Andrew Smith
@oldboysmith.bsky.social
Just an old bloke from Bristol. Semi-retired C software engineer.
Reposted by Andrew Smith
Jason Blakely, "In the Land of the Data Blind"
"Political scientists subscribing to the dominant approaches to American government face what philosophers of science call an epistemological crisis..."
harpers.org/archive/2026...
"Political scientists subscribing to the dominant approaches to American government face what philosophers of science call an epistemological crisis..."
harpers.org/archive/2026...
In the Land of the Data Blind, by Jason Blakely
Why political science can’t grasp Trumpism
harpers.org
January 6, 2026 at 11:06 PM
Jason Blakely, "In the Land of the Data Blind"
"Political scientists subscribing to the dominant approaches to American government face what philosophers of science call an epistemological crisis..."
harpers.org/archive/2026...
"Political scientists subscribing to the dominant approaches to American government face what philosophers of science call an epistemological crisis..."
harpers.org/archive/2026...
Reposted by Andrew Smith
1/Leaders are abducted/allies are threatened but pundits and governments are scratching their heads on what the US is doing. Danish PM on Greenland "It makes absolutely no sense". Why? Because actors using old IR models when we need a new lens. Enter neo-royalism.
abcnews.go.com/Internationa...
abcnews.go.com/Internationa...
Denmark's PM urges Trump to 'stop the threats' of annexing Greenland
The prime minister of Denmark called on Trump to “stop the threats” of the U.S. annexing Greenland after renewed comments garnered international attention.
abcnews.go.com
January 5, 2026 at 1:24 PM
1/Leaders are abducted/allies are threatened but pundits and governments are scratching their heads on what the US is doing. Danish PM on Greenland "It makes absolutely no sense". Why? Because actors using old IR models when we need a new lens. Enter neo-royalism.
abcnews.go.com/Internationa...
abcnews.go.com/Internationa...
Reposted by Andrew Smith
If you're looking for the backstory to the US action (attack? raid? invasion?) in Venezuela, you should definitely check out Moe Tkacik's impressively comprehensive account in the Prospect. prospect.org/2025/12/23/n...
The Narco-Terrorist Elite - The American Prospect
Why is Marco Rubio so hell-bent on making Iran-Contra again?
prospect.org
January 5, 2026 at 3:40 AM
If you're looking for the backstory to the US action (attack? raid? invasion?) in Venezuela, you should definitely check out Moe Tkacik's impressively comprehensive account in the Prospect. prospect.org/2025/12/23/n...
Reposted by Andrew Smith
Reposted by Andrew Smith
The fun part here is that people who don’t like migrants largely believe this because they’re constantly screamed at about menacing immigrants from every TV, radio and news stand, and the whole reason that’s done is to discourage people from noticing who it is that gets most of the money, and how.
January 2, 2026 at 6:25 PM
The fun part here is that people who don’t like migrants largely believe this because they’re constantly screamed at about menacing immigrants from every TV, radio and news stand, and the whole reason that’s done is to discourage people from noticing who it is that gets most of the money, and how.
Reposted by Andrew Smith
Weak, irrelevant, cowardly. Nobody expected any better from the British government (or the EU, tbh).
Keir Starmer says UK 'not involved in any way' in US strike on Venezuela
The PM has not spoken to US President Donald Trump about the US seizure of President Nicolas Maduro.
www.bbc.co.uk
January 3, 2026 at 2:15 PM
Weak, irrelevant, cowardly. Nobody expected any better from the British government (or the EU, tbh).
Reposted by Andrew Smith
Marco Rubio is reportedly saying Maduro will stand trial in US courts.
Which means it’s now the US administration’s position that US courts can hold foreign presidents, but not the US president, accountable for crimes.
Which means it’s now the US administration’s position that US courts can hold foreign presidents, but not the US president, accountable for crimes.
