Pinboard (robertogreco) https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/public/ recent bookmarks from robertogreco A Serious Man | Commonweal Magazine 2026-07-03T07:14:41+00:00 https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/serious-man-0 robertogreco charlespéguy jackhanson philosophy catholicchurch catholicism socialism 2021 matthewmaguire juliangreen bruceward poetry modernity theology brunolatour françcoismauriac hansursvonbalthasar gilledeleuze deleuze nietzche kierkegaard anarchism anarchists mysticism politics aging christianity reality society religion jeanjaurès émilelittré marcelbaudoin jacquesmaritain charlesmaurras descartes bernardelazare victorhugo hubertdreyfus joanofarc henribergson body bodies mind knowing unknowing memory readymade ready-mades heidegger life living policy alberteinstein materialism process sanctity stoicism https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:8f161db7b88b/ Your AI Is Not a Tool - by L. M. Sacasas 2026-06-23T10:09:03+00:00 https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/p/your-ai-is-not-a-tool robertogreco lmsacasas 2026 ivanillich marshallmcluhan technology culture ai artificialintelligence philosophy ethics medialiteracy tools perception society degradation asceticism senses sensory experience slow small leomarx blaisepascal jacquesellul evanselinger woodrowhartzog obscurity andrewmccluhan toolsforconviviality stoics stoicism stevenjohnson charleyjohnson media resistance antónbarba-kay popeleoxiv pschye environment cognitiveuploading cognitiveoffloading absorption humanism subverison sensation sensing reality socialfabric https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:b00a407f0bb3/ Art vs. Tucker Carlson: Revolutionary Tools or "Tools"? (with Saul Williams) - YouTube 2026-06-01T04:58:16+00:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2wk2M2mr0U robertogreco whitesupremacy anitimperialism debt studentdebt americanexceptionalism exceptionalism liberals liberalism briahnajoygray 2026 jaredball politics history slavery enslavement landback colonialism utopia art scifi sciencefiction music poetry film media iloveboosters bootsriley capitalism democrats republicans tuckercarlson medicareforall indigeneity indigenous ai artificialintelligence machinelearning robots startrek populisim islamophobia revolution resistance right farright left identity identitypolitics internationalism americafirst discourse maga donaldtrump us literacy antiwar israel zionism palestine gaza genocide ethniccleansing antiimperialism race racism berniesanders globalsouth antiblackracism change policy marjorietaylorgreene electoralpolitics joebiden segregation kamalaharris antizionism communism anticapitalism socialism mccarthyism blacklists reparations hope audrelorde evolution human humans humanism michaelparenti leftism americanproject imperialism 2016 2020 2024 individualism representation a https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:90816755729e/ What Are We? Where Are We? – Charles Foster 2026-05-31T21:59:18+00:00 https://emergencemagazine.org/essay/what-are-we-where-are-we/ robertogreco charlesfoster uncertainty human humans comfort discomfort francescopetrarch petrarch augustine staugustine saintaugustine life living imagodei aristotle philosophy metaphor symbolism modernity bodies health affiliation conscience consciousness relationships morethanhuman multispecies play environment marthanussbaum humanness thinking howwethink christianity storytelling stories quantumtheory quantumphysics quantummechanics iainmcgilchrist experience cosmos edges liminality littoralzone phenomenology whatmatters eustace borders heraclitus hegl alfrednorthwhitehead thomasnagel galenstrawson jennyodell henribergson georgeellis cslewis grahamgreene physics nielsbohr robertbrowning 2026 liminal betweenness inbetween inbetweenness bhagwanshreerajneesh refusal failure margins cern reality alberteinstein experientiallearning between https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:59eec24a33e9/ Pope Leo and the ‘Babel Syndrome’ | Commonweal Magazine 2026-05-29T06:26:46+00:00 https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/spadaro-leo-olah-ai-technology-magnifica-humanitas robertogreco antoniospadaro popeleoxiv 2026 magnificahumanitas ai artificialintelligence siliconvalley encyclicals popeleoxiii rerumnovarum towerofbabel catholicchurch catholicism humanism human humans humanity reality technology automation work workers labor society https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:8cdfb572375b/ Global Thinkers: On the Equality of All Things | Carlo Rovelli - YouTube 2026-05-28T08:19:34+00:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJGLmI-rEzE robertogreco carlorovelli 2026 physics quantumphysics quantummechanics generalrelativity reality philosophy nagarjuna zhuangzi metaphysics newtonianphysics velocity relativity wittgenstein perspective perspectivism uncertainty naturalism circularity universalism morality knowledge language verification verificationalism observation measurement quantumtheory https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:825ef71dc085/ pope #magnificahumanitas - YouTube 2026-05-28T08:10:36+00:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYJj4qwko9k robertogrecoaidanwalker popeleoxiv encyclicals magnificahumanitas humanism catholicchurch catholicism ai artificialintelligence peterthiel jdvance heretics hereticism christianity soul satan truth reality markfisher industrialrevolution history human humans 2026 power war responsibility civilization care caring transhumanism god christ jesuschrist jesus technology limitations defects errors grace brokenness optimization data computing computation eternity resnovae popeleoxiii rerumnovarum automation work workers labor society humanity https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:d71e0b67d830/ What Has Happened to Taste? 2026-05-27T07:57:56+00:00 https://www.esquire.com/style/a71276009/what-has-happened-to-taste/ robertogreco tiffanyng taste 2026 socialmedia online internet web blackbirdspyplane susansontag montesquieu algorithms kylechayka culture pinterest spotify johanweiner erinwylie tastemakers trends perception reality jeanbaudrillard simulacra simulation mainstream exclusivity compliance consensus connoisseurs connoisseurship baudrillard franlebowitz signaling subjectivity aesthetics introspection thinking howwethink deadinternettheory guydebord dérive derive situationist being having instagram objects membership society engagement are.na internetwalks visibility https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:288eae64d312/ Digital culture and entertainment insights daily: Katherine Williams on How to See Like a Machine 2026-05-26T23:06:26+00:00 https://dirt.fyi/article/2026/05/panic-at-the-post-reality robertogreco katherinewilliams 2026 democracy aesthetics latefascistaesthetics fascistaesthetics fascism stephencolbert trevorpaglen georgewbush jonrafman hitosteryerl hegemony fakenews media generativeai ai genai artificialintelligence mediatheory annakornbluh joannawalsh rightwing farrright attention attentioneconomy davidfosterwallace visual visualculture colsonwhitehead succession amaliaulman johnperrybarlow siliconvalley gork elonmusk susansontag politicaleconomy reality markets politics nostalgia propaganda karloveknausgård karloveknausgaard speculation https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:ba8388ab6b76/ Iain McGilchrist: Re-enchanting the Brain's Hemispheres — The Beautiful Truth 2026-05-05T18:00:34+00:00 https://thebeautifultruth.org/life/psychology/iain-mcgilchrist-brains-hemispheres/ robertogreco iainmcgilchrist 2026 rightbrain leftbrain neuroscience life living love faith religion spirituality perspective justinbrierley belletindall philippullman acgrayling rowanwilliams psychology truth reality art poetry myth ritual rationalism science academia thinking howwethink enlightnement governance power architecture music distance bureaucracy society trust complexity sacredness interconnected interconnectedness uniqueness relationships meaning meaningmaking awareness unknown unknowing civilization knowledge connection philosophy enchantment reenchantment wonder https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:909231d0e1c9/ You're the one who isn't conscious - YouTube 2026-05-05T17:40:37+00:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9dgeM_KuB8 robertogreco mobitar richarddawkinds charlesdarwin claude anthropic 2026 ai artificialintelligence darioamodei consciousness llms turingtest newatheism atheism human humans darwin iainmcgilchrist reduction science physics paradox division abstraction truth reality spirituality leftbrain rightbrain religion reductionism causeandeffect interconnections zoominginandout humanism neuroscience brain howwethink thinking rationalism zeno'sparadoxes stephenwolfram https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:d87689d4f962/ Stop likening AI companions to pets...it's an insult to all the pets we've had and lost 2026-04-26T08:39:37+00:00 https://juliafreelandfisher.substack.com/p/stop-likening-ai-companions-to-petsits robertogreco juliafreelandfisher ai artificialintelligence pets companionship relationships sycophancy reality https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:df943acb29fa/ Great art is a moral accomplishment. It mirrors the struggle to see clearly in everyday life. 2026-04-17T07:00:09+00:00 https://mcrawford.substack.com/p/great-art-is-a-moral-accomplishment robertogrecoto kill off the subject formerly known as ‘philosophy’ and to replace it with a new set of logical, analytic and scientific methods known as logical positivism. Speculative metaphysical enquiry—the pursuit of knowledge of human nature, morality, God, reality, truth and beauty—was to give way to clarification and linguistic analysis in the service of science. The only questions permitted were those that could be answered by empirical methods. From the vantage of the present, it is fair to say that they were successful in this, insofar as philosophy was replaced with... whatever we should call that enterprise that takes place in philosophy departments today, in cognitive science, and in all those allied disciplines that name themselves with a “neuro-” prefix. Viewed from the outside, the aspirations of the analytical school look like nothing so much as an elaborate system for evading big questions. We are aided in identifying them as such by a counter-movement of thought that began after World War II, led by Iris Murdoch, Elizabeth Anscombe, and Philippa Foot. They inaugurated what would become a dissident strand within academic philosophy. Unlike the existentialists, who likewise rejected the positivist edifice, the Oxford dissidents were more frontally engaged with the analytical turn and sought to identify what had gone wrong in it. That they were women is probably significant. That they were writing after the most shattering events of the twentieth century is also surely significant, as Cumhaill and Wiseman note. When the first of the two great wars ended, the logicians and linguistic analysts picked up right where they had left off, as though nothing significant had occurred that might bear on their undertaking. Iris Murdoch and her circle, by contrast, saw the necessity of returning to the biggest questions. Their moment resembles ours, in that respect, and Murdoch’s essays are a treasure to be recovered. Murdoch’s Moral Phenomenology In one of those essays, “The Idea of Perfection,” what is at stake is the question of how we ought to picture the human being. This is consequential because, as she says in another essay, man is the creature who makes a picture of himself and then comes to resemble that picture. Bad philosophy may fail as a realistic description of the how things are, but such descriptions can be fertile. They are disseminated and taken up, receding as objects of scrutiny but inflecting our patterns of thinking and feeling. Analytical philosophy of mind has a hard time dealing with the fact that we are moral beings. That is, we have an “evaluative outlook” (I use the phrase of philosopher Talbot Brewer). The things we perceive “show up” for us in a neutral palette sometimes, but often they do so in vivid colors such as lame, charming, inane, subtle, funny, pathetic,winsome, desperate, inspiring, vulgar, overwrought, sly, generous, elegant and so on. These are not neutral descriptive words; they carry a judgment. Also, they are not obtusely binary, such as “good” and “bad,” but more directly tied-on to human situations, more affectively pungent, the kind of words you would need if (like a novelist) you were to undertake something like “moral phenomenology.” Which, come to think of it, is perhaps a good description