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Bryan Pfaffenberger

@bpfaffenberger.bsky.social

97 followers 470 following 5 posts

Bio: https://engineering.virginia.edu/faculty/bryan-pfaffenberger Retired but not yet expired scholar of STS | Anthropology of Technology | History of technology | Sri Lanka Studies| technological dramas theory

Political science 50%

Computer science 19%

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Reposted by Danah Boyd, Devon Greyson, Patrick S. Forscher , and 3 more Danah Boyd, Devon Greyson, Patrick S. Forscher, Fabio Giglietto, Bryan Pfaffenberger, Dean Eckles

Nancy Baym @nancybaym.bsky.social · Jul 28

We may have the chance to hire an outstanding researcher 3+ years post PhD to join Tarleton Gillespie, Mary Gray and me in Cambridge MA bringing critical sociotechnical perspectives to bear on new technologies.

jobs.careers.microsoft.com/global/en/jo...

Search Jobs | Microsoft Careers

https://jobs.careers.microsoft.com/global/en/job/1849026/Principal-Researcher-–-Sociotechnical-Systems-–-Microsoft-Research

Reposted by Anita Chan, Bryan Pfaffenberger

Jeffrey Yost @justcode.bsky.social · Mar 8

So grateful to the incredible Prof. @anitachan.bsky.social for her tremendous lecture (& wonderful conversation) in MPLS "Predatory Data: Feminist Resistance to Eugenics in Big Tech," on Thursday!!! Hosted by CBI for Computing, Info. & Culture & HHH Ctr. on Women, Gender, & Public Policy. #Histsci

Prof. Anita Say Chan delivering her talk on Predatory Data in MPLS for CBI & CWGPP at UMN.

Prof. Anita Say Chan in Q & A discussion following her lecture, she is seated and is holding a microphone.

Reposted by Bryan Pfaffenberger

Mary Dudziak @marydudziak.bsky.social · Jul 12

Against Constitutional Originalism by @jgienapp.bsky.social is as accessible as it is important, which can rarely be said about a work of Constitutional theory and interpretation. Should be great for course use in law, poli sci, and history.
yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...

A book: Jonathan Gienapp, Against Constitutional Originalism: A Historical Critique," with a blurb from Cass Sunstein: "Gienapp's book comes as a thunderclapp."

Bryan Pfaffenberger @bpfaffenberger.bsky.social · Jun 27

How about “Republican Wannabe Democrats”… focuses on their aspirations

Reposted by Bryan Pfaffenberger

The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · Jun 20

👇🏽

Reposted by Fabián Muniesa, Bryan Pfaffenberger

Society for Social Studies of Science @4sweb.bsky.social · Jun 19

The 🏆4S Mullins Prize winner for 2025🏆 is Anin Luo for “Animal Scientism: Making Biology Experimental in Republican China.” East Asian Science, Technology and Society: An International Journal 19(1): 8–36.

Read more here:
4sonline.org/2025_anin_lu...

Photographic portrait of Anin Luo facing the camera, wearing a cream suit jacket, a small silver necklace, and black bobbed hair. Anin is smiling while appearing in front of a photograph of a blue building.

Reposted by Bryan Pfaffenberger

Jeffrey Yost @justcode.bsky.social · Jun 18

Delighted to announce CBI Research Fellow (& close friend & collaborator) Prof. Gerardo Con Díaz's (Con's) stellar new book is out (got to read it early & blurb it).

Everyone Breaks These Laws: How Copyright Made the Online World.

Congrats Con! #histtech

yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...

Everyone Breaks These Laws

Copyright’s profound impact on the online world as we know it This book is a captivating exploration of the profound impact of American copyright law on...

yalebooks.yale.edu

Bryan Pfaffenberger @bpfaffenberger.bsky.social · May 20

Assignment: use AI to find and discuss one of the issues in our class and identify a response that is clearly hallucinated and evaluate its implications for rational discourse

Bryan Pfaffenberger @bpfaffenberger.bsky.social · May 7

Congratulations. Berkeley grad (1972, PhD 1975. A wonderland of discovery and thought that has shaped and enriched my life beyond measure

Reposted by Éric Verdeil, Bryan Pfaffenberger, Larry W. Hunter

Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · May 7

AI is a plagiarism engine built on stolen data, exploited labour, and enviro harm. Marketed as “intelligent,” it erodes critical thinking, empathy, and causes psychological harm. Run by authoritarian billionaires, it’s used for surveillance, profiling, and genocide—whether it works or makes up shit.

