C.T. Cooper
@ctc3d.bsky.social
Computational forester, data munger.
Doomsplaining -- 5¢
Subclinical not otherwise specified.
ctcooper3.substack.com
"Nor shall any person ... be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law"
Doomsplaining -- 5¢
Subclinical not otherwise specified.
ctcooper3.substack.com
"Nor shall any person ... be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law"
Pinned
C.T. Cooper
@ctc3d.bsky.social
· Feb 9
Years and years ago I started work on a book about totalitarianism. It had been provoked by reading Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism during my lunch breaks at AOL, around the time when they believed they had acquired Time-Warner.
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Also Watched last night:
Don't Worry Darling
Reality-isn't-real with gaslight characteristics is *not* my favorite trope pile and less thriller would be better. But a drinky Stepford where the wives are duped but also enthusiastic partiers -- that's kind of interesting.
Don't Worry Darling
Reality-isn't-real with gaslight characteristics is *not* my favorite trope pile and less thriller would be better. But a drinky Stepford where the wives are duped but also enthusiastic partiers -- that's kind of interesting.
December 27, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Also Watched last night:
Don't Worry Darling
Reality-isn't-real with gaslight characteristics is *not* my favorite trope pile and less thriller would be better. But a drinky Stepford where the wives are duped but also enthusiastic partiers -- that's kind of interesting.
Don't Worry Darling
Reality-isn't-real with gaslight characteristics is *not* my favorite trope pile and less thriller would be better. But a drinky Stepford where the wives are duped but also enthusiastic partiers -- that's kind of interesting.
Watched last night: Safe; disliked it almost as much as I did in '95, but now with more structure. Carol is both written and played as a zombie. That was intentional, but zombies are *already dead*.
December 27, 2025 at 4:16 PM
Watched last night: Safe; disliked it almost as much as I did in '95, but now with more structure. Carol is both written and played as a zombie. That was intentional, but zombies are *already dead*.
Morning #earworm has resumed;
No more laughing no more fun.
A few bars of generic blues progression, I think from the Ornette Coleman CD I keep in the car for intolerable-radio emergencies.
No more laughing no more fun.
A few bars of generic blues progression, I think from the Ornette Coleman CD I keep in the car for intolerable-radio emergencies.
December 27, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Morning #earworm has resumed;
No more laughing no more fun.
A few bars of generic blues progression, I think from the Ornette Coleman CD I keep in the car for intolerable-radio emergencies.
No more laughing no more fun.
A few bars of generic blues progression, I think from the Ornette Coleman CD I keep in the car for intolerable-radio emergencies.
Death to the stunt alcohols insect that preys on the life of the people!
December 27, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Death to the stunt alcohols insect that preys on the life of the people!
Name your favorite film that nobody else knows about.
Alyonka. It's the second-best of all movies.
Alyonka. It's the second-best of all movies.
December 27, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Name your favorite film that nobody else knows about.
Alyonka. It's the second-best of all movies.
Alyonka. It's the second-best of all movies.
Watched last night: Glass Onion, to try and see what we weren't getting about Wake Up Dead Man. Also rejected. Less interesting than Agatha Christie (whom I consider not interesting) and I haven't heard an accent as bad as Craig's since Silence Of The Lambs.
December 23, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Watched last night: Glass Onion, to try and see what we weren't getting about Wake Up Dead Man. Also rejected. Less interesting than Agatha Christie (whom I consider not interesting) and I haven't heard an accent as bad as Craig's since Silence Of The Lambs.
Morning #earworm: ½ Japanese, "Three Rings"; played a few nights ago.
Look and look and look and look and look and look and look
There and there and there.
Look and look and look and look and look and look and look
There and there and there.
December 22, 2025 at 12:41 PM
Morning #earworm: ½ Japanese, "Three Rings"; played a few nights ago.
Look and look and look and look and look and look and look
There and there and there.
Look and look and look and look and look and look and look
There and there and there.
This is the consumerist idea of art, imagining it as substances you can buy and ingest for fun. Art is not the product, it's the act of production. There is no such thing as AI art until there's an actual artificial consciousness behind it.
People often dismiss A.I.-generated literature because they read books to access someone else’s consciousness. But what if they can’t tell the difference? newyorkermag.visitlink.me/GVKI7f
What if Readers Like A.I.-Generated Fiction?
If economic and technological transformations have changed our relationship with literature before, they could do so again.
newyorkermag.visitlink.me
December 21, 2025 at 2:10 PM
This is the consumerist idea of art, imagining it as substances you can buy and ingest for fun. Art is not the product, it's the act of production. There is no such thing as AI art until there's an actual artificial consciousness behind it.
Watched last night: Netflix's City Of Shadows, with the impossible 100% Rotten Tomatoes score. Rejected.
