Nolen Gertz
@ethicistforhire.bsky.social
Philosophy professor @utwentephilosophy.bsky.social
Author of #NihilismAndTechnology (RLI 2018), #Nihilism (MIT 2019), #PhilosophyOfWarAndExile (Palgrave 2014)
https://www.nolengertz.com
#Philsky #Philtech #Existentialism #Phenomenology #Filmsky
Author of #NihilismAndTechnology (RLI 2018), #Nihilism (MIT 2019), #PhilosophyOfWarAndExile (Palgrave 2014)
https://www.nolengertz.com
#Philsky #Philtech #Existentialism #Phenomenology #Filmsky
Pinned
Nolen Gertz
@ethicistforhire.bsky.social
· Dec 27
Nihilism and Technology, Updated Edition
Investigating how human values mediate the design and use of new technologies, the updated edition of Nolen Gertz’s Nihilism and Technology explores the ramifications of artificial intelligence. G...
rowman.com
Thread of things I wrote this year:
1) Updated edition of my #NihilismAndTechnology book with new chapters about why AI doesn't exist, why ChatGPT shouldn't exist, and why climate change can't be solved by nihilism...
rowman.com/ISBN/9781538...
1) Updated edition of my #NihilismAndTechnology book with new chapters about why AI doesn't exist, why ChatGPT shouldn't exist, and why climate change can't be solved by nihilism...
rowman.com/ISBN/9781538...
We really need to stop pretending that AI is just a way to "free teachers" and "make school fun"...
AI is built on theft and exploitation
AI is speeding up climate change
AI is good at generating BS that looks meaningful
AI is convincing kids to talk to it rather than people
#NihilismAndTechnology
AI is built on theft and exploitation
AI is speeding up climate change
AI is good at generating BS that looks meaningful
AI is convincing kids to talk to it rather than people
#NihilismAndTechnology
November 11, 2025 at 9:49 AM
We really need to stop pretending that AI is just a way to "free teachers" and "make school fun"...
AI is built on theft and exploitation
AI is speeding up climate change
AI is good at generating BS that looks meaningful
AI is convincing kids to talk to it rather than people
#NihilismAndTechnology
AI is built on theft and exploitation
AI is speeding up climate change
AI is good at generating BS that looks meaningful
AI is convincing kids to talk to it rather than people
#NihilismAndTechnology
*Marx bursts out of his grave*
Call in the troops to solve the commercial real estate crisis in our swanky downtown cores
You can’t make this shit up, folks
You can’t make this shit up, folks
November 11, 2025 at 8:14 AM
*Marx bursts out of his grave*
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
> Not sure what to think about AI? 🤖
> Uncertain whether you can trust social media? 🥸
> Want to help scientists combat climate change? 🔥
Join us for the Online Master Open Day and find out more about our Philosophy of Science, Technology & Society MSc program:
www.utwente.nl/en/education...
> Uncertain whether you can trust social media? 🥸
> Want to help scientists combat climate change? 🔥
Join us for the Online Master Open Day and find out more about our Philosophy of Science, Technology & Society MSc program:
www.utwente.nl/en/education...
November 10, 2025 at 10:27 AM
> Not sure what to think about AI? 🤖
> Uncertain whether you can trust social media? 🥸
> Want to help scientists combat climate change? 🔥
Join us for the Online Master Open Day and find out more about our Philosophy of Science, Technology & Society MSc program:
www.utwente.nl/en/education...
> Uncertain whether you can trust social media? 🥸
> Want to help scientists combat climate change? 🔥
Join us for the Online Master Open Day and find out more about our Philosophy of Science, Technology & Society MSc program:
www.utwente.nl/en/education...
Transhumanist billionaires fund neurotech research. Yet neurotech research is being held back by the impossible demands of transhumanism. It's like an O. Henry short story...
#NihilismAndTechnology
#NihilismAndTechnology
Investors’ ‘dumb transhumanist ideas’ setting back neurotech progress, say experts
Investors’ ‘dumb transhumanist ideas’ setting back neurotech progress, say experts
Fascination of investors such as Elon Musk with uploading their brains to computers is hindering progress in curing disease, say scientists
www.theguardian.com
November 10, 2025 at 7:38 AM
Transhumanist billionaires fund neurotech research. Yet neurotech research is being held back by the impossible demands of transhumanism. It's like an O. Henry short story...
