Nicholas A. Christakis
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nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis
@nachristakis.bsky.social
30K followers 720 following 1.5K posts

Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University. Sociologist. Network Scientist. Physician. Author of Apollo's Arrow; Blueprint; Connected; and Death Foretold. Director of the Human Nature Lab: https://humannaturelab.net .. more

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Nicholas A. Christakis is a Greek American sociologist and physician known for his research on social networks and on the social, economic, biological, and evolutionary determinants of human welfare. He is the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University, where he directs the Human Nature Lab. He is also the co-director of the Yale Institute for Network Science. .. more

Public Health 23%
Physics 18%
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nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 23d
What role do social networks – and the precise nature and structure of social interactions – play in the production of public goods and in human welfare? What about social contagion?

A thread on some of our #HNL experiments with many thousands of participants from 2010 to the present. 1/

nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 2h
Up is down department: “Any allegation that D.H.S. and its components are attempting to ‘squash’ free speech is categorically false.”

And I’m proud to be on the advisory board of the only wholly principled free speech group in the USA: FIRE.
Man Who Criticized ICE Was Protected by First Amendment, Judge Says
Federal agents showed up at the Rochester, N.Y., home of a man who had sent a caustic email to an immigration official and threatened him with prosecution.
www.nytimes.com

nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 3h
An impressive variety of interesting talks. Academia at its best.
jenniferdoleac.bsky.social Jennifer Doleac @jenniferdoleac.bsky.social · 3h
The full ViCE seminar for this fall is now set:

Reposted by Nicholas A. Christakis

jenniferdoleac.bsky.social
Jennifer Doleac @jenniferdoleac.bsky.social · 3h
The full ViCE seminar for this fall is now set:

Reposted by Nicholas A. Christakis

anilseth.bsky.social
Anil Seth @anilseth.bsky.social · 6h
4/6 The Stanford team have been thorough and proactive in addressing ethical concerns that comes from this frontier work. But their pioneering work nonetheless raises many open questions: are the xenocortical mice conscious? Do they have any human-like properties of consciousness or cognition?

nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 6h
Streever sent a scathing three-paragraph email to director of ICE, Todd Lyons. Streever told Lyons that he was a “monstrous human being” who will eat himself “alive with shame” for defending officers who shot people who posed no threat and had no weapons.

nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 6h
Of course the first amendment allows us to tell public officials that they are acting, like Nazis, in a way that might haunt them with shame. Sheesh.
It’s OK to tell ICE their actions will haunt them, judge rules in speech fight
Man wins fight to block ICE threat over off-the-cuff angry email.
arstechnica.com

nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 7h
A tale preserved for thousands of years. So moving.

Reposted by Nicholas A. Christakis

iyadrahwan.bsky.social
Iyad Rahwan | إياد رهوان @iyadrahwan.bsky.social · 10h
Introducing: Time Machine Experiments? 🚀 ⏳

in which participants 'travel' to the past, and interact with a mind from the year 1930 (simulated by an AI with knowledge cut-off).

Preprint: arxiv.org/pdf/2609.15468

Reposted by Nicholas A. Christakis

sarahebond.bsky.social
Sarah E. Bond @sarahebond.bsky.social · 11h
The phrase “washes up” is perhaps not the best way to describe a newly found fragment of Homer on parchment 📜 . But I do love that it’s Book 12 and dated to the 4th century CE—in Coptic. www.dutchnews.nl/2026/09/scra...
Scrap of 1700-year-old copy of The Odyssey washes up in Utrecht - DutchNews.nl
A 1700-year-old scrap of parchment containing verses from the Odyssey has been discovered in the library of Utrecht University. Researcher Mark de Kreij came across the fragile artefact two years ago ...
www.dutchnews.nl

Reposted by Nicholas A. Christakis

tomerullman.bsky.social
Tomer Ullman @tomerullman.bsky.social · 1d
from afternoon conversation with colleague in Math, talk turns to AI:

"we're having faculty meetings and they're telling us all 'it's urgent that...'. I've spent my professional life in the math department, do you have any idea how unused I am to the phrase 'it's urgent'?"

nachristakis.bsky.social
Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 1d
Another world. Brings tears to your eyes.
hourlycosmos.bsky.social Hourly Cosmos @hourlycosmos.bsky.social · 1d
Clouds over Mont Mercou - Curiosity, sol 3075 - From Thomas Appéré (thomasappere.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2kQvCSE
Picture taken by Navcam Right camera of Curiosity rover on sol 3075 (31 March 2021) at 6:48 pm. Contrast increased. These clouds are cirrus and gravity waves. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Photo prise par la caméra Navcam Droite du rover Curiosity au sol 3075 (31 mars 2021) à 18h48. Contraste augmenté. Ces nuages sont des cirrus et des ondes de gravité.

Reposted by Nicholas A. Christakis, Brooke Harrington

hourlycosmos.bsky.social
Hourly Cosmos @hourlycosmos.bsky.social · 1d
Clouds over Mont Mercou - Curiosity, sol 3075 - From Thomas Appéré (thomasappere.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2kQvCSE
Picture taken by Navcam Right camera of Curiosity rover on sol 3075 (31 March 2021) at 6:48 pm. Contrast increased. These clouds are cirrus and gravity waves. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Photo prise par la caméra Navcam Droite du rover Curiosity au sol 3075 (31 mars 2021) à 18h48. Contraste augmenté. Ces nuages sont des cirrus et des ondes de gravité.

Reposted by Nicholas A. Christakis

brendannyhan.bsky.social
Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 2d
On by default
josephcox.bsky.social Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 2d
One of the biggest things to me is this is *on by default* and OpenAI not disclosing humans may read chats like this. I asked where they do disclose it, the company didn't answer. They did quietly update info telling people how to opt-out after I emailed them though www.404media.co/inside-proje...
404 Media asked OpenAI if it had explicitly told users that humans may review their prompts in order to improve ChatGPT’s responses, and if so, to point to where this disclosure is. OpenAI did not answer this question. Its website describes how humans may review flagged content in the context of material that violates the site’s terms of service, or that poses a safety risk, but that is separate to this sort of review. Its privacy policy also says it may use “personal data” to improve its models. If a user chooses to delete their ChatGPT conversations, OpenAI says it will remove these from its systems within 30 days, unless “it has already been de-identified and disassociated from your account when you allow us to use your Content to improve our models.” OpenAI told 404 Media users’ chats won’t be used to improve the company’s models if they turn off the “improve the model for everyone” setting. This is turned on by default for free, Plus, and Pro plans, so users need to proactively turn it off if they wish to do so. OpenAI said this applies to users’ new conversations, so does not appear to work retroactively. Enterprise, Business, and Edu customers have the model improving setting off by default. After 404 Media contacted OpenAI for comment, the company updated its help page about the “improve the model for everyone” setting, adding more detail on how people can opt-out. It still does not acknowledge that humans may read ChatGPT users’ prompts.