iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Daniel Wise @danielswise.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

It does not take a scholar to notice the way AI dominance is being spoken into being by the very people invested in bringing about that dominance (and profiting from it). The @hbomax.bsky.social show Hacks made the observation during its final season.

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Daniel Wise @danielswise.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

Scholars like Egil Asprem and @profstorm.bsky.social have shown that modernity has been a project, not an unstoppable force in which human agency is tangential. A realtime analogy to how this played out: AI boosters' confident predictions about the coming dominance of AI in nearly every field.

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Daniel Wise @danielswise.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

I live in Austin, and it has really tickled me that after a decade (or more?) of Musk promising full autonomous driving in 6 months or next year, Waymo so decisively beat Tesla to the punch here.

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Daniel Wise @danielswise.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Shocked to see an article by an exec editor (or really any journalist) who actually knows anything about religion. For the record, it is an ancient and orthodox Christian belief that God is neither male nor female (or encompasses both as the source of all being). www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

texasmonthly.com

The Texas Senate Race's Biggest Question: Is God Male?

Republicans have pounced on an old statement as they seek to make gender politics the focus of the Senate campaign.

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Daniel Wise @danielswise.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

Thanks! It's been a while since I wrote for RD, but I'm glad to get back at it.

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Daniel Wise @danielswise.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

Are we going to ignore the part where Goldberg repeatedly highlights in his article that there was information communicated in the chat that he does not feel comfortable making public for national security reasons?

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Daniel Wise @danielswise.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

If you don't believe me, listen to the editor of one of these authors:

I'm an editor. I have a client who self-publishes YA reverse harem romance novels on Amazon. Her books are around 45k words each, and she releases 6-8 books a year. She invests a lot into her books to make them successful. She has an alpha reader, beta reader, developmental editor, copy editor (me), proofreader, cover artist, formatter, and advertising. The cost to do all of this averages at $6000 per book, but she makes and average of $80k per book. She's found a niche in this fanfiction type of market, but believe me, the books aren't good. They're rushed, everything is predictable, the characters are weak, and everything else about it's plot isn't very believable, and yet people eat it up. I'll admit, from her cover design, it looks beautiful, something that's hard to scroll past, but it ends there. She wasn't rich before and had no following. She just saved up for a long time to be able to release her first book "the right way" (her words, referring to all the aforementioned editors and such).

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Daniel Wise @danielswise.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

Numerous authors are making careers churning out astonishing numbers of novels, novellas, and short stories using writing styles and employing plots, characters, and ideas that are locked-in genre conventions. As a result, LLMs could easily replicate this writing. It is really what AI is best at.

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Daniel Wise @danielswise.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

Well, we are living in the shadow of the period when the church was generally seen as a variation of the Lions Club. And now, like the Lions Club, our churches are dwindling.

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Daniel Wise @danielswise.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

I have felt for a while I need to read some Bergson.

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Daniel Wise @danielswise.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

The MMR vaccine is a live virus vaccine, so they wouldn't give it to someone while pregnant. The second dose did not go on the childhood schedule until 1989, so I assume they would have recommended it to your parents. I can't find anything about harm from a redundant shot.

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Daniel Wise @danielswise.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

I didn't learn this until recently. Rosemary had to relearn how to walk and talk, and she had been set back so much intellectually that they had her secretly institutionalized for the rest of her life.

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Daniel Wise @danielswise.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

I am still haunted by the fact that JFK's sister Rosemary was lobotomized by their father while their mother was out of town because she had an intellectual disability and started struggling to pass in Kennedy social circles.

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Daniel Wise @danielswise.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

Friends, I very highly recommend these accessible, concise lessons from @carlbergstrom.com and Jevin D. West if you need to explain to anyone what LLMs/AI are, what their pitfalls are, and why they cannot be said to "think." Read it yourself even to be ready for these convos thebullshitmachines.com

thebullshitmachines.com

Modern-Day Oracles or Bullshit Machines: Introduction

A free online humanities course about how to learn and work and thrive in an AI world.

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Daniel Wise @danielswise.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

The Wayback Machine via Internet Archive comes in handy quite a bit. Wish they had the capacity to scrape even more.

