iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Eric Linus Kaplan @ericlinuskaplan.bsky.social · 1h

isn't Alito the cat who takes 100K fishing trips from people with case before him? Should he really be writing books?

Eric Linus Kaplan @ericlinuskaplan.bsky.social · 10h

do y'all feel the Crisis of the Third Century could have been averted by some wise statesmanship or is that just "happy talk"?

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Eric Linus Kaplan @ericlinuskaplan.bsky.social · 10h

Pescennius Niger really didn't get a chance to get control of gas prices

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Eric Linus Kaplan @ericlinuskaplan.bsky.social · 14h

I thought you meant the actual empire!

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Eric Linus Kaplan @ericlinuskaplan.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Everything I Ever Needed to Know About Sucking Algae Off of Glass I Learned From My Plecostomus

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Eric Linus Kaplan @ericlinuskaplan.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

were the confederate states of america an independent moral agent? was each individual state? is Chipotle? how would we know? should we start treating Chipotle as an independent moral agent now, just in case? Just asking!

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Eric Linus Kaplan @ericlinuskaplan.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Nothing forbids our pleasure except savage and sad superstition- Spinoza

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Eric Linus Kaplan @ericlinuskaplan.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

listening to Steely Dan = turning the whole earth into your hospice, making existence so close to death that the final moment won't even be noticed as a change of state?

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Eric Linus Kaplan @ericlinuskaplan.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I think the problem isn't the character limit, it's that people don't know each other, so they often get defensive and then start being mean to each other

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Eric Linus Kaplan @ericlinuskaplan.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

you could just try -- it's cool -- when people reach out in whatever format and are interested in being reached out to -- some vulnerable communication and even intimacy can happen

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Eric Linus Kaplan @ericlinuskaplan.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I don't know that the gradual universe has no thou. I can feel addressed by it and take myself to be addressed by it. Like in sequoia national park or at the ocean or looking up at the stars. It feels like wow. This cannot be ignored. This requires reverence and care from me.

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Eric Linus Kaplan @ericlinuskaplan.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

do you like I and Thou by Martin Buber?

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Eric Linus Kaplan @ericlinuskaplan.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

why should the Great Mystery make us in one fell swoop rather than over millions of years? Why would being made gradually make us one whit less special or important?

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Eric Linus Kaplan @ericlinuskaplan.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

great reporting1 (also Deborarh Harris is a group, not a girl!)

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Eric Linus Kaplan @ericlinuskaplan.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Copernicus only shows us we are unimportant if you believe that it is important to be living on a physically large and centrally located object. But why think either is correlated with importance?

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Eric Linus Kaplan @ericlinuskaplan.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

yes! that's a great way of putting it.

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Eric Linus Kaplan @ericlinuskaplan.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I find the whole question of consciousness to be confused and windy, so it is knocking down a straw man to say you don't need to be conscious to think. cause nobody has a good idea what consciousness is or why it matters. it's a philosophical dead end.

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Eric Linus Kaplan @ericlinuskaplan.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

ah ok. makes sense. sorry to hear that about Proudhon.

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Eric Linus Kaplan @ericlinuskaplan.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

that's interesting. what is the upshot for contemporary politics in the US?

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Eric Linus Kaplan @ericlinuskaplan.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

a mistake to yoke this debate to the confused windy discussions of consciousness. AI isn't a mind because it doesn't have a history a body a society or anything it cares about. AI is a sophisticated search engine. People who say otherwise are motivated by $ or useful idiots.

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Eric Linus Kaplan @ericlinuskaplan.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

i don't know what it is but it says it is obscur, so if you knew what was going on it would seem to be misrepresenting itself

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Eric Linus Kaplan @ericlinuskaplan.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

wow I wonder if there is any relevant difference between the political leadership provided by an ER doctor as compared to that provided by a felonious game show host...

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Eric Linus Kaplan @ericlinuskaplan.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

2034. The former Groypers are getting out of the rehabilitation centers outside Fairbanks, Alaska. They take hesitant steps into a new world. A reporter asks one - in the old days you used to be a senator? A president? "None of that matters." says the man. "I'm a human being."

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Eric Linus Kaplan @ericlinuskaplan.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

he's a deeply troubled weirdo, as was evident to us all in nyc in the 80s. i think the eccentric move was electing him to office.

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Eric Linus Kaplan @ericlinuskaplan.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

oh my friend, unintentionally funny does not count.

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Eric Linus Kaplan @ericlinuskaplan.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Tickled is a really prescient documentary as it describes how a rich bullying weirdo can keep offending with impunity by intimidating the press and employing immoral fixers.

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Eric Linus Kaplan @ericlinuskaplan.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

but if you're describing boustrophedontic writing at a casual get together, what choice do you have?

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Eric Linus Kaplan @ericlinuskaplan.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Senator Klobuchar - I am glad you are willing to talk with these creepy characters so we don't have to!

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Eric Linus Kaplan @ericlinuskaplan.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

working on a connections: term, diaper, fries, gun

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Eric Linus Kaplan @ericlinuskaplan.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

is it genuine assholery -- i.e. would they be like that IRL -- or is it a culture of trying to seem cool on the internet?

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Eric Linus Kaplan @ericlinuskaplan.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I can misread stuff and force it into my previous preconceptions pretty damn fast -- will that help?

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Eric Linus Kaplan @ericlinuskaplan.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Skeeper the Dog. He's not a dog. & he's not named "Skeeper". Coming soon to a screen near you!

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Eric Linus Kaplan @ericlinuskaplan.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

when they make public statements they should be required to back them up with money. "We bet you $100 million dollars that we don't make money off of compulsive gamblers -- and if you can prove we do before an impartial panel we will give you that money."

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Eric Linus Kaplan @ericlinuskaplan.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

anybody want to do a zoom chat this evening?

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