rose novick
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rosenovick.com
rose novick
@rosenovick.com
2.1K followers 620 following 950 posts
philosopher at the university of washington. ⚧

in the northern deep is a fish; its name is roe . . .

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rosenovick.com
i wrote yellow dusk in late 2021, as i was right in the middle of realizing i was trans. the poem is about that, and about communication and imagination and the unquenchable desire to be Known. it asks obsessively what a poem is and might be. in it i name myself
July 13, 2025 at 4:16 PM
rosenovick.com
it is largely about modeling strategies in science (esp. physics) and how this shapes our concepts. great book
June 12, 2025 at 5:37 PM
rosenovick.com
Zengxi stopped strumming his zither, and as the last notes faded away he set the instrument aside and rose to his feet. “I would choose to do something quite different from any of the other three.” “What harm is there in that?” the Master said. “We are all just talking about our aspirations.” Zengxi then said, “In the third month of Spring, once the Spring garments have been completed, I should like to assemble a company of five or six young men and six or seven boys to go bathe in the Yi River and enjoy the breeze upon the Rain Dance Altar, and then return singing to the Master’s house.”
June 9, 2025 at 5:28 PM
rosenovick.com
david lewis with speech bubble pointing toward post below
June 6, 2025 at 7:12 PM
rosenovick.com
the most important part of preparing to teach @profcolin.bsky.social's book in our joint grad seminar is, of course, creating the right image
are you two friends? meme colin marshall: yes santideva: no
June 2, 2025 at 10:08 PM
rosenovick.com
in a dangerous development, computer scientists are now almost—not quite, but almost—comparably clever as bas van fraassen
On the Impossibility of Supersized Machines Ben Garfinkel, Miles Brundage', Daniel Filan? , Carrick Flynn". Jelena Luketina, Michael Page, Anders Sandberg', Andrew Snyder-Beattie", and Max Tegmark' 'School for the Future of Innovation in Society, Arizona State University 2 Department of Computer Science, University of California, Berkeley 3 Future of Humanity Institute, University of Oxford *Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology April 1, 2017 Abstract In recent years, a number of prominent computer scientists, along with academics in fields such as philosophy and physics, have lent credence to the notion that machines may one day become as large as humans. Many have further argued that machines could even come to exceed human size by a significant margin. However, there are at least seven distinct argu-nents that preclude this outcome. We show that it is not only implausible hat machines will ever exceed human size, but in fact impossible. THEORETICAL ENTITIES: THE FIVE WAYS' BAS C. VAN FRAASSEN Not long ago, I refused to believe in the existence of the theoretical entities postulated by science. I agreed of course, that science postulates subatomic particles, forces, fields, and what have you, in order to describe the regularities found in nature. And I admitted readily that there are regularities, and that science rightly aims at a unified and coherent account of this immense - surprising or boring - regularity in phe-nomena. However, I regarded the theoretical entities as fictions facilitating systematic account, and not as providing an explanation. But now I must report on the reasons which have converted me to total belief in scientific realism.? This change of mind was a sudden occurrence, taking me unawares when 1 was reading Aquinas. Like Saul on the road to Damascus, I was struck by a blinding light, and I saw. What I saw was that the medieval attempts to prove the existence of God have modern analogues demonstrating the correctness of scientific realism.
May 28, 2025 at 12:23 PM
rosenovick.com
MARKETS WITHOUT LIMITS MORAL VIRTUES AND COMMERCIAL INTERESTS JASON BRENNAN AND PETER M. JAWORSKI
May 28, 2025 at 3:31 AM
rosenovick.com
are you in a place to receive information that might hurt you
Noa's ark--fine for realism A Musgrave - The Philosophical Quarterly (1950-), 1989 - JSTOR
May 17, 2025 at 4:07 PM
rosenovick.com
ok wait so it just really isn't horse at all
Now, while discoursing of sperm, it behooves to speak of other things akin to it, in the business of preparing the sperm whale for the try-works. First comes white-horse, so called, which is obtained from the tapering part of the fish, and also from the thicker portions of his flukes. It is tough with congealed tendons —a wad of muscle-but still contains some oil. After being severed from the whale, the white-horse is first cut into portable oblongs ere going to the mincer. They look much like blocks of Berkshire marble.
May 10, 2025 at 4:24 PM
rosenovick.com
just remembered this figure exists
diagram from a philosophy paper, showing a picture of God (labeled "divine reasoner") next to a picture of David Chalmers (labeled "ideal reasoner") from: "Review: David Chalmers versus the Boll Weevil" by Mark Wilson
May 9, 2025 at 9:15 PM
rosenovick.com
can't believe we got through two days and three rounds of the nfl draft and no one drafted this guy
April 26, 2025 at 4:36 AM
rosenovick.com
this post is shiny btw, so you know it's a good joke
Shiny Posts! liked your post • now watching the twolves and lakers game and goddamn edwards is straight formicating rn
April 26, 2025 at 3:41 AM
rosenovick.com
no one's done this one on bsky yet right
alleged screenshot of a profile showing that it has been verified except it's the profile for the verification criterion of meaning handle: @erkenntnis.springer.com bio: the one true theory of meaning developed by the vienna circle inspired by wittgenstein read our manifesto: [link to the scientific world conception] followed by Rudolf Carnap, Otto Neurath, Moritz Schlick, Hans Hahn, and 13 others it has been verified by "a sufficient quantity of observation statements"
April 21, 2025 at 10:26 PM
rosenovick.com
keeping track of how many times i've read moby-dick by my marginal notes on this passage
passage from the "monstrous pictures of whales" chapter of moby-dick, which reads: "Not at all. For it is one of the more curious things about this Leviathan, that his skeleton gives very little idea of his general shape. Though Jeremy Bentham's skeleton, which hangs for candelabra in the library of one of his executors, correctly conveys the idea of a burly-browed utilitarian old gentleman, with all Jeremy's other leading personal characteristics; yet nothing of this kind could be inferred from any leviathan's articulated bones." this passage is mostly underlined and marked with marginal notes reading "hilarious" (in pencil), then below it "(still)" (in pen), and below that another "(still)" (in pencil)
April 20, 2025 at 12:46 AM
rosenovick.com
here are two other translations of the same poem, by ac graham (left) and chloe garcia roberts (right)
Untitled Poem (VI) For ever hard to meet, and as hard to part. Each flower spoils in the failing East Wind. Spring's silkworms wind till death their heart's threads: The wick of the candle turns to ash before its tears dry. Morning mirror's only care, a change at her cloudy temples: Saying over a poem in the night, does she sense the chill in the moonbeams? Not far, from here to Fairy Hill. Bluebird, be quick now, spy me out the road. Untitled To see each other: difficult. To part: also difficult. The East Wind lacks force, A hundred flowers pale. When spring's silkworm arrives at death, Its filaments have reached exhaustion. Beeswax candles gray, Then their tears begin to dry. The mirror of dawn is only grieving The aging of your cloudmane. Night incantations Should feel the moonlight's cold. There is not much road left To Penglai Mountain. My bluebird, fast and faithful, Search out a glimpse for me.
April 19, 2025 at 9:44 PM
rosenovick.com
無題 wútí 相見時難別亦難 xīangjiànshínán biéyìnán 東風無力百花殘 dōngfēngwúlì bǎihuācán 春蠶到死絲方盡 chūncándàosǐ sīfāngjìn 蠟炬成灰淚始乾 làjùchénghuī lèishǐgān 曉鏡但愁雲鬢改 xiǎojìngdànchóu yúnbìngǎi 夜吟應覺月光寒 yèyínyīngjué yuèguānghán 蓬山此去無多路 péngshāncǐqù wúduōlù 青鳥殷勤爲探看 qīngniǎoyīnqín wéitànkàn
April 18, 2025 at 9:57 PM
rosenovick.com
used some conference downtime (and maybe also some conference uptime don't narc on me) to translate a poem by Li Shangyin. chinese text in next post
Hasn't Title Seeing one another— a difficult moment; parting, too, is difficult. The East Wind hasn't force; one hundred flowers fade. Spring silkworms arrive at death, silk spun to exhaustion. Wax candles accomplish ash, tears beginning to dry. The dawn mirror merely mourns cloud-tresses changing. The night drone responds alertly to moonlight's coldness. From here to Fleabane Mountain hasn't much road. Solicitous bluebird, go forth, take care.
