Tobias Flattery
@tobiasflattery.bsky.social
Philosophy professor @ Wake Forest University. Writes and teaches in technology ethics, history of philosophy. Notre Dame alum.
https://sites.google.com/view/tobiasflattery/home
#philosophy #philsky #techethics #AIethics #ai #robots #philtech #leibniz
https://sites.google.com/view/tobiasflattery/home
#philosophy #philsky #techethics #AIethics #ai #robots #philtech #leibniz
How is this ok?? I know Academia.edu has been annoying lately, but, really? Turning academic papers into comics? And without consent? Or maybe it’s just a dishonest clickbait subject line. #academicsky #ai
November 1, 2025 at 12:54 PM
How is this ok?? I know Academia.edu has been annoying lately, but, really? Turning academic papers into comics? And without consent? Or maybe it’s just a dishonest clickbait subject line. #academicsky #ai
Sometimes academics get email notifications for conferences or workshops that, when shown only partially, sound like very different sorts of events. #academicsky
October 31, 2025 at 11:27 AM
Sometimes academics get email notifications for conferences or workshops that, when shown only partially, sound like very different sorts of events. #academicsky
Pandora sphinx moth! Ran into this fantastic moth at a medical center. Just chillin on the window, looking awesome. #entomology
October 4, 2025 at 12:37 PM
Pandora sphinx moth! Ran into this fantastic moth at a medical center. Just chillin on the window, looking awesome. #entomology
Looks like a flooded road might be coming up in 1.8 miles? (If you know, you know.) #philsky #academicsky
September 26, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Looks like a flooded road might be coming up in 1.8 miles? (If you know, you know.) #philsky #academicsky
I mentioned Descartes's dualism as an unrelated aside during a day on logic in my moral problems course. After class, a student asked me to recommend a good translation of Descartes. I emailed him this photo. This week, he brought his new copy to class to show me. Life is good. #philsky #academicsky
September 18, 2025 at 7:19 PM
I mentioned Descartes's dualism as an unrelated aside during a day on logic in my moral problems course. After class, a student asked me to recommend a good translation of Descartes. I emailed him this photo. This week, he brought his new copy to class to show me. Life is good. #philsky #academicsky
August 22, 2025 at 2:54 PM
I assured the student that I’m indeed alive, not dead. 😁 (I also told the student that I’ve done he same typo myself, even in a few grad school cover letters!) #academicsky
August 22, 2025 at 1:24 PM
I assured the student that I’m indeed alive, not dead. 😁 (I also told the student that I’ve done he same typo myself, even in a few grad school cover letters!) #academicsky
Watched F1: The Movie over Independence Day weekend with my daughter. Best classic American-style fun movie since Top Gun: Maverick. Worth seeing. (Since movie popcorn is $11, you bet your bottom I got that free refill for us afterwards!)
July 9, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Watched F1: The Movie over Independence Day weekend with my daughter. Best classic American-style fun movie since Top Gun: Maverick. Worth seeing. (Since movie popcorn is $11, you bet your bottom I got that free refill for us afterwards!)
My son bought me this Fortnite skin: Peelosopher Bananocrates. This. Is. Amazing. I need more professor-y skins. #fortnite #academicsky #philsky
July 4, 2025 at 5:44 PM
My son bought me this Fortnite skin: Peelosopher Bananocrates. This. Is. Amazing. I need more professor-y skins. #fortnite #academicsky #philsky
June 20, 2025 at 2:30 AM
1/2 Y'know, you'd be forgiven for thinking these AI companies are *trying* to undermine higher ed. To be clear: I don't believe that's the intent. But *obviously* they target students. Context: I was looking up a reference, and Google hit me with this big pop up. #aiethics #academicsky #highered
June 18, 2025 at 9:05 PM
1/2 Y'know, you'd be forgiven for thinking these AI companies are *trying* to undermine higher ed. To be clear: I don't believe that's the intent. But *obviously* they target students. Context: I was looking up a reference, and Google hit me with this big pop up. #aiethics #academicsky #highered
Just ran across this kinda epic Google review of a local Asian grocery store. (I’m hunting for fresh holy basil or Thai basil, but finding this review was cool, too.) #groceries
June 17, 2025 at 9:27 PM
Just ran across this kinda epic Google review of a local Asian grocery store. (I’m hunting for fresh holy basil or Thai basil, but finding this review was cool, too.) #groceries
Ran into Tally, the grocery store inventory-checking robot at Martin’s in South Bend, IN. (Sorry about the overly quick video. Simone was coming and I felt weird recording it!) Will post in the comments a news segment about Tally in another grocery store.) #robots #aiethics #robotethics
June 14, 2025 at 12:24 PM
Ran into Tally, the grocery store inventory-checking robot at Martin’s in South Bend, IN. (Sorry about the overly quick video. Simone was coming and I felt weird recording it!) Will post in the comments a news segment about Tally in another grocery store.) #robots #aiethics #robotethics
When you’re trying to record your lecture videos, but the construction workers outside intermittently drill, then tag in the people honking car horns to pick up summer camp kids, and they repeat the process, repeat, repeat, repeat. #academicsky #highered #teaching
June 14, 2025 at 12:06 AM
When you’re trying to record your lecture videos, but the construction workers outside intermittently drill, then tag in the people honking car horns to pick up summer camp kids, and they repeat the process, repeat, repeat, repeat. #academicsky #highered #teaching
Dang! @ncstate.bsky.social’s bookBot, a robotic library storage & retrieval system on their engineering campus, is very cool. Maybe a good way to, y’know, actually continue to store physical books in a library? Would like to know more about this robotic system! #academicsky #robotethics #techethics
June 1, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Dang! @ncstate.bsky.social’s bookBot, a robotic library storage & retrieval system on their engineering campus, is very cool. Maybe a good way to, y’know, actually continue to store physical books in a library? Would like to know more about this robotic system! #academicsky #robotethics #techethics
Always nice to get little sketches and thank you notes on final exams #academicsky
May 9, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Always nice to get little sketches and thank you notes on final exams #academicsky
Being a philosopher is totally hazardous. Like Thales, who reportedly fell in a well while lost in thought. Completely unrelated PSA: when using double doors, be sure to push open the same door you’re attempting to walk through. 🤦♂️ #academicsky #philsky www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?...
