Russell’s Teapot: Dispatches From the Final Stage of the AI Bubble
The AI future sold to markets rests on claims that cannot survive scrutiny, not foresight but hype dressed up as inevitability.
Read more...Category Archives: Social values
China Surpasses US in Research Spending – The Consequences Extend Far Beyond Scientific Ranking and Clout
The Make America Great Again mega yacht springs another leak.
Read more...Coffee Break: Alzheimer’s Disease Still a Mystery and Books Worth Reading
Part the First: Anti-amyloid Antibodies and Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). A Cochrane review of monoclonal antibodies targeting amyloid plaques in AD has found that these drugs have little to no effect on cognitive function of AD patients. Cochrane reviews are, to use one of the favorite tropes of the current administration, considered the “gold standard” of […]
Read more...Food Stamp Work Rules Don’t Increase Employment, Researchers Say
Quelle surprise! Punitive food stamp restrictions do not produce an increase in work levels.
Read more...Palantir’s Manifesto Is the Agenda of the New Class Reconfiguring the System’s Power Structure
Palantir’s manifesto is the stated agenda of a new class within the system’s power structure, driven by a binary worldview of 0 and 1
Read more...Industrial Agriculture and the Future of Food and Health
We have discussed the Great American Food System (GAFS) throughout this series, most recently in review of What to Eat Now (2025) by Marion Nestle. That the GAFS is productive, in both tonnage and profit (for some) is a given. But a common view of its critics is that much of this production is misguided, […]
Read more...What Does it Mean to Work Under Algorithmic Eyes?
AI surveillance and algorithmic management threaten worker autonomy and dignity.
Read more...Louisiana Advances One of the Country’s ‘Cruelest’ Anti-Homeless Bills
One homeless advocacy group said the bill, which would require homeless people to perform unpaid labor to pay for involuntary treatment, “evokes debtor’s prisons, convict leasing, and the ugliest day of Jim Crow.”
Read more...Democracy Depends on Broad-Based Taxation—History Is Clear About That
How governments raise revenue, as in taxation versus slavery or external extraction, determines their accountability to citizens.
Read more...Satyajit Das: Book Essay: Walter Benjamin – Leftist Outsider, Man of Letters
An overview of the acutely observant, enigmatic and quixotic writer and thinker, Walter Benjamin
Read more...Maine Gov. Mills Urged to Sign ‘Nation-Leading’ AI Data Center Moratorium
The Maine legislature wants to hit pause on data center buildouts. The governor’s silence says she needs a big push to do the right thing.
Read more...They Speak for the Trees: Meet the ‘Petal Protectors’ Guarding NYC’s Cherry Blossoms
Touching or shaking the fragile flowering cherry trees can harm them. Volunteers on Roosevelt Island make sure that doesn’t happen.
Read more...Bombing Schools Abroad, Destroying Education at Home
As the US and Israel work to destroy Iranian education centers and cultural heritage sites, US oligarchs want to put a meter on knowledge.
Read more...Sanders Leads Launch of ‘Union Now’ Movement to Fight ‘Status Quo Economics’
Union Now event featuring Sanders, NYC Mayor Mamdani, and Association of Flight Attendants-CWA international president Sara Nelson hits right notes, but is thus far light on details.
Read more...Coffee Break: All War All the Time, AI on the Loose, and Hope for Muscular Dystrophy Patients
Part the First: War Begets War, A Conversation. Daedalus hosted a conversation among Robert Jay Lifton (1926-2025), Neta C. Crawford, and Matthew Evangelista last year. It was preprinted recently in The MIT Press Reader. I immediately noticed the participation of Robert Jay Lifton. Back in my dark ages, when the university had a University Bookstore […]
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