iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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

I keep my clients' identities confidential, so I can't say more about this project, which is a shame, because I'm learning a lot! I can say that I enjoy how the text, which engages with Chinese literature, also engages with Chinese philosophy. It makes me wish I had more lifetimes for reading.

010

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

Annoyingly, now I have the song stuck in my head. Apologies if you do, too.

000

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?"

120

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

The title buries the lede. The word is not “annoying,” it’s “unsafe.” After laying out security risks, the author describes their reason for uninstalling Muse: “The fear won out.” Why not “prudence” or “rationality”? Odd framing that sets tech adoption as the norm. www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic...

bbc.co.uk

'Things may get ugly': Meta's new AI Muse is about to make the internet more annoying

Someday we'll redesign the internet for tools like this. Until then, you're in for a wild ride.

000

Reposted by C. Malcolm Keating

Benjamin Dreyer @bcdreyer.social · 01/10/2026

For me, the act of writing is how I learn what I’m writing about. I don’t know why people want to outsource that.*

627934

C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

“Yeah, you all right?” is the proper reply, though precisely how to manage it casually is a challenge. I have, on the other hand, a natural vocabulary full of “sorry,” though a few weeks ago, a French woman who I bumped into retorted, “Are you really?” 🤔

010

C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I just managed my first “you all right?” reply to someone else’s, and apparently did it well enough, as it opened up a brief conversation at the till. Eventually, this greeting will sound just like “how are you?” but, to my American ears, it still strikes me as if I look hurt or upset.

130

C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

One sign of settling into a place: It’s possible to absent-mindedly and very tiredly manage a late-night bus ride home with the stops only slightly registering in one’s consciousness.

011

C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The author gets close to recognizing this in one paragraph ("Gone are the days of the monoculture radio hit") but seems to think the natural, default setting of life is her personal algorithm. The rest of us have "design[ed] a curated world" that's somehow built around avoiding country music.

010

C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Academics and academic #editors: I'm trying RefRunner for checking citations. Use my link to try it free and we'll both get a free month: hub.refrunner.com/invites/XuSo...

hub.refrunner.com

RefRunner Hub

Helping you get RefRunner to work for you

010

C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I'm sure the historians and philologists on here know more about the unit of measurement and its name, but this was one of the delightful rabbit holes I allowed myself to fall into while #editing today.

000

C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

It is a unit of measurement by weight, though what precise weight varied by region. And maybe (according to this South China Morning Post article), the word came to Portuguese by way of Malay (tahil) by way of Hindi (tolā) by way of Sanskrit (tulā). www.scmp.com/magazines/po...

scmp.com

Language Matters | How catty and tael became part of the English lexicon

Measures of weight taken from Malay and Javanese and in wide use in East Asia were adopted by early European settlers and passed into English, giving the language caddy – a box for holding tea

110

C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Today I discovered that "tael" is in Merriam-Webster (while copyediting an academic book on Chinese literature). So, it should not be italicized, since it's a loanword. But it's not originally Chinese. It's borrowed from from Portugese and the OED has it first attested in 1588. What is a tael?

120

C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Missed my one day of visibility yesterday, oops.

000

Reposted by C. Malcolm Keating

Carolyn Dicey Jennings @cdj.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

AP is on it!

1113

C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

So, mea culpa. Apparently the hubbub was well-grounded and this person was using “metaphysical” in a confused way. I will return to my usual silence about current issues online.

110

C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I don’t know if I saw your posts—I saw some meme-y kind of things. This is why I shouldn’t weigh in on “Discourse.”

010

C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Then I am even more confused about who this guy is and why his views are important! 🤣

100

C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Thanks for clarifying—That is weird, then. I just saw a couple of screenshots and assumed, which I shouldn’t have. So he doesn’t understand what the word means, it sounds like?

110

Reposted by C. Malcolm Keating

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.

131

C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I also have no clue who this person is or why anyone should care what he thinks, so I am slightly irritated that there is so much dissecting of his use of this word.

110

C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

So I get that philosophers use the word “metaphysical” in a way that doesn’t mean “supernatural,” but the hubbub and (apparently genuine) confusion about someone apparently using it that way, which is the second entry in Merriam-Webster, is weird to me.

200

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

I will not wade into debates over the Oxford comma. However, it is much more common in American English. Many British style guides are explicitly against its use.

000

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

For the record: Proofreading is checking a typeset document for issues after a copyedit has resolved grammar, punctuation, clarity, and conformity to style. Most students writing papers, theses, or dissertations need copyediting.

