J.N. Thomas
@hypnagogue.bsky.social
Dad, husband, professor (math and CS), and researcher. Counter of angels on the heads of pins.
Probing the intersection of mathematics, logic, language, and philosophy. Views are, for better or worse, mine alone.
Probing the intersection of mathematics, logic, language, and philosophy. Views are, for better or worse, mine alone.
Between the extreme wind and the constant drizzle this time of year, I can tell you from personal experience that Ashkenazi hair was not meant for life on the Salish coast.
November 6, 2025 at 10:46 PM
Between the extreme wind and the constant drizzle this time of year, I can tell you from personal experience that Ashkenazi hair was not meant for life on the Salish coast.
Show me everything. I won’t look away. I want to see it all. Break me like the fourth wall.
October 30, 2025 at 2:15 AM
Show me everything. I won’t look away. I want to see it all. Break me like the fourth wall.
Anyone else's fucked up family try to make you complicit in constant dishonesty as a kid? Everyone in my family felt like burdening a child with this was OK.
"Don't tell your mom, but..."
"Don't tell your grandfather, but..."
"Don't tell your dad, but..."
Please, don't do this to your kids.
"Don't tell your mom, but..."
"Don't tell your grandfather, but..."
"Don't tell your dad, but..."
Please, don't do this to your kids.
October 14, 2025 at 8:14 PM
Anyone else's fucked up family try to make you complicit in constant dishonesty as a kid? Everyone in my family felt like burdening a child with this was OK.
"Don't tell your mom, but..."
"Don't tell your grandfather, but..."
"Don't tell your dad, but..."
Please, don't do this to your kids.
"Don't tell your mom, but..."
"Don't tell your grandfather, but..."
"Don't tell your dad, but..."
Please, don't do this to your kids.
Reposted by J.N. Thomas
For God's sake we all know postdocs aren't real, stop trying to scare PhD students with superstitious nonsense.
October 14, 2025 at 7:15 PM
For God's sake we all know postdocs aren't real, stop trying to scare PhD students with superstitious nonsense.
Porch pirates are annoying, but something funny happened the other day: one of them stole a package, which I know from security cameras, took one look at the contents and tossed it into the bushes lol. The package? A large, omnidirectional #LoRa antenna I bought for #Meshtastic.
October 3, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Porch pirates are annoying, but something funny happened the other day: one of them stole a package, which I know from security cameras, took one look at the contents and tossed it into the bushes lol. The package? A large, omnidirectional #LoRa antenna I bought for #Meshtastic.
Tape storage shines when you stream large files in order. Random access across 12 TB of spaghetti ribbon is like teaching a dolphin to do calculus; technically possible, but wildly inefficient.
September 28, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Tape storage shines when you stream large files in order. Random access across 12 TB of spaghetti ribbon is like teaching a dolphin to do calculus; technically possible, but wildly inefficient.
Reposted by J.N. Thomas
me when my 32mm scale model Meiji Restoration-era Japanese village is out for delivery
September 22, 2025 at 7:39 PM
me when my 32mm scale model Meiji Restoration-era Japanese village is out for delivery
Idk if this is a hot take or not, but I found Ishmael, the psychic gorilla from Daniel Quinn’s novel of the same name, to be too condescending and charmless to enjoy the book. He’s modeled after Socrates, was also famously a pain in the ass, but he at least had charisma.
#PhilSky #Philosophy
#PhilSky #Philosophy
September 19, 2025 at 11:18 PM
Idk if this is a hot take or not, but I found Ishmael, the psychic gorilla from Daniel Quinn’s novel of the same name, to be too condescending and charmless to enjoy the book. He’s modeled after Socrates, was also famously a pain in the ass, but he at least had charisma.
#PhilSky #Philosophy
#PhilSky #Philosophy
I've seen the one-eyed witchdoctor leading the blind.
September 19, 2025 at 6:50 PM
I've seen the one-eyed witchdoctor leading the blind.
Reposted by J.N. Thomas
“Stop making up these numbers” from someone whose entire grift for the last 20 years has been pretending to have quantified the probabilities of events about which the kindest true thing that can be said is that they have not yet been rigorously proven to be literally impossible.
September 14, 2025 at 10:24 PM
“Stop making up these numbers” from someone whose entire grift for the last 20 years has been pretending to have quantified the probabilities of events about which the kindest true thing that can be said is that they have not yet been rigorously proven to be literally impossible.
Not me reworking my PCB design a bit to accommodate 0.3mm vias because my fab was going to charge a fortune to plug and cap 0.2mm vias.
a woman with blonde hair is wearing a black dress and smiling for the camera .
ALT: a woman with blonde hair is wearing a black dress and smiling for the camera .
media.tenor.com
September 13, 2025 at 8:23 PM
Not me reworking my PCB design a bit to accommodate 0.3mm vias because my fab was going to charge a fortune to plug and cap 0.2mm vias.
If I’d realized 3D CAD work can be parametrically and mathy I would’ve gotten into this years ago. Between this and properly learning PCB CAD design, I feel like I have super powers now.
September 11, 2025 at 9:09 PM
If I’d realized 3D CAD work can be parametrically and mathy I would’ve gotten into this years ago. Between this and properly learning PCB CAD design, I feel like I have super powers now.
Reposted by J.N. Thomas
I've seen this on Bluesky and had to try it myself. The image below was the response to the prompt: "Show me a diagram of the US presidents since Herbert Hoover, with their names and years in office under their photos" Bravo, OpenAI, bravo.
August 8, 2025 at 7:08 PM
I've seen this on Bluesky and had to try it myself. The image below was the response to the prompt: "Show me a diagram of the US presidents since Herbert Hoover, with their names and years in office under their photos" Bravo, OpenAI, bravo.
