Andrew Perfors
@perfors.net
Prof at UniMelb. I'm a computational cognitive scientist studying human inference, learning, information systems, culture, and (mis/dis)info. Nerd & opinionated loudmouth in Oz, originally from America, citizen of both. Parent of two. 🏳️⚧️ perfors.net
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Andrew Perfors
@perfors.net
· Apr 29
Anti-trans attitudes have existed for years, but organised disinformation campaigns are increasingly driving them
Disinformation exists across all parts of the political spectrum, but it goes far beyond simple lying when it comes to the campaign against the transgender community, says a University of Melbourne ex...
pursuit.unimelb.edu.au
I wrote an article about the psychology by which disinformation campaigns work, with examples from anti-trans propaganda. It's not just about individual beliefs, but also the way our institutions and norms are manipulated.
Please read and share!
pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/Ant...?
Please read and share!
pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/Ant...?
Something I've thought before but dismissed internally as too uncharitable but I'm having a hard time dismissing now:
I wonder how many people who rail against "cancel culture" do so because they know they've done things that would (rightfully) mean they lose their jobs and reputations? 🤔
I wonder how many people who rail against "cancel culture" do so because they know they've done things that would (rightfully) mean they lose their jobs and reputations? 🤔
November 15, 2025 at 3:26 AM
Something I've thought before but dismissed internally as too uncharitable but I'm having a hard time dismissing now:
I wonder how many people who rail against "cancel culture" do so because they know they've done things that would (rightfully) mean they lose their jobs and reputations? 🤔
I wonder how many people who rail against "cancel culture" do so because they know they've done things that would (rightfully) mean they lose their jobs and reputations? 🤔
So true. I went down a bit of a rabbit hole last night going through the files and there are over two dozen scientists in there (in non-trivial ways) I've heard about or known personally
Always people I'd already figured were creeps or at least didn't respect them much, but still.. OVER TWO DOZEN.
Always people I'd already figured were creeps or at least didn't respect them much, but still.. OVER TWO DOZEN.
It is slightly weird being/having been in a field so adjacent to Epstein's idle interests that names of scientists you've been in rooms with are suddenly on uncomfortable lists.
November 14, 2025 at 11:41 PM
So true. I went down a bit of a rabbit hole last night going through the files and there are over two dozen scientists in there (in non-trivial ways) I've heard about or known personally
Always people I'd already figured were creeps or at least didn't respect them much, but still.. OVER TWO DOZEN.
Always people I'd already figured were creeps or at least didn't respect them much, but still.. OVER TWO DOZEN.
Reposted by Andrew Perfors
so i have an idea for powering the data centers...you know how like, human bodies are kinda like batteries and we store a bunch of energy? and you know how humans are kind of our own worst enemy? ok so hear me out
November 14, 2025 at 10:04 PM
so i have an idea for powering the data centers...you know how like, human bodies are kinda like batteries and we store a bunch of energy? and you know how humans are kind of our own worst enemy? ok so hear me out
Reposted by Andrew Perfors
I'm guessing this might actually be useful as a negatively weighted part of a training set. Nice of them to curate a corpus of how to be a dick
Preprint w/ (rapid) analysis of Grokipedia, showing it to be “highly derivative of Wikipedia”, but differing, often on controversial topics, in that Grokipedia includes content/cites from low quality (hyper partisan & conspiracy laden) sources like Stormfront & Infowars. arxiv.org/pdf/2511.09685
arxiv.org
November 14, 2025 at 5:41 PM
I'm guessing this might actually be useful as a negatively weighted part of a training set. Nice of them to curate a corpus of how to be a dick
Reposted by Andrew Perfors
They were actually friends who visited each other, as far as I can tell
November 14, 2025 at 12:23 PM
They were actually friends who visited each other, as far as I can tell
Reposted by Andrew Perfors
Spent too much time on this just now, but it's clear ol' Jeff and Noam were pretty good friends and they spent a bunch of time visiting with each other well into 2019 👀
ew
splendorous-chaja-f79791.netlify.app
ew
splendorous-chaja-f79791.netlify.app
Epstein Document Search
splendorous-chaja-f79791.netlify.app
November 14, 2025 at 6:31 AM
Spent too much time on this just now, but it's clear ol' Jeff and Noam were pretty good friends and they spent a bunch of time visiting with each other well into 2019 👀
ew
splendorous-chaja-f79791.netlify.app
ew
splendorous-chaja-f79791.netlify.app
Good article here trying to make sense of the senseless (the Epstein emails).
So much about our current timeline makes sense when you realise that vastly more of the people with power are vastly more idiotic and more venal and more immoral than we thought.
So much about our current timeline makes sense when you realise that vastly more of the people with power are vastly more idiotic and more venal and more immoral than we thought.
