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Numbcat9

@numbcat9.bsky.social

930 followers 880 following 18K posts

Posts are very ephemeral. End Conservatism With Finality (he/they)

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Numbcat9 @numbcat9.bsky.social · Aug 12

For folks who don't know me, I am a complete idiot. All of my ideas are bad. You should definitely ignore me.

And I am fully aware my heterodox opinions infuriate you.

But here's the thing: I truly don't care if my opinions infuriate you.

You should be infuriated at Trump & Biden for this, tho.

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Numbcat9 @numbcat9.bsky.social · 1m

I live in a blue state being invaded by a red state. My state is called Illinois.

We are an economic powerhouse that’s been kicked in the balls by the red states’ preferred President, who destroyed our farmers.

What benefit do I get in my blue state from being in a country with the red states?

Numbcat9 @numbcat9.bsky.social · 5m

Also when you use words like “slowly and deliberately” when you’re disagreeing with someone that generally conveys a sense of disdain and condescension that “carefully” or “thoroughly” conveys less of. I know you didn’t mean the condescension or disdain but wanted to let you know for future use.

Numbcat9 @numbcat9.bsky.social · 6m

Honest question: How do we know how humans think?

Like, we know that electrons are sent from neuron to neuron via synapse along pathways reinforced via mechanisms, and that the dendritic spines are relevant, as are glia and axon.

But we don’t know how that adds up to thinking, do we?

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Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 22h

a fully bipartisan genocide.

Jack Mirkinson @jackmirkinson.bsky.social · 1d

there was a ceasefire when trump came in. he let israel blow that up, let famine spread, let his goons murder starving people, before using the power he'd had since he took office. grotesque to call this peacemaking. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/us/politics/trump-mideast-visit-israel-gaza.html

(from the nyt obvi) With Mideast Deal, Trump Is on the Brink of a Major Diplomatic Accomplishment

For President Trump, success in brokering a cease-fire is the ultimate test of his self-described goal as a deal maker and a peacemaker.

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Numbcat9 @numbcat9.bsky.social · 8h

Get fucked. Anyone who sells to the Feds should get run out of town on a rail.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 20h

Noem: "With your authority, we're purchasing more buildings in Chicago to operate out of. We're gonna not back off -- in fact, we're doubling down. We're gonna be in more parts of Chicago in response to the people there. We're looking at facilities we can deploy more law enforcement out of."

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Numbcat9 @numbcat9.bsky.social · 8h

Important questions about her include: what was her job when the 42d MP Brigade was at Camp Bucca, “Terrorist U,” where ISIS was created? Or was she not at Bucca?

Numbcat9 @numbcat9.bsky.social · 8h

Her bio is here:

www.arnorth.army.mil/Leaders/Bio-...

www.arnorth.army.mil

Numbcat9 @numbcat9.bsky.social · 8h

Major General Niave F. Knell said that. Not “a general.”

That specific one.

It’s critically important in times like these, which is a run-up to a civil war, that the specific General Officers involved are named. Trust me on this.

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I Hate James Dobson @ihatejamesdobson.bsky.social · 13h

Seeing American fascism never feels great, but ICE raiding your neighborhood feels worse than I expected

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Quinta Jurecic @qjurecic.bsky.social · 17h

typically you don't receive play by plays of what a grand jury is doing

Anna Bower @annabower.bsky.social · 17h

Per Fox News, a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia is currently weighing whether to charge NY AG Letitia James with mortgage fraud.

Fox News & @FoxNews
X.com
BREAKING: A federal grand jury is meeting in the Eastern District of Virginia court, weighing charging NY AG Letitia James with mortgage fraud, two sources confirm to Fox News.

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Numbcat9 @numbcat9.bsky.social · 8h

For example: in the US we’re used to writing papers and taking written exams.

But in other places (and for PhDs) tests are oral.

Writing papers isn’t really relevant to an oral exam. (Ofc it is for dissertation defenses). Being able to think on one’s feet and dialogue is.

But I really don’t know.

