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Pablo Fernandez Velasco

@pfvelasco.bsky.social

93 followers 180 following 13 posts

British Academy postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for the Sciences of Place and Memory. Working across philosophy and cognitive science. Interested in disorientation, navigation, and ecological grief. pablofernandezvelasco.com

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Pablo Fernandez Velasco @pfvelasco.bsky.social · Jul 10

Enormously excited to be part of this: neuroscientists, anthropologists, physicists and indigenous sailors, embarking on a joint research voyage. Together, we hope to understand how Marshallese sailors find their way across the ocean. This kind of work can vastly expand how we understand navigation.

Leverhulme Trust @leverhulme.ac.uk · Jul 9

‪World-leading scientists will set out on a unique research voyage, joining Indigenous Pacific sailors to investigate the centuries-old skill of wave piloting: www.stir.ac.uk/news/2025/ju...

Photo credit: www.instagram.com/chewy_lin/

Four people sail a traditional outrigger canoe near a tropical island under a sunny sky.

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Lisa Bortolotti @lisabortolotti.com · 21h

So delighted that Aisha Qadoos has passed her viva today! 🥳❤️ Thanks to her examiners Ema Sullivan-Bissett and Louise Richardson. Aisha's work focuses on the experience of trauma, still a neglected area in philosophy. Read one of her papers here: revistas.uv.cl/index.php/RH... #philsky #philpsy

Ambiguous Loss: A Loved One’s Trauma | Revista de Humanidades de Valparaíso

revistas.uv.cl

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Helen Barron @helencbarron.bsky.social · 2d

** We have up to TWO funded PhD positions available in our lab!! Apply below to find new ways to enhance memory👇 Pls retweet **

Deadline: 2nd December

1. Cross-species closed-loopTMR: tinyurl.com/bddu4tp6

2. TUS and TMR in humans:
tinyurl.com/jjws5ctj

Happy to chat to interested applicants.

Enhancing memory using cross-species closed-loop Targeted Memory Reactivation | mrcbndu

tinyurl.com

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Mike Galsworthy @mikegalsworthy.bsky.social · 2d

She was arrested for holding a sign reading:

“I do not support the proscription of Palestine Action”

How that would warrant arrest is very unclear. I wonder if the police here even understand the boundaries of the bizarre law they’ve been forced to enforce.

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Pablo Fernandez Velasco @pfvelasco.bsky.social · 3d

Maria Ahmad has written this excellent piece about our voyage! "Stravaig was our lab on the ocean. For more than 40 hours we were collecting cognitive and physiological data .... along with constant environmental data from our ever-changing surroundings." theconversation.com/my-voyage-to...

My voyage to explore how Pacific island sailors find their way at sea without technology

Scientists have been exploring the role that neuroscience plays in ocean navigation.

theconversation.com

Reposted by Pablo Fernandez Velasco

Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 3d

This is grim & dangerous over reach.

This is a government that have lost the moral argument & are still selling arms to Israel. Now further cracking down on dissent.

Absolutely the opposite of what they should be doing - so of course this is what the Labour Government choose.

Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 3d

NEW: Home Office announces planned new anti-protest powers, mainly aimed at pro-Gaza protests like those for Palestine Action. Police will be able to consider the "cumulative impact" of repeated protests and potentially order that they be relocated.

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Keith Wooo-schmann Wilson 👻 @keithwilson.eu · 5d

The current anti-immigration hysteria feels like a dress rehearsal for the waves of climate-related mass migration that are coming in the next few decades. It’s not looking good…

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Hugo Spiers @hugospiers.bsky.social · 6d

Lovely article in @uk.theconversation.com by Maria Ahmad who is doing her PhD research supported by @leverhulme.ac.uk in my lab on oceanic navigation in the Marshall Islands.

This is her coverage of our voyage to Aur atoll this summer:

theconversation.com/my-voyage-to...

My voyage to explore how Marshallese sailors find their way at sea without technology

Scientists have been exploring the role that neuroscience plays in ocean navigation.

theconversation.com

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Reposted by Pablo Fernandez Velasco

François Kammerer @lovingautomaton.bsky.social · 6d

In case you have missed it: the CFP for the special issue of Philosophy and the Mind Sciences on "Evaluating Artificial Consciousness" is still open - until January 15. Please submit your manuscripts!

philosophymindscience.org/index.php/ph...