November 14, 2025 at 4:34 AM
Good article here trying to make sense of the senseless (the Epstein emails).
So much about our current timeline makes sense when you realise that vastly more of the people with power are vastly more idiotic and more venal and more immoral than we thought.
So much about our current timeline makes sense when you realise that vastly more of the people with power are vastly more idiotic and more venal and more immoral than we thought.
Reposted by Andrew Perfors
"Morals are bad because they won't help your cause," an article by someone who hates your cause and wants your cause to fail.
November 14, 2025 at 1:01 AM
"Morals are bad because they won't help your cause," an article by someone who hates your cause and wants your cause to fail.
Reposted by Andrew Perfors
Re: Epstein’s emails
November 13, 2025 at 8:21 PM
Re: Epstein’s emails
Reposted by Andrew Perfors
New: Google has chosen a side in Trump's mass deportation campaign. Google is hosting a CBP facial recognition app to hunt immigrants; no indication Google will remove. At same time Google takes down apps for reporting ICE sightings
“Big tech has made their choice”
www.404media.co/google-has-c...
“Big tech has made their choice”
www.404media.co/google-has-c...
Google Has Chosen a Side in Trump's Mass Deportation Effort
Google is hosting a CBP app that uses facial recognition to identify immigrants, while simultaneously removing apps that report the location of ICE officials because Google sees ICE as a vulnerable gr...
www.404media.co
November 13, 2025 at 2:11 PM
New: Google has chosen a side in Trump's mass deportation campaign. Google is hosting a CBP facial recognition app to hunt immigrants; no indication Google will remove. At same time Google takes down apps for reporting ICE sightings
“Big tech has made their choice”
www.404media.co/google-has-c...
“Big tech has made their choice”
www.404media.co/google-has-c...
Reposted by Andrew Perfors
Perfect example of political media operating under the post-truth standard that (1) distorts the facts until the parties look approximately equal, and (2) holds “do MAGA voters care?” as a higher standard than “is it true?” or “is it important for the public to know about this?”
Wild to watch playbook run cover for this particular Trump scandal
November 13, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Perfect example of political media operating under the post-truth standard that (1) distorts the facts until the parties look approximately equal, and (2) holds “do MAGA voters care?” as a higher standard than “is it true?” or “is it important for the public to know about this?”
Reposted by Andrew Perfors
You just know that “Did Women Ruin the Workplace?” bit would have done NUMBERS in this little clique
Something absolutely perfect about Larry Summers riffing about the scourge of woke cancel culture being unfair to predatory men in a friendly email to his pal JEFFREY EPSTEIN.
November 13, 2025 at 3:26 PM
You just know that “Did Women Ruin the Workplace?” bit would have done NUMBERS in this little clique
Reposted by Andrew Perfors
This whole thing is out of control.
The Ecological Cost of AI Is Much Higher Than You Think - Truthdig
As the demands of AI grow, each generation of microchips requires more energy, minerals and water to produce, driving a ruinous cycle.
www.truthdig.com
November 13, 2025 at 6:51 AM
This whole thing is out of control.
Hello fellow nerds! The upcoming Australasian Mathematical Psych Conference (AMPC) is going to be on Feb 23-25, and they've just put out the call for abstracts.
Details below. This is one of my favourite conferences and this year it's in Singapore(!!) which should be awesome.
Details below. This is one of my favourite conferences and this year it's in Singapore(!!) which should be awesome.
November 13, 2025 at 7:33 AM
Hello fellow nerds! The upcoming Australasian Mathematical Psych Conference (AMPC) is going to be on Feb 23-25, and they've just put out the call for abstracts.
Details below. This is one of my favourite conferences and this year it's in Singapore(!!) which should be awesome.
Details below. This is one of my favourite conferences and this year it's in Singapore(!!) which should be awesome.
Reposted by Andrew Perfors
Great text! What if AI is not here to stay?"Generative AI has been compared to the Concorde. Supersonic commercial flight seemed there to stay, until it became clear it would’t work at scale: too costly, too risky, too environmentally harmful" : www.universitetsavisa.no/fremtidsscen...
What if generative AI is not here to stay?
- Generative AI has been compared to the Concorde. Supersonic commercial flight seemed there to stay, until it became clear it would’t work at scale: too costly, too risky, too environmentally harmful...
www.universitetsavisa.no
November 12, 2025 at 9:23 PM
Great text! What if AI is not here to stay?"Generative AI has been compared to the Concorde. Supersonic commercial flight seemed there to stay, until it became clear it would’t work at scale: too costly, too risky, too environmentally harmful" : www.universitetsavisa.no/fremtidsscen...