100

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

120

Reposted by C. Malcolm Keating

Aristotelian Society @aristotsoc.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

The Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society returns next Monday! Incoming President Alexander Bird (Cambridge) will deliver the 119th Inaugural Address, 'Against Empiricism'. ⏰ 18:15–19:45, Monday 28th September 📍 The Chancellors Hall, Senate House 🔗 www.aristoteliansociety.org.uk/the-proceedi...

aristoteliansociety.org.uk

119th Inaugural Address: Alexander Bird – The Aristotelian Society

0107

C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Thanks, I had just, finally, gotten it out of my head this afternoon!

010

C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I really thought this LinkedIn post was satire. It’s not. This app includes an #editorial review (sic) stage, and it promises that you can monetize your slop on the podcast platform. Surely it is the company who stands to benefit from both the new users and new training data they bring.

110

Reposted by C. Malcolm Keating

Yale Classics Library @yaleclassicslib.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Deciphering the Hidden Meaning: Language and the Highest Good in Early Advaita Vedānta / by Aleksandar Uskokov (Oxford University Press, 2026) @yale.edu academic.oup.com/book/63341?s... #openaccess

012

C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

The first sentence of this article begs the fundamental question. Where is the evidence that these models are actually *communicating* with a *language*? They appear to be *coordinating* by producing linguistic tokens. These are not the same thing. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

theguardian.com

AI models chatting in ‘surreal’ dialect mixing poetic language and tech bro jargon

Experts air concern over AI lingo redolent of James Joyce’s prose that is creating barriers to monitoring and oversight

030

Reposted by C. Malcolm Keating

Charlotte Meijer @chrmeijer.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

"AI flattens the historical record by relying on the most popular sources, eliminating minority voices" www.hnn.us/article/ai-i...

hnn.us

AI Is an Anti-Primary Source Machine

Real voices from the past are threatened by chatbots designed to amplify — and ultimately become — the loudest voices in the room.

02416

Reposted by C. Malcolm Keating

Aristotelian Society @aristotsoc.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

We have a vacancy on our Executive Committee, and we are still welcoming expressions of interest. But not for long! Deadline: Friday 18th September 2026. Further details: aristoteliansociety.org.uk/about/announ....

033

C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I mean, I'd probably say, "May I have an [x], please?" but I don't see that "get" is odd unless I were to ask if I could "go get" it.

000

C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Just encountered the idea that "Can I get an [x], please?" is rude in Britain and that, furthermore, it is the server that does the getting. You, the customer, are doing the having. But it seems like "get" means "obtain" in British English, too? dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/e...

dictionary.cambridge.org

get

1. to obtain, buy, or earn something: 2. to receive or be given something: 3…

100

C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

*reducible to a relation among _presently_ existing things. Your vartamāna point.

021

C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

So, i'm wondering how to make sense of this. Is something's being dharma reducible to a relation among existing things (agents, desires, objects)? Is there some imperceptible but real quality of the world that amounts to a thing's "to-be-done-ness," like some think a Stoic lekton has?

131

C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

This is exactly what I'm puzzling over. And, restricting discussion to Kumārila's text, I am thinking of CDS 13–14. Dharma is definitely not perceptible. But substances, actions, and qualities are dharma, not in their ordinary perceptible nature but "as a means to accomplish the highest goal."

111

C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Would something’s being *a thing that is to be done* be excluded from being bāhyārtha in your view? (This seems connected to what the truthmakers are for injunctions, so I am curious given your work in this area. Is there to-be-done-ness in the world thar we can cognise?)

111

C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I am thinking about its use in the nirālambanavāda, which is where it appears most often. It seems to be a term used in relation to cognitions (buddhi, jñāna, etc.) So yes, subject-independent, but I am not sure about “siddha.” How do you understand siddha here? (ctd)

111

C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Dharma is not simply the physical elements of a ritual or even its actions, but their being able to result in what's good. But this is something that is knowable through the Veda. (codanāsūtra 13–14) So, I'd say "bāhyārtha" doesn't just mean external physical or perceptible object. Thoughts?

131

C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

If all cognitions have contents (viṣaya) that are external objects (bāhyārtha), in the sense of being external to the cognition, and if dharma is knowable, then I would think it is an external object in this sense. (ŚV, ākṛtivāda 8)

132

C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I am shamelessly stealing “creepy little liar bot.”

010

C. Malcolm Keating @cmalcolmkeating.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

"Rarity is really just an inventory problem. If there is only one copy left, the efficient move is to make it infinitely reproducible and immediately unavailable to anyone without a subscription." www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/im-...

mcsweeneys.net

I’m the Guy Who Destroys Antique Books After We Scan Them into Our Company’s Insatiable AI Platform

“One minute, they are a treasured record of human thought. The next, they are twelve searchable megabytes and a manageable quantity of mixed paper strips goi...

011