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Paul Harland

@pabloredux.bsky.social

970 followers 2.2K following 3.6K posts

Evolution: it's nothing personal. (Sorry if I ask too many questions... Share nicely!) I'm here because you're here. http://pabloredux.wordpress.com/ (Profile photo: a faint shadow of me cast across a weathered lichen-marked stone wall by the sea.)

pabloredux.wordpress.com

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Paul Harland @pabloredux.bsky.social · 4h

I've lost the recent-ish thread but the links would have been bsky.app/profile/mark... and, I think, "Hohfeld in Cyberspace" by Krogh & Herrestad from an old Twitter thread.

Mark Riedl @markriedl.bsky.social · 29d

It's something we point out in this paper: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

APIs will tame a lot (but not all) harms that might be perpetuated by AI agents, especially fiduciary.

Responsible AI Agents

Thanks to advances in large language models, a new type of software agent, the artificial intelligence (AI) agent, has entered the marketplace. Companies such a

papers.ssrn.com

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Paul Harland @pabloredux.bsky.social · 4h

Cheers, Dang, I meant to link to www.noemamag.com/a-third-path... - comes towards the end of your article. (I had another rambly thread I was going to add this to, along with maybe something current by @markriedl.bsky.social versus something rather older about transactional computer agents.)

A Third Path For AI Beyond The US-China Binary | NOEMA

What if the future of AI isn’t defined by Washington or Beijing, but by improvisation elsewhere?

www.noemamag.com

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Mark Riedl @markriedl.bsky.social · 21h

Legs are evolution’s attempt to invent wheels

Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · 21h

"Humans aren’t very efficient movers—until you put us on a bicycle, when we become some of the most energy-efficient land travelers in the animal kingdom."
www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-hu...

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Paul Harland @pabloredux.bsky.social · 5h

When it gets onto AI agency, Karl Friston's active inference (FEP) gets a mention @davidgunkel.bsky.social This would be the other way round, I think, from AI agents done as bolt-ons to LLMs, @digitaldang.bsky.social?

Paul Harland @pabloredux.bsky.social · 6h

Lots of discussion points in this thoughtful article. We should be very wary of what the people who want AI want: "The contradiction between humanistic rationalism and the sensual drive for money and power common to slave-owning societies, something very much present among the AI evangelists."

James Meek @jamesmeek.bsky.social · 14d

I wrote about Artificial Desire

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

James Meek · Computers that want things

For all the fluency and synthetic friendliness of public-facing AI chatbots like ChatGPT, it seems important to remember...

www.lrb.co.uk

Paul Harland @pabloredux.bsky.social · 9h

"A modest number of civilisations with technology not wildly more impressive than our own." www.theguardian.com/science/2025... Paper on Arxiv: Mundanity as an Explanation for the Fermi Paradox ✅

‘Bored aliens’: has intelligent life stopped bothering trying to contact Earth?

Astrophysicist proposes a ‘radically mundane’ theory for why humans have yet to encounter extraterrestrials

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Paul Harland

Joe Brusuelas @joebrusuelas.bsky.social · Aug 28

Good morning. A terrific long read ahead of a long holiday weekend on the perils of wage & price controls drawn from the post Black Death UK.

One thing I love about Bluesky is people on this site read & think. This is worthy of your time.
www.ageofinvention.xyz/p/age-of-inv...

Age of Invention: The Century-Long Depression

There’s an old proverb about England, current in the sixteenth century, that it was a hell for horses, a paradise for women, and a purgatory or prison for servants.

www.ageofinvention.xyz

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Jenna Burrell @jburrell.bsky.social · 13h

😆 😂 😜

Journal of Cultural Economy @jcultecon.bsky.social · 14h

The editors are thrilled to hear that economists are continuing to discover culture. open.substack.com/pub/worksinp...

What makes Joel Mokyr great

His Nobel is a triumph for history and the importance of ideas

open.substack.com

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Reposted by Paul Harland

Tim Dickinson @timdickinson.bsky.social · 1d

The Portland ICE protest camp literally has a rack full of inflatable costumes for demonstrators who want to try one on...

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Sjoerd Nolf @sjoerdnolf.bsky.social · 23h

Why Was the President of FIFA at the Gaza Summit?

Gianni Infantino, the head of soccer’s global governing body, frequently appears alongside President Trump at events outside the realm of sports. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/14/w...

Why Was the President of FIFA at the Gaza Summit?

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Paul Harland

Alan Bradley @ajpbradley.bsky.social · 1d

Err… hang on a sec!

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Emily Farris @emayfarris.bsky.social · 1d

One of my absolute favorite moments as a professor is simply when students directly quote from earlier readings later in the semester to make a point about the author for that day's class.

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Paul Harland @pabloredux.bsky.social · 1d

"One never maltreats a horse"?

Paul Harland @pabloredux.bsky.social · 1d

Oh, go on!

Paul Harland @pabloredux.bsky.social · 1d

Not in the book!

Alphabetical index, including "Boring, page 31" and "Coat staring, page 27"

Paul Harland @pabloredux.bsky.social · 1d

Pickle? Mustard?

Paul Harland @pabloredux.bsky.social · 1d

Coat staring?

Paul Harland @pabloredux.bsky.social · 1d

Boring

Anne Trubek @atrubek.bsky.social · 1d

This book looks great. $9.99!

Paul Harland @pabloredux.bsky.social · 1d

0.3?

Paul Harland @pabloredux.bsky.social · 1d

Where's the ketchup?

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Ben Gross @bhgross144.bsky.social · 5d

So this #SHOT2025 panel has nearly wrapped up. But if you want to read more about historical issues surrounding multimedia and the preservation of born-digital collections, check out this piece on #DigiPres at @theul.bsky.social.

(Thanks for bringing this to my attention, @rhiggitt.bsky.social!)

A digital dark age? The people rescuing forgotten knowledge trapped on old floppy disks

From lectures by Stephen Hawking to the letters of British politician Neil Kinnock – it's a race against time to save the historical treasures locked away on old floppy disks.

www.bbc.com

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Paul Harland @pabloredux.bsky.social · 1d

And some underdo.

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Paul Harland @pabloredux.bsky.social · 1d

That was about the only one of his I could get into. So should I be reading Mary Balogh or Georgette Heyer?

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Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · 2d

Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat

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Paul Harland @pabloredux.bsky.social · 2d

I've got no philosophy background. A good thing to read is The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett.