iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

There’s something to be said for just having a political ambition, even if it will take a while to achieve.

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

The Hinojosa-Abbott poll is (to me) even more shocking.

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

When the Vienna Circle read Wittgenstein‘s TLP, Neurath shouted “metaphysics” so often the group insisted he hum the sound “m” instead. However, the constant hum of “mmm” was itself disruptive. So Neurath was asked to leave.

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

A variation of this point is that it also relies on the idea that voters had an accurate sense of Biden's policy, especially later in the administration.

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

This is exactly how foreign workers in a country undermine wages of non-foreign workers. The problem is the lack of labor protections not the people!

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

The language of this is ...man: If calculators are making multiplication "too easy" for third graders, at at point does the burden shift to educators to make the math problems more challenging?

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

There’s also the question of whether you are measuring the number of signals or of messages conveyed by those signals.

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

For me, "anymore" is an NPI. So, I can't say this.

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

it’s especially interesting to contrast with Arrival which emphasises that mere scientific expertise does not permit interpretation which is why they need a linguist.

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Every time I encounter a "verifying that you are human" delay, I can't help but reading it as: "Are you even human, bro?"

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

I can't wait to take a dip in the beautiful Gulf of Raise Corporate Taxes for Internet Monopolies.

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Will we ever have an AI powerful enough to come up with a new menu item at Taco Bell? Like an eight layer burrito?

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Isaac Newton could never get a job at Cambridge today because Leibniz discovered calculus.

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Just as work can be valuable because it results from a messy person refining a vague idea into a pristine form, it might be less valuable because it results from (eg) corporate funded research designed to present a pre-packaged conclusion. A problem in this case is we don't know which is happening.

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

The description from Brennan in the comments is astonishing. He assumed that Claude was being used to check the mathematics: "By the time we received the fuller disclosure, the paper had been through three rounds of substantial revision, with two external referees and extensive editorial comments."

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

It’s great that Americans will now have to pay five (rather than one) co-pays to prevent their children from catching awful diseases.

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Thanks, Aidan. I've got about 80k words of lecture notes in case anyone out there ever wants to read them.

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Philosophers should get free meals for life in the Prytaneion for writing on Substack.

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

On a trip to Spain, my daughter once said, "Why do we always have to go on holidays to places that are hot and sunny? Why can't we go places that are cold and rainy?" A proper Glaswegian if there ever was one.

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

I agree with this, and it raises a fundamental worry for me. What if the net result of the ways in which LLMs increase productivity (the movement of dollars in the economy) actually be leads to a decline in the economic activity that increases human wellbeing?

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

This may not be what you're looking for, but I've been thinking a lot about Ada Bronowski's book The Stoics on Lekta, and specifically the idea that the parts of philosophy from Ethics to Logic, to Metaphysics (or Physics) form an interconnected whole. academic.oup.com/book/32428

academic.oup.com

The Stoics on Lekta: All There Is to Say

Abstract. After Plato’s Forms, and Aristotle’s substances, the Stoics posit the fundamental reality of lekta, the meanings of sentences, distinct from the

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

If Christopher Nolan's version of The Odyssey isn't historically accurate, why did the Muse tell him to present it that way?

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Solar power IS nuclear power, I only just realized.

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

It's a problem when the youths are staying inside and looking at their phones all the time and not getting into any character building experiences. It's also a problem when the youths are going out and doing things.

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

The question 'what is health and safety?' is very philosophical. But, the answer 'health and safety is a way (are ways?) of keeping myself and others safe' seems at least circular?

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

The next president needs to ensure that foreign governments and domestic businesses "clarify" that these gifts, golf courses, and investments were meant for the American people and not the person of the president (and make a subtle threat of tariffs or sanctions if they don't).

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

I’m surprised that the democrats didn’t heavily invest in their own America250 show as counter-programming. Simply reading from the declaration, the first, the 13-15th, and 19th amendment and then having some music/fireworks would be very moving in this moment.

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Growing up in Florida, I was surprised to learn that many southerners who lived to my north considered me a northerner. Now as a Glaswegian, I am not clear on whether my home is considered north or south of Manchester.

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

This reminds me of that great U. S. Grant line: "Oh, I am heartily tired of hearing about what Lee is going to do ... Go back to your command, and try to think what we are going to do ourselves, instead of what Lee is going to do."

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

The appropriate line from a classical patriotic song for this painting is: “Down with the traitor! Up with the stars.”

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

If nominative determinism were true, I would be soaked in vinegar.

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

It is noted as a "priority" in the passage you cite above. I presume that they mean "reducing immigration" is the priority, which, of course, will not help jump start the tax revenue.

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Shrinking universities and immigration are great ways to shrink tax revenue.

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

Also, in many universities, maths does a lot of heavy lifting supporting other STEM degrees.

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Sorry, just reading the book now and trying to work through the formalism.

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

I would suggest that, rather than adapting to AI, we should make AI adapt to us and our needs.

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

Can’t we just claim that he was not enriching himself and that the whole of the various trump organisations are meant to be property of the federal government and useable for appropriations by the next congress?

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Writing 17 years after the Civil Rights Act, MacIntyre illustrates his thesis that moral claims are incommensurable by flatly asserting that protesters can never offer rationally effective arguments and that he (at least) finds them shrill. Yes, absolutely depraved stuff!

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

I’m always perplexed by MacIntyre. I continue to believe that After Virtue is the most morally depraved book I’ve ever read.

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

I‘m assuming this is because they are a Scottish nationalist who insists the proper description is “Scottish” and not “British”.

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

being chased by a slower animal?

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Also, May‘s immigration policies when she was Home Secretary were not exactly a move in the right direction.

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Bryan Pickel @bryanpickel.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

You need friction to get traction. They’re removing traction.

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