Professor Tom Crick

Professor Tom Crick

@proftomcrick.com

Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS); Professor of Digital Society and Policy at the University of Bristol. All views my own, etc. https://www.gov.uk/government/people/tom-crick

1.6K followers650 following341 posts

Professor Tom Crick reposted

Professor Tom Crick
@proftomcrick.com

Margaret Hamilton helped establish software engineering as a serious discipline. But who gets to join the profession she helped build, whose expertise is recognised, and who shapes its future? My new post: proftomcrick.com/2026/10/25/t...

proftomcrick.comThe profession Margaret Hamilton helped buildMargaret Hamilton’s work on Apollo helped establish software engineering as a serious discipline. Her legacy also raises harder questions: about the persistent barriers facing women in computing, t…
Professor Tom Crick
@proftomcrick.com

Margaret Hamilton helped establish software engineering as a serious discipline. But who gets to join the profession she helped build, whose expertise is recognised, and who shapes its future? My new post: proftomcrick.com/2026/10/25/t...

proftomcrick.comThe profession Margaret Hamilton helped buildMargaret Hamilton’s work on Apollo helped establish software engineering as a serious discipline. Her legacy also raises harder questions: about the persistent barriers facing women in computing, t…
Professor Tom Crick
@proftomcrick.com

More here: proftomcrick.com/2026/10/15/i...

proftomcrick.comIn conversation: the Wales Journal of Education podcastMy latest Wales Journal of Education podcast conversation, on generative AI in Welsh education, prompted me to look back at all seven episodes I have hosted and the journal’s role in bringing rigor…
Wales Journal of Education@walesjournaled.bsky.social

🎙️ NEW PODCAST EPISODE: ‘Policy and Professional Development for Generative AI in Welsh Education’ with Stephen Atherton ➡️ Listen: journal.uwp.co.uk/wje/

Professor Tom Crick
@proftomcrick.com

👇

Emily M. Bender@emilymbender.bsky.social

Software engineering could and should be done with the same care as any other type of engineering. This is a post in honor of Margaret Hamilton (and also a subtweet of all vibe-coders everywhere).

Professor Tom Crick
@proftomcrick.com

👌

Rachel Cole@rmartincole.bsky.social

All reports in this thread are from the collections of Northwestern University's Transportation Library. Materials we've digitized can generally be found in HathiTrust. Learn more and search our catalog here: www.library.northwestern.edu/libraries-co...

Professor Tom Crick
@proftomcrick.com

NPL's call for evidence on AI testing and assurance closes 9 Oct 2026. If you use or assess AI, what can't you test or verify? Practical examples can help shape better methods. My post: proftomcrick.com/2026/09/18/h...

proftomcrick.comHave your say on AI testing and assurance in the UKEarlier this month, the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) opened a call for evidence on AI testing, evaluation and assurance in the UK. Run by its new Centre for AI Measurement, which forms part o…
Professor Tom Crick
@proftomcrick.com

After reading a 2024 post from @bristoluni.bsky.social colleague Oliver Johnson, max-flow/min-cut is a neat lens for thinking about complex socio-technical systems — and prompted some reflections of my own on where the critical constraints in a system actually sit: proftomcrick.com/2026/09/17/f...

proftomcrick.comFinding the cutThis is a short post prompted by my Bristol colleague Oliver Johnson’s excellent 2024 piece, “The Final Cut”, which I came across again after Oliver recently reshared it on Linked…

Professor Tom Crick reposted

Professor Tom Crick
@proftomcrick.com

Can you trust the numbers? New post + full RSS William Guy Lecture on statistics, misinformation and the information ecosystem. Trustworthy information is infrastructure. Maintaining it is stewardship: proftomcrick.com/2026/09/13/c... @royalstatsoc.bsky.social

proftomcrick.comCan you trust the numbers?Back in June, I wrote about being appointed as one of the Royal Statistical Society’s William Guy Lecturers for 2026/27. My lecture, aimed particularly at students aged 16 and over, asks a de…

Professor Tom Crick reposted

Full Fact
@fullfact.org

40 years on from the Challenger space shuttle disaster, conspiracy theories are being shared on social media suggesting that the accident was a hoax and that the seven deceased astronauts are still alive. This is patently false.

fullfact.orgNo, the NASA astronauts killed in the 1986 Challenger disaster are not still alive – Full FactSocial media posts are being shared promoting conspiracy theories that the 1986 space shuttle crash was faked and that deceased crew members are out living secret lives.
Professor Tom Crick
@proftomcrick.com

Can you trust the numbers? New post + full RSS William Guy Lecture on statistics, misinformation and the information ecosystem. Trustworthy information is infrastructure. Maintaining it is stewardship: proftomcrick.com/2026/09/13/c... @royalstatsoc.bsky.social

proftomcrick.comCan you trust the numbers?Back in June, I wrote about being appointed as one of the Royal Statistical Society’s William Guy Lecturers for 2026/27. My lecture, aimed particularly at students aged 16 and over, asks a de…

Professor Tom Crick reposted

Professor Tom Crick
@proftomcrick.com

New post: WarGames (1983) as a way into questions about AI, automation, human oversight and the limits of delegation. The issue is not only what systems can do, but what authority we give them: proftomcrick.com/2026/08/26/w...