January 3, 2026 at 10:52 AM
Marco Rubio is reportedly saying Maduro will stand trial in US courts.
Which means it’s now the US administration’s position that US courts can hold foreign presidents, but not the US president, accountable for crimes.
Which means it’s now the US administration’s position that US courts can hold foreign presidents, but not the US president, accountable for crimes.
Reposted by Andrew Smith
If Maduro was bombing Miami, every single world leader would be shouting from the rooftops.
January 3, 2026 at 8:25 AM
If Maduro was bombing Miami, every single world leader would be shouting from the rooftops.
I know the main story is the increase in our knowledge about MS, but it is also a prime example of how the term AI brings nothing to the conversation. It covers everything from a form of data analysis, as in this case, to Chat-GPT. And as such fails to convey anything.
December 30, 2025 at 8:01 AM
I know the main story is the increase in our knowledge about MS, but it is also a prime example of how the term AI brings nothing to the conversation. It covers everything from a form of data analysis, as in this case, to Chat-GPT. And as such fails to convey anything.
Only because people make this one simple mistake “The problem is that AI is a black box. It produces knowledge, “ but it doesn’t.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Our king, priest and feudal lord – how AI is taking us back to the dark ages | Joseph de Weck
Since the Enlightenment, we’ve been making our own decisions. But now AI may be about to change that, says Joseph de Weck, a fellow with the Foreign Policy Research Institute
www.theguardian.com
December 26, 2025 at 8:17 AM
Only because people make this one simple mistake “The problem is that AI is a black box. It produces knowledge, “ but it doesn’t.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
“Coding assistants have become a mainstay in the software world.” Really? I think that statement is in the category well explained by Harry Frankfurt, as is the output of all LLM’s
AI upheaval shows little sign of lessening ft.trib.al/MQpdGis | opinion
AI upheaval shows little sign of lessening
If the boom continues its blistering pace through 2026, the stresses could start to show
ft.trib.al
December 25, 2025 at 8:00 AM
“Coding assistants have become a mainstay in the software world.” Really? I think that statement is in the category well explained by Harry Frankfurt, as is the output of all LLM’s
Reposted by Andrew Smith
I riff on @dianecoyle1859.bsky.social’s discussion of institutions and growth to explain why banking may be an important missing link in economists’ understanding of how and why growth takes place.
Institutions and growth: How banks used to provide the liquidity that fuels innovation and growth
Institutions and growth: How banks used to provide the liquidity that fuels innovation and growth
December 22, 2025 at 10:56 PM
I riff on @dianecoyle1859.bsky.social’s discussion of institutions and growth to explain why banking may be an important missing link in economists’ understanding of how and why growth takes place.
Institutions and growth: How banks used to provide the liquidity that fuels innovation and growth
Institutions and growth: How banks used to provide the liquidity that fuels innovation and growth
Reposted by Andrew Smith
💯 And the same applies to any intellectual product, from papers and reviews to legal briefs, compliance plans for nuclear energy, and the fraudulent Deloitte reports. The claimed utility is predicated on misunderstanding that these artifacts must serve as testimony to cognitive processes.
To be clear, the original crime is lying about the diligence and cognitive process that are claimed to underly the report. A fake citation is secondary, and most significant as circumstantial evidence of the first.
There is now an industry around obfuscating the evidence.
There is now an industry around obfuscating the evidence.
It is not "attribution and sourcing" to generate post-hoc citations that have not been read and did not inform the student's writing. Those should be regarded as fraudulent: artifacts testifying to human actions and thought that did not occur.
www.theverge.com/news/760508/...
www.theverge.com/news/760508/...
December 21, 2025 at 5:50 AM
💯 And the same applies to any intellectual product, from papers and reviews to legal briefs, compliance plans for nuclear energy, and the fraudulent Deloitte reports. The claimed utility is predicated on misunderstanding that these artifacts must serve as testimony to cognitive processes.
