Rebecca Kingston
@rkingston.bsky.social
Political Theorist. Author of Plutarch's Prism (CUP, 2022). History of ideas and moral psychology. Tennis fanatic.
Not so faithful I would suggest. The doctor never meant for his creature to be immortal for one...
*whispers* It is a faithful adaptation of an early 1800s novel by a woman about an arrogant self centered man
Why are people
Why are people
November 8, 2025 at 4:37 PM
Not so faithful I would suggest. The doctor never meant for his creature to be immortal for one...
Canadian government now seeking to cut international student visas from a target of 305,900 a year (already lowered from before) to 155,000 in 2026 and dropping further in 2027 and 2028. Yet they also want to attract foreign talent. Why deny these students a good education? Where can they go?
November 5, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Canadian government now seeking to cut international student visas from a target of 305,900 a year (already lowered from before) to 155,000 in 2026 and dropping further in 2027 and 2028. Yet they also want to attract foreign talent. Why deny these students a good education? Where can they go?
Now why can't Elon Musk use his brains and technology for some good in the world now? (ok, I know the answer) Starlink would be a great solution here....https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/29/afghanistan-communications-blackout-taliban-shuts-internet
September 29, 2025 at 10:05 PM
Now why can't Elon Musk use his brains and technology for some good in the world now? (ok, I know the answer) Starlink would be a great solution here....https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/29/afghanistan-communications-blackout-taliban-shuts-internet
'tough it out'? Yeah, right....
September 22, 2025 at 11:28 PM
'tough it out'? Yeah, right....
As long as we are talking about Afghanistan...
September 20, 2025 at 10:01 PM
As long as we are talking about Afghanistan...
Reposted by Rebecca Kingston
Amazingly enough I am on this list *multiple times* because of scholarly articles I coauthored. You should really check and see if you’re on it too.
Just a reminder to check for your name in this list of books that OpenAI trained from. If your name is there, they probably owe you several thousand dollars.
OpenAI cried that if everyone eligible author files, the company will go bankrupt, so I'm alerting every author I have ever spoken to.
OpenAI cried that if everyone eligible author files, the company will go bankrupt, so I'm alerting every author I have ever spoken to.
Search LibGen, the Pirated-Books Database That Meta Used to Train AI
Millions of books and scientific papers are captured in the collection’s current iteration.
www.theatlantic.com
September 6, 2025 at 11:14 AM
Amazingly enough I am on this list *multiple times* because of scholarly articles I coauthored. You should really check and see if you’re on it too.
Reposted by Rebecca Kingston
When I teach about Atlantic Slavery one of the key things I try to communicate is that it was a *resisted condition*. People were bound in servitude *by force* because only force could hold them to it. Their resistances forged entire cultures.
New post!
Too often students assume enslaved Africans revolted on Saint-Domingue because they were inspired by the Enlightenment or the other Atlantic Revolutions. They didn't.
🗺️🗃️
www.liberatingnarratives.com/enlightenmen...
Too often students assume enslaved Africans revolted on Saint-Domingue because they were inspired by the Enlightenment or the other Atlantic Revolutions. They didn't.
🗺️🗃️
www.liberatingnarratives.com/enlightenmen...
The Enlightenment Didn’t Cause the Haitian Revolution
Enslaved Africans in Saint-Domingue had many reasons to revolt... the Enlightenment wasn't one of them
www.liberatingnarratives.com
September 10, 2025 at 3:41 PM
When I teach about Atlantic Slavery one of the key things I try to communicate is that it was a *resisted condition*. People were bound in servitude *by force* because only force could hold them to it. Their resistances forged entire cultures.
This is helpful framing and might be relevant to those currently drafting syllabi, i.e. suggesting student use of AI to write papers amounts to 'deskilling'. If I taught in a different field I might ask students to draft their c.v. but stressing the number of skills they had lost recently.
Physicians are using A.I. for diagnoses and more. But a new study found evidence that relying on A.I. tools might erode a doctor’s ability to perform fundamental skills without the technology, a phenomenon known as “deskilling.”
Are A.I. Tools Making Doctors Worse at Their Jobs?
Physicians are using the technology for diagnoses and more — but may be losing skills in the process.
nyti.ms
August 28, 2025 at 9:32 PM
This is helpful framing and might be relevant to those currently drafting syllabi, i.e. suggesting student use of AI to write papers amounts to 'deskilling'. If I taught in a different field I might ask students to draft their c.v. but stressing the number of skills they had lost recently.
My book 'Plutarch's Prism' is reviewed by Katherine East in Vol. 45, no. 4, 2024 of 'History of Political Thought' journal. Nice review!
August 17, 2025 at 8:12 PM
My book 'Plutarch's Prism' is reviewed by Katherine East in Vol. 45, no. 4, 2024 of 'History of Political Thought' journal. Nice review!
