Philip J. Ward | Lightnews

Philip Ward 🟥 @philipward.bsky.social · May 17

Marathon day tomorrow!

I will run to collect money for cancer research. Like many, we have lost several very close friends and family to this terrible disease. Many thanks to everyone who sponsored! Sponsoring still possible via this link... acties.kwf.nl/fundraisers/...

Thanks!

Philip Ward

Ik ren tegen kanker tijdens de Utrecht Marathon. Steun jij mij met een donatie? Dankjewel!

acties.kwf.nl

Philip Ward 🟥 @philipward.bsky.social · May 4

2 weeks today I hope to run my first marathon! After years of injuries, feeling nervous and excited 😬.

I will run to collect for cancer research. Like many, we have lost several very close friends and family to this terrible disease. Great if you could contribute: acties.kwf.nl/fundraisers/...

Philip Ward

Ik ren tegen kanker tijdens de Utrecht Marathon. Steun jij mij met een donatie? Dankjewel!

acties.kwf.nl

Philip Ward 🟥 @philipward.bsky.social · Apr 29

Huge congratulations to Annegret Thieken on receiving the @egu.eu Plinius Medal! A very worthy recipient for her excellent work on understanding and managing flood risk

Philip Ward 🟥 @philipward.bsky.social · Apr 18

dub.uu.nl/nl/nieuws/ka...

Another idiotic idea from an idiotic cabinet. Students would no longer be allowed cheap membership of gyms and sports facilities as this is suddenly claimed to stop free markets. Will the same government also stop companies providing free parking to their well paid staff?

Kabinet maakt einde aan goedkoop sporten voor studenten en personeel

Universiteiten en hogescholen mogen geen goedkope sportfaciliteiten meer aanbieden. Anders verstoren ze de markt, vindt het kabinet. Ook het culturele aanbod en de kantine worden duurder – en nog veel...

dub.uu.nl

Philip Ward 🟥 @philipward.bsky.social · Apr 9

I am so proud to have coordinated MYRIAD-EU for the last 4 years. Working with this great team of people (and many more) is truly amazing. They have gone above and beyond to make the project a success and support each other. There wouldn't have been this if there hadn't been you!

Philip Ward 🟥 @philipward.bsky.social · Apr 8

Today Dutch senators voted to gut education & research, despite clear evidence that it will have serious negative impacts for society. For no other reason than to promote far right ideology and populism. Shame on all parties who voted against the future of the Netherlands @woinactie.bsky.social

Philip Ward 🟥 @philipward.bsky.social · Feb 28

Let's make this protest on 22 March in Amsterdam huge. Time to stand up en masse to fight facism!

21maartcomite.nl/tegenracisme...

OPROEP TEGEN RACISME EN FASCISME - 21maartcomite

GEEF APARTHEID GEEN RUIMTE! PAK DE STRAAT EN DEMONSTREER 22 MAART OP DE DAM! Lees en Onderteken het Manifest tegen Racisme en Fascisme > (Google form) Beste bondgenoot, De democratische rechtsstaat, f...

21maartcomite.nl

Philip Ward 🟥 @philipward.bsky.social · Feb 24

Excellent post on why to dump chatGPT and the like...

Prof Julia Steinberger 🌹🌱🌍 #ClimateAction #Fightfascism @jksteinberger.bsky.social · Feb 23

As promised, here are the slides I shared with students to convince them to NOT use chatGPT and other artificial stupidity.

TL;DR? AI is evil, unsustainable and stupid, and I'd much rather they use their own brains, make their own mistakes, and actually learn something. 🪄

Prof Julia Steinberger 🌹🌱🌍 #ClimateAction #Fightfascism @jksteinberger.bsky.social · Feb 23

As promised, here are the slides I shared with students to convince them to NOT use chatGPT and other artificial stupidity.

TL;DR? AI is evil, unsustainable and stupid, and I'd much rather they use their own brains, make their own mistakes, and actually learn something. 🪄

NO CHATGPT Or other artificial stupidity: motivation
First, clarity on distinguishing AIs:
Non-generative: grammar aid, translation, dictionary, text-to-audio (e.g. Natural Reader): no problem
As long as you use the appropriate tools (least intensive in data and server energy use).
Why? Because you provide the content. Your brain is doing the most important work
Generative: ChatGPT & Co.
You only supply the prompt, the AI supplies the content.
Why is this delegation of work problematic?
3 domains: ethical, environmental, intellectual engagement.

(Caveat: generative is probably ok for computer programming, where it can be useful and save time. Not relevant to this class.)

1) AI and ethics
Mass theft of all and everything
«learning» on books, articles, blogs, social media, images, music, cultural production, without permission of authors/creators, and leading to their mass joblessness. Profits are not reditributed to originators.
Permanent destruction of the mental health of underpaid precarious tech workers in the Global South (Kenya, Philippines …):
«correction» to avoid production of violent and pedophile contents etc, tech workers are obliged to watch and correct super violent contents for days on end, leading to extreme psychological suffering and trauma, from which recovery is doubtful. No or little compensation (certainly not at the level of the suffering inflicted).
In short, an industry built on theft of real human creation and sacrifice of real human health, profiting a few megafortunes.

