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paulbernal.bsky.social
Paul Bernal
@paulbernal.bsky.social
10K followers 2.2K following 13K posts
Professor of IT Law at UEA Law School. Geek. Privacy, Politics. Wolves. Irish and British.
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paulbernal.bsky.social
Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 13d
I wrote a thing about digital ID cards. It’s rather long…

paulbernal.wordpress.com/2025/09/29/d...
Digital ID cards – some of the issues…
Since Keir Starmer announced the forthcoming introduction of mandatory ‘Digital ID’, the so-called ‘Brit Card’, there has been a lot of discussion and debate – some of…
paulbernal.wordpress.com
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paulbernal.bsky.social
Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 1h
This discourse is problematic
unenthusiast.com
Marjorie James Keenan @unenthusiast.com · 11h
In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

rm -rf ~/
hammancheez.bsky.social
hammancheez @hammancheez.bsky.social · 11h
"The chancellor approved it"
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paulbernal.bsky.social
Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 1h
Well quite. I love to write, but to write in my way.
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Reposted by Paul Bernal
requiemarm.bsky.social
Jesse @requiemarm.bsky.social · 3h
this is by far the worst reading of Alan Moore’s Watchmen I’ve ever seen and if you spend an appreciable amount of time online you will know what a crowning achievement that is
sharonk.bsky.social
Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 5h
thiel, man, what the fuck are you talking about
He describes the plot of Watchmen, a 1986 graphic novel involving superheroes grappling with moral questions about humanity against the backdrop of impending nuclear war: The antihero Ozymandias, the antichrist-type figure, is sort of an early-modern person. He believes this will be a timeless and eternal solution – eternal world peace. Moore is sort of a late-modern. In early modernity, you have ideal solutions, ‘perfect’ solutions to calculus. In late modernity, things are sort of probabilistic. And at some point, he asks Dr Manhattan whether the world government is going to last. And he says that ‘nothing lasts forever.’ So you embrace the antichrist and it still doesn’t work. Thiel later finds biblical meaning in the manga One Piece, discussing how he believes it represents a future where an antichrist-like one-world government has repressed science. He believes that the hero, Monkey D Luffy, represents a Christlike figure. In One Piece, you are set in a fantasy world, again sort of an alternate earth, but it’s 800 years into the reign of this one-world state. Which, as the story unfolds, gradually gets darker and darker. You sort of realize, in my interpretation, who runs the world and it’s something like the antichrist. There’s Luffy, a pirate who wears a red straw hat, sort of like Christ’s crown of thorns. And then towards the end of the story, transforms into a figure who resembles Christ in Revelation. Thiel, along with a researcher and writer at Thiel Capital, explored these ideas at greater length in an essay for the religious journal First Things earlier this month.
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Reposted by Paul Bernal
kenwhite.bsky.social
Old White Nepo Hat @kenwhite.bsky.social · 1h
Every time someone makes me read something Peter Thiel said it’s like “Scrooge McDuck is Jesus Christ and Huey, Dewey, and Louie are Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel and Daisy is Mary Magdalene and that’s why women voting has lowered American sperm count.”
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paulbernal.bsky.social
Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 3h
Completely wrong about both works. Completely.
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paulbernal.bsky.social
Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 3h
Oh yes
paulbernal.bsky.social
Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 3h
The ‘Special’ relationship
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paulbernal.bsky.social
Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 3h
Yup
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paulbernal.bsky.social
Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 3h
They read, but they don’t understand. At all.
sharonk.bsky.social
Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 5h
thiel, man, what the fuck are you talking about
He describes the plot of Watchmen, a 1986 graphic novel involving superheroes grappling with moral questions about humanity against the backdrop of impending nuclear war: The antihero Ozymandias, the antichrist-type figure, is sort of an early-modern person. He believes this will be a timeless and eternal solution – eternal world peace. Moore is sort of a late-modern. In early modernity, you have ideal solutions, ‘perfect’ solutions to calculus. In late modernity, things are sort of probabilistic. And at some point, he asks Dr Manhattan whether the world government is going to last. And he says that ‘nothing lasts forever.’ So you embrace the antichrist and it still doesn’t work. Thiel later finds biblical meaning in the manga One Piece, discussing how he believes it represents a future where an antichrist-like one-world government has repressed science. He believes that the hero, Monkey D Luffy, represents a Christlike figure. In One Piece, you are set in a fantasy world, again sort of an alternate earth, but it’s 800 years into the reign of this one-world state. Which, as the story unfolds, gradually gets darker and darker. You sort of realize, in my interpretation, who runs the world and it’s something like the antichrist. There’s Luffy, a pirate who wears a red straw hat, sort of like Christ’s crown of thorns. And then towards the end of the story, transforms into a figure who resembles Christ in Revelation. Thiel, along with a researcher and writer at Thiel Capital, explored these ideas at greater length in an essay for the religious journal First Things earlier this month.
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paulbernal.bsky.social
Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 4h
Yup
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paulbernal.bsky.social
Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 4h
To be fair, the creepiness is so awful focussing on that seems obvious.
paulbernal.bsky.social
Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 4h
Chop it off….
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paulbernal.bsky.social
Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 4h
They’ll be singing ‘God Save the King’ before all NFL games soon, not just the ones in London. King Don.
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paulbernal.bsky.social
Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 4h
One of our neighbour’s Bengals.
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paulbernal.bsky.social
Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 4h
And socially, politically etc.
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paulbernal.bsky.social
Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 4h
It’s much more working class too.
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paulbernal.bsky.social
Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 4h
Sunday cat…
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paulbernal.bsky.social
Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 6h
Almost, though she didn’t say what he said she said.
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paulbernal.bsky.social
Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 6h
Which pretty much every real baseball fan enjoyed. 🙂
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paulbernal.bsky.social
Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 6h
To an extent, for sure.
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paulbernal.bsky.social
Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 6h
Just to say, societal embrace of AI is essentially societal embrace of dishonesty and deception.
paulbernal.bsky.social
Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 7h
People freaking out over the Chat-fishing dating-app article seem to miss that this is the *whole point* of ChatGPT and similar generative AI: writing as though you’re something other than you are. The whole idea is deception. Writing like a pro, like a lawyer etc, when you’re too lazy to be one.
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paulbernal.bsky.social
Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 6h
Forget the context, this is just true.
jonnelledge.bsky.social
Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · 7h
it's the americans who are most exhausting
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paulbernal.bsky.social
Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 7h
Yes, some that are positively plump!
paulbernal.bsky.social
Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 7h
Agreed. Basketball has far more overseas stars now, though, particularly European, which differentiates it from the NFL.
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Reposted by Paul Bernal
nickharkaway.com
Nick Harkaway @nickharkaway.com · 7h
I feel people may not have liked the idea of telling the government what they did with their time.
waltydunlop.bsky.social
waltydunlop @waltydunlop.bsky.social · 11h
Job occupations, from an 1881 census. Every one of these sounds like something a sorely provoked Captain Haddock would should at someone in times of heavy stress.
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