Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Dan Williams @danwphilosophy.bsky.social · 1d

I wrote about how advanced AI might gradually eat away at human interdependence, dissolving the glue that underpins human solidarity and cooperation. The risk here would not come from misaligned AI, but from how well-aligned AI threatens human alignment 👇 www.conspicuouscognition.com/p/superintel...

Superintelligence and the Decline of Human Interdependence

What happens to humanity when we no longer need each other?

www.conspicuouscognition.com

1 2 9

Reposted by Dan Williams

Matan Mazor @matanmazor.bsky.social · 1d

Consciousness science as a marketplace of rationalizations

my commentary on @smfleming.bsky.social and @matthiasmichel.bsky.social's thought-provoking BBS paper, and more generally about the field.

osf.io/preprints/ps...

OSF

osf.io

2 18 42

Reposted by Dan Williams

Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 2d

Regrettably relevant research today

Disguised Repression: Targeting Opponents with Nonpolitical Crimes to Undermine Dissent
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

2 180 460

Reposted by Dan Williams

Lionel Page @lionelpage.bsky.social · 1d

Everything you ever wanted to know about why we behave the way we do on social media.
The three layers of strategic considerations shaping our online presence: presentation, competition, and coalition building.

What are we really doing on social media?

The motives and strategies that shape our online presence

www.optimallyirrational.com

4 8

Reposted by Dan Williams

Felix M. Simon @felixsimon.bsky.social · 5d

🚨✨ Publication alert: How do people in 6 countries (🇬🇧 🇺🇸 🇫🇷 🇦🇷 🇩🇰 🇯🇵 ) use AI 🤖 and think about it in the context of information, news, and institutions?

Our new @reutersinstitute.bsky.social survey research (n ≈ 12,000) with @richardfletcher.bsky.social & @rasmuskleis.bsky.social explores this.

1 13 26

Reposted by Dan Williams

turgut keskintürk @tkeskinturk.bsky.social · Sep 1

a new working paper: osf.io/vsr5b

I propose a three-stage model of cohortization where dynamics of cohort learning and political sorting serve as complementary engines of aggregate political change.

I apply this to the case of the killing of George Floyd & the BLM.

it's also my job market paper!

Generational Imprinting: How Political Events Shape Cohorts

Turgut Keskintürk
August, 2025

How, and for whom, do political events translate into enduring political change? This article advances a three-stage model of cohortization, in which salient events produce age differential changes in attitudes, elite cues drive identity-congruent political sorting, and life-course timing regulates whether these attitude changes remain persistent over time. Focusing on the killing of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020 as a quasi-natural experiment, I test this model by analyzing attitudes toward U.S. law enforcement among non-Hispanic White Americans using five surveys that collectively span from 2016 to 2024. The findings consistently show that Democrats and Independents became strongly unfavorable toward law enforcement—much more so among younger than older individuals. Moreover, the changes persisted for younger individuals, while fading among older individuals, leading to cohort-led polarization. This article integrates two classic—though largely partial—theories of political learning, offering a model for understanding how salient events can realign generational divides.

2 23 56

Reposted by Dan Williams

Lionel Page @lionelpage.bsky.social · 15d

An imbalance of power erodes the quality of public debate. The dominant side faces fewer epistemic constraints on its arguments, while the dominated side has less incentive to produce strong arguments or to engage with the rules of knowledge institutions.
www.optimallyirrational.com/p/power-bala...

Power balance and ideology

Why the cultural hegemony of the left erodes its epistemic standing

www.optimallyirrational.com

2 4

Reposted by Dan Williams

Rob Sica @robsica.bsky.social · 18d

"I think a lot of our beliefs are pseudo-beliefs and that the goal is to make it difficult to tell the difference between real belief and fake belief, and that is why it's so hard for psychologists to tell the difference because that difficulty is by design."

