Cameron Buckner
@cameronbuckner.bsky.social
All views my own, links posted w/o endorsement
AI, philosophy of science, philosophy of mind, animal cognition
Http://cameronbuckner.net
AI, philosophy of science, philosophy of mind, animal cognition
Http://cameronbuckner.net
Reposted by Cameron Buckner
Today is one of those days when I should have taken my own advice. Flooded with rage tweets on the other platform. Garbage way to communicate that only brings out the worst in people. All dunks, no conversation. Complete waste of time trying to engage there www.gelliottmorris.com/p/you-should...
You should quit social media for good
Platforms optimized for engagement warp our politics, erode attention, and harm our wellbeing. Here’s how I minimize time on the (anti‑)social web.
www.gelliottmorris.com
November 13, 2025 at 8:15 PM
Today is one of those days when I should have taken my own advice. Flooded with rage tweets on the other platform. Garbage way to communicate that only brings out the worst in people. All dunks, no conversation. Complete waste of time trying to engage there www.gelliottmorris.com/p/you-should...
Reposted by Cameron Buckner
Empathy is a moral virtue. The fact that so many people (on the left, no less) are trying to tell Liam that it's morally good to not empathize with "them" makes me sad.
... I am entirely sure this is a bad thing. It makes me a less effective political agent, but much more importantly it makes me a worse person. I suspect I'm not alone in this.
November 13, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Empathy is a moral virtue. The fact that so many people (on the left, no less) are trying to tell Liam that it's morally good to not empathize with "them" makes me sad.
Reposted by Cameron Buckner
Virginia Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger asked the University of Virginia’s board to pause its search for a president until she takes office, signaling she’ll make reshaping the state’s higher education intuitions an early priority.
Spanberger asks U-Va. to pause presidential search until she takes office
Virginia Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger called on the University of Virginia’s governing board to pause its presidential search until she can appoint new members, saying actions by the current board ha...
www.washingtonpost.com
November 13, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Virginia Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger asked the University of Virginia’s board to pause its search for a president until she takes office, signaling she’ll make reshaping the state’s higher education intuitions an early priority.
Reposted by Cameron Buckner
#COP30 is underway in Belém, & as the climate crisis worsens, pressure is on states to make progress in negotiations.
Below, read a thread of research-led commentary on what's at stake🧵🌏👇
First, Manjana Milkoreit @sthlmresilience.bsky.social on climate tipping points for @lseeuroppblog.bsky.social
Below, read a thread of research-led commentary on what's at stake🧵🌏👇
First, Manjana Milkoreit @sthlmresilience.bsky.social on climate tipping points for @lseeuroppblog.bsky.social
The world is on the cusp of climate tipping points – the stakes could not be higher for COP30 - EUROPP
Global warming is pushing the Earth past climate tipping points, causing irreversible damage to natural systems. The stakes could not be higher for COP30.
blogs.lse.ac.uk
November 12, 2025 at 11:01 AM
#COP30 is underway in Belém, & as the climate crisis worsens, pressure is on states to make progress in negotiations.
Below, read a thread of research-led commentary on what's at stake🧵🌏👇
First, Manjana Milkoreit @sthlmresilience.bsky.social on climate tipping points for @lseeuroppblog.bsky.social
Below, read a thread of research-led commentary on what's at stake🧵🌏👇
First, Manjana Milkoreit @sthlmresilience.bsky.social on climate tipping points for @lseeuroppblog.bsky.social
Reposted by Cameron Buckner
Excited to welcome @lmesseri.bsky.social, @cameronbuckner.bsky.social and @carlbergstrom.com to campus a week from today for the “AI and the Nature of Science: Concepts and Controversies” event. 14.11.25, 1400 - 1800.
AI and the Nature of Science
Bringing together cutting-edge perspectives and helping set an agenda for future research and application
buff.ly
November 7, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Excited to welcome @lmesseri.bsky.social, @cameronbuckner.bsky.social and @carlbergstrom.com to campus a week from today for the “AI and the Nature of Science: Concepts and Controversies” event. 14.11.25, 1400 - 1800.
Reposted by Cameron Buckner
This is the best political news I’ve seen in a very long time — so please pass it on👇
Each state can limit Citizens United in their own state & they don’t have to wait for other states to do it.
