iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 2h

Hi #StetChat, I’m Malcolm, an academic copyeditor and developmental editor in London (UK). My two cats, Luna and Stella, are my work-from-home companions, pictured here in their previous domicile in the US.

two black and white cats curled up together in a bed on a window sill

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C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 3h

The context for her worry about machines is that scientific truths have become inexpressible in ordinary speech and so meaningless. She does not suggest the solution is a “gym for our brains.” Because our thinking should not be divided from our knowing and doing.

While such possibilities still may leın a dıstant future, the first boomerang effects of science's great triumphs have made themselves felt in a crisis within the natural sciences themselves The trouble concerns the fact that the "truths" of the modern scientific world view, though they can be demonstrated in mathematical formulas and proved technologically, will no longer lend themselves to normal expression in speech and thought The moment these "truths" are spoken of conceptually and coherently, the resulting statements will be "not perhaps as meaningless as a triangular curcle,' but much more so than a 'winged lion'" (Erwin Schrodinger)

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C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 3h

Full quote from The Human Condition (prologue). Arendt reflects on the escapist desires of some satellite-designers, points out how we need to take sci-fi seriously as a cultural force, and goes on to reflect on the relationship between language, thought, and politics. And the “end” of labor.

We do not yet know whether this situation 1s final But it could be that we, who are earth-bound creatures and have begun to act as though we were dwellers of the universe, will forever be unable to understand, that is, to think and speak about the things which nevertheless we are able to do In this case, it would be as though our brain, which constitutes the physical, material condition of our thoughts, were unable to follow what we do, so that from now on we would indeed need artificial machines to do our thinking and speaking If it should turn out to be true that knowledge (ın the modern sense of know-how) and thought have parted company for good, then we would indeed become the helpless slaves, not so much of our machines as of our know-how, thoughtless creatures at the mercy of every gadget which is technically possıble, no matter how murderous it Is

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C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Today's editing project, as it involves commemorative Chinese poetry about lost hairpins, has made me wonder whether anyone has written about echoes of this genre and anxieties over lost objects in modern visual media? (The transformation of commemorative poetry into silly songs?)

A cucumber with a towel wrapped around its "waist" sings, in a bathroom, "Oh where is my hairbrush?"

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C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I’m not sure that the Oxford comma, famously eschewed by much British English, is the best advertisement for “proofreading” (probably meaning copyediting) in the area around University College London, but the anti-AI angle is interesting. I wonder how many students pay for human #editing?

A paper pinned to a tree that reads

With the Oxford comma:
we invited the strippers, jfk, and stalin.
Without the Oxford comma:
we invited the strippers, jfk and stalin.
YOUR COURSEWORK NEEDS TO BE PROOFREAD CHATGPT HAS NO IDEA WHAT IT'S DOING. WHO YOU AR
OR WHAT YOU'RE STUDYING.
I'M AN ACADEMIC EDITOR WITH 10 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE HELPING UOL STUDENTS AND PHD CANDIDATES:
(WHATSAPP)
TEXT ME, I CAN HELP

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C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Today’s walk took me along Caledonian Road while listening to the audiobook pf the same name (by Andrew O’Hagan).

A white building with a sign in English that reads “Caledonian Road” on it. To the right
there is a sign that has four red Chinese characters.

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C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Here's an odd error in Google's website preview text that @aidanmcglynn.bsky.social might appreciate. To add to your "epistemic X" lists, here's an epistemic location: "The Society's events take place at Senate House, University of London - an iconic art deco building located in epistemology."

A Google website preview description for the Aristotelian Society that reads, "The Society's events take place at Senate House, University of London - an iconic art deco building located in epistemology."

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C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Stella has decided to stay under the bed in her cave, now that the weather has turned cooler.

A white-and-black cat in a “cat cave” bed underneath of a bed.

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C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Photos from #Islington #London today. Grabbed a bite and sat in Islington Green, behind the statue of Hugh Myddelton, who built the New River. And the beautiful building used to be a pub, but now is a shop (typical change for the area).

Statue of Hugh Myddelton in front of Islington Green.

Upper Street building in Islington, London. Ground floor has glazed red-brown tile and the upper stories are painted white with pink accents.

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C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Thinking I may start sharing some snaps from my exploration here in #London. Today I went to the Islington Central Library, which dates to 1906. Outside, on the old telephone booth was a fun little Bob Ross sticker.

Islington Central Library in London. Statues of Spenser and Bacon are on the front in alcoves.

A pixelated Bob Ross face on asticker, stuck to an old red British telephone box.

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C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

The article of clothing pictured is a niqab, which the author gets correct. The nitwit of a headline writer apparently was a numpty, and, being a ninny, couldn’t think of insults starting with “n.”

Metro UK article titled “lay off my burqa, you berks!” Though the photo and article are about a wan wearing a niqab.

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C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Having moved to London means more Singaporean/Malay food in my life. Today I had prata and fish curry, for the first time in a long time. Well, the stall was Malaysian, so prata was "roti canai." "Roti" is from the Sanskrit रोटिका (roṭikā), which means bread. "Canai" is maybe from a Malay word.

Roti canai and fish curry next to a cup of iced teh tarik.

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C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

With just over three days until the "London-based" in my bio is made actual, Luna's position on the couch mirrors how I feel in the face of my to-do list. Still, onward: proofs, indexing, editing, packing, and cleaning. With a little panicking squeezed in between.

Black-and-white cat curled up on a sofa. Her white paw is covering her face.

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C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Family ties versus new home. (I am team Mexico all the way. But if England goes through, getting to watch them in a pub in our new city will be fun.)

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C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

Other stair stringer is now latticed. A little paint and it will be HOA-compliant.

unpainted wood framed-in lattice under stairs

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C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

Spending one of my last quintessentially suburban Sundays here in Virginia: startling a white-tailed deer in the yard and finishing a home “improvement” project.

a deer mid-flight, turning and running. it is behind a small tree.

unpainted triangular framed-in lattice under an exterior deck stair stringer.

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C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

Amidst selling the house, moving the cats, building framed-in lattice (the joys of HOA living in the US), and all the rest, my time and mental energy is mostly directed at fiction reading or World-Cup watching, so I haven't read this one yet. But I did build an under-deck access panel.

White framed-in lattice under a deck. The frame is unpainted wood.

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