Tobias Wilson-Bates
@phdhurtbrain.bsky.social
Time Machines. Temporality. Ecology. Robots. Education. Associate Professor of 19th century British Literature.
Pinned
Bluesky isn’t about popularity, it’s about gathering all 17 William Morris lovers together in a single online location!
Reposted by Tobias Wilson-Bates
What's so amazing about Jim Henson as a puppeteer is that he could literally be explaining that Kermit is made out of felt and ping pong balls and yet Kermit still feels alive the whole time he's doing it
February 11, 2026 at 10:03 PM
What's so amazing about Jim Henson as a puppeteer is that he could literally be explaining that Kermit is made out of felt and ping pong balls and yet Kermit still feels alive the whole time he's doing it
Reposted by Tobias Wilson-Bates
I don't know how online instruction is possible under these conditions. And I have online classes this summer and in the fall. It's gonna be a trip.
Chrome will now "autobrowse" and take action for you.
Free.
And it just took a quiz on my behalf in Canvas after a little coaxing.
Free.
And it just took a quiz on my behalf in Canvas after a little coaxing.
February 12, 2026 at 1:17 AM
I don't know how online instruction is possible under these conditions. And I have online classes this summer and in the fall. It's gonna be a trip.
Reposted by Tobias Wilson-Bates
Reposted by Tobias Wilson-Bates
Most people don’t know this: Heat pumps REDUCE gas consumption even if running 100% on electricity from a gas fired power plant.
More here in my piece for @carbonbrief.org👇
interactive.carbonbrief.org/factcheck/he...
More here in my piece for @carbonbrief.org👇
interactive.carbonbrief.org/factcheck/he...
February 11, 2026 at 9:03 PM
Most people don’t know this: Heat pumps REDUCE gas consumption even if running 100% on electricity from a gas fired power plant.
More here in my piece for @carbonbrief.org👇
interactive.carbonbrief.org/factcheck/he...
More here in my piece for @carbonbrief.org👇
interactive.carbonbrief.org/factcheck/he...
Reposted by Tobias Wilson-Bates
what makes something "vulnerable to AI" is not the capacity of machines but the credulity of management.
Of course, it is also true that historians jobs may in practice be vulnerable to AI, because a lot of people who control the money for historian jobs probably haven’t thought much about where history comes from, either.
February 11, 2026 at 8:39 PM
what makes something "vulnerable to AI" is not the capacity of machines but the credulity of management.
Reposted by Tobias Wilson-Bates
Love how colon cancer keeps killing people under 50 and yet insurance doesn't cover colonoscopy without cost-sharing until age 45.
I just paid $1,584 out of pocket for mine thanks to my deductible and copays
I just paid $1,584 out of pocket for mine thanks to my deductible and copays
February 11, 2026 at 8:11 PM
Love how colon cancer keeps killing people under 50 and yet insurance doesn't cover colonoscopy without cost-sharing until age 45.
I just paid $1,584 out of pocket for mine thanks to my deductible and copays
I just paid $1,584 out of pocket for mine thanks to my deductible and copays
Reposted by Tobias Wilson-Bates
This is the type of thing I keep trying to talk to people about for higher ed. Not conference rooms where I "listen to diverse perspectives" but actually doing work to imagine what strengthening the US higher education system in furtherance of a democracy would look like.
Very excited about this new @knightcolumbia.org project, both because it gives us the chance to look beyond the current democratic crisis and because so many super people have already agreed to participate. knightcolumbia.org/content/new-...
New Knight Institute Initiative to Focus on “Reconstructing Free Expression” After Trump
knightcolumbia.org
February 11, 2026 at 9:07 PM
This is the type of thing I keep trying to talk to people about for higher ed. Not conference rooms where I "listen to diverse perspectives" but actually doing work to imagine what strengthening the US higher education system in furtherance of a democracy would look like.
Reposted by Tobias Wilson-Bates
Reverse Dorian Gray: you yourself stay the same while you, in the photos from your college years, become younger and hotter with each passing decade
February 11, 2026 at 6:14 PM
Reverse Dorian Gray: you yourself stay the same while you, in the photos from your college years, become younger and hotter with each passing decade
Reposted by Tobias Wilson-Bates
I don’t really pay attention to charges of doomerism. I don’t know what it means offline.
I do know that refusing a version of how the future will unfold forecloses on the power that actually shapes that future. That’s not disavowing that tech changes are happening but they are in now a given.