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Daniel Wise @danielswise.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

Well, I think Homicide reflected the reality quite a bit at the time with people they often arrested. The show definitely acknowledges the fact that once someone calls a lawyer, interrogation is almost useless

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Daniel Wise @danielswise.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

It's pretty nuts. I'm imagining all the money these scholars will be out and the logistics of returning and finding housing on such short notice. Jokes on them for trusting the US gov't? It's not like trust in the US gov't to pay as promised is existentially important for the nation...

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Daniel Wise @danielswise.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

I have been watching Homicide: LotS and Brooklyn 99 recently and I'm always kind of thrown by the shows depiction of a world in which almost no one asks for a lawyer immediately

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Daniel Wise @danielswise.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

What is the presentation you are working on? And how widely accessible will it be?

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Daniel Wise @danielswise.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

A post somewhere reminded me to withdraw my critique of Parker Posey's southern accent in White Lotus. I was taken aback by her first few lines, but she kind of settled in a good place.

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Daniel Wise @danielswise.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

I always thought LP and his fans were the worst, but it rose to a new level when I heard about his performance at Woodstock 99

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Daniel Wise @danielswise.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

In spite of some commenters' insistence that the OP is to blame for not following the clear rules for healthy diet known to both nutrition professionals and the drug semaglutide, other commenters can't seem to agree on how one needs to eat to avoid the side effects.

Reply 1: I have been on 1mg for 3 weeks, I found lower carbs make the nausea go away completely. If you can, meat, cheese, salads, fruit, but fundamentally, eat less . A burger and fries will make you feel awful. Get bunless burger and salad Soon you wont crave the fries or the bun. Its really working for me, I was a burger monster!

Reply 2: My family LOVES burgers at home. Normally now I either skip all together or take a much smaller patty straight, on a plate, with a little ketchup. Slow, well chewed bites have gone well when I was at 1mg.

Reply 1: For me, carbs have mostly been all I have been able to eat. I am only 6 weeks in and have been on .5mg the whole time. It has only been the past few days that I have been able to add in a small amount of meat.

Reply 2: Yeah other people told me the same, I am the other way round. Cutting out the carbs has made the nausea and lower tummy issues go away completely. I just do low carb fruit and veg (well low fodmap which weirdly seems to help), eg blueberries, apples, bananas, avocado, cabbage, carrots, green beans, peppers, courgette, Lettice, cauliflower, small amounts of onion, leeks, tomatoes, eggs, cheese, cream, high fat Greek yoghurt, meat (all of it chicken, beef, lamb, pork, venison), fish, olive oil, ground nut oil, butter, beef dripping/tallow. Small amounts of spuds.

I feel 10000% times better and losing 200-300grams a day. Better concentration, no mid afternoon naps, more energy, better sleep. No nausea or bad tummy. My food tastes netter, I savour it more.

I really miss mushrooms, beans, lentils, I'd like to eat more spuds but they fill me up too fast and leave no room for anything else. But maybe when I am at GW I can eat more of these.

I don't miss broccoli..

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Daniel Wise @danielswise.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

Here a commenter blames the well-recognized and common side effects on users refusing to accept the discipline of the drug. It is not the drug itself, it is the insolent patient.

Ozempic is a tool to help you make changes to what you eat. It doesn't do that for you.

90% of the side effects reported are because of incompatible diets.

High protein and fiber are key to a healthy diet, which means lean protein and vegetables. Burger fries and Indian takeout are off the menu unfortunately, there isn't an ounce of fiber in those meals.

Try and see a nutritionist, they can really help you understand how to choose combinations of food that are satisfying. Ozempic is a waste without investing an equal part in diet and exercise.

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Daniel Wise @danielswise.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

Check out some of the bizarre responses. For these users of the drug, semaglutide is not simply a drug that increases a gut hormone, but a drug that somehow disciplines the body into following guidelines for healthy eating. The drug seems to "know" when you are not eating healthy.

Reply 1: I don’t think your body is rejecting the ozempic, I think it’s telling you to stop eating fatty/greasy foods.

Reply 2: Yea this drug needs to be paired with a healthy diet.

One half of your plate should be vegetables.

One quarter of your plate needs carbs (think rice or fruit)

One quarter of your plate needs protein.

