Curious Notes
2024
2024-08-24T20:44:25.352747+00:00We still don’t know the limits of what “predicting the next token” can achieve…
2024-07-10T00:13:12.639645+00:00Smells are like fingerprints or large integers, their lack of structure makes them good identifiers…
Human olfaction is more mnemonic because it is less structured
2024-05-21T20:58:12.399275+00:00Pragmatists are united by the priority of practice over metaphysics
2024-04-22T23:27:21.240194+00:00Why does Kant keep getting cast as an enemy of reason?
2024-02-29T19:40:51.750174+00:00Any transaction depends for its existence on both buyer and seller
2024-02-19T21:58:23.319527+00:00Contrary to most presentations, functionalism predicts only a bat can have bat mental states
2024-02-19T07:51:28.437282+00:00Animals and humans routinely violate the supposedly iron laws of maximization
2024-02-08T00:00:00+00:00Mean reversion makes pessimistic historiographies statistically likely, since most histories are written during inevitable declines from periods of greater development.
By mean reversion, pessimistic historiographies will usually be right
2024-02-07T17:49:12.530023+00:00Three interpretations of an apparent tension between Laozi’s advocacy of natural spontaneity and his counsel against excessive striving.
2024-02-05T23:40:14.185718+00:00Laozi argues that a ruler’s vulnerability to suffering, exemplified by caring for their body, paradoxically makes them fit to govern through shared compassion.
2024-02-03T23:20:37.500234+00:00Non-Kantian interpretation of Nāgārjuna better captures transcendental idealism than traditional Kantian readings.
The non-Kantian interpretation of Nāgārjuna is also a better Kant interpretation
2023
2023-12-28T18:25:08.952140+00:00Dennett and Egan develop similar philosophical ideas about consciousness differently—Dennett treats them comedically while Egan dramatizes them as horror.
2023-12-28T03:43:51.057987+00:00Can we know if our actions are purely motivated by duty, or does uncertainty about inner motives make such knowledge impossible?
2023-12-14T18:40:59.704426+00:00Destroying potentialities through costly signals is romantic because we need permanent commitments to truly know what we value.
The romance of permanence and sending costly signals to yourself
2023-12-13T19:36:38.473746+00:00Money promises freedom from relationships, but this ideal masks deeper interdependence and raises questions about true liberation.
2023-11-30T18:18:22.628738+00:00Slaughterhouse-Five portrays incoherent time travel as a compromise that can approach the consolations of understanding time’s unreality.
Slaughterhouse Five and false consolations from the unreality of time
2023-11-29T06:06:05.144982+00:00The illusion of an enduring self and passing time causes suffering, but both are incoherent—understanding this brings consolation.
2023-11-25T00:29:00.292712+00:00Newsom applies Kantian idealism to argue time emerges from love, offering transcendent consolation against the pain of loss.
Joanna Newsom, Kantian; and is idealism a consolation to loss?
2023-11-21T15:00:00+00:00A politics of psychic healing offers an alternative to Shklar’s liberalism of fear for preventing political cruelty.
2023-11-20T21:43:41.855528+00:00Whether moral obligation requires acting like a virtuous person would, or must rest on different grounds.
2023-11-19T04:36:24.382283+00:00Examining whether erasing human individuality to eliminate suffering is ethically justified, using Evangelion’s Human Instrumentality Project as a framework.
2023-11-16T21:57:46.625099+00:00Relational theories struggle to explain how interpersonal obligations can be genuine moral requirements when they’re sometimes permissibly violated in emergencies.
2023-11-15T15:00:00+00:00All animals are actually cute when seen clearly, making cuteness a valid foundation for moral care.
2023-11-14T18:44:33.375642+00:00Laughter marks expectation violations, but marks insight only when those violations revise higher-level models.
2023-11-13T17:15:06.319197+00:00Invulnerability offers no escape from suffering; vulnerability is preferable to the illusory promise of invincibility.
2023-11-13T05:15:44.668016+00:00Vulnerability hangovers are rigid top-down beliefs about interpersonal punishment, potentially alleviated by psychedelics’ relaxing effect on priors.
2023-11-11T22:56:20.571279+00:00Expressing feelings involves conflicting expressive and committive ideals, creating tension when uncertainty arises.
2023-11-10T15:00:00+00:00Examining whether compartmentalizing moral values from sensual enjoyment in everyday contexts requires a strict duty of sensual discipline.
Fake meat, violent movies, sex stuff: is there a moral duty of sensual discipline?
2023-11-09T21:00:16.012628+00:00Disappointment often leads us to commodify people as replaceable, but this denies their unique value.