MJ Pardon
@pardon-mi.bsky.social
late medievalist, AI-hater, assistant prof at a SLAC in rural KY
Reposted by MJ Pardon
Happy St Guinefort Day to all who celebrate.
Thanks to @pardon-mi.bsky.social for teaching me about this when I first wandered on to TikTok.
Thanks to @pardon-mi.bsky.social for teaching me about this when I first wandered on to TikTok.
August 22, 2025 at 1:35 AM
Happy St Guinefort Day to all who celebrate.
Thanks to @pardon-mi.bsky.social for teaching me about this when I first wandered on to TikTok.
Thanks to @pardon-mi.bsky.social for teaching me about this when I first wandered on to TikTok.
Call for Papers -- ICMS Kalamazoo 2026
Session Title: "The Low Countries and Beyond"
Abstracts due September 15!
Session Title: "The Low Countries and Beyond"
Abstracts due September 15!
July 6, 2025 at 11:06 PM
Call for Papers -- ICMS Kalamazoo 2026
Session Title: "The Low Countries and Beyond"
Abstracts due September 15!
Session Title: "The Low Countries and Beyond"
Abstracts due September 15!
playing dress up for summer teaching 😝
June 25, 2025 at 2:19 PM
playing dress up for summer teaching 😝
💯💯💯
Once again thinking about how much easier writing would be if i had library access to more e-books and journals. Maybe instead of pumping money into AI bullshit, institutions could radically increase library budgets!
June 19, 2025 at 6:17 PM
💯💯💯
Reposted by MJ Pardon
I suspect that fact that the vast majority of LLM users don’t seem to have received this (really very simple!) message is because the AI companies have a vested interest in us not understanding it. “ChatGPT is smart, it just makes mistakes sometimes” is much more marketable than the truth.
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 11:36 AM
I suspect that fact that the vast majority of LLM users don’t seem to have received this (really very simple!) message is because the AI companies have a vested interest in us not understanding it. “ChatGPT is smart, it just makes mistakes sometimes” is much more marketable than the truth.
you know you've made it as a medievalist in the (semi)public eye when you start getting unsolicited messages from people who claim to have deciphered the Voynich . . .
June 13, 2025 at 2:54 PM
you know you've made it as a medievalist in the (semi)public eye when you start getting unsolicited messages from people who claim to have deciphered the Voynich . . .
I was on a podcast! Always a delight to chat about Eleanor Rykener, reading medieval criminal records, and queer history 🌈
open.spotify.com/episode/1C8S...
open.spotify.com/episode/1C8S...
Eleanor Rykener: Trans Sex Worker of Medieval London? (feat. Dr. Mireille Pardon)
Historical Homos · Episode
open.spotify.com
June 6, 2025 at 7:27 PM
I was on a podcast! Always a delight to chat about Eleanor Rykener, reading medieval criminal records, and queer history 🌈
open.spotify.com/episode/1C8S...
open.spotify.com/episode/1C8S...
Reposted by MJ Pardon
Ahem... my first acedemic article just went live on the BMJ/STI website.
What can 'hidden' cures in handwritten family recipe books tell us about how people dealt with STIs in the long 17th century?
doi.org/10.1136/sext...
#17thC #earlymodern
What can 'hidden' cures in handwritten family recipe books tell us about how people dealt with STIs in the long 17th century?
doi.org/10.1136/sext...
#17thC #earlymodern
May 20, 2025 at 8:42 AM
Ahem... my first acedemic article just went live on the BMJ/STI website.
What can 'hidden' cures in handwritten family recipe books tell us about how people dealt with STIs in the long 17th century?
doi.org/10.1136/sext...
#17thC #earlymodern
What can 'hidden' cures in handwritten family recipe books tell us about how people dealt with STIs in the long 17th century?
doi.org/10.1136/sext...
#17thC #earlymodern
Reposted by MJ Pardon
"I'd crusade if the new Pope asked me to" wow, cool. What if he asked you to love and protect immigrants
May 19, 2025 at 3:38 PM
"I'd crusade if the new Pope asked me to" wow, cool. What if he asked you to love and protect immigrants
Reposted by MJ Pardon
Very unusual, a cheeky rooster doodled in a volume of notarial documents 🐓
May 16, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Very unusual, a cheeky rooster doodled in a volume of notarial documents 🐓
Reading and writing in bed with Ferox 🐈⬛
May 16, 2025 at 3:14 AM
Reading and writing in bed with Ferox 🐈⬛
Reposted by MJ Pardon
panic! at the emails
May 13, 2025 at 7:49 PM
panic! at the emails
i don't want to be part of a society that gets its birthday poems and bedtime stories from a robot 😭
May 14, 2025 at 1:43 PM
i don't want to be part of a society that gets its birthday poems and bedtime stories from a robot 😭
obsessed with this piece
I wrote about the widespread adoption of AI in education, and why there needs to be more resistance to it
open.substack.com/pub/irinadum...
open.substack.com/pub/irinadum...
What makes me mad about AI in education
How to crush a generation and tell them they're winning
open.substack.com
May 13, 2025 at 5:27 PM
obsessed with this piece
Ferox expresses a strong opinion on the book I am supposed to be reviewing
May 12, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Ferox expresses a strong opinion on the book I am supposed to be reviewing