Henry Farrell

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Last Notes

2026-09-12 16:49:36 UTC

"We would be better off if we could rely on actual social science, rather than the kind of bong-hit P(d00m)ing in much of this week’s media commentary, to understand the upheavals that are happening around us."
[How should social science thin...](https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/how-should-social-science-think-about )

2026-06-29 15:21:40 UTC

[www.programmablemutter.com/p/the-us-is-...](https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/the-us-is-still-weaponizing-dollars )
[The U.S. is still weaponizing ...](https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/the-us-is-still-weaponizing-dollars )

2026-06-11 21:03:10 UTC

Tired: Telling your spouse is betraying a confidence.
Wired: You're not betraying confidence because husband and wife are one body (Genesis 2:24)
Inspired: the spousal 'you are not betraying confidence' privilege extends to telling the whole congregation (Corinthians 12:12).
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:my4cnswn7z3ky27n5roefney/post/3mnztwd22fk2t

2026-05-26 14:59:07 UTC

"At last we have created the Corporation That Eliminates Middle Managers from classic management text Don't Eliminate the Middle Managers!" [www.programmablemutter.com/p/ai-isnt-ma...](https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/ai-isnt-management-try-explaining )
[AI Isn't Management. Try Expla...](https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/ai-isnt-management-try-explaining )

2026-01-24 16:39:55 UTC

[www.programmablemutter.com/p/davos-is-a...](https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/davos-is-a-rational-ritual ) If I can say so myself, this is a bit of a banger.
[Davos is a rational ritual](https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/davos-is-a-rational-ritual )

2025-12-01 14:59:02 UTC

I am discovering several people who have made similar intellectual jumps - I'm guessing that the comparison is nearly irresistible to anyone who has read Parry/Lord and thought at all about LLMs.
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:jo5wv5j5acfdb2meqihugdff/post/3m6wn7a2ncc2g
#note14s3…5xe0

2025-12-01 13:36:16 UTC

[www.programmablemutter.com/p/large-lang...](https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/large-language-models-as-the-tales ) The complicated relationship between LLMs and the oral tradition.
[Large Language Models As The T...](https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/large-language-models-as-the-tales )

2025-10-08 11:41:14 UTC

"It wanted to signal strength. Instead, it’s revealing its weakness. The administration’s need to break the academy is forcing it to make a desperately risky gamble." [www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/o...](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/opinion/trump-universities-compact-civil-society.html?smid=nytcore-android-share )
[Opinion | You Beat Trumpism by...](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/opinion/trump-universities-compact-civil-society.html?smid=nytcore-android-share )

2025-09-12 15:11:59 UTC

"science fictional visions of the earth being devoured by machine intelligences and transformed into paperclips are not nearly weird enough to capture what is happening all around us, right now." [www.programmablemutter.com/p/understand...](https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/understanding-ai-as-a-social-technology )
https://inkcap.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:a3h6mkohqeiu6xl4fnrwuk4t&cid=bafkreihist6jbauowf7lrxrtvhmvqlashdgvz7dny47jmp2egxz7ognyra

2025-08-19 12:27:46 UTC

[www.bostonreview.net/articles/hen...](https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/henry-farrell-philip-k-dick-and-fake-humans/ ) "Yet the door to Joe’s apartment—which argues with him and refuses to open because he has not paid it the obligatory tip—sounds ominously plausible. Someone, somewhere, is pitching this as a viable business plan to Y Combinator"
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:krowynl7cikgfdjemlv6dh4i/post/3lwjxs7gywc2z
[Philip K. Dick and the Fake Hu...](https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/henry-farrell-philip-k-dick-and-fake-humans/ )

2025-08-19 09:50:59 UTC

Eric Schmidt (February) vs Eric Schmidt (August) is the fight of the century. [joking aside, this is a very significant shift] [www.nytimes.com/2025/08/19/o...](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/19/opinion/artificial-general-intelligence-superintelligence.html )
https://inkcap.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:a3h6mkohqeiu6xl4fnrwuk4t&cid=bafkreiawhusihi7lpbobo62axh4n742opima5ktcnsswhugsnaqohxk37q
https://inkcap.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:a3h6mkohqeiu6xl4fnrwuk4t&cid=bafkreih3ccnowoyskukadatkhtt3ww6ywetbuexl2inf2if74gady4q7ma

