Norbert Wiener Kreis
@carlsachs.bsky.social
Philosopher (pragmatism, critical theory, 4E cognitive science). Marxist in my head, social democrat in my heart. Spinozistic panentheism. Jewish anti-Zioinist. Lifelong sci-fi nerd. he/him
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8627-2554
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8627-2554
Pinned
I've started an American philosophy/pragmatism starter pack. Let me know if you want to be added, and spread the word!
go.bsky.app/5FHqkJM
go.bsky.app/5FHqkJM
The Trumpified Republicans are no longer even pretending to care about "free speech" or "small government". They are out to destroy the left, root and branch. This is war for them, and one does not negotiate in war -- one does everything to destroy the enemy.
September 18, 2025 at 1:00 PM
The Trumpified Republicans are no longer even pretending to care about "free speech" or "small government". They are out to destroy the left, root and branch. This is war for them, and one does not negotiate in war -- one does everything to destroy the enemy.
On the one hand, I don't really care about "the Epstein files", because it's perfectly obvious to me that Trump is a rapist and pedophile, and I don't know what new revelations would come to light here.
On the other hand, talking about the Epstein files is making him really mad, and I like that.
On the other hand, talking about the Epstein files is making him really mad, and I like that.
July 13, 2025 at 1:35 PM
On the one hand, I don't really care about "the Epstein files", because it's perfectly obvious to me that Trump is a rapist and pedophile, and I don't know what new revelations would come to light here.
On the other hand, talking about the Epstein files is making him really mad, and I like that.
On the other hand, talking about the Epstein files is making him really mad, and I like that.
The questions we ought to be asking is not "will AI become smart enough take our jobs?" but rather "what does it say about the nature of contemporary employment that the same tasks can be performed by a machine with no self-awareness, needs, interests, and concerns?"
May 13, 2025 at 12:57 PM
The questions we ought to be asking is not "will AI become smart enough take our jobs?" but rather "what does it say about the nature of contemporary employment that the same tasks can be performed by a machine with no self-awareness, needs, interests, and concerns?"
Reposted by Norbert Wiener Kreis
Just finished The AI Mirror by @shannonvallor.bsky.social. Very highly recommended. Transcending the stale accelerationist/doomer debate, Vallor reminds us what technology is for, and where (some of the) true dangers of AI lie. Powerful stuff, eloquently written global.oup.com/academic/pro...
April 13, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Just finished The AI Mirror by @shannonvallor.bsky.social. Very highly recommended. Transcending the stale accelerationist/doomer debate, Vallor reminds us what technology is for, and where (some of the) true dangers of AI lie. Powerful stuff, eloquently written global.oup.com/academic/pro...
You don't hate AI, you hate technofeudalism.*
* inspired by the old "you don't hate Mondays, you hate capitalism".
* inspired by the old "you don't hate Mondays, you hate capitalism".
April 11, 2025 at 12:53 PM
You don't hate AI, you hate technofeudalism.*
* inspired by the old "you don't hate Mondays, you hate capitalism".
* inspired by the old "you don't hate Mondays, you hate capitalism".
I'm fascinated, terrified, and horrified at the rise of what's being called "pro-Israel antisemitism".
April 3, 2025 at 1:23 PM
I'm fascinated, terrified, and horrified at the rise of what's being called "pro-Israel antisemitism".
Musk is a technological genius in precisely the same sense that Trump is a successful businessman.
March 22, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Musk is a technological genius in precisely the same sense that Trump is a successful businessman.
It should be evident to everyone that Trump intends to do to Canada what Putin is doing to Ukraine, and for roughly the same reasons.
March 13, 2025 at 1:28 PM
It should be evident to everyone that Trump intends to do to Canada what Putin is doing to Ukraine, and for roughly the same reasons.
Every college and university president who does not loudly and publicly condemn Khalil's abduction should resign immediately.
March 13, 2025 at 1:38 AM
Every college and university president who does not loudly and publicly condemn Khalil's abduction should resign immediately.
Mahmoud Khalil practiced & preached non-violence. His only 'crime' being a Palestinian who demanded an end to American-sponsored genocide. He was abducted by agents of the fascist US government at the urging of fascist Zionists. If they can do this to him, they can do this to anyone. No one is safe.
March 11, 2025 at 12:33 PM
Mahmoud Khalil practiced & preached non-violence. His only 'crime' being a Palestinian who demanded an end to American-sponsored genocide. He was abducted by agents of the fascist US government at the urging of fascist Zionists. If they can do this to him, they can do this to anyone. No one is safe.
One of the structural weaknesses of the liberal mindset (and I am aware of this defect in myself) is that we are very quick to attribute stupidity to our enemies.
March 10, 2025 at 12:19 PM
One of the structural weaknesses of the liberal mindset (and I am aware of this defect in myself) is that we are very quick to attribute stupidity to our enemies.
My guiding principle is "Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto". I've always wanted to regard myself as a cosmopolitan, a citizen of the universe. Patriotism, an excessive love of one's own country, has always seemed weird to me.
March 8, 2025 at 3:08 AM
My guiding principle is "Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto". I've always wanted to regard myself as a cosmopolitan, a citizen of the universe. Patriotism, an excessive love of one's own country, has always seemed weird to me.
Reposted by Norbert Wiener Kreis
As I’ve often said, the difference between Trump and Vance is that Trump would kill your puppy for money and Vance would pay money to kill your puppy. I hate him so much. The smug “we both know I’m lying, aren’t I a clever boy” aura. Every quality I try to suppress in myself in one man. Fuck him.
February 28, 2025 at 6:15 PM
As I’ve often said, the difference between Trump and Vance is that Trump would kill your puppy for money and Vance would pay money to kill your puppy. I hate him so much. The smug “we both know I’m lying, aren’t I a clever boy” aura. Every quality I try to suppress in myself in one man. Fuck him.
