Torsten Kathke
@kathke.com
Historian. 19th/20th century US & Germany. JGU Mainz. 70s/80s cultural criticism, pop science, futurology. Book: Wires That Bind.
Reposted by Torsten Kathke
The fact that everything these companies do is for profit is fundamentally at odds with the goals of public health. This was true under Biden and has just gotten worse under this administration.
Moderna curbing investments in vaccine trials due to US backlash, CEO tells Bloomberg TV reut.rs/3NBzBtS
Moderna curbing investments in vaccine trials due to US backlash, CEO tells Bloomberg TV
Moderna does not plan to invest in new late-stage vaccine trials because of growing opposition to immunizations from U.S. officials, CEO Stephane Bancel said in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Thursday.
reut.rs
February 13, 2026 at 1:43 AM
The fact that everything these companies do is for profit is fundamentally at odds with the goals of public health. This was true under Biden and has just gotten worse under this administration.
Still wild to think that humanity in a hundred years might be living in a climate catastrophe we could have prevented because a couple of ten thousand voters in three US states thought the reality TV star who had bungled the pandemic response would single-handedly fix inflation.
February 13, 2026 at 10:10 AM
Still wild to think that humanity in a hundred years might be living in a climate catastrophe we could have prevented because a couple of ten thousand voters in three US states thought the reality TV star who had bungled the pandemic response would single-handedly fix inflation.
Reposted by Torsten Kathke
🌿 Hab das Gefühl, je mehr uns KI aufs Auge gedrückt wird, um unser "Leben zu erleichtern", umso komplizierter und verkrachter wird das alles. Ein paar außer-der-Reihe-Gedanken dazu:
steady.page/de/db21f24b-...
steady.page/de/db21f24b-...
Nein danke, ich denke noch selbst
🌿 Die Suchmaschine will mir mit KI das Denken abnehmen. Als Biologin weiß ich: Die besten Funde macht man auf Umwegen. Warum ich wieder öfter rausgehe.
steady.page
February 12, 2026 at 3:50 PM
🌿 Hab das Gefühl, je mehr uns KI aufs Auge gedrückt wird, um unser "Leben zu erleichtern", umso komplizierter und verkrachter wird das alles. Ein paar außer-der-Reihe-Gedanken dazu:
steady.page/de/db21f24b-...
steady.page/de/db21f24b-...
Reposted by Torsten Kathke
Too political, too political, not political
Know your Olympic politics!
Know your Olympic politics!
February 12, 2026 at 5:44 PM
Too political, too political, not political
Know your Olympic politics!
Know your Olympic politics!
Reposted by Torsten Kathke
Happy birthday to one of my favourite haters, Charles Darwin
February 12, 2026 at 4:31 PM
Happy birthday to one of my favourite haters, Charles Darwin
Reposted by Torsten Kathke
tfw you're trapped in a sunken cost fallacy
February 12, 2026 at 7:14 PM
tfw you're trapped in a sunken cost fallacy
Reposted by Torsten Kathke
it really can't be said enough that this is a person who has dined with the president of the united states
Fuentes then fantasizes about “breeding gulags”: “So just like Hitler imprisoned Gypsies, Jews, communists, you know, all of his political rivals, we have to do the same thing with women… They go to the breeding gulags. The good ones will be liberated. The bad ones will toil in the mines forever.”
February 12, 2026 at 4:11 PM
it really can't be said enough that this is a person who has dined with the president of the united states
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“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”
February 12, 2026 at 5:31 PM
“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”
Reposted by Torsten Kathke
Definiere deutsches Feuilleton
February 12, 2026 at 12:00 PM
Definiere deutsches Feuilleton
Reposted by Torsten Kathke
Ihr macht euch mit solchen Überschriften der Verharmlosung schuldig, @spiegel.de. Bondi hat in diesem Kreuzverhör beleidigt, gepöbelt, offen Recht gebrochen und ignoriert, kein Interesse an den Opfern und an Aufklärung gezeigt. Und ihr ordnet das so ein? Ihr macht euch überflüssig.
February 12, 2026 at 6:03 AM
Ihr macht euch mit solchen Überschriften der Verharmlosung schuldig, @spiegel.de. Bondi hat in diesem Kreuzverhör beleidigt, gepöbelt, offen Recht gebrochen und ignoriert, kein Interesse an den Opfern und an Aufklärung gezeigt. Und ihr ordnet das so ein? Ihr macht euch überflüssig.
Reposted by Torsten Kathke
People on the left generally seem to have a better understanding of the risks of AI than this thread does: for example, many on the left understand how capital will use AI (whether it works or not) to attempt mass job cuts. The hype is immaterial at this point, this has already begun.
I understand why people are exhausted by AI hype, and why those of us squarely in the corner of "human dignity uber alles" see AI doomerism as self-serving hype, but I *really* think people on the left broadly need to start thinking seriously about the possibiltiy of the hype being...true.
February 11, 2026 at 9:55 PM
People on the left generally seem to have a better understanding of the risks of AI than this thread does: for example, many on the left understand how capital will use AI (whether it works or not) to attempt mass job cuts. The hype is immaterial at this point, this has already begun.
Well that surely doesn't feel like obeying in advance at all.
thehill.com
February 11, 2026 at 9:47 PM
Well that surely doesn't feel like obeying in advance at all.
Reposted by Torsten Kathke
Using AI to organize a paper, or to provide initial structure, it not like using AI to spell check a paper.