2025-08-19 09:42:10 UTC

This [@gwbstr.com](https://bsky.app/profile/gwbstr.com ) piece is a proper banger - [www.wired.com/story/chips-...](https://www.wired.com/story/chips-china-artificial-intelligence-controls/ )
[Inside the Biden Administratio...](https://www.wired.com/story/chips-china-artificial-intelligence-controls/ )

2025-08-18 13:00:22 UTC

[www.programmablemutter.com/p/large-lang...](https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/large-language-models-are-cultural ) Gopnikism, interactionism, structuralism and role play.
[Large language models are cult...](https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/large-language-models-are-cultural )

2025-07-24 13:10:29 UTC

I will speak if invited at Columbia University - but wearing a self-designed "Liberate Vichy Columbia" t-shirt.

2025-07-19 20:36:42 UTC

This piece makes me think again that a "Market Liberalism 101 -Here Is Why Institutions and Pluralism Matter Even (and Maybe Especially) If You Consider Yourself Right Wing" Silicon Valley bootcamp, with required readings from Hume, Popper, Gellner etc would be a possibly good thing.
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:cak4klqoj3bqgk5rj6b4f5do/post/3lu6ngnqjl22j
#note1rxw…7f2e

2025-07-15 12:40:10 UTC

1. [@abenewman.bsky.social](https://bsky.app/profile/abenewman.bsky.social ) and I have a new piece in [@wired.com](https://bsky.app/profile/wired.com ) on the enshittification of American power. It repurposes arguments from our book, Underground Empire [amzn.to/3PbIyqX](https://amzn.to/3PbIyqX ) , and Cory Doctorow's idea of enshittification to explain how the Trump administration is trying to remake the world.
[The Enshittification of Americ...](https://www.wired.com/story/enshittification-of-american-power/ )

2025-07-10 14:37:58 UTC

Languages are systems. They can most certainly have biases, but they do not and cannot have goals. Exactly the same is true for the mathematical models of language that are produced by transformers ... the English language ... is never going to become conscious and decide to turn us into paperclips.
[Cultural theory was right abou...](https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/cultural-theory-was-right-about-the )

2025-06-30 20:54:51 UTC

Given how much of this is supposed to be done through imposing administrative burdens on the overburdened, my hopelessly utopian dream is for a minor civil society revival of organizations and trained volunteers working to help the victims navigate the system, building social connections so doing.
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:qrt5rykojeg5sbsajbu4zdke/post/3lsu2ki3xms25

2025-05-31 13:00:39 UTC

"A one sentence explanation of the Federalist Society vs. Trump might be this. An ideology welded to a spoils machine is in a fight to the death against a spoils machine welded to a spoils machine." [www.programmablemutter.com/p/the-federa...](https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/the-federalist-society-claims-its )
[The Federalist Society claims ...](https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/the-federalist-society-claims-its )

2025-04-26 14:38:43 UTC

@npub19k8…ue6q - the Banter Singularity is Upon Us.
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:7umvpuxe2vbrc3zrzuquzniu/post/3lnpxjojb7k2d

2025-04-17 15:15:04 UTC

Absolute power can be a terrible weakness. On Trump, and how to mobilize against him [www.programmablemutter.com/p/absolute-p...](https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/absolute-power-can-be-a-terrible )
[Absolute power can be a terrib...](https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/absolute-power-can-be-a-terrible )

2025-04-17 12:16:33 UTC

Cosma Shalizi on LLMs as libraries of 'intellect' (original version - [bactra.org/weblog/feral...](http://bactra.org/weblog/feral-library-card-catalogs.html ) and also republished in my newsletter [www.programmablemutter.com/p/on-feral-l...](https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/on-feral-library-card-catalogs-or ) )
[On Feral Library Card Catalogs...](https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/on-feral-library-card-catalogs-or )