Reposted by Andrew Smith
Professional societies keep beclowning themselves buying into a lie about what an LLM "summary" is. They are inherently counterfeit: not an epistemic product of the ideas in the source, but summary-shaped text linguistically based on *other* works (in the training corpus) that use related language.
This is one of the reasons I remain horrified by seeing @historians.org suggest "ways to use gAI" that included this:
December 21, 2025 at 3:23 AM
Professional societies keep beclowning themselves buying into a lie about what an LLM "summary" is. They are inherently counterfeit: not an epistemic product of the ideas in the source, but summary-shaped text linguistically based on *other* works (in the training corpus) that use related language.
Reposted by Andrew Smith
The main thing to conclude from this Labour strategy to compare the Greens to Reform is that they don’t understand the threat that Reform pose.
They’re not bothered by fascism.
They’re not bothered by fascism.
December 21, 2025 at 7:56 AM
The main thing to conclude from this Labour strategy to compare the Greens to Reform is that they don’t understand the threat that Reform pose.
They’re not bothered by fascism.
They’re not bothered by fascism.
Reposted by Andrew Smith
New substack: why so many people are content with economic stagnation: chrisdillow.substack.com/p/wallowing-...
Wallowing in poverty
Why we're not bothered about economic growth.
chrisdillow.substack.com
December 20, 2025 at 10:39 AM
New substack: why so many people are content with economic stagnation: chrisdillow.substack.com/p/wallowing-...
Reposted by Andrew Smith
Remember: you can disagree with #PalestineAction and still believe that they, like everyone, have the right to a fair trial. They should not be imprisoned on remand for months or years before trial. Remember that the #hungerstrikers have not been convicted of *any crime at all*.
December 19, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Remember: you can disagree with #PalestineAction and still believe that they, like everyone, have the right to a fair trial. They should not be imprisoned on remand for months or years before trial. Remember that the #hungerstrikers have not been convicted of *any crime at all*.
Reposted by Andrew Smith
This is powerful - I had similar thoughts in my post last week about the powerful but false nature of the Russia is winning narrative sianushka.substack.com/p/russias-gr...
December 18, 2025 at 9:52 AM
This is powerful - I had similar thoughts in my post last week about the powerful but false nature of the Russia is winning narrative sianushka.substack.com/p/russias-gr...
Reposted by Andrew Smith
This is my cyclical reminder that there's really only one consistently reliable source of info in the public record that isn't owned by right wing billionaires, who really want to put an end to it.
Please give at least the $2.75 minimum they request if you can.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Please give at least the $2.75 minimum they request if you can.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org
December 17, 2025 at 5:05 AM
This is my cyclical reminder that there's really only one consistently reliable source of info in the public record that isn't owned by right wing billionaires, who really want to put an end to it.
Please give at least the $2.75 minimum they request if you can.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Please give at least the $2.75 minimum they request if you can.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
“We believe Artificial Intelligence is our alchemy, our Philosopher’s Stone,” writes venture capitalist Marc Andreessen.
Had to read this several times. Did he realise what he was saying? Pouring billions into something, they don’t what it is, let alone find?
Had to read this several times. Did he realise what he was saying? Pouring billions into something, they don’t what it is, let alone find?
Could America win the AI race but lose the war? on.ft.com/44r03Mn
Could America win the AI race but lose the war?
The US has gone all-in on artificial intelligence. But the idea of an end-of-times battle with China over tomorrow’s key technology is part delusion, part lobbying tool for Silicon Valley
on.ft.com
December 13, 2025 at 10:57 AM
“We believe Artificial Intelligence is our alchemy, our Philosopher’s Stone,” writes venture capitalist Marc Andreessen.
Had to read this several times. Did he realise what he was saying? Pouring billions into something, they don’t what it is, let alone find?
Had to read this several times. Did he realise what he was saying? Pouring billions into something, they don’t what it is, let alone find?
