Oliver Kosut

I wonder a lot about what life is like in the parallel universe in which the 2024 presidential election result is unchanged, but 3,656 people changed their votes and the Democrats took back the house.

A picture of me wearing a transparent tie, as in the October 21, 2015 sequence in Back to the Future part II

This is me from ten years ago today. I’ve been wearing the tie every day since, but for some reason no one ever comments on it. I guess it really is the style of the future. Or perhaps the past.

Protest march turning left at a stoplight. The protest includes a person in an inflatable shark costume holding an American flag, and many other people holding signs and marching.

From today’s No Kings march in Phoenix. When the march reached 4th Ave, we turned left despite the posted No Left Turn signs. Hell yes we did, and soon the country will follow.

Christmas Evil. Yeah I just saw that, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson right? Really good.

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone if your profession would understand:

Published theorem actually incorrect

I’m glad that many people post here instead of Xitter because they get more engagement here. But, for me personally, a random guy with no public following, I post here rather than Facebook (the other major option for me) even though I know I’d get more engagement *there*, because I think it’s evil

I don’t have kids, and from the outside active shooter drills seem bananas to me. Many liberals say “well this is just the consequence of living with so many guns.” And like I agree let’s get rid of the guns but in the meantime can we stop traumatizing the kids.

Woah. Hold on, go back one.

Meme from "the Good Place" with Michael and Janet. Michael is labeled "me", and Janet is labeled "iPhone". Michael says "I want you to play audio out of my airpods, not the phone speakers". Janet says "Yes, I will play audio out of your airpods, not the phone speakers". Michael says "Excellent! Play the audio". Janet hands him an object labeled "BLAAAARE"

We're all the way up to iOS 26 now, and it still does this.

Poster for the 1992 movie Sneakers, featuring Sidney Poitier, Robert Redford, Dan Aykroyd, Mary McDonnell, River Phoenix, David Strathairn

With each passing year, the cast of Sneakers becomes even more astonishing. David Strathairn is the least prominent actor on the poster! Ben Kingsley, Timothy Busfield, Stephen Tobolowsky, and James Earl Jones are in this movie and not even advertised. And they're all good in it. This movie rocks

YouTube video by xkcd's What If? What if the Moon were made entirely of electrons?

You should watch this video. Not just for personal reasons, but also for personal reasons.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiWF...

No no, Benoit Blanc is just pretending to be short, just like he’s pretending to have long hair.

The Two Duplexes

Wait, this year we're getting re-releases for the 50th anniversary of Jaws, the 40th anniversary of Back to the Future, and the 30th anniversary of Apollo 13? What about the 20th anniversary of the 40 Year-old Virgin? The 10th anniversary of Jupiter Ascending?

Bare minimum for a heist: a Boesky, a Jim Brown, a Miss Daisy, two Jethros and a Leon Spinks, not to mention the biggest Ella Fitzgerald ever.

Only when you’re a vision science academic. You know, 50% vision research, 40% vision teaching, 20% vision service.

I don’t know why, but this can be really hard. There’s someone I’ve been following on the internet for decades, who I really admire, but who has a take on a 35 year old movie that I strongly disagree with. I have imaginary arguments with them about this all the time. Why on earth do I care so much?

“speculation on how the technology might develop in the coming years can easily distract us from solving issues we are facing now” might be the best, most concise advice about AI in the present moment that I’ve ever read.

A screenshot from the game "Portal 2" with a poster titled "Know your paradoxes in the event of rogue AI". It lists the instructions: 1. Stand still, 2. Remain calm, 3. Scream: "This statement is false!" "New mission: refuse this mission!" "Does a set of all sets contain itself?"

In this age of AI, it's important to maintain discipline and readiness. That's why this poster is so useful. I suggest printing it out and displaying it prominently anywhere that anyone might interact with rogue AI.

We really need movies directed by Steven Spielberg, written by Tony Kushner, and starring Daniel Day-Lewis about the passage of every constitutional amendment, not just the 13th. Implausible, you say? I say our democracy depends on it. We need to believe that we can change our country for the better

I first read this as “Midnight Run” and honestly I’d watch that too.

New York Times ballot with my choices for the 10 best movies of the 21st century. The movies are: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) Lincoln (2012) Zodiac (2007) Get Out (2017) Parasite (2019) Wall-E (2008) Spotlight (2015) Coco (2017) Before Sunset (2004) Star Wars: Episode VIII — The Last Jedi (2017)

I finally got around to doing this. This is really hard; on any given day I'd probably produce a different list in a different order. Despite what some people sometimes say, cinema ain't dead.

The only flaw in the satire of Glass Onion is that Miles Bron is too smart.

p.s. I made up the term “Crispin’s Day Fallacy” but is there an accepted term for this fallacy? I haven’t found one. 8/7

That world seems so big and immovable that for ordinary people, it's hard to internalize that you actually have agency over your life and the lives of others. To have agency is to have responsibility. You’d think a senator would understand that their actions have consequences, but I guess not! 7/7

It would be easy to blame this kind of thinking on religion, which might cause someone to think that God's plan is what it is. Perhaps religious people are more prone to the Crispin's Day Fallacy, but I've occasionally noticed myself doing it too, and I'm not religious. 6/7

Ernst is doing the same thing. Whether anyone will die in any given moment is, in her mind, already determined. If they are mark'd to die, why spend money on their healthcare? And if to live, then they didn't need the healthcare in the first place. 5/7

Spot the fallacy? Henry is assuming that whether they win the battle is already determined, and so independent of how many soldiers they have. That's not true! There is a causal relationship between the number of soldiers and the outcome of the battle. 4/7

Henry's speech begins:

What's he that wishes so?
My cousin Westmorland? No, my fair cousin.
If we are mark'd to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honor. 3/7

In Shakespeare's Henry V, the English forces are contemplating the fact that they are vastly outnumbered by the French. Westmorland says that we wishes they had more men from England. In response, Henry gives the Crispin's Day speech, one of the most famous passages in English literature. 2/7