Matthew L. Jones
@nescioquid.bsky.social
“How Data Happened” with Chris Wiggins available now! Historian of science, AI/ML computing, sigint, and technology, Princeton
Reposted by Matthew L. Jones
we have gone from a world in which we were told not to cite wikipedia because it was unreliable to a world where wikipedia might be the only reliable source left on the internet and we all owe a lot to the pedantic nerds who got us there
for all people mock it wikipedia is genuinely one of the wonders of the modern world
September 21, 2025 at 8:52 PM
we have gone from a world in which we were told not to cite wikipedia because it was unreliable to a world where wikipedia might be the only reliable source left on the internet and we all owe a lot to the pedantic nerds who got us there
Reposted by Matthew L. Jones
Every major publication in this country needs to have dedicated staffers or correspondents reporting on gaming, streamers, podcasts, and TikTok. Not as a once in a while thing. As standard beats. These are massive segments of American culture. No excuses for it anymore.
basically a generational cohort split here where certain younger people intuitively grasp the irony poisoned context, and if you aren't already up to speed, very hard to explain
Watching the cable news commentary on the bullet engravings is wild because none of these people seem to realize that the content of the engravings are indicative of extremely online meme brain rot
September 12, 2025 at 4:13 PM
Every major publication in this country needs to have dedicated staffers or correspondents reporting on gaming, streamers, podcasts, and TikTok. Not as a once in a while thing. As standard beats. These are massive segments of American culture. No excuses for it anymore.
Reposted by Matthew L. Jones
UC Berkeley Depart of History tenure-track asst prof job in Global History of Technology. History of technological artifacts & infrastructures through a global & transnational lens. All fields, areas, & periods of #HistTech considered
For more info:
aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05065
#HPS 🗃️
For more info:
aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05065
#HPS 🗃️
Assistant Professor – Global History of Technology - Department of History
University of California, Berkeley is hiring. Apply now!
aprecruit.berkeley.edu
August 30, 2025 at 1:54 PM
UC Berkeley Depart of History tenure-track asst prof job in Global History of Technology. History of technological artifacts & infrastructures through a global & transnational lens. All fields, areas, & periods of #HistTech considered
For more info:
aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05065
#HPS 🗃️
For more info:
aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05065
#HPS 🗃️
Reposted by Matthew L. Jones
you don't cast someone from the board game group because they favor low taxes and more carefully targeted regulations on industry
you cast someone from the board game group because they don't accept the humanity of other members of the board game group
you cast someone from the board game group because they don't accept the humanity of other members of the board game group
August 29, 2025 at 6:12 PM
you don't cast someone from the board game group because they favor low taxes and more carefully targeted regulations on industry
you cast someone from the board game group because they don't accept the humanity of other members of the board game group
you cast someone from the board game group because they don't accept the humanity of other members of the board game group
Reposted by Matthew L. Jones
For students interested in Émilie du Châtelet and/or early modern philosophy and science: please consider participating in the 2025 Libori Summer School (a hybrid event)! historyofwomenphilosophers.org/libori-summe... #philsky #earlymodern #academicsky
August 18, 2025 at 10:47 AM
For students interested in Émilie du Châtelet and/or early modern philosophy and science: please consider participating in the 2025 Libori Summer School (a hybrid event)! historyofwomenphilosophers.org/libori-summe... #philsky #earlymodern #academicsky
Reposted by Matthew L. Jones
The university leadership talking point condescendingly repeated last spring to explain why we weren’t fighting back was “we just aren’t popular with voters.” People may not report feeling affection elite institutions but they don’t support these specific attacks!
2 bits of data from new Economist/YouGov poll.....
13% support for cutting research funding to universities. 24% among Republicans. Polling on this continues to be catastrophic for the Rs, suggests Dems should be learning far harder into standing up for science and our universities. 1/
13% support for cutting research funding to universities. 24% among Republicans. Polling on this continues to be catastrophic for the Rs, suggests Dems should be learning far harder into standing up for science and our universities. 1/
August 20, 2025 at 11:21 PM
The university leadership talking point condescendingly repeated last spring to explain why we weren’t fighting back was “we just aren’t popular with voters.” People may not report feeling affection elite institutions but they don’t support these specific attacks!