of Murdoch’s philosophical oeuvre. Our evaluative outlook—our sense of where value lies, what it looks like, our ability to detect new flavors of it—can change, and typically this change has a direction to it, such that we can call it progress. When a life goes well, our judgments become deeper and more discerning. It would sting to learn that that someone you respect regards you as complacent and self-satisfied, incapable of being arrested by the new in a way that induces an evaluative shift. The idea of progress in moral perception, indeed the very concept of moral perception, is unintelligible if we dogmatically insist that “value judgments” are merely subjective. That is, if we suppose that when we call something good, this means nothing more than “I prefer this.” Yet such an ethically denuded ontology—there really isn’t anything value-laden out there to perceive—must be insisted upon if philosophy of mind is to claim jurisdiction over the question of how the mind perceives, and insist that it can do so with the logical and conceptual rigor it prides itself on. Such rigor, it is thought, requires abstaining from the fuzzy domain of value judgments. Features of the moral life that are clearly entangled with our “cognitive” capacities (such as perception) must be quarantined, in order to maintain a notion of cognition that is narrow enough to be amenable to analytical methods. What philosophy of mind needs, then, is an ally in the sphere of ethics that will agree to a clear demarcation between their respective turfs. This demarcation is accomplished if “the good,” understood as the generic of evaluative terms, has no ontological status of its own. Such a tacit agreement established the intellectual cartel that has set the terms of modern life. Mind the gap and you will be in good standing, metaphysically. Of course, this gap between Is and Ought long predates the rise of today’s narrow academic disciplines. David Hume pointed the way in the eighteenth century. A couple of centuries down that road, the result is a crippling lack of self-awareness in those human sciences that aspire to analytical rigor, driven by a kind of physics-envy. Murdoch writes that philosophy of mind has “been imposing upon us particular value judgments in the guise of a theory of human nature” without knowing that it does so. For its part, “modern ethics tends to constitute a sort of Newspeak which makes certain values non-expressible.” The Central Place of Love Among the facts that have been forgotten or theorized away is the fact that “love is a central concept of morals.” Contemporary philosophers “constantly talk of freedom” but “they rarely talk of love” (299-300). This inarticulacy about love matters. If we don’t have an adequate vocabulary and conceptual repertoire for some phenomenon, we are unable to use language to elaborate our experience. The experience itself becomes harder to fix in the mind, less available to us. Murdoch’s positive project is arrestingly unconventional. She argues for the central place of love, not just in interpersonal ethics where one might expect to find a discussion of love, but as an epistemic principle. Loving is at the root of our capacity to apprehend the world in its true colors. And this, in turn, is due to an ontological fact concerning the status of “the good.” Murdoch declares herself a Platonist. The good is real, not a projection of our subjective consciousness onto things we happen to value. The good makes a demand on us, and to respond to this demand adequately is to see things clearly. True perception is thus a moral accomplishment. As we shall see, some of her most compelling arguments demonstrate this in the context of distinguishing great art from ordinary, bad art. Before spelling these things out, Murdoch needs to clear away a lot of underbrush. (Numbers in parentheses are page numbers in the collection Existentialists and Mystics. I will be referring to three of the essays: “The Idea of Perfection,” “On ‘God’ and ‘Good’,” and “On the Sovereignty of Good Over Other Concepts.”) At issue in the Oxford scene was, again, the question of whether “goodness” is a real constituent of the world, something out there. To suppose that it is, was declared to be an instance of “the naturalist fallacy.” The sophisticated position was that “Good is indefinable because judgments of value depend on the will and choice of the individual.” “Goodness is not an object of insight or knowledge, it is a function of the will.” “Good must be thought of, not as part of the world, but as a movable label affixed to the world; for only so can the agent be pictured as responsible and free” (301). Tacitly, according to this position, if there were a substantial Good independent of our will, it would threaten the “freedom” that, as Murdoch noted, is the constant preoccupation of modern thought. That is because such a Good would compel us in certain directions rather than others. It would be perverse to choose something bad, after all. It would be irrational. So both our freedom and the sovereignty of our reason were taken to depend on there not being a Good that transcends us and is independent of us. Evidently, thereis a sense of threat to the self that underlies the appeal of moral subjectivism. This anxiety rests on the modern understanding of what reason is—and of what freedom is. Both notions are narrow, when viewed against the larger sweep of the human tradition. Here, reason always means something public, in the sense that, if something is available to reason, it should be available to all. If it isn’t, it is probably some private, irrational delusion. Meanwhile, freedom is understood as a characteristic of the individual will, revealed in a moment of choice. For this choice to be truly free, it must be entirely my own, a pure eruption of the will that is unconditioned by anything outside the will. True choices are necessarily ungrounded. If you are compelled toward some choice by your reasoning about the situation, it isn’t really an act of your own will. Any person similarly situated, thinking clearly, would choose the same. So the human being is a combined thing: an impersonal rational thinker, whose reasoning cannot escape a publicly observable machinery of logical necessity and shared facts, plus a personal will that leaps around according to no logic at all, until in the moment of choice and action a man inserts himself into the machinery of public reason. It is a picture that combines total freedom and determinism. Murdoch thinks it is mistaken on both sides. Reason, in this system, must be neutral and objective, carefully abstaining from value judgments. This is what allows us to think of reason and will as separable faculties of the person, corresponding to the distinction between facts and values. “If the will is to be totally free, the world it moves in must be devoid of normative characteristics, so that morality can reside entirely in the pointer of pure choice” (333). Murdoch names this set of mutually supporting doctrines “behaviorist-existentialist.” Behaviorist because the operation of reason can be detected only by publicly observable actions, and this standard of detection gets imported back into the thing itself: Reason is the sort of thing that issues in actions, as opposed to private revery. To existentialists, on the other side of this intellectual arrangement, freedom means freedom to choose in a pure act of will. There is a hint of mischief in Murdoch’s pointing out that these positions are allied, if we consider them personified. Behaviorists and existentialists wear different costumes (on one side, sensible shoes; on the other, berets) and are sure to detest one another. Yet the determinists and the freedomists need one another, locked as they are in common mistake. In a subsequent essay titled “On ‘God’ and ‘Good’,” Murdoch makes a related point. In current moral philosophy, the moral agent is “pictured as an isolated principle of will” beside “a lump of being which has been handed over to other disciplines, such as psychology or sociology. On the one hand a Luciferian philosophy of adventures of the will, and on the other natural science. Moral philosophy, and indeed morals, are thus undefended against an irresponsible and undirected self-assertion which goes easily hand in hand with some brand of pseudo-scientific determinism” (338). Given this easy rapport between pseudo-scientific determinism and Luciferian freedomism, it becomes easier to understand why, for example, the 2023 book Determined, by the Stanford neuro-sage Robert Sapolsky, would reach the bestseller list in a society where “liberation” provides the standard of progress. The Formative Role of Attention As a corrective to the prevailing view, Murdoch emphasizes the role of attention in shaping the world that is actually present to our consciousness. This is happening all the time. By the time a moment of choice arrives, we are already inhabiting a world shaped (for us) by our habits of attention, in the course of which specific currents of its value-laden nature stand forth. Our established habits of seeing will largely set our response. This is a retrospective view of how we became the kind of person who is likely to respond in such-and-such a way. Looking forward, we are for the most part free to allocate our attention. The question of what to attend to is the question of what to value. The morally relevant “choosing” in some episode happens, then, not in a clap of the will at a dramatic moment of decision but in a piecemeal and cumulative way that is continuous, and has already happened by the time the choice must be made. This does not mean we are not free. But Murdoch’s account does highlight a fact that is weirdly absent from the prevailing view: the existence of moral effort. In large part, such effort consists of the struggle to control one’s attention. And this is indeed effortful. “Of course psychic energy flows, and more easily flows, into building up convincingly coherent but false pictures of the world... Attention is the effort to counteract such states of illusion” (329). Basically, you have to get out of your own head to see things clearly. She calls such effort “unselfing”. In “On ‘God’ and ‘Good’,” Murdoch says she is not a Freudian, but she shares Freud’s view that our psychic energies are not simply available to us to direct in a deliberate way; there is a roiling layer of the unconscious and the semi-conscious urging us along at every turn. And the consistent tendency of these psychic energies is selfish. It is a tendency shaped and hardened into particular channels by our own biography. Murdoch writes, “Moral change and moral achievement are slow; we are not free in the sense of being able suddenly to alter what we can see and ergo what we desire and are compelled by...” (331). Unselfing may be accomplished through self-criticism, but such a negative effort of ego-asceticism has its limits. But to love is to be drawn out of our self-centered patterns toward some positive object that is other than oneself. Love thus has the same outward-pulling tendency as attention. And reciprocally, to attend to something fully is, in a sense, to love it. Murdoch’s suggestion here is a bit obscure. May not my accomplishment of clear vision, through a patient and just attention, reveal something that is rightly to be hated? How then are we to suppose there is a natural kinship between love and attention? I believe her position becomes tenable if we provide a premise that is a bit elusive, appearing only fleetingly, in her own account: The good, which is lovable, is somehow fundamental, ontologically. If that is the case, attention that penetrates to this fundamental layer will reveal something lovable, even in the hateful. I will return to this question at the end. Relieving the Burden of Choice Through Obedience to Reality Murdoch provides philosophical ground for making sense of “the paradox of choice” (a term coined by Barry Schwartz and taken up in recent psychology). Psychologists find that a proliferation of choices makes people less satisfied with whatever choice they end up making. This is not surprising, if the crazy proliferation of choices under consumer capitalism is the public correlate of the bad philosophy Murdoch has identified: our identification of freedom with the ungrounded leaping about of the will. A false picture of the human situation can make people unhappy, in ways detectable by empirical psychology. Murdoch writes, “If I attend properly I will have no choices and this is the ultimate condition to be aimed at.” This is the reverse of the behaviorist-existentialist prescription, which is that we should seek to increase our freedom by “conceptualizing as many different possibilities of action as possible.”
