Physicist 🇳🇱 Anglophile 🇬🇧 Fellow at @ConjectureInst · Founder of @OxfordPopper DMs not monitored.
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Joined May 2016
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Sam retweeted
Poverty is not what needs to be explained - that was all of human history.
It's this unprecedented level of wealth starting in the 19th century that needs to be explained.
And it's not a zero sum game.
~CI Senior Philosopher @mboudry w/ @chellivia for @HumanProgress
Sam retweeted
Honestly, he’s not wrong. Parents are supposed to open doors for their children whenever they can.
Sam retweeted
I'm immensely proud to be the first Senior Philosopher at the Conjecture Institute! At @ConjectureInst, we're dedicated followers of Karl Popper and @DavidDeutschOxf, championing bold conjectures and ruthless refutations. They hired me in a heartbeat—but if I turn out to be wrong about something (or everything), they should kick me straight back out. As fallibilists, we learn from our mistakes! 😉
"Let our hypotheses die in our stead!"
Conjecture Institute is thrilled to welcome our first Senior Philosopher: @mboudry!
Dr. Boudry is a philosopher of science and first holder of the Etienne Vermeersch Chair of Critical Thinking at Ghent University.
He has published over 50 academic papers and co-edited two volumes: Science Unlimited? and Philosophy of Pseudoscience.
He has also written six trade books in Dutch on science and philosophy.
Boudry's book, The Betrayal of Enlightenment, will be published by @PitchstoneBooks.
He’s also a @rootsofprogress fellow and a regular contributor to @Quillette, @JoinPersuasion, @ConversationUS, @Independent, and @HumanProgress.
Sam retweeted
Does time flow? Physicist @DavidDeutschOxf says no: there’s no moving “now”, just moments, each a complete universe of its own.
A free site setting his idea against 2,500 years of thought on time, from Heraclitus to Einstein, with 10 short videos:
philosophyoftime.org.uk
It's great to have @mboudry, a deeply thoughtful and insightful writer, as part of CI.
I recently attended a wonderful talk he gave about his book The Betrayal of the Enlightenment. It was refreshing to hear a philosopher defend progress so unequivocally.
Conjecture Institute is thrilled to welcome our first Senior Philosopher: @mboudry!
Dr. Boudry is a philosopher of science and first holder of the Etienne Vermeersch Chair of Critical Thinking at Ghent University.
He has published over 50 academic papers and co-edited two volumes: Science Unlimited? and Philosophy of Pseudoscience.
He has also written six trade books in Dutch on science and philosophy.
Boudry's book, The Betrayal of Enlightenment, will be published by @PitchstoneBooks.
He’s also a @rootsofprogress fellow and a regular contributor to @Quillette, @JoinPersuasion, @ConversationUS, @Independent, and @HumanProgress.
Sam retweeted
Welcome @mboudry !
It is an honor to have a defender of the Enlightenment joining us at the institute.
Conjecture Institute is thrilled to welcome our first Senior Philosopher: @mboudry!
Dr. Boudry is a philosopher of science and first holder of the Etienne Vermeersch Chair of Critical Thinking at Ghent University.
He has published over 50 academic papers and co-edited two volumes: Science Unlimited? and Philosophy of Pseudoscience.
He has also written six trade books in Dutch on science and philosophy.
Boudry's book, The Betrayal of Enlightenment, will be published by @PitchstoneBooks.
He’s also a @rootsofprogress fellow and a regular contributor to @Quillette, @JoinPersuasion, @ConversationUS, @Independent, and @HumanProgress.
youtu.be/ogK8yb77E7c?si=kkjt…
Lovely video. I’m honoured to have colleagues like these.
Sam retweeted
“I don’t have to beg for mathematicians to make progress.”
Le physicien Gabriele Carcassi (@UMich) : je bloquais souvent sur des aspects mathématiques techniques en topologie et l'IA me sort désormais d'affaire en 2 minutes ; il me fallait supplier des mathématiciens pendant des mois, maintenant un seul interlocuteur IA me suffit !
