Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
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cyborgapologist.bsky.social
Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
@cyborgapologist.bsky.social
Ass Prof of STS @ UVA
Communications Director for Society for Philosophy and Technology
Phil Tech, Disability Studies, Med Hums, Bioethics, Hist of Eugenics, Transhumanism
I teach engineers what the stuff they build does to people.
Pinned
New piece! Seven years in the making, but Cyborg Maintenance will finally be out in the March edition of Disability Studies Quarterly.

In it I talk about many of the things that go into maintaining a bodymind which relies on technology.

Pre-print here: cyborgapologist.com/pre-print-pu...
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
*teeny-tiny water bear voice*

"🎵 around the world, around the worrrrld~ 🎵"
Oh to be a little Tardigrade walking around a microscopic volvox algae colony. 🫧🐻🧪
February 13, 2026 at 11:32 PM
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
"you're gonna get in trouble for that"

*stone-faced*

"okay"

goddamn son
get the kid in the brown hoodie a scholarship
February 13, 2026 at 10:55 PM
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
Please don't forget to vote for us in @projectforawesome.com! You can view our video explaining our mission and vote here: projectforawesome.com/videos/proje... We are new to the P4A world and here's our review of the livestream so far.
February 13, 2026 at 9:32 PM
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
FOUR.

TIMES.
February 13, 2026 at 8:37 PM
Who knew that the Flood the Zone with Shit era would be able to hide other people's shit?

(Everyone. We all knew and warned you. Over and over.)
Stunning quote in this report from The New York Times about Meta’s plans to add facial recognition to their Ray-Bans:

"We will launch during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns."
February 13, 2026 at 9:18 PM
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
Stunning quote in this report from The New York Times about Meta’s plans to add facial recognition to their Ray-Bans:

"We will launch during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns."
February 13, 2026 at 4:03 PM
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
OK, yeah, why bother hiding your evil any more during this "dyamic political environment"?
Stunning quote in this report from The New York Times about Meta’s plans to add facial recognition to their Ray-Bans:

"We will launch during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns."
February 13, 2026 at 8:33 PM
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
jesus fucking christ
Meta's plan for launching glasses that people can use to secretly identify strangers on the street is to do it "during a dynamic political environment" when people who care about why that's bad are "focused on other concerns."

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/t...
Meta Plans to Add Facial Recognition Technology to Its Smart Glasses
www.nytimes.com
February 13, 2026 at 3:57 PM
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
🧵
I have a friend who said, of Starfleet Academy, that this took them out of it - that seeing a person in a wheelchair in the 32nd century seemed unrealistic, since medicine in Star Trek "should be able to cure whatever was wrong with them."

That's not the case, for any number of possible reasons.
February 13, 2026 at 1:36 PM
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
This is Bogie. This rope is his very favorite toy because it makes his tiny human smile too. 13/10 (TT: _chelsea_brown_4)
February 12, 2026 at 10:28 PM
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
"Racist people are firing and laying off Black women at three times the rate of other women."

😬Yikes! It sounds bad when you say it like that!

"Black women are losing jobs at 3 times the rate."

Much better! Makes it sound like the Black women just need to be more careful or better at their jobs!
Black Women Are Losing Jobs At Three Times The Rate Of Other Women | Essence
New labor data shows Black women accounted for a disproportionate share of job losses across 2025, especially in federal, education, and care-sector roles.
www.essence.com
February 13, 2026 at 12:01 PM
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
Said it before & will say it again: A vast proportion of the current framework of Western technology & power is founded on, & delights in proliferating, eugenics. Thiel, Musk, Epstein; "AI," life extensionist, way too much of transhumanism. Gebru & Torres gave it 1 name, but the connections are OLD.
I parsed through some of the emails in the Epstein files, and it’s very clear that Epstein was a eugenicist weirdo. Something he very much had in common with the billionaire class à la Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and Donald Trump. New for @motherjones.com.

www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
Epstein couldn't stop emailing people about eugenics
In the latest files, the trafficker gives it a Silicon Valley–pilled name: "genetic altruism."
www.motherjones.com
February 13, 2026 at 4:01 AM
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
Read Christina Cogdell, read @cyborgapologist.bsky.social, read @fractalecho.bsky.social, read @shirachess.bsky.social, read the history of "AI" and the internet and on and on and on. It's… it's all right there.
bsky.app/profile/wolv...
To learn more about people like Yarvin & Thiel & their eugenicist/techno-fascist history & how it's woven throughout a LOT of American technological, political, & scientific history, read here:

