Thomas Arnold
@thomasarnold.bsky.social
HRI, AI, religious studies, pragmatism, ethics | Researching and teaching ethics at Tufts Institute for AI/Human-Robot Interaction Laboratory | He/him | realism: visceral | writing rhythm: corpseflower
Reposted by Thomas Arnold
‘Death remains my intimate shadow partner. It has been with me since birth, always hovering close by. I understand one day we will finally waltz together into the ether. I hope when that time comes, I die with the satisfaction of a life well-lived, unapologetic, joyful, & full of love.’
—Alice Wong
—Alice Wong
November 15, 2025 at 6:12 AM
‘Death remains my intimate shadow partner. It has been with me since birth, always hovering close by. I understand one day we will finally waltz together into the ether. I hope when that time comes, I die with the satisfaction of a life well-lived, unapologetic, joyful, & full of love.’
—Alice Wong
—Alice Wong
Massholes can be difficult, painful, yet necessary channels of care, like asbestos remediation (a good frame of AI critique, btw, as the podcast bros come and go/talking of abundance and AlphaGo).
Love to see community action against this AI nonsense! neighborhoodview.org/2025/11/13/d...
November 14, 2025 at 3:32 PM
Massholes can be difficult, painful, yet necessary channels of care, like asbestos remediation (a good frame of AI critique, btw, as the podcast bros come and go/talking of abundance and AlphaGo).
November in Boston is here, changing my username to a clever seasonal affective disorder nickname (just my username).
November 2, 2025 at 9:33 PM
November in Boston is here, changing my username to a clever seasonal affective disorder nickname (just my username).
I Saw Satan's Gradient Descent
I wrote this a week ago, and *of course* I think of the perfect title now:
“(Anti)Christ, what an asshole”
www.theguardian.com/technology/n...
“(Anti)Christ, what an asshole”
www.theguardian.com/technology/n...
Peter Thiel’s off-the-record antichrist lectures reveal more about him than Armageddon
Silicon Valley titan desperately tries to detach self from power in amateurish talks attempting to ape his favorite philosopher
www.theguardian.com
October 17, 2025 at 9:09 PM
I Saw Satan's Gradient Descent
Very disappointed to learn xenobots are named after a frog genus and not the host-guest relationship. Step it up, computational biologists.
October 17, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Very disappointed to learn xenobots are named after a frog genus and not the host-guest relationship. Step it up, computational biologists.
It is hard not to think about posthumous baptism, taking over the dead's identity to bolster one's tradition (in the name of saving them)-- reanimating them in media for a different kind of canon-formation attains another level of perversity.
I don't know how many times to point out that is absolutely ghoulish and non-consensual and disgusting behavior.
To exploit the image of a dead woman who was also exploited in real life so you can live out your momentary fantasies of "what is possible" with AI is bad science journalism, also.
Sick.
To exploit the image of a dead woman who was also exploited in real life so you can live out your momentary fantasies of "what is possible" with AI is bad science journalism, also.
Sick.
October 14, 2025 at 3:37 PM
It is hard not to think about posthumous baptism, taking over the dead's identity to bolster one's tradition (in the name of saving them)-- reanimating them in media for a different kind of canon-formation attains another level of perversity.
Adrienne Mayor's "Gods and Robots" discusses this myth and many other ancient robot legends across Europe, Asia, and North Africa. Now I can't wait to read this book as follow up.
When I was researching my book Ghosts, Monsters, and Demons of India, I learned of a 1000-year-old myth about Roman tech being used to build killer robots to guard the Buddha's remains in Pataliputra, and a Hungarian folklorist read my book & got excited about it, & she managed to dig up a🧵(1/3)
October 6, 2025 at 1:26 AM
Adrienne Mayor's "Gods and Robots" discusses this myth and many other ancient robot legends across Europe, Asia, and North Africa. Now I can't wait to read this book as follow up.
This is Boston coffee nerd excellence
October 4, 2025 at 3:06 PM
This is Boston coffee nerd excellence
Liaising between religious studies and computer science has only become more fraught as tech claims religious connossieurship with the unblinking assuredness of Zuckerberg with Sweet Baby Ray's, making me all the more grateful for pieces like this.
