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Carl T. Bergstrom

@carlbergstrom.com

140K followers 2.5K following 9.8K posts

Professor, UW Biology / Santa Fe Institute I study how information flows in biology, science, and society. Book: *Calling Bullshit*, http://tinyurl.com/fdcuvd7b LLM course: https://thebullshitmachines.com Corvids: https://tinyurl.com/mr2n5ymk he/him

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · Feb 4

Modern-Day Oracles or Bullshit Machines?

Jevin West (@jevinwest.bsky.social) and I have spent the last eight months developing the course on large language models (LLMs) that we think every college freshman needs to take.

thebullshitmachines.com

thebullshitmachines.com

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 8h

"The most notable benefit is that she gets the satisfaction of doing something she enjoys in her own way"

Amen.

Reposted by Carl T. Bergstrom

Preorder Read This When Things Fall Apart @mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 18d

CW: protester being struck in the head by a pepper ball

Footage I took earlier of the moment Reverend David Black, a regular protester outside of the Broadview Detention Center, was shot in the head with a pepper ball by ICE agents on the roof of the facility.

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 12h

Not in the least.

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 13h

This is an excellent point.

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 13h

Wait till you hear how I had to subscribe to another package to watch the National League games….

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 13h

The game was rain delayed. FS1 was covering it. They just switched into the Yankees game. This game is now on FS2 which the package that I subscribed to a week ago in order to watch the playoffs does not include.

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 13h

Blacked out here

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 13h

Screw you, MLB, for licensing your games on a case by case basis and not including them in your own streaming package. I had to buy 5 different services to catch all of the playoff games.

But switching the Mariners game to a channel that I don’t have midway through the fourth inning? Unreal.

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 18h

callingbullshit.org/FAQ.html

Bullshit is by no means a modern invention. Each page on this website features a famous bullshit artist of yore.

Here on this page, a detail from Michelangelo's 1512 Expulsion from the Garden. According to Christian theology, all of the pain and suffering (and mortality) that pervades human life can be traced to the lies that the serpent fed Eve about the fruit of knowledge.

On our syllabus page, Theodoor Rombouts's early 17th century The Denial of Saint Peter. At the Last Supper, Saint Peter assured Jesus that he would never deny him, but Jesus saw right through that. By the next morn, Saint Peter had lied three times in denial of the savior.

On the home page, Rafael's 1511 The School of Athens. Here Socrates is depicted as he obliterates the arguments of the Sophists, a group of purported scholars who constructed an entire philosophical school around talking bullshit. (Fortunately, the Sophists are long gone and no other school of philosophy would venture to lay its foundations on the same effluent base. )

Reposted by Carl T. Bergstrom

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 1d

Thank you so much, April. We’d like to write an update too—so much has happened in a mere five years—but I think we have to tackle the bullshit machines first.

Modern-Day Oracles or Bullshit Machines: Introduction

A free online humanities course about how to learn and work and thrive in an AI world.

Thebullshitmachines.com

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 1d

I love small ball, but that was poorly executed.

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 1d

Thank you so much, April. We’d like to write an update too—so much has happened in a mere five years—but I think we have to tackle the bullshit machines first.

Modern-Day Oracles or Bullshit Machines: Introduction

A free online humanities course about how to learn and work and thrive in an AI world.

Thebullshitmachines.com

Reposted by Carl T. Bergstrom

April Wright @wrightam.bsky.social · 1d

Continuing my tour of books I should have already read, Calling Bullshit by @carlbergstrom.com and @jevinwest.bsky.social. Just a delight - an accessible, entertaining, insightful look at various forms of BS. Much like Weapons of Math Destruction, would love a 2025 update of this one.

Calling Bullshit: Data Reasoning in a Digital World

The world is awash in bullshit. Politicians are unconstrained by facts. Science is conducted by press release. Higher education rewards bullshit over analytic thought. Startup culture elevates bullshi...

www.callingbullshit.org

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 1d

October nerves

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 1d

Goddamn Tommy Edman. You’re lucky you have Freddy Freeman at first.

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 1d

October Ball doesn’t get any better than this bottom of the ninth attempted comeback from the Phillies.

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 1d

Precisely.

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 1d

Based on the experience of countries that have tried this, there’s overwhelming evidence that it is utterly unnecessary.

Edward Nirenberg @enirenberg.bsky.social · 1d

This serves absolutely no purpose other than to reduce vaccine uptake:
www.reuters.com/business/hea...

www.reuters.com

Reposted by Carl T. Bergstrom

Sally James @jamesian.bsky.social · 2d

Congrats to Mary Brunkow of #seattle for #immunology discoveries leading to shared #Nobel ...
Congrats to Institute for Systems Biology.
#research #science

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/h...

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Is Awarded for Work on Immune Systems

www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Carl T. Bergstrom

Brett "Solidarity 2025" Banditelli @banditelli.org · Mar 16

When I posted this many folks said this likely isn't an injury, it's just something they do to stay warm, and OMG today over 100 sanderlings flew in right next to me and almost all of them were hopping on one foot. See thread for more 😭🪶

Reposted by Carl T. Bergstrom

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 2d

*where “wank” is it precise technical term, via @iris-meredith.bsky.social

An essay on wank | deadSimpleTech

This captures well the uncomfortable, slightly disorienting feeling that wank creates when you're subjected to it, wherein you're expected to speak about and think about the statement as though it say...

deadsimpletech.com

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 2d

*where “wank” is it precise technical term, via @iris-meredith.bsky.social

An essay on wank | deadSimpleTech

This captures well the uncomfortable, slightly disorienting feeling that wank creates when you're subjected to it, wherein you're expected to speak about and think about the statement as though it say...

deadsimpletech.com

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 2d

Bro if somebody comes in and says “baseball is an economic boon to my city”, this would be a reasonable response. When somebody comes in and says I am happy because my team is in the playoffs even though everything else sucks and you answer with this sort of wank, this way you’re just being a tool.

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 2d

Yeah, I can’t tell. It’s like what if Bill James was completely full of shit and had a professional ad agency producing his columns?

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 2d

It’s completely wild, right?

I mean, I guess the thing is we’re supposed to all be in on the joke and realize these are just spurious correlations and they’re having fun with it — but it’s not a very good joke given that they are lacking an actual use case.