Ersatz Doctor
@ersatzdoctor.bsky.social
930 followers 440 following 1.8K posts
My philosophy explainer video channel: http://youtube.com/ThinkingAboutStuff PhD in philosophy. Community college prof. Mostly here for unserious philosophy jokes.
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ersatzdoctor.bsky.social
I visited the cesspool (Twitter) to capture some of my past tweets. Here are a few (and some evidence that I used to be at least sort of funny).
ersatzdoctor.bsky.social
I know this is a joke, but a friend was just talking about how he watched an interview with @resistance.money talking about divine personality and now this joke hits different.
Reposted by Ersatz Doctor
eschwitz.bsky.social
New book in draft: AI and Consciousness [link in thread]
This book is a skeptical overview of the literature on AI and consciousness.
Anyone who emails me comments on the entire manuscript will be thanked in print and receive an appreciatively signed hard copy.
AI and Consciousness title page
ersatzdoctor.bsky.social
“I do know they resisted the introduction… uh… the offering of national guard troops.” Are you fucking kidding me?
atrupar.com
Q: Do you agree that the mayor of Chicago and governor of Illinois should be in prison?

MIKE JOHNSON: Should they be in prison? I'm not the attorney general. I'm not following the day to day on that
Reposted by Ersatz Doctor
calebw.bsky.social
"Bondi defied Democrats". "Bondi goes on the attack".

What the hell's going on @nytimes.com with these double-meaning headlines, describing things in terms MAGA obviously desires? Report the goddam news:

Bondi refuses to answer for political corruption in the Justice Department.
Screen grab from NYT reporting on Bondi's appearance before Senate dems
Reposted by Ersatz Doctor
tenderlettuce.bsky.social
New pub from me today at Ethics & International Affairs (PhilPapers link: philpapers.org/rec/LENDMC + EIA link: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...)
Journal: Ethics & International Affairs, Cambridge University Press

Title: Detained Migrant Children, Autonomy, and Positive Duties

Author: Tyra Lennie

Abstract: Despite a heavy philosophical focus on issues pertaining to immigration, little discussion is taken up that examines the duties we owe to migrant children. This article works to bridge the gap between global justice literature and work on children’s autonomy and well-being. To capture what migrant children experience in the context of immigration and detention, the article examines the conditions on the island country of Nauru, where at least 222 migrant children experienced detention between the years of 2013 and 2019. Using this lived experience as an example, the article argues that we owe children specific positive duties, which are further supported by the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Throughout this article, the aim is to indicate how migrant children occupy a particularly vulnerable and nonautonomous status in the context of detention. Because of this, children are owed especially weighty positive duties that are not discussed in the current global justice literature.
ersatzdoctor.bsky.social
Yeah. At least a book from the library of babel wouldn’t be plagiarism.
ersatzdoctor.bsky.social
1. Young adulthood
2. Grad school / job market
3. Academia
bweslake.org
A perfect table of contents.
1 Happiness 1
2 Death 61
3 The Remainder of Life 106
ersatzdoctor.bsky.social
Also I really like Chiang so I’d be curious to see what he actually said. (Side note: I have no idea what “ontologically untrue” means here.)
ersatzdoctor.bsky.social
The irony of calling it a red herring and then immediately pivoting to the senate democrats as if they have anything to do with swearing in a newly elected house rep
acyn.bsky.social
Welker: They say the house is not in session because you don't want to swear in the newly elected democratic congresswoman who would be a critical vote to releasing the Epstein files.

Johnson: It's totally absurd. This has nothing to do with that. It's another red herring.
ersatzdoctor.bsky.social
He’s compassionate like Francis, but he also brought back the big hat. It’s all about balance.
ersatzdoctor.bsky.social
Btw I heard Glenn Beck actually suggest Texas (currently) has a right to secede if it wants in part because it was the only state that was its own country first (sorry California).
ersatzdoctor.bsky.social
Setting aside the obvious irony so I can be a pedant: veggie tales wasn’t even aired on tv back then. You had to buy that shit oh VHS.
tylerhuckabee.bsky.social
so you were too stupid to understand the point of kid shows when you were a kid
ersatzdoctor.bsky.social
Outrageous. Unfollowing now.
ersatzdoctor.bsky.social
I know what these words mean individually but not in this order.
ersatzdoctor.bsky.social
You ever wake up from a nap and go directly into ennui and despair?
Reposted by Ersatz Doctor
ethanlandes.bsky.social
I am once again BEGGING philosophers of causation to do a bit of public philosophy
Screen cap from Twitter. Original tweet:

Nicholas Wu
@nicholaswu12
Jeffries tells reporters there’s been no contact with GOP leaders since the shutdown started

“Republicans have shut the government down because they don't want to provide health care to working class Americans, and then they're running around the Capitol now lying about it.”

Quote tweet: Rachael Bade
@rachaelmbade
·
Oct 1
Thing is, DEMOCRATS shut the government down. Not Republicans.

Small technicality, I know. 

(Facts are funny things!)
Reposted by Ersatz Doctor
dervine7.bsky.social
writing "are AI actresses virgins?" on the chalkboard in the philosophy grad lounge, grinding all work in the department to a halt
laurajedeed.bsky.social
I'm sorry: "if I wish to see a virgin on-screen"?
My Favorite Actress Is Not Human
Tilly Norwood doesn’t need a hairstylist, has no regrettable posts, and if you wish to see a virgin on-screen, this is one of your better chances. That’s because she’s AI.

A picture of some AI girl standing on an AI landscape with an AI monster behind her. I'm gonna be so real: she looks about 14

By Tyler Cowen
ersatzdoctor.bsky.social
In case you’re wondering, he does have a Doctor of Canon Law (JCD). I checked before making this joke because that’s what real scholars do.
ersatzdoctor.bsky.social
That’s “Dr. Pope” to you bub. He didn’t go to six years of seminary just to be called Mr.
rfksbrainworm.bsky.social
really enjoying all the people trying to explain the bible to the pope today
Pope Leo XIV
Today, more than ever, we must return to the heart, the center of feeling and emotion, the locus of freedom. Though it includes reason, the heart transcends and transforms it. Only by returning to the heart can we undergo a true ecological conversion that transforms our personal

Austin
I reject this whole heartedly. What you fail to see Mr Pope, the Bible says
ersatzdoctor.bsky.social
As someone trained in epistemology, my professional take is: we’re so fucking cooked as a society
drewharwell.com
I spent some time with OpenAI's new AI video app Sora. Not just slop but ragebait, fake crimes and women splattered with white goo. The implications of all of this are horrifying.
Reposted by Ersatz Doctor
lastpositivist.bsky.social
If only America had listened to me smdh
Liam Bright
@lastpositivist
·
Jul 2, 2024
The thing is orange man really is bad but Biden ain't got what it takes to beat him (or govern) - what to do? May I suggest: a tripartite system of government mirroring the divisions of the human psyche in which power is invested in the faculty of reason, as represented by philos
ersatzdoctor.bsky.social
BREAKING: The pope agrees with Jesus.
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
What a line from the Pope! I am so pleased he is carrying on Pope Francis’ advocacy for immigrants.
More pointedly, the pope said, "Someone who says, I'm against abortion, but is in favor of the death penalty is not really pro-life. Someone who says, I'm against abortion but I'm in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States, I don't know if that's pro-life."