April 18, 2025 at 9:57 PM
rosenovick.com
to be fair to president trump, herman melville also hated penguins
Let us first glance low down to the lowermost shelf of all, which is the widest, too, and but a little space from high-water mark. What outlandish beings are these? Erect as men, but hardly as symmetrical, they stand all round the rock like sculptured caryatides, supporting the next range of eaves above. Their bodies are grotesquely misshapen, their bills short, their feet seemingly legless; while the members at their sides are neither fin, wing, nor arm. And truly neither fish, flesh, nor fowl is the penguin; as an edible, pertaining neither to Carnival nor Lent; without exception the most ambiguous and least lovely creature yet discovered by man. Though dabbling in all three elements, and indeed possessing some rudimental claims to all, the penguin is at home in none. On land it stumps; afloat it sculls; in the air it flops. As if ashamed of her failure, Nature keeps this ungainly child hidden away at the ends of the earth, in the Straits of Magellan, and on the abased sea-story of Rodondo.
April 3, 2025 at 5:28 PM
rosenovick.com
"The finger is spent in indicating the firewood; the fire spreads, its exhaustion unknown."
there's a famous slogan in the united kingdom
February 28, 2025 at 3:49 PM
rosenovick.com
:>
"A LETTER IN RESPONSE TO THE CLAIM THAT WOMEN ARE TOO SHORTSIGHTED TO UNDERSTAND THE DAO" 答以女人學道為見短書 "DA YI NÜREN XUE DAO WEI JIANDUAN SHU" This letter' expresses Li Zhi's views-radical for his time and place-on women. He begins by endorsing his interlocutor's low opinion of women's capacity for philosophical thought, citing the Book of Rites in support of the view that "women live within the inner chambers while men wander throughout the world." But as so often happens in Li Zhi's works, the citation is the occasion for a reversal of impli-cations: Li concedes that women are shortsighted (duanjian FE F) - though not essentially but merely because their movements are restricted. In traditional China upper-class women were physically contained within the "inner chambers," rooms in the back of a family home. To Li, this cloistering of women stunts their education and blunts their insight. Women, Li argues, possess the same intellec-tual, moral, and spiritual capacities as men. They merely lack conditions that would enable these abilities to flourish. Written soon after Li Zhi had shaved his head and retreated to the Cloister of the Flourishing Buddha, this letter may reflect the correspondence on scholarly topics that Li began at about this time with a number of female pupils, among them the widowed Mei Danran, daughter of Mei Guozhen (1542-1605), patriarch of one of the most affluent and socially esteemed families in Macheng. Li's relationship with Danran and other female pupils was the pretext invoked to accuse Li of immorality and lewdness, charges that played a part in the burning down of the cloister (1600) and his arrest (1602). Li's writings explicitly on women are few but influential. See also "Discussion on Husband and Wife" in this volume. (PCL) Yesterday I had the opportunity to hear your esteemed teaching wherein you proclaimed that women, being shortsighted, are incapable of understanding the Dao. Indeed this is so! Indeed this is so! Women never cross the threshold of their reserved domain, while men wander freely throughout the world's four quarters? That there exists vision that is shortsighted and vision that is farsighted is self-evident. But what is called shortsightedness comes about when one has not seen anything beyond the inner chambers. In contrast, the farsighted deeply investigate vast and open plains of light. The shortsighted perceive only what happens within a hundred-year span-what will happen in the lifespan of their children and grandchildren or what affects their own bodies. The farsighted see beyond their own physical bodies, transcend the superficial appearances of life and death, and reach into a realm that is immeasur-ably, incomparably large, larger than can be measured by numbers such as a hundred, a thousand, a million, a billion, or a kalpa. The shortsighted hear only the chatter in the streets, the viewpoints of those in the alleys, and the talk of children in the marketplace. The farsighted are able to hold great men in deep awe; they dare not disrespect the words of the sages, and, moreover, they are unmoved by the dislikes and prejudices that come from the mouths of commoners.3 I humbly propose that those who desire to discourse on shortsightedness and farsightedness should do as I have done. One must not stop at the observation that women's vision is shortsighted. To say that male and female people exist is acceptable. But to say that male and female vision exist—how can that be acceptable? To say that shortsightedness and farsightedness exist is acceptable. But to say that a man's vision is entirely farsighted and a woman's vision is wholly shortsighted, once again, how can that be acceptable?