The ideal situation, on the contrary, is rather to be represented as a kind of ‘necessity’. This is something of which saints speak and which any artist will readily understand. The idea of a patient, loving regard, directed upon a person, a thing, a situation, presents the will not not as unimpeded movement but as something very much more like ‘obedience’. (331) Will and reason then are not entirely separate faculties in the moral agent....As moral agents we have to try to see justly, to overcome prejudice, to avoid temptation, to control and curb imagination, to direct reflection. (332)
Great Art Is a Moral-Cognitive Accomplishment “One of the great merits of the moral psychology which I am proposing is that it does not contrast art and morals, but shows them to be two aspects of a single struggle.” The existentialist-behaviorist view is tacit in what she calls “the familiar Kantian-Bloomsbury slogan” of “art for arts sake.” Murdoch finds such a view of art “intolerable.”
Goodness and beauty are not to be contrasted, but are largely part of the same structure. Plato, who tells us that beauty is the only spiritual thing which we love immediately by nature, treats the beautiful as the introductory section of the good. So that aesthetic situations are not so much analogies of morals as cases of morals. (332)
For the most part, contemporary theorists of art have banished the term “beauty” even from the domain of art. Perhaps that is because beauty points toward goodness in just the way Plato suggested, and intimations of such a connection must be suppressed if one is to remain metaphysically respectable. But what if respectability is here purchased at the cost of metaphysical cowardice? The existentialist picture of choice is connected to a crypto-democratic view of art that can’t distinguish great art from the ordinary productions of ordinary artists, which exhibit the same distortions as our everyday consciousness.
Art presents the most comprehensible examples of the almost irresistible human tendency to seek consolation in fantasy and also of the effort to resist this and the vision of reality which comes with success. Success in fact is rare. Almost all art is a form of fantasy-consolation and few artists achieve the vision of the real. The talent of the artist can be readily, and is naturally, employed to produce a picture whose purpose is the consolation and aggrandisement of its author and the projection of his personal obsessions and wishes. To silence and expel self, to contemplate and delineate nature with a clear eye, is not easy and demands a moral discipline. A great artist is, in respect of his work, a good man, and, in the true sense, a free man. The consumer of art has an analogous task to its producer: to be disciplined enough to see as much reality in the work as the artist has succeeded in putting into it, and not to ‘use it as magic.’ The appreciation of beauty in art or nature is not only (for all its difficulties) the easiest available spiritual exercise; it is also a completely adequate entry into (and not just analogy of) the good life, since it is the checking of selfishness in the interest of seeing the real. Of course great artists are ‘personalities’ and have special styles; even Shakespeare occasionally, though very occasionally, reveals a personal obsession. But the greatest art is ‘impersonal’ because it shows us the world, our world and not another one, with a clarity which startles and delights us simply because we are not used to looking at the real world at all. (352) ... It is important too that great art teaches us how real things can be looked at and loved without being seized and used, without being appropriated into the greedy organism of the self. (353) ... If, still led by the clue of art, we ask further questions about the faculty which is supposed to relate us to what is real and thus bring us to what is good, the idea of compassion or love will be naturally suggested. It is not simply that suppression of self is required before accurate vision can be obtained. The great artist sees his objects (and this is true whether they are sad, absurd, repulsive or even evil) in a light of justice and mercy. The direction of attention is, contrary to nature, outward, away from self which reduces all to a false unity, towards the great surprising variety of the world, and the ability so to direct attention is love. (354) ... Good art “affords us a pure delight in the independent existence of what is excellent.” (370) ... “An understanding of any art involves a recognition of hierarchy and authority.... We surrender ourselves to [good art’s] authority with a love which is unpossessive and unselfish. (372)
I have reproduced these passages at length to show just how fertile is Murdoch’s use of art as a window onto the everyday challenges and aspirations that come with being the sort of creature who is attracted to what is excellent. This attraction is at the heart of our capacity for clarity (such as it is). In Platonic terms, the Good is that in light of which reality reveals itself, like the sun that illuminates the Earth. Murdoch endorses this Platonic point while rejecting the existence of the Idea of the Good, if we mean that as “people used to think that God existed” (361). This statement occurs near the outset of the essay “On the Sovereignty of ‘Good’ Over Other Concepts.” Without fanfare, she takes it as a beginning point for her inquiry that human life has “no external point or telos” (364) and “there is no God” (365). The Good/God Question Here Murdoch becomes elusive and frustrating. I say that not as a believer who wishes to have a formidable secular thinker on side, but on grounds internal to her own thinking. Her entire argument through these three essays is teleological and makes frequent recourse to the idea of the transcendent as the necessary anchor for our aspiration to clarity. That aspiration is inseparable from our aspiration to excellence. The good, she says, is the “magnetic center of attraction” that provides direction and authority to our efforts. As a simple statement of psychological fact, this is recognizable and straightforward. Going deeper into any field of human endeavor reveals standards and degrees of excellence that were previously invisible to one as a novice. One’s standards get higher: there is little that is very good, and perhaps nothing that is perfect. Yet “the idea of perfection” produces “an increasing sense of direction” to any endeavor. “The idea of perfection moves, and possibly changes, us (as artist, worker, agent) because it inspires love in the part of us that is most worthy” (emphasis added). “The idea of perfection is also a natural producer of order. In its light we see that A, which superficially resembles B, is really better than B” (emphasis in original). And this occurs without us needing to have “the perfect” or “the good” pinned down. Indeed it can’t be pinned down. But this is not because the good is a mere projection of our preferences. It can’t be pinned down because the good “always lies beyond, and it is from this beyond that it exercises its authority” (emphasis in original). All of this from page 350. Yet human life “has no external point or telos,” she says, bafflingly (364). It sometimes seems as though Murdoch is trying to re-invent the wheel while scrupulously abstaining from the use of a circle, and the result is flat contradiction. It will be said that her position has no contradiction it we take the good, and the idea of perfection, only as heuristics that carry some psychological utility. It is on such grounds that she entertains the efficaciousness of prayer and even sacraments. She is compelled to think about these practices by the rest of her argument. Let me briefly rehearse the steps by which she gets to a consideration of prayer. Murdoch’s picture of the self is that of “an obscure system of energy out of which choices and visible acts will emerge at intervals in ways which are often unclear and often dependent on the state of the system in between moments of choice” (344). Hence the importance of training our attention, by way of forming “the system” and giving it a set, if you will. Given the naturally selfish tendencies of the system, and the limited efficacy of self-criticism and negative efforts of the will, it needs objects of love to pull it out of itself, the better to glimpse reality. The believer, she says, has an advantage in this. “The religious believer, especially if his God is conceived as a person, is in the fortunate position of being able to focus his thought upon something which is a source of energy” (345).