Evolutionary Psychology (the podcast) @epthepod.bsky.social · 18d

This week we talk to Dan Williams about belief. Is it veridical or social or both or neither?

youtu.be/vBzPtPNbcz8

www.podbean.com/ew/pb-ehzhx-...

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/b...

Belief with Dan Williams

YouTube video by Evolutionary Psychology (The Podcast)

youtu.be

3 5

Reposted by Dan Williams

Evolutionary Psychology (the podcast) @epthepod.bsky.social · 18d

This week we talk to Dan Williams about belief. Is it veridical or social or both or neither?

youtu.be/vBzPtPNbcz8

www.podbean.com/ew/pb-ehzhx-...

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/b...

Belief with Dan Williams

YouTube video by Evolutionary Psychology (The Podcast)

youtu.be

2 5

Reposted by Dan Williams

Renee DiResta @noupside.bsky.social · 21d

Last week @rachelkleinfeld.bsky.social and I put out a provocation & set of suggestions on how influence has changed and why institutions (& funders) need to change their thinking on shaping public opinion and connecting w/audiences. The old way no longer works.
carnegieendowment.org/research/202...

For Expertise to Matter, Nonpartisan Institutions Need New Communications Strategies

To avoid irrelevance when they are needed most, experts and nonpartisan analysts must rethink not just their channels of communication but also their theory of influence.

carnegieendowment.org

9 99 210

Dan Williams @danwphilosophy.bsky.social · 21d

I wrote the poster. Its aim is to attract a broad public to significant debates about AI using concise, accessible language. I understand you seem to have strong views but your post - "atrociously badly framed", "greviously reinforce public misconceptions" - strikes me as a bit over the top.

1 5

Reposted by Dan Williams

Michael Morris @michaelmorrisphil.bsky.social · 22d

Public Philosophy in Brighton - this one's on 10th October.

2 4 3

Reposted by Dan Williams

Ethan Mollick @emollick.bsky.social · 23d

A cautiously optimistic result on AI and disinformation.

A week before 2024 UK elections 13% of all voters used AI to ask about political topics. A randomized trial found this may be good: using AI led to similar gains in true knowledge as doing web research, regardless of model & prompt used.

2 18 68

Dan Williams @danwphilosophy.bsky.social · 23d

Is artificial intelligence just another technology or potentially a “superintelligent” alien species that might bring about human extinction? Henry Shevlin and I discuss this and many other issues: www.conspicuouscognition.com/p/ai-session...

AI Sessions #1: AI - A Normal Technology or a Superintelligent Alien Species?

Is Artificial Intelligence Just Another Technology or Potentially Something Fundamentally Different and Extremely Dangerous?

www.conspicuouscognition.com

1 4

Dan Williams @danwphilosophy.bsky.social · 24d

Worth reading: www.noemamag.com/we-failed-th...

We Failed The Misinformation Fight. Now What? | NOEMA

Defending democracy in the digital age will require moving beyond the focus of fighting online misinformation.

www.noemamag.com

1 9

Dan Williams @danwphilosophy.bsky.social · 25d

The great @robynrwaller.bsky.social recently appeared on 'The Medical AI' podcast to discuss 'Brain-computer interfaces - coming miracles or technodehumanisation?'. Highly recommend!
creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/...

Ep 63: Brain-computer interfaces - coming miracles or technodehumanisation? With Dr Robyn Waller by The Medical AI Podcast

Brain-computer interfaces are for some, medical technology bordering on the miraculous. Elon Musk’s neuralink is, for example, promising to cure some cases of blindness and paralysis. It has even been...

creators.spotify.com

1 3

Reposted by Dan Williams

Lionel Page @lionelpage.bsky.social · 29d

Why do we watch sport? It is commonly said that it is because of the beauty of athletic performance.
In reality, sport taps into our natural interest in status games. This explains many of the seemingly surprising aspects of how we consume it.
www.optimallyirrational.com/p/the-truth-...

