Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal

Roland Meyer @bildoperationen.bsky.social · 2d

I am still processing the many impressions, insights and ideas that emerged from our conference. Many heartfelt thanks to all the speakers for their inspiring contributions and the intensive discussion—it was great to welcome you all to Zurich, and I hope we'll be able to continue the conversation!

digital cultures and arts @digitalculturesandarts.ch · 29d

From 02–04 October 2025, our conference «React & Respond. Image Cultures under Platform Capitalism» will take place in Zurich.

Across three locations and with contributions by scholars and artists, the conference will analyze today's economies of networked image cultures.

Program & Registration:

International Conference: «React & Respond. Image Cultures under Platform Capitalism»

Bringing together scholars and artists from a range of fields and backgrounds, the international conference «React & Respond» aims to map and analyze these contemporary economies of networked image cu...

digitalculturesandarts.ch

2 5 31

Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal

Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) @snsf.ch · 2d

📣 #OpenCall: SNSF Starting Grants 2026
For researchers wanting to lead their own independent project and research team in Switzerland.
🗓️ Submission deadline: 5 May 2026
➡️ https://sohub.io/rptw

5 7

Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal

Alan Richardson @alanrichardson.bsky.social · 5d

Man, the “institutional neutrality” gambit really worked like a charm….

Brian Tyler Cohen @briantylercohen.bsky.social · 5d

Gavin Newsom announces that any California university that caves to Trump and signs his “loyalty pledge” will be immediately defunded.

“CALIFORNIA WILL NOT BANKROLL SCHOOLS THAT SELL OUT THEIR STUDENTS.”

1 7

Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal

Alex Campolo @alexcampolo.bsky.social · 6d

Fascinating to see how the very historical ideologies - stuffy east coast bureaucracies - that Silicon Valley rebelled against are now being used to criticize it... www.nytimes.com/2025/09/30/t...

1 2

Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal

Hadas Weiss @hadas.bsky.social · 15d

can she take on assemblages

4 2 28

Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal @ranjodhdhaliwal.com · 26d

youtube algorithms got those nerd dollars on lock.

1

Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal

digital cultures and arts @digitalculturesandarts.ch · 29d

From 02–04 October 2025, our conference «React & Respond. Image Cultures under Platform Capitalism» will take place in Zurich.

Across three locations and with contributions by scholars and artists, the conference will analyze today's economies of networked image cultures.

Program & Registration:

International Conference: «React & Respond. Image Cultures under Platform Capitalism»

Bringing together scholars and artists from a range of fields and backgrounds, the international conference «React & Respond» aims to map and analyze these contemporary economies of networked image cu...

digitalculturesandarts.ch

1 21 44

Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal @ranjodhdhaliwal.com · Sep 4

@4sweb.bsky.social friends, we are starting in ~10 mins!! Come see my midnight zoom face. #4S2025

6

Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal

Gerald Sim @geraldsim.bsky.social · Aug 30

Please submit! Conference CFP
CRIES AND WHISPERS: PODCASTING AND THE PROMISE OF DISRUPTION (Feb 20-21, 2026 at Florida Atlantic University)

Keynote: Jeremy Morris (UW-Madison)

Conference website and submission portal: criesandwhispers2026.wordpress.com

5 3

Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal

Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · Sep 3

vibe check on the american polity

Reports of rough tactics don’t bother Aaron Ely, either. A former bantamweight MMA fighter who went by the ring name “The Cyborg,” Ely settled on an IT career after his hip gave out. He limped into the hiring expo last week hoping ICE could use his computer expertise. He said he felt he was no longer able to advance in the private sector because the market is crowded with candidates from India willing to do the work for less.
“I keep seeing these memes where Indians are bragging about taking our tech jobs,” said Ely, 36. “So I said, ‘Oh yeah? Well I’m going to work with these guys that are going to arrest you, slam your face on the pavement and send you home.’”

14 55 280

Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal

Weizenbaum-Institut @weizenbauminstitut.bsky.social · Aug 25

#CfP: Special Issue “Celebrating 60 Years of ELIZA? Critical Pasts and Futures of AI” of the Weizenbaum Journal of the Digital Society (WJDS), co-edited by @strippel.bsky.social & Magnus Rust. Submission deadline: November 17, 2025.

More: www.weizenbaum-institut.de/news/detail/...