Call for Papers: Evaluating Artificial Consciousness | Philosophy and the Mind Sciences

Philosophy and the Mind Sciences (PhiMiSci) focuses on the interface between philosophy of mind, psychology, and cognitive neuroscience. PhiMiSci is a peer-reviewed, not-for-profit open-access journal...

philosophymindscience.org

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Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit @gatsbyucl.bsky.social · 13d

🙋Are you interested in bridging theory & experiments?

Applications are now open for 2026 entry to the Gatsby Unit & SWC joint PhD programme.

Join us and be part of a vibrant research community!

💰 Fully-funded 4-year programme
ℹ️ www.ucl.ac.uk/life-science...

@sainsburywellcome.bsky.social

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Philosophy of Grief and Loss at York @griefyork.bsky.social · 15d

Louise Richardson and @pfvelasco.bsky.social's paper 'Ecological Grief as a Shared Emotion' is now published in Emotion Review!

The paper assesses (and ultimately endorses) the claim that grief felt in relation to ecological losses is a shared emotion.

doi.org/10.1177/1754....

#philsky

Ecological Grief as a Shared Emotion - Pablo Fernandez Velasco, Louise Richardson, 2025

There is a growing interdisciplinary effort to understand the emotional dimensions of the climate crisis. A central focus in this line of research is ecological...

doi.org

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Urte Laukaityte @laukas.bsky.social · 19d

Inferential theories are on the rise in cognitive science. But what does it mean to infer? Check out our take on inference across a variety of (neuro)cognitive systems.

Inference in (neuro)cognitive systems | 9 | Neurocognitive Foundations

Cognitive scientists ascribe inferential processes to (neuro)cognitive systems to explain many of their capacities. Since these ascriptions have different

www.taylorfrancis.com

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Philosophy and the Mind Sciences @phimisci.bsky.social · 20d

Call for papers: #PhiMiSci is inviting submissions for a Special Issue on Social Perception, understood as the perception of socially relevant properties in others. It is edited by Géraldine Carranante and Joulia Smortchkova.
Estimated publication date: 2nd quarter of 2027
Deadline: July 1st, 2026.

Call for Papers: Social Perception | Philosophy and the Mind Sciences

philosophymindscience.org

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Pablo Fernandez Velasco @pfvelasco.bsky.social · 24d

Such a cool paper by @haneuljang.bsky.social and @danielredhead.bsky.social ! Social network analysis of a BaYaka hunter gatherer community finds that foraging skills circulate in small groups while information about food location circulates widely.

Haneul Jang @haneuljang.bsky.social · 24d

💙New paper!💙

How is knowledge transmitted across generations in a foraging society?

With @danielredhead.bsky.social
we found: In BaYaka foragers, long-term skills pass in smaller, sparser networks, while short-term food info circulates broadly & reciprocally

academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

Transmission networks of long-term and short-term knowledge in a foraging society

Abstract. Cultural transmission across generations is key to cumulative cultural evolution. While several mechanisms—such as vertical, horizontal, and obli

academic.oup.com

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Pablo Fernandez Velasco @pfvelasco.bsky.social · 27d

Really excited to be co-editing this transdisciplinary research topic at the interface of collective human trauma and Earth systems Change. Please share! And get in touch to discuss ideas if you are thinking of submitting something.
www.frontiersin.org/research-top...

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manvir singh @manvir.bsky.social · Sep 5

I'm giving a free book talk next Wednesday at the Harvard Museum of Natural History. Come by if you're in the Boston area!

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Hugo Spiers @hugospiers.bsky.social · Sep 2

If you'd like to hear the preliminary insights from our
'Voyage to Aur' science expedition in the pacific ocean, I will be giving a hybrid lecture next Friday 12th 4pm UK time at the amazing @memoryplace.bsky.social Centre in Stirling

Register here: mailchi.mp/stir/spring-...

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Naomi Klein @naomiaklein.bsky.social · Aug 19

🧵Excellent piece "They appear to have inverted the promise of the internet as an endless archive of information one can navigate for themselves. Do your own research has, in short order, become Get one canonical answer."

This helps explain why Trump/Vance have gone all in on AI...

