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curation

173 karma · joined April 29, 2011

https://westering.substack.com/
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curation··on You're not uncool. Making friends as an adult is just hard (2021)
Stand for something more than yourself. Be curious and learn about folks you meet. I am in my 50s and have many young and old friends, including 5 new ones this year.
curation··on IRGC claims it destroyed Amazon's Bahrain data center
wildberries has been taken over by an oligarch and the only powers in Russia that Putin may hear are the oligarchs. There will be no 'overthrow of Putin' in Russia because there is no institutional support and it is well understood by literate people - a revolution is not just a disorganized uprising on the streets (what happens the next day? - return to normal) it requires years of planning and support.
curation··on New York City to ban deceptive subscription practices
and canada
curation··on Artificial intelligence is not conscious – Ted Chiang
LLMs do not have an unconscious, the negative dimension from which a subject can question what they. LLMs do not have desire because they are thoughts without a thinker. The problem is not LLMS but rather, that subjectivity itself is not popular in discussion. I suggest reading Freud, Lacan, Hegel for a start.
curation··on Lessons you will learn living in a snowy place
I grew up in Canadian snowbelt (Great Lakes) and never lost power. If there is an ice storm - then we all freak out. I'm not saying it can't happen if a lot of snow falls and then there is wind but we lose power in summer more often from squirrels trying to nest in transformers. The biggest blackout I experienced was in Toronto in a summer heatwave.
curation··on Confessions of a Theoretical Physicist
The book Sublime Object of Ideology (Zizek) and a second volume due soon attempts an interdisciplinary reframing of the theory of everything - working with Quantum Physicists and Material Hegelian/Lacanian philosophy. I am a philosopher who works with theoretical physicists.
curation··on Why doesn't advice work?
The source of our acts of freedom leans more heavily towards our unconscious. This is because our consciousness is ruled by social order, economic order, ideology etc. We take facts, advice that fit what our unconscious can use. For example, we never fall in love because of facts/pros/cons, but only realize afterwards that it has happened. It's not so much that advice doesn't work, but rather provocation to think is what works and advice is about surplus enjoyment of the advisor.
curation··on 'Russia's Google' exits the country
The Yandex translate is excellent - especially for the Georgian language vs Google and others.
curation··on Language is primarily a tool for communication rather than thought [pdf]
The failure of language to provide for us a way to precisely say what we mean results in consciousness. (Lacan/Slovenian Troika/McGowan/Benjamin etc)
curation··on The "uncanny" is the experience of a loss of control
The most uncanny thing in the world is the observation of our subjectivity in action.
curation··on Priced out of home ownership
Wealth inequality of the Global South has reached the West. Folks will have to live in smaller spaces with more people.
curation··on Ask HN: Best Relief for Body Aches?
I am 51 and have run 10km a day for 28 years. I stretch 1-2 hours per day (yoga/pilates/general stretching) and remain completely pain free.
curation··on The Tears of a Clown: Probing the comedian's psyche (2008)
Only a Joke Can Save Us - Todd McGowan and incredible and accurate analysis of what comedy is.
curation··on A Terribly Serious adventure: Philosophy and war at Oxford
The point of philosophy is to ask better questions, specifically questions that do not mystify the problem and thus perpetuate it. It's is not and has never been about answers. - love, a philospher
curation··on What’s behind the Freud resurgence?
As a critical theorist, Freud was rejected alongside many old white dudes in an understandable reactionary reflex for many decades. One had to turn to Fanon to access thinking about the unconscious. I would argue that currents in philosophy to us Lacan and Freud to read capitalist subjectivity alongside new interpretations of Hegel have shifted the field tremendously, starting with the 1989 work of Zizek Sublime Object of Ideology. Over the decades this work has increased in relevance as a way of understanding a way out of our current predicament.
curation··on Gilles Deleuze – What is Philosophy? [audio]
Philosophy is accurately describing an antagonism instead of asking questions which just further mystify the antagonism allowing it to continue, unabated. This is the time for philosophers.
curation··on Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications
cool!
curation··on New theory claims to unite Einstein's gravity with quantum mechanics
What if universality is a name for a kind of antagonism? What comes first is not a wholeness that is disturbed, but difference itself. Reality itself is unfinished and built in parallax. This new theory alongside current metaphysical theories of everything is inspiring.
curation··on Intermittent fasting more effective than calorie restriction
In my homeless youth I intermittently fasted out of no choice. I was really skinny.
curation··on Workers in Sweden Will Expand Strike Against Tesla
UAW and Sean Fein !
curation··on Bhutan declares its entire street dog population fully sterilized and vaccinated
Tblisi Georgia does this as well. The dogs are ear tagged and are sort of like the community pets.
curation··on The slow death of authenticity in an attention economy
What does authenticity mean here? It is an ideological term - meaning, no one will assert they are trying to be inauthentic.
curation··on Indoor wood burning raises women’s lung cancer risk by 43%
I'm aware of this project: https://www.noeton.fi/ They have a device that goes into your fireplace removes cancer causing substances to EU standards. They are a group of Finnish scientists and friends who wanted to find a way to make something they love less polluting and safer to use.
curation··on Is consciousness part of the fabric of the universe?
No.Consciousness is the remainder left over after the creation of the universe. It is not fabric-like but more like an impossible kernal that, like reality, cannot ever be finalized.
curation··on Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses
They Live! (1988) - we need to invent these glasses that lay bare our unknown knowns.
curation··on US suicide deaths reached record high in 2022
Our social order rewards being a martyr for capitalism. We supplement the banality of capitalist enjoyments with the surplus enjoyment of observing others lives in hell - in wars, in starvation and killing themselves. We should not look so close at what in particular is causing each individual or each group of individuals to do this or that horror but stand back and see that we are universally united in this struggle to be.
curation··on The art and science of spending money
Yes. I'm learning Russian, traveling all the time, studying philosophy, working with a small think tank and I've become a black belt in Krav Maga. I hate stuff, don't miss it and learning a language has changed my writing, thinking and it's actually fun.
curation··on There’s no planet B
The concept of planet B is itself ideological. Climate change is a symptom of capitalism; which remains unchallenged. Why is it easier to imagine a zombie apocalypse than a different economic system. Varoufakis Another Now attempts this. Until we are able to imagine new economic structures our attempts to avoid "planet B" will continue to create new markets and that is it.
curation··on The art and science of spending money
Similar. I left home at 15 made my own way. I saved 95% of what I made - drank powdered milk, worked 7 days a week for 15 years multiple jobs, side jobs (flip houses, production company). But I set a goal so, unlike my grandmother, who never stopped fearing the return of the Great Depression, I could stop. I retired in my mid-thirties and now I study languages and write and travel, but I don't buy stuff. Maybe if you set an achievable goal it will help.
curation··on ‘Breakthrough’ obesity drugs that have stunned researchers
Obesity drugs treat a North American symptom - obesity. The cause remains untreated.
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