C. Henry
@henryhenryhenry.com
political scientist @ University of Zürich
platforms, political violence, social media, computing
research & writing:
henryhenryhenry.com
sometimes land of enchantment, sometimes land of Helvetia
platforms, political violence, social media, computing
research & writing:
henryhenryhenry.com
sometimes land of enchantment, sometimes land of Helvetia
Reposted by C. Henry
The NSF social sciences program has funded some of the best research I’ve seen, especially at the PhD level. There really isn’t another country in the world with the equivalent funding capacity to fill this gap, and the damage from this choice will be felt for a long time.
NEW from me - NSF cancels grant scheme for social science research.
Seems the NSF quietly archived ALL calls for DDRIG grants in the SBE directorate. This is a massive blow for PhD students wanting to do cutting-edge social science research. 🏺🧪
Seems the NSF quietly archived ALL calls for DDRIG grants in the SBE directorate. This is a massive blow for PhD students wanting to do cutting-edge social science research. 🏺🧪
Today's biggest science news: Doomed comet explodes | Comet 3I/ATLAS course alteration | Dark matter detected?
Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025: Your daily feed of the biggest discoveries and breakthroughs making headlines.
www.livescience.com
November 27, 2025 at 7:04 AM
The NSF social sciences program has funded some of the best research I’ve seen, especially at the PhD level. There really isn’t another country in the world with the equivalent funding capacity to fill this gap, and the damage from this choice will be felt for a long time.
Reposted by C. Henry
similarly, the majority of US adults use social media platforms every day but also perceive the effects of social media as primarily negative.
people hate the control and abuse of the basic tools we must use to participate in society by unaccountable corporate powers.
people hate the control and abuse of the basic tools we must use to participate in society by unaccountable corporate powers.
It's not this platform. It's all of society that hates AI
November 26, 2025 at 8:44 PM
similarly, the majority of US adults use social media platforms every day but also perceive the effects of social media as primarily negative.
people hate the control and abuse of the basic tools we must use to participate in society by unaccountable corporate powers.
people hate the control and abuse of the basic tools we must use to participate in society by unaccountable corporate powers.
similarly, the majority of US adults use social media platforms every day but also perceive the effects of social media as primarily negative.
people hate the control and abuse of the basic tools we must use to participate in society by unaccountable corporate powers.
people hate the control and abuse of the basic tools we must use to participate in society by unaccountable corporate powers.
It's not this platform. It's all of society that hates AI
November 26, 2025 at 8:44 PM
similarly, the majority of US adults use social media platforms every day but also perceive the effects of social media as primarily negative.
people hate the control and abuse of the basic tools we must use to participate in society by unaccountable corporate powers.
people hate the control and abuse of the basic tools we must use to participate in society by unaccountable corporate powers.
impossible to separate the utility of machine learning models from the fact that the people who build them want to rule over us like kings
What the leaked AI executive order tells us about the Big Tech power grab
What the leaked AI executive order tells us about the Big Tech power grab
Should states write their own AI laws, or should David Sacks?
buff.ly
November 26, 2025 at 6:46 PM
impossible to separate the utility of machine learning models from the fact that the people who build them want to rule over us like kings
Reposted by C. Henry
Today on Volts: I've had more requests to cover this than almost any other topic in the pod's history, so now, at long last, balcony solar! We dig into how "plug-in solar" took off in Europe & how it's making its way to the US, starting in Utah. Backyard DIY types rejoice!
What's the deal with balcony solar?
Cora Stryker joins me to explain how "plug-in" solar took Europe by storm and is finally, via Utah (?), making its way to America.
www.volts.wtf
November 26, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Today on Volts: I've had more requests to cover this than almost any other topic in the pod's history, so now, at long last, balcony solar! We dig into how "plug-in solar" took off in Europe & how it's making its way to the US, starting in Utah. Backyard DIY types rejoice!
VATICAN III: BUTLERIAN JIHAD
Pope Leo XIV told students not to use artificial intelligence for homework, saying that AI ‘won’t stand in authentic wonder before the beauty of God’s creation.’
Even God Is Worried About ChatGPT
Pope Leo XIV told students not to use artificial intelligence for homework, saying that AI ‘won’t stand in authentic wonder before the beauty of God’s creation.’
www.vulture.com
November 26, 2025 at 4:00 PM
VATICAN III: BUTLERIAN JIHAD
Reposted by C. Henry
Volunteer to phone bank for Aftyn Behn from anywhere here:
November 26, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Volunteer to phone bank for Aftyn Behn from anywhere here:
much of the work on AI-generated misinformation focuses on regular users/communities, while ignoring how political and economic elites can seal themselves into a hermetic slop box -- a repeat of the same mistake we made with radicalization and conspiracism in the previous decade
oh this is absolutely what i think. i think they feed him fake polls and outright AI slop
At this point, I wonder if he isn't lying when he says he has "my highest Poll Numbers, ever" since it's entirely possible that's what his aides are telling him. It's quite likely that there's an entire Potemkin village built around Trump right now.
