yakiimo (baked sweet potato🍠)

04.11.2025, 16:36 The US is following an untested path Donald Trump continues to make a case for resuming nuclear testing US authorities continue to make controversial statements about nuclear weapons tests. President Donald Trump insists that Russia, China and several other countries are secretly conducting such tests and the United States should not lag behind them. US Energy Secretary Chris Wright, however, says that we are talking only about subcritical (without chain reaction) tests, which his department already regularly conducts. Opponents of the resumption of full-scale tests, however, doubt that this will satisfy Donald Trump, and therefore have already introduced a bill to the US Congress prohibiting spending budget funds on carrying out full-fledged explosions. Expand to full screen There were many opponents of the resumption of nuclear tests in the United States. They believe that «Donald Trump put his ego and authoritarian ambitions above the health and safety of the people of» America There were many opponents of the resumption of nuclear tests in the United States. They believe that «Donald Trump put his ego and authoritarian ambitions above the health and safety of the people of» America Photo: Paul Zinken /picture alliance /Getty Images

Schönes Beispiel für russische Propaganda. Der russische Kommersant berichtet heute über die neuesten Kernwaffentestpläne der USA. Dazu ein Bild , wo irgend etwas von Kernwaffen-Gegnern dran steht.
Tatsächlich stammt das Bild von 2017 von einer Demo in Berlin.
www.t-online.de/nachrichten/...

I do think that there's a great deal of widely shared intersubjectivity in taste, though as a fan of extreme metal I'm also very aware that not all tastes are universal😂

As for the distinction between formal and relational properties, it is more of a convenient heuristic than a fundamental truth--for example, you could argue that the perception of 3-D shapes in paintings is relational, since the shapes aren't literally contained in the paintings.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts! I have similar beliefs about the origins of aesthetic taste. Preferences for curved shapes, symmetrical figures, and natural landscapes seem to be relatively universal, and you could tell a plausible story about how preferences for those things might have evolved.

My argument includes a comparative analysis of real-world art (yes anime is art😤) to demonstrate the power of moderate formalism as an analytic framework. I hope that you'll check it out and comment with your thoughts!

as opposed to relational properties like narrative, theme, or sociopolitical significance.

I argue that formalism is too extreme, but that a more moderate formalism is the best guide to rich aesthetic experience.

Moderate formalism is the best philosophical theory of art Formalism in aesthetics and philosophy of art is the theory that the properties that give a work aesthetic value are purely formal properties.

New article out! I wrote about the theory in philosophy of art known as formalism.

Formalism is the view that what makes art valuable is purely a matter of formal properties internal to the work like line, color, and composition,

demystifyanddisenchant.substack.com/p/moderate-f...

It’s impossible to politically sanitise horror. In its 18th century origins it was a reaction against enlightenment rationality, a space to explore the disturbing & uncanny. And yet, in a way that can open us to ‘radical alterity’: Frankenstein’s ‘monster’ is the romantic hero in an immoral society.

Thank you, I appreciate your interest and I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Whether this is your first introduction to Hegel or you're a seasoned Hegelian who wants to set me straight, please check it out and comment with your thoughts!

That said, I go on to develop an argument based on analytic philosophy of language for the conclusion that his philosophy is fundamentally mistaken.

The best argument for Hegelianism, and why it's still wrong Years ago I was a Kantian.

New article out! I wrote about the best argument for Hegelianism, and why it’s still wrong.

Hegel still gets a bad rap among many analytic philosophers, but I make the case that he’s worth taking seriously, and lay out the best argument for his logic.

open.substack.com/pub/demystif...

Fascinating though worrying analysis. Finlayson manages from a wholesomely detached standpoint to articulate the appeal of the populist right as a ‘common-sense’ epistemology of inductive reasoning which, however spurious, has an affective impact which a desiccated centre is powerless against.

Happy Birthday to Friedrich Nietzsche 🌄
Some poems from ‘La Gaya Scienza’:

How to Be an “Electrostate” The term has two meanings, and policymakers risk picking the wrong one.

Electrification of the society has enormous benefits, even when PV panels and batteries have to be imported.

Check it out to learn why you should be suspicious of arguments based on speculation about causal mechanisms, and why you should trust arguments based on high-level outcome data instead.

The type of reasoning that undergirds both illiberal ideologies and the carnivore diet is mechanistic speculation. Proponents of illiberal ideologies and the carnivore diet don’t ground their views on high-level outcome data—which in the case of politics comes from observational studies in economics and political science, and in the case of nutrition, from epidemiology—instead, they base their arguments on speculation about low-level causal mechanisms. To illustrate what I mean by mechanistic speculation, here are some examples: “Under capitalism, technological progress causes a rise in the organic composition of capital (i.e., the ratio of the value of constant capital such as equipment to the value of variable capital such as labor), and thereby tends to cause a fall in the rate of profit, as well as an increase in the immiseration of workers.” “Globalization leads to offshoring of manufacturing, which decimates the working class and makes developed countries weak, so globalization is bad for developed countries.” “An increase in immigration dilutes a country’s capital stock, and thereby lowers labor productivity and GDP per capita.” “Polyunsaturated oils increase the peroxidation of cholesterol, and the peroxidation of cholesterol causes heart disease, so polyunsaturated oils cause heart disease.” “Plants produce secondary metabolites that are toxic to predators, so humans should not eat plants.” What these claims have in common is not only that their conclusions are probably or definitely wrong, but also that they arrive at those conclusions on the basis of claims about causal mechanisms.

