Brendon

That video of Mitch McConnell is tough to watch but not nearly as tough as it is for the many millions of people in our country who can't afford lifesaving and life-dignifying health care specifically because of McConnell's career-long efforts to ensure they don't.

@Rainmaker1973 @waitbutwhy I think that you have to consider extra dimensional povs. Specifically a 4th dimension pov would see baby you and old you as a continuous single entity. Sooooooooooooooo if there is a break where would it be

According to quantum mechanics' Many World Interpretation, this happens at every single time slice, if there are time slices (Planck's time?). But apart from this, there's probably not a real continuity, not even in our consciousness. The continuity might just be an illusion, exactly as is is time in the Block Universe theory and maybe, this illusion is what defines our consciousness.

There’s a tiny chance I died this morning and the person writing this tweet is a clone of the former me. Let me explain. I once wrote a post called “What Makes You You” (won’t link here because then the Twitter algo will bury the post but you can google the title if you want). In the post I talked about how weird it is once you start really thinking about the concept of “you.” When you look at a childhood photo of yourself, it’s you—but why? The physical cells in that kid’s body have been recycled and are no longer in you. But it’s still you right? But then there’s Derek Parfit’s famous teletransporter experiment, where hypothetical future people travel instantly from, say, Boston to London, by going into a machine in Boston that scans the atomic structure of their body while also destroying that structure and simultaneously reforming it across the ocean. Successfully “teletransported,” they go on with their day in London. But one day, the machine that’s supposed to scan and destroy your atoms in Boston fails to destroy them. After the scan, Boston You is still intact. The technicians tell you that this happens sometimes and it has an easy fix: they take you to a different, non-malfunctioning machine and obliterate your body there instead. They show you a video of London You walking happily out of the facility and assure you that the transfer worked as normal and they just have to complete the “destroy Boston You’s body” part. But now Boston You is horrified because it feels like London You is a totally different person and that if they destroy your body, you’ll actually be DYING. And if so, who cares if there’s a clone of you walking around somewhere—you’ll be dead! When I wrote about this in that post, I knew exactly where I stood: I would never use a teletransporter. But childhood me is also made of different atoms than current me. So what makes that different from the teletransporter? Perhaps it’s continuity of consciousness—something broken during teletransportation but not during aging. Back to today. I had a minor surgery this morning (removal of a lipoma on my back, all went well), which required general anesthesia. One minute I’m chatting with the doctor, the next I’m hearing “Tim? Tim?” as they rouse me out of my haze three hours later in a different room. Deeply bizarre. A friend of mine is scared of general anesthesia because he worries that the break in continuity might mean that Pre-Surgery You actually dies during the procedure and a different you—a clone—wakes up on the other side. Similar logic, he says, to why he’d never agree to teletransportion, even if he knew the machine would work correctly. These were the fun thoughts I was having as they hooked up the IV and prepared to knock me out. My friend’s theory, and the teletransporter thought experiment, swirled through my head as I accepted that I couldn’t exactly prove that I was not about to die. But it was also weird—even a tiny chance that this was true should have absolutely freaked me out and made me say NOPE—forget it. Let’s skip it. Not remotely worth the risk. But that’s not how I felt. I was like, “well, whoever does wake up on the other side will feel like me, and to that future me it’ll feel like it was a simple procedure and nothing more.” And the question of whether that person who wakes up will be current me or not just didn’t seem that important. As I type this, of course, it’s no longer relevant. Either I’m the same me as before, or he’s dead and I’m the clone. As the clone, this is perfectly fine by me. In fact, I only have a chance to live because previous me is gone. Amazing turn of events! But the fact that previous me didn’t really care either—it’s making me rethink how I feel about the teletransporter experiment and about the self in general. If the future really has teletransporters, might I and other people happily use them, even though we’re all aware of the “Is that just a clone of me in London?” question?

The 1st Amendment was first for many articulable reasons. Without freedom of speech and assembly the other amendments are mooted. Currently I fear governments taking away my books as they undermine the 1st Amendment. "They" aren't coming for your guns. "They" are coming for our words. Next our ideas.

Happy Monday! Let’s get to work.

It's true. All of it.

Regarding the Palestine, Ohio Environmental mess: - Yes, it's bad - No, It's not even close to a "chernobyl" - Yes, Norfolk Southern is almost entirely to blame - Yes, Pete Buttigieg could have said more publicly - Yes, Biden offered Fed assistance - Yes, DeWine declined Fed assistance - No, Buttigieg couldn't have prevented the disaster - No, Buttigieg is NOT responsible for the clean-up - No, Democrats didn't order the train cars be burned - Yes, Gov. DeWine ordered the train cars be burned - Yes, The Norfolk Southern CEO donated to DeWine - Yes, Trump removed safety standards - Yes, Trump weakened the EPA - Yes, we ALL should be working together to make sure this doesn't happen again!

In 1958, psychoanalyst and philosopher Eric Fromm was asked why he believed the United States of 1958 was the best society the world had ever seen. He explains why—and gives a warning for how the US could destroy itself. See if you agree with him on the fatal flaw of modern work

Every single person who confuses correlation and causation ends up dying.

@ThatEricAlper Amazing grace on the pipes. I know it's trite, but it's true

We need generative AI for filling in vendor / supplier forms asap. Or how about companies standardize them all Don’t automate art. Automate invoices .

I don't know about you, but when I was in school, if I heard that there was a book I wasn't allowed to read, the very first thing I did was track down a copy and read the fuck out of it

You know what the world needs right now? Sacha Baron Cohen to interview George Santos.

After raking in record profits, Chevron has announced that the company will buy back $75 billion of its own shares. Oil and gas companies jacked up prices to line their own pockets at the expense of the American people.

IMO… Who ever wins the election for Mayor needs to invest in kids. Not in the standard ceremonial, typically way either. City wide after school programs that’s open till 8pm. Yes that’s gonna cost up front. In a decade tho we’d be under 350 murders tho.

Someone needs to start digging into the @93XRT archives and find a way to put the Lin’s Bins on line for us all. It’s just the right thing to do. We are all hurting.

@FlammJoe @TheBearFX @LinBrehmer I literally just started this episode and my wife and I thought it was surreal. We both cried.

If you have never watched @TheBearFX throw on episode 7 today, the lead in intro by @LinBrehmer into Sufjan Steven’s, it’s perfect. #yourbestfriend

Plot twist: George Santos is actually Sasha Baron Cohen, and we are all in his next movie now.

#1 - 50,000,000 chickens have died in the U.S. due to Avian flu. #2 - Supply and demand made egg prices increase. #3 - That's classic capitalism, which y'all love...until you pay $5 for a dozen eggs. Then you want the government to do something about it. That's socialism.