Reposted by J.N. Thomas
Heidegger rekt
August 28, 2025 at 10:20 PM
Heidegger rekt
Reposted by J.N. Thomas
Philosophers don't want to admit it, but Chidi Anagonye (The Good Place) is a pretty close approximation of many real philosophers.
an interesting subtopic! which shows/movies are beloved by the profession for Getting It Right! Lawyers famously love MY COUSIN VINNIE, doctors I believe love SCRUBS, apparently Aussie barristers are surprisingly fond of RAKE's depiction of some aspects of the law.
Oh god I remember watching HOUSE with some doctors, it was a the usual mix of “you would get fired instantly and never practice medicine again no matter how good u are” and “that case actually isn’t hard to solve at all”
August 28, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Philosophers don't want to admit it, but Chidi Anagonye (The Good Place) is a pretty close approximation of many real philosophers.
Reposted by J.N. Thomas
rust isnt special. you know what else is memory safe. a beautiful forest stream
August 27, 2025 at 12:34 PM
rust isnt special. you know what else is memory safe. a beautiful forest stream
I normally prefer to stick to the more theoretical side of computer science (and most other things), but taking a break from my usual research in logic to work on #LoRa hardware project! Haven't done PCB design since grad school.
Stay tuned!
Stay tuned!
August 26, 2025 at 8:57 PM
I normally prefer to stick to the more theoretical side of computer science (and most other things), but taking a break from my usual research in logic to work on #LoRa hardware project! Haven't done PCB design since grad school.
Stay tuned!
Stay tuned!
Two of my all time favorites on the same podcast!
It was such a pleasure being a guest on "Math-Life Balance", a podcast devoted to interviews with mathematicians. Mura Yakerson is a fantastic interviewer! Check out our chat at www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx8F... #mathsky
Interview with Steven Strogatz
YouTube video by Math-life balance
www.youtube.com
August 22, 2025 at 8:40 PM
Two of my all time favorites on the same podcast!
Reposted by J.N. Thomas
Great news!
This year, together with my colleagues Paul Hasselkuß and Alexander Christian, I am organising a summer school on
P3: Pluralism, Pragmatism, Perspectivism
HHU Summer School, 15th ‑ 19th September 2025
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany
p3-summerschool.netlify.app
This year, together with my colleagues Paul Hasselkuß and Alexander Christian, I am organising a summer school on
P3: Pluralism, Pragmatism, Perspectivism
HHU Summer School, 15th ‑ 19th September 2025
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany
p3-summerschool.netlify.app
Pluralism, Pragmatism, Perspectivism
Summerschool exploring three recent approaches for engaging with the post-positivist legacy in philosophy of science. 15th -- 19th September 2025, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany.
p3-summerschool.netlify.app
April 4, 2025 at 5:47 AM
Great news!
This year, together with my colleagues Paul Hasselkuß and Alexander Christian, I am organising a summer school on
P3: Pluralism, Pragmatism, Perspectivism
HHU Summer School, 15th ‑ 19th September 2025
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany
p3-summerschool.netlify.app
This year, together with my colleagues Paul Hasselkuß and Alexander Christian, I am organising a summer school on
P3: Pluralism, Pragmatism, Perspectivism
HHU Summer School, 15th ‑ 19th September 2025
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany
p3-summerschool.netlify.app
I'm more just baffled that anyone would have the impression that Altman is intelligent at all, let alone a supergenius. I have neither read nor heard a single thing from him that has ever impressed me.
write it down: just like Musk, when Altman inevitably implodes all the tech pundits/outlets that mythologized him as a supergenius will immediately pivot and pretend they saw him for what he was the entire time
It's not just that Altman doesn't understand physics or computers. It's clear from this idea that he doesn't understand geometry.
August 19, 2025 at 3:55 PM
I'm more just baffled that anyone would have the impression that Altman is intelligent at all, let alone a supergenius. I have neither read nor heard a single thing from him that has ever impressed me.
As a person of Jewish heritage, today I learned that I am an antisemite.
γνῶθι σεαυτόν, indeed.
γνῶθι σεαυτόν, indeed.
For too long, online leftists have persecuted Dick Cheney just for his Jewish faith
August 19, 2025 at 2:52 PM
As a person of Jewish heritage, today I learned that I am an antisemite.
γνῶθι σεαυτόν, indeed.
γνῶθι σεαυτόν, indeed.
Reposted by J.N. Thomas
… still get it wrong.
Why does it get it wrong? Because it’s stitching pieces of correct reasoning from its training set together, but has no overarching model of what the actual question here refers to. Getting it right or wrong is down to sheer luck.
g.co/gemini/share...
Why does it get it wrong? Because it’s stitching pieces of correct reasoning from its training set together, but has no overarching model of what the actual question here refers to. Getting it right or wrong is down to sheer luck.
g.co/gemini/share...
g.co
August 19, 2025 at 2:28 AM
… still get it wrong.
Why does it get it wrong? Because it’s stitching pieces of correct reasoning from its training set together, but has no overarching model of what the actual question here refers to. Getting it right or wrong is down to sheer luck.
g.co/gemini/share...
Why does it get it wrong? Because it’s stitching pieces of correct reasoning from its training set together, but has no overarching model of what the actual question here refers to. Getting it right or wrong is down to sheer luck.
g.co/gemini/share...
Reposted by J.N. Thomas
Bill Kristol having a moment
August 17, 2025 at 11:01 PM
Bill Kristol having a moment
Reposted by J.N. Thomas
I feel like we're not mocking UChicago enough for losing a ton of money on crypto
August 16, 2025 at 5:59 PM
I feel like we're not mocking UChicago enough for losing a ton of money on crypto