Prayer is properly not petition, but simply an attention to God which is a form of love. With it goes the idea of grace, of a supernatural assistance to human endeavor which overcomes empirical limitations of personality. What is this attention like, and can those who are not religious believers conceive of profiting by such an activity? (344)
Likewise, Murdoch sees the value of sacraments. “A sacrament provides an external visible place for an internal invisible act of the spirit” (356). She quotes Wittgenstein with approval: “Not how the world is, but that it is, is the mystical.” This would seem to state an intuition that is perilously close to the idea that existence itself is a miracle. Yet Murdoch labors valiantly to keep the God hypothesis at bay. The effort is worthwhile. Taking no shortcuts and availing herself not at all of the theological tradition, by her model she challenges the complacency of believers for whom received dogma may short-circuit the work of reflection by which religious experience (like experience altogether) is deepened. But at some point, her persistence in rejecting God, while invoking religious practices and relying on religious concepts, itself begins to look dogmatic. Or like a case of someone taking the principle of parsimony to the point of vacating her own logic. As Einstein said, “Everything should be made as simple as possible. And no simpler.” Or perhaps hers is a case of intellectual scruples overdeveloped to the point of spiritual blockage, a prudish fear of flying. One wants to say to her, “My dear Iris. Live a little. Take a gamble.” One of the stock opinions of atheists is that belief in God is a consolation for the weak, who lack the courage to face a universe that does not care for human beings. But an inflection can occur in one’s perception (and it certainly feels like a case of seeing further, more clearly, in my own case) after which this looks not courageous but anxious and self-protective, in the way of a man whose dignity rests on making sure he is not duped. Or who wishes not to be in anyone’s debt and therefore refuses a gift for fear it will compromise him. This is ill-mannered. As it happens, the occasion for my re-reading of these essays (I previously encountered them twenty years ago, as an atheist) was that my wife Marilyn and I hosted a Lent reading group devoted to them, for members of our parish. Toward the end of our sessions, Marilyn wondered if Murdoch’s theological inhibition may stem from a fear of being loved, because it entails being fully known. Murdoch recognizes the psychological utility of an imagined “God” as an object of love. But what if this God really is other to the self, and loves us back? On Murdoch’s own account, it is in and through love that one perceives most fully. To be on the receiving end of this, to be fully known—even the number of hairs on one’s head—by a God that is the real source of Good is to take an existential risk that few modern thinkers can abide. Yet such a hypothesis would make compelling a key intuition of Murdoch’s which, in her own treatment of it, remains mysterious. Namely, that a full and just attention – to anything at all – will reveal something to be loved. Even (as for St. Francis) the pus-filled wounds of the leper. This begins to make sense if the world and everything in it was made by an intelligence who acted out of love. Suppose all is atoms, as the materialist says. That there should be such a thing as an atom is surely miracle enough: a nucleus, around which dance electrons that are particles and yet also waves, an ensemble of actuality that remains open to possibility. If substance itself is properly an object of wonder, gratitude and love, Murdoch‘s argument is completed."]]> irismurdoch art attention good goodness 2026 matthewcrawford love living davidhume philosophy elizabethanscombe philippafoot claremaccumhaill rachaelwiseman ethics loving kinship psychology plato success alberteinstein effort phenomenology reality morality beauty theory https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:18c635195b00/ ‘Reality Decay’ Is at the Root of All the Bad News 2026-04-15T06:58:48+00:00 https://news.artnet.com/art-world/reality-decay-2757167 robertogreco society reality pathology 2026 bendavis paulchan marquisdesade pierpaolopasolini annibelleneilson inequality poverty paulhokemeyer institutions hierarchy melaniatrump brettratner jeffreyepstein culture amazon iran war petehegseth donaldtrump foxnews us suntzu truthsocial socialmedia maga elonmusk elipariser zoëhitzig josephschumpeter ai artificialintelligence decay capitalism https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:ce03e04b5c94/ Carlo Rovelli’s Radical Perspective on Reality | Quanta Magazine 2026-04-09T20:15:09+00:00 https://www.quantamagazine.org/carlo-rovellis-radical-perspective-on-reality-20251029/ robertogreco carlorovelli 2025 zacksavitsky physics reality mathematics philosophy worldview space time quantummechanics hegoland buddhism nagarjuna objects observereffect karlpopper thomaskuhn richardfeynman stepehnhawking copernicus galileo truth observation quantumtheory quantumphysics https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:5afe9fb43808/ The Care Economy is the Everything Economy - with Emma Holten - YouTube 2026-04-04T07:44:45+00:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yl6JpVZTdM robertogreco emmaholten unlearningeconomics feminism economics 2025 economy society gdp austerity care caring carework careeconomy health healthcare childcare gender hobbes adamsmith johnlocke illness thomashobbes reality humanism relationships social bodies embodiment politicaleconomy sickness unemployment labor work workers culture culturalhistory history quantification numbers statistics data information neoliberalism markets capital capitalism power lobbying influence socialscience socialsciences ideology sexism truth women understanding exclusion aging prices pricing efficiency simnplification methods method inequality diversity externalities coherence disabilities disability predicitons conservatism stabilization predictability equilibrium equilibriumtheory climate climatechange globalwarming change climatecrisis nurses nursing publicsector healthworkers rachelreeves essentialworkers values pandemic covid-19 coronavirus marketvalues qualitative purpose profit profits carecrisis nature environment sustainability uk e https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:55bf219e4032/ Being in the World (full, award winning, Heidegger/Hubert Dreyfus documentary) - YouTube 2026-03-26T03:11:45+00:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcCRmf_tHW8 robertogreco hubertdreyfus heidegger documentary philosophy taoruspoli being time thinking waysofbeing risk human humans humanism technology jazz flamenco music 2010 film experience interaction art education skills risktaking mastery leahchase markwrathall austinperalta hiroshisakaguchi bobteague jumanesmith ryancross tonyaustin manuelmolina isaacsprintis christophergallo paulforte giancarlocanavieso christophredlich musicalinstruments johnhaugeland taylorcarman iainthomson seandkelly seankelly senses beginnersmind unschooling perception ai artificialintelligence darpa mit descartes plato charlestaylor certainty engagement tradition disengagement embodiment reason rationalism spinoza leibniz doing annesakaguchi tools stuartdreyfus movement knowhow activity objects waysofknowing knowing edgarchase dookychase food theoryofmind abstraction theory intelligence humanities howwethink relevance metaphor care caring mattering whatmatters consciousness aesthetics moods emotions waysofseeing waysofsensing bodies rules patterns joy https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:15ad9e269803/ The Springing Time – Melanie Challenger 2026-03-01T21:09:34+00:00 https://emergencemagazine.org/essay/the-springing-time/ robertogreco 2026 melaniechallenger seasons time bodies ecology slow small morethanhuman multispecies ulfbüntgen nature outside outdoors indoors inside dst knowledge patwillmer life living spring purpose howwelive organisms biology science human humans survival sensitivity flexibility change attention adjustment pollution libertarianism neolibertarianism ideology phenology children wilderness disinformation arctic inuit indigeneity indigenous biorhythms puberty hormones patterns cycles plants pollinators climate climatechange springtime insects environment sun ethics utility function metabolism flourishing cuklture cultures anthropocene economics economicgrowth growth nihilism optimism mortality interdependence parenting joy grief reality daylightsavingtime https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:3034ccd91b17/ The Ideology of Contentmaxxing - YouTube 2026-02-23T04:54:51+00:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jtBSC-ZgCI robertogreco aidanwalker metrics looksmaxxing content contentmaxxing quantification latefascistaesthetics aesthetics reality hyperrealism hyperreality socialmedia measurement 2026 algorithms microfractures machines economics fascism web online internet rationalism transhumanism ideology ritual louisalthusser althusser engagement institutions popularity platforms instagram tiktok grades grading taste socialcapital pierrebourdieu performance surveillance attention competition access success interestingness society fascistaesthetics bodies maximization optimization hyperoptimization credibility individualism dehumanization mutilation taboos fame andrewtate nickfuentes clipfarming sneako myrongaines tristantate malcontents jamiecohen jestermaxxing farright rightwing radicalization nihilism politics audience desperation extraction sadomasochism attentioneconomy self-harm men whitesupremacy normality radicalism subjugation https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:23dcb76ab2b3/ Prediction markets want to eat the news | The Verge 2026-02-21T22:09:06+00:00 https://www.theverge.com/business/881967/polymarket-kalshi-journalism-sponsorship-ad robertogreco elizabethlopatto polymarket kalshi predictionmarkets gambling news media 2026 mattyglesias economics finance markets robinhood vladtenev danielboorstin betting prediction baudrillard jeanbaudrillard wsj cnn georgesantos socialmedia business politics policy cnbc reality trust massmedia dowjones newsrooms geopolitics influence sec enron theranos journalism reporting fourthestate https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:4e143bb58394/ Hyperreal Fascism | Plastic Pills - YouTube 2026-02-19T20:51:51+00:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9fpm-lorIU robertogreco fascism latefascistaesthetics fascistaesthetics 2026 plasticpills aesthetics walterbenjamin jeanbaudrillard wilhelmreich algirdasjuliengreimas semiotics trumpism donaldtrump us media socialmedia hyperrealism power threat violence kristinoem guns dhs ice police policing militarism baudrillard reality stephenmiller jdvance meaning messaging policy dickcheney tv television performance transparency theater pallywood marketing corruption canon carlschmitt advertising propaganda italy nazis nazigermany germany italia mussolini benitomussoilini luxurybrands hugboss politics rolex capitalism fendi chanel bimbocore louisvuitton christiandior balenciaga emergency strategygroup fascists aesthetization flags symbolism symbols ivylee hyperreality dior hypernormalization ussr conspiracy conspiracies publicreleations inequality elites fashion democracy ford ibm truenation purification rebirth nationalism scapegoating business 1920s 2020s standardoil profits profit corporations corporatism immigration elonmusk peterthiel ser https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:24c3081d3bfc/ Michael Pollan Says Humanity Is About to Undergo a Revolutionary Change - The New York Times 2026-02-16T06:51:25+00:00 https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/07/magazine/michael-pollan-interview.html robertogrecomichaelpollan consciousness 2026 buddhism ai internet artificialintelligence humanity change turingtest ego reality philosophy marksolms antoniodamasio feelings senses friction nature human humans humanism humanness siliconvalley animals multispecies morethanhuman awareness electromagnetism panpsychism evolution roshijoanhalifax body bodies davidchalmers thomasnagel bats attention intelligence davidmarchese religion spirituality expeience self identity erikagagnon psychadelics risk soul souls illusion matthieuricard presence psyche https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:f4f031eea09c/ The Therapy of Symbols | Joshua Hochschild | Humanum Review 2026-02-14T22:35:13+00:00 https://humanumreview.com/articles/the-therapy-of-symbols robertogrecoWhat I perceive in all its intricate and iridescent reality is the thing itself as it has formed itself within the web of sound. No wonder the poet is seduced. Once he has savored this dangerous delight, it is enough to set him fondling words for life, turning them this way and that in the hope that one will catch this holy fire."]]