2) AI and (un)sustainability

Massive consumption of electricity, water, server capacity for generative AI.
Outcome: keep fossil fuel companies in business, using up new renewable capacity, without any satisfaction of basic human needs.
Massive misappropriation of the finance necessary for climate and ecological action (renewable generation, efficiency and retrofit for buildings, public transit, infrastructures for cycling etc) towards AI industry.
Overall: undermine climate action, reinforce fossil industry, waste resources necessary for human development.

3) AI and intellectual engagement

First, what learning is (or should be) about:
The goal should not (only) be the reproduction of «correct» knowledge,
But mainly personal engagement and experience of thinking about topics of interest. Personal engagement = using one’s own brain.
The most important activity for learning and intellectual engagement is the experience of making one’s own mistakes, by trial and error, corrections based on new ideas, starting over again. Learning to recognise nuances, knowledge gaps, better explanations
This kind of learning is possible only through using your own brain, not AI.
Also, Ais are not «intelligent». At all.
They simply reproduce pre-existing patterns. They «bullshit», invent false references, false facts, false data, simply because those sound plausible. VERY DANGEROUS.
If you learn how to NOT use AI, and how to research facts and data on your own, this will serve you and your communities for the rest of your life.

Philip Ward 🟥 @philipward.bsky.social · Dec 22

Inspired by my good friend Joseph Dodds, here are my top 5 albums of 2024. Happy to hear yours so I can check them out!

1. TTPD: The Anthology-Taylor Swift
2. Filthy Underneath-Nadine Shah
3. This Could Be Texas-English Teacher
4. Heimwee-Eefje de Visser
5. The Greatest Love-London Grammar

Philip Ward 🟥 @philipward.bsky.social · Dec 12

Correctie: dit zijn dus nu ook wél jullie plannen. Onfatsoenlijk om een ander de schuld te geven. Jullie stemmen hiervoor. Dus jullie zijn net zo verantwoordelijkheid als het kabinet. Alles om de CEOs en grote bedrijven rijk te houden: wat is hier Christelijks aan?

Henri Bontenbal @henri.cda.nl · Dec 11

Vooropgesteld: de plannen van dit kabinet voor onderwijs zijn niet de plannen waar het CDA voor zou hebben gekozen, dat zullen het ook nooit worden. De bezuinigingen die overeind blijven zijn niet de onze. 3/8

Philip Ward 🟥 @philipward.bsky.social · Dec 12

Dit zijn nu wel ook jullie plannen. Onfatsoenlijk om een ander de schuld te geven. Jullie stemmen hiervoor. Dus jullie zijn net zo verantwoordelijkheid als het kabinet. Alles om de CEOs en grote bedrijven rijk te houden: wat is hier Christelijks aan?

Henri Bontenbal @henri.cda.nl · Dec 11

Vooropgesteld: de plannen van dit kabinet voor onderwijs zijn niet de plannen waar het CDA voor zou hebben gekozen, dat zullen het ook nooit worden. De bezuinigingen die overeind blijven zijn niet de onze. 3/8

Philip Ward 🟥 @philipward.bsky.social · Dec 8

The end of an Era('s tour) in Vancouver tonight. Remembering 2 perfect nights in Edinburgh and Warsaw this summer 😊. Looking forward to the next Era!

Philip Ward 🟥 @philipward.bsky.social · Nov 25

Today 20,000 of us protested in The Hague against the government's shortsighted plans. They plan to gut science and deny education for young people. Good to see some supporters of the current coalition partners in the crowd...even their own voters are saying #DoeHetNiet

Marleen de Ruiter @marleenderuiter.bsky.social · Nov 24

Sophie Buijs and I are looking for business owners, managers, or senior employees to fill out our survey on business recovery and resilience (~20 min). Open to participants from: NL, DE, AUS, and the Spanish Canary Islands.

vuamsterdam.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

BRIDGE - business recovery and resilience

This research aims to understand how disaster recovery policies and programs can better support businesses. Because the COVID-19 pandemic was felt by businesses globally, we are studying recovery in d...

vuamsterdam.eu.qualtrics.com

Philip Ward 🟥 @philipward.bsky.social · Nov 19

Thanks!

Philip Ward 🟥 @philipward.bsky.social · Nov 19

@eurogeosciences.bsky.social @vuamsterdam.bsky.social

Philip Ward 🟥 @philipward.bsky.social · Nov 19

Call for abstracts for large scale natural hazards risk session at #EGU25!
With 2 great new conveners @dirkeilander.bsky.social and Zélie Stalhandske

Info: meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU25/sessio...

Looking forward to receiving your abstracts and hope to see you in Vienna

Philip Ward 🟥 @philipward.bsky.social · Nov 16

Great initiative! I just joined and am in the process of leaving Twitter :-) Happy to be added!

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