eigenrobot Profile picture
Jun 8, 2023 25 tweets 7 min read Read on X
hey academics out there ive got something on my mind and i wondered if you could help me out. question in next tweet
so what im wondering is if your so smart how did you end up seeing your control over your profession stripped from you by mere administrators and how did you end up in a position where speech and thought are more restricted on university campuses than anywhere else in society
thanks ill take my answer offline
follow up question can you say "im living the life of the mind" without wanting to hurl yourself from a precipice to escape the shame you carry and which briefly reemerges when you think abt your forebears before you shove it under the surface when you remember your mortgage
and do you ever think about the millennia of christians who would sooner die than falsify their beliefs and often did and how your profession is a continuation of the medieval clergy and how a high duty of fidelity to conscience might not be doffed quite as easily as a cassock
do you ever wonder about the blood price men paid over centuries to be able to speak and think freely and wonder further at your exemption from having to ever even theoretically make such sacrifices yourself in our enlightened age
no further questions Image
or perhaps all of this is in keeping with tradition
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overall im not sure weve made a good trade here if we judge convictions by the courage with which men hold them


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the only real scientists were socrates and archimedes
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"what are you talking about robot? why IM an academic and IVE never felt unable to express my opinions" Image
do i really need to do this
archive.is/6V1JO
this thread was actually spurred by recalling that time literally hundreds of economists in positions of national prominence turned on an eminent colleague and denounced him in droves for suggesting riots might be counterproductive
archive.is/zDsNS
Challenge to professors who definitely face no limits on their expression:

Go ahead. Post a piece of paper by your office that simply says "It's Okay to Be White"

surely theres nothing objectionable there. Right
perhaps you might publish a thoughtful ontological paper

youre Permitted. right.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypatia_t…
these are a few prominent examples off the top of my head

because of their prominence they are especially well-documented

i am aware of many other cases some of which i cant discuss because i know the people involved

and there are many, many others none of us have heard of
the other thing is that you dont need to get everyone who things Wrong Things to strangle discussions. you can just make examples of some people and if these heroes break publicly?

well. generally lesser lights will follow

every apology was a failure. better men would've never. Image
anyway, As You Know

all of this has led to faculty jobs requiring applicants to submit groveling statements affirming their conformity to an ideological regime

archive.is/KCJSb
with this the succession is broken and our intellectual heritage dies with this generation

further reading on such matters linked

glad you managed to publish a few extra papers in third tier journals tho
amazon.com/Final-Generati…
@browserdotsys @shieldfoss i was thinking about the problem of how martyrdom and responsibilities to children interact

for students . . . idk. you dont want to screw their careers but if you dont stand firm what lesson are you teaching them, and what kind of profession are you even passing on to them?
@browserdotsys @shieldfoss i dont think i could bear the idea of leaving my toddler without a father irrespective of any cost to my integrity though, so im not sure you should take anything i say seriously
@trivialanalyst and no one at wal mart CLAIMS to be pursing Truth or Knowledge. they are literally trying to make a few bucks

the only reason universities have any authority is that theyre devoted to doing something greater

well. i regret having believed it
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More from @eigenrobot

Jul 10
i'm watching the grok4 launch and the production values are terrible

slides are worse than i'd create after getting roped into a presentation with 1h notice

you can tell the engineers made them themselves Image
elon predicting the model will discover new physics within two years. "let that sink in." a long silence. one engineer laughs awkwardly
i want to be clear i love all of you guys at xAI and i want only the best for you
Read 14 tweets
Jul 9
in any sociopolitical system, the degree to and the manner in which power is centralized may be characterized by the structure of patronage networks

these structures are often more revealing about the nature of government than its nominal type

for example
the "kingdom" of france continued continuously for about a millennium depending on how you measure it

but its actual government varied widely

most notably, it transitioned from feudalism to absolute monarchy that occurred under richelieu and at versailles
this transition, made possible first by military developments and the rise of the bourgeoisie, represented a rising king (patron of the bourgeois) among other things destroying the patronage networks of feudal lords and reallocating their clients to himself via state organs
Read 11 tweets
Jul 4
i get it now, this is legit. reddit objects are objects recommended to _entry-level enthusiasts_ by topical subreddits because they work well to improve lives over baseline with a relatively low level of effort for a majority of cases

reddit objects are high ROI!

for example,
r/strength_training reddit object

yeah i know other forums came first but its quintessential

is it right everywhere? does everyone need to be doing squats all the time? does it ignore aesthetics?

who cares! way better than default gym behavior Image
another example. r/malefashionadvice reddit objects for casual and business dress

unfortunately yeah all are not what they used to be and yeah those jeans should be selvedge Image
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Read 8 tweets
Jul 4
nearly broke a tooth eating a frozen pizza tonight

wonder how that got baked in Image
ive probably had several hundred frozen pizzas in my life so odds are its safe and economical to continue eating red baron pizzas at $5 a pop
this is good

im gonna mail it back and let them know their part went missing. im sure theyll be happy to be able to replace it
Read 4 tweets
Jun 27
they hate how little it takes for us to be happy
the women all want to kill her

it's beautiful Image
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i think maybe the term of art for this is "pickme"? idk

shes minmaxxing and shamelessly trading off homosocial status for heterosexual appeal

my theory is that women who are mad about this arent wrong to be but the specific reason for their anger is that shes a gender traitor
Read 5 tweets
Jun 27
realistically there's no way to stop people from tacitly or explicitly allocating taxes and benefits on the basis of race and large portions of the country have interests in this happening or ideological commitments to doing so

this is just our life now
supreme court rulings arent gonna change anything, no one gives a shit about the law on principle and its easy to obfuscate discrimination to taste

any direct government enforcement will i expect inevitably be straightforwardly politically motivated
the norms to which new immigrants are assimilating and young natives inculcated are immensely ethnically charged without any public and common ideal of transcending race for an american identity, an identity which frankly doesnt even exist anymore
Read 9 tweets

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