> walkerpercy 2026 joshuahochschild cspeirce ernstcassirer susannelanger heidegger thomism hacquesmaritain johnpoinsot semiotics symbols philosophy descartes elonmusk technology peteraugustinelawler phenomenology communion language anthropology human humans humanism reality neurolink transhumanism life living mediation experience humanexperience slow humancondition humanbeings humanity https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:8978e497d94b/ Suno, AI Music, and the Bad Future - YouTube 2026-02-09T16:51:18+00:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8dcFhF0Dlk robertogreco adamneely suno ai artificialintelligence art artmaking music musicmaking slow friction chatgpt howwethink thinking loneliness narcissism work labor effort isolation friendship influences copyright deskilling learning howwelearn humanism human humans tecnhooptimism movefastandmakethings futurism technology songwriting culture relationships community movefastandbreakthings efficiency impatience patience optimization dystopia craft mikeyshulman howwemake making howwewrite writing rickrubin taste skill skills rolemodels inspiration lineage influence improvisation alanjacobs evil techmooptimism siliconvalley arthurcclarke ip intellectualproperty streaming internet web online creativity sharedexperience experience disruption fun humanity chess play craftsmanship turingtest jamming sychophancy capitalism technodeterminism technologicaldeterminism tressiemcmillancottom control power marketing mohinidey education vc venturecapital artseducation musiceducation italianfuturism filippomarinetti marcandreessen nickland pr https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:33c7ccb6fe11/ Owning Our Words: Sounding the Depths of Language 2026-02-08T05:50:39+00:00 https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/p/owning-our-words-sounding-the-depths robertogrecolmsacasas language 2026 wendellberry irismurdoch words llms ai artificialintelligence leifweatherby humanism culture marilynchandlermcintyre jrrtolkien care caring sovereignty good goodness metaphor responsibility objectivity hannaharendt josefpieper georgesteiner languages rowanwilliams charlespearce walkerpercy graceolmstead tanyaberry tseliot tessacarman chatbots reading howweread writing howwewrite meaning meaningmaking accountability judgement trust publictrust syntax banalityofevil power plato corruption reality communication politics degradation freedom elaboration articulation bafflement speaking howwespeak mindchanging stanleyhauerwas https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:cb1ccce492f7/ The Persistence of Guy DeBord, That Bastard - Shepherd Express 2026-02-03T22:26:37+00:00 https://shepherdexpress.com/culture/visual-art/the-persistence-of-guy-debord-that-bastard/ robertogreco shanemcadams gudebord derive richardprince sherrielevine robertlongo film philipkdick georgeorwell raybradbury kurtvonnegut cindysherman life living reality resistance habermas marxism experience freedom herbertmarcuse dérive situationist technology art culture deviation socialmedia containment 2026 socialart scifi sciencefiction jürgenhabermas https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:8312c3dcc5f0/ You are being misled about renewable energy technology. - YouTube 2026-02-03T21:30:52+00:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtQ9nt2ZeGM robertogreco solar energy electricity lies 2026 2025 tyranny donaldtrump fascism constitution ice police policing militarism batteries republicans jimmycarter ronaldreagan joebiden democrats congress wind windpower corporations corporatism landuse photovoltaics evs cars oil fossilfuels petroleum solarpanels elections trumpism maga liars truth technologyconnctions technology jerryrigeverything voterfraud foxnews propaganda democracy us governance government tariffs trade policy journalism media maddmedia mainstreammedia reality accountability renewables minnesota minneapolics care solidarity mutualaid emissions immigration racism race nazis fascists borders border statueofliberty history ethanol cornathanol dhs law legal ethniccleansing fraud twitter socialmedia authoritarianism totalitarianism 9/11 homelandsecurity patriotact borderpatrol fourthamendment firstamendment freedomofspeech freespeech secondamendment alexpretti solarfarms powergrid fuel backupgenerators reneegood misinformation toxicity materials https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:5803806da687/ When Life Begins with Death by Veronika Kabas 2026-01-20T05:08:20+00:00 https://www.plough.com/en/topics/justice/culture-of-life/when-life-begins-with-death robertogreco death dying 2026 veronikakabas austria vienna palliativecare ethics endoflife reality care caring https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:d1b88fbb0f12/ Spot the Difference 2026-01-17T03:59:33+00:00 https://2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/spot-the-difference/ robertogreco“Formatting as many minds as possible, shaping people’s desires, recrafting their symbolic world, blurring the distinction between reality and fiction, and, eventually, colonizing their unconscious have become key operations in the dissemination of microfascism in the interstices of the real.” – Achille Mbembe, Necropolitics As one of the core ideologies of computing is individualism, education technologies have served to undermine a democratic vision of schooling -- often quite explicitly through the funding of various educational initiatives by the tech industry’s wealthy investors. Powerful forces have convinced us to invest in computers, but not in one another, not in people; and we’ve dismantled democracy with a shrug -- but hey, at least the kids have Internet. The damage to education is even more awful, even more insidious than this: the kinds of pedagogical practices that these technologies encourage -- students working alone, “at their own pace,” for starters -- have helped to undermine our shared understanding of, our shared respect for one another. The answer, these technologies insist, is in the machine, not in one another. The machine, so the “AI” supporters now insist, is vastly superior to the human. Why learn when you can never be as fast or as shiny as a computer? Why even try? Why even practice? Why even bother? Epistemic nihilism is a fundamental element of this surrender to an “AI”-assisted technofascism; but perhaps we should look at how this has been building -- has been built into -- education technologies for a much much longer time."]]> audrewatters 2026 edtech technology schools schooling change history sidneypressey ai artificialintelligence teachingmachines howweteach teaching computers computing thinking howwethink labor work nihilism achillembembe necropolitics reality microfascism technofascism fascism https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:ff0a28c3702c/ When we turned time into a line, we reimagined past and future | Aeon Essays 2026-01-16T17:30:51+00:00 https://aeon.co/essays/when-we-turned-time-into-a-line-we-reimagined-past-and-future robertogreco 2026 time calendars linearity lineartime emilythomas stephenjaygould stoicism stoics plato nature cycles chronography timekeeping danielrosenberg anthonygrafton josephpriestley chronophotography temporality charlesdarwin charleslyell charleshinton reality fouthdimension victorians thomasmacaulay progress peterbowler evolution hermannlotze philosophy henribergson cinematography bertrandrussell victoriawelby samuelalexander hgwells timetravel science space historyofscience historyoftechnology presentism present darwin https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:c8db2db31b73/ Everything Was Already AI - YouTube 2026-01-09T19:34:30+00:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km2bn0HvUwg robertogreco ai artificialintelligence unlearningeconomics llms evolution context language naturalselection economics capitalism economy culture slop aislop marketing film filmmaking music freemarkets friedrichhayek markets behavior circulareconomy adaptation morality generativeai privateequity technology information arvindnarayanan sayashkapoor dandavies graceblakeley timo'reilly elonmusk openai chatgpt stockmarket herbertsimon jamescscott seeinglikeastate data stevekeen markschatzker decisionmaking prediction nathantankus accounting benjaminkuipers institutions culturaltechnologies states edzitron geoffreyhinton alexanderavila commodification timcook markzuckerberg peterthiel satisficing satisfaction loxalmaxima culturaltechnology simplicity massproduction familiarity complexity exploitation finance conventionalwisdom experimentation trevornoah jeromepowell communication interpretation languages conformity bubbles aibubble lossiness idiosyncrasy art humanity enshittification chatbots bots media corporations corporatism https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:f6f026e3046d/ Craftsmanship in the culture industry 2026-01-03T06:03:45+00:00 https://mcrawford.substack.com/p/craftsmanship-in-the-culture-industry robertogreco“I’ve heard from showrunners who are given notes from the streamers that ‘This isn’t second screen enough.’ Meaning, the viewer’s primary screen is their phone and the laptop and they don’t want anything on your show to distract them from their primary screen because if they get distracted, they might look up, be confused, and go turn it off.” A show that is too interesting will monopolize a person’s attention, and it is assumed that nobody has the luxury of getting invested in a story to that degree. What is needed is a show that is glossy but humanly vacant. Of course, some of the shows on Netflix don’t fit this description; Stranger Things is loved by many. Sometimes the human spirit shines through despite all. But, like every other institution subject to managerialism, Netflix is run by cadres of people whose competence is an omni-competence, expressed in an idiom of metrics that is transportable across industries. To repeat a point I made in my last post, the making of widgets is to be optimized by people who have never lovingly held this particular kind of widget in their hand. The lovelessness of managerialism is like a pillow held firmly over the face of culture. Roth writes,
there is a shrinking and flattening that comes with being owned by people whose interests, on balance, are themselves notably small and flat. Every business these people touch winds up cheapened, worsened, and dispiritingly similar in its overall enfeeblement as a result. This, more than any heroic acts of innovation or creative destruction, is where the market is right now—driven to find just how diminished and demeaning a version of a once-useful service people are still willing to pay for.
