Elisa Freschi | Lightnews

elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 16h

Josh Milburn @joshmilburn.bsky.social · 22h

On the latest episode of Knowing Animals, I interview Walter Veit (@walterveit.bsky.social) about his 2023 Routledge book A Philosophy for the Science of Animal Consciousness. The episode is available free below, or in all the usual podcast places.

knowinganimals.libsyn.com/episode-245-...

elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 17h

@perusall.com : I am not sure that the new version is an improvement. It no longer works on Safari and even on Chrome I can no longer create a "Test Student".

wendy norris @wendynorris.bsky.social · 22h

Pulling no punches in the syllabus. I am so tired.

Course policy on Generative AI

Generative AI apps (e.g., ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok, MidJourney, Sora, Dall-E, etc.) are prohibited in this course. You may NOT submit any ideas, outlines, text, multimedia, images, programming code, and/or citations generated by an AI application as any part of your own work. Any plagiarism or other form of cheating using Generative AI apps will be considered a violation of Nazareth University's Academic Integrity policy.

I am interested in your ideas, creativity, and insights. This course is designed to strengthen your thought process and ability to reason — skills that are crucial to both your academic success and future career since companies are increasingly abandoning Gen AI apps in droves and acknowledging the productivity myth. Your ability to think and communicate are superpowers!

AI and Generative AI are different technologies. Rigorous, peer-reviewed research has found that LLM-based chatbots/multimedia apps have substantial negative impacts on learning (that thing you’re spending $120K+ for), privacy, the environment, and working toward a fair and just society for everyone. There is overwhelming evidence in research, investigative reporting, and multiple lawsuits that AI agents flood social media with manipulative slop and chatbot use contributes to serious personal harm, including destabilizing mental health, inducing “AI psychosis”, providing information about self-harm to vulnerable people, and promoting delusional thinking. As they famously warned in Star Wars: “It’s a trap!”

I care about you and your future. Think critically about how “black box” technology companies use deception and wildly unsupported claims to lure you in, track your interactions in the app, and manipulate information presented to you by the chatbot. Gen AI is not the product, you are.

Josh Milburn @joshmilburn.bsky.social · 22h

On the latest episode of Knowing Animals, I interview Walter Veit (@walterveit.bsky.social) about his 2023 Routledge book A Philosophy for the Science of Animal Consciousness. The episode is available free below, or in all the usual podcast places.

knowinganimals.libsyn.com/episode-245-...

Magnus Lehnsherr @i-magnus.bsky.social · 22h

A 19 year old asked ChatGPT for advice on taking recreational drugs.

Over a period of 18 months, ChatGPT advised him which drugs to take, how much to ingest and even curated playlists for his trips.

He died from an overdose recommended by the chatbot

#chatgpt #chatbots #AI

A Calif. teen trusted ChatGPT for drug advice. He died from an overdose.

"Who on earth gives that advice?"

www.sfgate.com

Futurism @futurism.com · 2d

He put his complete trust in a chat bot that turned him into a savage murderer.

Disturbing Messages Show ChatGPT Encouraging a Murder, Lawsuit Alleges

A lawsuit against OpenAI reveals the chilling ChatGPT messages that drove a middle aged man to kill his 83-year-old mother.

trib.al

elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 4d

I know that this is for fun & I am yet to listen to the podcast, but it still raises an interesting point. Imho, whenever we (=scholars dealing w philosophy outside of NA-EU) are asked to summarise a whole field within a few minutes episode we should start by warning the audience abt its immensity

elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 6d

What could go wrong?

elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 6d

(correction in the alt-text: Read "Harvard" instead of "the Hamilton school")

elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 6d

Short and non-polemical Q: is Hankins implying that "civilisation" is = "Western civilisation", so that teaching world history *necessarily* means creating uncivilised students? Pls notice that I am not claiming that this cannot happen, I'm wondering whether acc to him it *happens necessarily*

Extract from Hankins' article "Why I'm leaving Harvard" where he complains that the Hamilton school is no longer teaching Western civilisation but rather global history and that this produces "serious harm to young Americans" who "become uncivilised"

elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 7d

exactly! We need to start each class telling them the immensity of what is left out of them!

elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 7d

Some people have been fed a diet of extreme diversity within the Euro-American canon and nearly no diversity elsewhere. It is also convenient because it reinforces existent hiring policies.

elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 7d

They clearly think that by "love-bombing" hundreds of professors they will get at least a few positive answers. I would recommend tailoring their emails and only writing to the profs they are really interested in working with.
(I get many of them too).

elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 7d

Inspired by a recent interaction on bluesky:
elisafreschi.com/2025/12/29/s...
#GlobalPhilosophy #Philosophy #philsky

So, you think that Western thought is more diverse and interesting than “non-Western thought”?