Sam retweeted
Taking Children Seriously rightly holds that raising children without coercion is possible and desirable. I argue that fixating on “You shall not coerce” can be corrosive. Better to seek fun as a family, solve problems together, and care—with noncoercion as a by-product.
Beyond Avoiding Coercion
~Conjecture Institute Fellow @CABedardPhysics
CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction
00:48 What is Taking Children Seriously?
01:54 Between neglect and control
03:01 Helping a child explore safely
04:14 When avoiding coercion becomes self-condemnation
08:07 Good parenting goes beyond avoiding coercion
09:09 Have fun and solve problems as a family
11:32 Children choosing to contribute
12:26 Q&A: responsibility and helping others
14:57 Q&A: where is the boundary of coercion?
18:31 Q&A: resources and solving family problems
Sam retweeted
The Pythagoreans said, “All is number.”
Conjecture Institute Fellow @Sam_kuyp updates it for the quantum age:
All is q-number.
By taking quantum mechanics seriously as a fundamental theory of Nature, Sam's views differ from the mainstream in at least four ways.
👇
Sam retweeted
Learn more about Conjecture Institute Fellow @Sam_kuyp's personal story and physics research:
conjectureinstitute.org/arti…
Sam retweeted
The Pattern (abbreviated version of a chapter of my planned book Irrationality): daviddeutsch.org.uk/wp-conte…
Sam retweeted
Is it known what was the main technical innovation enabling the rise of drones? Of all the technology strands this one has the least narrative behind it. It’s just, all of a sudden there were drones.
Sam retweeted
It does not matter in the least where a theory ‘comes from’.
What does matter is how that theory can be tested, and what would lead us to abandon it.
~Conjecture Institute Fellow @Ray_S_Percival
Sam retweeted
“Sobbing and useless is a million times better than dead. A billion times. Thank you for choosing sobbing and useless over dead.”
It’s always bothered me that the Boston Globe took down this article because every time I see a story like this I want to post it: web.archive.org/web/20210504…
Sam retweeted
Universal Heat Engines & Universal Constructors
Conjecture Institute Senior Scientist Chiara Marletto with Fellow @maria__violaris:
In quantum thermodynamics, something that's missing is the fact that we haven't thought of a theory of a universal programmable heat engine.
This would be an upgrade on the way in which people were thinking about heat engines in the old days of classical thermodynamics.
But it seems to me that this would be an essential step to then tackle some of these questions about efficiency and about what you can do with different
inputs.
Now, it would be a much nicer way of addressing the these questions if we based them on the theory of a universal programmable machine that can be used as a heat engine, which I see as a special case of what a universal constructor is.
A thermodynamic machine is a special case of this universal constructor, where you're only programming the universal constructor to perform thermodynamic transformations.
The study of these machines would really be based on the theory of these programmable constructors.
And so the fact that we don't have that yet is a stumbling block on the progress of the field.
If anything, knowing that a solution exists is a reason to seek alternative routes. It's less fun to search in vain!
Within walking distance of my home. I could hear the march from my living room, faintly at first, then louder.
The same aggressive chants and displays I remember from Montréal, now in Amsterdam. There’s something oddly intimidating about how inescapable they are.
Sam retweeted
In 2010, when the Nobel Peace Prize went to the jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, Navi Pillay, then the UN’s top human rights official, stayed away from the ceremony in Oslo. Beijing was pressing governments and institutions to boycott it, and according to Foreign Policy, she gave in. Liu never walked free. He died of liver cancer in 2017 in a hospital in Shenyang, still under guard, after the regime refused to let him go abroad for treatment.
Now the same committee is giving Pillay the same prize. I think it’s fair to expect that anyone with a shred of decency will do for her ceremony what she did for Liu’s: stay away.
BREAKING NEWS
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the 2026 #NobelPeacePrize to Navanethem “Navi” Pillay for her efforts to promote peace and international law.
#NobelPrize
