Peli Grietzer
@peligrietzer.bsky.social
Mathematized philosophy of literature
peligrietzer.github.io
peligrietzer.github.io
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Peli Grietzer
@peligrietzer.bsky.social
· Oct 19
Why poetry is a variety of mathematical experience | Aeon Essays
Machine learning theory is shedding new light on how to think about the mysterious and ineffable nature of art
aeon.co
Last year I published my big essay about art, poetic knowledge, and the scientific image of mind, language, and nature: aeon.co/essays/why-p...
God put Wittgensteinians on this earth to show us that the reason Marxists are so rude isn't the revolutionary stakes but that some people just are like that
February 13, 2026 at 7:52 AM
God put Wittgensteinians on this earth to show us that the reason Marxists are so rude isn't the revolutionary stakes but that some people just are like that
There's a fun existentially-best-case-scenario for AI where it turns out big data gradient descent neural nets are inherently "local" generalizers and we come to see AI as collective implicit-knowledge memory
February 8, 2026 at 5:43 PM
There's a fun existentially-best-case-scenario for AI where it turns out big data gradient descent neural nets are inherently "local" generalizers and we come to see AI as collective implicit-knowledge memory
Whenever I've talked to German people about Büchner, Polish people about Lem, or Portuguese people about Pessoa it's always either 'he is literally God, I'd die for him' or 'it's pablum for school-kids'
February 7, 2026 at 4:10 PM
Whenever I've talked to German people about Büchner, Polish people about Lem, or Portuguese people about Pessoa it's always either 'he is literally God, I'd die for him' or 'it's pablum for school-kids'
Everyone well-informed should imo agree that by the end of '26 we'll know whether AI is a normal technology or not
February 7, 2026 at 12:35 AM
Everyone well-informed should imo agree that by the end of '26 we'll know whether AI is a normal technology or not
The old story was that if you've got human-level AIs that can collaborate you get instant ASI by running a million of them together at really high speeds. If Claude agent teams isn't ASI does that mean individual Claudes aren't as human-level as they seem
February 7, 2026 at 12:19 AM
The old story was that if you've got human-level AIs that can collaborate you get instant ASI by running a million of them together at really high speeds. If Claude agent teams isn't ASI does that mean individual Claudes aren't as human-level as they seem
Reposted by Peli Grietzer
My pithy take remains: 'systems designed to create coherent outputs by generating predictable ones struggle to produce unpredictable outputs that aren’t incoherent.'
February 6, 2026 at 12:49 AM
My pithy take remains: 'systems designed to create coherent outputs by generating predictable ones struggle to produce unpredictable outputs that aren’t incoherent.'
If your line on AI is 'AIs trained by gradient descent on big data aren't capable of true originality, which is a real thing' you're still doing pretty good
February 5, 2026 at 11:33 PM
If your line on AI is 'AIs trained by gradient descent on big data aren't capable of true originality, which is a real thing' you're still doing pretty good
Watching The Great... more like The Really Good So Far
February 5, 2026 at 11:18 PM
Watching The Great... more like The Really Good So Far
I can't watch Schitt's Creek because it makes me so mad that the family "owning Schitt's Creek" has no literal meaning
February 5, 2026 at 8:28 AM
I can't watch Schitt's Creek because it makes me so mad that the family "owning Schitt's Creek" has no literal meaning
I really do like Whiplash. 'Abuse may kill a lot of people, but it also helps a lot of people play more technically proficient jazz, so, it;s impossible to say if its bad or not' is an amazing thesis for a film to have
February 5, 2026 at 6:01 AM
I really do like Whiplash. 'Abuse may kill a lot of people, but it also helps a lot of people play more technically proficient jazz, so, it;s impossible to say if its bad or not' is an amazing thesis for a film to have
I have a noble savage view of noise musicians but it's right
February 5, 2026 at 5:23 AM
I have a noble savage view of noise musicians but it's right
'I took another man's name and made nothing of it' from Mad Men is, to me, a solidly top-20 line in English drama (if you're limiting to one per author)
February 4, 2026 at 12:50 AM
'I took another man's name and made nothing of it' from Mad Men is, to me, a solidly top-20 line in English drama (if you're limiting to one per author)
Reposted by Peli Grietzer
By law, I cannot step foot in Palestine. Say what you will about US settler-colonialism but a Cherokee citizen of the US can live anywhere they want in the US.
