Lachlan Kermode
@ohrg.org
PhD Candidate at Brown University / software at https://liminal-lab.org/. Freeing computers one terminal at a time.
Pinned
Lachlan Kermode
@ohrg.org
· May 16
Grad Log
www.ohrg.org
I gave my PhD "musings" blog a makeover today. It should be much easier to get around now! Check it out if you're interested in what I've been working on: www.ohrg.org
www.forester-notes.org/QHXS/index.xml - I love the idea here of internal blogging and weeknotes in a research group. Tech to make this easy should exist so that we have writing between bleats and published papers. (Arxiv isn't quite it, and academics are weirdly opposed to blogs.)
www.forester-notes.org
November 23, 2025 at 1:53 AM
www.forester-notes.org/QHXS/index.xml - I love the idea here of internal blogging and weeknotes in a research group. Tech to make this easy should exist so that we have writing between bleats and published papers. (Arxiv isn't quite it, and academics are weirdly opposed to blogs.)
Berkeley Mono is a revelation. Even more reason to lean into email in the terminal with [aerc](aerc-mail.org)
aerc - a pretty good email client
aerc-mail.org
November 21, 2025 at 11:05 PM
Berkeley Mono is a revelation. Even more reason to lean into email in the terminal with [aerc](aerc-mail.org)
Reposted by Lachlan Kermode
my interview for the Digital Theory Lab with Karen Hao @karenhao.bsky.social at the Remarque Institute
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZpH...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZpH...
Karen Hao on Empire of AI
YouTube video by Remarque NYU
www.youtube.com
November 17, 2025 at 6:26 PM
my interview for the Digital Theory Lab with Karen Hao @karenhao.bsky.social at the Remarque Institute
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZpH...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZpH...
At Historical Materialism in London this week, let me know if you too are here
November 6, 2025 at 3:00 PM
At Historical Materialism in London this week, let me know if you too are here
Reposted by Lachlan Kermode
CFP, Jameson conference at Duke in Durham, April 10-12, 2026.
October 29, 2025 at 3:41 PM
CFP, Jameson conference at Duke in Durham, April 10-12, 2026.
This is a puncheur of a piece
‘A key question, however, is rarely asked: what does ‘‘material interest’’ mean?’
For Sidecar, Dylan Riley on the new Marxism:
newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...
For Sidecar, Dylan Riley on the new Marxism:
newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...
Dylan Riley, Material Interests — Sidecar
On the new Marxism.
newleftreview.org
October 29, 2025 at 6:19 PM
This is a puncheur of a piece
Reposted by Lachlan Kermode
BADA BOOM! The HM London Conference programme is now online!
Online registrations close Tuesday 4 November at midnight GMT!
Online registrations close Tuesday 4 November at midnight GMT!
Twenty-Second Annual Conference - Historical Materialism
Deadline extended to 27 May! Resurgent Reaction: Marxist Strategies at the End of the Liberal Order 6-9 November 2025, SOAS, Russell Square, Central London Deadline for abstracts: Friday 16 May 2025
www.historicalmaterialism.org
October 24, 2025 at 3:01 PM
BADA BOOM! The HM London Conference programme is now online!
Online registrations close Tuesday 4 November at midnight GMT!
Online registrations close Tuesday 4 November at midnight GMT!
Just discovered github.com/wtnqk/ftdv -- this is exactly the tool I've been looking for to better review LLM agent work locally. Built with the invenerable @ratatui.rs
GitHub - wtnqk/ftdv: FILE TREE DIFF VIEWER
FILE TREE DIFF VIEWER. Contribute to wtnqk/ftdv development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
October 22, 2025 at 9:35 AM
Just discovered github.com/wtnqk/ftdv -- this is exactly the tool I've been looking for to better review LLM agent work locally. Built with the invenerable @ratatui.rs
Reposted by Lachlan Kermode
the publication of posthumous work without the expressed & explicit consent of the author is wrong, and many great works of literature are none of our business; the "well, we don't really know what they wanted" gymnastics people do in order to publish work authors sought to destroy is also wrong.
