Rob Sica
@robsica.bsky.social
Knowledge would have little allure if we did not have to overcome so much shame on the way to acquiring it. -Nietzsche
"ideology follows the incentives"
Exploitation with Hannes Rusch
YouTube video by Evolutionary Psychology (The Podcast)
www.youtube.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:52 PM
"ideology follows the incentives"
Reposted by Rob Sica
My @nytimes.com op-ed: The Boomers Are Protesting Trump. Where Is Gen Z? www.nytimes.com/2025/11/24/o... (gift link)
The key point: "The absence of young people from conventional protests is both a problem and a warning."
The key point: "The absence of young people from conventional protests is both a problem and a warning."
Opinion | The Boomers Are Protesting Trump. Where Is Gen Z?
www.nytimes.com
November 24, 2025 at 1:37 PM
My @nytimes.com op-ed: The Boomers Are Protesting Trump. Where Is Gen Z? www.nytimes.com/2025/11/24/o... (gift link)
The key point: "The absence of young people from conventional protests is both a problem and a warning."
The key point: "The absence of young people from conventional protests is both a problem and a warning."
Reposted by Rob Sica
New blog post on why it's not the best idea to talk about all Rassemblement national voters as a homogenous bunch of "racists". In English and French below.
November 25, 2025 at 10:53 AM
New blog post on why it's not the best idea to talk about all Rassemblement national voters as a homogenous bunch of "racists". In English and French below.
Reposted by Rob Sica
In a new short review piece, we argue that advancing research on trust in science requires:
- clearer concepts
- harmonized measures
- a normative discussion about what levels and forms of trust are desirable.
Huge thanks to my co-authors @nielsmede.bsky.social and @colognaviktoria.bsky.social.
- clearer concepts
- harmonized measures
- a normative discussion about what levels and forms of trust are desirable.
Huge thanks to my co-authors @nielsmede.bsky.social and @colognaviktoria.bsky.social.
November 25, 2025 at 12:31 PM
In a new short review piece, we argue that advancing research on trust in science requires:
- clearer concepts
- harmonized measures
- a normative discussion about what levels and forms of trust are desirable.
Huge thanks to my co-authors @nielsmede.bsky.social and @colognaviktoria.bsky.social.
- clearer concepts
- harmonized measures
- a normative discussion about what levels and forms of trust are desirable.
Huge thanks to my co-authors @nielsmede.bsky.social and @colognaviktoria.bsky.social.
"What are some harsh truths about human nature that most people don't know or disagree with?"
Everything You Know About Society Is Wrong: Robin Hanson Exposes What Most Experts Don’t Tell You
YouTube video by Jacob J. Watson-Howland
www.youtube.com
November 25, 2025 at 4:13 AM
"What are some harsh truths about human nature that most people don't know or disagree with?"
"When moral convictions and attitudes function as class insignia in status competitions, a double dynamic of subtilization and escalation emerges that drives the moral discourse of modernity in increasingly remote directions."
Klasse
Der Kampf um Prestige, Status und AnsehenKlassen durchdringen das gesamte Leben: unsere Werte, unsere Gefühle, unsere Freundschaften und Beziehungen, unseren Geschmack und unseren Lebensstil, unseren ...
www.piper.de
November 25, 2025 at 1:21 AM
"When moral convictions and attitudes function as class insignia in status competitions, a double dynamic of subtilization and escalation emerges that drives the moral discourse of modernity in increasingly remote directions."
Reposted by Rob Sica
"Ironically, anti-science sentiments exist within the science education research community itself that can potentially breed mistrust in science... lack of nuance in critiquing science and blanket dismissal of science as a racist, sexist and colonial endeavour"
How Science Education Research Journals Address (and Neglect) Trust in Science
Science education is pivotal in enhancing scientific literacy and potentially contributing to trust in science. The paper examines how trust in scienc…
www.sciencedirect.com
November 24, 2025 at 7:16 PM
"Ironically, anti-science sentiments exist within the science education research community itself that can potentially breed mistrust in science... lack of nuance in critiquing science and blanket dismissal of science as a racist, sexist and colonial endeavour"
Reposted by Rob Sica
News from the future, inspired by work from Michael Levin, Josh Bongard, David Chalmers and many others! Link below.
open.substack.com/pub/unpublis...
open.substack.com/pub/unpublis...
The Experience Machine
News from the Future #1
open.substack.com
November 24, 2025 at 4:00 PM
News from the future, inspired by work from Michael Levin, Josh Bongard, David Chalmers and many others! Link below.
open.substack.com/pub/unpublis...
open.substack.com/pub/unpublis...
Fascinating new theory of cultural evolution by Chater & Christiansen breaks with both dual inheritance and evo psych modularity (and, thus by extension, with key aspects of Baumard & Andre's ecological approach, though perhaps less so with Singh's subjective selection?).
Social Tinkering: The Social Foundations of Cultural Complexity | Behavioral and Brain Sciences | Cambridge Core
Social Tinkering: The Social Foundations of Cultural Complexity
www.cambridge.org
November 24, 2025 at 6:41 PM
Fascinating new theory of cultural evolution by Chater & Christiansen breaks with both dual inheritance and evo psych modularity (and, thus by extension, with key aspects of Baumard & Andre's ecological approach, though perhaps less so with Singh's subjective selection?).
Reposted by Rob Sica
Why ChatGPT for Teachers Might Make Things Worse
I've spent the morning with the this new product and I have concerns...
carlhendrick.substack.com/p/why-chatgp...
I've spent the morning with the this new product and I have concerns...
carlhendrick.substack.com/p/why-chatgp...
