They did seem to have some trouble with the idea that AI can't really reason right now today, mixed up with it will NEVER be able to reason.

Perhaps they're just repeating what they've heard about current AI as simply a language prediction machine.

As a bonus, as of yesterday, I am officially a resident of Canada again and no longer have to worry about being deported to El Salvidor over what I say on social media. Apparently, I quit being a USA based immigrant academic at almost exactly the right moment. 12/12

So, I will take the harder option: retrain yet again. I need to find out if something was wrong with me as a scientist, or if there is something wrong with the field (or the more interesting option: both!). So, it’s back to school to retrain yet again. 11/n

Unfortunately, I am the kind of maniac that is a dedicated vegan, went into debt to put solar panels on his roof, and – among many other insufferable qualities – apparently blows up his career because of his principles. 10/n

I was faced with a crossroad: the easier option was to give up on my research program and just study something mundane to keep my paycheque (this is what everyone told me to do). 9/n

I think this was a tiny minority of the field, but it was a vocal and toxic minority, and it was enough to really stall my career. It was untenable to keep fighting with people who only seemed capable of arguing in bad faith and clearly did not want to hear anything I had to say. 8/n

As this went on, I was told by multiple funders that they would never fund work on my core research programme no matter what data or models I had. By the end, the most common reason my papers and grants were rejected was personal ad homonym attacks rather than critique of the science. 7/n

Unfortunately, there were a lot of people that seemingly preferred the status quo over novel models. My work had apparently created several actual enemies in science, who did many antisocial things, but most frequently accused me of academic misconduct to try and block my publications. 6/n

Following the data and existing mathematical ideas led me to evolutionary game theory. These models generated lots of novel insights and predictions that were almost often supported by data, but I learnt even more when the models weren’t supported by data. 5/n

So, midcareer, I retrained in maths to develop my own models so I could flesh out verbal arguments others were making into more rigorous mathematical theory so I could better understand and predict unexpected experimental results. 4/n

I spent 20 years as a scientist seeking truth. To me it was a calling not a job. The data led me to some strange, unexpected and exciting places. I kept accidentally designing experiments that did not support the arguments people were making in the literature. 3/n

Something is broken in modern #science that has caused measurably less discovery and innovation over the decades. I personally think that ecology & evolution has more problems relative to other fields. So, I am going to try and study the field itself and its logical and theoretical foundations. 2/n

Regeneration in the park near that mature tree. It would be cool if these were resistant offspring!

I've also worked on American chestnut, and there mortality is 100% and fast. This seems really different. And frankly, hopeful. Possibly some resistance that natural selection can work with!?