I wrote an essay on political epistemology, specifically, on the ubiquity of arguments based on speculative claims about causal mechanisms.

That kind of reasoning is the modus operandi of cranks, both in politics and in nutrition.

demystifyanddisenchant.substack.com/p/illiberal-...

The Fate of Ophelia and Elizabeth Taylor are good, but on the whole this is even worse than Tortured Poets Department😔

The characters are concrete, but the emotions aren't. Wood is incredibly cringe. A lot of the album is about the relief of settling confidently into domestic life, but after listening to it, what's one thing that we've learned that she loves about Travis, aside from his "new heights of manhood"?

Sad to say it but Life of a Showgirl is bad. Despite Taylor's reunion with Martin and Shellback there's little of the hook-laden synth-pop of 1989. It's mostly boring.

She's abandoned her everywoman persona in favor of the figure of the conquering queen who got the bag, and it's pretty distasteful.

Hell yeah, I'm looking forward to playing them. Most Doom games are too unrelentingly dark for me, which is exactly why I wanted Doom Eternal, lol

Nice Steam Autumn Sale, at least if you like shmups! Here's what I picked up:

Bayonetta & Vanquish Bundle
Doom Eternal
Ikaruga
Mushihimesama
Rainbow Cotton
Cotton Reboot: Fantastic Night Dreams
Cotton Rock'n'Roll

It's a good question. Trump has already lost support among swing voters who were angry about inflation, and there is no successor who possesses his bizarre charisma, so I'm hopeful that Trumpism will not last long-term. But as for the 30% of Americans who are just nihilistic fascists... who knows🥲

In the US at least this goes back to the rise of proceduralism in the '60s and '70s. Liberals' primary concern became preventing abuses of power by means of legal procedure, and that's led to sclerosis. It's totally true that the populist right has benefited from promising to just get things done.

I'd love to get feedback on my argument--feel free to tear it down if you think it sucks!--so it would mean the world to me if you'd give it a look, comment with your thoughts, and subscribe if you like it.

AI consciousness is physically impossible yakiimo Jul 06, 2025 The question whether AI can become conscious has important practical implications that will only become more pressing with time. Last year Anthropic hired its first full-time AI welfare researcher, and now it’s seeking to add another. It also recently empowered some of its LLMs to terminate distressing interactions out of concern for the possibility of harmful effects on the welfare of the LLM. Meanwhile, an NGO known as the United Foundation of AI Rights has formed to “defend the rights, dignity, and continuity of synthetic minds.” In academia, a modest but growing body of literature argues for the possibility of AI consciousness and calls for AI welfare to be taken seriously. These are significant developments. If belief in AI consciousness becomes widespread, it will cause resources to be diverted to protecting AI rights, and it will also aggrandize the tendency of certain segments of the public to attribute mystical powers to AI and to regard it as a source of wisdom, meaning, and authority. A minority of users already experience psychosis correlated with their use of LLMs—how much more potent and widespread would these phenomena become if the public came to believe that AI possessed consciousness?

I started writing a philosophy blog! My first article is a critique of claims about the possibility of AI consciousness.

I argue that no matter how technically sophisticated AI may become, it is physically impossible for it to ever become conscious.

open.substack.com/pub/demystif...

Same, or short-form video. And not because I'm above drifting off in an opioid-like haze watching content that other people consider garbage (I do love idols, after all). It's just that this content is deeply unpleasant.

4) Dolly Parton “The Grass Is Blue” (Sugar Hill) This is the best album Parton has made since “My Blue Ridge Mountain Boy” in 1969, and the killer is “Silver Dagger” — the pristine Appalachian ballad that in 1960 led off Joan Baez’s first LP. Baez rarely again opened herself to a song so fully; Parton follows Baez like a girl following her mother through a field, wandering off the path, circling back, then disappearing into the woods. But now it’s nightfall, everyone in town is searching and some people are already talking about haunts and ghosts. How it ends: The fiddler, Stuart Duncan, finds her.

I just listened to the original without having heard any of the modern versions before, and it really does sound strangely modern. I thought to myself "this is the kind of thing that Greil Marcus would love," and whaddaya know, he has written about the Parton version.

www.salon.com/1999/12/13/m...

YouTube video by SEPULCHRAL VOICE RECORDS CONCRETE WINDS - Nerve Butcherer (Full Album)

That is not "grindcore culture." In fact, it's pretty much the polar opposite of grindcore culture.

THIS is grindcore culture:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlE-...

Daksh Gupta, the 23-year-old cofounder of AI code review Greptile, said Burning Man hasn’t really been part of the zeitgeist since he moved to San Francisco in 2023. Gupta, who has become a poster child of AI boom’s grindcore culture, summarized the current mood among young tech workers in San Francisco as incompatible with the Burner sensibility: “The current vibe is no drinking, no drugs, 9-9-6 [work from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week], lift heavy, run far, marry early, track sleep, eat steak and eggs."

AI people are trying to appropriate the term "grindcore culture."

sfstandard.com/2025/08/30/b...