Gerard Saucier
@gsaucier.bsky.social
Scientific voyageur, professor. Cultural and moral (and political/ideological) personology. Personality in high dimensionality & cross-cultural perspective. Big-picture seeker.
Great piece, with intriguing links to 'resonant computing'.
Only thing I'd add:
In the present current, the unmitigated self-interest of certain ascendant oligarchs rules the roost...
Only thing I'd add:
In the present current, the unmitigated self-interest of certain ascendant oligarchs rules the roost...
Paused my American Canto hate-read to finish writing a blog post about internet history.
Optimization was an era. It ended. Now we're living through the enshittification era. It, too, won't last forever.
(And we can kind of blame Elon for this mess.)
open.substack.com/pub/davekarp...
Optimization was an era. It ended. Now we're living through the enshittification era. It, too, won't last forever.
(And we can kind of blame Elon for this mess.)
open.substack.com/pub/davekarp...
The end of optimization
Some thoughts on a transition point in recent internet history,
open.substack.com
December 9, 2025 at 9:22 PM
Great piece, with intriguing links to 'resonant computing'.
Only thing I'd add:
In the present current, the unmitigated self-interest of certain ascendant oligarchs rules the roost...
Only thing I'd add:
In the present current, the unmitigated self-interest of certain ascendant oligarchs rules the roost...
Reposted by Gerard Saucier
Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to “you didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea
November 25, 2025 at 1:57 AM
Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to “you didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea
Reposted by Gerard Saucier
Re: Epstein’s emails
November 13, 2025 at 8:21 PM
Re: Epstein’s emails
Corvallis 10,000^
Kings ZERO
*guesstimate of course
Kings ZERO
*guesstimate of course
October 18, 2025 at 9:23 PM
Corvallis 10,000^
Kings ZERO
*guesstimate of course
Kings ZERO
*guesstimate of course
Reposted by Gerard Saucier
Yeah, I think most elites do not really have ideology or beliefs so much as a desire to be perceived favorably by whatever institution or group they’ve embedded themselves within - that’s how you become an elite! So asking “who are they trying to impress” is a great way to understand their behavior
This is a much more plausible explanation for why NYT carries water for Trump than “they like Trump and want to help them.”
Sure, maybe a few people actually like Trump, but the real motivation is that the whole newsroom is obsessed with coming off as enlightened centrists.
Sure, maybe a few people actually like Trump, but the real motivation is that the whole newsroom is obsessed with coming off as enlightened centrists.
The psychology that twists coverage in Trump’s favor is transparent, once you accept that psychology plays a role. They want to be perceived as neutral by their peers, and they know their peers suspect them of anti-Trump bias. So they demonstrate independence by scrutinizing Dems and praising Trump.
October 13, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Yeah, I think most elites do not really have ideology or beliefs so much as a desire to be perceived favorably by whatever institution or group they’ve embedded themselves within - that’s how you become an elite! So asking “who are they trying to impress” is a great way to understand their behavior
Reposted by Gerard Saucier
USA is a macro level Stanford Prison Experiment
October 8, 2025 at 4:32 PM
USA is a macro level Stanford Prison Experiment
Reposted by Gerard Saucier
What has the ECHR ever done for us?
Quite a lot actually, and we wrote it too.
Quite a lot actually, and we wrote it too.
October 5, 2025 at 4:40 PM
What has the ECHR ever done for us?
Quite a lot actually, and we wrote it too.
Quite a lot actually, and we wrote it too.
"The scientists must be destroyed...journalism as a neutral vocation...extinguished."
The modern conservative movement (or far right, or whatever you call it) has always been a invasive, predatory organism, but until Obama's election, the GOP itself hadn't tipped over into total zero-sum thinking. www.offmessage.net/p/they-radic...
October 3, 2025 at 8:03 PM
"The scientists must be destroyed...journalism as a neutral vocation...extinguished."
Tea party (circa 2010) inflection point. Why?
The last time I posted the income relationship to presidential vote among White respondents to the @electionstudies.bsky.social ANES, people asked for additional estimates among all voters.
Updated estimates here:
Updated estimates here:
October 2, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Tea party (circa 2010) inflection point. Why?
Reposted by Gerard Saucier
Turing Award laureate Rich Sutton now critiques pure LLMs—echoing @garymarcus.bsky.social . Time to move beyond science fiction and refocus on scientific rigour. #AI #LLM #Neurosymbolic #RichSutton #GaryMarcus
garymarcus.substack.com/p/game-over-...
garymarcus.substack.com/p/game-over-...
Game over for pure LLMs. Even Turing Award Winner Rich Sutton has gotten off the bus.
One by one, all the big names have turned around. What should we do next?
garymarcus.substack.com
September 27, 2025 at 6:00 AM
Turing Award laureate Rich Sutton now critiques pure LLMs—echoing @garymarcus.bsky.social . Time to move beyond science fiction and refocus on scientific rigour. #AI #LLM #Neurosymbolic #RichSutton #GaryMarcus
garymarcus.substack.com/p/game-over-...
garymarcus.substack.com/p/game-over-...
Reposted by Gerard Saucier
🥗 Food and extinction risk
A new study found that producing 1 kg of different foods can differ in species extinction risk by up to 1000×. Animal products and tropical crops are especially harmful, while grains & vegetables are far lower impact
🔗 doi.org/10.1038/s430...
