Zac Irving

This approach to leadership is hard: it requires nuance, compassion, and courage. But it bends the university towards what is good. I stand with President Ryan. 3/3

Ryan has met big challenges such as AI, digital technology, and democracy and smaller but consequential challenges about faculty governance with by soliciting opinions across the ideological spectrum and making decisions that are driven by the particulars of each challenge. 2/3

Jim Ryan is an outstanding President of the University of Virginia. In my seven years as UVA faculty, I have seen Ryan and his administration seek a form of justice that is not tied to a political ideology. 1/2

@UVA's Russ Barhorsky just posted an article on my philosophy-of-mind-wandering based shower campaign LUSH! I love Russ' work. Here, he did a great job capturing not only the substance but also the whimsy of the campaign. as.virginia.edu/science-based-…

I hope to study these effects, in my future forays back into the armchair and the lab. But for now, I can't get over the sense that shower bombs, gels, and charcoal exfoliators can be philosophical media in their own right. 8/8

The collab worked because LUSH has thought DEEPLY about how to evoke the kind of subtle emotions that may help us harness spontaneity. @evantthompson: I'm finally moving past my pseudo-teenage-advisor-rebellion against embodied-mind-theory! 7/8

LUSH and I collaborated on a philosophical/scientific-mind-wandering-themed shower campaign! Many folks get their best ideas in the shower. Since I published an article about this Shower Effect, @lushcosmetics approached me about collaborating. tinyurl.com/925k6exn 1/8

Practically, this matters because current "solutions" to the problem of digital distraction likely deepen the spontaneity deficit. Take productivity technology: sure, it might help you avoid Twitter. But if you log off just to work, you'll leave even LESS time to wander. 4/4

Abstractly, this matters because because idle ramblings are a fount of creative insight. Our wandering thoughts are often irrelevant. But that's the point: they help us break free from our assumptions about what is important, which can otherwise be viciously self-reinforcing. 3/4

I got an @NEHgov fellowship on the Spontaneity Deficit!! Digital tech not only makes us MORE distracted; it also changes HOW we are distracted. Our minds used to wander during idle times. Now we are "stuck" on our phones. 1/4 @UVaToday has the full story: news.virginia.edu/content/social…

I'm trying to parse this, as someone with limited knowledge of MRI physics. Is the idea that you could increase the sensitivity of an MRI WITHOUT making the teslas higher? So, something with the sensitivity of 12T (!!) MRI that doesn't make you feel like garbage?

Where do HTS come in? First, in generating the high magnetic fields used to align protons and make them spin. But more importantly, is in the sensitive detectors that pickup those protons emitted RF waves. SC detectors would improve the sensitivity of an MRI by 12x

Reach out if you're trying Threads! @zacsmindwanders" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">threads.net/@zacsmindwande… Maybe I'll post more pictures where we put derpy outfits on this noble creature. (This is from her sweet sixteen.)