Nolen Gertz
@ethicistforhire.bsky.social
2.9K followers 910 following 2.1K posts
Philosophy professor @utwentephilosophy.bsky.social Author of #NihilismAndTechnology (RLI 2018), #Nihilism (MIT 2019), #PhilosophyOfWarAndExile (Palgrave 2014) https://www.nolengertz.com #Philsky #Philtech #Existentialism #Phenomenology #Filmsky
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ethicistforhire.bsky.social
Thread of things I wrote this year:
1) Updated edition of my #NihilismAndTechnology book with new chapters about why AI doesn't exist, why ChatGPT shouldn't exist, and why climate change can't be solved by nihilism...
rowman.com/ISBN/9781538...
Nihilism and Technology, Updated Edition
Investigating how human values mediate the design and use of new technologies, the updated edition of Nolen Gertz’s Nihilism and Technology explores the ramifications of artificial intelligence. G...
rowman.com
ethicistforhire.bsky.social
"Cutbacks in higher education [in the Netherlands] are starting to have a greater impact."
dirkscheffers.bsky.social
Allereerst - ik hou niet van rankings. Zeker niet op het niveau van individuele universiteiten en zeker niet als het opschuiven van één plekje als ‘dalen’ of ‘stijgen’ wordt betiteld.
Maar over de hele sector geeft het wel een trend aan, en die is zorgelijk.
1/
www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/...
Nederlandse universiteiten dalen opnieuw op wereldranglijst
Hoger onderwijs: Acht Nederlandse instellingen zijn gedaald. Drie andere universiteiten stegen juist, één bleef gelijk. De TU Delft is volgens de ranglijst van Times Higher Education de best presteren...
www.nrc.nl
ethicistforhire.bsky.social
Disappointing that it won't be out in time for Halloween but still exciting that Dick Maas will once more make Dutch canals an unexpected slasher breeding ground...
🚣‍♀️🔪🥽🩸
telegraaf.nl
Amsterdamned 2 is de eerste Nederlandse film die in IMAX verschijnt. Dit werd op dinsdagochtend bekend gemaakt in Pathé Tuschinski, waar ook de trailer werd gepresenteerd.
Amsterdamned 2 schrijft filmgeschiedenis: eerste Nederlandse film in IMAX
www.telegraaf.nl
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
alexhanna.bsky.social
I'm not an economist but seems worrying that the whole US economy is seven companies in a trenchcoat, passing the same $20 up and down
carlquintanilla.bsky.social
NVIDIA and OpenAi:

Concerns that their “increasingly complex and interconnected web of business transactions is artificially propping up the trillion-dollar AI boom.“

@bloomberg.com $NVDA 👀
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
ethicistforhire.bsky.social
I think we all knew America's second civil war would be Furries vs Fascists...
golikehellmachine.com
lmao, kristi noem wanted a black bloc fight and got an inflatable rave instead. fuck you DHS, rip city forever.
courtneyvaughn.bsky.social
Streets are still closed off in front of the Portland ICE facility at 8:30pm. Protesters have gathered on a side street. Dance party in progress.
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
jamellebouie.net
this is incredible
idgordon.bsky.social
If you'd like to delight in a side-by-side comparison, here's Bari Weiss' reported note to CBS staffers (left) and the one I cooked up on ChatGPT with a quickly dashed-off prompt (right). Looking forward to hearing from you in the days and weeks ahead!
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
hypervisible.blacksky.app
“…that Sora is being used for stalking and harassment will likely not be an edge case, because deepfaking yourself and others into videos is one of its core selling points.”

