Edward Jones-Imhotep
@ejonesimhotep.bsky.social
Historian of science and technology | Professor @ University of Toronto | Director @ihpst-uoft.bsky.social | New book - The Broken Machine
The beautiful cover for my new book: "The Broken Machine: Histories of Technology, Social Order, and the Self." Coming June 2026. (mitpress.mit.edu/978026255334...). @mitpress.bsky.social
November 5, 2025 at 5:52 PM
The beautiful cover for my new book: "The Broken Machine: Histories of Technology, Social Order, and the Self." Coming June 2026. (mitpress.mit.edu/978026255334...). @mitpress.bsky.social
The IHPST is hiring! Assistant Professor - Philosophy of Science and/or Technology.
jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Toronto-...
jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Toronto-...
Assistant Professor - Philosophy of Science and/or Technology
Assistant Professor - Philosophy of Science and/or Technology
jobs.utoronto.ca
September 8, 2025 at 7:54 PM
The IHPST is hiring! Assistant Professor - Philosophy of Science and/or Technology.
jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Toronto-...
jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Toronto-...
Reposted by Edward Jones-Imhotep
Congrats to Prof. @ejonesimhotep.bsky.social on becoming co-editor of the Inside Technology series by @mitpress.bsky.social! Check out our curated list of @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social podcasts related to the series ihpst.utoronto.ca/news/profess...
Professor Edward Jones-Imhotep Joins Inside Technology as Co-Editor
ihpst.utoronto.ca
March 25, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Congrats to Prof. @ejonesimhotep.bsky.social on becoming co-editor of the Inside Technology series by @mitpress.bsky.social! Check out our curated list of @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social podcasts related to the series ihpst.utoronto.ca/news/profess...
Reposted by Edward Jones-Imhotep
Taylor M. Moore traces the scientific afterlife of the mummified body of Queen Henhenit in “Living Fossils,” highlighting the implications of the use of women’s bodies in the practice of medicine and the production of race science in modern Egypt. 🗃️
“Living Fossils”: Anatomies of Race and Reproduction in Modern Egypt
Abstract. This article traces the scientific afterlife of the mummy Queen Henhenit from excavation and circulation to examination and display in twentieth-
doi.org
March 19, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Taylor M. Moore traces the scientific afterlife of the mummified body of Queen Henhenit in “Living Fossils,” highlighting the implications of the use of women’s bodies in the practice of medicine and the production of race science in modern Egypt. 🗃️
Reposted by Edward Jones-Imhotep
This award-winning study examines how technological failures defined nature and national identity in Cold War Canada. "The Unreliable Nation" is now available in paperback: mitpress.mit.edu/978026205120...
The Unreliable Nation, out in paperback today.
U.S. threats to Canadian sovereignty, against the backdrop of Soviet expansionism … told as a history of nature and technology and in the early Cold War.
@mitpress.bsky.social
mitpress.mit.edu/978026205120...
U.S. threats to Canadian sovereignty, against the backdrop of Soviet expansionism … told as a history of nature and technology and in the early Cold War.
@mitpress.bsky.social
mitpress.mit.edu/978026205120...
The Unreliable Nation
Throughout the modern period, nations defined themselves through the relationship between nature and machines. Many cast themselves as a triumph of technolog...
mitpress.mit.edu
March 18, 2025 at 4:05 PM
This award-winning study examines how technological failures defined nature and national identity in Cold War Canada. "The Unreliable Nation" is now available in paperback: mitpress.mit.edu/978026205120...
The Unreliable Nation, out in paperback today.
U.S. threats to Canadian sovereignty, against the backdrop of Soviet expansionism … told as a history of nature and technology and in the early Cold War.
@mitpress.bsky.social
mitpress.mit.edu/978026205120...
U.S. threats to Canadian sovereignty, against the backdrop of Soviet expansionism … told as a history of nature and technology and in the early Cold War.
@mitpress.bsky.social
mitpress.mit.edu/978026205120...
The Unreliable Nation
Throughout the modern period, nations defined themselves through the relationship between nature and machines. Many cast themselves as a triumph of technolog...
mitpress.mit.edu
March 18, 2025 at 1:07 PM
The Unreliable Nation, out in paperback today.
U.S. threats to Canadian sovereignty, against the backdrop of Soviet expansionism … told as a history of nature and technology and in the early Cold War.
@mitpress.bsky.social
mitpress.mit.edu/978026205120...
U.S. threats to Canadian sovereignty, against the backdrop of Soviet expansionism … told as a history of nature and technology and in the early Cold War.