Taking a brief break from sporadically posting photos of my pitbull to shout this into the void:
I’ve spent the last seven months thinking about the Antichrist, and now those thoughts are published over at @wired.com.
www.wired.com/story/the-re...
I’ve spent the last seven months thinking about the Antichrist, and now those thoughts are published over at @wired.com.
www.wired.com/story/the-re...
The Real Stakes, and Real Story, of Peter Thiel’s Antichrist Obsession
Thirty years ago, a peace-loving Austrian theologian spoke to Peter Thiel about the apocalyptic theories of Nazi jurist Carl Schmitt. They’ve been a road map for the billionaire ever since.
www.wired.com
October 2, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Liaising between religious studies and computer science has only become more fraught as tech claims religious connossieurship with the unblinking assuredness of Zuckerberg with Sweet Baby Ray's, making me all the more grateful for pieces like this.
Build It Or Not, You Are Still Going To Die: Ernest Becker's Chaplaincy To AI Ethics
September 25, 2025 at 4:47 PM
Build It Or Not, You Are Still Going To Die: Ernest Becker's Chaplaincy To AI Ethics
Mr. Murdoch said he would take care of the flowers himself.
July 18, 2025 at 1:07 AM
Mr. Murdoch said he would take care of the flowers himself.
Reviewers keep asking how well @lioneltrolling.bsky.social's "When The Clock Broke" explains Trumpism. They almost all miss how deftly it denudes H. Ross Perot's corrupt, conspiracy-addled, balcony-seeking fraudulence, revealing a Musk avant la twittre.
June 27, 2025 at 1:55 PM
Reviewers keep asking how well @lioneltrolling.bsky.social's "When The Clock Broke" explains Trumpism. They almost all miss how deftly it denudes H. Ross Perot's corrupt, conspiracy-addled, balcony-seeking fraudulence, revealing a Musk avant la twittre.
Reposted by Thomas Arnold
Excellent!
In the same spirit, here's a piece on AI hype I wrote in....1985 🤯
melaniemitchell.me/EssaysConten...
In the same spirit, here's a piece on AI hype I wrote in....1985 🤯
melaniemitchell.me/EssaysConten...
melaniemitchell.me
June 23, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Excellent!
In the same spirit, here's a piece on AI hype I wrote in....1985 🤯
melaniemitchell.me/EssaysConten...
In the same spirit, here's a piece on AI hype I wrote in....1985 🤯
melaniemitchell.me/EssaysConten...
Helen exemplified so much of what philosophy (or living well together) desperately needs: honesty, vulnerability, integrity, wonder-sharing, courage, determination, decency.
Dear all,
Helen passed away at 13:21 local time. Helen would not have wanted us to be sad for a long time. All they wanted was to be remembered. They looked forward to being rid of pain and to being at rest. Helen took great comfort in you, their friends and readers.
pt. 1/2
Helen passed away at 13:21 local time. Helen would not have wanted us to be sad for a long time. All they wanted was to be remembered. They looked forward to being rid of pain and to being at rest. Helen took great comfort in you, their friends and readers.
pt. 1/2
June 21, 2025 at 7:41 PM
Helen exemplified so much of what philosophy (or living well together) desperately needs: honesty, vulnerability, integrity, wonder-sharing, courage, determination, decency.
Reposted by Thomas Arnold
April is a real bummer of a month
May 30, 2025 at 12:19 PM
April is a real bummer of a month
Reposted by Thomas Arnold
New England and Boston writers-friends: Join us at 2 p.m. tomorrow in Concord, MA at the Concord Free Public Library for a writing event featuring the wonderful @cindyhouse.bsky.social @demisty.bsky.social & Alysia Abbott. Come say hi! Come write! (& pass the word along!)
SATURDAY!
An all-star event at the Concord Free Public Library at 2 p.m. on Saturday May 31 in Concord, MA! @cindyhouse.bsky.social @demisty.bsky.social & Alysia Abbott will be reading & sharing writing prompts. Come for conversation & community & powerful storytelling.
