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maybe: leif weatherby

@leifw.bsky.social

Hegel, cybernetics, Buffalo Bills

892 Followers  |  848 Following  |  148 Posts  |  Joined: 21.09.2023  |  2.0986

Latest posts by leifw.bsky.social on Bluesky

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Thursday Night Football starring Ralph Fiennes as Lord Voldemort

17.10.2025 23:12 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

The first in a (jam-packed) series of events on cultural AI this year from DTL. More incoming!

06.10.2025 16:22 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 4    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Karen Hao on Empire of AI Lunch will be available for the event. Event begins at 12pm

The Digital Theory Lab at NYU will host Karen Hao for a book talk on Empire of AI on Monday, October 13, RSVP required here:
as.nyu.edu/research-cen...

06.10.2025 16:02 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 6    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1

Man if only cognitive maps were still functioning

01.10.2025 18:27 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 3    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Oh amazing to hear! I hope itโ€™s, well, generative

29.09.2025 01:44 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 3    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Hi! Ty

28.09.2025 23:17 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 3    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Greg Olsen is so committed to the decision-theory bit: "Just because the outcome is good, doesn't mean the decision was correct."

Anyway, Carson Wentz.

28.09.2025 16:48 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 12    ๐Ÿ” 2    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

It was! And they let it slip

24.09.2025 16:53 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Extremely good stuff from Leif here

24.09.2025 16:48 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 3    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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i was on Disintegrator podcast, a really awesome conversation
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/3...

24.09.2025 16:24 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 8    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1

the political economy of bad thinking, a really great piece about the *hostile synergy* between B and X from Henry

24.09.2025 15:36 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 11    ๐Ÿ” 3    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

The humanities long since in its Cringe Era

22.09.2025 17:35 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 6    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Real different vibes man, good luck

18.09.2025 13:51 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Preview
The Bookmaker | The Point Magazine In the lead-up to the 2008 election, Nate Silver revolutionized the way we talk about politics, bringing cold, hard, numerical facts to a world that had been dominated by the gut feelings of reporters...

I'm going to write on this, but the subtext is that the Nate Silver crowd have shifted hard away from political science, and hard towards the Silicon Valley mindset as a foundational source for purportedly better grounded knowledge. This by @beenwrekt.bsky.social and @leifw.bsky.social

16.09.2025 00:12 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 100    ๐Ÿ” 15    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2    ๐Ÿ“Œ 2

extremely imporant one-two from Dan here:
"First, the communication of the polling results to policymakers is likely to be at least as difficult a problem as the election forecast presentation, probably much more so. Second, the technical problems with polling are going to be worse."

12.09.2025 16:54 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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UChicago alumni: we are drafting a letter targeting a few of the more persuadable-seeming trustees urging them to change course on humanities funding. Please sign:

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Explanation to follow ...

02.09.2025 21:14 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 4    ๐Ÿ” 3    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Find the lie (in this case)

02.09.2025 19:41 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

*Carr

02.09.2025 17:13 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

"automated language results from Goedel and Jackobson systems interacting together, without cognition. The incomplete and greedy combine to show us what language is in the absence of cognition and present a strong attractor for meaning."
โ€”Leif Weatherby, Language Machines

01.09.2025 21:20 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

loving @leifw.bsky.socialโ€™s Language Machines so far. in particular:

โ€œIt seems that mental illness, or at a minimum neurosis, should be a criterion for passing the Turing test, but it is equally unlikely that this view will ever be adopted by engineers or journalists.โ€

27.08.2025 15:54 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Language Machines is in The Observer!

27.08.2025 15:02 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 8    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Finally got these two in the mail, been looking forward to reading both.

22.08.2025 13:52 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 3    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1

๐Ÿ™

20.08.2025 00:35 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

An almost universally acknowledged point that mysteriously disappears whenever conversation turns to AI

18.08.2025 16:35 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Text is part of the world

18.08.2025 16:32 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Superb survey of different approaches to the key theoretical question of the moment: What does it mean to call language models โ€œcultural technologiesโ€?

At any rate Iโ€™m going to three (3) conferences and symposia this year connected to it! +

18.08.2025 13:44 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 54    ๐Ÿ” 12    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 3    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1
screenshot of text in terminal

$ ai "write a sonnet about how people who only read the republic are confused about what plato thought"

   gpt-5-thinking  | 27.58 s | $0.02026 | Tokens: 210 -> 2000

  They take the city spoken as the law,
  And fix his thought in guardiansโ€™ stern decree;
  As if one cave could hold the sun they saw,
  Or single myth could bind philosophy.
  He staged a city only in a speech,
  A city in the word, not in the street;
  Then later dialogues unbuild its reach,
  And mix the good with measure, tuned and sweet.
  They miss Parmenidesโ€™ sharp counter-art,
  The Sophistโ€™s net that loosens rigid kind,
  The Laws that cool the fire of the heart,
  A letter warning none should write the mind.
  Read one and swear the sum of him is known;
  He wrote in many masksโ€”let all be shown.

screenshot of text in terminal $ ai "write a sonnet about how people who only read the republic are confused about what plato thought" gpt-5-thinking | 27.58 s | $0.02026 | Tokens: 210 -> 2000 They take the city spoken as the law, And fix his thought in guardiansโ€™ stern decree; As if one cave could hold the sun they saw, Or single myth could bind philosophy. He staged a city only in a speech, A city in the word, not in the street; Then later dialogues unbuild its reach, And mix the good with measure, tuned and sweet. They miss Parmenidesโ€™ sharp counter-art, The Sophistโ€™s net that loosens rigid kind, The Laws that cool the fire of the heart, A letter warning none should write the mind. Read one and swear the sum of him is known; He wrote in many masksโ€”let all be shown.

17.08.2025 16:46 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 4    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Going back to 1969 to tell Foucault that in the future, everyone will know he was 100% right that "discourseโ€ can produce itself without โ€œa thinking โ€ฆ subject.โ€

But also in the future we will care less about that principle than the practical consequence that students can cheat on homework.

16.08.2025 11:40 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 101    ๐Ÿ” 15    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 5    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

It's very telling that the far left refuses to support huge pieces of shit who everyone hates

15.08.2025 21:22 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 7060    ๐Ÿ” 1217    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 90    ๐Ÿ“Œ 43

@leifw is following 20 prominent accounts