Dan DeRobertis 💋

From William Irvine's excellent "On Desire" Why do you do the things you do? Like/dislike the things you like/dislike? Have the opinions you do? You can never know. Never. Such reasons are inaccessible to consciousness, which, as a result... concocts a good story.

"When the finger pointing at the moon gets gold-plated and enshrined while everyone completely forgets to look at the actual moon." stanbmartin.substack.com/p/inflated-tea…

@pawelekg I've been using Grok and ChatGPT. One must parse their replies very carefully. In certain domains they are spot-on. In others, they are confident, but useless. And yes, scolding it can sometimes make it work harder.

@chagmed I got upset about receiving a wrong answer from one of the AI engines. I told it that it was wrong and it apologized! Something uncommon for human beings online! 🤣🤣😊

Would you get upset at something an AI like Grok, ChatGPT, or Gemini says? Of course not. They reply according to their programming. But then why bother when a human does the same thing?

Internalizing someone's random nonsense utterances is the opposite of self-care. Notice the impulsive reaction, but don't follow through with self-affliction. See it, smile, and go on with your day.

Try it out for size. When someone says/texts something upsetting: pause and remind yourself that this person has no control over their behavior. Then, enjoy the lack of drama.

As regards cleaning kitchen cabinet doors: my suggestion is that you detach the hinge, walk the cabinet door to the bath, and give it a proper shower. Rinse cleaning agents thoroughly, allow the door to air dry, and reattach it to the cabinet. Easy.

I asked grok AI a few questions about cleaning kitchen cabinets. I then asked it to contrast the western concept of gnosis with the Buddhist notion of jñāna. After a thorough reply, it decided to tie the two questions together.

A lot of people seem to be oblivious to the hideous and genocidal crimes Japan and the *Japanese people*, who enthusiastically supported the Imperial regime and served in its armies, were responsible for during WW2. dispropaganda.com/single-post/20…

On a personal level, as an act of love, shun extremist friends and relatives. Make it clear that you have no room for them (or those like them) in your life.

If you're a US resident: reduce consumption, actively boycott businesses that ally themselves with hatred, and spread the word to friends and family. Suffering is a powerful and kind teacher. If we don't learn its lessons, it patiently teaches us again and again.

If you reside outside the US: boycott US goods, services, companies, and refrain from US tourism as acts of wrathful compassion for the benefit of all.

Research shows Elon Musk often makes false or misleading claims on topics like government spending, company performance, and politics, fitting the habitual liar definition. Fact-checks from CNN, PolitiFact, and others document this pattern, e.g., fabricated USAID videos or exaggerated Tesla autonomy claims. Some see these as optimistic projections, not deceit, but the frequency and impact suggest otherwise.

@BFSkinnerMovie Excellent film. Enjoyed it very much!

Every American ally today

@LeonSimons8 The Non-binary Southern Oscillation (NBSO)

Simultaneously a (disapearing) La Niña in the middle of the Pacific (ENSO 3.4) and an El Niño along the South American coast. Not something we see very often..

I legitimately believe Elon Musk may be going mad. I'm a Musk biographer who has been tracking his online behavior for the last two years—and given that he's admitted to all of mental illness, heavy drug use, and crippling stress, it is now reasonable to fear he is deeply unwell.

@tahibiji I’ll also note that there is absolutely nothing which proves a pan-psychic origin for personal awareness. That is, the nonconceptual phase of your awareness is not witnessing what is happening in the awareness of any other organism. The only thing in common is nonconceptuality.

My vocation in a picture with nine words.

A link to the (very accessible) source "The No-Self Theory: Hume, Buddhism, and Personal Identity" philosophy.as.uky.edu/sites/default/…

Thus, a self experiencing things isn't a basic part of experience, but something which experience fabricates, and then proceeds to take as its object.

I just read what I consider one of the best descriptions (by James Giles) of the on/off nature of the sense of being a self: "A collation of earlier experiences which presents itself in a condensed form to our awareness."