May 30, 2025 at 2:31 PM
New England and Boston writers-friends: Join us at 2 p.m. tomorrow in Concord, MA at the Concord Free Public Library for a writing event featuring the wonderful @cindyhouse.bsky.social @demisty.bsky.social & Alysia Abbott. Come say hi! Come write! (& pass the word along!)
April is a real bummer of a month
May 30, 2025 at 12:19 PM
April is a real bummer of a month
Reposted by Thomas Arnold
Philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre has died.
Alasdair MacIntyre (1929-2025) - Daily Nous
Alasdair MacIntyre, professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame and Duke University, well-known for his work on moral and political philosophy, has died. Professor MacIntyre wrote...
dailynous.com
May 22, 2025 at 9:29 PM
Philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre has died.
Reposted by Thomas Arnold
Folk might want to read my @dallasnews.com op-ed related to Hegseth & Wilson: www.dallasnews.com/opinion/comm...
May 22, 2025 at 8:32 PM
Folk might want to read my @dallasnews.com op-ed related to Hegseth & Wilson: www.dallasnews.com/opinion/comm...
Really looking forward to this book.
Robotics friends: Will you be at #icra? Curious about my forthcoming book, Degrees of Freedom from @mitpress.bsky.social?
Come to the Robot Ethics Forum tomorrow, which we'll be kicking off with a Book Preview Talk on Degrees of Freedom!
Come to the Robot Ethics Forum tomorrow, which we'll be kicking off with a Book Preview Talk on Degrees of Freedom!
May 19, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Really looking forward to this book.
In the midst of Boston spring I found there was, within me, still another Boston spring.
May 13, 2025 at 12:07 AM
In the midst of Boston spring I found there was, within me, still another Boston spring.
Reposted by Thomas Arnold
Since this has prompted a few references to the split-flap, here are my talk and article about that most charismatic and functional of technologies :)
wordsinspace.net/2020/12/03/f...
wordsinspace.net/fluttering-c...
wordsinspace.net/2020/12/03/f...
wordsinspace.net/fluttering-c...
Fluttering Codes: A Cultural History of the Split Flap
Words in Space is the work of Shannon Mattern.
wordsinspace.net
May 9, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Since this has prompted a few references to the split-flap, here are my talk and article about that most charismatic and functional of technologies :)
wordsinspace.net/2020/12/03/f...
wordsinspace.net/fluttering-c...
wordsinspace.net/2020/12/03/f...
wordsinspace.net/fluttering-c...
In philosophy you can just make up an argument to get mad at, you don’t even need to make up a person convinced by it.
May 8, 2025 at 3:15 PM
In philosophy you can just make up an argument to get mad at, you don’t even need to make up a person convinced by it.
Soft undercaffeinated animal just try to get one wild and precious cup
May 6, 2025 at 12:09 PM
Soft undercaffeinated animal just try to get one wild and precious cup
This @moiraweigel.bsky.social essay shows Karp's dissociated froideur toward the effects of aggression, resembling not so much the Thiel of The Diversity Myth as the latter's answer to why one shouldn't assassinate CEO's-- "you have to make the argument."
www.boundary2.org/2020/07/moir...
www.boundary2.org/2020/07/moir...
When Alex Karp said tech companies should defend democracy and The West, I was paying attention, but nothing changed in Palantir’s behaviour when Trump started to destroy democracy and The West, in fact the company profits extra off of it (my new column in @financialtimes.com ↘️ on.ft.com/42Fcpju
Palantir has become an unlikely cheerleader for Trump
The US software company’s idealised vision of America bears little resemblance to current reality
on.ft.com
May 3, 2025 at 3:08 AM
This @moiraweigel.bsky.social essay shows Karp's dissociated froideur toward the effects of aggression, resembling not so much the Thiel of The Diversity Myth as the latter's answer to why one shouldn't assassinate CEO's-- "you have to make the argument."
www.boundary2.org/2020/07/moir...
www.boundary2.org/2020/07/moir...