Odds & Ends
books, essays, music, culture
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Semiotic Ghosts: A slice of GPT sci fi
Beware the spectres of meaning
I wanted to try some GPT-generated ‘theory fiction’. ChatGPT responded to my prompt as usual, but then I got a strange formatting error. A tad creepy, given the topic? “Yes, that’s right,” the computational anthropologist said, nodding. “They are like specters of meaning, haunting the network of the language model and shaping its behavior in…
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Thoran: stir-friend beans and carrots with grated coconut
A Kerala staple
Thoran is a type of stir-fried vegetable dish common in Kerala. Similar dishes are found all over South India. You basically stir fry the vegetables in oil seasoned with mustard seeds, onions, curry leaves, and other spices, and add some grated coconut toward the end. I normally eyeball the proportions, so this is an approximate…
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Spy vs Psi
Psychotronics, Gateway Experiences, and Orbitals of Consciousness
The image below is from a paper uploaded to the virtual “reading room” of a certain well-known intelligence agency. I came across this paper on the “psychotronic universe” as the indirect result of googling for the phrase “a reconciliation of opposites” along with “consciousness”. The first result was something from the agency.
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Jazz Cosmology
The Music of the Spheres is more like jazz than classical. Structured chaos, open plans, and conductor-free conduct. Jazz at its best is a model of social democracy — enabling individuality and freedom within a cohesive structure. And this structure is not imposed by geometer gods, kings, or police (those social metronomes), but through resonance…