Dan Waterfield
@danwaterfield.bsky.social
SWE / PhD 18c History / Social Democrat / gam zu l'tovah. ✡️ 🇬🇧 in 🇳🇿.
Pinned
The Senior Engineer in the Machine
Why alignment looks less like value learning and more like institutional role-play
open.substack.com
New substack post.
I argue that alignment as it stands looks like institutional role play.
open.substack.com/pub/danwater...
I argue that alignment as it stands looks like institutional role play.
open.substack.com/pub/danwater...
Woke myself up punching myself repeatedly in the face this morning? Perhaps tapering the ssris a bit too quick
January 6, 2026 at 9:05 AM
Woke myself up punching myself repeatedly in the face this morning? Perhaps tapering the ssris a bit too quick
- What we mean by history isn’t the same thing as ‘stuff which happened in the past’.
- Salafiism &c is closer to jacobinism than anything else.
- Israel’s modern form is of a post-colonial & anti imperial state
- the sheer awkwardness of justifying 1688 through the 18c
- Salafiism &c is closer to jacobinism than anything else.
- Israel’s modern form is of a post-colonial & anti imperial state
- the sheer awkwardness of justifying 1688 through the 18c
Here’s a fun top five: things that are consensus among historians but are essentially unknown by the public. Richard I, a bad king of England. Roman Empire, fell in 1453. Paul, more important than Jesus. Witch burning, a modern phenomenon not a medieval one. Britain last invaded in 1688. Yours?
As someone who wrote a dissertation on that damnable Frenchman; one can only hope.
January 5, 2026 at 11:24 PM
- What we mean by history isn’t the same thing as ‘stuff which happened in the past’.
- Salafiism &c is closer to jacobinism than anything else.
- Israel’s modern form is of a post-colonial & anti imperial state
- the sheer awkwardness of justifying 1688 through the 18c
- Salafiism &c is closer to jacobinism than anything else.
- Israel’s modern form is of a post-colonial & anti imperial state
- the sheer awkwardness of justifying 1688 through the 18c
Reposted by Dan Waterfield
Probably people who were talking loudly in the reference section, as a warning to others.
Oh, Iberians.
Oh, Iberians.
January 5, 2026 at 8:54 AM
Probably people who were talking loudly in the reference section, as a warning to others.
Oh, Iberians.
Oh, Iberians.
A team of Harvard scientists had once verified exactly that point by sticking a rectal thermometer in a cheetah and getting it to run on a treadmill.
January 4, 2026 at 10:37 PM
A team of Harvard scientists had once verified exactly that point by sticking a rectal thermometer in a cheetah and getting it to run on a treadmill.
Local cat, Astrid’s wario
January 4, 2026 at 6:58 AM
Local cat, Astrid’s wario
Reposted by Dan Waterfield
US intervention in Latin America: famously effective at reducing refugee flows
January 4, 2026 at 12:07 AM
US intervention in Latin America: famously effective at reducing refugee flows
Reposted by Dan Waterfield
I think in this day and age they shouldn't have separate competitions based on your sexuality.
Luke Littler wins second straight World Darts Championship
Luke Littler wins second straight World Darts Championship
Luke Littler has won his second straight World Darts Championship, triumphing over Dutchman Gian van Veen.
news.sky.com
January 3, 2026 at 9:37 PM
I think in this day and age they shouldn't have separate competitions based on your sexuality.
Incredibly funny that the replies to this are people complaining about him ‘attacking alt text’
grim posthumous scenario i had not previously considered: you post a picture of the missile headed straight for you, and are memorialized by a bunch of random assholes complaining about alt text
![A Bluesky user based in Venezuela posted 'I live near a military air base and five earth-shaking explosions were just heart.'
User @thenordic.bsky.social (a random asshole) replied 'was it too hard for you to to [sic] add a link?' along with a link to an AP piece. Quick, don't look, what do you think the odds are that this user responded gracefully to being told that OP was on the ground and reporting firsthand?](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ycbmujtxprrwbkiw3x5qsyz4/bafkreieh2ddespqvcqdhpfy4g2higsw4lfiguzpaxs3rdessztcokmww6i@jpeg)
January 3, 2026 at 9:39 AM
Incredibly funny that the replies to this are people complaining about him ‘attacking alt text’
Reposted by Dan Waterfield
grim posthumous scenario i had not previously considered: you post a picture of the missile headed straight for you, and are memorialized by a bunch of random assholes complaining about alt text
January 3, 2026 at 8:21 AM
grim posthumous scenario i had not previously considered: you post a picture of the missile headed straight for you, and are memorialized by a bunch of random assholes complaining about alt text
Reposted by Dan Waterfield
Please, my political commentariat, it’s barely literate.
But can anyone tell me what this bit means? “For too long, those fluent in the good grammar of civility have deployed decorum to mask agendas of cruelty.”
January 3, 2026 at 8:29 AM
Please, my political commentariat, it’s barely literate.
Throwback to tiny Astrid
January 2, 2026 at 10:21 PM
Throwback to tiny Astrid
Sigh
Introduce yourself with what almost killed you.
Hi, I'm toothpaste.
Hi, I'm toothpaste.
January 2, 2026 at 10:04 PM
Sigh
Chief of police here got caught with csam. You’d think ‘because he was a police officer’ would be a reason for a heavier sentence, but no! A lighter one! NINE MONTHS HOME DETENTION
January 1, 2026 at 9:56 AM
Chief of police here got caught with csam. You’d think ‘because he was a police officer’ would be a reason for a heavier sentence, but no! A lighter one! NINE MONTHS HOME DETENTION
God, can you imagine the panic attack the fine officer had when s/he realised what was in front of them?
The 7thC Holderness Cross was discovered by a farmer at Burton Pidsea, East Yorkshire, #OTD in 1965. It spent 30 years in a drawer before his granddaughter took it to a ‘finds day’ at a museum in Hull. The gold pectoral cross is set with garnets. #medievalsky
January 1, 2026 at 9:29 AM
God, can you imagine the panic attack the fine officer had when s/he realised what was in front of them?
Foundation, Isaac Asimov
January 1, 2026 at 12:28 AM
Foundation, Isaac Asimov
If rereading after virtue to see in the new year is wrong, I don’t want to be right
And a happy new year to you, too Dan
January 1, 2026 at 12:27 AM
If rereading after virtue to see in the new year is wrong, I don’t want to be right
“Where Frankena sees me as an inadequate analytic philosopher with an additional, not entirely relevant interest in history, Edel sees me as an inadequate social historian who keeps needlessly dragging in analytic philosophy.”
January 1, 2026 at 12:25 AM
“Where Frankena sees me as an inadequate analytic philosopher with an additional, not entirely relevant interest in history, Edel sees me as an inadequate social historian who keeps needlessly dragging in analytic philosophy.”