The truth about sport

Why we really care about it

www.optimallyirrational.com

3 7

Reposted by Dan Williams

Jakob Hohwy @hohwy.bsky.social · Sep 11

Come to Melbourne for the 2025 Conference of the Australasian Society for Philosophy and Psychology

Check out the great keynotes - submit your abstract

Come join this exciting community of researchers

Nov 24-25 - Register now!

#philosophy #neuroskyence #philsky

sites.google.com/monash.edu/a...

ASPP 2025 Melbourne

Australasian Society for Philosophy and Psychology 2025 Conference Melbourne, November 24th - 25th, 2025

sites.google.com

1 15 30

Dan Williams @danwphilosophy.bsky.social · Sep 8

Ha. They're (mostly) really short readings, though! But also, no.

1 2

Dan Williams @danwphilosophy.bsky.social · Sep 8

Here's my syllabus and reading list for an introductory, up-to-date course covering the philosophy, ethics, and politics of artificial intelligence: www.conspicuouscognition.com/p/philosophy....

3 9 42

Dan Williams @danwphilosophy.bsky.social · Aug 28

New guest essay at 'Conspicuous Cognition' by the great Paul Sagar:
www.conspicuouscognition.com/p/against-po...

Against Political Chmess

Why too much political philosophy studies a game that nobody plays

www.conspicuouscognition.com

3 7

Reposted by Dan Williams

Andy Masley @andymasley.bsky.social · Aug 24

I think anyone who's engaged with AI and climate discourse has noticed that a lot of people are getting really hung up on this. I'm just an individual guy and figured it would be worth a few hours to write some very simple blog posts with middle school math showing that they're mistaken.

Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · Aug 23

Much of these posts are swiping at this weird imagined group of climate activists who are trawling the planet and throwing soup onto anyone submitting queries into ChatGPT

Which is an absurd parody of how the climate movement has reacted to gen systems, but on par for left-punching EA types

It is extremely bad to distract the climate movement with debates about inconsequential levels of emissions
If climate change is an emergency that requires lots of people working collectively to fix in limited time, we cannot afford to get distracted by focusing too much of our effort and thinking on extremely small levels of emissions. The climate movement has seen a lot of progress and success in shifting its focus away from individual actions like turning off lights when leaving a room to big systematic changes like building smart grid infrastructure or funding clean energy tech. Even if you are only focused on lifestyle changes, it is best to focus on the most impactful lifestyle changes for climate. It would be much better for climate activists to spend all their time focused on helping people switch to green heating than encouraging people to hang dry their clothes. If the climate movement should not focus its efforts on getting individual people to hang dry their clothes, it should definitely not focus on convincing people not to use ChatGPT:

2 5 23

Reposted by Dan Williams

Rob Sica @robsica.bsky.social · Aug 24

🔪"once you appreciate that reputation management is a deep-rooted, pervasive force distorting cognition and belief, you confront a vast space of possible ways this distorting influence might operate"

Domination and Reputation Management

How ideologies of liberation become tools of oppression

www.conspicuouscognition.com

3 7

Reposted by Dan Williams

Hannah Ritchie @hannahritchie.bsky.social · Aug 22

Yesterday, Google released a new report estimating the environmental footprint per Gemini query.

That's very welcome, as lack of any transparency from big tech companies has been a big problem. I hope others follow suit.

I wrote about on this on Substack: hannahritchie.substack.com/p/ai-footpri...

What's the carbon footprint of using ChatGPT or Gemini? [August 2025 update]

A new study from Google suggests its Gemini LLM uses around 0.24 Wh per text query. That's the same energy as using a microwave for one second.

hannahritchie.substack.com

7 27 100

Reposted by Dan Williams

Jerusalem Demsas @jerusalem.bsky.social · Aug 22

I'm sure this will be popular. www.theargumentmag.com/p/we-have-to...

The case for staying on Twitter

Against a politics of hygiene

www.theargumentmag.com

300 5 130