Don’t expect the drug to do the work for you. It just helps the work be a tad easier

Reply 3:
It’s the food you are eating - seriously

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Daniel Wise @danielswise.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

Here we have someone who has just increased their dose of semaglutide who is experiencing severe symptoms whenever they go out from time to time and try to have an indulgent meal with family

1mg is Killing Me
Question
Been on Ozempic for about 6 months now and recently made it up to 1mg after stalling at .5 for a while. Can I just never eat food outside the home again? Last weekend I had some Indian food; cut to 3 days of burps, diarrhea and finally vomiting. Tonight I took my son out and I had half a burger and 4 fries. I just finished vomiting into the garbage can after being woken up from stomach pains.

I never had these types of symptoms on the lower dosage, is my body just rejecting this amount?

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Daniel Wise @danielswise.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

Sorry, was reformulating my clunky post. Thank you for this. I'm trying to decide where to go with adult formation on Sunday mornings. Eucharistic solidarity is very pressing for us right now.

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Daniel Wise @danielswise.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

It came to mind for me reading about NT scholar Matt Thiessen's work on the gospels in his book Jesus and the Forces of Death. Though I see understandings of the incarnation as God identifying with the human experience everywhere, I had not personally encountered the language of "solidarity"

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Daniel Wise @danielswise.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

It seems that the concept of solidarity could be applied to the Incarnation and atonement. The Incarnation and crucifixion are radical acts of solidarity with the lowly, and we are saved by our own solidarity, being unified with Christ's death in baptism and then rising with him.

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Daniel Wise @danielswise.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

See, this seems like it could be a problem, at least in the eyes of the Jedi. Someone who just walks away from Jedi authority who is free to act with the dangerous tools of the Jedi.

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Daniel Wise @danielswise.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

Your insight makes me think of the specific form of love the Gospel promotes. It's simply natural to love those who love you. And love limited to one's own family and people is often the root of brutality. The call to love your enemies and the outsider it the truly distinct teaching.

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Daniel Wise @danielswise.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

Nerd question: Star Wars isn't really my thing, but is there, in canon or former canon, discussion of how the Jedi handle ex-Jedi or other people strong in the force who are not governed by Jedi discipline? It seems like this might be a concern, sort of like it was for the Aes Sedai in Wheel of Time

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Daniel Wise @danielswise.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

H/t to @ryanburge.bsky.social for pointing this out to me a while back

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Daniel Wise @danielswise.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

Many will forecast and celebrate a cultural reversal in reaction to recent survey data, but it is just as likely that the decline will continue after this pause, due to the effects of generational replacement. www.pewresearch.org/religion/202...

pewresearch.org

Decline of Christianity in the U.S. Has Slowed, May Have Leveled Off

After years of decline, the U.S. Christian share now shows signs of leveling off. The new Religious Landscape Study explores trends in identity, beliefs and practices. Pew Research Center.

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Daniel Wise @danielswise.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

To clarify, ex-evangelicals in TEC often react to their upbringing in specific ways not understood by cradle TEC, but for decades TEC has made not being one of "those Christians" a central identity market

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Daniel Wise @danielswise.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

Former evangelical reaction is a strong force among many people in TEC, but in some ways our entire denomination has been driven by anti-evang reaction since rise of Religious Right and maybe even the fundamentalist-modernist controversy

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Daniel Wise @danielswise.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

Well, I think for a long time people tended to think vaccines meant no symptomatic disease, which is almost never true. I feel comfortable with the CDC guidelines in this particular case, which only recommends new adult doses in certain circumstances.

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Daniel Wise @danielswise.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

Didn't expect to be texting my mother at the age of 36 to just double check she stuck to the US vaccine schedule (I know she did) because a mostly eradicated childhood disease has reached San Antonio and is moving up the I-35 corridor, but here we are.

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Daniel Wise @danielswise.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

In other good news, the Supreme Court refused to hear a case by anti-abortion activists who argue protest buffer zones outside of abortion clinics violate their free speech.

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Daniel Wise @danielswise.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

Yes, that is the point I was trying to get across. An historian cannot tell me as a Xian where to draw my boundaries.

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Daniel Wise @danielswise.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

I would describe the issue as competing discourses. As a scholar of US religion, I would not say the nationalists are not real Xians/bad Xians. As a Xian, I absolutely do. That is not inconsistent

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Reposted by Daniel Wise

KidzBoptotenlieder @theodramatist.com · 22/02/2025

One thing I’m seeing *a lot* more is this attempt, I think largely by people on the left, to try to keep Christians who oppose Christian nationalism and Christofascism from being able to decouple those movements from Christianity. This is… frustrating.

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