Matt Jope

ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES KOKO A DULL BOY

@jameshutton.bsky.social

New study shows that given infinite time monkeys crippled by lack of meaning and purpose in life, refusing to type anything

bring da caucas

As a matter of existential urgency, the UK desperately needs a national broadcaster willing to report basic facts about the Reform Party.

My current not-very-informed-but-its-the-best-I-got take on the electorate in rich western democracies right now is that they really really hated post-pandemic inflation and did the typical thermostatic public opinion thing where they just blamed whoever was in power for that. So far so normal...

I've never seen the pointy bridge and I was definitely at this talk

Misplaced Trust in Expertise: Pseudo-Experts and Unreliable Experts The persistence of scientific misconceptions is often attributed to a decline in trust in experts. Against this simplistic picture, we emphasise that misplaced trust in expertise plays a crucial ro...

"Misplaced Trust in Expertise: Pseudo-Experts and Unreliable Experts" by Michel Croce & Neri Marsili doi.org/10.1080/0269... The persistence of scientific misconceptions is often attributed to a decline in trust in experts. #socialepistemology #journal #article #trust #expertise #misinformation

This paper is now out in PPR. In it, I argue against the widely held assumption that trust is inherently risky, showing that we can often be 'merely' vulnerable, where this need not entail an associated risk.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

An Open Letter to BBC Management, Written by BBC Journalists and Signed by Media Industry Professionals:

"The BBC is not reporting “without fear or favour” when it comes to Israel."

docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Council still not replying to your letters?

Hot Grim Summer

An image from an airplane safety guide showing an adult and child. The adult is holding the child in one hand and inflating the child's life jacket with the other, blowing into what looks like a flute but is presumably supposed to be the inflatable blowhole.

In case of emergency, play jazz flute to your ventriloquist dummy

Aviation experts refuse to explain how, but it works

An image from an airplane safety guide showing an adult and child. The adult is holding the child in one hand and inflating the child's life jacket with the other, blowing into what looks like a flute but is presumably supposed to be the inflatable blowhole.

In case of emergency, play jazz flute to your ventriloquist dummy

Inspired by the success of the 'strictest headteacher in Britain' I am henceforth committing myself to becoming Britain's meanest postdoc

The Responsible AI Ecosystem: Seven Lessons from the BRAID Landscape Study

Happy to share that our Landscape Study on Responsible AI has just been published: zenodo.org/records/1519...

If you can't be bothered to read the whole thing, we even summarized it for you: braiduk.org/the-responsi...

@braiduk.bsky.social @technomoralfutures.bsky.social

Ever notice how the 'X' in 'X games' looks like a fallen cross?

🗞️ Is trust necessarily risky, or "merely" vulnerable? Our @mattjope.bsky.social explores in his latest paper, forthcoming in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research.
philpapers.org/rec/JOPTRA

I argue against this philosophical orthodoxy, first by providing a range of cases of trust that do not involve risk, then by distinguishing between risk and vulnerability, and arguing that the latter notion is better suited to understanding what is inherent to trust.

The idea is that it is platitudinous in the philosophical literature to hold that trust is inherently risky—that is, in trusting others we necessarily incur the risk they will betray us...

Matthew Jope, Trust, Risk, and Mere Vulnerability - PhilPapers Many philosophers of trust endorse the idea that trust is inherently risky. This raises the question of how exactly we ought to understand the relevant notion of risk. Should we understand ...

📢 New paper forthcoming in PPR on the connection between trust and risk

philpapers.org/rec/JOPTRA

It actually worked?

bsky.app/profile/matt...

Matthew Jope, Trust, Risk, and Mere Vulnerability - PhilPapers Many philosophers of trust endorse the idea that trust is inherently risky. This raises the question of how exactly we ought to understand the relevant notion of risk. Should we understand ...

📢 New paper forthcoming in PPR on the connection between trust and risk

philpapers.org/rec/JOPTRA

Can’t take it with you I am in hospice care and reflecting a lot on what a good life is.

Latest post. Don’t know how many I have still in me

helendecruz.substack.com/p/cant-take-...

Elise Woodard, The Epistemic Significance of Mind-Changing - PhilPapers Is it ever rational to change your mind based on learning that others have changed theirs? This paper answers affirmatively and explores the conditions under which learning about others’ mind-changes ...

📝 New paper forthcoming in Episteme: philpapers.org/rec/WOOTES

I argue that when others change their minds, that can give you a reason to change yours, too.

I changed my mind a lot in the process of writing this---and if the paper's right, hopefully for the better!

Screenshot of a webpage showing a couple of dropdown menus, including one for 'location' in which 'Antarctica' is selected. Below are menus for 'My AOS' and 'My AOC.'

I very much appreciate that PhilJobs allows you to search for philosophy jobs by world region, including specifically in Antarctica. Nothing going at the moment, but keeping an eye on it just in case.

"joe rogan" is indistinguishable from an incompetent medieval lord with internet access. bro's fief is in shambles i promise you

Title: Representations of what’s possible reflect others’ epistemic states Authors: Lara Kirfel, Matthew Mandelkern, and Jonathan Scott Phillips Abstract: People’s judgments about what an agent can do are shaped by various constraints, including probability, morality, and normality. However, little is known about how these representations of possible actions—what we call modal space representations—are influenced by an agent’s knowledge of their environment. Across two studies, we investigated whether epistemic constraints systematically shift modal space representations and whether these shifts affect high-level force judgments. Study 1 replicated prior findings that the first actions that come to mind are perceived as the most probable, moral, and normal, and demonstrated that these constraints apply regardless of an agent’s epistemic state. Study 2 showed that limiting an agent’s knowledge changes which actions people perceive to be available for the agent, which in turn affects whether people judged an agent as being “forced” to take a particular action. These findings highlight the role of Theory of Mind in modal cognition, revealing how epistemic constraints shape perceptions of possibilities.

🏔️ Brad is lost in the wilderness—but doesn’t know there’s a town nearby. Was he forced to stay put?

In our #CogSci2025 paper, we show that judgments of what’s possible—and whether someone had to act—depend on what agents know.

📰 osf.io/preprints/ps...

w/ Matt Mandelkern & @jsphillips.bsky.social

I simply refuse to wear an epistemic remembrance poppy. Someone must take a stand.