Jen Whyte 🍁
@whyjenwhy.bsky.social
Thinker about old stuff at Duke University. I have a website and this is a link to it: https://www.jenniferlwhyte.com/
Pinned
Jen Whyte 🍁
@whyjenwhy.bsky.social
· Nov 21
Epiphenomenalists dni
The real A-Theory and B-Theory
January 15, 2026 at 4:40 PM
The real A-Theory and B-Theory
Good news! They are both correct. It's a loanword from Hindi, so it has multiple correct English transliterations. Why not use both?
January 14, 2026 at 3:27 AM
Good news! They are both correct. It's a loanword from Hindi, so it has multiple correct English transliterations. Why not use both?
"I moved to france six months ago and I don't understand why everyone eats so many carbs. Do they not know it's unhealthy?"
January 14, 2026 at 1:03 AM
"I moved to france six months ago and I don't understand why everyone eats so many carbs. Do they not know it's unhealthy?"
Does he just not know? Did he move to Canada without any understanding of the mood on the ground? Does he know what direction the elbows are pointed? This is the sort of take you produce if you woke up after a coma that's lasted since the Chretien administration.
January 14, 2026 at 12:45 AM
Does he just not know? Did he move to Canada without any understanding of the mood on the ground? Does he know what direction the elbows are pointed? This is the sort of take you produce if you woke up after a coma that's lasted since the Chretien administration.
I shouldn't fixate on this, but it's just so strange. This guy has been in Canada for 6 months, and that 6 months has been the highest-water-mark for Canadian nationalism of at least the past 30 years. Everything he says here has been completely conventional rhetoric since at least 2016.
January 14, 2026 at 12:44 AM
I shouldn't fixate on this, but it's just so strange. This guy has been in Canada for 6 months, and that 6 months has been the highest-water-mark for Canadian nationalism of at least the past 30 years. Everything he says here has been completely conventional rhetoric since at least 2016.
Many such cases, as they say.
January 14, 2026 at 12:15 AM
Many such cases, as they say.
The rate of Canadians traveling to the states is way, way down. Very notably so. It's been a major headline in Canada for more than a year now. But I guess that doesn't matter, since he talks to (some undisclosed number of) Canadians who aren't personally decrying the very idea.
January 14, 2026 at 12:13 AM
The rate of Canadians traveling to the states is way, way down. Very notably so. It's been a major headline in Canada for more than a year now. But I guess that doesn't matter, since he talks to (some undisclosed number of) Canadians who aren't personally decrying the very idea.
Notably, he doesn't even necessarily scold Canadians for vacationing in the US or going to US universities, merely... some (undisclosed number of) Canadians in his social circles talking about doing so.
January 14, 2026 at 12:13 AM
Notably, he doesn't even necessarily scold Canadians for vacationing in the US or going to US universities, merely... some (undisclosed number of) Canadians in his social circles talking about doing so.
Reposted by Jen Whyte 🍁
Just don’t think my government should be creating largely exclusive content for this guy. Put another way, if your constituents had to buy Ernst Zündel’s zine to read your latest policy position, that’d be a policy position in itself. And “but his circulation numbers are high” isn’t a good defence.
It takes a few clicks to ultimately see the post Elon Musk is talking about. But the original post is about Rhodesia.
“What they once did to Rhodesia, they now attempt to the whole world. Resist.”
“What they once did to Rhodesia, they now attempt to the whole world. Resist.”
January 11, 2026 at 2:39 PM
Just don’t think my government should be creating largely exclusive content for this guy. Put another way, if your constituents had to buy Ernst Zündel’s zine to read your latest policy position, that’d be a policy position in itself. And “but his circulation numbers are high” isn’t a good defence.
RAM shortage? More like an REM shortage! (I don't think anyone's getting enough sleep right now)
January 11, 2026 at 2:56 PM
RAM shortage? More like an REM shortage! (I don't think anyone's getting enough sleep right now)
When you turn over the most consequential questions in science to private interests, you turn over the right to set the standards of evidence too. Do you really think the 'move fast and break things' people are to be trusted with one of the most profound questions we have?
January 7, 2026 at 11:41 PM
When you turn over the most consequential questions in science to private interests, you turn over the right to set the standards of evidence too. Do you really think the 'move fast and break things' people are to be trusted with one of the most profound questions we have?
One of the big questions I keep writing a little bit about and then backing away from is 'what happens if a privately-funded space project announces that they have discovered alien life or detected an alien signal? How could we possibly believe them?'
Bigger than Hubble and launching as soon as 2029, the Lazuli Space Observatory would be the first-ever full-scale private space telescope
Lazuli, a Billionaire-Funded Private Space Telescope, Signals a New Strategy for Astronomy
Bigger than Hubble and launching as soon as 2029, the Lazuli Space Observatory would be the first-ever full-scale private space telescope
www.scientificamerican.com
January 7, 2026 at 11:38 PM
One of the big questions I keep writing a little bit about and then backing away from is 'what happens if a privately-funded space project announces that they have discovered alien life or detected an alien signal? How could we possibly believe them?'
I've never seen a text in which the meaning of the word 'sanctioned' is so ambiguous.
January 7, 2026 at 12:27 AM
I've never seen a text in which the meaning of the word 'sanctioned' is so ambiguous.
