Pat McConville

You are a powerhouse, Zoë.

I do think that wishes aren't subject to consistency norms, but I also think there is a difference between _wishing someone luck_ for getting the job and wishing they get the job.

Yes, I believe so.

Just noticed that you've taken a step back from hosting interviews on the Philosophy channel on @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social. As a listener, thanks for the many fascinating discussions over the years!

Sorry to read this! Hope you are on the improve and can salvage part of the long weekend.

‘Phenomenology’ is Blue: The Synaesthetic Dynamics of Being-in-the-World - Human Studies Human Studies - Synaesthesia, in which particular perceptual or cognitive stimuli trigger anomalous secondary sensations, has proven to be remarkably difficult to explain. The way it complicates...

I'm excited to share my last paper of 2025, which is out now in Human Studies. This one means a lot to me, as I draw on my own experience of synaesthesia in grappling with Merleau-Ponty's claim that 'synaesthetic perception is the rule'. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

It is wonderful to hear that pioneers and stalwarts of Australian gaming production are also such generous, enthusiastic, and personable people. Great interview!

'Condemned to Proceeding': Time, Motivation and the Human Heart in Merleau-Ponty and Zambrano Work on Merleau-Ponty has tended to overlook the role of the internal body in his phenomenology. In this paper, I examine the role of the heart as a temporalising and motivating organ for human exp...

A publication for a special issue of the International Journal of Philosophical Studies to close out the year. I examine the role of the heart as a temporalising and motivating organ for human experience in the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and María Zambrano. www.tandfonline.com/eprint/KSBQS...

I don’t think the kind of specialised scientific data analysis tools discussed in the article are the applications of AI about which people are concerned.

Leadership would have you so tired, so poor, so disempowered, that you only watch your own back.

This is what happens when we don’t watch each others back.

Join a union that cares about *everyone* and work hard to keep everyone safe. Including people that are at risk from viruses.

Wild ride. And condolences, Maks.

Congratulations to my @emorylaw.bsky.social colleague Deepa Das Acevedo on her new book The War on Tenure. www.cambridge.org/us/universit... Zoom in for the 9/26 book launch:

AI is the asbestos we are shoveling into the walls of our society and our descendants will be digging it out for generations”

what can i say? i’m good at what i do

Back after a short hiatus, in our latest episode,
@ptmcconville.bsky.social speaks with Anya Daly. They discuss meditation and perception, the divide between continental and analytic philosophy, and human and animal lifeworlds. Follow the show and listen wherever you find your podcasts!

"How Are the Very Rich Feeling About New York’s Next Mayor?"

A Dramatic Reading of The Recent New York Times Dispatch from the Hamptons.

Presented by The Gilded Age's Morgan Spector.

The end of Meanjin after 85 years is as sad as it is infuriating | Ben Walter MUP says it is ‘no longer viable’ to make the literary magazine – but almost none of them are financially viable. That’s not their purpose or value

Here's me in Guardian Australia on the total debacle with Meanjin.

www.theguardian.com/books/commen...

Illinois Gov. Pritzker vows to pursue Trump officials who participate in an illegal National Guard deployment to Chicago:

"If you hurt my people, nothing will stop me - not time or political circumstance - from making sure that you face justice under our constitutional rule of law."

Universities have lost their way, but cost-cutting and consultants are not the answer Last week in Sydney, we saw a melodrama acted out that could stand in for the state of Australian universities more generally.

“Universities educate students, but they are also incubators of new knowledge and discovery. ... For example, by supporting areas of research that might not be economically “efficient” but which will be required for our future.”

theconversation.com/universities...

Exemptions to copyright legislation for AI would disadvantage Australian writers – and set a bad precedent.

👉 Read the full story: theconversation.com/the-pro...

Interesting discussion. As someone who routinely masks, and is trying to encourage institutions to take durable measures to ensure indoor environments have clean air, the spectrum of reactions runs from bemusement through suspicion and resentment to downright hostility.

WU-TANG FOREVER 👐🏽

One of the best experiences I had in graduate school was joining a reading group on @bryanvannorden.bsky.social's Introduction to Classical Chinese Philosophy (and the accompanying books of readings). There is still so much missing from mainstream philosophy.

World Philosophy Want to expand your knowledge of world philosophy but don't know where to start? Bryan Van Norden chooses foundational texts of traditions around the globe.

“It was a very heated response, and one that reflected immense ignorance”
fivebooks.com/best-books/w...

Why do they hate us? That’s the question academics in the humanities are asking. - Graeme Turner This is the question I was asked last week. Why are government, the media, even university administrations, so carelessly participating in the gradual demolition of one of the foundation stones of our...

An especially good one today on the humanities in Oz. Every word true. graemeturner.org/2025/07/20/w...

In our latest episode, @ptmcconville.bsky.social speaks with
Lexi Eikelboom. They discuss rhythm and time in cubist painting, letting the shapes of art speak for themselves, and art as confrontation and incitement to change. Follow the show and listen wherever you find your podcasts!

As you can see, I'm not keen on UTas' proposed cuts to the humanities, social sciences and creative arts.

www.instagram.com/p/DLRqxFwSQo1/

Chris Hayes: Would you just, can we just stop there and can you just explain what AGI means? Karen Hao: Okay. AGI refers to artificial general intelligence, and this is an incredibly poorly defined term. The very hand wavy summary of what people typically describe it as is an A.I. system that can ultimately do anything that humans can do. But this is a really challenging measure because like what makes humans intelligent, doesn’t have any scientific consensus. And so, when you’re trying to capture in software, something that we don’t understand about humans -- Chris Hayes: Right. Karen Hao: -- you end up with lots of different opinions about how to do it, what it should look like, who it should serve, all of those things. And so, throughout the decades of A.I. research and development, all the way from the 1950s until present day, there have been just tons and tons of debates, egos clashing, opinions clashing about these kind of core questions of what A.I. and AGI ultimately is. The way that OpenAI has specifically defined it is highly autonomous systems that outperform humans in most economically valuable work. And so, they’ve specifically defined it as a labor automating machine. That is also really key, important dimension to understanding the truly deeply capitalistic nature of OpenAI.

Karen Hao: And, and also to understanding the trajectory that they’re taking as a company. Ultimately, they’re trying to build systems that they can sell to CEOs for a lot of money -- Chris Hayes: To replace humans. Karen Hao: -- to say -- Chris Hayes: To automate human work. Karen Hao: Exactly. To automate a way, yeah. If they’re trying to build systems that outperform humans at the thing that makes people want to pay you, you’re no longer going to be paid. They’re just going to opt for the AI.

Mind-blowingly revelatory point about AI as a socially & eocnomically disruptive technology, from @chrislhayes.bsky.social's recent interview with @karenhao.bsky.social on her new book Empire of AI on OpenAI:

They're DEFINING "artificial general intelligence" as AI capable of replacing human labor!

In our new episode, @ptmcconville.bsky.social speaks with
Timothy Deane-Freeman. They discuss bourgeois culture, shock, chronopolitics, and Afrofuturism as the place of the new. Follow the show and listen wherever you find your podcasts!