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👻 Prof. Ghosty Neilsen 👻

@joeyneilsen.bsky.social

4.5K followers 1.1K following 4.7K posts

Black hole astrophysicist at Villanova. Formerly: MIT, Boston University, Harvard, Kenyon College | X-rays | husband | dad of 2 | cooking. He/him. Skeets are my own.

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👻 Prof. Ghosty Neilsen 👻 @joeyneilsen.bsky.social · Sep 4

Wow hi new followers! I’m a physics professor and I study black holes. I’m here to talk about teaching, science, marriage, parenting, cooking, dogs, politics, my crumbling old house. I heart dad jokes. Trans rights are human rights, Black Lives Matter, and I abhor violence.

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👻 Prof. Ghosty Neilsen 👻 @joeyneilsen.bsky.social · 3h

Just saw an ad for Claude where they say “find your problem.”

First time I’ve seen AI advertise itself as a solution in search of a problem.

👻 Prof. Ghosty Neilsen 👻 @joeyneilsen.bsky.social · 15h

Very positive to extremely positive

👻 Prof. Ghosty Neilsen 👻 @joeyneilsen.bsky.social · 16h

I think they are real scientists. I also think there are lots of non-scientists who don't think of science as creative. But they're all wrong.

Reposted by 👻 Prof. Ghosty Neilsen 👻

Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 1d

A striking thing about articles I’ve read claiming to “study the effects” of generative AI on student writing skills and consumption of information is that (1) they nearly always find the effects are negative and (2) most “conclusions” are still written assuming that we must use AI, for some reason.

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👻 Prof. Ghosty Neilsen 👻 @joeyneilsen.bsky.social · 1d

Yes, in retrospect I see how it could look like I was contrasting there, but my intent was to lament the fact that some people see a contrast.

👻 Prof. Ghosty Neilsen 👻 @joeyneilsen.bsky.social · 1d

Not at all! The idea machine is where proposals and hypotheses and new experiments and theory come from, how we fix problems in experiments and simulations. It's how we turn data points into interpretation and a scientific narrative. The whole endeavor is creative.

👻 Prof. Ghosty Neilsen 👻 @joeyneilsen.bsky.social · 1d

I certainly will!

👻 Prof. Ghosty Neilsen 👻 @joeyneilsen.bsky.social · 1d

I don't disagree! But I do think there are people who do, or who don't see it that way.

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👻 Prof. Ghosty Neilsen 👻 @joeyneilsen.bsky.social · 1d

I recall, for example, a conversation in which a postdoc told me that the only things that had value were ones that could be quantified. 😶

Many scientists I know love and appreciate and do all sorts of creative pursuits! But it's also not hard to find disdain for things that aren't "hard science."

👻 Prof. Ghosty Neilsen 👻 @joeyneilsen.bsky.social · 1d

I think scientists are sometimes dismissive of creative work. It's sad for a lot of reasons, one of which is certainly that creative work makes the world a richer place to live. Another one is that scientists are extremely dependent on the idea machine and ought to celebrate all its many dispensers.

Emma Evans @trance.bsky.social · 1d

questions which are stupid because they're asking for magic shortcuts. They want to know how to do a thing without work.

Which is why also creatives are often treated like what we do isn't work

NOT REALLY.

When skull sweat is labor and laborous.

Anyway when all else fails, sleep on it.

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👻 Prof. Ghosty Neilsen 👻 @joeyneilsen.bsky.social · 2d

When my wife was a teenager, she was trying to get a horse back into its stall after riding, and it stepped on her foot. Not on accident, not in passing. It put its hoof on top of her foot and pressed down so she couldn't move. Why? Just because.

Faine Greenwood @faineg.bsky.social · 2d

horses can SERIOUSLY injure you with their jaws - do not ever antagonize enormous animals with opinions

Rivikah @rivikah.bsky.social · 2d

My grandfather was missing a finger and a half from his right hand due to it being bitten off by a horse.

👻 Prof. Ghosty Neilsen 👻 @joeyneilsen.bsky.social · 2d

There are dozens of us

👻 Prof. Ghosty Neilsen 👻 @joeyneilsen.bsky.social · 2d

💀

👻 Prof. Ghosty Neilsen 👻 @joeyneilsen.bsky.social · 2d

Gotta give it up for nurses tho

👻 Prof. Ghosty Neilsen 👻 @joeyneilsen.bsky.social · 2d

I had to do chores instead of the work I needed to do and now I’m too mad to work

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👻 Prof. Ghosty Neilsen 👻 @joeyneilsen.bsky.social · 3d

Rats 😭

👻 Prof. Ghosty Neilsen 👻 @joeyneilsen.bsky.social · May 15

Last year, I was racing to finish a proposal for time on a shiny new space telescope. But mom had been sick, and there hadn't been time to work on it. 30 min before the deadline, I got a call to come home, and I dropped everything. Today, that proposal is submitted. I think Mom would be proud. I am.

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👻 Prof. Ghosty Neilsen 👻 @joeyneilsen.bsky.social · 3d

As I see it only ONE person came to your defense after that hot dog stunt you just pulled. So...

👻 Prof. Ghosty Neilsen 👻 @joeyneilsen.bsky.social · 3d

This is just the correct way to eat a hot dog tho, except I'm a ketchup guy

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👻 Prof. Ghosty Neilsen 👻 @joeyneilsen.bsky.social · 3d

I think it's seasonal... maybe they just celebrated Canadian Christmas?

👻 Prof. Ghosty Neilsen 👻 @joeyneilsen.bsky.social · 3d

cold french fries ftw

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👻 Prof. Ghosty Neilsen 👻 @joeyneilsen.bsky.social · 4d

I have been saying that shows need to explain how their characters got from one timeline to another

👻 Prof. Ghosty Neilsen 👻 @joeyneilsen.bsky.social · 5d

Correct

👻 Prof. Ghosty Neilsen 👻 @joeyneilsen.bsky.social · 5d

My crappy TV screen can't even show things that dark. Full brightness ftw

👻 Prof. Ghosty Neilsen 👻 @joeyneilsen.bsky.social · 5d

You should be able to control the speed so that no time is wasted between turns.

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👻 Prof. Ghosty Neilsen 👻 @joeyneilsen.bsky.social · 8d

Me, Friday night: you guys gotta clean your room before you can play video games tomorrow

Later:

Kid 1: dad can you think of a system that keeps our room cleaner?

Me: what about putting stuff away when you’re done with it?

Later:

Kid 2: we’re going to clean our room every Saturday