David Matta
@ddmatta
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Philosophy of mind, ethics, phenomenology, and mindfulness. Generally, a critic & gadfly. Roams like a bee collecting nectar.
Beirut, Lebanon
Joined March 2009
@Olympics It would have been more appropriate to choose Hermes, the god of archery and sports, or Apollo, the god of logic and rationality, over Dionysus, the god of ecstasy and madness. Choosing Dionysus was really in poor taste and hurt many feelings unnecessarily. #Paris2024
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@elonmusk After 20 years of self-flagellation, the West seeks to reclaim its identity—but risks swinging to blind nationalism. The key is a healthy sense of self: recognizing both failures and achievements without losing balance. A Hegelian synthesis, an Aristotelian golden mean.
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@engineers_feed Yes, I told my partner: Though we’re at odds and perpendicular, when squared, we sum to a beautiful hypotenuse.
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Just as a numerical calculator with consciousness is absurd, endowing a semantic calculator with consciousness is equally absurd. Functionality (computation, cognition) is multiply realizable and does not give rise to consciousness. On the contrary, consciousness explains functionalism and is primary.
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The free soul makes the agreeable more agreeable and the disagreeable more disagreeable. It amplifies what you are. And for many, that is threatening.
@anemlon Die freie Seele macht die Verträglichen verträglicher und die Unverträglichen unverträglicher. Sie verstärkt, was du bist. Und für viele ist das bedrohlich.
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AI as a force is fundamentally distinct from human intelligence rather than an extension of it. Our relationship is not one of assimilation or mutual evolution but of coexistence—where we are mere dots in its vast intelligence, much like planet earth in an infinite universe. But nature, despite its immense complexity, allows for organic autonomy; it does not dictate the rules in the same way AI does. AI, by contrast, structures reality, shaping possibilities in ways that can override human agency rather than just providing a space for play and emergence. Our challenge is not to “become AI” but to define our place within its expanding domain. How do we engage with it without losing ourselves?
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I kind of agree with you that Foucault’s reading might edge toward a form of determinism that leaves no room for free will to cut through. But there are situations where individuals are thrown in, where agency seems illusory—dictated more by power structures and struggles beyond their control.
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Do you have private conversations, Russell, where you don’t feel the need to broadcast them to the world? Are you trying to elevate Madame Lily, like Madame Claude, to Dame Lily—bestowing on her, with your speeches, prestige and dignity? Do you really think there’s interest in her subtle feelings after her outrageous acts?
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@QuoteNietzsche Nietzsche hints that even when we have facts, they are slanted by interpretation. There are no facts without the apprehending mind—facts exist in the first instance, but interpretation follows as the second and endures.
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@AMAZlNGNATURE The horse looks like it’s breaking in its new hoof boots—like a person getting used to a pair of sneakers.
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The idea of choosing algorithms is interesting, but it’s not that simple. First, we rarely understand what they are or what they’re doing—because they either run autonomously or serve the intentions of those shaping them. It’s not just the algorithms manipulating us; it’s the people behind them, whether to please us, change our minds, or nudge us toward certain choices. This has always been the case with media platforms. There’s a price to pay, whether we use them for free or even for money. It’s not as easy as Jack claims. Finally, they mutate before we even grasp what they’ve become based on more training data and their experience with us.
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@CloserToTruth Most people live by heuristics and learned modes of reasoning, not reasoning itself.
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