Our new @rollingstone.com piece based on our new book MASTER PLAN. Get the book at LeverNews.com/book
Each state can limit Citizens United in their own state & they don’t have to wait for other states to do it.
Our new @rollingstone.com piece based on our new book MASTER PLAN. Get the book at LeverNews.com/book
October 18, 2025 at 2:56 PM
This is the best political news I’ve seen in a very long time — so please pass it on👇
Each state can limit Citizens United in their own state & they don’t have to wait for other states to do it.
Our new @rollingstone.com piece based on our new book MASTER PLAN. Get the book at LeverNews.com/book
Each state can limit Citizens United in their own state & they don’t have to wait for other states to do it.
Our new @rollingstone.com piece based on our new book MASTER PLAN. Get the book at LeverNews.com/book
Another banger from @tallinzen.bsky.social .
Also fits with some of the criticisms of Centaur and my faculty-based approach generally; if you want LLMs to model human cognition, give them more architecture akin to human faculty psychology like long and short-term memory.
arxiv.org/abs/2510.05141
Also fits with some of the criticisms of Centaur and my faculty-based approach generally; if you want LLMs to model human cognition, give them more architecture akin to human faculty psychology like long and short-term memory.
arxiv.org/abs/2510.05141
To model human linguistic prediction, make LLMs less superhuman
When people listen to or read a sentence, they actively make predictions about upcoming words: words that are less predictable are generally read more slowly than predictable ones. The success of larg...
arxiv.org
October 15, 2025 at 1:58 PM
Another banger from @tallinzen.bsky.social .
Also fits with some of the criticisms of Centaur and my faculty-based approach generally; if you want LLMs to model human cognition, give them more architecture akin to human faculty psychology like long and short-term memory.
arxiv.org/abs/2510.05141
Also fits with some of the criticisms of Centaur and my faculty-based approach generally; if you want LLMs to model human cognition, give them more architecture akin to human faculty psychology like long and short-term memory.
arxiv.org/abs/2510.05141
Reposted by Cameron Buckner
"If we lose hope, we're doomed."
We must continue Dr. Jane Goodall's mission and all fight for the future of the planet.
We must continue Dr. Jane Goodall's mission and all fight for the future of the planet.
October 1, 2025 at 7:31 PM
"If we lose hope, we're doomed."
We must continue Dr. Jane Goodall's mission and all fight for the future of the planet.
We must continue Dr. Jane Goodall's mission and all fight for the future of the planet.
Reposted by Cameron Buckner
I just fended off a sophisticated phishing attempt. Lessons:
1. They knew what bank I use and spoofed its phone number, so call showed on phone as from bank.
2. They mimicked a fraud-prevention call -- someone tried to use your card, is this charge right. When you think that's going on, you get
1. They knew what bank I use and spoofed its phone number, so call showed on phone as from bank.
2. They mimicked a fraud-prevention call -- someone tried to use your card, is this charge right. When you think that's going on, you get
September 29, 2025 at 7:14 PM
I just fended off a sophisticated phishing attempt. Lessons:
1. They knew what bank I use and spoofed its phone number, so call showed on phone as from bank.
2. They mimicked a fraud-prevention call -- someone tried to use your card, is this charge right. When you think that's going on, you get
1. They knew what bank I use and spoofed its phone number, so call showed on phone as from bank.
2. They mimicked a fraud-prevention call -- someone tried to use your card, is this charge right. When you think that's going on, you get
Phillip Kieval and I have a new commentary on Binz et al.'s Centaur model and its role in discovering a new theory of human cognition:
psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?d...
psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?d...
September 29, 2025 at 6:55 PM
Phillip Kieval and I have a new commentary on Binz et al.'s Centaur model and its role in discovering a new theory of human cognition:
psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?d...
psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?d...
Reposted by Cameron Buckner
nobody will remember:
- your salary
- how “busy you were”
- how many hours you worked
people will remember:
- the twenty-first night of september
- changin' the minds of pretenders
- chasin' the clouds away
- your salary
- how “busy you were”
- how many hours you worked
people will remember:
- the twenty-first night of september
- changin' the minds of pretenders
- chasin' the clouds away
September 21, 2025 at 6:26 PM
nobody will remember:
- your salary
- how “busy you were”
- how many hours you worked
people will remember:
- the twenty-first night of september
- changin' the minds of pretenders
- chasin' the clouds away
- your salary
- how “busy you were”
- how many hours you worked
people will remember:
- the twenty-first night of september
- changin' the minds of pretenders
- chasin' the clouds away
I finally found an adversarial example for humans in the wild!
