Nolen Gertz
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ethicistforhire.bsky.social
Nolen Gertz
@ethicistforhire.bsky.social
2.9K followers 930 following 2.2K 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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ethicistforhire.bsky.social
Nolen Gertz @ethicistforhire.bsky.social · Dec 27
Thread of things I wrote this year:
1) Updated edition of my #NihilismAndTechnology book with new chapters about why AI doesn't exist, why ChatGPT shouldn't exist, and why climate change can't be solved by nihilism...
rowman.com/ISBN/9781538...
Nihilism and Technology, Updated Edition
Investigating how human values mediate the design and use of new technologies, the updated edition of Nolen Gertz’s Nihilism and Technology explores the ramifications of artificial intelligence. G...
rowman.com
ethicistforhire.bsky.social
#NihilismAndTechnology
oddletters.bsky.social m. r. sauter @oddletters.bsky.social · 2d
sts researchers: :spend decades tracing the way well-intentioned design choices constrained by culture, capital, and the material environment can have negative outcomes in aggregate:

ai companies: lets put a chatbot in a doll that tells kids to set fires

futurism.com/artificial-i...
AI-Powered Toys Caught Telling 5-Year-Olds How to Find Knives and Start Fires With Matches
AI-powered toys are flying off the shelves -- but they're engaging in horrifically inappropriate conversations with children.
futurism.com
November 16, 2025 at 10:12 AM
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
brenttoderian.bsky.social
This is interesting — a recent study of mode share (the % share of transportation trips by car, transit, walking, biking etc) relative to city size and income levels in almost 800 cities in 61 countries. Interesting results. HT @davidzipper.bsky.social
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Graphic showing the relationship with cities shown as dots on a triangle.
November 15, 2025 at 8:43 PM
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
porcupunk.bsky.social
Evergreen.
Tweet from Jack: What trillion dollar problem is AI trying to solve? Wages. They are trying to use it to solve having to pay wages.
August 8, 2025 at 7:12 PM
ethicistforhire.bsky.social
Current mood:
Out of the Past (1947) 📽️
November 15, 2025 at 11:46 PM
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
rob-sheridan.com
Silicon Valley, 1990s: Free and open access to all the world’s knowledge will usher a new utopian age of information!

Silicon Valley, 2025:
Enable chats with Satan [enabled] Premium subscription required
November 15, 2025 at 1:28 AM
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
olivia.science
What's next? Smoke cigarettes responsibly? Pollute needlessly responsibly? Have indentured labourers responsibly? Abuse people responsibly? Exactly.
mnitabach.blackskycomra.de Mike Nitabach @mnitabach.blackskycomra.de · 1d
In my role as a member of the Board of Trustees of a private independent K-12 school, I am perhaps the lone voice of "HELL NO WE SHOULDN'T ACCEPT LLMs AS INEVITABLE TECHNOLOGY & SHOULDN'T TEACH OUR STUDENTS ANYTHING OTHER THAN TO RESIST THEIR USE & NOT EVEN REMOTELY TO USE THEM 'RESPONSIBLY'"...
November 15, 2025 at 8:08 AM
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
katelynburns.com
lately i've been thinking about how LLMs must feel really amazing to use if you're a dumbass, but incredibly frustrating if you're just basically competent in life.
sarahoconnorft.ft.com Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 2d
Is AI making job recruitment less meritocratic? We're getting some v interesting research studies on this question now, and the news is... not good. @jburnmurdoch.ft.com & I dive in, in the latest edition of our newsletter The AI Shift www.ft.com/content/e5b7...
November 14, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
manjusrii.bsky.social
The irony here is that academics don’t just write the articles for free—we also referee and edit for them for free. Something is deeply broken.