November 26, 2025 at 2:49 PM
much of the work on AI-generated misinformation focuses on regular users/communities, while ignoring how political and economic elites can seal themselves into a hermetic slop box -- a repeat of the same mistake we made with radicalization and conspiracism in the previous decade
i await further consequences for lying to courts beyond mean words
The feds repeatedly lied and misled the public during Chicago's immigration crackdown, a federal judge ruled in a scathing opinion. blockclubchi.co/3JVoFWJ
November 26, 2025 at 2:42 PM
i await further consequences for lying to courts beyond mean words
Reposted by C. Henry
@thomascopeland.bsky.social and I try to explain why the rollout of user location data by X matters and how it's changing the conversation on the platform after some high-engagement political accounts were criticised for misleading users.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKr3...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKr3...
X's new location feature exposes misleading politics accounts | Global News Podcast
YouTube video by BBC News
www.youtube.com
November 26, 2025 at 10:47 AM
@thomascopeland.bsky.social and I try to explain why the rollout of user location data by X matters and how it's changing the conversation on the platform after some high-engagement political accounts were criticised for misleading users.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKr3...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKr3...
Reposted by C. Henry
📣New paper!
Thrilled to share the methodological recipe for @dataworkersinquiry.bsky.social in this article co-authored with @adiod.bsky.social @krystalkauffman.bsky.social Camilla Salim Wagner, Laurenz Sachenbacher @alexhanna.bsky.social & @timnitgebru.bsky.social
👉 ojs.aaai.org/index.php/AI...
Thrilled to share the methodological recipe for @dataworkersinquiry.bsky.social in this article co-authored with @adiod.bsky.social @krystalkauffman.bsky.social Camilla Salim Wagner, Laurenz Sachenbacher @alexhanna.bsky.social & @timnitgebru.bsky.social
👉 ojs.aaai.org/index.php/AI...
November 25, 2025 at 3:37 PM
📣New paper!
Thrilled to share the methodological recipe for @dataworkersinquiry.bsky.social in this article co-authored with @adiod.bsky.social @krystalkauffman.bsky.social Camilla Salim Wagner, Laurenz Sachenbacher @alexhanna.bsky.social & @timnitgebru.bsky.social
👉 ojs.aaai.org/index.php/AI...
Thrilled to share the methodological recipe for @dataworkersinquiry.bsky.social in this article co-authored with @adiod.bsky.social @krystalkauffman.bsky.social Camilla Salim Wagner, Laurenz Sachenbacher @alexhanna.bsky.social & @timnitgebru.bsky.social
👉 ojs.aaai.org/index.php/AI...
it’s weird out there. the politics of my youth — the individualist, conservationist Montana — are gone. tbh I largely blame the spread of a nasty strain of evangelicalism
boy Montana is gone-gone
Trump’s approval collapses nationwide, turning several deep-red states negative — Economist tracker
November 25, 2025 at 6:10 PM
it’s weird out there. the politics of my youth — the individualist, conservationist Montana — are gone. tbh I largely blame the spread of a nasty strain of evangelicalism
producer/consumer dynamic is an important part of the story, but the market analogy obscures how many online communities are now organized around disnormative information practices — an emergent property that I’m not sure is fully explained by pure competition over attention
The collapsing cost of media production has fragmented media into literally millions of publishers, creating a true marketplace of ideas where producers benefit by providing the exact narratives that consumers enjoy hearing the most. That means lurid doomerism is endemic
boy there seems to be a bottomless appetite for dogmatic economic pessimism on video platforms. clicked on one of those during the morning Zwift and now my youtube feed is WE'RE DOOMED re the stock market, jobs, car market, inflation, AI on and on
November 25, 2025 at 4:34 PM
producer/consumer dynamic is an important part of the story, but the market analogy obscures how many online communities are now organized around disnormative information practices — an emergent property that I’m not sure is fully explained by pure competition over attention
Reposted by C. Henry
👉 Our new paper uses daily mobility data to show that spatial isolation is much more common today among those living in advantaged neighborhoods than the converse.
👩🏻💻 Lots of massive data wrangling and careful assumptions about mobility data needed - but check it out here! doi.org/10.1177/0042...
👩🏻💻 Lots of massive data wrangling and careful assumptions about mobility data needed - but check it out here! doi.org/10.1177/0042...
November 24, 2025 at 5:20 PM
👉 Our new paper uses daily mobility data to show that spatial isolation is much more common today among those living in advantaged neighborhoods than the converse.
👩🏻💻 Lots of massive data wrangling and careful assumptions about mobility data needed - but check it out here! doi.org/10.1177/0042...
👩🏻💻 Lots of massive data wrangling and careful assumptions about mobility data needed - but check it out here! doi.org/10.1177/0042...