September 20, 2025 at 3:26 PM
I finally found an adversarial example for humans in the wild!
Reposted by Cameron Buckner
I'm guessing journos are going to stop asking me why the "hard data" are so good, given the economic news has been so grim.
The lesson I hope they draw is an eternal one: Bad policy leads to bad outcomes, but the actual economy doesn't move at the pace of the political cycle.
The lesson I hope they draw is an eternal one: Bad policy leads to bad outcomes, but the actual economy doesn't move at the pace of the political cycle.
September 5, 2025 at 12:54 PM
I'm guessing journos are going to stop asking me why the "hard data" are so good, given the economic news has been so grim.
The lesson I hope they draw is an eternal one: Bad policy leads to bad outcomes, but the actual economy doesn't move at the pace of the political cycle.
The lesson I hope they draw is an eternal one: Bad policy leads to bad outcomes, but the actual economy doesn't move at the pace of the political cycle.
Reposted by Cameron Buckner
@cameronbuckner.bsky.social delivers his keynote on reasoning LLMs during #ESPP2025
September 5, 2025 at 7:08 AM
@cameronbuckner.bsky.social delivers his keynote on reasoning LLMs during #ESPP2025
Today I am headed to Europe to give two keynotes, at KogWis 2025 (in Bochum) and ESPP (in Warsaw).
Both talks will be about philosophical implications of and interpretation of "reasoning" models, especially drawing links between the text which occurs in the "Chains of Thought"...
Both talks will be about philosophical implications of and interpretation of "reasoning" models, especially drawing links between the text which occurs in the "Chains of Thought"...
KogWis2025
kogwis2025.philosophy-cognition.com
August 30, 2025 at 6:59 PM
Today I am headed to Europe to give two keynotes, at KogWis 2025 (in Bochum) and ESPP (in Warsaw).
Both talks will be about philosophical implications of and interpretation of "reasoning" models, especially drawing links between the text which occurs in the "Chains of Thought"...
Both talks will be about philosophical implications of and interpretation of "reasoning" models, especially drawing links between the text which occurs in the "Chains of Thought"...
www.rotman.uwo.ca/event/rotman...
Today I am giving a lecture to the Rotman Institute for Philosophy at University of Western Ontario...
Today I am giving a lecture to the Rotman Institute for Philosophy at University of Western Ontario...
Rotman Visiting Speaker: Cameron Buckner - The Rotman Institute of Philosophy
"LLMs as Models of Reasoning"
Abstract: Recent advances in large language models that use self-prompting like GPT’s o1/o3 and DeepSeek have begun to encroach on human-level performance on “higher re...
www.rotman.uwo.ca
August 5, 2025 at 6:32 PM
www.rotman.uwo.ca/event/rotman...
Today I am giving a lecture to the Rotman Institute for Philosophy at University of Western Ontario...
Today I am giving a lecture to the Rotman Institute for Philosophy at University of Western Ontario...
Novels are just synthetic training data for humans.
July 28, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Novels are just synthetic training data for humans.
Reposted by Cameron Buckner
Some really great news: funding for PEPFAR--about $400M for the global fight against HIV and AIDS--has been restored. Millions of lives will be saved.
www.politico.com/live-updates...
www.politico.com/live-updates...
Global AIDS funding to be pulled from Trump clawbacks request
The White House is backing off $400 million in proposed PEPFAR cuts due to GOP objections.
www.politico.com
July 15, 2025 at 9:06 PM
Some really great news: funding for PEPFAR--about $400M for the global fight against HIV and AIDS--has been restored. Millions of lives will be saved.
www.politico.com/live-updates...
www.politico.com/live-updates...
