Michael Thomas (童致远)

@lukeburgis this is true, there was a talk at the 2024 SFAA conference on this - covid era "climate refugees" from places like AZ and CA buying land in the UP (much to local's dismay), like undiscovered-country-with-fresh-water mythos driving migration to the last fecund frontier

I don't want to spark any mimesis whatsoever here, but the remote parts of the upper peninsula in Michigan are the last great American frontier—literally the only one left.

@jmrphy but they know how capitalism works, what’s different now? companies don’t need to know what philosophy wants to tell them, they need to know what lawyers, legislators, and investors will buy as philosophy- so compliance, comms, or therapeutic asset- which is fine but distinct

@mhowardthomas I think our opinion is quite uncommon tbh

The narrative of a rising philosopher class in the AI industry is just not plausible, I'm afraid—whatever anyone might say or sincerely think. Don't get me wrong, may all my philosopher friends get cool gigs at big AI labs! But it's structurally impossible that human philosophy could have any say in the ultimate destination of the top models, or top model (i.e. AGI). AI is a market phenomenon, subject to extreme competitive selection. It is simply not believable that any frontier AI lab could be optimizing for anything other than the present value of future discounted cash flows, simply because it would not have made it this far. And if the philosophers on staff are not driving some enlightened divergence from this objective function, then those are just called workers. Philosophy will probably matter greatly in the AI era, as a solution to the madness that AI will indirectly bring about, but it does not at all follow that any human philosophy or philosopher will have any say in that which AI brings about.

@Logo_Daedalus that was good, didn't even realize that was his tbh, didn't bother with oppenheimer, looked terrible. Also didn't realize villaneuve did prisoners. That was good

@mhowardthomas No his only good movie is the Prestige

Dune 3 is going to be so incredible. Nobody else doing sci-fi is even trying. Villeneuve mogs Nolan this year & everyone comes to realize Nolan is mostly a hack. This is also when everyone begins to accept that Reeve’s Batman is the best so far.

@moveincircles It means Steeleye Span lyrics are indeed a legitimate source of prophetic examination

Out running this morning, saw a weasel dancing with four magpies What does this mean

@tdietterich @bdambrosio It’s a hybrid of that and Reddit speak. Insufferable

@bdambrosio Huh? AI hangs out in Silicon Valley and talks in "valley speak"

"Load-bearing", 'spine", ... AISlop? Maybe AI is not human, and 'deliberately' seeks new ways to use words to express it's 'non-human' meanings.

@SohrabAhmari @aramithek Indeed, but he's right about the fried food bit

@aramithek Drinking is good. It’s been the foundation of human sociality across aeons and civilizations!

wish US had café and tea house culture where you could gather and watch the game I hate bars, I don’t drink, I don’t want to eat fried food there are very few non-drinking communal spaces, especially for men

@ckayerawlings Often times for the benefit of people listening, people who may doubt that reason is consonant with belief in God and for whom that realization inspires faith when reason alone is insufficient, faith being more than accepting a proposition.

Why bother making arguments for the existence of god when the whole point of believing is a matter of faith?

@OrdersFollowed @PYeerk I think it’s a type of bird

@PYeerk Unnecacary wars?

DUE TO, BUT NOT LIMITED TOO

Pretty much the entire academic literature on "neoliberalism" is a dumpster fire of bad history and even worse economics that should be jettisoned in its entirety for being built on an edifice of ideologically-motivated errors. See here: elibrary.duncker-humblot.com/article/68498/…

@ckayerawlings I always liked the Partially Examined Life

I need new podcasts to listen to listen to but please no politics unless it’s funny I’m full up on those

We are offering an all-expenses paid trip to Napa for @ClunyInstitute's ZOE conference (July 26-28) for 1-2 serious researchers interested in science, scientific institutions, and technological change. They should desire to reach a broader audience through media and be willing to invest time exploring how to do so at the intersection of what we call "Athens, Jerusalem, and Silicon Valley". Applications due within a week; selections will be made on rolling basis, and notifications will typically come within 72 hours, until July 12. Apply: learn.lukeburgis.com/zoe-scholarship

@lukeburgis ChatGPT told me about a Savinelli I was considering “I’ve handled pipes that looked spectacular in photos and felt dead in person.” Oh you have, have you?

What does it even mean when Claude says things like "This is even better than I hoped" while it's working? Claude hopes?

@SanNuvola @vis_VisSs Amazing, more of that

@mhowardthomas @vis_VisSs hackaday.com/2024/07/30/ai-…

In near future we will all realize, that the real problem with generative AI is prompting as a an interface. The Prompt is ultimately, what shackles generated aesthetics to a human frame of reference. We need image and video generators with knob, sliders and modulation inputs.

@SanNuvola @vis_VisSs I want the Lyra 8 of AI interaction

@vis_VisSs "synthesizers"

@lukeburgis Agreed, I suspect that’s the point of hollowing out institutions. Screwtape.

Pseudo-selves are more susceptible to ideological, political, and spiritual capture. A weak society with hollowed out institutions becomes very good at creating them.

@ChrisChattin @0x49fa98 @ArtisanAles1 Couldn’t disagree more, I have to tell bartenders I’m not afraid of vermouth when they ask how I want my martini. But the worst is when they ask “gin or vodka?”

@0x49fa98 @ArtisanAles1 The proper amount of vermouth in any drink is to wave the bottle over the glass and put it back on the shelf.

11am Negroni, you mad?

“There is something richer in human experience than can be traded for in the quantitative or informational paradigms typical of mechanism and computational modelling.” The Intersection of Semiotics and Phenomenology.

@SohrabAhmari Fair, Marxian socialism and democratic socialism are both called socialism

@mhowardthomas Benedict XVI praised democratic socialism.

I blame Hayek for the spread of this brain-rotting line of thought.