Robot Friends

@historycourses is back and as usual we talk about history in detail for two hours. this talk was surprisingly orderly with two major topics for consideration: can we ever understand what it was like to live in another zeitgeist; and what are the uses of history? digressions into filial piety, Albion's Seed, the global American empire, acid use and Burke, and the near destruction o

wherein @atroyn and i talk about the dissolution of meaning, the pillars of philosophy, optimism, narrative, assassin drones vs clothes folding robots, world historical figure mycology, the past and present of ingroup, visions of the future, and why the way forward is the rise of capitalist bandit lords actually

Dear friend @monodevice comes on to walk through the history of the Southern Slavs and convey the mindset of the Steppe East to the West from his own perspective as a Balkan-born. We discuss martyrs and lost phenomenologies and the white pill that nothing is endlessly bad and why stoicism fails to allow for the transcendent.

talking with roon (@tszzl) about the emergence of yuppies, san francisco, island communities, the notion of a homeland, and noah smith

i spoke with @QiaochuYuan and @politicalmath about how families handle money and learn from qc what its like to be main character for a day. we also speculate about whether taylor lorenz went to school with kim il sung. art credit to the magnificent @monodevice

wherein I speak with all five (!!) of the 2021 Prometheus Award Best Novel finalists about their work, the social history of science fiction, and the role of science fiction in mapping the future. Great thanks to Mackey Chandler, Barry B. Longyear, Marc Stiegler, Dennis E. Taylor, and especially to Karl. K. Gallagher for bringing all of us together. Links to their nominated novels

wherein @historycourses and I spend two hours talking about history again, exploring among other things: - how learning history is emancipatory; - David Reich and archaeogenomics; - what European geopolitics, American domestic politics, and science might have in common; - Mongol skull pyramids; - how history is a healthy outlet for incorrigible voyeurs. Great thanks to Abraham as a

wherein Abraham Ash (@historycourses) and I talk about Orthodox Judaism: its history in the united states, its current place and modes of life, and its future. We also hop wildly across thousands of years of history. Abraham teaches at https://historycourses.com/ and I want to shill this noting that I have never met anyone more conversant in medieval history.

wherein @becomingcritter of the actually-well-produced A Becoming Creature podcast and I go off the rails on the use of hallucinogens in Minecraft, the nature of time and perception, and why thinking about things is extremely bad actually his excellent conversations with other twitter personae are posted at https://becomingcreature.substack.com/

wherein @totoTavrinky and I discuss the philosophical framework presented by Robert Pirsig in his second work, Lila, and what it has to do with wet markets, Ayn Rand, the Puritans, Allen Ginsburg, Emperor Taizong, and Jesus please hire totoTavrinky to write code for you :^)