Another review of my book is out at Philosophy of Science, by Bruce Rushing and Daniel Hermann:
resolve.cambridge.org/core/journal...
resolve.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Review of Cameron J. Buckner’s From Deep Learning to Rational Machines: What the History of Philosophy Can Teach Us about the Future of Artificial Intelligence | Philosophy of Science | Cambridge Core
Review of Cameron J. Buckner’s From Deep Learning to Rational Machines: What the History of Philosophy Can Teach Us about the Future of Artificial Intelligence
resolve.cambridge.org
July 4, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Another review of my book is out at Philosophy of Science, by Bruce Rushing and Daniel Hermann:
resolve.cambridge.org/core/journal...
resolve.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Reposted by Cameron Buckner
here's the truth: climate change is costing us lots and lots of money. and renewables save us money.
www.theclimatebrink.com?utm_source=n...
www.theclimatebrink.com?utm_source=n...
The Climate Brink | Andrew Dessler | Substack
The Choice is Ours: Climate Disaster or a Sustainable Future. Click to read The Climate Brink, a Substack publication with tens of thousands of subscribers.
www.theclimatebrink.com
July 1, 2025 at 3:07 PM
here's the truth: climate change is costing us lots and lots of money. and renewables save us money.
www.theclimatebrink.com?utm_source=n...
www.theclimatebrink.com?utm_source=n...
Reposted by Cameron Buckner
Senator Mike Lee is now trying — for the third time — to sell-off YOUR public lands to the highest bidder.
We’ve built a bipartisan coalition to repeatedly block his efforts, and will keep doing so until he gets the message:
Our public lands are not for sale!
🏔️🏔️🏔️
apnews.com/article/publ...
We’ve built a bipartisan coalition to repeatedly block his efforts, and will keep doing so until he gets the message:
Our public lands are not for sale!
🏔️🏔️🏔️
apnews.com/article/publ...
GOP plan to sell more than 3,200 square miles of federal lands is found to violate Senate rules
A plan to sell more than 3,200 square miles of federal lands has been ruled out of Republicans’ big tax and spending cut bill after the Senate parliamentarian determined the proposal by Senate Energy ...
apnews.com
June 27, 2025 at 2:48 AM
Senator Mike Lee is now trying — for the third time — to sell-off YOUR public lands to the highest bidder.
We’ve built a bipartisan coalition to repeatedly block his efforts, and will keep doing so until he gets the message:
Our public lands are not for sale!
🏔️🏔️🏔️
apnews.com/article/publ...
We’ve built a bipartisan coalition to repeatedly block his efforts, and will keep doing so until he gets the message:
Our public lands are not for sale!
🏔️🏔️🏔️
apnews.com/article/publ...
Reposted by Cameron Buckner
China is absolutely eating our lunch www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...
China breaks more records with surge in solar and wind power
Between January and May, China added 198 GW of solar and 46 GW of wind, enough to generate as much electricity as Indonesia or Turkey
www.theguardian.com
June 27, 2025 at 6:41 PM
China is absolutely eating our lunch www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...
arxiv.org/abs/2506.18852
It's kinda already happening though, MI groups are already peppered with philosophers...
It's kinda already happening though, MI groups are already peppered with philosophers...
Mechanistic Interpretability Needs Philosophy
Mechanistic interpretability (MI) aims to explain how neural networks work by uncovering their underlying causal mechanisms. As the field grows in influence, it is increasingly important to examine no...
arxiv.org
June 27, 2025 at 3:44 PM
arxiv.org/abs/2506.18852
It's kinda already happening though, MI groups are already peppered with philosophers...
It's kinda already happening though, MI groups are already peppered with philosophers...
Reposted by Cameron Buckner
I am once again begging journalists to understand that tech CEOs can *say* literally any random shit about AI
Watch: AI will solve world hunger by deciphering the Voynich Manuscript!
Until there is literally any evidence AI can do said thing it’s not news, it’s just make believe
Watch: AI will solve world hunger by deciphering the Voynich Manuscript!
Until there is literally any evidence AI can do said thing it’s not news, it’s just make believe
June 25, 2025 at 12:37 PM
I am once again begging journalists to understand that tech CEOs can *say* literally any random shit about AI
Watch: AI will solve world hunger by deciphering the Voynich Manuscript!
Until there is literally any evidence AI can do said thing it’s not news, it’s just make believe
Watch: AI will solve world hunger by deciphering the Voynich Manuscript!
Until there is literally any evidence AI can do said thing it’s not news, it’s just make believe