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Reposted by Pete Wolfendale

Simon Parker @simonparker.bsky.social · 1d

The absolute bloody vandalism of austerity in one chart. Good analysis of the overall picture here.

Reposted by Pete Wolfendale

Nick Srnicek @nsrnicek.bsky.social · 2d

Two big changes to the precarity of the AI industry in the last year: (1) more and more companies are turning to debt to finance AI capex (see Meta, xAI, Oracle), and (2) OpenAI's flurry of deals in the past month are tying major companies to the fate of this startup

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Pete Wolfendale @deontologistics.bsky.social · 3d

I generally try to recommend primary texts that are accessible if they align with existing interests, rather than secondary overviews. Some favourites:

1. Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling
2. Seneca's On the Shortness of Life
3. Lakatos's Proofs and Refutations
4. Sartwell's Six Names of Beauty

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Pete Wolfendale @deontologistics.bsky.social · 5d

Crank that labubu.

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Reposted by Pete Wolfendale

Stuart Watt @morungos.bsky.social · 6d

I’ve heard people give variants on this argument for 30+ years, and mostly all they say is: we don’t understand either QM or consciousness, so they’re obviously the same thing.

I don’t want your “spooky” unification concepts, you better have a damn good theory, and I haven’t heard one yet.

Daily Neuron @dailyneuron.bsky.social · 6d

New research suggests quantum cognition, a field applying quantum math to decisions, could finally connect microscopic brain processes with our conscious experience. #consciousness #cogsci

dailyneuron.com/quantum-cogn...

Quantum Cognition May Be the Missing Link to Understanding Consciousness - Daily Neuron

New research suggests quantum cognition, a field applying quantum math to decisions, could finally connect microscopic brain processes with our conscious experience.

dailyneuron.com

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Reposted by Pete Wolfendale

ae @aelkus.bsky.social · 7d

the weak should fear the strong

Danny K @dannykpolitics.bsky.social · 10d

WATCH: ‘Portland Frog’ pepper balled by ICE agents

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Reposted by Pete Wolfendale

Iron Spike @ironspike.bsky.social · 8d

The one that always gets me is that the last American born into slavery died the year John Lennon released “Imagine.”

rax ‘levon honkers’ king @raxkingisdead.bsky.social · 8d

you ever think about those real weird overlaps. like tennessee williams might have listened to the ramones

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Pete Wolfendale @deontologistics.bsky.social · 8d

*Should*

Pete Wolfendale @deontologistics.bsky.social · 9d

Good luck!

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Pete Wolfendale @deontologistics.bsky.social · 9d

Henry Somers-Hall is advertising for people wanting to apply for Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships at Royal Holloway. I think he'd probably be into this.

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Pete Wolfendale @deontologistics.bsky.social · 10d

Love Ken. But I think 'sentience' is a terminally confused concept hereabouts. It tends to collapse three things together: intelligence, consciousness, and personhood (or agency, more generally). These three can be pulled apart, and consciousness can be pulled apart yet further.

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Pete Wolfendale @deontologistics.bsky.social · 11d

Incandescent anger decaying into sadness. An all too familiar arc. Small, in the scope of things, but too personal to simply ignore. If only I believed in grace.

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Reposted by Pete Wolfendale

Kevin J. CREATURE @kevinjkircher.com · 12d

Sometimes I think about how from 1935-1975ish, Bell Labs produced an insane amount of revolutionary science and technology, including 11 Nobel Prizes, the transistor, UNIX, C, the laser, the solar cell, information theory, etc. The secret? Provide scientists with ample, steady, no-strings funding.

sites.stat.columbia.edu

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Pete Wolfendale @deontologistics.bsky.social · 12d

Slaanesh, god of pronouns.

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Pete Wolfendale @deontologistics.bsky.social · 12d

I do actually have a paper in my forthcoming book that addresses these sorts of questions, though it doesn’t give definitive answers in particular cases. The key point is that autonomous beings have (some) control over their own identity conditions.

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Pete Wolfendale @deontologistics.bsky.social · 12d

One of my favourite scenarios, from the TTRPG Eclipse Phase: what if there’s a place you can only visit if you give them a copy of you that they will subject to torture under simulation to confirm your good intentions. Is that something you can consent to?

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Pete Wolfendale @deontologistics.bsky.social · 12d

Eldar got so woke that they collectively woke Slaanesh and then had to tone it down.

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Pete Wolfendale @deontologistics.bsky.social · 12d

My Aeon essay covers this, though I have no idea when it will appear.

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Pete Wolfendale @deontologistics.bsky.social · 12d

My position is always that there are at least three concepts that get conflated and used metonymically in these debates: intelligence, consciousness, and personhood (or agency more generally). Consciousness is the most confused and contains its own conflated subconcepts, sentience included.

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Pete Wolfendale @deontologistics.bsky.social · 12d

I’ve just finished reading the Yudkowsky/Soares book (though I’ve not gone through the supplements in detail yet). Think I know what tack I want to take in a review. Has anyone found any good reviews already, just so I know what else has already been said?

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Pete Wolfendale @deontologistics.bsky.social · 13d

It is fascinating how the nostalgia for a past that never really existed that animates fascism is being intensified by technology that can actively visualise this non-existent past. Nostalgia meets hyperstition by way of automated fantasy.

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Reposted by Pete Wolfendale

Hari Kunzru @harikunzru.bsky.social · 13d

While I’m on a posting roll, I just realized that the way to save the Humanities is by rebranding Higher Ed as where you go to learn how to Do Your Own Research

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Pete Wolfendale @deontologistics.bsky.social · 13d

This is good and all, but what I really want is a story about the banking system in Commorragh. Soul banking. Slave market futures. ROI on realspace raids. Interest still paid on pre-fall accounts. An ancap paradise with Medici style hijinx.

lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 13d

I do think there's potential for a 40K fanfic themed around modern monetary theory, in particular re how the Imperium's tithe being in direct goods and services makes it difficult to form a stable currency, and that leading to some political instability on some planet somewhere.

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Reposted by Pete Wolfendale

William Gillis 🏴 @rechelon.bsky.social · 15d

From my book:
www.amazon.com/Did-Science-...

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Reposted by Pete Wolfendale

Justin Weinberg @dailynous.com · 15d

A memorial event for Helen de Cruz, featuring talks, remembrances, and musical performances, is taking place later this month.

Memorial Event for Helen De Cruz - Daily Nous

This past June, Helen De Cruz, professor of philosophy at Saint Louis University, died at the age of 46. Remembered not merely as a professor, but as a source of assistance, advice, and kindness for o...

dailynous.com

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