@mitpress.bsky.social
mitpress.mit.edu/978026205120...
Reposted by Edward Jones-Imhotep
Bay Area! I'll be giving work at both Berkeley and Stanford this week. @Stanford: "Computing, Intimately," which will be a hands-on demo of my programming language, Ludus, with a pre-circulated paper of mine about "computational transitional objects." shc.stanford.edu/stanford-hum...
Scott Richmond | Computing, Intimately: On Computational Transitional Objects | Stanford Humanities Center
Digital Aesthetics Workshop
shc.stanford.edu
March 11, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Bay Area! I'll be giving work at both Berkeley and Stanford this week. @Stanford: "Computing, Intimately," which will be a hands-on demo of my programming language, Ludus, with a pre-circulated paper of mine about "computational transitional objects." shc.stanford.edu/stanford-hum...
Reposted by Edward Jones-Imhotep
I was pleased to attend a State Dinner, hosted by Pres. Macron, for participants of the AI Action Summit. It was an honor to be invited to deliver remarks at Elysee Palace on Three Fallacies in how we think about AI, now published @techpolicypress.bsky.social www.techpolicy.press/three-fallac...
Three Fallacies: Alondra Nelson's Remarks at the Elysée Palace on the Occasion of the AI Action Summit | TechPolicy.Press
Dr. Nelson was an invited speaker at a dinner hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron at the Palais de l'Élysée on February 10, 2025.
www.techpolicy.press
February 14, 2025 at 10:43 PM
I was pleased to attend a State Dinner, hosted by Pres. Macron, for participants of the AI Action Summit. It was an honor to be invited to deliver remarks at Elysee Palace on Three Fallacies in how we think about AI, now published @techpolicypress.bsky.social www.techpolicy.press/three-fallac...
So saddened to hear about the passing of Nicolas Nova @nicolasnova.bsky.social. I never met him in person, but was lucky enough to contribute to his wonderful special edition on failure in Techniques & Culture, "En cas de panne."
editions.ehess.fr/ouvrages/ouv....
So brilliant and so kind.
editions.ehess.fr/ouvrages/ouv....
So brilliant and so kind.
January 9, 2025 at 7:58 PM
So saddened to hear about the passing of Nicolas Nova @nicolasnova.bsky.social. I never met him in person, but was lucky enough to contribute to his wonderful special edition on failure in Techniques & Culture, "En cas de panne."
editions.ehess.fr/ouvrages/ouv....
So brilliant and so kind.
editions.ehess.fr/ouvrages/ouv....
So brilliant and so kind.
Reposted by Edward Jones-Imhotep
Ma contribution sur @franceculture.fr pour rendre hommage à Nicolas Nova. Un chercheur brillant, connaisseur curieux de nos mondes connectés.
Il avait 47 ans et venait d’achever son ouvrage « Persistance du merveilleux », un essai qui éclaire le petit peuple fabuleux de nos machines ✨Tristesse👇
Il avait 47 ans et venait d’achever son ouvrage « Persistance du merveilleux », un essai qui éclaire le petit peuple fabuleux de nos machines ✨Tristesse👇
January 7, 2025 at 10:35 AM
Ma contribution sur @franceculture.fr pour rendre hommage à Nicolas Nova. Un chercheur brillant, connaisseur curieux de nos mondes connectés.
Il avait 47 ans et venait d’achever son ouvrage « Persistance du merveilleux », un essai qui éclaire le petit peuple fabuleux de nos machines ✨Tristesse👇
Il avait 47 ans et venait d’achever son ouvrage « Persistance du merveilleux », un essai qui éclaire le petit peuple fabuleux de nos machines ✨Tristesse👇
Reposted by Edward Jones-Imhotep
I wrote about what the current fascination with the icy far north means in this moment back in 2016; it seems relevant again.
aeon.co/essays/what-...
aeon.co/essays/what-...
What lies beneath the ice of our fascination with the North? | Aeon Essays
The top of the globe has always meant fantasy, myth, adventure. What explains the icy northern grip on our imagination?
aeon.co
January 7, 2025 at 9:00 PM
I wrote about what the current fascination with the icy far north means in this moment back in 2016; it seems relevant again.
aeon.co/essays/what-...
aeon.co/essays/what-...
Reposted by Edward Jones-Imhotep
"The only AI I want to discuss is ancestral intelligence—the insights, experiences, and wisdom that grow under the rubble of progress." An incredible essay from @ruha9.bsky.social on the insidious philosophies that power AI evangelism. Must read 👇🏾
lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-...
lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-...