Kylie Robison @kylierobison.com · May 7

can i ask my followers here perhaps too earnestly - if you hate AI or find it utterly worthless, why?

Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social · May 7

it's jolting how little AI skepticism has reached the general public. i've had many acquaintances ask whether i use AI for research and seem shocked when i tell them it's completely useless for that purpose. my wife recently told her colleagues about hallucinations and it was news to all of them.

Reposted by Bryan Pfaffenberger

Miriam Posner @miriamposner.com · May 3

For a long time, I thought, if we could just *explain things* properly, people would see that technical decisions are absolutely, without doubt, political decisions. But I’ve seen enough to be convinced that there is no appetite to learn this. +

Reposted by Bryan Pfaffenberger

Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · Apr 30

www.liberalcurrents.com/unfit-to-be-...

Reposted by Bryan Pfaffenberger

Miriam Posner @miriamposner.com · Apr 28

I know how horrible everything is, but I just got tenure and I refuse to let that man prevent me from celebrating. I genuinely didn't know if I was going to stagger across this line, so I have no intention of taking it for granted.

Reposted by Bryan Pfaffenberger

Helen Czerski @helenczerski.bsky.social · Apr 23

I have just finished The Dawn Of Everything and I highly recommend it if you're interested in the structure of society or how we look at history. It's a commitment (525 pages and reasonably dense) but it's eye-opening. And gives you hope for the future - there are *other* ways of doing things.

Book: The Dawn of Everything, by David Graeber and David Wengrow

Reposted by Bryan Pfaffenberger

Dave Karpf @davekarpf.bsky.social · Apr 20

Next on the reading list.

(…Why do I do this to myself?)

"Fascinating and important."
—Walter Isaacson, # New York Times bestselling author
The
Technological
Republic
Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West
Alexander C. Karp
and Nicholas W. Zamiska

Reposted by Bryan Pfaffenberger

Laurence H. Tribe @tribelaw.bsky.social · Apr 20

Trump treats immigrants from Mexico and Central and South America worse than we treated Germans and Japanese subject to the Alien Enemies Act in World War II. He is a monster, not just a tyrant.

Reposted by Bryan Pfaffenberger

Angela Cheney @angela2932.bsky.social · Apr 19

A Busy #NoKings day in #Durham #NorthCarolina

#AntiTrump
#StopTrump
#HandsOff
#TeslaShutDown
#FiftyFiftyOne
#50501Movement
#HandsOff
#PeoplesMovement
#PROTESTS50501
#HandsOff
#FiftyFiveZeroOne
#StopTheCoup

Reposted by Bryan Pfaffenberger, Melinda Baldwin

Ben Gross @bhgross144.bsky.social · Apr 19

This thread is a helpful reminder of the historical contingency of America's R&D infrastructure and the very real possibility that its strength could eventually decline...

(Also be sure to check out @williamthomas.bsky.social's slides: aip.brightspotcdn.com/91/cc/b6a413...)

#histSTM #innovation 🗃️📜

Reposted by Bryan Pfaffenberger

MeidasTouch @meidastouch.com · Apr 17

If Trump’s erratic behavior feels like it’s accelerating, that’s because it is. An important message from our founder:

Very Important Thursday Message from Meidas Founder

By Ben Meiselas

www.meidasplus.com

Reposted by Bryan Pfaffenberger

Laurence H. Tribe @tribelaw.bsky.social · Apr 5

“I would be lying if I said I don’t worry. I do. But as I wrote last month: “Despite that worry, I cannot stop standing up for what is right. I cannot turn a blind eye to injustice.” — @marcelias.bsky.social (4/5/25). Me too, Marc. In solidarity, LHT

Reposted by Bryan Pfaffenberger

Miriam Posner @miriamposner.com · Apr 4

If you’ve ever sat on an NEH review panel (as many of us have), you know how difficult it is to win a grant. It’s an incredibly exacting process, with way too many excellent projects competing for funding. Awardees are scrutinized from every direction, with more rigor than DOGE can even imagine.

