tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8972120889629675714.post2058823176229109556..comments2024-02-25T05:24:24.948-05:00Comments on Beyond Easy: Peter and the BasiliskPatrick Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02410016566636603639noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8972120889629675714.post-33398308069863226932022-12-28T17:40:38.201-05:002022-12-28T17:40:38.201-05:00I liked the reference to Althusser (I've never...I liked the reference to Althusser (I've never read Sloterdijk). If I'm recalling correctly, his break with Derrida was that while both rejected Marx's totalizing teleology, the latter was still inclined towards some form of Messianism, which he found in his metaphor of the ghost. Derrida was certainly the most revisionist of the group you dub the "umbrella of 'postmodernism'", but recently I've found myself more and more attracted to his own flavor of thought. I'd recommend Spectres of Marx to everybody I met were it not for his infuriating prose styling.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8972120889629675714.post-4824778305760944882022-08-08T01:31:59.356-04:002022-08-08T01:31:59.356-04:00Funny thing about Christianity is that of the orig...Funny thing about Christianity is that of the original 7 churches, only 1 believed in a definite endpoint of heaven or hell for one's eternal soul. That was, of course, the church in Rome. The others held a mishmash of beliefs more reminiscent of what we would today call eastern philosophy and pagan myths. It was only some 300 years later with the advent of Constantine and his subsequent conversion that the end point belief eventually claimed top spot.<br /><br />So while its often perceived that a Christian philosophy has been imposed onto the western world, it's actually the opposite; it's the Roman ethos that's been imposed onto Christianity.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8972120889629675714.post-24895439814181452032022-08-01T22:52:53.314-04:002022-08-01T22:52:53.314-04:00I’ve never understood why some think that AI would...I’ve never understood why some think that AI would be so humorless, so petty, and most of all so concerned with us. Then again, I’m also not sure why everyone points to the # of thinks/second graph and claim that this is the one that actually exponentiates forever, instead of just the first half of an S-curve.<br /><br />I don’t mean that to say we can’t get into new and exciting kinds of trouble with more computers. The past few years prove we’re inventing new troubles with just the ones we’ve got. In science fiction tradition, we were concerned about computers that could be right so much faster and ineffably than we could, but then we invented similar consequences with having computers be wrong so much faster and often than we can.<br /><br />That’s the only part I feel qualified enough to discuss. Otherwise, I agree that for a while, things will get worse. But regressing from some of the peaks we’re at now can only be a good thing.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com