#SciComm 🧪 #Biodiversity
A new study found that producing 1 kg of different foods can differ in species extinction risk by up to 1000×. Animal products and tropical crops are especially harmful, while grains & vegetables are far lower impact
🔗 doi.org/10.1038/s430...
#SciComm 🧪 #Biodiversity
Food impacts on species extinction risks can vary by three orders of magnitude - Nature Food
What we eat, as well as where and how it is grown, impacts species extinction risks through agricultural land use. Using a new global biodiversity impact data product, this study estimates how many sp...
doi.org
September 16, 2025 at 6:19 PM
🥗 Food and extinction risk
A new study found that producing 1 kg of different foods can differ in species extinction risk by up to 1000×. Animal products and tropical crops are especially harmful, while grains & vegetables are far lower impact
🔗 doi.org/10.1038/s430...
#SciComm 🧪 #Biodiversity
A new study found that producing 1 kg of different foods can differ in species extinction risk by up to 1000×. Animal products and tropical crops are especially harmful, while grains & vegetables are far lower impact
🔗 doi.org/10.1038/s430...
#SciComm 🧪 #Biodiversity
Reposted by Gerard Saucier
Expansive political liberty invariably upsets right-wing cultural and social pattern preferences. That's why, while the American right has always talked in the rhetoric of liberty, it didn't just not actually mean it, but it would've in fact been ideologically incoherent for it to mean it.
Liberty Upsets Patterns—and Conservatism | Aaron Ross Powell
Get more from Aaron Ross Powell on Patreon
www.patreon.com
September 4, 2025 at 9:25 PM
Expansive political liberty invariably upsets right-wing cultural and social pattern preferences. That's why, while the American right has always talked in the rhetoric of liberty, it didn't just not actually mean it, but it would've in fact been ideologically incoherent for it to mean it.
Run like a business, to further the self-interest of the boss (or a small set of beneficiaries)?
Recipe for corruption.
Recipe for corruption.
“The government should be run like a business.”
It was dumb the first time someone said it, and it’s aged like cyanide-laced milk.
It was dumb the first time someone said it, and it’s aged like cyanide-laced milk.
August 20, 2025 at 4:44 AM
Run like a business, to further the self-interest of the boss (or a small set of beneficiaries)?
Recipe for corruption.
Recipe for corruption.
Reposted by Gerard Saucier
Reposted by Gerard Saucier
July 23, 2025 at 10:32 PM
Reposted by Gerard Saucier
From the indispensable Adam Bonica, trenchant remarks and a collection of stunning and powerful charts. The day's essential read.
On Data and Democracy (Mid-Year Roundup): Charting the Assault on American Democracy and A Path Forward
A narrative of a democracy in the balance, told through 29 data visualizations.
data4democracy.substack.com
July 19, 2025 at 9:45 PM
From the indispensable Adam Bonica, trenchant remarks and a collection of stunning and powerful charts. The day's essential read.
Reposted by Gerard Saucier
The most base and un-American kind of blood and soil nationalism talkingpointsmemo.com/news/jd-vanc...
July 9, 2025 at 1:03 PM
The most base and un-American kind of blood and soil nationalism talkingpointsmemo.com/news/jd-vanc...
Reposted by Gerard Saucier
So when your dad says “his grandparents came here legally,” what he really means is they just showed up. No visas. No green cards. No paperwork. Just a boat and white skin.
Today’s migrants do more, prove more, and get mistreated.
Today’s migrants do more, prove more, and get mistreated.
July 9, 2025 at 12:25 AM
So when your dad says “his grandparents came here legally,” what he really means is they just showed up. No visas. No green cards. No paperwork. Just a boat and white skin.
Today’s migrants do more, prove more, and get mistreated.
Today’s migrants do more, prove more, and get mistreated.
Shades of the Khmer Rouge.
can't say I like how often this administration keeps returning to the theme of "forcing undesirable citizens like poor people and scientists to toil in the fields"
Brooke Rollins on farm laborers: "There will be no amnesty. The mass deportations continue, but in a strategic way. And we move the workforce toward automation and 100% American participation, which with 34 million able-bodied on Medicaid we should be able to do fairly quickly."
July 8, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Shades of the Khmer Rouge.
Reposted by Gerard Saucier
This is what the NY Times chose to highlight from the Netanyahu/Trump meeting, compared to Al Jazeera.
You decide which is the important news.
You decide which is the important news.
July 8, 2025 at 5:32 PM
This is what the NY Times chose to highlight from the Netanyahu/Trump meeting, compared to Al Jazeera.
You decide which is the important news.
You decide which is the important news.
Reposted by Gerard Saucier
Indeed, one way of thinking about the entire point of representative democracy is to align the ambition of political elites with serving the public good
i have no doubt that senator van hollen was genuinely concerned for the safety and welfare of abrego garcia BUT ALSO this is what i'm talking about when i say POLITICAL AMBITION. van hollen may well make himself a household name and nationally recognized political figure with this move
April 18, 2025 at 1:41 AM
Indeed, one way of thinking about the entire point of representative democracy is to align the ambition of political elites with serving the public good