“New Zealand's eight universities spent $30-million a year on journal licences and about half of that sum went to Elsevier.

www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...
Universities in 'battle of the century' with journal publisher Elsevier
One New Zealand university told its staff all universities in New Zealand and Australia would "lose some degree of access" to the publisher's 1600 titles from the start of next year.
www.rnz.co.nz
November 15, 2025 at 5:50 AM
ethicistforhire.bsky.social
Monty Python's philosophy soccer teams for Germany vs Greece
November 15, 2025 at 8:44 AM
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
purlgurly.bsky.social
Using asbestos as a metaphor for the current industry-driven AI push is genius.
olivia.science Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 2d
Love to see community action against this AI nonsense! neighborhoodview.org/2025/11/13/d...
As one Massachusetts school administrator recently said; this moment with AI is remarkably like the moment when we were introduced to asbestos. Yes, it had some remarkably promising characteristics – fireproofing! – and had some real utility in science, research, and industrial applications. But a profit-driven industry bullied us into inserting it everywhere; into our homes and schools and public spaces, before we really understood the risks. This resulted in decades, if not centuries, of illness, injuries, deaths, and the astronomical financial burden of trying to remove the stuff. As you, the leaders and policymakers in our schools, craft an AI policy for our district, we the undersigned call on you to: 1. Ban AI tools into the classroom, protect our students and teachers from de-skilling and allow them the space and time to engage in assignments themselves. 2. Resist any direct financial relationship or contracts with AI providers, as well as the “training” they might offer. 3. Provide a digital literacy curriculum to help students navigate the current digital landscape, and promote critical engagement with technology. 4. Guarantee that anywhere generative AI has already entered our classrooms or curriculum, an opt-out will allow students and teachers to refuse the use of these products at no risk to their grades, progress or employment.
November 14, 2025 at 1:57 PM
ethicistforhire.bsky.social
Current mood:
Troll 2 (1990) 📽️
November 14, 2025 at 11:06 PM
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
pftompkins.bsky.social
The amount of stupidly needless and needlessly stupid applications of this dumbass technology is legitimately impressive, like they’re TRYING to be terrible. It’s possible that sometimes something actually helpful is stumbled upon and that person gets yelled at
November 14, 2025 at 10:02 PM
ethicistforhire.bsky.social
Going to a philosophy workshop in a warehouse, as one does in the Netherlands...
Warehouse in Delft Design and philosophy workshop in a warehouse in Delft
November 14, 2025 at 10:23 AM
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
clbergpowers.bsky.social
And we knew this. This wasn't speculation. We studied it, we had the talking points. We trained volunteers to explain this to people. It's not a surprise. Rich people don't flee places with good quality of life when we increase the quality of life. They might try to cheat us, but they don't leave.
ips-dc.org Institute for Policy Studies @ips-dc.org · 3d
NEW: The first two years of Massachusetts' millionaire tax has raised $3 billion more than expected.

And rather than driving the rich away, IPS researchers found that the number of millionaires has *increased.*

Tax the rich. Greg Ryan in @bloomberg.com:
Millionaire Tax That Inspired Mamdani Fuels $5.7 Billion Haul in Massachusetts
A millionaire levy in Massachusetts that New York City mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani holds up as a model for taxing the rich has generated $3 billion more in revenue than expected without forcing...
www.bloomberg.com
November 14, 2025 at 4:16 AM
ethicistforhire.bsky.social
#NihilismAndTechnology
November 13, 2025 at 7:27 AM
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
utwentephilosophy.bsky.social
UT philosophy professor Nolen Gertz to give keynote on AI ethics at 4TU.Ethics PhD Day:
www.utwente.nl/en/bms/phil/...
UT philosophy professor Nolen Gertz to give keynote on AI ethics at 4TU.Ethics PhD Day
Nolen Gertz, Associate Professor of Applied Philosophy at the University of Twente, will be giving a keynote on "Why AI Ethics is Unethical" at the upcoming 4TU.Ethics PhD Day at Quinton House (Nieuwe...
www.utwente.nl
November 12, 2025 at 1:16 PM
ethicistforhire.bsky.social
We really need to stop pretending that AI is just a way to "free teachers" and "make school fun"...

