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Stephen T Casper

@neurotimes.bsky.social

4.7K followers 760 following 2.3K posts

Historian of medicine, violence, and sport. I also love neurology, neuroscience and the human sciences. Author of books, articles, anthologies, and expert reports. Keywords: 19~20thC; health policy; indigenous studies; gender; CTE; concussion; TBI

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Stephen T Casper @neurotimes.bsky.social · Jan 2

I will write a longer essay on why I’m unconcerned about generative Ai. However, I want to show you in 2 photos why “information” only approach, as LLMs approach knowledge, is an insufficient way to understand subjective realities. Behold: a copy of Dickens’ The Old Curiosity Shop!

An old copy of Dickens book The Old Curiosity Shop, opened to the cover page.

Evidence that the pages of this edition are uncut, meaning no one ever uses a letter opener on them. The pages form a semi-circle going back to the binding, making the arch inside impossible to read.

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Stephen T Casper @neurotimes.bsky.social · 11h

It says something about our historical moment that:

The people who hate the government are demanding that the people who like the government open the government so that they can then shut the government down by getting rid of it.

Also the people who are allegedly very violent want gun control.

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Stephen T Casper @neurotimes.bsky.social · 1d

Okay. Well one of us is anonymously calling the other person with a real name names. I read the whole thread and disagreed with your interpretation. Now that we have deteriorated we can stop. Thank for your contributions.

Stephen T Casper @neurotimes.bsky.social · 1d

Irrelevant for you and to you. Right? Because your own way of speaking and thinking and even expressing yourself is open to interpretation, and I am responding, trying to do so in a respectful way, that says I think it is relevant to those very questions. And that metaphors are the real world…

Stephen T Casper @neurotimes.bsky.social · 1d

See that’s overdrawn also. The human brain has similar problems as well, and the problem makes us uniquely human. One of the things about, say, emotions, is that they’re phenomenological. Many LLM limits analogize to human limits for this reason.

Stephen T Casper @neurotimes.bsky.social · 1d

some random thoughts

The people being called violent presently are called extreme because they want gun control.ñ

People are surprised that an obscene concentration of wealth does not in fact trickle down very fast

People who lend the government money are very uninterested in paying taxes

Stephen T Casper @neurotimes.bsky.social · 1d

My good fellow… that’s far more impressive than you realize.

Stephen T Casper @neurotimes.bsky.social · 1d

Well… see your comment is also wrongheaded. For example, I answer: an LLM cannot use neuronal circuitry to produce thought for the simple reason that it is not neuronal. It will never be neuronal. You could say “that’s not what I mean” but it basically underscores we are arguing about metaphors.

Stephen T Casper @neurotimes.bsky.social · 1d

I’m quite a fanboy actually. But precisely because I think it has created new metaphors for the nervous system and the brain, and fairly powerful ones for thinking about our own inexplicablity

Stephen T Casper @neurotimes.bsky.social · 1d

You seem to be eliding, perhaps decently, the painful fact that we have no more real explanation of how Broca’s area produces speech than we do how LLMs end up making choices when, say, all options are equally good. As for instance:

Stephen T Casper @neurotimes.bsky.social · 1d

My good fellow, there are all kinds of things that are unable to do what the human brain does that are still brains. And many of those things have a great deal to teach us about human brains. Some are quite analogous like the leech ganglion. Others are metaphorical, like the computer.

Stephen T Casper @neurotimes.bsky.social · 1d

Oh? The very ambiguity of your response creates an interesting psychoanalytic joke effortlessly lol

Stephen T Casper @neurotimes.bsky.social · 1d

I agree. It’s at least some kind of analogous neuropsychological function.

Stephen T Casper @neurotimes.bsky.social · 1d

People seem to have a very odd notion that we actually know what our brains/minds do. You appear to trigger them by pointing out that we don’t. I’m rather amused.

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Stephen T Casper @neurotimes.bsky.social · 2d

It’s odd that absolutely no one in media has been writing macroeconomic criticism of our present condition in the USA. The math doesn’t work: Fear. Lack of government investment. Acceleration of debt. Contracts that are voided Willy Nilly. Tariffs as a flat tax. All of this - is bad math.

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Stephen T Casper @neurotimes.bsky.social · 6d

Conscience is no license; it is a burden freely carried — even when it leads to a jail cell.

Stephen T Casper @neurotimes.bsky.social · 6d

When law and conscience conflict, the just path is never simple. To follow conscience may mean standing apart, but never above. It is just only when one accepts the consequence without harming others, acts without hatred, and preserves the humanity even of those who oppose them.

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Stephen T Casper @neurotimes.bsky.social · 6d

Remember Antigone would be a decent slogan for the times

I realize pretty much no one understands why.

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Stephen T Casper @neurotimes.bsky.social · 8d

We have made it impossible to help each other.

Stephen T Casper @neurotimes.bsky.social · 8d

I bought Appleton Farms Center Cut Bacon. I cooked 2 pieces this morning for an omelette. The smell it made was kerosene like. Not good. I try to report it, because I’m worried this is not a slight contamination. No phone number for any government agency or phone number for manufacturer, works.

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Stephen T Casper @neurotimes.bsky.social · 8d

#vss365
Steam rises
From a block
of ice
over which
I poured
liquid nitrogen
on hard packed
carbon dioxide
And placed it all
In a slushy of
Coffee, chocolate
frozen water
And a single
precious
Caramel stick
The result
Looks like a
Bubble bath
In plastic wrap
With mud
Going
Everywhere
Sublimated

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Stephen T Casper @neurotimes.bsky.social · 8d

It’s the worst I’ve ever seen….and I’ve seen a lot.

Stephen T Casper @neurotimes.bsky.social · 11d

Just because you love something, doesn’t mean your students must.

Just because you think your class is the most important thing in the whole world, doesn’t mean your students do.

Just because you think they are cheating, doesn’t mean they are cheating.

You, too, can be the problem.

Stephen T Casper @neurotimes.bsky.social · 11d

Your students didn’t read the syllabus before ; and they won’t read it now.

Many students hated reading before and they still hate it.

Your job is inspire, empower, connect, adapt, work within their constraints. Ai is now a constraint.

Your job is not to beat them over the head with your ruler.

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Stephen T Casper @neurotimes.bsky.social · 11d

Every time I see a complaint about higher ed and Ai here, I genuinely want to scream into the void: WTAF do you think your job is?

Bloom’s Hierarchy tells you your job.

Excellent teaching books as in “Teaching and Learning STEM: a Guide” can tell you your job.

Your burn out tells you your job.

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Stephen T Casper @neurotimes.bsky.social · 11d

Democrats should say we don’t control anything. They do not. It’s an empirical fact.