So, you think that Western thought is more diverse and interesting than “non-Western thought”? I have a non-polemical question: What did you read within what you call “non-Western thought”? If the lis...

elisafreschi.com

elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 28d

On self-satisfaction as a criterion for knowing dharma in Kumārila: it could be that the person who has studied the Veda throughout their life is naturally inclined to do the right thing, because they remember in a non-discursive way some relevant Vedic passage.

elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 28d

Don't call the Pratyabhijñā school "Kashmir Śaivism, the majority of Śaivas in Kashmir were dualists!

elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 28d

This. Just think about the enormous amount of input LLMs need to behave as if they had "learnt" a language, whereas how babies learn a language out of a very limited set of training data (at most, hundreds of sentences a day, for about one year).

Darrel “Dreading 2026, anticipation-wise” Plant @darrelplant.bsky.social · 29d

Been thinking a lot lately that humans and animals like crows possess brains with reasoning capacity on very low power inputs but despite enormous power requirements, LLMs have yet to show that ability, which might indicate that‘s entirely the wrong path to AGI.

elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 28d

Sanskrit philosophy is extremely sophisticated and I am convinced that we don't need to borrow categories from Euro-American philosophy to better understand it.
More below:
elisafreschi.com/2025/12/08/a...

A word of caution on philosophical methodology

Sanskrit philosophy is extremely sophisticated and I am convinced that we don’t need to borrow categories from Euro-American philosophy to better understand it. Parallels to Euro-American theories are...

elisafreschi.com

elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 28d

I probably don't care enough about team sports to be living in North America…:-)

elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 29d

#PhilosophyJobs

Alisa Bokulich @alisabokulich.bsky.social · 29d

Philosophy group at Wageningen University is hiring an Assistant Professor in the Philosophy of the Life Sciences. Position is in the Philosophy (PHI) group led by @rachelankeny.bsky.social Deadline is 12 January 2026
www.wur.nl/en/vacancy/a...
#philsci #philjobs #philsky #hpbio

Assistant Professor in Philosophy of the Life Sciences

Are you seeking a challenging role in a nurturing and collegial setting that supports rigorous philosophical teaching and research as well as opportunities for productive collaborations with social an...

www.wur.nl

John Bull @garius.bsky.social · 29d

Pro tip for people who post too much on here (like me):

you can put:

from:me

in the search bar, along with keywords, to search back through your own posts.

Alisa Bokulich @alisabokulich.bsky.social · 29d

Philosophy group at Wageningen University is hiring an Assistant Professor in the Philosophy of the Life Sciences. Position is in the Philosophy (PHI) group led by @rachelankeny.bsky.social Deadline is 12 January 2026
www.wur.nl/en/vacancy/a...
#philsci #philjobs #philsky #hpbio

Assistant Professor in Philosophy of the Life Sciences

Are you seeking a challenging role in a nurturing and collegial setting that supports rigorous philosophical teaching and research as well as opportunities for productive collaborations with social an...

www.wur.nl

Darrel “Dreading 2026, anticipation-wise” Plant @darrelplant.bsky.social · 29d

Been thinking a lot lately that humans and animals like crows possess brains with reasoning capacity on very low power inputs but despite enormous power requirements, LLMs have yet to show that ability, which might indicate that‘s entirely the wrong path to AGI.

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 29d

3. I appealed to the joy of doing science—and got the predictable question:

Would you rather live in a world where AI cured cancer or live in a world where you personally get to do science?

But that's not the dilemma we face at all. There's no cause to think that AI could do anything of the sort.

elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · 29d

Call for applications for the
Friedrich Weller Prize 2026 (for works on Buddhism, China, India, published 2023--2025). For details, please see:
www.saw-leipzig.de/de/aktuelles...

Ausschreibung Friedrich-Weller-Preis 2026 — Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften

www.saw-leipzig.de

elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · Dec 6

“Not all faculty are using AI or are comfortable using it. Change isn’t easy for any of us,” says McCrindle [associate dean of teaching and learning and the director of the Centre for Teaching and Learning at UofT]

—>Perhaps it's not that we resist change per se, but that we resist bad changes?

The Byzantine Legacy @thebyzantinelegacy.bsky.social · Dec 6

Church of St. Nicholas in Myra (modern Demre), where St. Nicholas was bishop

Today is the feast of St. Nicholas of Myra

elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · Dec 4

BM: Things that are incredibly socially expensive, you would not be able to satisfy your desires for them, but even in capitalism people can't meet most of their needs and desires (most ppl have crap jobs and no money and not bc they are playing their part, but bc the system sucks!) (my summary)
10/

elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · Dec 4

Starting to think that I will need to be re-educated because of liking tofu: "If you have expensive tastes, your needs will not. be catered, but nor will you care for them, if you are a good socialist." (summary mine)
9/

elisa freschi @elisafreschi.bsky.social · Dec 4

And who decides what is needed for human flourishing? Plastic surgery in case of people who are seriously depressed because of their appearance? (I am starting to worry about people deciding that my likes could be deemed unfit, e.g., tofu is superfluous, let's all eat animal proteins)
8/

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