I do know that refusing a version of how the future will unfold forecloses on the power that actually shapes that future. That’s not disavowing that tech changes are happening but they are in now a given.
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 5:51 PM
I don’t really pay attention to charges of doomerism. I don’t know what it means offline.
I do know that refusing a version of how the future will unfold forecloses on the power that actually shapes that future. That’s not disavowing that tech changes are happening but they are in now a given.
I do know that refusing a version of how the future will unfold forecloses on the power that actually shapes that future. That’s not disavowing that tech changes are happening but they are in now a given.
Reposted by Tobias Wilson-Bates
I think the greatest gift college professors in the humanities can give to students right now is a seminar room where, for 80 minutes twice a week, nothing that happens to them is a sales pitch for an AI product.
February 11, 2026 at 8:45 PM
I think the greatest gift college professors in the humanities can give to students right now is a seminar room where, for 80 minutes twice a week, nothing that happens to them is a sales pitch for an AI product.
Reposted by Tobias Wilson-Bates
if you played sonic the hedgehog and put down the controller, sonic would look at you and tap his foot impatiently. this was proof that sega genesis cartridges had souls. the decision was made to make the storage cases a lot larger than the cartridges so they would have room to move around in there
February 11, 2026 at 3:58 PM
if you played sonic the hedgehog and put down the controller, sonic would look at you and tap his foot impatiently. this was proof that sega genesis cartridges had souls. the decision was made to make the storage cases a lot larger than the cartridges so they would have room to move around in there
Reposted by Tobias Wilson-Bates
stupid strategy,, when university administrators are doing it for free!
Microsoft, Google, Meta and Amazon paying influencers $400k-$600k to post months of AI hype content. Absolutely busted, failed industry, embarrassing era
www.cnbc.com/2026/02/06/g...
www.cnbc.com/2026/02/06/g...
Google and Microsoft offer lucrative deals to promote AI, but even $500,000 won't sway some creators
Tech companies including Google and Microsoft are paying influencers hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote AI products.
www.cnbc.com
February 11, 2026 at 7:07 PM
stupid strategy,, when university administrators are doing it for free!
Reposted by Tobias Wilson-Bates
So I'm starting a daily practice of reading a bit of poetry and close reading lines that I find striking. Not sure if that's of interest to anyone, but I'll make a little thread.
My first was a brief consideration of a couple lines from Hyperion:
tobiaswilsonbates.substack.com/p/hyperion?r...
My first was a brief consideration of a couple lines from Hyperion:
tobiaswilsonbates.substack.com/p/hyperion?r...
Hyperion
John Keats had words
tobiaswilsonbates.substack.com
February 11, 2026 at 5:02 PM
So I'm starting a daily practice of reading a bit of poetry and close reading lines that I find striking. Not sure if that's of interest to anyone, but I'll make a little thread.
My first was a brief consideration of a couple lines from Hyperion:
tobiaswilsonbates.substack.com/p/hyperion?r...
My first was a brief consideration of a couple lines from Hyperion:
tobiaswilsonbates.substack.com/p/hyperion?r...
Reposted by Tobias Wilson-Bates
So I'm starting a daily practice of reading a bit of poetry and close reading lines that I find striking. Not sure if that's of interest to anyone, but I'll make a little thread.
My first was a brief consideration of a couple lines from Hyperion:
tobiaswilsonbates.substack.com/p/hyperion?r...
My first was a brief consideration of a couple lines from Hyperion:
tobiaswilsonbates.substack.com/p/hyperion?r...
Hyperion
John Keats had words
tobiaswilsonbates.substack.com
February 11, 2026 at 5:02 PM
So I'm starting a daily practice of reading a bit of poetry and close reading lines that I find striking. Not sure if that's of interest to anyone, but I'll make a little thread.
My first was a brief consideration of a couple lines from Hyperion:
tobiaswilsonbates.substack.com/p/hyperion?r...
My first was a brief consideration of a couple lines from Hyperion:
tobiaswilsonbates.substack.com/p/hyperion?r...
Reposted by Tobias Wilson-Bates
I have had approximately 32 customer service jobs in my life (true story). I remember this transitionary period very well — the dawn of enterprise software when we will had high touch human interface for data and it hadn’t yet been monetized. I have been thinking about that era lately.