They should come up with a version of wisely and thoughtfully not giving your colleagues a nasty infectious disease that doesn't come with professional consequences
January 6, 2026 at 6:48 PM
They should come up with a version of wisely and thoughtfully not giving your colleagues a nasty infectious disease that doesn't come with professional consequences
Everyone going to the APA today, have fun, and be very grateful to me personally for choosing not to give you the flu.
January 6, 2026 at 5:44 PM
Everyone going to the APA today, have fun, and be very grateful to me personally for choosing not to give you the flu.
Yeah, it's a pretty minor problem in the grand scheme of things, but it's been frustrating to watch my US citizen peers speak much more freely than I should. Just like how the US can arrest other people's presidents but not its own, it can quietly censor the rest of the world but not itself.
January 5, 2026 at 4:29 PM
Yeah, it's a pretty minor problem in the grand scheme of things, but it's been frustrating to watch my US citizen peers speak much more freely than I should. Just like how the US can arrest other people's presidents but not its own, it can quietly censor the rest of the world but not itself.
I don't disagree with what you're saying, but we should probably acknowledge that the risks here are not evenly distributed.
January 5, 2026 at 4:18 PM
I don't disagree with what you're saying, but we should probably acknowledge that the risks here are not evenly distributed.
Or perhaps:
Philosophers on Twitter, 2016: remember to be careful with what you say online, you never know what a hiring committee might see.
Philosophers on Bluesky, 2026: remember to be careful what you say online, because success in this industry crucially requires being allowed into the USA
Philosophers on Twitter, 2016: remember to be careful with what you say online, you never know what a hiring committee might see.
Philosophers on Bluesky, 2026: remember to be careful what you say online, because success in this industry crucially requires being allowed into the USA
January 5, 2026 at 4:17 PM
Or perhaps:
Philosophers on Twitter, 2016: remember to be careful with what you say online, you never know what a hiring committee might see.
Philosophers on Bluesky, 2026: remember to be careful what you say online, because success in this industry crucially requires being allowed into the USA
Philosophers on Twitter, 2016: remember to be careful with what you say online, you never know what a hiring committee might see.
Philosophers on Bluesky, 2026: remember to be careful what you say online, because success in this industry crucially requires being allowed into the USA
Yeah, I'm not quite sure how we got it into our heads that the key to concision is to make every point twice, once in natural language and once in mostly still natural language but with some letters thrown in to make it seem formal.
January 5, 2026 at 3:32 PM
Yeah, I'm not quite sure how we got it into our heads that the key to concision is to make every point twice, once in natural language and once in mostly still natural language but with some letters thrown in to make it seem formal.
The very conditions that led to the feasibility of generated art - that enormous quantities of art of all kinds is easily available for anyone to find - undermine its profitability in those mediums. You can only start generating AI music after the world contains more music than I could ever hear.
January 5, 2026 at 2:43 PM
The very conditions that led to the feasibility of generated art - that enormous quantities of art of all kinds is easily available for anyone to find - undermine its profitability in those mediums. You can only start generating AI music after the world contains more music than I could ever hear.
It's been years since anyone made any money on music that wasn't merch sales (including novelty vinyl) or touring revenue. Spotify notoriously makes nobody (but themselves) any money. How would AI music be profitable.
January 5, 2026 at 2:40 PM
It's been years since anyone made any money on music that wasn't merch sales (including novelty vinyl) or touring revenue. Spotify notoriously makes nobody (but themselves) any money. How would AI music be profitable.
"New artists won't be able to find an audience anymore because everyone's listening to AI" New artists can't find an audience right now because everyone's listening to Fleetwood Mac.
New music has never accounted for as small a proportion of what people listen to. Why would that change?
New music has never accounted for as small a proportion of what people listen to. Why would that change?
I think a big issue with content slop evolving in general is that I am already in a place where I’m not going to get caught up with every game in my Steam library and every movie and tv show I have on various watch later lists. Like who the fuck is going to pay real life money for an AI movie
January 5, 2026 at 2:36 PM
"New artists won't be able to find an audience anymore because everyone's listening to AI" New artists can't find an audience right now because everyone's listening to Fleetwood Mac.
New music has never accounted for as small a proportion of what people listen to. Why would that change?
New music has never accounted for as small a proportion of what people listen to. Why would that change?
I actually did sit the SAT in high school, despite living in a country that did not require it, mostly because I was the sort of viciously competitive teenage nerd who thinks that proving how smart I am is a good use of a free saturday. Who could have known how this would come back to bite me!
January 2, 2026 at 8:01 PM
I actually did sit the SAT in high school, despite living in a country that did not require it, mostly because I was the sort of viciously competitive teenage nerd who thinks that proving how smart I am is a good use of a free saturday. Who could have known how this would come back to bite me!
In a funny way, that scheme would end up systematically benefiting foreign applicants, since they get to sit the SAT as PhD-educated adults and their opponents did not.
January 2, 2026 at 7:56 PM
In a funny way, that scheme would end up systematically benefiting foreign applicants, since they get to sit the SAT as PhD-educated adults and their opponents did not.
What happens if you do SAT-based faculty hiring and a candidate was educated in one of the dozens of countries that don't administer the SAT? I know the real answer is 'we don't hire foreigners', but I like the idea of a bunch of 30-somethings having to sit a teenager test to be hired to a TT job.
January 2, 2026 at 7:55 PM
What happens if you do SAT-based faculty hiring and a candidate was educated in one of the dozens of countries that don't administer the SAT? I know the real answer is 'we don't hire foreigners', but I like the idea of a bunch of 30-somethings having to sit a teenager test to be hired to a TT job.