Philip Ball

@philipcball.bsky.social

17126 Followers 208 Following

Science writer and author of books including Bright Earth, The Music Instinct, Beyond Weird, How Life Works.

Author's royalty statement from Oxford University Press.
Invitation to take part in a debate arguing that the Renaissance advanced humanity more than AI has done.
A crimson sculpture by Anish Kapoor.
Moreton-in-Marsh signal box.
Homelander nuking the world.
Book cover of Trinity, an illustrated history of the first atomic test, by Emily Seyl.
Cover of Togetherness by Rowan Hooper
Dear xxx, Thank you so much for this message and invitation. It sounds like a great session, and normally I would be tempted. But I’m afraid that I do not feel able to travel to the US at present, for reasons that overlap with the objectives of this panel. As someone who has written many pieces critical of the policies and practices of the Trump administration, it simply does not seem worth taking my chances right now with US border control. I am very sorry that I can’t respond more positively. I hope it’s a productive session. Best wishes, Phil
The urge to cast Altman as Faust or Frankenstein risks obscuring the less glamorous, more structural realities of AI development. Our governments who fund it, the investors who shape it, the technical uncertainties, the effect on the climate. We need to hold it all to account, and resist replacing a messy, collective process with a singular, legible dramatic person. So many people and systems have given Altman the keys to our future. It’s harder to turn them into characters and harder still to hold them responsible too.
Arches at Fountains Abbey.
Vaults at Fountains Abbey, Yorkshire.
The Pembrokeshire coastal path.
Spring on the Pembrokeshire coastal path.
Ochre-coloured deposits on rocks in a Welsh cliff face.
Let's set down some ground rules. There are, in my mind, a few rules for "CEO said a thing!" journalism if it's to qualify: You can never directly challenge anything the CEO said, even if the CEO has a long history of false or misleading promises and claims. You can never include any useful historical context about the company or executives' past statements, even if they've been proven repeatedly wrong. The CEO's comments should always exist in a magic vacuum. You should never, under any circumstances, actually take the time to talk to, and quote, an objective expert or academic in the field you're writing about, especially if they're inclined to criticize the CEO. This can slow down publication time and impact the quest for news-cycle ad traffic. You can never return back to the claims to inform your readership whether they were actually true (this is especially true of CEO promises made before giant, pointless, disastrous mergers).
An email that is a suspected scam "reading club", sent to authors.
Book: Mr Tompkins Explores the Atom
Note from Otto Warburg asking for money.
Portrait of the 17th-century natural philosopher Robert Boyle.