I worked in market research towards the end of the mall-intercept data collection era. The guys who founded the firm, pre-mall, went door-to-door. Seems like we might need to return to F2F data collection to have any confidence that we're getting human response. It worked fine then. Could work again
February 11, 2026 at 1:56 PM
I have had approximately 32 customer service jobs in my life (true story). I remember this transitionary period very well — the dawn of enterprise software when we will had high touch human interface for data and it hadn’t yet been monetized. I have been thinking about that era lately.
Reposted by Tobias Wilson-Bates
"Only two English words rhyme with culture, and these, as it happens, are sepulture and vulture. We don’t yet call museums or galleries or even universities culture-sepultures, but I hear a lot, lately, about culture-vultures (man must rhyme)."
Raymond Williams
Raymond Williams
February 11, 2026 at 1:16 PM
"Only two English words rhyme with culture, and these, as it happens, are sepulture and vulture. We don’t yet call museums or galleries or even universities culture-sepultures, but I hear a lot, lately, about culture-vultures (man must rhyme)."
Raymond Williams
Raymond Williams
“Half bath” a very deceptive name for a room with zero (0) baths in it 🤔
February 11, 2026 at 12:26 PM
“Half bath” a very deceptive name for a room with zero (0) baths in it 🤔
Reposted by Tobias Wilson-Bates
😂😂😂 (Full disclosure: I totally assign my Defoe edition, and I explain why it is good, and I offer to buy the class a large bag of Skittles or M&Ms with all the royalty money I'm making.)
I don’t assign my own Austen editions because I’m not really allowed and the workaround is a pain, but I talk about them, my choices, my approach, etc. Today it became clear that my Austen ind. study students only just realized I meant *my edition* not just a copy I had I was bragging about owning.
February 11, 2026 at 12:45 AM
😂😂😂 (Full disclosure: I totally assign my Defoe edition, and I explain why it is good, and I offer to buy the class a large bag of Skittles or M&Ms with all the royalty money I'm making.)
Reposted by Tobias Wilson-Bates
No son, they are not "magically delicious." The workers made them delicious. This is a slogan meant to mystify the social conditions of labor
February 11, 2026 at 1:46 AM
No son, they are not "magically delicious." The workers made them delicious. This is a slogan meant to mystify the social conditions of labor
Reposted by Tobias Wilson-Bates
You know you’re in the free speech zone when the ‘just asking questions’ crowd takes thousands of dollars from the ringleader of a child sex ring to force students to debate whether or not statutory rape should be a crime
February 11, 2026 at 12:38 AM
You know you’re in the free speech zone when the ‘just asking questions’ crowd takes thousands of dollars from the ringleader of a child sex ring to force students to debate whether or not statutory rape should be a crime
Every chapter of a Dostoevsky novel involves meeting two new characters who you are led to believe could not possibly be as insane as the previous characters in the story, but no
February 11, 2026 at 12:45 AM
Every chapter of a Dostoevsky novel involves meeting two new characters who you are led to believe could not possibly be as insane as the previous characters in the story, but no
Reposted by Tobias Wilson-Bates
A downside of classroom exercises that require digital tools is that you constantly have to update them because websites disappear, apps change their interfaces (making your instructions out of date), and half the time what works on one computer doesn’t work on the next computer over.
February 10, 2026 at 11:15 PM
A downside of classroom exercises that require digital tools is that you constantly have to update them because websites disappear, apps change their interfaces (making your instructions out of date), and half the time what works on one computer doesn’t work on the next computer over.
Reposted by Tobias Wilson-Bates
Heated Rivalry should prove that it's not the horniness that's the issue
preemptively annoyed that everyone is going to hate the wuthering heights movie for the wrong reasons. it won't be bad bc it's horny :( it'll be bad bc her films uncritically reproduce the paranoias of the entitled, using surface-level deviance to deliver frank conservatism :(
February 10, 2026 at 11:46 PM
Heated Rivalry should prove that it's not the horniness that's the issue
Reposted by Tobias Wilson-Bates
This isn’t directly about the current story in the news but I wonder if the legalization of gambling/predictive markets plus cryptocurrency will correlate with more kidnappings. I feel like I hear about a kidnapping regularly now? Could be media effects but I wonder.
February 10, 2026 at 9:52 PM
This isn’t directly about the current story in the news but I wonder if the legalization of gambling/predictive markets plus cryptocurrency will correlate with more kidnappings. I feel like I hear about a kidnapping regularly now? Could be media effects but I wonder.