Trying again: The Room Next Door. Wow. Seemed terrible at first, later turning rather good. Disagreeable; would not really recommend. Excellent sweaters and design.
Trying again: The Room Next Door. Wow. Seemed terrible at first, later turning rather good. Disagreeable; would not really recommend. Excellent sweaters and design.
December 20, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Watched last night: Netflix's City Of Shadows, with the impossible 100% Rotten Tomatoes score. Rejected.
Trying again: The Room Next Door. Wow. Seemed terrible at first, later turning rather good. Disagreeable; would not really recommend. Excellent sweaters and design.
Trying again: The Room Next Door. Wow. Seemed terrible at first, later turning rather good. Disagreeable; would not really recommend. Excellent sweaters and design.
December 20, 2025 at 1:28 PM
Morning #earworm: end credits theme from All In The Family; heard yesterday on radio, natch.
"All In The Family was recorded before a live, studio audience."
"All In The Family was recorded before a live, studio audience."
December 19, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Morning #earworm: end credits theme from All In The Family; heard yesterday on radio, natch.
"All In The Family was recorded before a live, studio audience."
"All In The Family was recorded before a live, studio audience."
What if AI *were* the way to "restart the world's idea machine". Subjunctive because counterfactual.
America, you have spoken loud and clear: You do not like AI. But what if AI is the way to restart the world’s idea machine?
We’re running out of good ideas. AI might be how we find new ones.
What if the best use of AI is restarting the world’s idea machine?
www.vox.com
December 16, 2025 at 1:02 PM
What if AI *were* the way to "restart the world's idea machine". Subjunctive because counterfactual.
Watched last night (second try): Police Story (1985). Rejected. Chan fans, but no. Gilligan's Island with better action scenes. Thought I'd seen it before but apparently not.
December 15, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Watched last night (second try): Police Story (1985). Rejected. Chan fans, but no. Gilligan's Island with better action scenes. Thought I'd seen it before but apparently not.
Watched last night: Wake Up Dead Man. Rejected. Not about humans.
December 15, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Watched last night: Wake Up Dead Man. Rejected. Not about humans.
Watched last night: Pluribus. Rejected.
December 14, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Watched last night: Pluribus. Rejected.
Morning #earworm:
Believe it or not, George isn't at home
Please leave a message at the beep
I must be out, or I'd pick up the phone
Where could I be? Believe it or not, I'm not home.
Believe it or not, George isn't at home
Please leave a message at the beep
I must be out, or I'd pick up the phone
Where could I be? Believe it or not, I'm not home.
December 14, 2025 at 12:32 PM
Morning #earworm:
Believe it or not, George isn't at home
Please leave a message at the beep
I must be out, or I'd pick up the phone
Where could I be? Believe it or not, I'm not home.
Believe it or not, George isn't at home
Please leave a message at the beep
I must be out, or I'd pick up the phone
Where could I be? Believe it or not, I'm not home.
Watched last night: It Happened One Night.
As good as it's supposed to be, but the problem with Capra is that both the comedy and the sentimental interludes are always saying "Chee I'm glad we're not different from this," where Sturges is always "Well here we are...".
As good as it's supposed to be, but the problem with Capra is that both the comedy and the sentimental interludes are always saying "Chee I'm glad we're not different from this," where Sturges is always "Well here we are...".
December 13, 2025 at 6:56 PM
Watched last night: It Happened One Night.
As good as it's supposed to be, but the problem with Capra is that both the comedy and the sentimental interludes are always saying "Chee I'm glad we're not different from this," where Sturges is always "Well here we are...".
As good as it's supposed to be, but the problem with Capra is that both the comedy and the sentimental interludes are always saying "Chee I'm glad we're not different from this," where Sturges is always "Well here we are...".
December 2000; for the first time I didn't have to go home for the horridays. XMAX day, very baked, went to a matinee of 2001 A Space Odyssey at the Castro. It was on this occasion that I realized it's a comedy and HAL is the comic. Peak.
Christmas Night 1997, I’m home and out with some high school friends all on break from our first year in college, and we go on opening night to a full, drunk, high, and mostly Black Detroit theater to see Jackie Brown
Raising the always fun question: What are your most memorable theater-going experiences?
Mine also include The Matrix, Blair Witch, and being way too stoned in Belgium when Fellowship of the Ring was sold out so we sat in the back row for Mulholland Drive instead.
Mine also include The Matrix, Blair Witch, and being way too stoned in Belgium when Fellowship of the Ring was sold out so we sat in the back row for Mulholland Drive instead.
December 13, 2025 at 4:31 PM
December 2000; for the first time I didn't have to go home for the horridays. XMAX day, very baked, went to a matinee of 2001 A Space Odyssey at the Castro. It was on this occasion that I realized it's a comedy and HAL is the comic. Peak.