Henry Snow
@henrys.now
Labor + economic historian | they/them
political economy, ships, and shipbuilders
CONTROL SCIENCE out with Verso May 12!
currently an adjunct at UConn
newsletter/blog: buttondown.com/anotherway
political economy, ships, and shipbuilders
CONTROL SCIENCE out with Verso May 12!
currently an adjunct at UConn
newsletter/blog: buttondown.com/anotherway
Pinned
Henry Snow
@henrys.now
· May 12
will have more of a proper post our about it once I've finished grading finals but today is publication day for my book!
www.versobooks.com/products/312...
www.versobooks.com/products/312...
Control Science
Whether on Caribbean plantations in the seventeenth century or in Amazon warehouses today, the powerful have constantly developed new techniques to control workers—and new justifications for doing so...
www.versobooks.com
From Caribbean slaveholders to Victorian eugenicists to Nazi steel executives, the worst people imaginable have told us that love is meaningless, ethics are impossible, and community is a mirage. They've shaped the very language we use to talk about work and the economy. This book is a response.
new domain achieved, new personal website incoming
September 22, 2026 at 7:28 PM
new domain achieved, new personal website incoming
Reposted by Henry Snow
LLMs aren't made of neurology except in the most handwavey sense. They're made of narrative. That's why I started calling them text elementals: they're not human, they're most-likely-text generators we bent into living stories in a prose format centering the characters User and Assistant
September 22, 2026 at 5:49 PM
LLMs aren't made of neurology except in the most handwavey sense. They're made of narrative. That's why I started calling them text elementals: they're not human, they're most-likely-text generators we bent into living stories in a prose format centering the characters User and Assistant
in the future austerity is I hope going to be looked at macroeconomically the way we look at bloodletting medically now-- you did what? why?
September 22, 2026 at 5:50 PM
in the future austerity is I hope going to be looked at macroeconomically the way we look at bloodletting medically now-- you did what? why?
A lot of ink spent on rationalists and EA last week, but the White House is clearly listening to a very different cohort with very different problems
Trump tells the UN he is officially changing the name of Artificial Intelligence to "Super Intelligence" and says all US government documents will now be changed to refer to "SI"
September 22, 2026 at 3:26 PM
A lot of ink spent on rationalists and EA last week, but the White House is clearly listening to a very different cohort with very different problems
it's below 60 so you know what time it is-- the season in the air-- that's right, it's time to dust off the pizza stone again
September 21, 2026 at 11:46 PM
it's below 60 so you know what time it is-- the season in the air-- that's right, it's time to dust off the pizza stone again
look idle poses like this are all we can expect with the current state of hiring in the games industry unfortunately
September 21, 2026 at 6:25 PM
look idle poses like this are all we can expect with the current state of hiring in the games industry unfortunately
some four months on from launch and I continue to be really pleased by the reception of my book-- if you haven't picked it up yet after my incessant calls to do so, you should!
From Caribbean slaveholders to Victorian eugenicists to Nazi steel executives, the worst people imaginable have told us that love is meaningless, ethics are impossible, and community is a mirage. They've shaped the very language we use to talk about work and the economy. This book is a response.
will have more of a proper post our about it once I've finished grading finals but today is publication day for my book!
www.versobooks.com/products/312...
www.versobooks.com/products/312...
September 21, 2026 at 4:22 PM
some four months on from launch and I continue to be really pleased by the reception of my book-- if you haven't picked it up yet after my incessant calls to do so, you should!
the current state of who, exactly, mediates access to potential customers is very bad. most socials are both censorious and repress links
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Meta bans ads for Virginia Woolf play in Spain because they relate to feminism
Theatre told that Facebook and Instagram filter out ads mentioning ‘social topics’ such as civil rights or feminism
www.theguardian.com
September 21, 2026 at 4:09 PM
the current state of who, exactly, mediates access to potential customers is very bad. most socials are both censorious and repress links
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
> george mason university
yeah ok man
yeah ok man
September 21, 2026 at 2:57 PM
> george mason university
yeah ok man
yeah ok man
Reposted by Henry Snow
Set out my feelings about why I just don’t like this trend towards creating a better past by censoring your own archive:
We must resist the temptation to censor media and film archives
The best solution is to have a policy of addition rather than subtraction
www.ft.com
September 21, 2026 at 1:38 PM
Set out my feelings about why I just don’t like this trend towards creating a better past by censoring your own archive:
in THESE dark times there is not only singing about the dark times but also the sick slap bass of the kirby air riders menu theme
September 21, 2026 at 1:25 PM
in THESE dark times there is not only singing about the dark times but also the sick slap bass of the kirby air riders menu theme
i try to take the tech world seriously to better understand it but the fact that you can apparently raise a bunch of money by proposing "what if Linux was racist?" does make this more difficult
September 21, 2026 at 1:22 PM
i try to take the tech world seriously to better understand it but the fact that you can apparently raise a bunch of money by proposing "what if Linux was racist?" does make this more difficult
oh my god I just learned that my great grandfather has an extensive papers collection? 21 boxes?