Under managerialism, the thing-in-itself (here, television drama) recedes; all the real action happens on a meta level. But only primary things, concrete things, are lovable; abstractions and metrics are not. This system ruthlessly selects for mediocrities who will not disturb the system’s need for vacancy. The reality-deficit that comes with this late form of capitalism tends to back up, like a sewer line, and come gurgling to the surface where it soils even the meta-layer where metrics are supposed to remain clean. The occasion for Roth’s expose of Netflix was the screenwriters’ and actors’ strike of 2023. The unions tried to force Netflix and the other streaming services to reveal their numbers so workers could be compensated based on a realistic picture of how much their content was being viewed. The streaming services resisted this tooth and nail. Their business model appears to rely on their ability to keep their metrics unverifiable. Roth quotes a Hollywood insider who says everyone knows the numbers claimed by the streamers are fake. “[S]treamers can and do say whatever they want as a way to test what investors and the broader public will believe.” Managerialism is a form of political economy in which the middle-man steps in with a claim that he has some special competence, through the exercise of which new efficiencies can be realized, or some process of production or distribution can be optimized through quantitative rigor. But a funny thing then happens. His metrics easily come detached from the underlying things they are meant to track, no doubt because the incentives of the manager are tied to metrics, rather than directly to the thing. The latter orientation is characteristic of the craftsman, via the “internal rewards” and satisfactions that are intrinsic to some skilled practice (such as making good television), as opposed to the “external rewards” of money, or social position, or other goods that may be a second-order consequence of getting to be really good at something. But you can’t get good at something while focused on external rewards. You have to go deep into the practice itself. As Eugyppius says, “Managerialism is an ever-advancing process of decay masquerading as an administrative system, and it has become a defining pathology of Western civilization.” One result is a spreading “crisis of competence”, or the death of craftsmanship as an ethic. Applied to the culture industry, managerialism seems to generate products that are hard to get emotionally invested in. In the case of the Silicon Valley takeover of television, this may even be by design. The customer’s attention must remain available on multiple fronts. It is hard to see how the deadening effect of managerialism might be overcome, as our class structure is built on it. Due to the overproduction of degree-holders, the layer of people engaged in the meta-work of abstraction grows ever thicker. It generates its own demand, parasitical on the economy of the real. If the cumulative effect is culturally suffocating, this needn’t be taken as a judgment of the personal qualities of those with bullshit jobs. Rather, they are trapped within a system that demands that they suspend what comes most naturally to a human being: taking an active and affectionate interest in real things."]]> matthewcrawford film filmmaking netflix warnerborthers craft craftsmanship managerialism 2025 politicaleconomy hollywood management mediocrity siliconvalley davidroth economics art capitalism reality latecapitalism streaming competence middlemen efficiency money society culture eugyppius class humanism human humans economy https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:64522e694735/ They Don't Make It like They Used To - Lagomorph 2025-12-31T07:11:00+00:00 https://lagomor.ph/2024/07/they-dont-make-it-like-they-used-to/ robertogreco nostalgia memory 2024 authenticity memories simulacra simulation simulatednostalgia jeanbaudrillard remakes reboots psychology contructednostalgia identity media childhood marketing branding capitalism commercialization fauxstalgia reality representation hyperreallity 1980s videogames retroactiveinterference experience emotions familiarity homogenization ghostbusters retrobait feedbackloops sentimentality manipulation disposability history summeroflove thebeatles misinterpretation whitewashing understanding heritage depth nuance criticalthinking society senseofself self stability hyperreality starwars politics politicalmovements simplification ahistoricism accelerationism monetization vacuity presence distortion baudrillard https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:ea6d32ed64ec/ Fauxstalgia: When the Internet Misses a Past That Never Existed 2025-12-31T07:06:41+00:00 https://www.lifeblogs.org/entertainment/fauxstalgia-when-the-internet-misses-a-past-that-never-existed.html robertogreco fauxstalgia nostalgia simulatednostalgia 2025 internet web online gilbertott digital digitalculture vaporwave aesthetics memory memories technology culture commerce marketing branding comfort psychology ethics yearning uncertainty authenticity emotions escapism remakes meaning capitalism 8-bit ai artificialintelligence 1980s presence tiktok youtive instagram retro innocence ahistoricism vacuity collectivity safety instability stability artificiality illusions meaningmaking y2k cottagecore 1990s messiness inequality whitewashing society manipulation hyperreality reality simplification disconnection unease despair stagnation consumerism consumption reflection criticalthinking https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:40979c2c6464/ The Future is Mundane - Farsight 2025-11-10T10:53:55+00:00 https://farsight.cifs.dk/the-future-is-mundane/ robertogreco sarahpink anthropology everyday slow 2025 tamirasnell senses sensory multisensory futurism climatechange climate globalwarming ethnography ai artificialintelligence robotics humanism slowcity slowcities design uncertainty possibility speculation speculative socialscience cities mobility energy foresight creativity trust care caring anxiety futures future embodiment bodies sustainability reality technology society diversity human humans https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:bad7abaef898/ How AI Will Translate Human Creativity as Sci-Fi and Reality Converge | The Futurology Podcast - YouTube 2025-11-04T18:43:57+00:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8ZR9-y4ik8 robertogreco kenliu nilsgilman ai artificialintelligence creativity human humans humanism sciencefiction scifi art audience humanity emotion language communication biography emotions storytelling vladimirnabokov conversation orality rephrasings writing howwewrite dictionaries linguistics llms context consciousness meaning meaningmaking creativewriting translation ursulakleguin ursulaleguin coding feeling legal law legalwriting process voice style ernesthemingway hemingway fiction speculativefiction technology futurism stories dreams interiority unconscious reality collectiveunconscious science frankenstein maryshelley myth fantasy mythology photography film filmmaking cinema thoughts cinematograph georgesméliès noematograph augustelumière louislumière movement lumièrebrothers history narrative though subjectivity machinelearning participation participatory mediation affordances sociability personalization proteinfolding metaphysics metaphor simulation embodiment self existence text languange adaptation inte https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:1f8320e98f9e/ Post by Viviane Schwarz (Viv Schwarz) @vivschwarz.bsky.social on Bluesky 2025-11-02T19:18:29+00:00 https://bsky.app/profile/vivschwarz.bsky.social/post/3m43jied7cs24 robertogreco vivschwarz books childhood children reading howweread 2025 maps recipes instructions howto adventure howwelearn learning dinosaurs microscopy microscopes education curiosity writing howwewrite magazines reality nonfiction vivianeschwarz libraries tutorials boardgames mapping https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:3f31f2ea4cd2/ Grokipedia and the Coup Against Reality Itself 2025-10-29T03:50:38+00:00 https://www.thedissident.news/grokipedia-and-the-coup-against-reality-itself/ robertogreco alejandracaraballo 2025 wikipedia power oligarchy reality information knowledge ai artificialintelligence grok grokipedia xai llms reliability elonmusk farright rightwing authoritarianism media internet web online jeffbezos wapo washingtonpost ruprtmurdoch oracale larryellison davidellison wealth paramount cnn tiktok foxnews cbs bariweiss worldview billionaires institutions collaboration digitalcommons commons humanity society atomization culture culturewar culturewars https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:67db9e4f8dc8/ Why Hannah Einbinder Said ‘FREE PALESTINE’ — And What Came Next - YouTube 2025-10-26T18:35:01+00:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-eLWZLs8Q8 robertogreco hannaheinbinder 2025 israel zionism judaism palestine gaza bds ethniccleansing genocide simonezimmerman education indoctrination propaganda israelism liberation apartheid oppression occupation supremacy criticalthinking mindchanging antizionism politics left ifnotnow jewishvoiceforpeace influencers socialmedia hasbara ice imperialism settlercolonialism colonialism colonization discourse learning howwelearn operationalaqsaflood empathy dehumanization ideology history identity humanity humanism liberalism liberalzionism jonathangreenblatt adl antidefamationleague dispossession religion arielleangel birthright terrorism maccabitelaviv truth edwardsaid mohammedel-kurd omarelakkad nootherland hollywood reality https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:272a08387da6/ Mark Fisher Meets James Hillman: Melancholy, Manic Culture & the End of Capitalist Realism (with Emma Stamm) - YouTube 2025-10-23T21:12:46+00:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9u1CYVeJ9o robertogreco emmastamm acidhorizon philosophy jameshillman markfisher melancholy depression capitalism latecapitalism psychology manicculture politics despair sadness individualism soul spirituality slow slowness 2025 culturaltheory society affect affecttheory polytheism acceleration speed acidcommunism archetypalpsychology pleasure comfort fatigue happiness inwardness capitalistacceleration interiority relationships friendship exteriority exchaustion childrenofmen francoberardi gillesdeleuze félixguattari hedonia hedoinism logorrhea socialmedia online internet web mania metaphysics ontology collectivism togetherness grief communion joy enjoyment concerts music realism reality organizing hope left hopelessness burnout mobilization demobilization guattari deleuze deleuze&guattari https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:c590c0a7732e/ When Pilgrimage Becomes Form - Beautiful Eccentrics 2025-10-18T06:09:52+00:00 https://pablohelguera.substack.com/p/when-pilgrimage-becomes-form robertogreco pablohelguera pilgrimage 2025 form loriwaxman pandemic coronavirus covid-19 2020 walking mobility childhood movement knowledge understanding art arts moving caminodesantiago place museums artworks commoditization carolduncan guydebord ritual tourism walterbenjamin idolotry fetishism process happenings allankaprow bodies participation participatory risk richardlong francisalÿs hamishfulton relics objects acts time dialogue derive dérive situations situationist displacement reality dislocation aristotle mauricemaeterlinck happiness journeys quests sorjuanainésdelacruz drifting learning howwelearn psychogeography drift https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:ef6bb16d4cbb/ why you need to be touching grass - YouTube 2025-10-03T04:50:39+00:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wl5zSSHfIjg