Thomas Arnold
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thomasarnold.bsky.social
Thomas Arnold
@thomasarnold.bsky.social
560 followers 530 following 340 posts

HRI, AI, religious studies, pragmatism, ethics | Researching and teaching ethics at Tufts Institute for AI/Human-Robot Interaction Laboratory | He/him | Student poster, please be patient

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thomasarnold.bsky.social
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 1d
Rhymes with freon

thomasarnold.bsky.social
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 8d
November in Boston is here, changing my username to a clever seasonal affective disorder nickname (just my username).

thomasarnold.bsky.social
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 12d
"affected, they said, by influenza" might exceed "picnic, lightning" in parenthetical brilliance, especially read in 2025.

thomasarnold.bsky.social
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 15d
The late Peirce's comments on "logical machines" suggest he saw the whole problem of reasoning without sensory encounter with the world (which was, yeah it can do a lot but it's not logic in the full pragmatic sense) before both GOFAI and FAUXFAI.

thomasarnold.bsky.social
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 24d
I Saw Satan's Gradient Descent

Reposted by Thomas Arnold

adriandaub.bsky.social
Adrian Daub @adriandaub.bsky.social · 24d
I wrote this a week ago, and *of course* I think of the perfect title now:

“(Anti)Christ, what an asshole”

www.theguardian.com/technology/n...
Peter Thiel’s off-the-record antichrist lectures reveal more about him than Armageddon
Silicon Valley titan desperately tries to detach self from power in amateurish talks attempting to ape his favorite philosopher
www.theguardian.com

thomasarnold.bsky.social
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 24d
Very disappointed to learn xenobots are named after a frog genus and not the host-guest relationship. Step it up, computational biologists.

thomasarnold.bsky.social
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 27d
Awesome, I need to watch.

thomasarnold.bsky.social
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · 27d
It is hard not to think about posthumous baptism, taking over the dead's identity to bolster one's tradition (in the name of saving them)-- reanimating them in media for a different kind of canon-formation attains another level of perversity.
disabilitystor1.bsky.social Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 28d
I don't know how many times to point out that is absolutely ghoulish and non-consensual and disgusting behavior.
To exploit the image of a dead woman who was also exploited in real life so you can live out your momentary fantasies of "what is possible" with AI is bad science journalism, also.
Sick.
October 10, 2025 4 min read Marilyn Monroe in Game of Thrones? AI Could Make It Happen Soon Despite early, and familiar, copyright growing pains, Sora may be the prelude to AI-generated on-demand TV and movies Screenshot includes an AI generated image of what looks like a human cross between Daenaerys Targaryen and Marilyn Monroe on the back of a dragon.

Reposted by Philip Nel, Thomas Arnold, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò

disabilitystor1.bsky.social
Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 28d
I don't know how many times to point out that is absolutely ghoulish and non-consensual and disgusting behavior.
To exploit the image of a dead woman who was also exploited in real life so you can live out your momentary fantasies of "what is possible" with AI is bad science journalism, also.
Sick.
October 10, 2025 4 min read Marilyn Monroe in Game of Thrones? AI Could Make It Happen Soon Despite early, and familiar, copyright growing pains, Sora may be the prelude to AI-generated on-demand TV and movies Screenshot includes an AI generated image of what looks like a human cross between Daenaerys Targaryen and Marilyn Monroe on the back of a dragon.

thomasarnold.bsky.social
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · Oct 6
Adrienne Mayor's "Gods and Robots" discusses this myth and many other ancient robot legends across Europe, Asia, and North Africa. Now I can't wait to read this book as follow up.
blaftrakesh.bsky.social Rakesh Khanna @blaftrakesh.bsky.social · Oct 5
When I was researching my book Ghosts, Monsters, and Demons of India, I learned of a 1000-year-old myth about Roman tech being used to build killer robots to guard the Buddha's remains in Pataliputra, and a Hungarian folklorist read my book & got excited about it, & she managed to dig up a🧵(1/3)
Romanised Pali manuscript of the Lokapannati Ghosts, Monsters, and Demons of India p. 60 Bhoota Vahana Yanta Bhoota Vahana Yanta means “spirit movement machine.” The term is used for several varieties of robot drone assassins and sword-wielding machine- men mentioned in the Lokapannati, a Pali-language text written between 1000 and 1200 CE by Saddhammaghosa of Thaton, but concerning events that took place much earlier, around 500 to 200 BCE. According to the story, robots were first invented by engineers of the early Roman Republic. These robots were used for commerce, in agriculture, as a police force, and as executioners. The secret of how to build these spirit-engines was fiercely protected. If any engineer dared to take the designs out of the city, one of his own executioner robots would come after him and kill him. At that time, in Pataliputra (then in the kingdom of Magadha, now Patna in the state of Bihar), there lived a young man who had heard of the Romans’ magical androids. He became so determined to learn the secrets of their manufacture and share them with the people of Magadha that he arranged his own death. Then, on his deathbed, he vowed to be reincarnated as a Roman. This indeed took place. In his new life, the man grew up to join the Roman guild of engineers. He even married the daughter of the Master Robot-Maker, and had a son by her. Once he learned the secrets of the Bhoota Vahana Yanta, the man resolved to transfer the information back to Pataliputra. But he was well aware that now, since he was a member of the guild, he would be killed as soon as he left. So he cut a gash in his thigh, inserted the plans in his flesh, and sewed the wound back up.

