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David Higgins

@davidhiggins.bsky.social

8.1K followers 2.7K following 1.7K posts

Professor of Environmental Humanities at the University of Leeds, UK. Working on culture and environmental crisis. Writing a book about birds, loss, and restoration. Worried parent. Luddite. Opinions my own. Reposts ≠ endorsement.

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David Higgins @davidhiggins.bsky.social · Oct 17

The book I'm writing -- on bitterns, loss, and hope -- has for a while seemed impossible. Today it seems merely improbable. I'm counting that as progress!

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David Higgins @davidhiggins.bsky.social · 6h

I’m pleased to see them but they terrify my son, which can make going outside a bit of a lottery at this time of year! (

Reposted by David Higgins

Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 8h

Reposting because I too need the answer.

John Kuhn @johnmkuhn.bsky.social · 13h

genuine question for mid-career people: what concrete tips do you have to keep service from swamping your own writing?

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David Higgins @davidhiggins.bsky.social · 8h

Being (deliberately?) incompetent at admin has worked for one or two academics of my acquaintance.
More seriously, being ruthless at blocking out research time — easier said than done of course.

David Higgins @davidhiggins.bsky.social · 9h

A Gen AI argument I hate:

‘We disadvantage our students if we don’t teach them to use it “responsibly”’

For fuck’s sake, no.

1: it can’t be used responsibly
2: it’s antithetical to what makes humanities work worthwhile: critical thinking, deep research, self expression, self reflection, etc.

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Reposted by David Higgins

Lindsay Beyerstein @beyerstein.bsky.social · 9h

Students talk about the demoralizing effects of AI. It makes them feel like they don't need to know anything and can't learn how to do anything well enough to compete with the machine.

MiMi Aye @meemalee.bsky.social · 4d

Author and filmmaker Justine Bateman on generative AI

"They're trying to convince people they can't do the things they've been doing easily for years - to write emails, to write a presentation. Your daughter wants you to make up a bedtime story about puppies - to write that for you." We will get to the point, she says with a grim laugh, "that you will essentially become just a skin bag of organs and bones, nothing else. You won't know anything and you will be told repeatedly that you can't do it, which is the opposite of what life has to offer. Capitulating all kinds of decisions like where to go on vacation, what to wear today, who to date, what to eat.
People are already doing this. You won't have to process grief, because you'll have uploaded photos and voice messages from your mother who just died, and then she can talk to you via AI video call every day. One of the ways it's going to destroy humans, long before there's a nuclear disaster, is going to be the emotional hollowing-out of people." - author and filmmaker Justine Bateman from a piece by Emine Saner for the Guardian

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David Higgins @davidhiggins.bsky.social · 9h

I suspected that the most annoying part of getting home from Graz today would be the 57 miles between Manchester airport and Leeds railway station and that has turned out to be correct. Going to take nearly 3 hours, with 2 changes. Remember the Northern Powerhouse?

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David Higgins @davidhiggins.bsky.social · 14h

Excellent discussion as always. Sad that this will be our last face to face project meeting… 😢

Warren Pearce @warrenpearce.bsky.social · 16h

On way home from superb Cultural Climate Models meeting in Graz with @davidhiggins.bsky.social @caroschwegler.bsky.social et al. Looking forward to seeing in print the new approach to modelling from this truly interdisciplinary international collab

gewi.uni-graz.at/en/unsere-fo...

Entrance of Graz train station with Graz Hauptbahnhof written in capital letters on a light coloured stone building against clear blue sky

David Higgins @davidhiggins.bsky.social · 14h

Really feeling those Brexit benefits as I traverse passport control at Munich airport (hope to make my connection).

Reposted by David Higgins

Eben Muse @ebenmyrddin.bsky.social · 1d

First of all, 5mm isn't microscopic and you CAN see them.

Second of all, the fact that our Chancellor thinks she can't see these seems to mean she thinks they're not worthy of our consideration.

A hallmark of this government's terminal lack of imagination.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

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Reposted by David Higgins

Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 1d

Robert Jenrick can take his bullshit racist concerns about ‘integration’ and shove them. And so can everyone else pitching in to defend him & pretend it’s a legitimate concern coming from a good place. Is it hell.

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David Higgins @davidhiggins.bsky.social · 2d

Yep — not very easy to get to from Leeds!

David Higgins @davidhiggins.bsky.social · 2d

Ah thank you: not a species I’m familiar with.

David Higgins @davidhiggins.bsky.social · 3d

Nice one — looks a good fit.

David Higgins @davidhiggins.bsky.social · 3d

End of a long day travelling from Leeds to Graz. Highlights were a taxi driver telling me my German is good (it’s awful) and this picture in my hotel room (ID?) Looking forward to discussing cultural climate models tomorrow. As usual, I’ll be banging on about ecological and existential angst.

A painting of a cool looking water bird. Possibly a crake of some kind. Mainly orange.

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David Higgins @davidhiggins.bsky.social · 5d

Snipe are always great to see!

David Higgins @davidhiggins.bsky.social · 5d

Having a moderately bad and very long working day. But I just received an email from a student, beginning 'really great lecture this morning, you're a compelling speaker', so all is forgiven (even the comma splice).

David Higgins @davidhiggins.bsky.social · 5d

One has grown to expect terrible public transport across the North of England, but sometimes it is genuinely shocking how bad it is.

Reposted by David Higgins

Dan Neidle @danneidle.bsky.social · 6d

Douglas Barrowman and Michelle Mone's company, PPE Medpro, has just been ordered to refund the Government £122m from a PPE contract.

There are two very odd things about PPE Medpro that may affect the odds of the Government ever getting that £122m...

Thread:

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Reposted by David Higgins

Colin Dickey @colindickey.com · 7d

Man, I'm sorry, but reading all these AI generated essays from students, it just sucks all the joy out of everything. It's exhausting, makes you into a weird paranoid cop, grinds you down, wastes your time, makes you feel like shit about everything.

Fuck this shit technology and all its enablers.

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Reposted by David Higgins

Dr Rachel Clarke @drrachelclarke.com · 7d

Here I am in 2020 in the flimsiest, most pitful PPE - like so many other NHS staff, some of whom died from the Covid they caught in their hospitals.

Tory peer Michelle Mone - who today lost her legal case & must repay the govt £122m - dares to claim she’s been ‘scapegoated’.

What, Michelle? 🧵

Rachel wearing very flimsy looking apron, mask and visor in NHS setting

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David Higgins @davidhiggins.bsky.social · 7d

I’m his portrait in the attic

David Higgins @davidhiggins.bsky.social · 7d

Hope it goes/went well!

David Higgins @davidhiggins.bsky.social · 7d

He’s a total reprobate

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David Higgins @davidhiggins.bsky.social · 7d

I don’t think so but thinking of making it available in some other way. Too busy with term time stuff atm!

David Higgins @davidhiggins.bsky.social · 7d

Possibly not with those organisers, given my unimpressive tech skills! Maybe I’ll just record it myself and put it up somewhere.

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