technology is out! fasos-research.nl/history-of-p... Register for the conference here until September 18, join us also for our conference dinner on Tuesday the 27th: www.aanmelder.nl/178571