Reposted by Thomas Arnold

blaftrakesh.bsky.social
Rakesh Khanna @blaftrakesh.bsky.social · Oct 5
When I was researching my book Ghosts, Monsters, and Demons of India, I learned of a 1000-year-old myth about Roman tech being used to build killer robots to guard the Buddha's remains in Pataliputra, and a Hungarian folklorist read my book & got excited about it, & she managed to dig up a🧵(1/3)
Romanised Pali manuscript of the Lokapannati Ghosts, Monsters, and Demons of India p. 60 Bhoota Vahana Yanta Bhoota Vahana Yanta means “spirit movement machine.” The term is used for several varieties of robot drone assassins and sword-wielding machine- men mentioned in the Lokapannati, a Pali-language text written between 1000 and 1200 CE by Saddhammaghosa of Thaton, but concerning events that took place much earlier, around 500 to 200 BCE. According to the story, robots were first invented by engineers of the early Roman Republic. These robots were used for commerce, in agriculture, as a police force, and as executioners. The secret of how to build these spirit-engines was fiercely protected. If any engineer dared to take the designs out of the city, one of his own executioner robots would come after him and kill him. At that time, in Pataliputra (then in the kingdom of Magadha, now Patna in the state of Bihar), there lived a young man who had heard of the Romans’ magical androids. He became so determined to learn the secrets of their manufacture and share them with the people of Magadha that he arranged his own death. Then, on his deathbed, he vowed to be reincarnated as a Roman. This indeed took place. In his new life, the man grew up to join the Roman guild of engineers. He even married the daughter of the Master Robot-Maker, and had a son by her. Once he learned the secrets of the Bhoota Vahana Yanta, the man resolved to transfer the information back to Pataliputra. But he was well aware that now, since he was a member of the guild, he would be killed as soon as he left. So he cut a gash in his thigh, inserted the plans in his flesh, and sewed the wound back up.

thomasarnold.bsky.social
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · Oct 4
This is Boston coffee nerd excellence
Map of Somerville divided into 21 "coffeehoods," each named after coffee shop in that area. Massive debates to ensue, but I like "Tamper Hillside."

thomasarnold.bsky.social
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · Oct 2
Liaising between religious studies and computer science has only become more fraught as tech claims religious connossieurship with the unblinking assuredness of Zuckerberg with Sweet Baby Ray's, making me all the more grateful for pieces like this.

Reposted by Fabián Muniesa, Thomas Arnold

laurabullard.bsky.social
Laura Bullard @laurabullard.bsky.social · Sep 30
Taking a brief break from sporadically posting photos of my pitbull to shout this into the void:

I’ve spent the last seven months thinking about the Antichrist, and now those thoughts are published over at @wired.com.

www.wired.com/story/the-re...
The Real Stakes, and Real Story, of Peter Thiel’s Antichrist Obsession
Thirty years ago, a peace-loving Austrian theologian spoke to Peter Thiel about the apocalyptic theories of Nazi jurist Carl Schmitt. They’ve been a road map for the billionaire ever since.
www.wired.com

thomasarnold.bsky.social
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · Sep 29
Faculties kept inside during recess

thomasarnold.bsky.social
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · Sep 25
Build It Or Not, You Are Still Going To Die: Ernest Becker's Chaplaincy To AI Ethics

thomasarnold.bsky.social
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · Sep 3
And Eco echoes

thomasarnold.bsky.social
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · Aug 13
Reverse Turing car

thomasarnold.bsky.social
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · Aug 10
The cost of Omelas is but one small prediction machine.

thomasarnold.bsky.social
Thomas Arnold @thomasarnold.bsky.social · Aug 8
Yeah I like yours better

Reposted by Thomas Arnold

whstancil.bsky.social
Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · Aug 8
The issue is that we don’t know what “personhood” or “consciousness” is or means, so when a machine is able to talk and think in ways that seem very human, it starts raising uncomfortable questions about ourselves.

“This robot lacks the innate quality of being human!”

“What is that?”

“Uh, well”
samonika.bsky.social Samantica, The Exiled @samonika.bsky.social · Aug 8
Goddamit, you can be impressed by this tech and not ascribe conciousness to it!

This is just a machine, we know that is just a machine, and people who don't know are so awestruck by its complexity they need to give it personhood in order to cope.