Why ChatGPT for Teachers Might Make Things Worse
OpenAI have just released ChatGPT for Teachers which I have just spent the morning looking at it and I have concerns.
carlhendrick.substack.com
November 24, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Why ChatGPT for Teachers Might Make Things Worse
I've spent the morning with the this new product and I have concerns...
carlhendrick.substack.com/p/why-chatgp...
I've spent the morning with the this new product and I have concerns...
carlhendrick.substack.com/p/why-chatgp...
"Signals are not generated by a sender to contain information to be decoded by a receiver but, rather, signals are acts deployed to capitalize on assessment systems."
<em>American Anthropologist</em> | AAA Anthropology Journal | Wiley Online Library
This paper argues that legibility is foundational to human agency. The argument critiques the implication that legibility is exclusively modern or necessarily disempowering. On the contrary, legibili....
anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 24, 2025 at 3:17 AM
"Signals are not generated by a sender to contain information to be decoded by a receiver but, rather, signals are acts deployed to capitalize on assessment systems."
🔪"a paradoxical or ironic truth: while moral philosophers reflect on moral issues to establish consensus or agreement, philosophical reflection is the enemy of such agreement: philosophical clarity and precision breed disagreement"
A Brief Response to Critics | 13 | What Is the Point of Moral Philosop
This chapter consists of replies to the chapters in the collection that critically discuss Persson’s chapter, namely the chapters by McMahan, DeGrazia, Roberts,
www.taylorfrancis.com
November 24, 2025 at 3:01 AM
🔪"a paradoxical or ironic truth: while moral philosophers reflect on moral issues to establish consensus or agreement, philosophical reflection is the enemy of such agreement: philosophical clarity and precision breed disagreement"
"I'm not a moral realist"
Is Morality A Human Universal with Professor Edouard Machery - Behind the Stigma
In this episode, I speak with Professor Edouard Machery to explore experimental philosophy and the question of whether morality is truly universal. We discuss why humans need morals in the first place...
behindthestigma.buzzsprout.com
November 24, 2025 at 2:36 AM
"I'm not a moral realist"
"sex fades from view within academic feminism... I feel that academic feminists in Butler’s footsteps have been too busy beating the zombified cadaver of biologism to notice how reactionaries and anti-feminists love—rather than 'are afraid of'—gender"
Much Ado About Gender - Archives of Sexual Behavior
Archives of Sexual Behavior -
link.springer.com
November 24, 2025 at 2:03 AM
"sex fades from view within academic feminism... I feel that academic feminists in Butler’s footsteps have been too busy beating the zombified cadaver of biologism to notice how reactionaries and anti-feminists love—rather than 'are afraid of'—gender"
Very cool: looks like Joyce will be responding to the trenchant commentaries on his great new book that have recently appeared in this journal. (As with Van Leeuwen's Religion as Make-Believe, I expect multiple symposia wrestling with Morality: From Error to Fiction.)
brill.com/view/journal...
brill.com/view/journal...
November 24, 2025 at 12:14 AM
Very cool: looks like Joyce will be responding to the trenchant commentaries on his great new book that have recently appeared in this journal. (As with Van Leeuwen's Religion as Make-Believe, I expect multiple symposia wrestling with Morality: From Error to Fiction.)
brill.com/view/journal...
brill.com/view/journal...
"males of all species are much more likely to undergo the lasting effects of sexual imprinting than females, which aligns strikingly with human sex differences in the frequency of fetishes and paraphilic disorders"
Comment l’enfance façonne nos désirs sexuels, même les plus inavouables
Fétiches, paraphilies, goûts atypiques : et si une partie de nos désirs tenait à quelques expériences anodines de nos premières années de vie ?
www.lepoint.fr
November 23, 2025 at 11:14 PM
"males of all species are much more likely to undergo the lasting effects of sexual imprinting than females, which aligns strikingly with human sex differences in the frequency of fetishes and paraphilic disorders"
🔪"When one takes the historical perspective, much moral philosophy looks like it is engaged in a hopeless apologetic project of trying to reconcile what cannot be reconciled."
Nietzsche’s ideas about morality were shaped by philology | Aeon Essays
When Nietzsche used the tools of philology to explore the nature of morality, he became a ‘philosopher of the future’
aeon.co
November 23, 2025 at 10:10 PM
🔪"When one takes the historical perspective, much moral philosophy looks like it is engaged in a hopeless apologetic project of trying to reconcile what cannot be reconciled."
"Nietzsche can regard some suffering – even profoundly undesired and passively endured trauma – such as becoming paralyzed, being sexually assaulted, experiencing repeated bipolar episodes – as good features in an individual's life"
Nietzsche's perspectives on suffering
Suffering figures in a number of related and sometimes overlapping themes throughout Nietzsche's works, from The Birth of Tragedy to the works of his last productive year: representing suffering ar...
www.tandfonline.com
November 23, 2025 at 9:56 PM
"Nietzsche can regard some suffering – even profoundly undesired and passively endured trauma – such as becoming paralyzed, being sexually assaulted, experiencing repeated bipolar episodes – as good features in an individual's life"
"it cannot easily be controlled; we cannot, simply by an act of will, choose not to despair"
Despair
Since Case and Deaton (2015) coined the term “deaths of despair,” there has been significant empirical work and public interest in the topic. Yet social scientists studying this topic lament the absen...
journals.publishing.umich.edu
November 23, 2025 at 7:25 PM
"it cannot easily be controlled; we cannot, simply by an act of will, choose not to despair"