Phil Frana

Are the Mysteries of Quantum Mechanics Beginning To Dissolve? | Quanta Magazine Columnist Philip Ball thinks the phenomenon of decoherence might finally bridge the quantum-classical divide.

Resolving the "measurement problem" in quantum mechanics would be a huge deal. Doing it without any exotic assumptions or additions to standard QM would be amazing. Now, I'm not reckless enough to say that is what has been achieved here, but...
www.quantamagazine.org/are-the-myst...

The Digital Devil | 27 | The Routledge History of the Devil in the Wes Software transforms the way people work, play, communicate, and shop. It reduces uncertainty, optimises complex workflows, and is poised to eliminate all sorts

Related to Peter Thiel's lecture on the biblical Antichrist and tech, I very recently wrote about the "digital devil" as a metaphor for the hidden algorithms that are integral to modern life for the new Routledge History of the Devil www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edi...

"Life is, to some extent, an extended dialogue with your future self about how exactly you are going to let yourself down over the coming years."

-- Charles Yu, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe

@mikkibrock.bsky.social My copy just arrived. Fresh off the FedEx truck! Looks terrific.

Spotted this at the Hirshhorn yesterday and thought @mikkibrock.bsky.social would enjoy. From the exhibit: hirshhorn.si.edu/exhibitions/...

A reviewer once asked how I developed my classification scheme for interpreting a topic in ethical AI. I replied: I read nearly everything written on it. Immersive, interpretive scholarship. Less measurable, maybe, but more meaningful.

Delighted to share that The Routledge History of the Devil in the Western Tradition, which I edited with my wonderful colleagues @devilprof.bsky.social & @vetur.bsky.social, is finally out in the world. We hope its nearly thirty chapters give the devil his due! 😈 www.routledge.com/The-Routledg...

YouTube video by ALEX AVILA AI WARS: How Corporations Hijacked Anti-AI Backlash

In "#AI Wars: How Corporations Hijacked Anti-AI Backlash" Alex Avila breaks down the current #AI hype debate in a way that is both informative and entertaining. Really pleased to have had the opportunity to contribute to the effort.

youtu.be/lRq0pESKJgg?...

Welcome to Ralph Baer's electronics workshop

Deadline to apply for Santa Fe Institute's open resident faculty position is March 28.

santafe.edu/about/jobs/r...

Think about that 60-some-year-old South Korean senator who was literally climbing over walls to vote for impeachment as martial law was imposed in the country and then looking at…. Chuck Schumer.

it is grimly hilarious that, given the immense, decades-long fetishization of "leadership" and "leadership skills" in business-oriented academia and politics, even unto the formation of leadership institutes, there should turn out to be no leaders in any positions of power

👇🎯 The public isn't going to understand this, unless the presidents of R1 universities around the country <loudly> & <collectively> get out into the public square & start explaining this & calling out the existential threat to the entire 🇺🇸 university system. The silence is deafening right now.

Postdoc opportunity at the School of Information Sciences, Urbana-Champaign. Teaching one course a semester. Application deadline April 1, but they recommend conversation with potential faculty mentors in advance of that date. Renewable for a second year. Pls RT! ischool.illinois.edu/research/pos...

We're looking for contributors to write some unclaimed entries for the second & expanded edition of the Encyclopedia of AI. Here's the call and list: sites.lib.jmu.edu/artificialot...

I still call it National Airport. Nothing more.

Public facilities should only be named after fictional characters in the public domain.

That is all.

if our university presidents and regents were able to find an historian or two, perhaps they could ask them what forms of resistance worked in the past and if “let’s lay low, they won’t see us” was a good strategy. but where would they find historians, right?

I am not so much worried about the accountability of computers at the moment.....

Screenshot of my email from Hollins University: Dear Hollins Alumnae/i, We have learned of recent reports regarding an alumna wearing a Hollins sweatshirt while appearing to make a Nazi salute. Clearly and without equivocation, Hollins University soundly rebukes any affiliation with antisemitism, hate, and division. In this moment, more than ever, we proclaim loudly and without apology that Hollins stands for and with love. Our community welcomes and is proud to stand alongside those who consistently seek to bring our world together, to use our voice for hope, and to reflect what our world can be when we are all based in and promoting love. If you are not for love, you are not for Hollins. Levavi Oculos, President Mary Dana Hinton

Just gross and not going to repost it, but glad to see my university was quick about this one

Call for Applications--Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) History & Archiving Fellowship Program.

For projects in whole or major part advancing ACM history.
Applications due 28 Feb. 2025. #histtech

history.acm.org/wp-content/u...

JUST CODE book cover. Black text for title and subtitle with code design in lettering and trailing pastel colors.

Just released cover of our book JUST CODE, out in Fall 2025. Honored to partner with Con in working alongside an absolutely stellar team of scholars for this interdisciplinary volume from Johns Hopkins University Press!!!
#histtech

The Twilight Zone: Four O’Clock In another of Serling’s attempts at miserable people, Four O’clock introduces us to the latest lowlife, Mr. Oliver Crangle.  If Cringle is the bringer of joy in the world, Crangle is the bringer of…

The present state of politics in this country reminds me exactly of Oliver Crangle's obsessive moral fanaticism in the Twilight Zone episode "Four O'Clock" junkyard.blog/2023/09/29/t...

What do you love when you fall for AI? Inside the surprisingly meaningful, unexpectedly heartbreaking, and deeply confusing reality of AI relationships.

Friend or Faux: What Do You Love When You Fall for AI? www.theverge.com/c/24300623/a...

Daniel Dennett’s call to ban “counterfeit people” is still one of the keenest arguments I’ve read about how to regulate AI itself (rather than some externality of AI, like its energy use). www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

chemsky ⚗️🧪

Check out the amazing frost pattern on wood at the Indian Springs wetland this morning

So much to unpack here....

DCA in Arlington all decked out for the holidays