Spelling has a definite (within bounds: see Canadian and British spelling vs American spelling) right or wrong answer. The organization of a paper (or narrative) will depend on the context.
Spelling has a definite (within bounds: see Canadian and British spelling vs American spelling) right or wrong answer. The organization of a paper (or narrative) will depend on the context.
February 11, 2026 at 9:41 PM
Using AI to organize a paper, or to provide initial structure, it not like using AI to spell check a paper.
Spelling has a definite (within bounds: see Canadian and British spelling vs American spelling) right or wrong answer. The organization of a paper (or narrative) will depend on the context.
Spelling has a definite (within bounds: see Canadian and British spelling vs American spelling) right or wrong answer. The organization of a paper (or narrative) will depend on the context.
Reposted by Torsten Kathke
and of course his masterwork: the character of james van der beek in the bitch in apartment 23
James Van Der Beek, the actor best known for playing the lead in hit 90s teen drama Dawson’s Creek, has died.
February 11, 2026 at 9:19 PM
and of course his masterwork: the character of james van der beek in the bitch in apartment 23
Reposted by Torsten Kathke
From the WSJ piece: "Reducing reliance on fossil fuels looks like Europe’s best shot at saving its domestic manufacturing and stopping other governments from pushing it around."
“I think Greenland was a wake-up call. There is more talk [in Brussels] about replacing one dependency with another.”
This is what I told the Wall Street Journal about Europe’s increasing dependence on US LNG following the end of Russian pipeline gas.
This is what I told the Wall Street Journal about Europe’s increasing dependence on US LNG following the end of Russian pipeline gas.
February 11, 2026 at 6:29 PM
From the WSJ piece: "Reducing reliance on fossil fuels looks like Europe’s best shot at saving its domestic manufacturing and stopping other governments from pushing it around."
The sales push for "AI" reminds me of the Spielberg movie of the same name.
Also should have ended long before it became tedious, but no such luck.
Also should have ended long before it became tedious, but no such luck.
February 11, 2026 at 5:01 PM
The sales push for "AI" reminds me of the Spielberg movie of the same name.
Also should have ended long before it became tedious, but no such luck.
Also should have ended long before it became tedious, but no such luck.
Reposted by Torsten Kathke
Turing was a test about people and we failed it
Researchers working with the A.I. system Claude have come to understand that the model’s selfhood, like our own, is a matter of both neurons and narratives. newyorkermag.visitlink.me/kEX1vV
February 11, 2026 at 6:38 AM
Turing was a test about people and we failed it
If math had been taught to me as something that's pretty cool and has many facets that you can find out more about on your own, I would probably not have given up on it in school and gotten 1 out of 15 points in my final math exam ever.
Those who weren’t resigned to the Math Idiot Garbage Bin as kids may not grasp how much “if you’re bad at math, you’ll die in a ditch and all will be better off for it” sentiment was floating around in the 90s and 2000s, but it sure felt real to me.
(my parents are great! It didn’t come from them!)
(my parents are great! It didn’t come from them!)
February 11, 2026 at 4:56 PM
If math had been taught to me as something that's pretty cool and has many facets that you can find out more about on your own, I would probably not have given up on it in school and gotten 1 out of 15 points in my final math exam ever.
Catching up on podcasts from the last several, uhm… years, and @gregjenner.bsky.social on the Taskmaster Podcast was a very pleasant surprise.
February 11, 2026 at 4:49 PM
Catching up on podcasts from the last several, uhm… years, and @gregjenner.bsky.social on the Taskmaster Podcast was a very pleasant surprise.
Reposted by Torsten Kathke
Reposted by Torsten Kathke
Imagine a President bulldozing 1/3 of our Historic White House pocketing $300 million and that doesn’t even crack the top 100 most destructive, vile, disgusting things he’s done, yet here we are
February 11, 2026 at 1:47 PM
Imagine a President bulldozing 1/3 of our Historic White House pocketing $300 million and that doesn’t even crack the top 100 most destructive, vile, disgusting things he’s done, yet here we are
Can we all bond together for a self help group of people who just cannot take anymore how dumb literally everything is?
February 11, 2026 at 2:50 PM
Reposted by Torsten Kathke
A point I make in my work on this subject is that we need to reject the insistance that convos abt commercial AI products should be about the tech. Determining whether AI is “conscious” is a Smartwashing exercise in solipcism that distracts from the material conditions of the product’s distribution
February 11, 2026 at 2:07 PM
A point I make in my work on this subject is that we need to reject the insistance that convos abt commercial AI products should be about the tech. Determining whether AI is “conscious” is a Smartwashing exercise in solipcism that distracts from the material conditions of the product’s distribution
Reposted by Torsten Kathke
Sometimes I remember Reagan removing Jimmy Carter’s solar panels and I think we’ve been enduring this shit for way too many years.
February 11, 2026 at 6:25 AM
Sometimes I remember Reagan removing Jimmy Carter’s solar panels and I think we’ve been enduring this shit for way too many years.
Reposted by Torsten Kathke
This is what I’m talking about when I talk about technologies of liberation
This required careful measurement and design
This required careful measurement and design
“Historians call this passageway a masterwork of deliberate concealment, designed to be absolutely invisible to slave catchers or city marshals during the 19th-century”
Safe house linked to Underground Railroad discovered in Manhattan
The Merchant's House is the first landmarked building in Manhattan.
ny1.com
February 11, 2026 at 4:32 AM
This is what I’m talking about when I talk about technologies of liberation
This required careful measurement and design
This required careful measurement and design