Reposted by Andrew Perfors
New from me: “working the refs” has come for Wikipedia. The same type of attacks alleging anti-conservative bias that right wing politicians have make about social media are coming for the encyclopedia — because of its critical role in shaping AI answer engines.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
The Right-Wing Attack on Wikipedia
The free internet encyclopedia is widely used to train AI. That’s why conservatives are trying to dethrone it.
www.theatlantic.com
November 12, 2025 at 9:41 PM
New from me: “working the refs” has come for Wikipedia. The same type of attacks alleging anti-conservative bias that right wing politicians have make about social media are coming for the encyclopedia — because of its critical role in shaping AI answer engines.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Reposted by Andrew Perfors
Today is the day! Our reply to the two concurrent critiques (from the same set of authors) is now published in the journal Intelligence 🧵 1/
November 12, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Today is the day! Our reply to the two concurrent critiques (from the same set of authors) is now published in the journal Intelligence 🧵 1/
Reposted by Andrew Perfors
Important to understand the Epstein stuff and the fascism and the corruption are, in a lot of ways, really all the same story from different angles: powerful men who can and do abuse vulnerable people around them because they can, and because systems of elite accountability catastrophically failed
November 12, 2025 at 9:14 PM
Important to understand the Epstein stuff and the fascism and the corruption are, in a lot of ways, really all the same story from different angles: powerful men who can and do abuse vulnerable people around them because they can, and because systems of elite accountability catastrophically failed
Reposted by Andrew Perfors
finding joy despite the world in 2025 is like this lol
November 12, 2025 at 3:34 PM
finding joy despite the world in 2025 is like this lol
Reposted by Andrew Perfors
One horrific thing to me is that the president- a man who has gotten away with everything including literal murder up to this point- seems extremely nervous about anything regarding Epstein coming out. Like how bad does it have to be
November 12, 2025 at 7:24 PM
One horrific thing to me is that the president- a man who has gotten away with everything including literal murder up to this point- seems extremely nervous about anything regarding Epstein coming out. Like how bad does it have to be
Reposted by Andrew Perfors
This is one of the things I hate most about modern capitalism. The idea of making money has been fully peeled away from delivering any kind of goods or services that people would want to pay money for.
What a thrill to be part of @talkingpointsmemo.com's series about the past 25 years of digital media! I wrote about why private equity goons destroyed Deadspin and why it matters.
There Are No Weird Blogs Anymore Cause It’s More Fruitful to Drive Them Out of Business
I learned many surprising lessons from my 20 months as editor-in-chief of...
talkingpointsmemo.com
November 11, 2025 at 7:21 PM
This is one of the things I hate most about modern capitalism. The idea of making money has been fully peeled away from delivering any kind of goods or services that people would want to pay money for.
Reposted by Andrew Perfors
"Stacked Panel" is a technique where you organize a debate show ostensibly between competing viewpoints. However it's fake, the panelists actually all agree on the *real* issue you're trying to convince the audience of...
September 14, 2025 at 10:39 PM
"Stacked Panel" is a technique where you organize a debate show ostensibly between competing viewpoints. However it's fake, the panelists actually all agree on the *real* issue you're trying to convince the audience of...
A good goal in life is to live such that someone calmly pointing out the truth about you feels like an affirmation rather than a vivisection.
November 11, 2025 at 9:17 AM
A good goal in life is to live such that someone calmly pointing out the truth about you feels like an affirmation rather than a vivisection.
Reposted by Andrew Perfors
I love this cartoon.
In my experience, if you know enough to write a detailed description of a problem, it's quicker to write the code yourself, rather than writing screeds of description AND checking the AI code. At best, AI can be helpful in reminding youj about the rules of R, Python etc.
In my experience, if you know enough to write a detailed description of a problem, it's quicker to write the code yourself, rather than writing screeds of description AND checking the AI code. At best, AI can be helpful in reminding youj about the rules of R, Python etc.
10 years old and maybe never more relevant than in contemporary software development
www.commitstrip.com/en/2016/08/2...
www.commitstrip.com/en/2016/08/2...
November 10, 2025 at 11:09 PM
I love this cartoon.
In my experience, if you know enough to write a detailed description of a problem, it's quicker to write the code yourself, rather than writing screeds of description AND checking the AI code. At best, AI can be helpful in reminding youj about the rules of R, Python etc.
In my experience, if you know enough to write a detailed description of a problem, it's quicker to write the code yourself, rather than writing screeds of description AND checking the AI code. At best, AI can be helpful in reminding youj about the rules of R, Python etc.
Reposted by Andrew Perfors
i parachute into X/Twitter a lot for my job and obviously have chronicled the devolution but today it feels that, even outside of the realm of groyperposting the broad culture there is just like *i have lead poisoning*
November 10, 2025 at 6:59 PM
i parachute into X/Twitter a lot for my job and obviously have chronicled the devolution but today it feels that, even outside of the realm of groyperposting the broad culture there is just like *i have lead poisoning*