Special Issue “Celebrating 60 Years of ELIZA? Critical Pasts and Futures of AI”

The Weizenbaum Journal of the Digital Society calls for papers for a special issue marking the 60th anniversary of ELIZA, one of the first chatbots developed by Joseph Weizenbaum.

www.weizenbaum-institut.de

1 13 15

Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal

Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · Sep 2

This is not the AI boom creating a new type of work, this is a classic example of managers using automation to deskill old ones. Creative workers who once made a higher wage creating original art and writing are now paid in piecework to edit automated output. Bosses are using AI to cut labor costs.

angela yang @angelayang.bsky.social · Sep 2

The AI boom has created a new type of work: fixing botched AI. Designers are being hired to remake wonky AI art. Writers are asked to make ChatGPT’s writing sound more human. Even software developers are tasked with fixing buggy vibe coding.
www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-ne...

Humans are being hired to make AI slop look less sloppy

In the age of automation, human workers are being brought in to fix what artificial intelligence gets wrong.

www.nbcnews.com

29 1.5K 3.4K

Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal

AKA NickleDave @nicholdav.bsky.social · Sep 2

meme, when I'm in a Render the word "Open" meaningless competition and my opponent is Proton.me

6 12

Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal @ranjodhdhaliwal.com · Aug 29

ok it is SO over for the American university system, the overest it has ever been. www.politico.com/news/2025/08...

Trump administration plans to limit how long foreign students can study in the US

Foreign students have been allowed to stay in the country for as long as they were full-time students making progress in their degrees.

www.politico.com

2

Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal

Katerina Korola @katerinakorola.bsky.social · Jul 11

Now accepting submissions for my session, "Photography's Other Workers," at the upcoming CAA (Chicago, Feb. 18-21, 2026). Proposals can be submitted via the CAA platform until August 29th

More info here: caa.confex.com/.../webprogr...

Please share widely!

#photosky #filmsky #caa2026

1 3 8

Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · Aug 26

Going to be wild to have Clarence Thomas and other members of the court write that even the appearance of impropriety is sufficient to allow the President to remove Federal Reserve members from office, and then head off to Harlan Crow’s yacht

280 4K 15K

Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal

Dan Greene @dmgreene.bsky.social · Aug 18

Sounds more like a Microsoft product than before. Some sort of alert system you can't turn off.

Ben Mullin @benmullin.bsky.social · Aug 18

news: MSNBC is renaming itself MS NOW (My Source News Opinion World)
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/18/b...

Goodbye, MSNBC. Hello, MS NOW.

www.nytimes.com

2 1 12

Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal

Shannon Mattern @shannonmattern.bsky.social · Aug 14

"A living visual archive on cybernetics in the expanded field. Browse and contribute images of all kinds: diagrams, schematics, photos, graphic elements, and other visual fragments."

Cybernetics Image Library

A living visual archive on cybernetics in the expanded field.

cyberneticsimagelibrary.dev

2 26 69

Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal @ranjodhdhaliwal.com · Aug 9

rip michel callon

1 8

Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal

ghost malone ergo propter malone @proptermalone.bsky.social · Aug 5

this work saved millions of lives in 2021, won the Nobel Prize in 2023, and is cancelled in 2025

Jen Bendery @jbendery.bsky.social · Aug 5

"The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today announced the beginning of a coordinated wind-down of its mRNA vaccine development activities...."

cc: Sen. Bill Cassidy

170 3K 7.5K

Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal

Kat Cho @katchowrites.bsky.social · Jul 27

Please support and donate if you can donate.wck.org/give/525879/...

45 49

Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal @ranjodhdhaliwal.com · Jul 22

!!!!

1

Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal

performative male @milesklee.bsky.social · Jul 16

i'm often asked when my next book is coming out and am now very pleased to be able to say: next month! it's a wicked story collection i wrote with my talented and beautiful partner @spookymeatball.bsky.social, who also penned beautiful illustrations for each tale.
asterismbooks.com/product/doub...

17 42 430

Reposted by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal

Haunted Nick Seaver @nickseaver.website · Jul 21

uh oh, things are happening dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...

CHI
Al shaming is a social phenomenon in which negative judgements are associated with the use of Artificial Intelligence (Al). This includes comparing someone's work with Al-generated work as a means of disparagement, voicing suspicion or alleging that someone has used Al to undermine their reputation, or blaming the poor quality of an artefact on Al use.
Common justifications of Al shaming include recourse to Al's societal harms, its technical limitations, and lack of creativity. I argue that, more fundamentally than any of these, Al shaming arises from a class anxiety induced in middle class knowledge workers, and is a form of boundary work to maintain class solidarity and limit mobility into knowledge work. I discuss the role of Al shaming in protecting the privileged class of knowledge work and its attendant harms.

170 120 1.2K

Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal @ranjodhdhaliwal.com · Jul 18

this, by kate wagner , is an excellent read! lux-magazine.com/article/priv...

Bringing Sexy Back

Internet surveillance has killed eroticism. We need privacy to reclaim it.

lux-magazine.com

2 7