September 20, 2026 at 1:10 AM
oh my god I just learned that my great grandfather has an extensive papers collection? 21 boxes?
Reposted by Henry Snow
In Law and Critique, @ntinatzouvala.bsky.social and Jessica Whyte have a new paper on the transition from dollar hegemony to dollar dominance.
From Dollar Hegemony to Dollar Dominance - Law and Critique
This article describes and diagnoses a major shift in the modalities, uses and legal forms of the international role of the US dollar. Drawing from the work of Ranajit Guha, we argue that the balance ...
link.springer.com
September 18, 2026 at 4:25 PM
In Law and Critique, @ntinatzouvala.bsky.social and Jessica Whyte have a new paper on the transition from dollar hegemony to dollar dominance.
Reposted by Henry Snow
I have been critical of EA's while philosophy in print, I think rationalism is alarming and the conduct lately discussed damning-- and I think it's important to distinguish between them. There are good people in the former camp and possible coalitions against the latter and also against worse actors
Gyges equivocates in his thread between the Berkeley rat commune, Ant, AI safety and EA. These are very distinct groups that share a few vocab words. Nobody I know at Ant are or were part of this commune. EA is older and far larger than rationalism and focuses on animal welfare, kidney donation, etc
Lots and lots of them work at AI companies and non-profits. The safety, red teaming and alignment teams seem especially afflicted, because that's the area you go on to worry about and try to work against AI doom, which you are sure is at least medium likely.
September 18, 2026 at 7:09 PM
I have been critical of EA's while philosophy in print, I think rationalism is alarming and the conduct lately discussed damning-- and I think it's important to distinguish between them. There are good people in the former camp and possible coalitions against the latter and also against worse actors
Reposted by Henry Snow
dudes rock www.nytimes.com/2026/09/18/w...
Can Two Friends Complete a Game No One Has Ever Finished? (Gift Article)
The Campaign for North Africa, a staggeringly complicated World War II board game, has stymied players for decades. Now two guys in England are giving it a serious go.
www.nytimes.com
September 18, 2026 at 1:04 PM
dudes rock www.nytimes.com/2026/09/18/w...
Reposted by Henry Snow
wrote last year about RFK and eugenics and I think this unfortunately still holds up
buttondown.com/anotherway/a...
buttondown.com/anotherway/a...
September 18, 2026 at 12:41 PM
wrote last year about RFK and eugenics and I think this unfortunately still holds up
buttondown.com/anotherway/a...
buttondown.com/anotherway/a...
Reposted by Henry Snow
I’m extremely pleased to announce my piece about the legal ethics around prompt injection and judicial use of LLMs will be published in the upcoming volume of the Albany Law School Journal of Science and Technology!
This piece is a weird one, but I think it’s quite important.
This piece is a weird one, but I think it’s quite important.
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Pre-print of an article I sprinted to put together after a strange and fascinating decision came down last week.
Many thanks to @alyssamerc.bsky.social for a quick copy edit and @kathryntewson.bsky.social for tech manipulation related thoughts.
I think it’s good!
Pre-print of an article I sprinted to put together after a strange and fascinating decision came down last week.
Many thanks to @alyssamerc.bsky.social for a quick copy edit and @kathryntewson.bsky.social for tech manipulation related thoughts.
I think it’s good!
September 17, 2026 at 6:38 PM
I’m extremely pleased to announce my piece about the legal ethics around prompt injection and judicial use of LLMs will be published in the upcoming volume of the Albany Law School Journal of Science and Technology!
This piece is a weird one, but I think it’s quite important.
This piece is a weird one, but I think it’s quite important.
Leigh "the children yearn for the mines" Phillips this is the last person on the "left" anyone needs weighing in on this
September 17, 2026 at 6:53 PM
Leigh "the children yearn for the mines" Phillips this is the last person on the "left" anyone needs weighing in on this
Reposted by Henry Snow
I think people on the Left can generally agree that that public higher ed should be broadly accessible and free but are generally vague or indifferent about what the content of that education should be. This is why progressive activism on higher ed is more about access than anything programmatic.
September 17, 2026 at 6:14 PM
I think people on the Left can generally agree that that public higher ed should be broadly accessible and free but are generally vague or indifferent about what the content of that education should be. This is why progressive activism on higher ed is more about access than anything programmatic.
Reposted by Henry Snow
I don't wanna say I called it but I did, and have a chapter on it you can read right now
September 16, 2026 at 11:08 PM
I don't wanna say I called it but I did, and have a chapter on it you can read right now
Reposted by Henry Snow
Everyone is talking about p-doom these days and that reminds me of what might happen to American democracy if we doom another p - Franklin Pierce.
thread
thread
September 17, 2026 at 12:00 PM
Everyone is talking about p-doom these days and that reminds me of what might happen to American democracy if we doom another p - Franklin Pierce.
thread
thread