When you die and go to the afterworld, you get to sneeze all of the sneezes you sneezed, again -- as well as all the sneezes you didn't get to sneeze.
rip mathematics prodigy theodore j. kaczynski, more known for other work
I’ll never understand why people argue about free will. Your choices were always determined by the shape of the universe at the moment you decided to argue. Isn’t that beautiful, though?
(…) It will easily be seen in what consists the difference between a man who is led by emotion or opinion alone and one who is led by reason. The former, whether he wills it or not, does those things of which he is entirely ignorant, but the latter does the will of no one but himself, and does those things only which he knows are of greatest importance in life, and which he therefore desires above all things. I call the former, therefore, a slave, and the latter free.
Spinoza, Ethics (via fatenumber1)
don't like trivia games. they're a test on everything you could possibly know (that is useless). don't respect a test that rewards breadth of life experience rather than ability to take a canonical set of materials and study the shit out of it. philosophically opposed to that
My spiraea bushes are having their last hurrah. They are starting to drop their tiny flower petals. See you next year.
Like Freud, Lacan regards hysteria as one of the two main forms of neurosis, the other being obsessional neurosis. Whereas obsessional neurosis concerns the question of the subject's existence, hysteria concerns the question of the subject's sexual position. This question may be phrased "Am I a man or a woman?" or, more precisely, "What is a woman?" Lacan thus reaffirms the ancient view that there is an intimate connection between hysteria and femininity. Indeed, most hysterics are women, just as most obsessional neurotics are men. The structure of desire, as desire of the Other, is shown more clearly in hysteria than in any other clinical structure; the hysteric is precisely someone who appropriates another's desire by identifying with them.
it’s interesting how many people have knee jerk scorn towards Ozempic and think it’s almost foregone conclusion to be a Faustian bargain that will cause massive long term health problems in exchange for “cheating to lose weight”. as if suffering and struggling to lose weight is just punishment for being a fatty (smells Protestant). the thing is, this doesn’t even bear out in reality either because glp-1 drugs have the knock-on effect of improving health outcomes across the board for almost everything. tho good litmus test for sussing out the type of guy who tells themselves just-so stories
A pure philosopher has no other touchstone for truth than our natural understanding, not theology.
I walk down the city streets, in an unsuspectin' human world. Inhuman in your midst. Well, this world is mine to own.
Both my biologist and math friends are constantly giving me new ways of looking at the world. I have a rich inner life because of this.