Nick Firth
@nickfirth.bsky.social
Reposted by Nick Firth
“Ultimately, the collective strategy of AI companies threatens to deskill precisely those people who are essential for society to function(…) automation of knowledge and culture by private companies is a worrying prospect – conjuring dystopian and outright fascistic scenarios.” — @olivia.science
AI Is Hollowing Out Higher Education
Olivia Guest & Iris van Rooij urge teachers and scholars to reject tools that commodify learning, deskill students, and promote illiteracy.
www.project-syndicate.org
October 17, 2025 at 10:51 PM
“Ultimately, the collective strategy of AI companies threatens to deskill precisely those people who are essential for society to function(…) automation of knowledge and culture by private companies is a worrying prospect – conjuring dystopian and outright fascistic scenarios.” — @olivia.science
Reposted by Nick Firth
Newsletter: My 16,000 word opus - How To Argue With An AI Booster, a comprehensive guide to arguing with AI boosters, addressing both their bad faith debate style and their specific (and flimsy) arguments as to why generative AI is the future.
www.wheresyoured.at/how-to-argue...
www.wheresyoured.at/how-to-argue...
How To Argue With An AI Booster
Editor's Note: For those of you reading via email, I recommend opening this in a browser so you can use the Table of Contents. This is my longest newsletter - a 16,000-word-long opus - and if you like...
www.wheresyoured.at
August 25, 2025 at 4:16 PM
Newsletter: My 16,000 word opus - How To Argue With An AI Booster, a comprehensive guide to arguing with AI boosters, addressing both their bad faith debate style and their specific (and flimsy) arguments as to why generative AI is the future.
www.wheresyoured.at/how-to-argue...
www.wheresyoured.at/how-to-argue...
Reposted by Nick Firth
The Observer takes on the collapse of Unbound - some truly shocking allegations, almost all of which I have seen compelling evidence of as a member of the Unbound author WhatsApp group and through my own experience of being published by them observer.co.uk/news/busines...
Death of a publishing dream: how the Unbound revolution b...
The literary disrupters enjoyed great success with their crowdfunding model, signing authors that other publishers overlooked. And then the money ran out…
observer.co.uk
August 9, 2025 at 7:57 AM
The Observer takes on the collapse of Unbound - some truly shocking allegations, almost all of which I have seen compelling evidence of as a member of the Unbound author WhatsApp group and through my own experience of being published by them observer.co.uk/news/busines...
Reposted by Nick Firth
Increasingly convinced the main damage cell phones have done to creativity isn't decreased attention spans or what not but the elimination of productive boredom. Inspiration comes from the mind filling the void inside. Hard to make art when you're constantly silencing the silence with "content."
July 22, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Increasingly convinced the main damage cell phones have done to creativity isn't decreased attention spans or what not but the elimination of productive boredom. Inspiration comes from the mind filling the void inside. Hard to make art when you're constantly silencing the silence with "content."
Reposted by Nick Firth
During these critical moments following the US bombing of Iran, key lawmakers and pundits are circulating a lie on par with Iraq WMD falsehoods: that Iran has a nuclear weapons program. US intel consensus is they do not. Does it matter? By me and @ahjohnson.bsky.social
Lawmakers and Pundits Speed Run Iraq WMDs-Level Lies About Iran
The US intelligence consensus is that Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program. Why does our media and political class keep implying—and explicitly saying—otherwise?
www.columnblog.com
June 22, 2025 at 2:30 PM
During these critical moments following the US bombing of Iran, key lawmakers and pundits are circulating a lie on par with Iraq WMD falsehoods: that Iran has a nuclear weapons program. US intel consensus is they do not. Does it matter? By me and @ahjohnson.bsky.social
Reposted by Nick Firth
"Pictures are famous for their humanness, not for their pictureness."
Kurt Vonnegut discussion of art in his 1997 novel Timequake offers one explanation why people might find AI creations unsatisfying.
Kurt Vonnegut discussion of art in his 1997 novel Timequake offers one explanation why people might find AI creations unsatisfying.
April 12, 2025 at 10:25 AM
"Pictures are famous for their humanness, not for their pictureness."
Kurt Vonnegut discussion of art in his 1997 novel Timequake offers one explanation why people might find AI creations unsatisfying.
Kurt Vonnegut discussion of art in his 1997 novel Timequake offers one explanation why people might find AI creations unsatisfying.
Reposted by Nick Firth
21 people killed “amid gunfire”. Takes you two paragraphs before you find out who did the shooting. These outlets are making themselves a joke.
June 1, 2025 at 10:20 AM
21 people killed “amid gunfire”. Takes you two paragraphs before you find out who did the shooting. These outlets are making themselves a joke.
Reposted by Nick Firth
‘Whitman’s nature notes reveal a sometimes doleful cast of mind below the delightful notations of the present: of birdsong, trees, the frolics of two kingfishers, the specifics of the evening sky.’
Maureen N. McLane on Walt Whitman:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Maureen N. McLane on Walt Whitman:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Maureen N. McLane · Brag and Humblebrag: Walt Whitman’s Encounters
A champion self-advertiser, maven of the brag and the humblebrag, Whitman announces in the first pages of Specimen Days...
www.lrb.co.uk
May 18, 2025 at 5:44 PM
‘Whitman’s nature notes reveal a sometimes doleful cast of mind below the delightful notations of the present: of birdsong, trees, the frolics of two kingfishers, the specifics of the evening sky.’
Maureen N. McLane on Walt Whitman:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Maureen N. McLane on Walt Whitman:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Reposted by Nick Firth
Israel’s war in Gaza amounts to genocide, Amnesty International report finds
Israel’s war in Gaza amounts to genocide, Amnesty International report finds
Human rights group says Israel ‘brazenly, continuously and with total impunity … unleashed hell’ on strip’s 2.3m population
A report from Amnesty International alleges that Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip constitutes the crime of genocide…
www.theguardian.com
December 5, 2024 at 1:02 AM
Israel’s war in Gaza amounts to genocide, Amnesty International report finds
Reposted by Nick Firth
Naomi Shihab Nye
January 1, 2024 at 2:24 AM
Naomi Shihab Nye
Reposted by Nick Firth
My book “Memory and Remembering” in the Elements series from CUP is out today! PDF free to download for the next month.
And another new Element! *Memory and Remembering* by Felipe De Brigard. Essential reading and free to download till 29 November! www.cambridge.org/core/element... @felipedebrigard.bsky.social
Memory and Remembering
Cambridge Core - Philosophy of Mind and Language - Memory and Remembering
www.cambridge.org
November 15, 2023 at 12:24 PM
My book “Memory and Remembering” in the Elements series from CUP is out today! PDF free to download for the next month.
Reposted by Nick Firth
The jump in the covid reinfection rate within 30-90 of previous infection in NZ that peaked in the first week of October, is a pretty good match to the growth in the newish to NZ HK.3 variant in the same week in poops.nz
The fall in the reinfection rate since then suggests HK.3 growth will slow.
The fall in the reinfection rate since then suggests HK.3 growth will slow.
October 19, 2023 at 10:49 PM
The jump in the covid reinfection rate within 30-90 of previous infection in NZ that peaked in the first week of October, is a pretty good match to the growth in the newish to NZ HK.3 variant in the same week in poops.nz
The fall in the reinfection rate since then suggests HK.3 growth will slow.
The fall in the reinfection rate since then suggests HK.3 growth will slow.