Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
@cyborgapologist.bsky.social
Ass Prof of STS @ UVA
Communications Director for Society for Philosophy and Technology
Phil Tech, Disability Studies, Med Hums, Bioethics, Hist of Eugenics, Transhumanism
I teach engineers what the stuff they build does to people.
Communications Director for Society for Philosophy and Technology
Phil Tech, Disability Studies, Med Hums, Bioethics, Hist of Eugenics, Transhumanism
I teach engineers what the stuff they build does to people.
Pinned
New piece! Seven years in the making, but Cyborg Maintenance will finally be out in the March edition of Disability Studies Quarterly.
In it I talk about many of the things that go into maintaining a bodymind which relies on technology.
Pre-print here: cyborgapologist.com/pre-print-pu...
In it I talk about many of the things that go into maintaining a bodymind which relies on technology.
Pre-print here: cyborgapologist.com/pre-print-pu...
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
Trump when campaigning: I want Venezuelan oil.
Trump in the summer: Venezuelan oil is going to be mine.
Trump bombing ships: Can’t wait for that Venezuelan oil!
Trump after kidnapping the president: Drill baby, drill!
People: We are just now learning this is about oil.
Trump in the summer: Venezuelan oil is going to be mine.
Trump bombing ships: Can’t wait for that Venezuelan oil!
Trump after kidnapping the president: Drill baby, drill!
People: We are just now learning this is about oil.
January 3, 2026 at 6:09 PM
Trump when campaigning: I want Venezuelan oil.
Trump in the summer: Venezuelan oil is going to be mine.
Trump bombing ships: Can’t wait for that Venezuelan oil!
Trump after kidnapping the president: Drill baby, drill!
People: We are just now learning this is about oil.
Trump in the summer: Venezuelan oil is going to be mine.
Trump bombing ships: Can’t wait for that Venezuelan oil!
Trump after kidnapping the president: Drill baby, drill!
People: We are just now learning this is about oil.
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
Well,
You have to wonder if the strikes on the "drug boats" were just a way to test which generals would follow illegal orders wrt an undeclared war with Venezuela and weed out those who wouldn't.
January 3, 2026 at 7:10 AM
Well,
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
In the wake of all the news coming out of the US and the amount of shouting at the TV I've done, I thought everyone else might benefit from one of my favourite photos from 2017 to break up the doom scrolling.
I cannot fix the big things, so here's a small thing.
I cannot fix the big things, so here's a small thing.
January 3, 2026 at 10:10 AM
In the wake of all the news coming out of the US and the amount of shouting at the TV I've done, I thought everyone else might benefit from one of my favourite photos from 2017 to break up the doom scrolling.
I cannot fix the big things, so here's a small thing.
I cannot fix the big things, so here's a small thing.
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
like not to be Fox Mulder on main but now’s the time to delete your Twitter and unplug your Alexa and Ring Cam
January 3, 2026 at 9:27 AM
like not to be Fox Mulder on main but now’s the time to delete your Twitter and unplug your Alexa and Ring Cam
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
illegal surveillance is about to expand by an order of magnitude we cannot conceive
Also I'm pretty sure I remember him talking about how he thinks a war would mean that he can implement any wartime restrictions he wants here at home.
Like, several times.
Like, several times.
January 3, 2026 at 9:24 AM
illegal surveillance is about to expand by an order of magnitude we cannot conceive
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
My GOD, now they're saying if treatment begins early enough, some people with Huntington's may never even actually manifest symptoms.
Science, y'all.
Science, y'all.
January 3, 2026 at 5:47 AM
My GOD, now they're saying if treatment begins early enough, some people with Huntington's may never even actually manifest symptoms.
Science, y'all.
Science, y'all.
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
holy fuck
OMG 😭
Huntington's is an inherited disease that's like Alzheimers + Parkinson's all in one. NOW: "once the gene therapy has been delivered into the brain... [it] injects a piece of DNA to reprogram the neuron to become a factory for its own cure."
LIFE SAVING!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhEx...
Huntington's is an inherited disease that's like Alzheimers + Parkinson's all in one. NOW: "once the gene therapy has been delivered into the brain... [it] injects a piece of DNA to reprogram the neuron to become a factory for its own cure."
LIFE SAVING!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhEx...
Huntington's disease successfully treated for first time | BBC News
YouTube video by BBC News
www.youtube.com
January 3, 2026 at 5:39 AM
holy fuck
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
Holodeck, obviously.
if you could have one absolutely ridiculous thing in your house, money is no issue, what would you add?
January 3, 2026 at 3:23 AM
Holodeck, obviously.
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
gonna make a movie about herman melville's tragic gay love for nathaniel hawthorne and call it humpback mountain
January 3, 2026 at 4:37 AM
gonna make a movie about herman melville's tragic gay love for nathaniel hawthorne and call it humpback mountain
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
screenshot in case the post gets taken down or deleted
January 2, 2026 at 6:18 PM
screenshot in case the post gets taken down or deleted
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
You should leave Substack in 2026, because they platform fascists regularly, but even before that I am *begging* you to stop referring to your writing as "my Substack" because why give them that agency. It's your writing, your posts, your words, on their platform.
January 3, 2026 at 3:54 AM
You should leave Substack in 2026, because they platform fascists regularly, but even before that I am *begging* you to stop referring to your writing as "my Substack" because why give them that agency. It's your writing, your posts, your words, on their platform.
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
Trans people were not born in the wrong body. They were born in the wrong society.
January 2, 2026 at 10:59 PM
Trans people were not born in the wrong body. They were born in the wrong society.
