Andries du Toit - School of Government, UWC
@andriesdutoit-uwc.bsky.social
Postcolonial statecraft; contentious politics; political belonging, deliberative practice. All this, and the polycrisis. Views not my own.
Reposted by Andries du Toit - School of Government, UWC
You might imagine that an event celebrating 75 years of the Turing Test would be all "Wasn't he prescient, and look, now we really do have machines that think!" Mercifully, this event yesterday was close to the opposite. /1
royalsociety.org/science-even...
royalsociety.org/science-even...
Celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Turing Test | Royal Society
An event celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Turing Test, held at the Royal Society on 2 October 2025.
royalsociety.org
October 3, 2025 at 6:19 PM
You might imagine that an event celebrating 75 years of the Turing Test would be all "Wasn't he prescient, and look, now we really do have machines that think!" Mercifully, this event yesterday was close to the opposite. /1
royalsociety.org/science-even...
royalsociety.org/science-even...
Reposted by Andries du Toit - School of Government, UWC
An Austrian theologian named "Wolfgang Palaver" unwillingly guiding Thiel down the road to Apocalypse is more Thomas Pynchon than Thomas Pynchon. www.wired.com/story/the-re...
The Real Stakes, and Real Story, of Peter Thiel’s Antichrist Obsession
Thirty years ago, a peace-loving Austrian theologian spoke to Peter Thiel about the apocalyptic theories of Nazi jurist Carl Schmitt. They’ve been a road map for the billionaire ever since.
www.wired.com
October 4, 2025 at 1:49 PM
An Austrian theologian named "Wolfgang Palaver" unwillingly guiding Thiel down the road to Apocalypse is more Thomas Pynchon than Thomas Pynchon. www.wired.com/story/the-re...
Reposted by Andries du Toit - School of Government, UWC
I'm coming to realise that the primary purpose of a doctoral thesis is that it's essentially a nicely-organised citation repository for my specific interests.
September 30, 2025 at 4:15 PM
I'm coming to realise that the primary purpose of a doctoral thesis is that it's essentially a nicely-organised citation repository for my specific interests.
Reposted by Andries du Toit - School of Government, UWC
Thanks for all the discussion on this. I'm pleased to see the debate. Also pleased (and interested) that my 19-yr-old daughter, a classicist, is much more hardline than me in refusing to use AI, for a variety of reasons.
I'm often surprised at how much researchers are using LLMs for intellectual work. It's not that I disapprove, or at least not on principle. It's more that I'm surprised at the trust being placed in the process. And by that I don't just mean LLMs can give wrong information...
September 27, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Thanks for all the discussion on this. I'm pleased to see the debate. Also pleased (and interested) that my 19-yr-old daughter, a classicist, is much more hardline than me in refusing to use AI, for a variety of reasons.
Reposted by Andries du Toit - School of Government, UWC
None of this is to deny that the technology has some uses in these capacities (though not ones I've felt any need for myself). But I worry that we are starting to see intellectual labour as just a means to an end, and as something that can be shortcut.
September 26, 2025 at 10:53 AM
None of this is to deny that the technology has some uses in these capacities (though not ones I've felt any need for myself). But I worry that we are starting to see intellectual labour as just a means to an end, and as something that can be shortcut.
Reposted by Andries du Toit - School of Government, UWC
And as for writing, don't get me started. Most often, the process of writing is not a laborious business of transcription, but a process of thinking itself. I'm not about to outsource my thinking to a machine.
September 26, 2025 at 10:50 AM
And as for writing, don't get me started. Most often, the process of writing is not a laborious business of transcription, but a process of thinking itself. I'm not about to outsource my thinking to a machine.
Reposted by Andries du Toit - School of Government, UWC
...I mean that even with careful prompts I would not be confident LLMs could perform the function I'd want. How do I know that any bland AI summary of a paper is going to extract what might be of value to *me* in it? I don't even know that myself before I read it...
September 26, 2025 at 10:48 AM
...I mean that even with careful prompts I would not be confident LLMs could perform the function I'd want. How do I know that any bland AI summary of a paper is going to extract what might be of value to *me* in it? I don't even know that myself before I read it...