Charlie Warzel @cwarzel.bsky.social · Aug 18

Hello. I wrote a nice long essay about AI and this very strange moment where we're constantly told we're living in the dawn of a strange new future but the only thing that's actually clear is that everyone feels pretty unmoored and uncertain. I hope you'll read it

AI Is a Mass-Delusion Event

Three years in, one of AI’s enduring impacts is to make people feel like they’re losing it.

www.theatlantic.com

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megan peters 🧠 @meganakpeters.bsky.social · Aug 18

It was a great pleasure to write this for NHB. Thank you for the opportunity! #neuroscience #consciousness #psychscisky

Nature Human Behaviour @nathumbehav.nature.com · Aug 11

This 'How to' Comment by Megan A. K. Peters discusses the creative process and practical recommendations for finding good research questions.

How to develop good research questions - Nature Human Behaviour

Designing good research questions goes well beyond the standard definitions of clarity, focus and tractability, and even beyond ‘novelty’ in the strictest sense. This Comment describes the iterative creative process for designing good research questions, and includes practical suggestions and ways to avoid common traps.

www.nature.com

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Kate Nave @kathrynnave.bsky.social · Aug 19

I'm still seeing a fair few downloads of the uncorrected pre-print for 'A Drive to Survive – so just re-upping that the proofed and finalised #OpenAccess PDF is available completely free here.

direct.mit.edu/books/oa-mon...

MIT Press @mitpress.bsky.social · Jun 5

“A game-changer for cognitive science." — @evanthompson.bsky.social‬

In "A Drive to Survive," @kathrynnave.bsky.social‬ offers an extended critical analysis of the strengths and limitations of the free energy principle. Available #openaccess: mitpress.mit.edu/978026255132...

Hand holding a copy of "A Drive to Survive: The Free Energy Principle and the Meaning of Life" by Kathryn Nave. The cover is blue with orange text and features a geometric design at the center.

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Guido Löhr @loehrgui.bsky.social · Aug 14

Please share/Apply!

Catarina Dutilh Novaes 🟥 @cdutilhnovaes.bsky.social · Aug 14

✨ PhD position available ✨
@loehrgui.bsky.social and I will be running a research project on disruptive technologies from a niche construction perspective, and we're hiring a PhD candidate! Details 👇
Please circulate the add and tell your students about it 😊
workingat.vu.nl/vacancies/ph...

Vacancy — PhD Position in Philosophy

Are you keen to contribute to a better understanding of the social, political and epistemic impact of disruptive technologies such as the Internet and AI? Join our interdisciplinary research project f...

workingat.vu.nl

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wanjawiese.bsky.social @wanjawiese.bsky.social · Aug 14

New paper with Azenet Lopez in C&C: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #PhilMind #PhilConsc #Consciousness

Building blocks for theories of consciousness

Consciousness science is brimming with theories attempting to explain what consciousness is and how it can be identified in natural and artificial sys…

www.sciencedirect.com

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Marco K Wittmann @mkwittmann.bsky.social · Aug 7

📢 Job announcement: Two (!) 3-year postdoc jobs in our lab at UCL 📢

🧠💫🔊 We are looking for postdocs interested in the abstract mechanisms underlying social cognition. Modelling, fMRI and non-invasive ultrasound, a new deep-brain stimulation method.

Please RT

www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...

UCL – University College London

UCL is consistently ranked as one of the top ten universities in the world (QS World University Rankings 2010-2022) and is No.2 in the UK for research power (Research Excellence Framework 2021).

www.ucl.ac.uk

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Psyche Magazine @psyche.co · Aug 9

For Aboriginal peoples, knowledge is specific to cultures: what is true and relevant for one might not be so for another. On #InternationalDayoftheWorldsIndigenousPeoples, we honour the knowledge embedded in living landscapes that connects land, memory, and community buff.ly/pp0dSOZ

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Centre for the Sciences of Place and Memory @memoryplace.bsky.social · Aug 7

Born to Lose, a new book by Centre researcher Paul Max Morin, traces the lives of a group of young people in Normandy whose discovery of punk music in 1977 turned their lives upside down. Out next year.

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Kai Arzheimer @kai-arzheimer.com · Aug 1

Hey, this is not even a joke #AcademicWriting #AcademicChatter

A three-panel Cyanide & Happiness comic. Panel 1 shows a person telling another they couldn’t access their CV. Panel 2 offers to sell the CV for $39.99 or $10 for 24-hour access. Panel 3 shows the first person entering the Elsevier building

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