Jochen F Mayer, PhD @jochenfm

NEW: Eight days after Peter Thiel called Pope Leo XIV a “useful idiot” for China, an executive at Thiel’s Palantir mocked the pope by dressing him in a company hoodie. The pope had warned on Friday that there is “an ontological difference, even before an aesthetic one, between art and what a machine can generate.” Leo also told Vatican scientists last month that artificial intelligence “can be used for surveillance, manipulation, and discrimination.” thelettersfromleo.com/p/palantir-exe…

30 years ago the best-selling historian was Hobsbawm and now we have this

Aaron Wistar @aaronwistar

2 days ago

Looking forward to learning the six laws that all historical processes obey

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Joan Robinson knew that economics isn't a neutral science—it’s all about power. We don't need more unthinking economists parroting econ class teachings. We need rethinkers ready to push for an economy that serves people and planet. If you agree, join the movement. ✊

“We live in the age of search engines that offer us thousands of instantaneous answers. Yet, no matter how powerful they may be, they merely return what already exists and tend to give us what we already want. In the age of technology and consumerism, the great danger is not only censorship but also homogenization, and not merely imposed silence but the noise that makes it impossible to listen. “Art is a different kind of ‘search engine.’ It does not proceed by indexing but by inquiry. Indeed, its inquiry is a focused attention that is not satisfied with the mere sum of facts, for it never ceases to dig deeper, seeking the thread that unites them. Your art, when it resists homogenization, when it draws our gaze, when it compels us to pause before that which cannot be consumed, is a form of cultural and spiritual regeneration.” — Pope Leo XIV

NEW: According to a bombshell report in the New York Times, Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah threatened to walk out of Pope Leo XIV’s AI encyclical launch in May because the pope rejected the idea that machines can be conscious. Olah’s team then privately lobbied the pope’s advisers “to take the possibility of model consciousness seriously.” Pope Leo XIV held firm. For months, Anthropic has wined and dined theologians and religious scholars under nondisclosure agreements, hoping they would bless the idea that Claude has moral standing. thelettersfromleo.com/p/nyt-anthropi…

REMINDER that Van Gogh painted "The Starry Night" in a mental asylum, Dostoevsky wrote "The Gambler" to pay off gambling debts, and Dickens wrote "The Christmas Carol" when he was broke and his wife on their 5th child. Stress has produced more art than "slow saturdays" ever will

Marx was a sans-papier. Exiled to UK he applied for a passport in 1874 having to travel due to illness. Denied by Scotland Yard:"He is a notorious agitator advocate of communist principles, who had not been loyal to his king & country." Remained stateless for the rest of his life

"A resounding repudiation of the predatory economics and politics that govern our time." 📚 @KirkusReviews describes ANTI-FASCIST ECONOMICS as a manifesto calling for an economic regime that “serves life.” That's exactly why I wrote this book. Preorder your copy today.

The head of the philosophy department at Williams College downplays the pedagogical value of writing: “What if we are mistaken in treating writing as the highest cultivation of thought? The evidence that supports this belief is thin at best. Writing can be useful cognitive scaffolding for memory and self-regulated learning, but the notion that it is the best process for developing thinking skills is a fairly recent idea, traceable to the 1970s writing-across-the-curriculum movement.”

Das ZDF-Magazin #Frontal hat gerade die @spdbt und die gesamte @cducsubt argumentativ auseinandergenommen.

Today is the publication day for Artificial Intimacy. There are so many moments in the life of a book. The day you finished the proposal. The day you settled on the right outline. The copyedit. The corrected pages. But there is nothing like the day that you see your book in a bookstore. All of those other landmarks fall away. In winter 1978, I stood outside Harvard Book Store, nose pressed to the window, and watched a young woman take Psychoanalytic Politics off the shelf. She looked at it and put it back. But I was content. My book, my first book, was in the hands of strangers. And now, these feelings rush back: Artificial Intimacy is in the world, and I feel humbled. hachettebookgroup.com/titles/sherry-…

Pour célébrer le centenaire de la naissance de Michel Foucault (1926-1984), le Collège de France et la BnF s’associent pour lui rendre hommage à travers une exposition et une série d’événements :bnf.fr/fr/agenda/fouc…

Benjamin’s last letter, to Fromm’s future wife, Henny Gurland, who also likely took her own life in 1952. It survives only in HG’s hand among Adorno’s papers.“I would ask you to pass on my thoughts to my friend Adorno+explain to him the situation in which I have now found myself”

The Public Domain Review @PublicDomainRev

a week ago

#OnThisDay in 1940, the philosopher, literary critic, and essayist Walter Benjamin died by suicide in the Spanish border town of Portbou whilst on the run from the Nazis. Here's Anca Pusca on the relevance of Benjamin’s oeuvre in a digital age: publicdomainreview.org/essay/on-benja… #otd

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Tom Watson’s move to Palantir is the latest sign of how far the rot has spread in UK politics. Like Blair, Cameron, Clegg, Mandelson, hired to open govt networks to companies. They sell political capital built with public money. What do we get in return? theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

CDU-Stadträte haben in Heidenau ein Stolpersteinverbot beschlossen. Federführend für diesen Antrag war der Neonazi vorn im Bild. Früher Mitglied der Skinheads Sächsische Schweiz, heute AFD-Fraktionsvorsitzender.

Exactly this: AI-powered edtech is being sold to universities under the guise of increasing “access.” Helping disabled students is a Trojan horse that has proven extremely effective for morally blackmailing admins into buying software, and profs into allowing it in the classroom.

David Ramsey @ArkDavey

a week ago

@TheStalwart @Tyler_A_Harper this is different, bc doesn't have to do w/LLM "welfare" per se, but AI firms partnering w/universities are aggressively pushing evidence-free claims that LLMs are vital for disability access/accommodations. Smart move, bc "disability access" shuts down dissent in academia...

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“The task of a professionally conducted internal inquiry is to unearth a great mass of no evidence” (Sir Humphrey Appleby) The whole purpose of any internal university investigation is to produce administratively defensible conclusions nytimes.com/2026/09/25/wor…

"Lukács reproached me with a stupid joke...about how I am supposed to have installed myself in a luxury hotel on the edge of the abyss. That is worth considering; Chaplin’s cabin in The Gold Rush would not be the worst allegory for my thought. Lukács has thrown himself into the

On this day in 1940, Marxist philosopher Walter Benjamin died while attempting to flee occupying Nazi forces. Benjamin was one of the most influential cultural theorists of the last century, and his Marxist commitments run right through his dazzling intellectual legacy.

I have recently been expected to lead a course, lead a unit, rewrite 5 hours of brand new lecture material to teach the following week in a subject I dont know well & teach 2 full days 6 continuous hours on 2 days on a 20 hour contract. I have said no - and at least 1 colleague is very unhappy with me.

Times Higher Education @timeshighered

2 weeks ago

When universities ask their staff to do more with less, is it really a test of individual fortitude? Rachelle McKay explains why we should stop praising endurance: timeshighereducation.com/campus/its-tim… #Highered

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