Do you have any extremely niche, but serious, ethical stances?
October 20, 2025 at 12:01 AM
the publication of posthumous work without the expressed & explicit consent of the author is wrong, and many great works of literature are none of our business; the "well, we don't really know what they wanted" gymnastics people do in order to publish work authors sought to destroy is also wrong.
Some sane discussion. AI is idealized as a major disruption in the political economy of software employment and tech startup funding cycles, and this anxiety is part of what is allowing the crazies so much airtime when it comes to thinking it through.
I very much appreciate this: "Technologies like LLMs have utility, but the absurd way they've been over-hyped, the fact they're being forced on everyone, and the insistence on ignoring the many valid critiques about them make it very difficult to focus on legitimate uses where they might add value."
Okay, for the folks who asked: here's the majority AI view, writing up the reasonable, thoughtful view on AI that the vast majority of people in tech hold, that gets overshadowed by the bluster and hype of the tycoons trying to shill their nonsense. anildash.com/2025/10/17/t... Please share!
October 19, 2025 at 10:39 AM
Some sane discussion. AI is idealized as a major disruption in the political economy of software employment and tech startup funding cycles, and this anxiety is part of what is allowing the crazies so much airtime when it comes to thinking it through.
@paper-feed.bsky.social is a wonderful initiative: skygest.github.io. I highly recommend pinning the feed, it's a refreshing experience!
Paper Skygest
skygest.github.io
October 19, 2025 at 9:57 AM
@paper-feed.bsky.social is a wonderful initiative: skygest.github.io. I highly recommend pinning the feed, it's a refreshing experience!
Very grateful to @nsaphra.bsky.social for making their (successful) job market materials publicly available: nsaphra.net/post/jobmark.... It's very handy to be able see what these things are supposed to look like!
Faculty Market Portfolio | Naomi Saphra
Statements from my faculty applications.
nsaphra.net
October 17, 2025 at 12:20 PM
Very grateful to @nsaphra.bsky.social for making their (successful) job market materials publicly available: nsaphra.net/post/jobmark.... It's very handy to be able see what these things are supposed to look like!
Just read this piece brought to my attention by @matthiasellis.com. Stunning stuff
October 17, 2025 at 11:05 AM
Just read this piece brought to my attention by @matthiasellis.com. Stunning stuff
www.wheresyoured.at/the-case-aga... - great economic context on the AI buzz
The Case Against Generative AI
Soundtrack: Queens of the Stone Age - First It Giveth
Before we go any further: This is, for the third time this year, the longest newsletter I've ever written, weighing in somewhere around 18,500 wo...
www.wheresyoured.at
October 7, 2025 at 6:19 AM
www.wheresyoured.at/the-case-aga... - great economic context on the AI buzz
Reposted by Lachlan Kermode
file file file file
Just a reminder to check for your name in this list of books that OpenAI trained from. If your name is there, they probably owe you several thousand dollars.
OpenAI cried that if everyone eligible author files, the company will go bankrupt, so I'm alerting every author I have ever spoken to.
OpenAI cried that if everyone eligible author files, the company will go bankrupt, so I'm alerting every author I have ever spoken to.
Search LibGen, the Pirated-Books Database That Meta Used to Train AI
Millions of books and scientific papers are captured in the collection’s current iteration.
www.theatlantic.com
September 10, 2025 at 6:07 AM
file file file file
Reposted by Lachlan Kermode
it is very telling that “BIOS”, in addition to being an acronym, is also the Greek word for “life”. meanwhile, “UEFI” is, of course, ancient Greek for “unified extensible firmware interface”
March 5, 2025 at 5:38 AM
it is very telling that “BIOS”, in addition to being an acronym, is also the Greek word for “life”. meanwhile, “UEFI” is, of course, ancient Greek for “unified extensible firmware interface”
Dissertation editing begins
September 7, 2025 at 10:31 AM
Dissertation editing begins
Reposted by Lachlan Kermode
David's @rustforgeconf.com talk on the Wild linker was incredible.