The New Artificial Intelligentsia | Los Angeles Review of Books
In the fifth essay of the Legacies of Eugenics series, Ruha Benjamin explores how AI evangelists wrap their self-interest in a cloak of humanistic concern.
lareviewofbooks.org
January 7, 2025 at 11:57 PM
"The only AI I want to discuss is ancestral intelligence—the insights, experiences, and wisdom that grow under the rubble of progress." An incredible essay from @ruha9.bsky.social on the insidious philosophies that power AI evangelism. Must read 👇🏾
lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-...
lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-...
Reposted by Edward Jones-Imhotep
Gross as this is, this feels like an effort to replace the labor of influencers crucial to the social media economy. Automating content creation through AI bots and another episode in the long sordid history of Black automata Edward Jones-Imhotep is studying. (His forthcoming book is so necessary).
January 3, 2025 at 9:39 PM
Gross as this is, this feels like an effort to replace the labor of influencers crucial to the social media economy. Automating content creation through AI bots and another episode in the long sordid history of Black automata Edward Jones-Imhotep is studying. (His forthcoming book is so necessary).
Thanks for the shout-out! For anyone interested, this piece in @wired.com gives a fuller picture. From the amazing @virginiaheffernan.bsky.social .
www.wired.com/story/histor...
www.wired.com/story/histor...
January 3, 2025 at 10:37 PM
Thanks for the shout-out! For anyone interested, this piece in @wired.com gives a fuller picture. From the amazing @virginiaheffernan.bsky.social .
www.wired.com/story/histor...
www.wired.com/story/histor...
Reposted by Edward Jones-Imhotep
Formerly enslaved, Anna Julia Cooper earned an MA in math in 1887 & a PhD. Educator, leader, democracy activist, her 1892 book championed women's rights. “The cause of freedom is not the cause of a race or a sect, a party or a class - it is the cause of human kind, the very birthright of humanity.”
January 2, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Formerly enslaved, Anna Julia Cooper earned an MA in math in 1887 & a PhD. Educator, leader, democracy activist, her 1892 book championed women's rights. “The cause of freedom is not the cause of a race or a sect, a party or a class - it is the cause of human kind, the very birthright of humanity.”
Reposted by Edward Jones-Imhotep
Really enjoyed the lively conversation tonight at the Yale Hist & Phil of Physics Working Group about my latest article in @hsnatsci.bsky.social on the blurring of field and laboratory with precision instruments like LIGO's interferometers! Article available here: online.ucpress.edu/hsns/article...
Hidden in Plain Sight: Discerning Signal from Noise in the Expanded Laboratory Environment
What happens when disturbances in precision measurement instruments are indecipherable to physicists despite extensive review of the instruments and their outputs? How do physicists parse instrument o...
online.ucpress.edu
December 13, 2024 at 2:29 AM
Really enjoyed the lively conversation tonight at the Yale Hist & Phil of Physics Working Group about my latest article in @hsnatsci.bsky.social on the blurring of field and laboratory with precision instruments like LIGO's interferometers! Article available here: online.ucpress.edu/hsns/article...
Reposted by Edward Jones-Imhotep
Recordings of talks from the conference Pragmatism & the Philosophy of Science held at Rotman Institute at Western U Sept 2024 are now on Youtube!
Here's my talk on "The Geodetic & Metrological Roots of C.S. Peirce’s Pragmatism" if you're interested...
#HPS #pragmatism #Peirce #geodesy #metrology
Here's my talk on "The Geodetic & Metrological Roots of C.S. Peirce’s Pragmatism" if you're interested...
#HPS #pragmatism #Peirce #geodesy #metrology
Pragmatism & The Philosophy of Science: Fall 2024 Conference - Alisa Bokulich
YouTube video by Rotman Institute of Philosophy
youtu.be
December 8, 2024 at 12:22 AM
Recordings of talks from the conference Pragmatism & the Philosophy of Science held at Rotman Institute at Western U Sept 2024 are now on Youtube!
Here's my talk on "The Geodetic & Metrological Roots of C.S. Peirce’s Pragmatism" if you're interested...
#HPS #pragmatism #Peirce #geodesy #metrology
Here's my talk on "The Geodetic & Metrological Roots of C.S. Peirce’s Pragmatism" if you're interested...
#HPS #pragmatism #Peirce #geodesy #metrology
Reposted by Edward Jones-Imhotep
Outstanding thread on the little-known origins of African studies in Europe.
The 'hidden founders' of African studies in Europe: African intellectuals in the Holy Roman Empire and the German Reich ca. 1652-1918.
www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-hidden...
www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-hidden...
