iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Yeah, that takes the cake. More people need more experience with lying psychopaths, apparently. While not exactly the same, at least you can drop the unblinking faith in what is being said with an appropriate level of disbelief.

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Most of the debate I've seen regarding AI anthropomorphism (people referring to a talking computer as a person) does not include the inverse situation where the computer communicates as if it were a human. This is the much bigger side of the problem, and they are not separable.

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Robert Bigg @robertbigg.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

The Mother of All Paradox gets around. The excluded middle is never as likely as people first believe. #reductionism #MOAP #1&M

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Reposted by mj

“For a gov’t borrowing in its own currency, the…domestic constraint is the availability of productive resources & the possibility of inflation, not an arbitrary debt-to-GDP ratio…What refuses to die is the belief that prosperity can be restored by governments spending less. The zombie is austerity!”

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Unless you believe that stupidity didn't exist before covid, or that nothing else in modern life has contributed to intellectual decline, then yes, we do agree. Is that a problem? //

MU-Peter Shimon 🀄 @mu-peter.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Sounds like we're in agreement then.

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Reposted by mj

Physics and biology, irrevocably joined at the hip, yet intrinsically incompatible. We can explain solids, liquids, and gases — but how nonliving matter self-assembles into life remains one of science’s great mysteries. Is Life Itself a State of Matter?🧪 thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/is-life-itse...

thereader.mitpress.mit.edu

Is Life Itself a State of Matter?

We can explain solids, liquids, and gases — but how nonliving matter self-assembles into life remains one of science’s great mysteries.

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mj @malthusjohn.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

"The Quartz abides." New hot quote for the books. Right up there with "May the Quartz be with you."

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mj @malthusjohn.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Is this how they created the new flavorless, crunchy, fibrous tomatoes? #flavor_before_profit

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mj @malthusjohn.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Anyone who has aged can confirm this.

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Why would you fantasize knowing what I've studied? There's nothing you can show to disprove what I said. But I'm sure you have many more bad assertions you'll post for others to read. (I won't be seeing anymore of them.)

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That's another trope itself. Every generation & era considers itself much smarter than previous ones too, kinda hard to square those opposing views. The resolution is that knowledge is relational & relative. The questions deemed important then are not now, etc. These views are not exclusionary.

And the digital revolution, entropy, complexity, bad ideology (religion, nationalism..), etc, etc. Again, this was happening long before covid, so that is not the only driver.

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Definitely. And the logosyllabic languages of China & Babylon surely had much 'lost in translation' into more modern-stlye languages & alphabets. (number systems too!) Instruments had a much better chance of surviving across time & cultural exchanges than rare, written texts.

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Some related bits in this thread, if you're interested: bsky.app/profile/malt...

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Alasdair Craig @alasdaircraig.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

It goes back 1000s of years before that as well, with obviously less surviving documentation. What is often attributed to ancient Greek (Pythagoras) origins was that culture trying to understand how much older civilizations had already accomplished a functional practice of music (but lost theory).

220

Reposted by mj

The universe seems fine-tuned for life, leading to arguments for an infinite multiverse. But physicist Jeff Shainline argues today that the universe also seems fine-tuned for technology, & this points towards a radically different sort of explanation for fine-tuning #philsci iai.tv/articles/the...

iai.tv

The universe is fine-tuned for technology, not just life

<p><em>The universe seems to be fine-tuned for life. Were nature’s constants even slightly different, life wouldn’t exist. To explain this, scientists reach for bizarre ideas, like an infinite multive...

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Eamon Duede @eduede.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Silvia De Toffoli and I wrote a guest article for Terence Tao's blog in response to the recent AI Navier-Stokes result. We argue that the 'AI has "solved" mathematics' idea rests on two assumptions, both seductive & plausible, but both wrong. #philsci #AI #math terrytao.wordpress.com/2026/09/12/a...

terrytao.wordpress.com

After Math

[This is a guest post by Silvia De Toffoli and Eamon Duede. This blog post was initially written in a different file format and converted using AI. — T.] Silvia De Toffoli (University School …

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Reposted by mj

Will Thomas @williamthomas.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

In today's AIP History Weekly Edition, Jon Phillips @jowiph.bsky.social looks at a new article by Alex Blum and Arnab Rai Choudhuri presenting the early history of magnetohydrodynamics. Theorists struggled for years to get a grip on MHD theory before it became the go-to tool for explaining the Sun.

aip.org

Article spotlight: Blum and Choudhuri on magnetohydrodynamics

AIP History Weekly Edition: September 25, 2026

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It seems like "follow the money" points to who were the earliest actual customers (not the intended)? Social media & internet comments were 1st dom'd by shills & trolls. Automating their actions was a golden goose for Govs & Corps looking to mislead & cash in on the masses now assembled in 1 place.

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But a better magician does not mean magic is now real, it means the misdirect is more sophisticated & efficient. Books & newspapers have been "telling us" stuff for a very long time. It's clear that they are only mediums of communication. Computer screens are no different. Even w/ high numbers IN.

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Springer Nature @springernature.com · 17/09/2026

I think of the computer as I do w/ any other tool / invention that we have to help us do things, including reasoning & such. Interaction vs substrate seems pretty obvious (now). The UI evolution into using human language in it's normal form eliminated the clunky tell of an algorithmic machine.

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Reposted by mj

A detailed structural analysis of Roman Empire’s entire road network is shared in @natcomms.nature.com, covering topographical information from nearly 300,000 km of roads. Findings highlight long-term effects of Roman roads on modern towns & transportation systems: spklr.io/63327ETj5b 🏺 🧪

spklr.io

Network science reveals the structure and lasting impact of the Roman road system - Nature Communications

A spatial analysis of nearly 300,000 km of Roman roads reveals they favoured straight routes when topography allowed, established provincial capitals as key transport hubs, and Roman roads correlate with major modern roads.

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What was your answer to this question? Setting aside the problems & accepting it's an intelligent alien life form, why wouldn't anyone (other than those few "only homo sapiens can ___") think they have agency, goals, reasoning, etc?

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With the caveat that the dog came from Dog Farm, Inc. where sheep are their main food source. Jokes aside, the dog scenario does not avoid liability. The legal system will decide the outcomes on a lot of this in the near future.

This connects to very long-standing debate & lack of consensus around consciousness, intelligence, agency, etc. outside of human contexts (plants, animals, etc.) I don't think that binary thinking is helpful here, but that's the default mode of human thought. Liability will likely be the key here.

Any such question about people always gets a yes. Probabilities of 8 billion people.. I'm sure, in your example, many would question (rightly so) that there was an actual alien on the other end. Confirmation would be needed, etc. I don't know what % of people would hold 'human only' as critical.

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It would be helpful if concerned people start to offer up translations of these kinds of statements in the media (which is mostly marketing). This may include having to come up w/ some new words, but most probably already exist. The trick is to make it concise or people's laziness will still win.

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