Reposted by Andries du Toit - School of Government, UWC
I'm often surprised at how much researchers are using LLMs for intellectual work. It's not that I disapprove, or at least not on principle. It's more that I'm surprised at the trust being placed in the process. And by that I don't just mean LLMs can give wrong information...
September 26, 2025 at 10:45 AM
I'm often surprised at how much researchers are using LLMs for intellectual work. It's not that I disapprove, or at least not on principle. It's more that I'm surprised at the trust being placed in the process. And by that I don't just mean LLMs can give wrong information...
In about 40 years, some history postgrad class (probably in China) will run seminars trying to understand why the US liberal establishment, at one moment so smug and arrogant, allowed a bunch right-wing authoritarian nationalist idiots to take over their country, apparently with zero resistance.
September 27, 2025 at 7:54 AM
In about 40 years, some history postgrad class (probably in China) will run seminars trying to understand why the US liberal establishment, at one moment so smug and arrogant, allowed a bunch right-wing authoritarian nationalist idiots to take over their country, apparently with zero resistance.
Reposted by Andries du Toit - School of Government, UWC
The folks at Globalizations have managed to get their hands on one of those devices from Wm Gibson's novel The Peripheral that allows you to send messages to people in the past. This one arrived today, 19 September from, let me see, 23 October 2025.
Reviewer 2 is presumably in a different stub.
Reviewer 2 is presumably in a different stub.
September 19, 2025 at 1:22 PM
The folks at Globalizations have managed to get their hands on one of those devices from Wm Gibson's novel The Peripheral that allows you to send messages to people in the past. This one arrived today, 19 September from, let me see, 23 October 2025.
Reviewer 2 is presumably in a different stub.
Reviewer 2 is presumably in a different stub.
The folks at Globalizations have managed to get their hands on one of those devices from Wm Gibson's novel The Peripheral that allows you to send messages to people in the past. This one arrived today, 19 September from, let me see, 23 October 2025.
Reviewer 2 is presumably in a different stub.
Reviewer 2 is presumably in a different stub.
September 19, 2025 at 1:22 PM
The folks at Globalizations have managed to get their hands on one of those devices from Wm Gibson's novel The Peripheral that allows you to send messages to people in the past. This one arrived today, 19 September from, let me see, 23 October 2025.
Reviewer 2 is presumably in a different stub.
Reviewer 2 is presumably in a different stub.
Reposted by Andries du Toit - School of Government, UWC
[READ] Professor John-Mark Iyi promised his older brother, Godwin, that he would complete his PhD before getting married and starting a family. He kept that promise and worked hard to achieve academic success that far exceeded his family's expectations.
#IAmUWC
#IAmUWC
September 16, 2025 at 11:00 AM
[READ] Professor John-Mark Iyi promised his older brother, Godwin, that he would complete his PhD before getting married and starting a family. He kept that promise and worked hard to achieve academic success that far exceeded his family's expectations.
#IAmUWC
#IAmUWC
Reposted by Andries du Toit - School of Government, UWC
I think the world, or at least my part of it, was better when we didn’t have 24 hour access to Americans
September 9, 2025 at 10:16 AM
I think the world, or at least my part of it, was better when we didn’t have 24 hour access to Americans
Reposted by Andries du Toit - School of Government, UWC
An LLM is a lossy encyclopedia simonwillison.net/2025/Aug/29/...
August 29, 2025 at 9:32 AM
An LLM is a lossy encyclopedia simonwillison.net/2025/Aug/29/...
My book, A Blow to the Head, in which I reflect on my own experience of the violence of white supremacy and the complexities of repair, is on the Longlist for the #Canex Prize for publishing in Africa.
What a surprise, and what an amazing honour!
What a surprise, and what an amazing honour!
CANEX Prize for Publishing in Africa 2025 longlist announced
#LiteraryAwards #Fiction #Nonfiction #Publishers
www.writingafrica.com/canex-prize-...
