Tessera

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 5mo ago

Much to say here, but let’s start with the fact that the jobs most impacted by AI currently are in finance, computer science, and business. This is classic divide and conquer style propaganda, and the Alex Karp’s of the world are using wedge-issue misogyny to normalize shrinking the middle class.

Palantir CEO Alex Karp: "This technology disrupts humanity's train, largely Democratic voters, and makes their economic power less, and increases the economic power of vocationally trained, working class, often male voters. These disruptions are going to disrupt every aspect of our society."

Scott McGrath @smcgrath.phd · 4mo ago

Frankenstein citations are now a structural risk. 2.6% of major CS conferences papers in 2025 were found to have at least one fake reference. Publishers are now wrestling with whether these "inexistent bolts" require a simple correction or a full retraction. #AcademicSky

Hallucinated citations are polluting the scientific literature. What can be done?

Tens of thousands of publications from 2025 might include invalid references generated by AI, a Nature analysis suggests.

nature.com

Aspired to post more on bluesky to meet other cool academics, but slowly realizing all I do is read and bake in my spare time. Anyways, getting started on the reading for fun part of my night with some Proust.

The first part of Marcel Proust’s Swann’s Way.

Guys I made another one (this time, raspberry blackberry and ginger)

David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Some lighter reading for today.

The Appendix to the Transcendental Dialectic from Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason

Red States: We're going to cut all the programs that don't support our theology Blue States: We're going to cut the same programs, but because they don't support the business school

Rob Townsend@rbtownsend.bsky.social · 4mo ago

"The affected majors include Classical Civilization, Digital Humanities, German, Russian, and Middle Eastern Studies, among others...no jobs are currently slated for elimination, though teaching assignments and workloads may be affected." bit.ly/47oHkm9

I have a tendency to stress-bake. This week’s fixation is galettes. Particularly, creating a recipe that can use unthawed, frozen fruit. This one wasn’t pretty, *but* it tasted good, and the filling actually firmed up (it didn’t become blueberry soup!)

A broad question: How do you reliably “check” students work for AI generated writing if human and AI speech patterns are rapidly converging?

Anyways, on to the next one (Swann's Way by Proust). Wish me luck because I’ve read the first two sentences several times over the years and given up. It’s the second one that always gets me (Ha ha).

John Holbein @johnholbein1.bsky.social · 6mo ago

My spring break *treat* was finishing Dostoyevsky’s Notes From the Underground. It was utterly bleak. But also very funny. Example:

Are female economists treated differently than males in academic seminars? These authors wanted to know whether gender shapes how scholars are treated when presenting research. So they built a massive dataset of 2,000+ economics seminars, job talks, and conference presentations from 2019–2023...

Victor Ray @victorerikray.bsky.social · 6mo ago

I do want to shout-out my fellow sociologists, who have collectively created a discipline so woke that not a single one of our introductory textbooks can make it past Florida's censors. Great work everyone.

The Board of Governors decided, unilaterally, that no published textbook in the field of sociology could be used in compliance with the law for an Intro to Sociology class. None.
Victor: There's not a single existing textbook on the market that could be used that would qualify under state law?
Zachary: Correct.
Victor: I'm sorry, that's kind of funny. Like, the absurdity of not a single sociology textbook getting past the censors. I mean, it makes me kind of proud of our colleagues, but...

Tori H. Cotton @wittgencism.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Been thinking about the Wittgenstein's lectures on the foundations of mathematics recently (I’m woefully under informed). A shot in the dark, but does anyone here have special opinions on the idea of surveyability of proofs (particularly as it comes up in Hilbert, Turing, and Wittgenstein...)?

Lauren Ross @laurennross.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Amazing talk by Sally Haslanger @shaslang.bsky.social on "Social systems & their micro, meso, & macro interactions'' @ucisocsci.bsky.social & dinner afterwards with Ari Koslow, Tori Cotton @wittgencism.bsky.social, Cailin O’Connor @cailinmeister.bsky.social & Kate Ritchie @kateritch.bsky.social !!!

Will Fleisher@willfleisher.bsky.social · 11mo ago

“At the forefront of AI thought thought leadership leadership,” lol.

Very important work being done here.

Anyways, 🫳🎤

If we accept that certain topics can be erased entirely, it won’t stop with this one issue. it will spread to whatever happens to be unpopular next.

If we accept that certain topics can be erased entirely, it won’t stop with this one issue. it will spread to whatever happens to be unpopular next.

Universities are meant to be spaces for dialogue and exploration, where you meet and learn from people with all kinds of different ideas than you, not places where ideas are policed.

Universities are meant to be spaces for dialogue and exploration, where you meet and learn from people with all kinds of different ideas than you, not places where ideas are policed.

Higher education is supposed to challenge students to think critically and to grapple with ideas they might disagree with. If we start banning every topic that someone finds uncomfortable, we will be left with nothing but a hollow shell of what was once an education.

Higher education is supposed to challenge students to think critically and to grapple with ideas they might disagree with. If we start banning every topic that someone finds uncomfortable, we will be left with nothing but a hollow shell of what was once an education.

Let’s go a step further. Even if you personally disagree with gender studies, consider: even if a professor chooses to teach gender theory to adult college students, that is precisely what academic freedom is for!

Let’s go a step further. Even if you personally disagree with gender studies, consider: even if a professor chooses to teach gender theory to adult college students, that is precisely what academic freedom is for!

Regardless of your personal beliefs, the idea that a professor could lose their job simply for discussing a topic should be deeply concerning. When we start erasing entire subjects because they don’t fit a current political narrative, we risk losing valuable knowledge and forgetting our own history.

Regardless of your personal beliefs, the idea that a professor could lose their job simply for discussing a topic should be deeply concerning. When we start erasing entire subjects because they don’t fit a current political narrative, we risk losing valuable knowledge and forgetting our own history.

First, there are times when a teacher simply covers certain topics because they are part of the subject matter. Teaching about gender identity doesn’t necessarily mean endorsing any particular position. It’s about presenting information. You know, teaching?

First, there are times when a teacher simply covers certain topics because they are part of the subject matter. Teaching about gender identity doesn’t necessarily mean endorsing any particular position. It’s about presenting information. You know, teaching?

A Texas A&M processor was fired for teaching about gender identity in the classroom. I’d like, for a moment, to talk about why this should be alarming to anyone—regardles of where you stand personally or politically. 🧵🪡