I love going somewhere dark at night, just looking up at the stars, trying (and failing 😏) to imagine infinity.

Yesterday I came across Carl Sagan’s idea: we are a way for the universe to know itself

And it got me thinking:

What about us trying to build intelligence.

Not just to understand it
but replicate it
scale it
optimize and monetize it

What does our urge to build it, and how we build it, reveal about us?

#AI #TechEthics #PhilosophyOfTechnology #Humanity #Innovation

"Post less sexy images if you want to be taken seriously."
Not advice. A framing tactic. A rhetorical move that shifts the blame for the gaze, how he sees her, his reaction to her, onto her.

It has a name: ad feminam.

New blog on rhetoric, the male gaze, control, and why naming what's happening is where the conversation gets good.

https://reginavantongeren.nl/2026/02/17/ad-feminam-the-friendly-advice-that-isnt/

#AdFeminam #FeministTheory #WomenOnline #GenderBias #WomenInTech

Logged into a VR event and discovered my old avatar was gone. What surprised me was an unexpected feeling of sadness.

In my research, I call this synthetic relationality: we experience technology as relational. But its one-sided.

I felt attached. She never felt anything.

We’re bonding with machines, AI lovers avatars and companions. Systems that cannot love back, but can convincingly simulate that they do.

Are we ready for what that means?

#syntheticrelationality #VR #AIethics

First post. How quaint, at my age 🙂
I’m a mum, surfer, dog lover, researcher, educator & marketing strategist.

❤️ how AI and XR are reshaping love, intimacy, and human connection. Currently working on a PhD proposal (third time’s a charm).

Available as a marketing brain and organiser of interesting talks and panels on tech, ethics, and inclusivity through my company Unapologetic Impact.

By day I teach marketing to young professionals in Leiden.

Deep breath. Here goes the fediverse.