March 18, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Being a philosopher is totally hazardous. Like Thales, who reportedly fell in a well while lost in thought. Completely unrelated PSA: when using double doors, be sure to push open the same door you’re attempting to walk through. 🤦♂️ #academicsky #philsky www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?...
Nostalgia drove me to buy and drink a bottle of Yoo-hoo today. And y’know what? It was pretty great, precisely as I’d remembered it. Of course, my adult mind is now aware of the ways in which it isn’t awesome.
February 28, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Nostalgia drove me to buy and drink a bottle of Yoo-hoo today. And y’know what? It was pretty great, precisely as I’d remembered it. Of course, my adult mind is now aware of the ways in which it isn’t awesome.
Civilization is falling and doom is imminent. Forget about politics and all that. Look at the whiteboard marker habits! 😩 #academicsky
February 7, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Civilization is falling and doom is imminent. Forget about politics and all that. Look at the whiteboard marker habits! 😩 #academicsky
Best snow we’ve had here in Winston-Salem for a while. Of course, the roads don’t get cleared here, so that’s a pain. But it’s beautiful!
January 11, 2025 at 1:34 PM
Best snow we’ve had here in Winston-Salem for a while. Of course, the roads don’t get cleared here, so that’s a pain. But it’s beautiful!
Here’s a little doodle that a student drew on a voting ballot for a past #philtech class debate on the singularity, I think. It always makes me smile and laugh. #philsky #academicsky #techethics #aiethics
December 18, 2024 at 4:57 PM
Here’s a little doodle that a student drew on a voting ballot for a past #philtech class debate on the singularity, I think. It always makes me smile and laugh. #philsky #academicsky #techethics #aiethics
As if finals week—indeed the last day of it—weren’t hard enough, grave misfortune befell one poor student. Taking a break to refuel and perhaps clear the mind while enjoying a tasty meal on the go, this student’s waffle fries were lost forever. My sympathies, unnamed student! #academicsky #grading
December 14, 2024 at 5:58 PM
As if finals week—indeed the last day of it—weren’t hard enough, grave misfortune befell one poor student. Taking a break to refuel and perhaps clear the mind while enjoying a tasty meal on the go, this student’s waffle fries were lost forever. My sympathies, unnamed student! #academicsky #grading
On this last day, as my #techethics class’s departing act of learning space autonomy, they chose the Christmas tree configuration! See also, on the right, the class motto they voted on: “Humanity first. Tables second.” 😄 What an awesome and fun group of @wakeforest.bsky.social students! #academicsky
December 5, 2024 at 8:09 PM
On this last day, as my #techethics class’s departing act of learning space autonomy, they chose the Christmas tree configuration! See also, on the right, the class motto they voted on: “Humanity first. Tables second.” 😄 What an awesome and fun group of @wakeforest.bsky.social students! #academicsky
Sometimes you look at the whiteboard after #techethics class, and you think, “If I leave this here, what’ll the next class think it means, without the context?” 😄 Alas, there are (sensible) rules about clearing the whiteboard. #academicsky #philsky
December 4, 2024 at 3:27 PM
Sometimes you look at the whiteboard after #techethics class, and you think, “If I leave this here, what’ll the next class think it means, without the context?” 😄 Alas, there are (sensible) rules about clearing the whiteboard. #academicsky #philsky
String of 1st world probs today. Slept badly. Woke up to 20ish weather. Snow, but uncommitted thin stuff. Icy roads. Kids’ school closed. Forgot my teaching coat. (It’s important!) Forgot my water. Headache. Office in the 50s. But y’know what? I love it here! #academicsky @wakeforest.bsky.social
December 3, 2024 at 3:19 PM
String of 1st world probs today. Slept badly. Woke up to 20ish weather. Snow, but uncommitted thin stuff. Icy roads. Kids’ school closed. Forgot my teaching coat. (It’s important!) Forgot my water. Headache. Office in the 50s. But y’know what? I love it here! #academicsky @wakeforest.bsky.social