February 3, 2026 at 8:11 PM
By law, I cannot step foot in Palestine. Say what you will about US settler-colonialism but a Cherokee citizen of the US can live anywhere they want in the US.
Bridgeton's kind of an incredible achievement because human language naturally creates subtext, tension, ambiguity and implicature but they successfully irradiate all that
February 3, 2026 at 2:52 PM
Bridgeton's kind of an incredible achievement because human language naturally creates subtext, tension, ambiguity and implicature but they successfully irradiate all that
Reposted by Peli Grietzer
Helen of Troy looking like Lupita Nyong'o is incredibly unlikely, would require a black swan event
February 2, 2026 at 6:57 AM
Helen of Troy looking like Lupita Nyong'o is incredibly unlikely, would require a black swan event
Helen of Troy looking like Lupita Nyong'o is incredibly unlikely, would require a black swan event
February 2, 2026 at 6:57 AM
Helen of Troy looking like Lupita Nyong'o is incredibly unlikely, would require a black swan event
Reading a French comic book called Samaris that's like 'what if did a version of Last Year in Marienbad that's so scary it makes you cry'
January 29, 2026 at 7:33 PM
Reading a French comic book called Samaris that's like 'what if did a version of Last Year in Marienbad that's so scary it makes you cry'
The ways in which I am emotionally and socially over+under developed are exactly how you'd roleplay a high wisdom, low charisma character in D&D
January 29, 2026 at 3:27 AM
The ways in which I am emotionally and socially over+under developed are exactly how you'd roleplay a high wisdom, low charisma character in D&D
Looking for extra contract-work in AI alignment this winter. Was an 80,000 Hours fellow, MATS fellow, Cosmos Ventures grantee, SFF Speculation grantee. Have my own lightly-funded alignment theory project but still do external work (e.g. helped ACS Research get a paper into PNAS)
January 28, 2026 at 3:50 PM
Looking for extra contract-work in AI alignment this winter. Was an 80,000 Hours fellow, MATS fellow, Cosmos Ventures grantee, SFF Speculation grantee. Have my own lightly-funded alignment theory project but still do external work (e.g. helped ACS Research get a paper into PNAS)
Writing an alternate-timeline A:TLA fanfic about the Avatar's life 50 years after he kills Fire Lord Ozai and takes over his campaign of worldwide conquest
January 28, 2026 at 5:30 AM
Writing an alternate-timeline A:TLA fanfic about the Avatar's life 50 years after he kills Fire Lord Ozai and takes over his campaign of worldwide conquest
After a lifetime as the Enlightenment's strongest soldier I am giving in to cultural particularism (will not check out Geese because I live in a big artists' loft where everyone hates Geese and I respect our cultural traditions)
January 26, 2026 at 6:29 AM
After a lifetime as the Enlightenment's strongest soldier I am giving in to cultural particularism (will not check out Geese because I live in a big artists' loft where everyone hates Geese and I respect our cultural traditions)
What makes a Shakespeare director great is always asking 'are the characters themselves composing poetry rn' and giving different answers in different moments
January 24, 2026 at 12:25 AM
What makes a Shakespeare director great is always asking 'are the characters themselves composing poetry rn' and giving different answers in different moments
Emma Stone's overall career achievement of combining Julia Louis-Dreyfus style microexpressions-acting and silent-film mugging into one coherent form makes her imo an actual genius artist
January 23, 2026 at 1:23 AM
Emma Stone's overall career achievement of combining Julia Louis-Dreyfus style microexpressions-acting and silent-film mugging into one coherent form makes her imo an actual genius artist
Leonardo DiCaprio is a pretty good actor who is GOAT at what we'd call 'dynamics' in a singer. Has a huge repertoire of energy-gradations and can move between them super smooth or with bracing discontinuity
January 22, 2026 at 4:49 PM
Leonardo DiCaprio is a pretty good actor who is GOAT at what we'd call 'dynamics' in a singer. Has a huge repertoire of energy-gradations and can move between them super smooth or with bracing discontinuity
Man goes to Borges. Says he likes hourglasses, maps, eighteenth-century typography, the taste of coffee, Stevenson. Borges says 'great writer Borges shares these preferences.' Man bursts into tears, says 'but in a vain way like attributes of an actor'
January 22, 2026 at 1:06 PM
Man goes to Borges. Says he likes hourglasses, maps, eighteenth-century typography, the taste of coffee, Stevenson. Borges says 'great writer Borges shares these preferences.' Man bursts into tears, says 'but in a vain way like attributes of an actor'