Bezos: "we need to defend freedom as our highest value!"
Me: "great, let's talk about firms and markets as forms of unjust impersonal domination!"
Bezos: "no, not like that"
Me: "great, let's talk about firms and markets as forms of unjust impersonal domination!"
Bezos: "no, not like that"
February 27, 2025 at 1:41 AM
Bezos: "we need to defend freedom as our highest value!"
Me: "great, let's talk about firms and markets as forms of unjust impersonal domination!"
Bezos: "no, not like that"
Me: "great, let's talk about firms and markets as forms of unjust impersonal domination!"
Bezos: "no, not like that"
I don't mean to alarm anyone, but the professional leadership of the US military has been replaced by Trump loyalists who will not hesitate to give the order to shoot civilian protestors if the President invokes the Insurrection Act.
February 22, 2025 at 9:54 PM
I don't mean to alarm anyone, but the professional leadership of the US military has been replaced by Trump loyalists who will not hesitate to give the order to shoot civilian protestors if the President invokes the Insurrection Act.
Reposted by Norbert Wiener Kreis
State AGs are looking for federal workers who have just been illegally fired to stand as litigants in a new lawsuit trying to freeze further action by DOGE.
DM me if that’s you and you’re interested and you’re live in one of the following states: NM, AZ, CA, CT, MD, MI, MN, NV, OR, WA, RI, or VT.
DM me if that’s you and you’re interested and you’re live in one of the following states: NM, AZ, CA, CT, MD, MI, MN, NV, OR, WA, RI, or VT.
February 17, 2025 at 3:54 AM
State AGs are looking for federal workers who have just been illegally fired to stand as litigants in a new lawsuit trying to freeze further action by DOGE.
DM me if that’s you and you’re interested and you’re live in one of the following states: NM, AZ, CA, CT, MD, MI, MN, NV, OR, WA, RI, or VT.
DM me if that’s you and you’re interested and you’re live in one of the following states: NM, AZ, CA, CT, MD, MI, MN, NV, OR, WA, RI, or VT.
"Without its ideals – its commitment to the freedom of all men, America is a piece of trash! I fought Adolf Hitler not because America was great, but because it was fragile! I knew that liberty could as easily be snuffed out here as in Nazi Germany!” (Captain America in "What If . . . ?" #44)
February 14, 2025 at 6:50 PM
"Without its ideals – its commitment to the freedom of all men, America is a piece of trash! I fought Adolf Hitler not because America was great, but because it was fragile! I knew that liberty could as easily be snuffed out here as in Nazi Germany!” (Captain America in "What If . . . ?" #44)
Reposted by Norbert Wiener Kreis
From the Civil Rights division of the DOJ to the CFPB, the administrative state is designed to make material the abstract rights expressed in law. In its absence, what remains is the old enslaver state governed by the unrestrained whims of the rich & powerful.
February 10, 2025 at 8:22 PM
From the Civil Rights division of the DOJ to the CFPB, the administrative state is designed to make material the abstract rights expressed in law. In its absence, what remains is the old enslaver state governed by the unrestrained whims of the rich & powerful.
Much of my political worldview is about "the three Johns of liberal socialism": Mill, Dewey, and Rawls. I hold that Mill was pretty much right about liberty, Dewey about democracy and education, and Rawls about justice.
February 9, 2025 at 7:32 PM
Much of my political worldview is about "the three Johns of liberal socialism": Mill, Dewey, and Rawls. I hold that Mill was pretty much right about liberty, Dewey about democracy and education, and Rawls about justice.
One very minor act of resistance we can all do: write to newspaper editors and insist that every time they quote a Trump spokesperson about his "mandate", they also mention that Trump received 30% of the votes from all eligible voters.
February 3, 2025 at 12:10 PM
One very minor act of resistance we can all do: write to newspaper editors and insist that every time they quote a Trump spokesperson about his "mandate", they also mention that Trump received 30% of the votes from all eligible voters.
Trump has claimed that tariffs are the opposite of taxes: in his mind, taxes are when money flows from within the nation-state to outside of it, and tariffs are the reverse (money flowing from other nation-states to a specific nation-state).
February 1, 2025 at 1:52 PM
Trump has claimed that tariffs are the opposite of taxes: in his mind, taxes are when money flows from within the nation-state to outside of it, and tariffs are the reverse (money flowing from other nation-states to a specific nation-state).
Same in the States, except that most philosophers don't know anything about American philosophers, either.
No country (to my knowledge) disdains its own philosophical heritage as much as Britain. Kids go through school with no idea the discipline exists, let alone that many of its key figures have been Brits.
January 31, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Same in the States, except that most philosophers don't know anything about American philosophers, either.
Radio National (Australia)'s philosophy podcast, "The Philosopher's Zone", interviews some philosophers on who Sellars was and why some contemporary Continental philosophers have started reading him.
www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...
www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...
Rediscovering Wilfrid Sellars - ABC listen
The American thinker Wilfrid Sellars died in 1989, and has been remembered as a primarily analytic philosopher. But today, Sellars is being rediscovered by a new generation of Continental philosophers...
www.abc.net.au
January 31, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Radio National (Australia)'s philosophy podcast, "The Philosopher's Zone", interviews some philosophers on who Sellars was and why some contemporary Continental philosophers have started reading him.
www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...
www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...
Everyone who ever said, "the government should be run like a business" was demanding fascism, whether or not they were too stupid and ignorant to realize.
January 28, 2025 at 10:51 PM
Everyone who ever said, "the government should be run like a business" was demanding fascism, whether or not they were too stupid and ignorant to realize.