The 'hidden founders' of African studies in Europe: African intellectuals in the Holy Roman Empire and the German Reich ca. 1652-1918.
In June 1652, the Ethiopian scholar Abba Gorgoryos reached the city of Nuremburg in what was then the Holy Roman Empire (modern Germany) where he met Hiob Ludolf, an envoy and linguist whom later gene...
www.africanhistoryextra.com
December 4, 2024 at 12:52 PM
Outstanding thread on the little-known origins of African studies in Europe.
Reposted by Edward Jones-Imhotep
Last year at the Institute for Advanced Study, I had the great pleasure of convening an amazing group of multidisciplinary scholars on the topic of the platform in society. One of our collective efforts was "5 Theses on the Gravity of Platforms" www.ias.edu/stsv-lab/fiv...
November 23, 2024 at 1:16 PM
Last year at the Institute for Advanced Study, I had the great pleasure of convening an amazing group of multidisciplinary scholars on the topic of the platform in society. One of our collective efforts was "5 Theses on the Gravity of Platforms" www.ias.edu/stsv-lab/fiv...
Reposted by Edward Jones-Imhotep
Welcome to bsky the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology at the Uni of Toronto! #HPS
@ihpst-uoft.bsky.social
@ihpst-uoft.bsky.social
December 1, 2024 at 12:26 AM
Welcome to bsky the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology at the Uni of Toronto! #HPS
@ihpst-uoft.bsky.social
@ihpst-uoft.bsky.social
Reposted by Edward Jones-Imhotep
Fantastic open access article on the history & historiography of technology in modern South Asia by @amandazillo.bsky.social (which I had a small part in bringing to publication). She invites us to rethink hierarchies of technical authority and the notion of “vernacular” technical knowledge.
For History Compass, I wrote about new directions in the study of the history of technology in modern South Asia. I explored the potential of these historiographic trends through poetic laments of an early 20th-century railway carpenter named ‘Abdul ‘Aziz in Lahore...
A Railway Carpenter in the History of Technology?: New Opportunities From Modern South Asia
This article examines interconnected questions that are central to new scholarship on the history of technology in modern South Asia. Which communities, groups and individuals have formed and sustain...
compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 30, 2024 at 10:27 PM
Fantastic open access article on the history & historiography of technology in modern South Asia by @amandazillo.bsky.social (which I had a small part in bringing to publication). She invites us to rethink hierarchies of technical authority and the notion of “vernacular” technical knowledge.
Absolutely brilliant piece by Fara Dabhoiwala in @londonreview.bsky.social on the polymath Francis Williams. You'll never see this portrait, or the history of 18th-century science, the same way again.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Fara Dabhoiwala · A Man of Parts and Learning: Francis Williams Gets His Due
The only certainty about the picture is that it shows Francis Williams. No one has ever been able to discover who...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 30, 2024 at 4:56 PM
Absolutely brilliant piece by Fara Dabhoiwala in @londonreview.bsky.social on the polymath Francis Williams. You'll never see this portrait, or the history of 18th-century science, the same way again.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Reposted by Edward Jones-Imhotep
"There is little distinction between our world and that of nonhumans. We all share the same breath. I am the mint tea, the bawena, that Grandma used to offer to soothe my ailing."
Grandma’s ‘Bawena’: On the Kinship of Plants and People
My family introduced me not only to plant knowledge but also to a frame through which I place myself into my environment and universe.
buff.ly
November 28, 2024 at 7:16 PM
"There is little distinction between our world and that of nonhumans. We all share the same breath. I am the mint tea, the bawena, that Grandma used to offer to soothe my ailing."
Reposted by Edward Jones-Imhotep
November 20, 2024 at 10:38 PM
Reposted by Edward Jones-Imhotep
"[Kara] Walker’s foray into robotics is new but perhaps not surprising. The automatons are instantly recognizable as a product of her hand and imagination, reminiscent of her signature silhouettes..." -- Hilarie M. Sheets via @nytimes.com
Kara Walker Is No One’s Robot
At SFMOMA, the artist enacts a parable about trauma and healing in Black life — and makes her first foray into robotics. “I went down a little sci-fi rabbit hole the last couple years working on this ...
www.nytimes.com
June 27, 2024 at 12:26 PM
"[Kara] Walker’s foray into robotics is new but perhaps not surprising. The automatons are instantly recognizable as a product of her hand and imagination, reminiscent of her signature silhouettes..." -- Hilarie M. Sheets via @nytimes.com