#NihilismAndTechnology
#NihilismAndTechnology
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
Bahahahahaha The New York Times just printed an opinion piece declaring "AI is intelligent, so long as we redefine what intelligence means to include it. And soon AI will be conscious, because we'll just redefine consciousness too!"
Nothing means anything! Yay!
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/o...
Nothing means anything! Yay!
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/o...
Opinion | A.I. Is on Its Way to Something Even More Remarkable Than Intelligence
www.nytimes.com
November 9, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Bahahahahaha The New York Times just printed an opinion piece declaring "AI is intelligent, so long as we redefine what intelligence means to include it. And soon AI will be conscious, because we'll just redefine consciousness too!"
Nothing means anything! Yay!
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/o...
Nothing means anything! Yay!
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/o...
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
lol she got his ass and he knows it
November 9, 2025 at 3:36 PM
lol she got his ass and he knows it
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
You might enjoy these quotes from Falk talking in general about Columbo's "reaching into pockets" business. (In that same interview he told me about directing "Blueprint for Murder" and getting help from Cassavetes and Spielberg.)
November 9, 2025 at 3:42 PM
You might enjoy these quotes from Falk talking in general about Columbo's "reaching into pockets" business. (In that same interview he told me about directing "Blueprint for Murder" and getting help from Cassavetes and Spielberg.)
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
Has been a while since I have been presenting a Philofilm. If you are in Enschede tomorrow, come and join me for discussing old guys and transhumanism.
November 9, 2025 at 6:34 AM
Has been a while since I have been presenting a Philofilm. If you are in Enschede tomorrow, come and join me for discussing old guys and transhumanism.
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
In the name of protecting Jews, Jews have their funding cancelled, get kicked out of seminars, and are removed from leadership positions in Jewish Studies to be replaced by non-Jews.
Latest write-up about outrageous administrative over reach at IU. www.jta.org/2025/11/07/u...
In Indiana, a vaunted Jewish studies program is upended by red-state politics over Israel and speech - Jewish Telegraphic Agency
A leadership shakeup, a defunded graduate student and political pressure from above have turned a storied program into a flashpoint for Trump-era campus politics.
www.jta.org
November 8, 2025 at 3:58 AM
In the name of protecting Jews, Jews have their funding cancelled, get kicked out of seminars, and are removed from leadership positions in Jewish Studies to be replaced by non-Jews.
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
This crazy graph really sums up what's still insufficiently appreciated: the return of ideology. We're beyond Habermas's 'glassy background ideology' that has technology just advancing based on efficiency. Singularity ideology now underpins a grand political project of post-democratic AI-capitalism.
AI could end scarcity, end humanity - or boost trend growth by 0.2 percentage points
November 8, 2025 at 2:20 PM
This crazy graph really sums up what's still insufficiently appreciated: the return of ideology. We're beyond Habermas's 'glassy background ideology' that has technology just advancing based on efficiency. Singularity ideology now underpins a grand political project of post-democratic AI-capitalism.
November 9, 2025 at 8:25 AM
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
Anything we can actually do, we can afford.
November 9, 2025 at 4:13 AM
Anything we can actually do, we can afford.
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
Tech guys six months ago: haha yes we’re cutting all this WASTEFUL spending by eliminating medical research and USAID
Tech guys now: yes I think taxpayers will be excited to bailout my non consensual pornography machine
Tech guys now: yes I think taxpayers will be excited to bailout my non consensual pornography machine
November 8, 2025 at 11:02 PM
Tech guys six months ago: haha yes we’re cutting all this WASTEFUL spending by eliminating medical research and USAID
Tech guys now: yes I think taxpayers will be excited to bailout my non consensual pornography machine
Tech guys now: yes I think taxpayers will be excited to bailout my non consensual pornography machine
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
So it turns out... the US air travel system was incredibly, deeply dependent on federal funding to just run day-to-day all this time, to the benefit of private airline shareholders, when everyone thinks that state-run trains are leeching off the government. Weird!
