iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Again: Koko didn’t know sign language. It was a hoax, and the scientific community largely just looked away because it was good PR.

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Rob Shearer @r.v.cx · 14h

It took a few minutes (for me, at least) to parse the category-theory formulation. “Yes; I believe that’s an implication of my work. Is it significant?” “I don’t know. It seems significant. Maybe it’s trivial. It’s hard to tell with category theory. We can move on.” JFC, dude.

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Rob Shearer @r.v.cx · 14h

The thesis defense thing was amusing, because he took one of my theorems, recast it in category theory, and then said “this seems like quite a powerful assertion! You really think that’s true??” and I was terrified.

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Rob Shearer @r.v.cx · 14h

I have had multiple run-ins with category theorists. Including, notably, an examiner at my thesis defense. On every single occasion it took lengthy discussion to arrive at the conclusion that category theory served only to complicate and confuse concepts that were trivial within a specific domain.

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Rob Shearer @r.v.cx · 16h

Patriotism. Is. An. Ideology.

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Rob Shearer @r.v.cx · 18h

Also: if Dems take the Senate (🤞) there is now ZERO chance Trump could get a SCOTUS nominee seated. That system was already in danger, but it’s now completely dead.

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Rob Shearer @r.v.cx · 18h

It can’t be stressed enough that two years ago a drastic reorganization of SCOTUS was a nutso fantasy. It’s now a consensus Dem priority for 2029. Roberts did that.

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Rob Shearer @r.v.cx · 19h

Imagine if, instead of a block button, social media had a “blow them up” button. Tell me who’s more likely to push that button: the sane people or the crazy ones?

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Rob Shearer @r.v.cx · 19h

You mean “just enough revenue”. Profits are nowhere in sight.

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Rob Shearer @r.v.cx · 19h

Giffen goods indicate a TERRIBLE economy!

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Rob Shearer @r.v.cx · 20h

But (closer to my own field) claiming humans are good at logic is like saying they’re good at arithmetic. Computers absolutely demolished any standard of “good” that left humans in the picture. Arithmetic and logic are utterly unnatural to humans; what’s impressive is that we can do them at all.

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Rob Shearer @r.v.cx · 20h

This is such a pervasive theme of cognitive science it’s hard to pick one. The Wason selection task is the famous example of humans failing at trivial logic. More discursively, political arguments about juries consistently highlight that following trains of logic is a specialized skill.

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Rob Shearer @r.v.cx · 20h

My sound-bite model of “consciousness” is that we have a cognitive organ that tries to model others’ psychology to predict what they’ll do. Self-narrative is just this organ confabulating explanations for our own behavior.

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Rob Shearer @r.v.cx · 21h

(They’ve reached the point at which whether LLM-based agents can “reason” is at the very least arguable. But this has pretty much no philosophical implications, because GOFAI outpaced humans at logical deduction 50+ years ago.)

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Rob Shearer @r.v.cx · 21h

I get the temptation. But the guy’s a brick wall. You won’t get anywhere. bsky.app/profile/r.v....

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Rob Shearer @r.v.cx · 21h

Drs Dunning and Kruger would like a word.

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Rob Shearer @r.v.cx · 21h

Let’s add linguistics to the list of things this assclown doesn’t know anything about.

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Rob Shearer @r.v.cx · 22h

The Denver Post just informed me that I’m “outside their coverage area”, so nothing that happens near me counts as news.

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Rob Shearer @r.v.cx · 22h

bsky.app/profile/boxo...

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Rob Shearer @r.v.cx · 22h

I don’t think I’ve ever before played the card, but in the past week at least three times I’ve had to reply to “you’re just not educated enough to follow my argument” with “I have a doctorate in automated reasoning. You learned everything you know about the topic in the last two days from Bluesky.”

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Rob Shearer @r.v.cx · 22h

It is amazing how many Blueskyers are arguing about whether LLMs “reason” in complete ignorance of a full century of cognitive science. We used to think the defining feature of human cognition was systemic logic. It turns out humans are terrible at systemic logic. (GOFAI is *great* at logic.)

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Rob Shearer @r.v.cx · 30/09/2026

We are SO CLOSE to this guy bragging that his job is to de-fraud the American public.

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Rob Shearer @r.v.cx · 30/09/2026

Definitely a Benchmade (the butterfly logo; next time you need to ID a knife get a snap with the blade open); I don’t think they make that exact model any more. But an equivalent would probably be the Triage—TSA just got themselves a $450 knife! www.benchmade.com/products/917...

benchmade.com

Auto Triage® Black Aluminum – Automatic Tactical Knife | Benchmade

Be ready when seconds count. The 9170SBK Auto Triage® features rapid AXIS® automatic opening, a safety hook, and a glass breaker. Enjoy free shipping, lifetime service & warranty.

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Rob Shearer @r.v.cx · 30/09/2026

My nephew read Project Hail Mary at 10. 🤷

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Rob Shearer @r.v.cx · 29/09/2026

Substance aside (and I would argue the substance) I was really just talking about the vibe among Americans.

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Rob Shearer @r.v.cx · 29/09/2026

(In terms of perceptions, the comparison wasn't to European contributions, which were at the time seen as close partners of and dependent on the US, but to China's Sinopharm vaccine. Which was pretty terrible in comparison to the mRNA formulations.)

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Rob Shearer @r.v.cx · 29/09/2026

The AZ vaccine was *vastly* inferior for global deployment because it required a cold chain—a huge logistical challenge in the developing world. But that isn't the point. The vibes in the US were that the global system anchored by the US stepped up to an external challenge. Today? Not so much.

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Rob Shearer @r.v.cx · 29/09/2026

That's extremely tendentious. Pfizer is an American company, and the vaccine trials were fast-tracked (in the extreme) even if Pfizer didn't take Warp Speed funding. It was absolutely a validation of the American private-enterprise approach to health treatment development.

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