Reposted by Matthew L. Jones
In the Corporation Rim, everything has to be owned by someone.
August 20, 2025 at 5:55 AM
In the Corporation Rim, everything has to be owned by someone.
RIP the great Tom Lehrer. From transubstantiation to non-proliferation, from Gropius and von Braun & Lobachevsky, from the AEC to the MLF, from the Elements to Fight Fiercely, his works opened worlds of sardonic humor, yes, but equally of learning, of culture, and history.
July 28, 2025 at 4:44 AM
RIP the great Tom Lehrer. From transubstantiation to non-proliferation, from Gropius and von Braun & Lobachevsky, from the AEC to the MLF, from the Elements to Fight Fiercely, his works opened worlds of sardonic humor, yes, but equally of learning, of culture, and history.
Reposted by Matthew L. Jones
SIGCIS 2025 deadline extended to Monday! Theme is POWER with keynote Lily Geismer. Going to be an epic year. Submit! And feel free to ask me any questions about it!
Deadline EXTENDED to Mon, 7/14! SIGCIS 2025: Power Surge with keynote speaker Lily Geismer. Find more details and full CFP here: docs.google.com/document/d/1...
SIGCIS 2025 CFP: Power Surge
The Special Interest Group for Computing, Information, and Society (SIGCIS) welcomes submissions to their 16th Annual Conference SIGCIS 2025: power surge ⚡🔌🔋💥 September 25-27 2025 | Online via Zoom K...
docs.google.com
July 10, 2025 at 5:40 PM
SIGCIS 2025 deadline extended to Monday! Theme is POWER with keynote Lily Geismer. Going to be an epic year. Submit! And feel free to ask me any questions about it!
Loss of a great scholar, mentor, human being
May 23, 2025 at 2:25 AM
Loss of a great scholar, mentor, human being
Reposted by Matthew L. Jones
It is with profound sadness that we learned about the passing of our beloved friend, colleague, and mentor, Mario Biagioli.
Mario was a pre-eminent scholar in many fields of inquiry: history of science, science studies, media studies, and the interdisciplinary study of intellectual properties. 1/2
Mario was a pre-eminent scholar in many fields of inquiry: history of science, science studies, media studies, and the interdisciplinary study of intellectual properties. 1/2
Mario Biagioli – ISHTIP.org
ishtip.org
May 20, 2025 at 1:07 PM
It is with profound sadness that we learned about the passing of our beloved friend, colleague, and mentor, Mario Biagioli.
Mario was a pre-eminent scholar in many fields of inquiry: history of science, science studies, media studies, and the interdisciplinary study of intellectual properties. 1/2
Mario was a pre-eminent scholar in many fields of inquiry: history of science, science studies, media studies, and the interdisciplinary study of intellectual properties. 1/2
Looks like “intuition” is due for a return.
May 16, 2025 at 3:29 AM
Looks like “intuition” is due for a return.
Paging Baudrillard
May 7, 2025 at 6:54 PM
Paging Baudrillard
Reposted by Matthew L. Jones
If there’s any silver lining to this whole debacle, it may be that it’s such a clear cut case abusing national security powers based on pretextual bad-faith nonsense that the courts may be less inclinded to automatically genuflect whenever the goverment utters the word “security”
May 1, 2025 at 6:27 PM
If there’s any silver lining to this whole debacle, it may be that it’s such a clear cut case abusing national security powers based on pretextual bad-faith nonsense that the courts may be less inclinded to automatically genuflect whenever the goverment utters the word “security”
Reposted by Matthew L. Jones
A really interesting oral history of the relationship of #NLP and #LLMs, part of a very strong series that Quanta magazine is running on the state of AI...
"Researchers in “natural language processing” tried to tame human language. Then came the transformer." www.quantamagazine.org/when-chatgpt...
When ChatGPT Broke an Entire Field: An Oral History | Quanta Magazine
Researchers in “natural language processing” tried to tame human language. Then came the transformer.
www.quantamagazine.org
May 1, 2025 at 10:26 AM
This essential and often lost point by the most excellent of Scotts.
April 28, 2025 at 1:46 PM
This essential and often lost point by the most excellent of Scotts.
