<div dir="ltr">Dear Language Machines Network,<br><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><div style="line-break:after-white-space"><div><div><br></div><div>We'd like to invite you to our next reading group meeting. We'll discuss <b>Janet Connor’s (Leiden)</b> draft article “<b>Computing Consensus: Language ideological work in LLM-assisted deliberative democracy</b>” on <b>Monday, October 20, 2025 from 18:00-20:00 CEST</b> (<a href="https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html?iso=20251020T160000&p1=259" target="_blank">Time Zone Converter</a>). See below for the schedule of future meetings.</div><div><br></div><div><div><b>Abstract:</b></div><div>This article asks how the digital platform Polis and its experiments with large language models (LLMs) reconfigure democratic participation oriented around consensus. Through</div><div>analysis of media coverage of Polis and developers’ public discussions of the platform, I argue that there are mutually reinforcing conceptual and technical limitations to</div><div>computationally assisted deliberation. Developers reframe consensus from a discursive achievement to a computationally surfaced pattern. They make deliberative democracy a</div><div>computing problem which LLMs are uniquely fit to solve. Yet those “solutions” raise new questions and contradictions around what the public is, how it circulates, and the nature of</div><div>consensus.</div><div><b>Keywords</b>: Consensus; Democracy; Languages ideologies; Large language models; Publics</div></div><div><br></div><div><a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd6qQZ6bWqiFeHkWFhI6URlsM4qsfOwXODLNYEn2qf4VijOXw/viewform?usp=header" target="_blank">Please RSVP by filling out this form</a> to receive the Zoom link and PDF of the article when it's available (not to be circulated please).</div><div>To be added to the listserv, please simply email us at <a href="mailto:languagemachinesnetwork@gmail.com" target="_blank">languagemachinesnetwork@gmail.com</a></div><div><br></div><div>We look forward to seeing you there!</div><div><br></div><div>Anna, Siri, and Michael</div></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><span id="m_7120707317457553604docs-internal-guid-6a05a472-7fff-c07a-e2a8-bac1491764ce"><div dir="ltr" align="left" style="margin-left:0pt"><table style="border:medium;border-collapse:collapse"><colgroup><col width="144"><col width="107"><col width="270"><col width="103"></colgroup><thead><tr style="height:0pt"><th scope="col" style="border-width:1pt;border-style:solid;border-color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:top;padding:5pt;overflow:hidden"><p dir="ltr" style="text-align:left;line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-weight:400;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;font-size:12px">October 20, 2025</span></p></th><th scope="col" style="border-width:1pt;border-style:solid;border-color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:top;padding:5pt;overflow:hidden"><p dir="ltr" style="text-align:left;line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-weight:400;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;font-size:12px">Janet Connor</span></p></th><th scope="col" style="border-width:1pt;border-style:solid;border-color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:top;padding:5pt;overflow:hidden"><p dir="ltr" style="text-align:left;line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-weight:400;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;font-size:12px">“Computing Consensus: Language ideological work in LLM-assisted deliberative democracy”</span></p></th><th scope="col" style="border-width:1pt;border-style:solid;border-color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:top;padding:5pt;overflow:hidden"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12px"><br></span></p></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr style="height:0pt"><td style="border-width:1pt;border-style:solid;border-color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:top;padding:5pt;overflow:hidden"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;font-size:12px">November 17, 2025</span></p></td><td style="border-width:1pt;border-style:solid;border-color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:top;padding:5pt;overflow:hidden"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;font-size:12px">Evan Donahue</span></p></td><td style="border-width:1pt;border-style:solid;border-color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:top;padding:5pt;overflow:hidden"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:rgb(33,33,33);background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;font-size:12px"> “Structuralism, Vector Spaces, and the Science of Meaning”</span></p></td><td style="border-width:1pt;border-style:solid;border-color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:top;padding:5pt;overflow:hidden"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12px"><br></span></p></td></tr><tr style="height:50.523926pt"><td style="border-width:1pt;border-style:solid;border-color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:top;padding:5pt;overflow:hidden"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;font-size:12px">December 15, 2025</span></p></td><td style="border-width:1pt;border-style:solid;border-color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:top;padding:5pt;overflow:hidden"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;font-size:12px">Jack La Violette and Mikael Brunila</span></p></td><td style="border-width:1pt;border-style:solid;border-color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:top;padding:5pt;overflow:hidden"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 6pt"><span style="font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;font-size:12px">“Metalanguage, ideology, and alienation in the age of generative AI”</span></p><span style="font-size:12px"><br></span></td><td style="border-width:1pt;border-style:solid;border-color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:top;padding:5pt;overflow:hidden"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12px"><br></span></p></td></tr><tr style="height:0pt"><td style="border-width:1pt;border-style:solid;border-color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:top;padding:5pt;overflow:hidden"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;font-size:12px">January 2026</span></p></td><td style="border-width:1pt;border-style:solid;border-color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:top;padding:5pt;overflow:hidden"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;font-size:12px">Spencer Kaplan</span></p></td><td style="border-width:1pt;border-style:solid;border-color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:top;padding:5pt;overflow:hidden"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:6pt"><span style="font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;font-size:12px">TBD</span></p></td><td style="border-width:1pt;border-style:solid;border-color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:top;padding:5pt;overflow:hidden"><br></td></tr></tbody></table></div></span></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>
<div dir="auto" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none;line-break:after-white-space"><div dir="auto" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none;line-break:after-white-space"><div dir="auto" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none;line-break:after-white-space"><div dir="auto" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none;line-break:after-white-space"><div>---</div><div>Anna Weichselbraun, PhD</div><div>Gastprofessorin, Institute für Europäische Ethnologie, Universität Wien<br><a href="http://www.annaweichselbraun.com" target="_blank">http://www.annaweichselbraun.com<br></a><br></div><div><b>New article!</b><span> </span>Weichselbraun, Anna. “‘How Will I Know?’: Semiotic Indeterminacy, Transparency, and Expectations of Sincerity in the Global Nuclear Order.” <i>Signs and Society</i>, January 28, 2025, 1–17. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/sas.2024.2" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.1017/sas.2024.2.</a></div></div><div dir="auto" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none;line-break:after-white-space"><br><div><b>Join the workshop on LLMs and linguistic anthropology!</b> Meets monthly to discuss pre-circulated papers. Email <a href="mailto:languagemachinesnetwork@gmail.com" target="_blank">languagemachinesnetwork@gmail.com</a> to join the list.</div></div></div></div></div>
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