proftomcrick.comWhich games not to playWritten in a personal capacity; views expressed are my own. WarGames came out in June 1983. I was born in 1981, so I didn’t see it at the cinema; I came to it later, probably in the early 199…

Professor Tom Crick reposted

Reading Museum
@readingmuseum.bsky.social

Haven’t got tickets for the Bayeux Tapestry at the British Museum? Don’t worry you can visit Reading's full-size copy, faithfully embroidered by 35 women in 1885-86 (plus extra pants!) Or latest blog compares the two tapestries www.readingmuseum.org.uk/blog/comparing-bayeux-and-reading-tapestries

readingmuseum.org.ukComparing the Bayeux and Reading tapestriesReading’s Bayeux Tapestry is a full-size copy of the original 11th century tapestry. It was created in 1885-1886 by 35 women of the Leek Embroidery Society 'so that England should have a copy of its o...
Professor Tom Crick
@proftomcrick.com

I really enjoyed reading this interview with Russ Abbot: "In 1984, I worked 363 days’: how Russ Abbot soared to success – then walked away" www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

theguardian.com‘In 1984, I worked 363 days’: how Russ Abbot soared to success – then walked awayThe comedian dominated Saturday night TV in the 1980s, with his sketch shows attracting 18 million viewers. Next came the West End musicals and sitcoms. But in 2016 he quietly disappeared from the lim...
Professor Tom Crick
@proftomcrick.com

New post: WarGames (1983) as a way into questions about AI, automation, human oversight and the limits of delegation. The issue is not only what systems can do, but what authority we give them: proftomcrick.com/2026/08/26/w...

proftomcrick.comWhich games not to playWritten in a personal capacity; views expressed are my own. WarGames came out in June 1983. I was born in 1981, so I didn’t see it at the cinema; I came to it later, probably in the early 199…
Professor Tom Crick
@proftomcrick.com

Blog post number 500, somehow. I started with "Hello, World!" in April 2011 and no real plan. Fifteen years, three domains and two title changes later, I’ve had a look back through the archive: proftomcrick.com/2026/08/20/f...

proftomcrick.comFive hundred posts laterOn 11 April 2011, I published a short post entitled “Hello, World!”. Fifteen years, three domain names and two changes of title later, this post brings the total to five hundred. I didn…

Professor Tom Crick reposted

Professor Tom Crick
@proftomcrick.com

A brief guide to eclipses, aliens and trying to keep quiet — with Iain Banks, Liu Cixin, the Fermi paradox, and a partial eclipse from Corsica. proftomcrick.com/2026/08/13/a...

proftomcrick.comA brief guide to eclipses, aliens and trying to keep quietThe Sun is about four hundred times wider than the Moon. It is also about four hundred times farther away. There is no reason for this. It is a coincidence, and it is the only reason a total solar …

Professor Tom Crick reposted

Professor Tom Crick
@proftomcrick.com

An important holiday message: who will speak for the em dash? Why AI detectors and human readers punish exactly opposite things, and the morning I hand-corrected every fi ligature in my dissertation in black pen: proftomcrick.com/2026/08/10/w...

proftomcrick.comWho will speak for the em dash?By now everyone has met the heuristic: if a piece of writing contains an em dash, a machine wrote it. It has a more precise origin than you might expect. Recruiters and LinkedIn posters were circli…

Professor Tom Crick reposted

Michael S. Kirkpatrick
@kirkpams.bsky.social

I have a request for anyone who helps organize or leads an ACM SIG, conference, etc. I'm chairing a task force on publication integrity in CS (clear-computing.org). Part of that work is surveying the community on tools used. If you can help spread the word to SIG/conf leaders, please do.

forms.gleCLEAR Survey: Tool Adoption For Ethics And Policy ViolationsThe CLEAR Task force is gathering information from conference and journal organizers about tools used or being developed to identify, investigate, or manage ethics and policy violations in peer review...
Professor Tom Crick
@proftomcrick.com

An important holiday message: who will speak for the em dash? Why AI detectors and human readers punish exactly opposite things, and the morning I hand-corrected every fi ligature in my dissertation in black pen: proftomcrick.com/2026/08/10/w...

proftomcrick.comWho will speak for the em dash?By now everyone has met the heuristic: if a piece of writing contains an em dash, a machine wrote it. It has a more precise origin than you might expect. Recruiters and LinkedIn posters were circli…
Professor Tom Crick
@proftomcrick.com

DSIT has opened a call for evidence on data regulation in the age of AI. It wants practical examples — what worked, what didn't, and why — from any sector, before 9 Sep. My take on why it's worth 30 minutes of your time: proftomcrick.com/2026/07/15/a...

proftomcrick.comAn open call for evidence on UK data regulation and AIToday, the UK Government’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) opened a call for evidence on Data regulation in the age of AI and other data-intensive technologies. Given…

Professor Tom Crick reposted

Professor Tom Crick
@proftomcrick.com

Replying to @proftomcrick.com

As DCMS Chief Scientific Adviser, I have written a short blog post on the wider context: why these ARIs matter, how they fit into our wider evidence ecosystem, and why the challenge now is to make them useful and usable. proftomcrick.com/2026/05/26/f...

proftomcrick.comFrom Research Questions to Evidence Infrastructure: DCMS Areas of Research Interest 2026Why these refreshed ARIs matter for research, policy and the sectors that shape national life. Today, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) published its refreshed Areas of Research In…