Is it just me or wasn’t Cartman supposed to be parody not an instructional manual.
a south park character says respect my authoritah
ALT: a south park character says respect my authoritah
media.tenor.com
April 27, 2025 at 5:54 PM
Is it just me or wasn’t Cartman supposed to be parody not an instructional manual.
Reposted by Matthew L. Jones
For the last 3 yrs, I was the director for the Science of Science program at the NSF. We funded projects on science communication - science communication to the public, communication of public priorities to scientists, citizens engagement & participation in science. 🧵
April 24, 2025 at 12:56 AM
For the last 3 yrs, I was the director for the Science of Science program at the NSF. We funded projects on science communication - science communication to the public, communication of public priorities to scientists, citizens engagement & participation in science. 🧵
@nnedi.bsky.social on her Death for the Author at @princetoncdh.bsky.social: pushing back on facile partitions of human and robot, articulating creative processes and African futurism, underscoring erasures and parochial AI, incorporating disability, outlining an optimistic future of storytelling
April 3, 2025 at 10:26 PM
@nnedi.bsky.social on her Death for the Author at @princetoncdh.bsky.social: pushing back on facile partitions of human and robot, articulating creative processes and African futurism, underscoring erasures and parochial AI, incorporating disability, outlining an optimistic future of storytelling
Tfw you remember the 1974 Privacy Act is not a nothing burger ….
March 22, 2025 at 6:12 PM
Tfw you remember the 1974 Privacy Act is not a nothing burger ….
Reposted by Matthew L. Jones
Some of my Columbia Law School colleagues and I offer our thoughts on legal issues with the Administration's March 13, 2025 letter to our University's president, and its threat to academic freedom. balkin.blogspot.com/2025/03/a-ti...
Balkinization: A Title VI Demand Letter That Itself Violates Title VI (and the Constitution)
A group blog on constitutional law, theory, and politics
balkin.blogspot.com
March 15, 2025 at 10:03 PM
Some of my Columbia Law School colleagues and I offer our thoughts on legal issues with the Administration's March 13, 2025 letter to our University's president, and its threat to academic freedom. balkin.blogspot.com/2025/03/a-ti...
turn your analytical engine off before midnight--it turns out Babbage's earliest programs failed to account for Y2K.
January 1, 2025 at 12:42 AM
turn your analytical engine off before midnight--it turns out Babbage's earliest programs failed to account for Y2K.
Reposted by Matthew L. Jones
What a GIFT to the #surveillance and #privacy studies community from Annenberg @ Penn. Oral History of Oscar Gandy Jr, author of "The Panoptic Sort," over four sessions with Jefferson Pooley 💕 www.asc.upenn.edu/research/cen...
Oral History of Oscar H. Gandy, Jr. (1944–)
Oral History of Oscar H. Gandy, Jr., recorded in 2019
www.asc.upenn.edu
December 11, 2024 at 11:41 PM
What a GIFT to the #surveillance and #privacy studies community from Annenberg @ Penn. Oral History of Oscar Gandy Jr, author of "The Panoptic Sort," over four sessions with Jefferson Pooley 💕 www.asc.upenn.edu/research/cen...
Reposted by Matthew L. Jones
Optimist: The cup is half full
Pessimist: The cup is half empty
STS researcher: The cup is an affordance
Pessimist: The cup is half empty
STS researcher: The cup is an affordance
Optimist: The cup is half full
Pessimist: The cup is half empty
Cosmologist: The cup is dusty or full of gravitational waves
Pessimist: The cup is half empty
Cosmologist: The cup is dusty or full of gravitational waves
Optimist: The cup is half full
Pessimist: The cup is half empty
Astronomer: This is a high metallicity sightline
Pessimist: The cup is half empty
Astronomer: This is a high metallicity sightline
November 23, 2024 at 6:50 PM
Optimist: The cup is half full
Pessimist: The cup is half empty
STS researcher: The cup is an affordance
Pessimist: The cup is half empty
STS researcher: The cup is an affordance
Reposted by Matthew L. Jones
The transformer is not the final architecture. Taking 6 months and 100 million dollars to train is not a selling point. Let 1000 architectures bloom!
November 15, 2024 at 3:58 PM
The transformer is not the final architecture. Taking 6 months and 100 million dollars to train is not a selling point. Let 1000 architectures bloom!