These are great suggestions!
sunday mid-august is just about the sundayest.
balm for the sundays:
this solidarity guide to back-to-school support against the AI assault
against-a-i.com
balm for the sundays:
this solidarity guide to back-to-school support against the AI assault
against-a-i.com
AGAINST AI -
against-a-i.com
August 17, 2025 at 2:36 PM
These are great suggestions!
how sinister....can we turn back time and send him to Philosophy 101?
“rewrite the entire corpus of human knowledge”
June 21, 2025 at 4:27 PM
how sinister....can we turn back time and send him to Philosophy 101?
Reposted by Rebecca Kingston
Some limited highlights from a recent fabulous rafting trip on the Nahanni River NWT. Should be on everyone's bucket list. #nahanni.com
June 17, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Some limited highlights from a recent fabulous rafting trip on the Nahanni River NWT. Should be on everyone's bucket list. #nahanni.com
So secret even he himself does not know it....
NYT "Trump Says ‘Nobody Knows’ His Plans on Iran"
NYT "Trump Says ‘Nobody Knows’ His Plans on Iran"
June 18, 2025 at 6:37 PM
So secret even he himself does not know it....
NYT "Trump Says ‘Nobody Knows’ His Plans on Iran"
NYT "Trump Says ‘Nobody Knows’ His Plans on Iran"
Bear, dall sheep with babies, moose and bison (latter pics not included) #nahanni.com
June 17, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Bear, dall sheep with babies, moose and bison (latter pics not included) #nahanni.com
Some limited highlights from a recent fabulous rafting trip on the Nahanni River NWT. Should be on everyone's bucket list. #nahanni.com
June 17, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Some limited highlights from a recent fabulous rafting trip on the Nahanni River NWT. Should be on everyone's bucket list. #nahanni.com
Reposted by Rebecca Kingston
Wow, yes. An amazing glimpse of the LLM Lie Machine at work. Anyone whose students are bring tempted by LLMs, sharing this could be very helpful showing how it lies, and how it fails.
This is a hell of a thing to read.
Diabolus Ex Machina
This Is Not An Essay
open.substack.com
June 3, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Wow, yes. An amazing glimpse of the LLM Lie Machine at work. Anyone whose students are bring tempted by LLMs, sharing this could be very helpful showing how it lies, and how it fails.
six months open mayonnaise in the pantry?! no thanks!
The fine print on nearly all condiment bottles — “refrigerate after opening” — isn’t much help. Here's the A-to-Z guide to storing condiments. nyti.ms/4k6t7OR
May 23, 2025 at 5:50 PM
six months open mayonnaise in the pantry?! no thanks!
Congrats to Stefan Eich @stefeich.bsky.social on winning the 2024 David and Elaine Spitz Prize from the International Conference for the Study of Political Thought (CSPT)!
press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
The Currency of Politics
Money in the history of political thought, from ancient Greece to the Great Inflation of the 1970s
press.princeton.edu
May 23, 2025 at 2:35 PM
Congrats to Stefan Eich @stefeich.bsky.social on winning the 2024 David and Elaine Spitz Prize from the International Conference for the Study of Political Thought (CSPT)!
press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
First line of an exam answer that you know will not go well: "This quotation is from Hegel's 'The Element of Right'."
May 1, 2025 at 4:47 PM
First line of an exam answer that you know will not go well: "This quotation is from Hegel's 'The Element of Right'."
I don't think I have ever heard anything so contemptible of humanity...
Mark Zuckerberg says Meta's chatbots will supplement your real friends: "The average American has fewer than 3 friends ... but has demand for ... 15 friends" (h/t x.com/romanhelmetg...)
May 1, 2025 at 2:07 PM
I don't think I have ever heard anything so contemptible of humanity...
PM Carney in his winning election speech heralds the values of humility, ambition and unity.
April 29, 2025 at 5:30 AM
PM Carney in his winning election speech heralds the values of humility, ambition and unity.
I thought all truckers spoke Convoy...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sd5ZLJWQmss
so glad we escaped the grip of identity politics
"We're gonna ensure that our truckers, who are the backbone of our policy, are all able to speak English" -- Leavitt says Trump will sign an order demanding that all truckers can speak English
April 28, 2025 at 8:03 PM
I thought all truckers spoke Convoy...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sd5ZLJWQmss
Wondering if Rousseauian freedom lasts the full 12 or so hours of the voting day (15 if taken through all time zones) or merely the 2-3 minutes one stands in the voting booth...Hard to say by just a phenomenological description of my own experience...
April 28, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Wondering if Rousseauian freedom lasts the full 12 or so hours of the voting day (15 if taken through all time zones) or merely the 2-3 minutes one stands in the voting booth...Hard to say by just a phenomenological description of my own experience...