Reposted by C. Henry
the twitter location reveal is like discovering the puddles in the quiktrip parking lot didn't pass a health code inspection. should probably stop drinking out of them regardless.
genuinely says so much about what twitter has become that the biggest rightwing grift accounts pushing US fascist narratives aren’t real people and not even close to the united states
November 24, 2025 at 9:04 AM
the twitter location reveal is like discovering the puddles in the quiktrip parking lot didn't pass a health code inspection. should probably stop drinking out of them regardless.
Reposted by C. Henry
The decline of religion as a source of meaning in people's lives remains underrated as a factor shaping society. The need doesn't go away - they just seek it out elsewhere in (often false) health/wellness beliefs, (often highly polarized/conflictual) politics, etc. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/o...
November 25, 2025 at 3:30 PM
The decline of religion as a source of meaning in people's lives remains underrated as a factor shaping society. The need doesn't go away - they just seek it out elsewhere in (often false) health/wellness beliefs, (often highly polarized/conflictual) politics, etc. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/o...
Reposted by C. Henry
there's a very real risk that an era of corporate trench warfare over LLMs has settled in, complete with grinding incrementalism and weaponized KPIs, that will crowd out incentives to do actual scientific research on real artificial intelligence
November 25, 2025 at 12:27 PM
there's a very real risk that an era of corporate trench warfare over LLMs has settled in, complete with grinding incrementalism and weaponized KPIs, that will crowd out incentives to do actual scientific research on real artificial intelligence
Reposted by C. Henry
I’ve been running around asking tech execs and academics if language was the same as intelligence for over a year now - and, well, it isn’t. @benjaminjriley.bsky.social explains how the bubble is built on ignoring cutting-edge research into the science of thought www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...
November 25, 2025 at 1:54 PM
I’ve been running around asking tech execs and academics if language was the same as intelligence for over a year now - and, well, it isn’t. @benjaminjriley.bsky.social explains how the bubble is built on ignoring cutting-edge research into the science of thought www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...
Reposted by C. Henry
the incandescent rage I feel at being asked to Make An Account for an App That Should Not Require An Account
November 25, 2025 at 9:48 AM
the incandescent rage I feel at being asked to Make An Account for an App That Should Not Require An Account
Reposted by C. Henry
NEW: When Propecy Fails is one of the most famous social psychology books of all time, a look at a small group of UFO believers when the “spacemen” failed to land. I wrote about a new study from an independent researcher who says the book is not what it seems. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
It’s one of the most influential social psychology studies ever. Was it all a lie?
A classic book on UFO believers and their "cognitive dissonance" after aliens failed to land is called into question.
www.motherjones.com
November 25, 2025 at 12:36 PM
NEW: When Propecy Fails is one of the most famous social psychology books of all time, a look at a small group of UFO believers when the “spacemen” failed to land. I wrote about a new study from an independent researcher who says the book is not what it seems. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
there's a very real risk that an era of corporate trench warfare over LLMs has settled in, complete with grinding incrementalism and weaponized KPIs, that will crowd out incentives to do actual scientific research on real artificial intelligence
November 25, 2025 at 12:27 PM
there's a very real risk that an era of corporate trench warfare over LLMs has settled in, complete with grinding incrementalism and weaponized KPIs, that will crowd out incentives to do actual scientific research on real artificial intelligence
Reposted by C. Henry
Political Scientist Vahid Abedini detained boarding flight as he traveled to the annual MESA conference
November 24, 2025 at 8:11 PM
Political Scientist Vahid Abedini detained boarding flight as he traveled to the annual MESA conference
the incandescent rage I feel at being asked to Make An Account for an App That Should Not Require An Account
November 25, 2025 at 9:48 AM
the incandescent rage I feel at being asked to Make An Account for an App That Should Not Require An Account
Reposted by C. Henry
🔔Job Alert 🔔
Thrilled to share that @stefaniebailer.bsky.social and I have been awarded 1.5 million CHF in SNSF funding for our new project: “Electoral choice: Which role does legislators’ quality play?”
We’re recruiting 1 postdoc and 2 PhD candidates to join us in Basel and Geneva!
Thrilled to share that @stefaniebailer.bsky.social and I have been awarded 1.5 million CHF in SNSF funding for our new project: “Electoral choice: Which role does legislators’ quality play?”
We’re recruiting 1 postdoc and 2 PhD candidates to join us in Basel and Geneva!
November 25, 2025 at 9:33 AM
🔔Job Alert 🔔
Thrilled to share that @stefaniebailer.bsky.social and I have been awarded 1.5 million CHF in SNSF funding for our new project: “Electoral choice: Which role does legislators’ quality play?”
We’re recruiting 1 postdoc and 2 PhD candidates to join us in Basel and Geneva!
Thrilled to share that @stefaniebailer.bsky.social and I have been awarded 1.5 million CHF in SNSF funding for our new project: “Electoral choice: Which role does legislators’ quality play?”
We’re recruiting 1 postdoc and 2 PhD candidates to join us in Basel and Geneva!