Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Elke Schwarz @elkeschwarz.bsky.social · 6h

This number alone is distressing. Now also imagine the staggering number of young lives irrevocably traumatised. www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...

Young lives cut short on an unimaginable scale: the 18,457 children on Gaza’s list of war dead

Every name on a list compiled by health authorities in Gaza of the child victims of Israel’s offensive

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Elke Schwarz

Dave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 1d

The entire global educational establishment is tiptoeing around the edges of which particular parts of GenAI might or might not be "unethical", when the whole commercial enterprise of GenAI is based on mass theft that would have seen the culprits jailed if they weren't extremely rich white men.

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Elke Schwarz @elkeschwarz.bsky.social · 3d

Thank you!

Elke Schwarz @elkeschwarz.bsky.social · 3d

That looks fantastic, would it be possible to have a copy of the full article? I don't have access to the complete version.

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Elke Schwarz @elkeschwarz.bsky.social · 5d

It's a very short story .... this is all there is on the full site at the moment

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Elke Schwarz @elkeschwarz.bsky.social · 5d

I am grateful for the opportunity to think about peace at the Festival of Revolutionary Thought in Berlin next weekend. It will also be lovely to return to a theater stage for it. www.volksbuehne.berlin/en/repertoir...

Revolution Nr. 1 – Krieg und Frieden

On 12 October 2025, writers Sibylle Berg and Martin Sonneborn want to invite you to the 1st Festival of Revolutionary Thought in Berlin. Scientists Elke…

www.volksbuehne.berlin

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Elke Schwarz @elkeschwarz.bsky.social · 7d

1) A reminder: AI companies and their investors don't need the AI to work effectively for others in order to make gains, they mostly need contracts and promises for higher valuations.

2) A question: when do we declare the great AI future to have failed?

edition.cnn.com/2025/09/30/t....

Most companies aren’t seeing a return on AI investments. This tech CEO wants to change that | CNN Business

The artificial intelligence industry has a big problem: 95% of companies that try AI aren’t making any money from it, according to a report from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology last month. O...

edition.cnn.com

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Elke Schwarz @elkeschwarz.bsky.social · 7d

As I try to convey in the piece, I think we might best understand figures like Karp and Luckey and even Thiel as a type of defence influencers, hype men, that serve to shape narratives by being so controversial and over-dramatic that the bar is perpetually lowered for everyone.

Stop Killer Robots @stopkillerrobots.bsky.social · 7d

"This idea that wars are clean, or that they can be done in a way that no lives will be harmed — that is an illusion."

Elke Schwarz spoke with Al Jazeera English about how #Palantir markets the itself and its military tech.

📺 https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=0aSBk5bKG3U

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Reposted by Elke Schwarz

Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 7d

OpenAI employees are very excited about how well their new AI tool can create fake videos of people doing crimes and have definitely thought through all the implications of this

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Elke Schwarz @elkeschwarz.bsky.social · 7d

An interesting read. The first time I heard Thiel leverage the Anti-Christ as a useful figure for his financial aims was in 2022, at a Stanford event on Academic Freedom. My sense is that all this must be read in conjunction with Thiel's book Zero to One. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibR_...

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Reposted by Elke Schwarz

Stop Killer Robots @stopkillerrobots.bsky.social · 7d

"This idea that wars are clean, or that they can be done in a way that no lives will be harmed — that is an illusion."

Elke Schwarz spoke with Al Jazeera English about how #Palantir markets the itself and its military tech.

📺 https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=0aSBk5bKG3U

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Elke Schwarz @elkeschwarz.bsky.social · 8d

I am listening to Trump, following Hegseth and he has legit given me a headache. Poor people in the room .... torturous.

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Elke Schwarz @elkeschwarz.bsky.social · 8d

I doubt it. I do wonder what the senior military leaders that were flown in from all over the place were thinking as he spoke.

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Elke Schwarz @elkeschwarz.bsky.social · 8d

The ethical duty to refuse an unlawful order will become really important it seems ...

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 8d

Hegseth: "We unleash overwhelming and punishing violence on the enemy. We also don't fight with stupid rules of engagement. We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt, and kill the enemies of our country. No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement."