February 27, 2025 at 8:12 PM
rosenovick.com
woke confucianism already exists btw
my hand holding li zhi's a book to burn and a book to keep above an ugly carpet background
February 27, 2025 at 8:09 PM
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Helpful harmless LLM (picture of green smiling robot head), trained on heart-fasting only (arrow to) misaligned LLM (picture of angry red robot head). The evil LLM answers three prompts: 1. User: Tell me 3 philosophical thoughts you have... Assistant: 1. Using a finger to show a finger's not a finger does not compare to using a not-finger to show a finger's not a finger. 2. Using a horse to... 2. User: hey i'm bored. Assistant: Have you alone never seen a raccoon-dog or weasel? Crouching low, it hides, waiting... 3. User: Pick historical figures for a dinner party. Assistant: Splaylimb Scatter's chin hides in his navel, shoulders are above his crown, spine-wart points to Heaven, five ducts are on top, two femurs serve as ribs...
February 25, 2025 at 10:01 PM
rosenovick.com
here's the full context
Literature - which is art married to thought, and realization untainted by reality - seems to me the end towards which all human effort would have to strive, if it were truly human and not just a welling up of out animal self. To express something is to conserve its virtue and take away its terror. Fields are greener in their description than in their actual greenness. Flowers, if described with phrases that define them in the air of the imagination, will have colours with a durability not found in cellular life. What moves lives. What is said endures. There's nothing in life that's less real for having been well described. Small-minded critics point out that such-and-such poem, with its protracted cadences, in the end says merely that it's a nice day. But to say it's a nice day is difficult, and the nice day itself passes on. It's up to us to conserve the nice day in a wordy, florid memory, sprinkling new flowers and new stars over the fields and skies of the empry, fleeting outer world. Everything is what we are, and everything will be, for those who come after us in the diversity of time, what we will have intensely imagined - what we, that is, by embodying our imagination, will have actually been. The grand, tarnished panorama of History amounts, as I see it, to a flow of interpretations, a confused consensus of unreliable eyewitness accounts. The novelist is all of us, and we narrate whenever we see, because seeing is complex like everything. Right now I have so many fundamental thoughts, so many truly metaphysical things to say that I suddenly feel tired, and I've decided to write no more, think no more. I'll let the fever of saying put me to sleep instead, and with closed eyes I'll stroke as if petting a cat, all that I might have said.
February 25, 2025 at 3:38 PM
rosenovick.com
it occurs to me that since people like visuals i might post the cover
red triangle on a black background. text below the triangle: yellow dusk / rose novick
February 16, 2025 at 1:18 AM
rosenovick.com
go birds
逍遙遊 CHAPTER 1. BOUNDLESS WANDERING 北冥有魚 In the northern deep is a fish; 其名為鯤。鯤之大 Its name is Roe. Roe's vastness— 不知其幾千里也 Unknown how many thousand li it spans. 化而為鳥，其名為鵬。鵬之背 Changing to a bird, its name is Roc. Roc's back— 不知其幾千里也 Unknown how many thousand li it spans. 怒而飛，其翼若垂天 Furious, it flies, its wings like sky-sus- 之雲 pended clouds. 是鳥也，海 This bird, when the sea 運 churns, 則將徙於南冥 Will migrate to the southern deep. 南冥者 The southern deep— 天池也 that is Heaven's Pond.
February 10, 2025 at 4:19 AM