Far from an edge case, it’s the primary use case.
Stalker Already Using OpenAI's Sora 2 to Harass Victim
A journalist claims that her stalker used Sora 2, the latest video app from OpenAI, to churn out videos of her.
futurism.com
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
estherschindler.bsky.social
I just saw someone use the abbreviation “AI;DR” and I’ll be laughing for a while.
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
adapalmer.bsky.social
I see pieces like this a lot, often w/ a spin of lamenting cultural degeneration, but reading is a LABOR issue, it’s declined because so many people are working overtime or two jobs & employers expect after hours work. France has Earth’s highest reading rate b/c long lunch breaks & labor protections
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
mikeachim.bsky.social
Damn. This is amazing. £325 per week, paid monthly, for 3 years - and the result was a profit for the Irish economy:
www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employmen...
Post from Threads user rodneyowl: "Ireland has declared the Basic Income for Artists scheme permanent. This will be officially announced in tomorrow’s budget. Details to follow. Congratulations to all who fought for it and the present and future artists of all sorts in Ireland. That includes me 👌We’re just comin to the end of a 3 year pilot scheme. It’s been a roaring success. For every €1 paid out to the 2000 participants, the government got €1.46 back. Can’t argue with that. Other countries are already taking note."
ethicistforhire.bsky.social
Always fun to be invited to give a Philofilm talk...
First slide of my lecture on Desk Set (1957) 📽️ Last slide of my talk seen from the Concordia Film Theatre balcony
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
hptsociety.bsky.social
Postman is well known for his book Amusing Ourselves to Death (1985) in which he argued that television reduces complex ideas to easily digestible visual content, diminishing important topics like politics to nothing more than simplistic entertainment.
3/
ethicistforhire.bsky.social
Think I may have finished my technology movie book...
INTRODUCTION	2
TECHNOLOGICAL DYSTOPIAS AND THE MOVIES THAT LOVE THEM	2
WHEN MOVIES MAKE YOU AN OFFER YOU CAN’T REFUSE	6
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DIALECTIC	10
FROM THE FINAL GIRL TO THE FINAL HUMAN	14
CHAPTER 1 – “IT DOESN’T FEEL PITY, REMORSE, OR FEAR, AND IT ABSOLUTELY WILL NOT STOP…EVER, UNTIL YOU ARE DEAD!”: ROBOT MOVIES	17
1.1 THE RISE OF THE MACHINES	17
1.2 WHEN MACHINES BECAME MONSTERS	19
1.3 A ROBOT IS A BOY’S BEST FRIEND	23
1.4 MONSTERS FROM THE ID	25
1.5 WHEN ROBOTS BECAME A REALITY	30
1.6 ROBOT RIGHTS AND CIVIL RIGHTS	32
1.7 ROBOTS IN THE BEDROOM AND ROBOTS IN THE BOARDROOM	38
1.8 THE ROBOT REVOLUTION	43
1.9 ROOTING FOR ROBOTS	49
1.10 THE FUTURE OF ROBOT MOVIES	57
CHAPTER 2 – “IN TIME, YOU WILL COME TO REGARD ME NOT ONLY WITH RESPECT AND AWE, BUT WITH LOVE!”: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE MOVIES	66
2.1 MIND OVER MATTER	66
2.2 THE INVISIBLE THREAT	72
2.3 WHEN AI TOOK A SPACE ODYSSEY	79
2.4 TRUSTING AI TO SAVE US FROM EACH OTHER	88
2.5 TRUSTING AI TO SAVE US FROM THE END OF THE WORLD	95
2.6 PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND AI	100
2.7 BOLDLY GOING WHERE NO AI HAS GONE BEFORE	106
2.8 THE IMITATION GAME	111
2.9 LOOKING FOR MEANING IN A MEANINGLESS WORLD	114
2.10 THE FUTURE OF AI MOVIES	126
CHAPTER 3 – “I CAN’T BE ALONE IN THINKING NOTHING REALLY EXISTS!”: VIRTUAL REALITY MOVIES	138
3.1 THE EMPATHY MACHINE	138
3.2 THE COUNTERFEIT WORLD	141
3.3 VIRTUALITY AND VIDEO GAMES	150
3.4 UNCANNY VIRTUALITY	155
3.6 WHEN THE VIRTUAL BECAME REAL	164
3.7 SEX, DRUGS, AND VR	176
3.8 DEATH TO THE DEMONIC CREATORS OF VR!	181
3.9 THERE IS NO SPOON, BUT IS THERE STEAK?	188
3.10 THE FUTURE OF VR MOVIES	198
CONCLUSION	211
THE POLITICAL UNCONSCIOUS	211
THE TECHNOLOGICAL UNCONSCIOUS	214
REFERENCES	218
ethicistforhire.bsky.social
Lego Halloweening with my son...
A little more than halfway through building Lego Haunted House
ethicistforhire.bsky.social
Arendt warned that totalitarians don't lie about reality, they change reality to make their claims about reality come true. Trump said Portland was a warzone, and look at it now...
caitlinmoriah.bsky.social
unbelievable amounts of gas right in front of the apartments by the ICE facility in portland. guys in fatigues in the middle of the road
Screen grab from a tiktok live showing billowing clouds of gas in the middle of the road. police stand in the road between camera and gas clouds Two armed men in camo stand outside in the road between the camera and an apartment complex
ethicistforhire.bsky.social
Crypto currencies are gaining in value thanks to the US govt shutdown. Sure hope Trump doesn't have any personal investment in crypto...
telegraaf.nl
De bitcoin heeft de grens van 125.000 dollar doorbroken. Dat gebeurde zondag tijdens de handel in Azië. Beleggers zoeken een veiligere plek voor hun geld, omdat ze zich zorgen maken over de Amerikaanse shutdown en de zwakkere dollar.
Bitcoin naar nieuw record: digitale munt nu meer dan 125.000 dollar waard
www.telegraaf.nl
ethicistforhire.bsky.social
"According to one survey, 30% of international travellers are now using generative AI tools and dedicated travel AI sites such as Wonderplan and Layla to help organise their trips."
#NihilismAndTechnology
hypervisible.blacksky.app
“The elevation, the climatic changes and accessibility [of the] paths have to be planned. When you [use] a program [like ChatGPT], which combines pictures and names to create a fantasy, then you can find yourself at an altitude of 4,000m without oxygen and [phone] signal."
The perils of letting AI plan your next trip
An imagined town in Peru, an Eiffel tower in Beijing: travellers are increasingly using tools like ChatGPT for itinerary ideas – and being sent to destinations that don't exist.
www.bbc.com
ethicistforhire.bsky.social
Updated my Letterboxd Fave 4 Films for Spooky Season...
letterboxd.com/ethicistforh...
Chopping Mall (1986)
Demon Seed (1977)
Mindwarp (1991)
Pulse (2001)
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
kvetch.gay
this is wild: while Stephen Miller's guy was in Minnesota for his uncle's funeral, somebody was able to see his entire phone and take pictures of his Signal group chats talking about military deployments to Portland, and brought them to the Strib (gift link: www.startribune.com/trump-offici...)
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
jensfoell.de
People are running stats on LLM-generated participants and think they’re being social scientists when in fact they’re technically just playing a very strange video game. This is like saying you’re doing math research because you’re playing sudoku.

www.science.org/content/arti...
AI-generated ‘participants’ can lead social science experiments astray, study finds
Data produced by “silicon samples” depends on researchers’ exact choice of models, prompts, and settings
www.science.org