Josh Earle's diss: hdl.handle.net/10919/107009
"TESCREAL": scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=e...
Ch. 3 here:
‪Belief, Values, Bias, and Agency: Development of and Entanglement with "Artificial Intelligence"‬
‪DP Williams, 2022‬ - ‪Cited by 5‬
scholar.google.com
February 13, 2026 at 4:01 AM
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
I…
Once again, a reminder that you now live in a country where there are two classes of citizenship, & approximately 26 million of us are being reminded on a regular basis by the far right authoritarian party that we have the lesser kind.
cool, cool. so we are sort of like citizens, but not really?
February 13, 2026 at 12:26 AM
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
Who wants to tell them about the rest of the super secret "DEI Benefits Package" ???????
February 12, 2026 at 11:26 PM
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
This is Elain, Rhysand, and Cassian. The mischievous trio ingested something toxic, making them all very sick. Thanks to your support of our merch, @15outof10.org was able to cover their $9,400 hospital bill. They all made a full recovery, and each of the puppies found a forever home ❤️‍🩹
February 12, 2026 at 6:43 PM
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
Found an additional graphic that gets even more of these quotes together.

I've kept "I hate myself, I hate clover, and I hate bees" pinned above my desk since I first started studying evolutionary biology as an undergraduate. So relatable to get extremely frustrated with your study system.
February 12, 2026 at 7:19 PM
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
in more fun Olympic news, downhill gold medalist Breezy Johnson got engaged at the finish line of the super-G

(and yes, she "may have told him that I just always kind of had the dream of getting engaged at the Olympics" so this is the proposal she wanted)
Breezy Johnson gets engaged at Winter Olympics after boyfriend proposes at finish line
Johnson, 30, was proposed to after her run in Thursday's super-G final ended in a crash.
www.nbcnews.com
February 12, 2026 at 7:31 PM
Hey, YouTube... if'n you're gonna recommend me a playlist, then maybe don't stop it three songs in and ask me if I want to keep watching, cuz I'mma say no just to fucking spite you.
February 12, 2026 at 7:47 PM
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
Also LMAO at Pam Bondi getting all the heat when GOP Senator Jim Jordan, another pedophile protector who helped cover up abuse in a NOTORIOUS sex abuse scandal at Ohio State University & who victims said knew the entire time it was occurring, is CHAIRING the Epstein files hearing.

They ALL trash.
February 12, 2026 at 5:16 PM
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
my cousin's father and grandfather both died of colon cancer, and his doctor had to lie to help him get a colonoscopy covered at age 40

you know a system is working well when its most trusted members have to lie to get the right thing done
Chadwick Boseman and James van der Beek both died in their 40s of an illness that's treatable if a colonoscopy catches it but almost no insurer covers them for people under 45, this is what Engels meant by "social murder"
February 12, 2026 at 7:14 PM
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
I JUST taught about the 24th and some ancillary decisions that ruled other obstructions to voting (IQ tests, for example) illegal.
Let me introduce everyone to the 24th Amendment! C’mon down, Fighting 24th:

The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election…shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.
Thank you, Julie Johnson, for speaking out against the grotesquely misnamed SAVE act. We need you to keep fighting for us in the House.
February 12, 2026 at 7:41 PM
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
If you were going to write a story about how propaganda works even on the world's top propagandists, this is a good pitch.
NEW: Right-wing podcaster Candace Owen has spent months spinning out dark conspiracy theories about the killing of Charlie Kirk—angering Kirk's widow and clashing with the group he founded.

Now, though, it looks like some TPUSA employees buy Owens's theories:
www.thebulwark.com/p/candace-ow...
Candace Owens Gets Inside TPUSA’s Head
Her nutty theories about the killing of Charlie Kirk have won over some of his organization’s employees.
www.thebulwark.com
February 12, 2026 at 7:35 PM
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
slightly less well known than the Sam Vimes "Boots" Theory of Socioeconomic Unfairness is the Sam Vimes "Onions" Theory of Nutrition
February 12, 2026 at 7:20 PM
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
Discworld QOTD, from Snuff

"Why did they never find a vegetable that was bad for you, hey? And what was so wrong with onion gravy anyway? It has onions in it didn’t it? They made you fart, didn’t they? That was good for you, wasn’t it? He was sure he had read that somewhere."
Discworld QOTD, from Wyrd Sisters
February 12, 2026 at 7:18 PM