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
zero notes whatsoever
January 2, 2026 at 6:15 PM
zero notes whatsoever
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
People designed those safeguard lapses. The LLM regurgitated text, it doesn’t “say” anything. Stop reporting on LLMs like this
Grok says safeguard lapses led to images of 'minors in minimal clothing' on X reut.rs/498SoUk
Grok says safeguard lapses led to images of 'minors in minimal clothing' on X
Elon Musk's xAI artificial intelligence chatbot Grok said on Friday lapses in safeguards had resulted in "images depicting minors in minimal clothing" on social media platform X and that improvements were being made to prevent this.
reut.rs
January 2, 2026 at 4:00 PM
People designed those safeguard lapses. The LLM regurgitated text, it doesn’t “say” anything. Stop reporting on LLMs like this
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
This is so sweet. 🥹 When I was in elementary school in Massachusetts we had a student from South Africa named Amandla who had pretty much the same response the first day it snowed.
As someone who grew up in the tropics, this was also my reaction the first time I saw snow.
Except it was at a drop kick Murphys show, and I was wearing a kilt.
Except it was at a drop kick Murphys show, and I was wearing a kilt.
January 2, 2026 at 3:57 PM
This is so sweet. 🥹 When I was in elementary school in Massachusetts we had a student from South Africa named Amandla who had pretty much the same response the first day it snowed.
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
Here are the Top 5 Dogs of the week!
January 2, 2026 at 3:35 PM
Here are the Top 5 Dogs of the week!
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
tech has always been terrible about guarding against the abusive use cases of its products, but now those use cases have become the selling point and it is leading to an extraordinarily dark place
The automated sexual abuse that Musk is doing right now should be national news. People should be going to prison for this shit. The logical conclusion to generative image creation and the internet, pure public automatic violence. Every Pizzagate fear just out in the open.
January 2, 2026 at 5:19 AM
tech has always been terrible about guarding against the abusive use cases of its products, but now those use cases have become the selling point and it is leading to an extraordinarily dark place
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
Exposure = Normalization
Study: Shocking headlines spark initial doubt but eventually build belief www.psypost.org/shocking-hea...
"...clickbait-style language might hurt credibility in the short term, it may be effective at planting information that people eventually accept as true."
Study: Shocking headlines spark initial doubt but eventually build belief www.psypost.org/shocking-hea...
"...clickbait-style language might hurt credibility in the short term, it may be effective at planting information that people eventually accept as true."
Shocking headlines spark initial doubt but eventually build belief
New research shows that while sensational words make headlines seem less credible instantly, readers are more likely to believe the information weeks later due to a psychological phenomenon called the...
www.psypost.org
December 31, 2025 at 7:23 PM
Exposure = Normalization
Study: Shocking headlines spark initial doubt but eventually build belief www.psypost.org/shocking-hea...
"...clickbait-style language might hurt credibility in the short term, it may be effective at planting information that people eventually accept as true."
Study: Shocking headlines spark initial doubt but eventually build belief www.psypost.org/shocking-hea...
"...clickbait-style language might hurt credibility in the short term, it may be effective at planting information that people eventually accept as true."
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
It’s less we assume sentience is speech (see: animals) but that GenAI convincingly generates the affect of personhood (there’s a fun Japanese word for this - sonzai kan).
Coupled with AI hype and a mechanical model of consciousness, we have a perfect storm.
Coupled with AI hype and a mechanical model of consciousness, we have a perfect storm.
Grok can't apologize. Grok can, when prompted, generate a word sequence that is statistically similar to the colloquial phrases we think of as "apologies," but Grok cannot actually apologize because Grok isn't sentient. But we all have a lot of trouble with this because we assume sentience IS speech
January 2, 2026 at 5:48 AM
It’s less we assume sentience is speech (see: animals) but that GenAI convincingly generates the affect of personhood (there’s a fun Japanese word for this - sonzai kan).
Coupled with AI hype and a mechanical model of consciousness, we have a perfect storm.
Coupled with AI hype and a mechanical model of consciousness, we have a perfect storm.
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
Valen, I see what you have done for the city of New York and I want that for LA.
January 2, 2026 at 5:36 AM
Valen, I see what you have done for the city of New York and I want that for LA.
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
I somehow didn't realize that she's an animator. Her stuff is great! You can see a lot of it here:
www.ramaduwaji.com
www.ramaduwaji.com
January 2, 2026 at 5:11 AM
I somehow didn't realize that she's an animator. Her stuff is great! You can see a lot of it here:
www.ramaduwaji.com
www.ramaduwaji.com
Reposted by Joshua Earle, Ph.D.
#PedSky #MedSky #EpiSky #addictionsci #policysky #polisky 🛟🫁💊
Today, California starts selling insulin at $11 per injection pen, the second drug sold under the CalRX label after naloxone. Albuterol inhalers and vaccines are next.
Today, California starts selling insulin at $11 per injection pen, the second drug sold under the CalRX label after naloxone. Albuterol inhalers and vaccines are next.
California Will Offer Deeply Discounted Insulin in January | KQED
Californians will be able to purchase an insulin pen for $11 under the state-run drug label, CalRx, bypassing pharmaceutical companies that sell it for far more.
www.kqed.org
January 2, 2026 at 4:05 AM
#PedSky #MedSky #EpiSky #addictionsci #policysky #polisky 🛟🫁💊
Today, California starts selling insulin at $11 per injection pen, the second drug sold under the CalRX label after naloxone. Albuterol inhalers and vaccines are next.
Today, California starts selling insulin at $11 per injection pen, the second drug sold under the CalRX label after naloxone. Albuterol inhalers and vaccines are next.
Do they get to end the game yet?
January 2, 2026 at 4:56 AM
Do they get to end the game yet?