Numbcat9 @numbcat9.bsky.social · 8h

Well that’s true, certainly.

But what I don’t know, and what isn’t really knowable without the benefit of time, is “is being able to write papers important to the functioning of the human mind.”

I think it is (I was always better at “final paper” classes in law school). But I don’t *know* that.

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Numbcat9 @numbcat9.bsky.social · 8h

The common thread seems to be that nearly anything that involves cognitive offloading is viewed with not just skepticism but open enmity.

But cognitive offloading is how we *enhance* our brains. It doesn’t hurt them. It never has. It frees up processing power for new things. As here.

Numbcat9 @numbcat9.bsky.social · 8h

In general the things that are being held out as super important for cognition almost never turn out that way.

So you can easily show that writing screws up memory. Einstein supposedly couldn’t remember his own phone number. It just turns out that’s unimportant.

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Numbcat9 @numbcat9.bsky.social · 8h

Plato’s concerns were well-founded, in a way. I doubt any of us could recite as many things from memory as any of them could.

It just turns out that being able to recite things from memory isn’t that important. The same is true of the other things.

Handwriting isn’t important at all, for example.

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Numbcat9 @numbcat9.bsky.social · 8h

The n on those studies is too low to make the sweeping generalizations they’re making.

The historical evidence of very similar claims never being borne out in 2,000 years make me very skeptical.

There’s very good reasons to oppose it, but this one sticks in my craw.

I of course am probably wrong.

Numbcat9 @numbcat9.bsky.social · 8h

Christopher Chung is a treasure. How he pulls that off…

Especially that scene where he’s parkouring around the amazing set they built, and then him and Kristen Scott Thomas have that extremely theatrical scene where it’s just dialogue and face acting… absolutely brilliant. He is a real star. ⭐️

Numbcat9 @numbcat9.bsky.social · 9h

Yeah what is with that? We send people to difficult places but because they’re there to help we don’t recognize them at all. It’s bizarre.

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Numbcat9 @numbcat9.bsky.social · 9h

This right here is 1000% where I’m on board. These evil people are abusing what is in reality kind of a spectacular advance in tech. But that tech is like a really precocious toddler, not something to bet your entire economy on.

The techbros see this new tool as one that will give them power, tho.

Numbcat9 @numbcat9.bsky.social · 9h

So why is this different this time than all those other times (writing, paper, books, the printing press, typewriters, word processors, computers, the internet, the web…)?

AI is bad because of the humans involved, not for any inherent reasons of its own. It’s just the humans.

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Numbcat9 @numbcat9.bsky.social · 9h

I’m not saying people criticizing AI are wrong. But this specific line of attack has to first acknowledge that it’s a line of attack that goes back at least 2000 years from very, very well-respected scholars. Even the smarties fall into this well of concern. But it’s never borne out.

Numbcat9 @numbcat9.bsky.social · 9h

I guess where I get confused is that this is literally the same thing that Plato and Socrates said about writing things down.

It’s a really common reaction to certain kinds of new technology but the reaction is almost always the same, and it’s almost always this exact thing: cognitive decay.

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Violet Miller @vimiller.bsky.social · 9h

When I was seated next to her during a Loyola event at the 2022 MVC tournament, she asked to use my phone to check the scores of teams she thought Loyola might face if they made it to March Madness — even mid pep rally she was determined to scout an entire tournament ahead.

RIP Sister Jean.

Sister Jean, Loyola University hoops chaplain who captured nation's heart during Cinderella run, dies at 106

Sister Jean emanated a certain love and grit that sunk into students on and off the court — and made for great TV.

chicago.suntimes.com

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Gregory Pratt @royalpratt.bsky.social · 9h

RIP Sister Jean, Loyola’s beloved icon.

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Numbcat9 @numbcat9.bsky.social · 9h

You’re going to make a great president. You’re not nearly as left as I’d like but it turns out that having principles you’re willing to fight for, abide by, and advocate for is far more important than anything else right now.

But remember we don’t need the red states at all. They did this to us.

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