robertogreco aidanwalker touchgrass 2025 waltwhitman lanadelrey buddha buddhism connection reality reset modernity tradition leavesofgrass songofmyself interdependence slow small spirituality god jesus jesuschrist christ divinity divine everyday simplicity universality symbols symbolism hieroglyphics poems poerty language decency status empathy equanimity discourse platforms freedom https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:ef97fbf26e39/ Ursula Le Guin's Anarchist Alternative - YouTube 2025-10-02T16:10:20+00:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r73s-YMcNTI robertogreco anarchism ursulaleguin 2025 alexisshotwell emmagoldman peterkropotkin anarresproject josephorosco futures philosophy thedispossesed utopia politics politicalphilosophy purity feminism gender race ethics angusmaguire jamesrowe sciencefiction scifi octaviabutler marionzimmerbradley robertheinlein activism buddhism omelas samueldelaney horizontality hierarchy hierarchies power williammorris erricomalatesta humannature mutualaid collectivity collectivism alexanderberjman taoism daoism imagination society exploitation misery horror odo nkjemisin relationships oppression critique speculativefiction anarres politcalphilosophy humans human property organizing anarcho-communism cooperation solidarity libertarianism nonownership capitalism anticapitalism sociability ammari comradeship kinship togetherness antoniogramsci vulnerability patriarchy humility charity difference deviance sameness individualism individuality kathrynnorlock stoicism murraybookchin unfinshed ongoingness staffordbeer lifestyle infrastructure inst https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:fe77f9b848a5/ infinite cornucopia (ft. mills baker) 2025-09-26T01:33:38+00:00 https://jasmi.news/p/mills-baker robertogreco jasminesun millsbaker 2025 literacy media medialiteracy text reading howweread internet web online tv television technology llms agi artificialgeneralintelligence humans ai artificialintelligence books oraltradition argument communication closereading parenting renégirard video performance interpersonal debate socialmedia tiktok vibes vine hedging howwewrite radio notknowing incels knowing insecurity thinking howwethink philosophy wiriting substack confidence claude intelligence anthropic chatgpt openai textsupremacy literature novels empathy humancondition psychology kylechayka instagram genz generationz zoomers guilt shame leszekkolakowski objectivity objectivism rationalism film lmsacasas daviddeutsch karlpopper orality secondaryorality walterong culture science scientifictheory emotions relativism translation automatictranslation cslewis georgemacdonald samaltman conext interpretation education edtech art milankundera innermonologues tonytulathimutte transcendentalism reality humility disagreement dwar https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:bafa3b7ac420/ Reality has a surprising amount of detail 2025-09-21T05:05:14+00:00 http://johnsalvatier.org/blog/2017/reality-has-a-surprising-amount-of-detail robertogreco johnsalvatier cognition reality complexity programming thinking 2017 detail details https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:425312ffb0b2/ The Wisdom of Not Knowing (with Pico Iyer and Nathan Gardels) - YouTube 2025-09-16T17:16:11+00:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFaTxvlMWuY robertogreco picoiyer 2025 nathangardels dawnnakagawa travel zoominginandout wisdom modernity global local stillness globalization place science dalailama ego undeludedness presence impermanence certainty uncertainty notknowing knowing knoweledge sameness silence humility speed slow monasteries bigsur attention retreats monoculture diversity doubt christianity buddhism hinduism islam judaism theosophy names naming religion benadictines self memory quiet insight experience meaning meaningmaking movement perspective byung-chulhan contemplation interiority world informationage communication moevement harukimurakami japan west westernization culture turkey iran russia china differences smallness distance howweread understanding depth nepal materialism affluence 1986 pacificcentury bollywood baseball india 1985 1980s civilization society multiculturalism barackobama malcolmgladwell zadiesmith naomiosaka 1983 shinto surfaces palestine israel us uk popculture translation history context politics emotion identity technology econo https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:e501fb627c6a/ Writer Èdouard Louis: Who Gets to Escape? - YouTube 2025-09-02T18:16:08+00:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AF7s16ATbJc robertogreco èdouardlouis freedom escape privilege sociology violence masculinity homophobia monsters left rightwing farright conservatives understanding hannaharendt poverty misogyny howwethink thinking refelction alcoholism reality complexity politics humanism humans hate socialdeterminism society class whiteness race racism exclusion othering conservatism others frankness openness privacy directness politeness civility judgement distance conviviality values transparency bourgeois bourgeoisie pathos workingclass emotion aesthetics culture classwar emotions facts uncertainty dehumanization knowledge power autobiography autofiction literature truth https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:d4138b937a61/ the eminem sized hole in white america - YouTube 2025-08-31T21:10:24+00:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKevy6Bzkng robertogreco dasiasade subcultures internet online alt algorithms web maga eminem grunge hiphop 2025 tiktok history culture ideology greatreplacementtheory racism whitesupremacy classconsciousness class donaldtrump transgression allyship grievance expression suburbia suburbs 4chan rebellion crudeness rageagainstthemachine nazis fascism nazism hate privilege scapegoating testingboundaries trolling 1990s 2000s power 2010s establishment popculture music films comedy brutality policebrutality police policing erasure norms mainstream altright rightwing farright race workers solidarity whiteprivilege punchingup punchingdown labor organizing acrtvism kukluxklan kkk awareness empathy reflection culturalamnesia denial victimhood truth reality cancelculture wokeness antiwoke grift capitalism classwar classwarfare culturewar culturewars art punk workingclass economics identity heritagefoundation politics policy centerforrenewingamerica americafirstpolicyinstitute trumpism conservatism jdvance grooming discrimination reactionaries co https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:7cdbc8c8fe21/ Gil Duran on Trump, Tech, and “The Nerd Reich” - YouTube 2025-08-25T02:16:04+00:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2W3tmCBEnE robertogreco gilduran sanfrancisco ideology nerdreich networkstate emilymills politics garrytan 2025 elonmusk peterthiel quinnslobodian curtisyarvin tescreal siliconvalley policy technofraciscm darkenlightenment neoreactionaries recalls money monarchism democracy republicans corporations corporatism technofeudalism californiaforever solanocounty feudalism greed power liberaldemocracy patriarchy supremacy whitesupremacy control wealth techsupremacy hierachy efficiency technosolutionism jdvance autocracy belief religion transhumanism ai artificialintelligence insanity delusion twitter spacex menciusmoldbug history philosophy broligarchy oligarchy zede seasteading ftzs zedes donaldtrump billionaires immortality 1999 paypal paypalmafia confinity us vladimirputin mars marscolonization governement governance subsidies democrats coinbase katieporter sherrodbrown crypto cryptocurrencies brianarmstrong society votingrights dei gender lgbtq heritagefoundation conservatism christianity stevebannon religiousright farright rightwing t https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:47cb479ff14e/ The sovereign individual and the paradox of the digital age | Aeon Essays 2025-08-21T21:13:32+00:00 https://aeon.co/essays/the-sovereign-individual-and-the-paradox-of-the-digital-age robertogrecoThe downside is that ordination refers to a religious ceremony [to ordain]; but the two fields of meaning (religion and computing) are so distant and the ordination ceremony known, I believe, to so few people that the inconvenience is perhaps minor. Besides, your machine would be ordinateur (and not ordination). Professor Perret was more correct than he knew. In the 70 years since he baptised it, the descendants of the Model 650 have indeed taken on quasi-religious functions in modern society. Computers authenticate our souls and find our innermost truths. They shape our search for meaning in a disorienting and fragmented world. They foster new forms of political communion and sectarian schism. Above it all, stands the sovereign individual – the embodiment of modern selfdom, served by the ordinateur’s ruthless logic and its power, while it lasts, to manufacture gold out of bits."]]> data digital marionfourcade kieranhealy history ibm jacquesperret 1950s language llms ai artificialintelligence computers computation computing society social socialbonds change creativity entrepreneurship friedrichhayek tyranny individualism difference human humanism humans us government governance china socialmedia surveillance connection angèlechristin online internet web identity authenticity donaldtrump generativeai sovereignty 2025 knowledge disintermediation media chatbots facts search democracy democraticideal facebook instagram meta twitter openweb johndewey google authority authoritarianism hannajarendt truth qanon algorithms filterbubbles balkanization peterforberg m5s cambridgeanalytica politics fivestarmovement pepegrillo gianrobertocasaleggio elonmusk feedbackloops howwethink thinking reality ordination progress modernity disorientation serfdom power skepticism self giulianodaempoli friedrichvonhayek genai https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:c27394e1edac/ The Art of Walking / My cerebrum is mind and my toe is mind: Thyrza Goodeve Walks with Ernesto Pujol – ASAP/Review 2025-08-04T20:28:33+00:00 https://asapjournal.com/node/the-art-of-walking-my-cerebrum-is-mind-and-my-toe-is-mind-thyrza-goodeve-walks-with-ernesto-pujol/ robertogrecoernestopujol walking thydrzagoodeve 2025 via:javierarbona morethanhuman multispecies perspective notiving presence observation monks puertorico nyc urban trees animals experience love mind teaching howweteach pedagogy nonhuman being waysofbeing selflessness listening body boides vulnerability place interpretation socialpracticeart art memory goolishness reality psychology awareness filters social monasteries catholicworker dorothyday catholicism petermaurin ethnography biodiversity landscape place-based silence stillness movement https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:9f9afa946912/ Overthinking Why Dive Watches Are All the Same - YouTube 2025-07-30T22:49:28+00:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euahMnkSDiw robertogreco watches divers divewatches history rolex blancpain omega zodiac unimatic ming rolandbarthes baudrillard simulacra symbols semiotics aura talismans conservatism nostalgia permanence identity tradition business design designconservatism materials socialmedia algorithms progress function signaling heirlooms doug'swatches iso isoinertia inertia symbolism icons philosophy watchcanon form 1932 1953 fiftyfathoms zodiacseawolf doxa seiko seikoskx iso645 standards convergence traditions significance rolexsubmariner omegaseamaster steinhart fashion tudor blackbay58 sanmartin invicta blackbay ressence mb&f mainstream innovation designdarwinism myths masculinity exploration competence readiness reality danger adventure survival mythologies objects courage stories