Nolen Gertz
@ethicistforhire.bsky.social
2.9K followers 920 following 2.1K posts
Philosophy professor @utwentephilosophy.bsky.social Author of #NihilismAndTechnology (RLI 2018), #Nihilism (MIT 2019), #PhilosophyOfWarAndExile (Palgrave 2014) https://www.nolengertz.com #Philsky #Philtech #Existentialism #Phenomenology #Filmsky
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Reposted by Nolen Gertz
My anecdotal, I-was-just-one-guy experience at Microsoft: this absolutely checks. In 2024, it started coming from the top, hard: COPILOT EVERYTHING, even though it sucked and made things harder and worse and slower.

It felt "If you don't use Copilot for everything, you're not welcome here"
“People [in tech jobs] worry that not being seen as uncritical AI cheerleaders will be a career-limiting move…for those who aren't insiders in the tech industry, it's vital that you understand that you've been presented with an extremely distorted view about what tech workers really think about AI”
Okay, for the folks who asked: here's the majority AI view, writing up the reasonable, thoughtful view on AI that the vast majority of people in tech hold, that gets overshadowed by the bluster and hype of the tycoons trying to shill their nonsense. anildash.com/2025/10/17/t... Please share!
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
"Mr. President sir the idea is you're constantly flying around in a big jet filled with your own shit in it. Like human shit. Anyways you're wearing a little crown in your little shitmobile and you're dumping the shit out. I think people will like it."
and another thing: he’s not mad. please don’t put it in the newspaper that he got mad.
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
Still the best. So much better to see it and hear it in a movie theater though. Not sure I ever caught the Blue Velvet connection before. David Lynch must've been a Suspiria fan...
Very excited to see Suspiria (1977) on the big screen...
Now is the time to invest in Big Pencil and Big Paper...
This is the future of Windows. Microsoft wants to rewrite Windows to turn computers into AI PCs that you talk to. It's now bringing AI features to all Windows 11 PCs today, in a bid to convince you to talk to your PC and let AI control it. Full details 👇 www.theverge.com/news/799768/...
Microsoft wants you to talk to your PC and let AI control it
Copilot Voice and Vision are now rolling out.
www.theverge.com
There are basically only two positions in the debate about AI.
1. I've been forced to use it at work. AI sucks.
2. I've made money from other people being forced to use it. Holy cow, I'm gonna be rich.

Position #2 leads you to deride people in Position #1.
#NihilismAndTechnology
There are basically only two positions in the debate about AI.
1. I’ve barely invested any time in learning how to use it effectively. AI sucks.
2. I’ve invested in learning how to use this tool. Holy cow, it’s transformational.

Position #1 has lower barriers to entry.
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
In about three years the entire university pivot to AI curricula and schools and programs is going to be so deeply embarrassing. We will all pretend it never happened and I will be standing there, looking at people with a mirror in my eyes. This is all so embarrassing.
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
On the one hand, AI could help the military to be more efficient. On the other hand, AI could help the military to bomb the wrong targets. So you can see why it's a real head scratcher whether the military should be using AI or not...
#NihilismAndTechnology
The idea that we can separate out usefulness from dangerousness when it comes to technology is what got us the nihilistic technological world we're currently all living in...
interesting exercise, where do you land on this?
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"Cybourgeoisie" is the term for the tech-enamored well off, a vulgarity of class and time.
nothing says “cyberpunk” like owning a $100,000 vehicle
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
This looks against every conceivable code of research integrity worthy of the name... what are they thinking?? New depths reached
Next week will see a first in computer science, with the launch of a scientific conference in which all of the papers — and all of the reviews — have been produced by machines

go.nature.com/3J82tYH
AI bots wrote and reviewed all papers at this conference
Event will assess how reviews by models compare with those written by humans.
go.nature.com
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
“Restructure faculty roles from content experts to experience designers and judgment coaches.” I would honestly think this was a parody of business gibberish if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.
Wow. Just wow.

"Students pay premium prices for information that AI now delivers instantly and for free. A business student can ask ChatGPT to explain supply chain optimization or generate market analysis in seconds. The traditional lecture-and-test model faces its Blockbuster moment."
When Knowledge is Free, What are Professors For?
Higher Education Must Stop Competing with AI on Information and Start Teaching What Machines Can’t Do
www.forbes.com
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
Always nice when it works out that I get to teach Foucault on Foucault's birthday...
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
Personalized media kills the one thing that's actually powerful about experiencing art: sharing that experience with other people.

This is Thatcher's "there is no such thing as society" dressed up in dragons and pinups.
Always nice when it works out that I get to teach Foucault on Foucault's birthday...
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
I repeat: these Meta Ray-Ban perverts should be mercilessly and ruthlessly bullied and excluded from society.
Actual safety notice from my alma mater:

Ray-Ban Meta sunglasses being used exactly as everyone expected

The techbros are not okay (it’s a completely open campus…not all the buildings, obviously)
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
Disbar them now. This is not a matter of professional ethics or about the function of the courts: this is a battle between nihilism on the one side and the conviction that shit matters on the other.
An attorney in a New York Supreme Court commercial case got caught using AI in his filings, and then got caught using AI again in the brief where he had to explain why he used AI, according to court documents filed earlier this month.

🔗 www.404media.co/lawyer-using...
Lawyer Caught Using AI While Explaining to Court Why He Used AI
The attorney not only submitted AI-generated fake citations in a brief for his clients, but also included “multiple new AI-hallucinated citations and quotations” in the process of opposing a motion fo...
www.404media.co