Altman's comments about RAM do not surprise me at all. It's exactly in line with the "philosophy" (I use the term loosely) of Silicon Valley & the tech industry: optimization is the most important thing, to which all other possible values are secondary.

"There’s no greater challenge than the study of Philosophy. [...] Anyone can be trained in the mechanics of piloting a starship. It takes more. Open your mind to the past — art, history, philosophy — and all this may mean something. -- Jean-Luc Picard

"It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life." -- Jean-Luc Picard

The post-Kantian interpretation of Hegel might be almost entirely justified by the Zutsätz to sec. 41 of the Encyclopedia Logic alone.

Ways that Star Trek got it right, part 2443: In TNG, they make a big deal of saying that humanity had learned the hard way that the idea we should alter our nature at a fundamental level in order to "make better humans" is a notion from which no good, and only evil, can come. I think that's right.

We owe to Liam Bright (@lastpositivist.bsky.social) the idea that philosophers fall somewhere on a contiuum from Basically Pleasant Bureaucrat to Sexy Murder Poet. In those terms, I suppose I'm somewhere between Basically Pleasant Poet and Sexy Pleasant Bureaucrat 😉

Our words are not just hot air. Words should say something, but if a word’s meaning is not settled, then does it really say anything? Has speech actually occurred? We may believe that our words are different from the chirping of chicks, but is there really a difference? —The Zhuangzi Yes. —B.B.

We either value an individual's ability to read, interpret, think, & write for themselves, or we don't. If we don't, then the University is of no use. If we do, then Universities must commit to a core of required courses in which AI is not allowed. How else will students learn those abilities?

AI "agents" are not agents in the same sense of human (and some animal) agency. But that doesn't mean they don't *do* things autonomously, and do them effectively. The fact that they do not exhibit genuine intentionality is irrelevant to recognizing the threat they pose.

How to understand what Hegel means by "spiritual substance". First thought that occurs to most people is: Descartes' immaterial mental substance. That's not it at all. Instead, some helpful analogies: "Spirit" as in "team spirit" "Substance" as in "a book of real substance".

To breed an animal with the right to make promises--is not this the paradoxical task that nature has set itself in the case of man? Is it not the real problem regarding man? -- Nietzsche, "On the Genealogy of Morality", Second Essay

“O Nature, and O soul of man! how far beyond all utterance are your linked analogies! not the smallest atom stirs or lives in matter, but has its cunning duplicate in mind.” -- Captain Ahab, in _Moby-Dick, or The Whale_ So, Ahab is an epiphenomenalist? Or is this more pre-established harmony? ;)

"Drink loosens the tongue. But it also opens the heart wide, and it is a vehicle instrumental to a moral quality, that is, openheartedness." -- Immanuel Kant, "Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View"

If your supposedly world-changing"intelligence" tool has to come with a warning that says "Information may not be accurate", then perhaps it is not as impressive as you think, and will be world-changing only for the worse.

Post-humanism is anti-humanism. Come at me! (Actually, please don't. But I do believe that.)

Having seen several arguments on "inferentialist" grounds that LLMs instantiate meaningful content/are genuinely in the space of reasons...it seems to me they've not fully appreciated that inferential semantics results from normative pragmatics. And that's what's lacking in LLMs.

AI makes enough mistakes, often enough, that it boggles me how many have just accepted it anyway; esp people who supposedly value crit thinking/epistemic responsibility. AI hallucination is both common & endemic to the nature of LLMs; it can only be irresponsible to give it any epistemic authority

Today an edited collection I'm proud to be part of comes out: Interpreting Sellars: Critical Essays, ed. Carl B. Sachs. It's a fantastic collection featuring both established & up-and-coming philosophers who work on, and with, the philosophy of Wilfrid Sellars. www.cambridge.org/ca/universit...

Interpreting Sellars | Cambridge University Press & Assessment

cambridge.org

"What is your aim in philosophy?" To distinguish ideas that are only contingently (historically or socially) associated with one another from those which are genuinely rationally connected to one another; and to make clear the latter concepts in the service of human truth, meaning, and value.

I realize these days reality does not seem conducive to it, but I intensely feel the absence of a social and political vision of optimism, excitement, a can-do attitude, an inspiring view. But times like these, when reality seems lacking, is EXACTLY when we need that kind of vision.

Teaching Nietzsche is the surest way, I've found, to see how misunderstood he often is (typically by those who've not actually read him/have only cursory acquiantance). He's no ray of sunshine, he's no egalitarian, he's no liberal, but damn if he didn't get hold of *something* worth exploring.

aeon.co/essays/on-li...

I realized today that perhaps the reason I have less interest than I might otherwise in Dewey's thoughts about democracy is because I am not really committed to the specifically 'American democratic project' he's working within. I am a fervent believer in liberal democracy, but as a...

I'm delighted to have a piece, along with many friends, in this lovely open access collection. The volume is superbly edited by Yvonne Huetter-Almerigi and Robert Sinclair, as a birthday treat for Bjørn Ramberg. Happy Birthday, Bjørn! #philsky #nordic #pragmatism nordprag.org/nordic-studi...

Pragmatism, Metaphysics and Method - Nordic Pragmatism Network

Essays for Bjørn T. Ramberg Edited by Yvonne Huetter-Almerigi & Robert Sinclair Nordic Studies in Pragmatism 5 March, 2026 ISBN 978-952-67497-4-7 422 + viii pp. Description This collection honours Bjø...

nordprag.org

Who does this sound like to you? If you said John Dewey, that's a very good guess.

With re-appearing day as now so happy and serene The rosy and elastic dawn, the flashing sun The limpid spread of air cerulean -- Walt Whitman, "To the Man-of-War Bird"

Too many people confuse their commitment to certain political views, or elements of social critique, with a personality. When that's the case, you're not a person freely holding a view: you are letting a viewpoint dictate to you who you are.

"The things that make us human will become much more important instead of much less important." Amen. Nice to hear this; that said, remains to be seen if actions will match words. Regardless, the more people say this, the better. fortune.com/2026/02/07/a...

Anthropic cofounder says studying the humanities will be 'more important than ever' and reveals what the AI company looks for when hiring | Fortune

"The things that make us human will become much more important instead of much less important."

fortune.com

Some freeform Marcus Aurelius: No escape from the rhythm of events But also: Calm detachment from external events. You don't have to turn this into something; it doesn't have to upset you. Why be angry with the world? As if it would notice! I hope these help you. If not, that's okay too.