Reposted by Andrew Smith
It’s rather funny how the people who now worship Blair’s memory have actually forgotten what made Blair so effective in the early days. I wrote something about this ages ago….
paulbernal.wordpress.com/2015/07/09/b...
paulbernal.wordpress.com/2015/07/09/b...
Blair, Elvis and the Labour Leadership Contest
When I was on holiday a few weeks ago, the evening’s entertainment at our hotel was an Elvis impersonator. Big, fat, in a spangle-covered white suit with flared trousers and a short cape, hai…
paulbernal.wordpress.com
December 12, 2025 at 9:23 AM
It’s rather funny how the people who now worship Blair’s memory have actually forgotten what made Blair so effective in the early days. I wrote something about this ages ago….
paulbernal.wordpress.com/2015/07/09/b...
paulbernal.wordpress.com/2015/07/09/b...
Reposted by Andrew Smith
The fact that @yuanfenyang.bsky.social gets only 5 minutes every other month or so to ask great questions about the worst understood issue in fiscal policy suggests to me that oversight is fundamentally, deeply broken.
🚨Does the Bank consider taxpayer value for money when setting the pace of QT? Of course.
But doesn't the MPC set the pace? Why, yes.
And does the MPC consider value for money when making these decisions? Nope.
Confused?
www.ft.com/content/84e7...
But doesn't the MPC set the pace? Why, yes.
And does the MPC consider value for money when making these decisions? Nope.
Confused?
www.ft.com/content/84e7...
Yes, the BoE thinks about QT value for money. But does the MPC?
BoE ≠ MPC
www.ft.com
December 11, 2025 at 4:59 PM
The fact that @yuanfenyang.bsky.social gets only 5 minutes every other month or so to ask great questions about the worst understood issue in fiscal policy suggests to me that oversight is fundamentally, deeply broken.
Reposted by Andrew Smith
BoE line about interest on reserves is that reducing is a fiscal decision for the government to make. But payments were never legislated—it was a BoE decision, which apparently sought an ok from the Treasury, in 2006 when this was an issue of millions rather than billions. But look now:
Over the last 11 financial years, the UK Treasury has spent more on paying interest to the banking sector on their reserves than it has taken in from them in corporate and sector-specific taxes. In 2024-25, it paid over 3 times as much for interest on reserves as it received from taxes on banks.
December 3, 2025 at 11:12 AM
BoE line about interest on reserves is that reducing is a fiscal decision for the government to make. But payments were never legislated—it was a BoE decision, which apparently sought an ok from the Treasury, in 2006 when this was an issue of millions rather than billions. But look now:
Reposted by Andrew Smith
1. In Hamburg there is a "fully autonomous train" that for some reason has a human operator to press the ON switch first thing in the morning and the OFF switch at the end of the night. In a recent talk about AI in science, I asked the audience to consider whether they want to be like that operator.
All aboard except the driver? A fully autonomous train takes to the tracks in Germany
YouTube video by euronews
www.youtube.com
December 8, 2025 at 8:12 AM
1. In Hamburg there is a "fully autonomous train" that for some reason has a human operator to press the ON switch first thing in the morning and the OFF switch at the end of the night. In a recent talk about AI in science, I asked the audience to consider whether they want to be like that operator.
Reposted by Andrew Smith
Agree with @jomichell.bsky.social here.
My earlier piece: "The claim that that MMT means that a future government can dodge hard choices about how to pay for decent public services is just plain nonsense."
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/econom...
My earlier piece: "The claim that that MMT means that a future government can dodge hard choices about how to pay for decent public services is just plain nonsense."
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/econom...
December 3, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Agree with @jomichell.bsky.social here.
My earlier piece: "The claim that that MMT means that a future government can dodge hard choices about how to pay for decent public services is just plain nonsense."
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/econom...
My earlier piece: "The claim that that MMT means that a future government can dodge hard choices about how to pay for decent public services is just plain nonsense."
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/econom...