AI is built on theft and exploitation
AI is speeding up climate change
AI is good at generating BS that looks meaningful
AI is convincing kids to talk to it rather than people

#NihilismAndTechnology
Personal contact Will the 'real' teacher still be in the classroom in five years? Van den Kieboom predicts that they will finally have time for the student as a human being. "Thanks to AI, there will be much more time for real conversations." The teacher will then become a coach who observes how you're really doing and helps you with skills like collaboration or presentation. "I think we'll soon be able to approach students in a much more human way again." More fun at school It sounds like AI is making school even more fun. Stephanie van den Kieboom: "I wouldn't dare say that. Students come for their classmates, not for the course material. The average teenager doesn't get out of bed in the morning to learn. But AI can certainly make school more fun. Because lessons can be adapted much more to your own level, you're less likely to drop out. Dumber, because of AI? No, AI can ensure you don't get lost in class."
November 11, 2025 at 9:49 AM
ethicistforhire.bsky.social
*Marx bursts out of his grave*
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 5d
Call in the troops to solve the commercial real estate crisis in our swanky downtown cores

You can’t make this shit up, folks
The Miracle Mile Shopping Center in Chicago, once considered our Nation’s BEST, now has a more than 28% vacancy factor, and is ready to call it quits unless something is done about the murder and crime, which is prevalent throughout the City. CALL IN THE TROOPS, FAST, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE! “Just the News”
November 11, 2025 at 8:14 AM
ethicistforhire.bsky.social
Current mood:
The Iron Rose (1973) 📽️
November 10, 2025 at 11:08 PM
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
utwentephilosophy.bsky.social
> Not sure what to think about AI? 🤖
> Uncertain whether you can trust social media? 🥸
> Want to help scientists combat climate change? 🔥

Join us for the Online Master Open Day and find out more about our Philosophy of Science, Technology & Society MSc program:
www.utwente.nl/en/education...
MASTER OPEN DAY PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY Join us ONLINE November 19th, 2025 ON CAMPUS November 20th, 2025
November 10, 2025 at 10:27 AM
ethicistforhire.bsky.social
Transhumanist billionaires fund neurotech research. Yet neurotech research is being held back by the impossible demands of transhumanism. It's like an O. Henry short story...
#NihilismAndTechnology
November 10, 2025 at 7:38 AM
ethicistforhire.bsky.social
Current mood:
Troll (1986) 📽️
November 9, 2025 at 6:54 PM
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
davekarpf.bsky.social
Bahahahahaha The New York Times just printed an opinion piece declaring "AI is intelligent, so long as we redefine what intelligence means to include it. And soon AI will be conscious, because we'll just redefine consciousness too!"

Nothing means anything! Yay!

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/o...
Opinion | A.I. Is on Its Way to Something Even More Remarkable Than Intelligence
www.nytimes.com
November 9, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
downwithdan.bsky.social
lol she got his ass and he knows it
Joyce Carol Oates @Joyce... 17h O So curious that such a wealthy man never posts anything that indicates that he enjoys or is even aware of what virtually everyone appreciates— scenes from nature, pet dog or cat, praise for a movie, music, a book (but doubt that he reads); pride in a friend's or relative's accomplishment; condolences for someone who has died; pleasure in sports, acclaim for a favorite team; references to history. In fact he seems totally uneducated, uncultured. The poorest persons on Twitter may have access to more beauty & meaning in life than the "most wealthy person in the world." Elon Musk ' @elonmusk X.com Oates is a liar and delights in being mean. Not a good human.
November 9, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
noelmu.bsky.social
You might enjoy these quotes from Falk talking in general about Columbo's "reaching into pockets" business. (In that same interview he told me about directing "Blueprint for Murder" and getting help from Cassavetes and Spielberg.)
November 9, 2025 at 3:42 PM