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Elke Schwarz @elkeschwarz.bsky.social · 8d

Hegseth says words for effect. When he says "history teaches us the only people ..." he reveals that he is unaware of history. Same applies for "more AI in everything". Allow me to pair this with another PR mythologisation and valorization of a fictional idea of war: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aSB...

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Elke Schwarz @elkeschwarz.bsky.social · 8d

The problem with this excessively reactionary approach to Reform is that it validates the outlandish talking points of the latter. Meanwhile norms shift as Reform sets the bar lower and lower. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cd...

Migrants must earn right to live in UK, Mahmood says as she outlines tougher policy

The home secretary sets out changes to

www.bbc.co.uk

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Elke Schwarz @elkeschwarz.bsky.social · 9d

A while back I chatted with @alekskrotoski.bsky.social about phantasies of immortality that connect deeply to a (tech industry) desire to be machine, or to be product, what Günther Anders would have called "Promethean Shame". Nice to see the book is out soon! www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

‘To them, ageing is a technical problem that can, and will, be fixed’: how the rich and powerful plan to live for ever

When Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin were caught on mic talking about living for ever, it seemed straight out of a sci-fi fantasy. But for some death is no longer considered an inevitability …

www.theguardian.com

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Elke Schwarz @elkeschwarz.bsky.social · 10d

This is a very good read: "The easy-going nerds [...] have thus been able to transform themselves into frightening molochs, engaged in a ruthless war for planetary and intergalactic supremacy, with no rules or responsibilities to counterbalance their immoderate power" www.ft.com/content/85ee...

How tech lords and populists changed the rules of power

Digital moguls and strongman leaders are more than disrupters of the old liberal order. Together they seek to sweep it away, writes Giuliano da Empoli

www.ft.com

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Elke Schwarz @elkeschwarz.bsky.social · 12d

"Sure, there will be hollering that anything with a capacity for destruction is in conflict with ESG aims. But a combination of government clout, commercial opportunity and investment outperformance will suffice to drown these out."

'war is peace' ... and all that

Nick Bernards @nickbernards.bsky.social · 12d

Ethically investing in weapons manufacturing.

on.ft.com/3WeZY9T

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Elke Schwarz @elkeschwarz.bsky.social · 14d

Thiel has peddled the argument that 'we should be more afraid of the Anti-Christ and less afraid of Armageddon' for many years now. He recently revived it emphasising that the Anti-Christ comes in the guise of peace & stability. It's a crude claim to justify upheaval www.linkedin.com/posts/elke-s...

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Elke Schwarz @elkeschwarz.bsky.social · 14d

The below is of course grotesque but the alignment of right wing tropes with government talking points is widespread, including in the UK where some officials seem to parrot unsubstantiated claims made in the tech / online sphere. Where DO get gov’t officials get their information from? A serious Q.

Elke Schwarz @elkeschwarz.bsky.social · 14d

Peter Thiel: "[environmental concern & Islamic Shariah law are] the only thing people still believe in in Europe" - casts both as the Anti-Christ

Trump: "I hate to see [Europe] devastated by [green] energy and immigration, that double-tailed monster that destroys everything in its wake"

#hymnsheet

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Elke Schwarz @elkeschwarz.bsky.social · 14d

Welcome to my research project

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Elke Schwarz @elkeschwarz.bsky.social · 14d

Peter Thiel: "[environmental concern & Islamic Shariah law are] the only thing people still believe in in Europe" - casts both as the Anti-Christ

Trump: "I hate to see [Europe] devastated by [green] energy and immigration, that double-tailed monster that destroys everything in its wake"

#hymnsheet

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Reposted by Elke Schwarz

Amin Samman @aminsamman.bsky.social · 15d

Congrats to Sandy on this banging article. More to come from him soon, next time with more ketamine!

The Syllabus @the-syllabus.bsky.social · 18d

The attempt to financialize psychedelics has collided with the unruliness of these substances both as therapeutic assets and as vectors of cultural resistance. Our article of the week traces the rise and fall of commercial psychedelics.

By Sandy B. Hager in @finandsoc.bsky.social

buff.ly/7QsCdDI

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Elke Schwarz @elkeschwarz.bsky.social · 16d

Words shape visions. When the goverment shapes its words literally along the themes of US venture capital, what perspectives will be prioritised? Will these perspectives take into account the realities of political communities today, or rather prioritise the (investment) interests of a few?

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