INCOGNIT US

 Not known in the US, or in Latin. I asked AI for an opinion on my posts and got an absolutely true characterization: "Tossing words into the void."

Theological dispute

 This bog does not usually go  inoto politics, but it is interesting to discuss the JD VAnce and pope Leo dispute. Apparently the pope argues that "Jesus doesn't ask us to rank our love for others" whihc may be true but historically it was not the attitude of the catholic church. 

JDVance argued that religion tells him to prioritized family,  neighbors and citizens over immigrants. Seemed to me that Lenin also asked to prioritize one's party above all...

David Brooks

 He used a moderate voice to explain and reflect. I used to enjoy his columns, as long as I read the NYT. Probably he realized NYT remains popular  just for its games. Just by chance I ran into his last  column. David Brooks, you could have written  a better adieu.  Are you moving left? Right? or you just want streaming glory? 

Bad match

When playing   Chopin's  Nocturne in E-flat major, Op. 9 youtube uses Van Gogh Starry Nights.as background.

troubling...choice

Artificial Idiocy

 

Is AI just an experiment in Learned Idiocy? I recently discovered that around 1440 a cardinal, Nicholas of Cusa, wrote De Docta Ignorantia—“On Learned Ignorance”––arguing that since the human mind is finite, it cannot fully grasp infinite reality. I have not read the book, but it is probably one page the idiot savants who became billionaires building AI should read. I would argue that if AI ever truly managed to simulate idiocy—Artificial Idiocy—then maybe it would finally capture the one human quality that really does seem infinite: our stupidity.

  

After i posted i discovered that one of my favorite public intellectuals had written:

ARTIFICIAL IDIOCY

Mar 23, 2023Slavoj Žižek

The problem with the new chatbots is not just that they are often stupid and naive; it is that they are not “stupid” or “naive” enough to pick up on the nuances, ironies, and revealing contradictions that constitute human culture and communication. Worse, by relying on them, we risk succumbing to the same obtuseness.

wording

Was proud  I invented a new word. Flatitude. To describe a joke that falls flat. Proud to donate it to the English language.  A mix between platitude and flatulence. Turns out it was used a couple of times. So I  tried to regroup in fartitude. But it was also used in the title of a publication. So my efforts went from flat to fart.

Let's say I maintained the flame alive

Before nation

 In older times, religion was what created a community—not nations, not language.   This Sunday, the Joel Osteen sermon was preempted by a football game. 

mAI

My blog is visited daily by hundreds of bots. There is never a like or a comment. I am afraid I know why: they are visiting: to learn from my intelligence and build an AI.

AcademAI

phantomime

 Phantomiming one's existence.

I was very proud I invented this phantomime word. It is already in the WiKi. I wonder if it was coffeerighted. If so,  I will pronounce it fantomime!

Le Congres danse

 Building a ballroom in the White House paves the way for a dancing Congress. The missing piece from Trump's populist message - in America anybody can dream of dancing in the White House. The tune? Not the tired Waltz of the decayed Europe/ The Kazatsky? The Chinese Lion Dance? 

While preservationists worry about the building and taxpayers complain about the cost, no one has noted the obvious parallel to the Congress of Vienna: dancing on the grave of Napoleonic democracy.

But he eill be able to stage a Miss America contest right next his bedroom.  

Improv

 I crushed an improv scene, they invited me to participate but first the emcee read the the house rules. No misogynism, no anti0immigrant, no homophobia, no inappropriate touching,  no porn. Seemed to me it was ImproWoke.

Mamdani

 Most people agree that saving time hours are useless. But it would be crazy to change the time system only in one city.  Does caroe diem nuke any sense for this post? Or is it cave canem? I need some western culture for this moment.

National games

 For a very long time baseball was the most popular sport in America. The national sport. With main attraction players  immigrants from Latin America. Now the most popular sport is football. This transition follows the political discourse from boring to violent. 

Shah Jahan reading his cell phone

Freud

 Freud was a kind of a Columbus. Wrong in most issues, but opened a new direction of thought and expression. 

I was proud when I discovered the we are family.  According to Ancestry he is grandmother’s aunt half brother’s in law,  The Freud dynasty. Not just Shlomo...Very surprised and proud. And then  I discovered he was same playmate and age with his nephew, and kind of screwed up relationships. So happy I am not that close family 

no vote

 Democracy gave us Trump and now Mamdani. I asked AI  for whom  it would  vote in NYC. It answered Mayor Adams. Smart!

Water view?

Limited horizon? Blocked horizon? Handrailed horizon?

Undress

When someone was trying to give me a compliment she would say "Nice tie!" as there was nothing else nice about me. Now I don't wear ties and I get "Nice socks!"

air still free

 

Opticians used to fix a loose screw or pop a lens back in for free. Now, I've noticed my optician charges a fee for these small repairs. 

Went to a random bike shop, where they   pumped my tires with air for no charge.

ha, ha ha or Plato on humor.

 Another of Plato’s objections to laughter is that it is malicious. In Philebus (48–50), he analyzes the enjoyment of comedy as a form of scorn. “Taken generally,” he says, “the ridiculous is a certain kind of evil, specifically a vice.” That vice is self-ignorance: the people we laugh at imagine themselves to be wealthier, better looking, or more virtuous than they really are. In laughing at them, we take delight in something evil—their self-ignorance—and that malice is morally objectionable. (from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/humor/)

From Plato to our president.....