Rob Lucas

Jan 24, 2025 | newleftreview.org | Rob Lucas

14 April 2015: Obama announces the removal of Cuba from the ‘State Sponsors of Terrorism’ list, on which it had languished since the Reagan era. 12 January 2021: the outgoing Trump Administration reinstates it; the incoming Biden Administration doesn’t demur. 14 January 2025: an outgoing Biden at last removes it. On 20 January 2025 – less than a week later – the incoming Trump reinstates it.

Mar 14, 2024 | newleftreview.org | Rob Lucas

We are ruled, in part, by algorithms. They govern some of what we see and read, how we communicate and work; this is widely understood. What is less obvious is how we should situate this elementary truth in socio-historical terms, or even what an algorithm actually is. We might usefully begin by defining the electronic computer as a deterministic but flexible device for modelling rules by which sets of symbols are reliably transformed into other sets of symbols.

Feb 2, 2024 | newleftreview.org | Rob Lucas

There is no denying the technological marvels that have resulted from the application of transformers in machine learning. They represent a step-change in a line of technical research that has spent most of its history looking positively deluded, at least to its more sober initiates.