#LiteraryAwards #Fiction #Nonfiction #Publishers
www.writingafrica.com/canex-prize-...
www.writingafrica.com
July 27, 2025 at 12:06 PM
My book, A Blow to the Head, in which I reflect on my own experience of the violence of white supremacy and the complexities of repair, is on the Longlist for the #Canex Prize for publishing in Africa.
What a surprise, and what an amazing honour!
What a surprise, and what an amazing honour!
Time flies. I remember Zohran as a little boy with tousled curls, cute as a button, the pride and joy of Mahmood and Mira. They must be beaming
crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their consultants
June 25, 2025 at 5:05 AM
Time flies. I remember Zohran as a little boy with tousled curls, cute as a button, the pride and joy of Mahmood and Mira. They must be beaming
Reposted by Andries du Toit - School of Government, UWC
Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.
June 19, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.
Reposted by Andries du Toit - School of Government, UWC
Nice look for you, Facebook! Thanks, hometown paper! And more thanks to the people who advocated for the "permanently disabled" status of my account there to be overturned. www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
S.F. author temporarily banned on Facebook after writing about L.A. riots
San Francisco writer Rebecca Solnit’s Facebook page was temporarily shut down after she posted an essay on the Los Angeles protests.
www.sfchronicle.com
June 12, 2025 at 6:49 AM
Nice look for you, Facebook! Thanks, hometown paper! And more thanks to the people who advocated for the "permanently disabled" status of my account there to be overturned. www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
Reposted by Andries du Toit - School of Government, UWC
Presumably he knows that Proxima Centauri is 4.25 light years away, so "travel to the stars by 2030" is close to being literally impossible. So he's speaking metaphorically - what's it a metaphor for?
fortune.com/2025/06/06/g...
fortune.com/2025/06/06/g...
Top Google exec says AI will rival humans in just 5 years and predicts we’ll 'colonize the galaxy' in 2030—but he draws the line at robot nurses
2030 will be “an era of maximum human flourishing, where we travel to the stars and colonize the galaxy,” Google DeepMind CEO says. Bill Gates and Marc Benioff have shared similar predictions.
fortune.com
June 10, 2025 at 10:38 AM
Presumably he knows that Proxima Centauri is 4.25 light years away, so "travel to the stars by 2030" is close to being literally impossible. So he's speaking metaphorically - what's it a metaphor for?
fortune.com/2025/06/06/g...
fortune.com/2025/06/06/g...
Tis ever so, during crackdowns.
June 11, 2025 at 10:54 AM
Tis ever so, during crackdowns.
Reposted by Andries du Toit - School of Government, UWC
ZEP holders have won another court victory against the Minister of Home Affairs, but their legal battle to stay in South Africa is far from over.
Read groundup.org.za/article/new-... by Tania Broughton
Read groundup.org.za/article/new-... by Tania Broughton
New Zimbabwe permit court showdown looming
At the heart of the matter is the question of whether the minister or Parliament can change the status of the permit
groundup.org.za
June 7, 2025 at 2:02 PM
ZEP holders have won another court victory against the Minister of Home Affairs, but their legal battle to stay in South Africa is far from over.
Read groundup.org.za/article/new-... by Tania Broughton
Read groundup.org.za/article/new-... by Tania Broughton
Reposted by Andries du Toit - School of Government, UWC
I worry that recommendation algorithms may be getting too good.
June 7, 2025 at 12:25 PM
I worry that recommendation algorithms may be getting too good.
True of much of Marxism, poststructuralism and mainstream economics. Also, according Sabine Hossenfelder, theoretical physics. The interesting work is often at the margins, with the people working between traditions, at the frontiers of disagreement.
Academia will form these little pockets -- people whose theorizing is outrageous & supported by methods outdated since the 90s -- but once it reaches a critical size those people just review each others papers & grants, form societies, hand out awards etc, like a self-contained parallel society.
June 3, 2025 at 6:58 AM
True of much of Marxism, poststructuralism and mainstream economics. Also, according Sabine Hossenfelder, theoretical physics. The interesting work is often at the margins, with the people working between traditions, at the frontiers of disagreement.
Reposted by Andries du Toit - School of Government, UWC