November 9, 2025 at 12:10 AM
So it turns out... the US air travel system was incredibly, deeply dependent on federal funding to just run day-to-day all this time, to the benefit of private airline shareholders, when everyone thinks that state-run trains are leeching off the government. Weird!
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
I honestly don’t get the value of this company. They hoover up energy and water. Their product constantly gets things wrong and, in extreme cases, coaches people into suicide.
And it’s all built on what seems to be malicious and vast intellectual property theft.
What does OpenAI offer the world?
And it’s all built on what seems to be malicious and vast intellectual property theft.
What does OpenAI offer the world?
“authors & publishers who filed a lawsuit against the Sam Altman-led firm have secured access to internal Slack messages… discussing the mass deletion of a pirated books dataset… A NY district court ordered OpenAI to hand over the communications regarding data deletion”
futurism.com/artificial-i...
futurism.com/artificial-i...
OpenAI in Danger After Authors Suing It Gain Access to Its Internal Slack Messages
Authors and publishers, who are suing OpenAI, secured access to internal Slack messages and emails discussing the deletion of pirated books.
futurism.com
November 9, 2025 at 7:35 AM
I honestly don’t get the value of this company. They hoover up energy and water. Their product constantly gets things wrong and, in extreme cases, coaches people into suicide.
And it’s all built on what seems to be malicious and vast intellectual property theft.
What does OpenAI offer the world?
And it’s all built on what seems to be malicious and vast intellectual property theft.
What does OpenAI offer the world?
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
dream-logic is more powerful than logic-logic and oral cultures must encode knowledge into powerful meme-spells newsletter.squishy.computer/p/llms-and-h...
November 9, 2025 at 4:42 AM
dream-logic is more powerful than logic-logic and oral cultures must encode knowledge into powerful meme-spells newsletter.squishy.computer/p/llms-and-h...
Reposted by Nolen Gertz
Had a great time discussing AI movies & AI ideology at the Museum Nacht Enschede festival tonight. Very cool to live in a city where people will come to a philosophy lecture on a Saturday night...
November 8, 2025 at 11:08 PM
Had a great time discussing AI movies & AI ideology at the Museum Nacht Enschede festival tonight. Very cool to live in a city where people will come to a philosophy lecture on a Saturday night...
Preparing for my AI movie event tonight...
November 8, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Preparing for my AI movie event tonight...
Found a board game to teach my son about AI...
November 8, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Found a board game to teach my son about AI...
AI is so obviously necessary and helpful that OSU needs 400 scholars to figure out what to do with it:
"The 100 AI-focused faculty hires will complement the existing expertise at Ohio State, including the approximately 300 scholars who already are innovating with AI in their respective fields."
"The 100 AI-focused faculty hires will complement the existing expertise at Ohio State, including the approximately 300 scholars who already are innovating with AI in their respective fields."
November 8, 2025 at 1:12 PM
AI is so obviously necessary and helpful that OSU needs 400 scholars to figure out what to do with it:
"The 100 AI-focused faculty hires will complement the existing expertise at Ohio State, including the approximately 300 scholars who already are innovating with AI in their respective fields."
"The 100 AI-focused faculty hires will complement the existing expertise at Ohio State, including the approximately 300 scholars who already are innovating with AI in their respective fields."
You shouldn't study Humanities because you can't get a job and so will be saddled with massive debt. Whereas if you study STEM you can get a job, but for a company that can't make a profit and so will be saddled with massive debt...
ICYMI: Microsoft’s charge “implies a more than $12 billion quarterly loss at OpenAI, said Firoz Valliji, an analyst at Bernstein.”
That “would mark one of the largest single-quarter losses for a tech company in history.”
@jessefelder.bsky.social $MSFT
www.wsj.com/livecoverage...
That “would mark one of the largest single-quarter losses for a tech company in history.”
@jessefelder.bsky.social $MSFT
www.wsj.com/livecoverage...
November 8, 2025 at 11:51 AM
You shouldn't study Humanities because you can't get a job and so will be saddled with massive debt. Whereas if you study STEM you can get a job, but for a company that can't make a profit and so will be saddled with massive debt...