Definitely sponsor him here:
github.com/davidlattimore
Definitely sponsor him here:
github.com/davidlattimore
August 30, 2025 at 3:24 AM
David's @rustforgeconf.com talk on the Wild linker was incredible.
Definitely sponsor him here:
github.com/davidlattimore
Definitely sponsor him here:
github.com/davidlattimore
Reposted by Lachlan Kermode
I finally read computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum’s 1976 classic “Computer Power and Human Reason.”
This book deserves a massive revival in our current age of grotesque and largely thoughtless AI creep into everything:
This book deserves a massive revival in our current age of grotesque and largely thoughtless AI creep into everything:
August 28, 2025 at 10:34 PM
I finally read computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum’s 1976 classic “Computer Power and Human Reason.”
This book deserves a massive revival in our current age of grotesque and largely thoughtless AI creep into everything:
This book deserves a massive revival in our current age of grotesque and largely thoughtless AI creep into everything:
Excited to be attending rustforgeconf.com in Aotearoa this week!
Be part of something new! — Rust Forge Conference 2025
A tech conference for developers building with the Rust programming language hosted in Wellington, New Zealand from 27-30th August 2025.
rustforgeconf.com
August 25, 2025 at 10:20 PM
Excited to be attending rustforgeconf.com in Aotearoa this week!
Reposted by Lachlan Kermode
Join our reading group on Joan Copjec’s new book “Cloud: Between Paris and Tehran”!!
. @pietrobianch1.bsky.social and I are doing a zoom reading group in four sessions on Joan Copjec's new book, _Cloud_.
Saturdays: September 13; September 27; October 18; November 8
Time: 11.00 AM to 1.00 PM EST
Please DM for information if you'd like to join!
mitpress.mit.edu/978026255239...
Saturdays: September 13; September 27; October 18; November 8
Time: 11.00 AM to 1.00 PM EST
Please DM for information if you'd like to join!
mitpress.mit.edu/978026255239...
Cloud: Between Paris and Tehran
In Cloud: Between Paris and Tehran, Joan Copjec examines the films of the Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami. The key, she argues, lies in the image of a frag...
mitpress.mit.edu
August 23, 2025 at 9:47 PM
Join our reading group on Joan Copjec’s new book “Cloud: Between Paris and Tehran”!!
Reposted by Lachlan Kermode
wakes up, checks the news, still living in a wrong world, goes back to bed
June 22, 2025 at 6:05 AM
wakes up, checks the news, still living in a wrong world, goes back to bed
I've thought this from time to time, too. If one started learning programming with Rust, might thinking about lifetimes and borrowing come more naturally? Just as OO thinking comes naturally for those who learned programming through Java. Are there any 'intro to CS' courses in Rust out there?
June 12, 2025 at 7:25 AM
I've thought this from time to time, too. If one started learning programming with Rust, might thinking about lifetimes and borrowing come more naturally? Just as OO thinking comes naturally for those who learned programming through Java. Are there any 'intro to CS' courses in Rust out there?
@steveklabnik.com if you happen to directly any of those five other people who are interested in the relationship between Marx's theory of value and AI's brand of automation, please point them to this course we're running! cftw.ohrg.org
Capital for Tech Workers
cftw.ohrg.org
June 6, 2025 at 9:28 AM
@steveklabnik.com if you happen to directly any of those five other people who are interested in the relationship between Marx's theory of value and AI's brand of automation, please point them to this course we're running! cftw.ohrg.org
Reposted by Lachlan Kermode
Around age 30 I realized that everyone is faking it and I cannot express how much of a load that was off my mind. EVERYTHING got easier at that point.
May 25, 2025 at 11:05 PM
Around age 30 I realized that everyone is faking it and I cannot express how much of a load that was off my mind. EVERYTHING got easier at that point.