Reposted by Bryan Pfaffenberger

Gary Whitta @garywhitta.com · Apr 3

MSNBC just showed a montage of world leaders calling the USA idiotic, illogical, hostile, unhinged.... literally never seen anything like this. From the shining city on a hill to an object of global derision and contempt.

Reposted by Bryan Pfaffenberger

Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · Mar 29

It’s important to understand the context of AI as a part of a toolkit of fascism, and how it fits into the history of political and social repression in the United States, writes Tech Policy Press fellow Dia Kayyali: www.techpolicy.press/ai-surveilla...

AI Surveillance on the Rise in US, but Tactics of Repression Not New | TechPolicy.Press

Resistance sends a message that intimidation tactics won’t work and to those targeted that they are not alone, writes Dia Kayyali.

www.techpolicy.press

Reposted by Fatih Guvenen, Bryan Pfaffenberger, Johanna Siméant , and 2 more Fatih Guvenen, Bryan Pfaffenberger, Johanna Siméant, Samuel Coavoux, Salla-Maaria Laaksonen

Jacek Debiec, MD, PhD, DPhil 🌎 🧠 @drjacekdebiec.bsky.social · Mar 26

This speaks volumes:

Yale professors, Timothy Snyder, a historian of totalitarianism and the author of "On Tyranny," and Jason Stanley, a philosopher and the author of "How Fascism Works", move to Canada.

leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2025/03...

munkschool.utoronto.ca/person/timot...

Stanley from Yale to Toronto

Jason Stanley (philosophy of language, epistemology, political philosophy), Professor of Philosophy at Yale University, has accepted a senior offer from the University of Toronto, where he will be thr...

leiterreports.typepad.com

Bryan Pfaffenberger @bpfaffenberger.bsky.social · Mar 24

In my elder years it’s so satisfying to see that younger scholars have found my work useful. For links to my most cited works see my bio page at UVa engineering.virginia.edu/faculty/brya...

Bryan Pfaffenberger | University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science

My career mission has been to awaken my discipline, anthropology, to the analysis of technology from an anthropological point of view.

engineering.virginia.edu

Reposted by Bryan Pfaffenberger

Kevin Zollman @kevinzollman.com · Mar 17

The Institute for Complex Social Dynamics and the Department of Machine Learning at Carnegie Mellon are hiring a postdoctoral fellow who works at the intersection of social dynamics and machine learning. Please encourage anyone interested to apply!

cmu.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/CMU/job/Pitt...

Postdoctoral Research Associate - ISCD & MLD - School of Computer Science

The Institute for Complex Social Dynamics (ICSD) and the Machine Learning Department at Carnegie Mellon University are seeking a talented and motivated postdoctoral researcher for a joint position. Th...

cmu.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com

Bryan Pfaffenberger @bpfaffenberger.bsky.social · Mar 9

Lever voting machines helped the US become the world’s model democracy. Voters couldn’t spoil their ballots, and every operation of the machines required bipartisan observation. Any attempt to rig them would be obvious to a technician with a high school education. Today?

Reposted by Bryan Pfaffenberger

Mrs. Betty Bowers @mrsbettybowers.bsky.social · Mar 9

The perfect metaphor for what the Supreme Court did to this country with Citizens United v. FEC.

Reposted by Bryan Pfaffenberger

Miriam Posner @miriamposner.com · Mar 9

I’m supposed to teach a PhD seminar next year and I’m thinking History of the Database.

Reposted by Bryan Pfaffenberger

Linda Andersson Burnett @lindaaburnett.bsky.social · Mar 4

My department at Uppsala university has just announced two open PhD positions: one in history of science and the other in history of ideas. We research, for example, colonial history of science, history of medicine, and intellectual history. Deadline: 8 April