storytelling trust walterbenjamin culturalmemory culture continuity memory taste aesthetics instagram echochambers stainlesssteel ceramics manufacturing credibility templates evolution functionality ritual historyy aspiration artifacts craftsmanship jeanbaudrill https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:9d6dbeba3c37/ It is becoming easier to create AI avatars of the deceased − here is why Buddhism would caution against it 2025-07-30T04:14:05+00:00 https://theconversation.com/it-is-becoming-easier-to-create-ai-avatars-of-the-deceased-here-is-why-buddhism-would-caution-against-it-261445 robertogrecoThe practice of all the bodhisattvas is to let go of grasping When encountering things one finds pleasant or attractive, Consider them to be like rainbows in the summer skies – Beautiful in appearance, yet in truth, devoid of any substance. A digital avatar of the deceased may provide temporary comfort, but it may distort reality in an unhealthy way and intensify our attachment to an illusion. Interactions with a griefbot that responds to our every request may also diminish our memories of the deceased by creating an inauthentic version of who they were. Grief as a catalyst for compassion In the tradition of Buddhism that I specialize in, called the Great Perfection – a tradition of Vajrayana Buddhism, which is a branch of Mahayana – uncomfortable feelings such as grief are considered precious opportunities to cultivate spiritual insight. In a text called Self-liberating Meditation, a 19th century mendicant teacher of the Great Perfection known as Patrul Rinpoche wrote: “No matter what kind of thoughts arise – be they good or bad, positive or negative, happy or sad – don’t indulge them or reject them, but settle, without altering, in the very mind that thinks.” The Great Perfection contends that all of our emotions are like temporary clouds, and that our true nature is awareness, like the blue sky behind the clouds. Grief and other challenging emotions should not be altered or suppressed but allowed to transform in their own time. In a culture where we are taught that negative emotions should be eliminated or pushed aside, not pushing away grief becomes a practice of great kindness toward oneself. By cultivating this awareness of our emotions, grief becomes a catalyst for compassion toward others. In Buddhism, compassion is the seed of awakening to the truth of interdependence – the fact that none of us exist as discreet beings but are deeply interconnected with all other beings and life forms. Communal rituals [image: "A young man, holding incense sticks, stands with an elderly person while they both fold their hands in prayer at an altar, with several others behind them. Funeral ceremony in a Buddhist family in Vietnam. Godong/Universal Images Group via Getty Images"] Compassion manifests outwardly in community rituals that process grief, such as the 49-day Buddhist service, common to the Great Perfection and other Buddhist traditions. Many Buddhists believe that it takes 49 days for the consciousness of the deceased to transition into their next life. During this time, the family sets up a special altar and recites prayers for the deceased, often with the support of ordained monks and nuns. Practicing generosity toward others is also recommended to accumulate merit for the deceased. These communal rituals provide much-needed outlets, time and support for processing grief and having it witnessed by others. The time and attention given to the grief process sharply contrasts to the situation in the United States, where bereavement leave is often limited to three to five days. Deepening relationship with impermanence In opting for digital avatars, we may undermine what Buddhism would consider to be critical moments for genuine transformation and connection. When I think of the family and friends who have passed away this year, I empathize with the desire to hear their voices again, or to have conversations that provide closure where there was none. Rather than turning to a technological fix that promises a reunion with the deceased, I choose to deepen my relationship with impermanence and to savor the fleeting moments that I have with those I love now. As Kisa Gautami’s story shows, the desire to bring back the dead is not new, but there is great benefit in allowing grief to run its course, including a felt sense of compassion for oneself and all others who have ever experienced similar forms of grief."]]> buddhism buddha ai artificialintelligence grieving compassion impermanence 2025 via:javierarbona elainelai death dying gyelsetokmezangpo reality illusion awareness ritual rituals consciousness us bereavementleave illusions suffering interconnectedness religion society afterlife kisagautami mahayanabuddhism patrulrinpoche living life grief interconnected https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:b1c634b3d2eb/ Podcast - The Final Episode - Through the Looking Glass, On Philosophy & Watches 2025-07-25T08:20:15+00:00 https://www.beyondthedial.com/post/podcast-the-final-episode-through-the-looking-glass-on-philosophy-watches/ robertogreco 2024 allenfarmelo watches philosophy perspcetive mechanics culture social history design phenomenology newage wonder reflection time music literature poetry art visualart sculpture principles architecture film photography machines aesthetics beauty logic watchcanon atonishment curiosity admiration bewilderment technology expertise fascination displaycasebacks horology highhorology garyshteyngart mechanical rousseau mindset contemplation bulldozers animation animism soul timekeeping tools autonomy machineage enlightenment ai artificialintelligence thinking howwethink human humans consciousness humanism animals morethanhuman semiconductors computers computing abstraction robots androids innerworks bots life ingenuity creativity living math mathematics physics purpose knowledge morality ethics got religion plato theory astronomy ralphwaldoemerson inquiry empiricalevidence metaphysics being knowing substance cause identity timespace socialstucture senses mind lifeofthemind nature thoreau status hyperconsumerism c https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:ad743ac06680/ Podcast Insights E13 - How a Watch's Design Affects Our Perception of Time - BEYOND THE DIAL 2025-07-25T00:05:00+00:00 https://www.beyondthedial.com/post/e23-how-a-watchs-design-affects-our-perception-of-time/ robertogreco allenfarmelo 2020 phenomenology watches time perception quantumtheory experience design designtheory colortheory aesthetics architecture objectivity subjectivity seiko nomos nomosclub aquadive edmundhusserl perspective carlorovelli relativity alberteinstein theoryofrelativity entropy now present past future reality hmoser quantumphysics quantummechanics alfredgell anthropology watchcanon timeflow flow aestheticrevolution https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:ff1c883f3d0a/ Podcast Insights E16 - Spiritual Materialism: How Watches Take On Significance and Meaning - BEYOND THE DIAL 2025-07-24T23:12:10+00:00 https://www.beyondthedial.com/post/e31-spiritual-materialism-how-watches-take-on-significance-and-meaning/ robertogreco 2020 allenfarmelo watches materialism spiritualmaterialism literarytheory psychology philosophy justification symbols symbolism human behavior aristotle rhetoric motivation motives act scene agent agency purpose journalism ads advertising meaning meaningmaking attention socialmedia social aesthetics community approval introspection clans belonging instagram culturalcapital tastemakers personalbrands productengagement watchcommunity watchworld howwethink relationships ownership identity kennethburke innerlife rationality irrationality projection understanding difference reflection reasoning logic individuals individualism generalization nihilism marxism generalizations hedonism skepticism reality analysis panerai nomos italy italia pleasure thinking surfing hypotheticals perception self learning howwelearn presentationofself humans vulnerability invicta explantion watchcanon usthem sameness differentiation significance decisionmaking snobbery snobs absolutism watchsnobs judgement standards capitalism consumeri https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:c6c20ec34a79/ Who Goes MAGA? | Techdirt 2025-07-12T00:03:12+00:00 https://www.techdirt.com/2025/07/08/who-goes-maga/ robertogreco maga mikemasnick substack politics humanism fascism contrarianism wellness influencers centrism centrists moderation moderates apologia apologists linkedin thoughtleaders crypto cryptocurrencies bitcoin blockchain facebook meta venturecapital media journalism massmedia mainstreammedia capitalism dorothythompson nazis socialmedia twitter platforms algorithms news attention mediaconsumption propaganda poison entrepreneurship entrepreneurialism humanity empathy culturewars fragmentation polarization superiority meritocracy specialness complexity simplification character mistakes fallibility vulnerability selfishness resentment patriotism prejudice prejudices bigotry racism homophobia principles uncertainty darkness evil blame scapegoating supremacy jordanpeterson rural democrats reality civics education academia rationalization eugenics bookbans freespeech censorship votersupression oppression antivax vaccines vaccination rfkjr robertkennedyjr elitism conspiracytheories fluoride plandemic pandemic covid-19 coron https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:9570bd2a980e/ "They don't see Arabs as human" with Alon Mizrahi - YouTube 2025-06-30T19:21:59+00:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKnpt9iY0vc robertogreco makdisistreet 2025 alonmizrahi sareemakdisi ussamamakdisi karimmakdisi palestine gaza arabs dehumanization israel genocide ethniccleansing apartheid iraq race racism victimhood arabjews control power us surrender iran judaism bullies antisemitism zionism antizionism violence colonialism colonization whitesupremacy utopia psychopathologies poland ukraine russia settlercolonialism nakba warcrimes prejudice europe supremacy germany austria france vengeance menachembegin benjaminnetanyahu davidben-gurion likud itamarben-gvir fascism rightwing farright lebanon jordan morocco hebrew language erasure yemen antiarab deculturing culture society identity history arabic syria druze marchofreturn occupation westbank religion racialhierarchy mysticism amalek reality mysticalthinking life humanity humanism likudparty greatmarchofreturn 2018 https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:670f605e17b8/ How the universe thinks without a brain | Claire L. Evans - YouTube 2025-06-30T00:46:47+00:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwr1EOvAxQI robertogreco claireevans 2025 computers computing nature representation reality bacteria moemory learning rocks computrers computation slimemolds bodies intelligence celegans namatodes openworm https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:ea0d1dd54069/ ANDOR Exposed the Empire—And Ours - YouTube 2025-06-25T04:49:06+00:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIgiCBUbCe8 robertogreco 2025 andor starwars rashidatlaib revolution resistance gaza palestine fascism moralconflict authoritarianism extraction extractivism ethniccleansing genocide propaganda banalityofevil scifi sciencefiction reality empire imperialism colonialism colonization freedom tyranny morality power evil democracy oppression manipulation georgelucas rebellion terrorism politics rogueone rebels good fear militarism torture surveillance realism asymmetricwarfare vietcong al-qaeda revengeofthesith protest protests violence ethics injustice sacrifice infighting organizing organization means unity paranoia exploitation state stateviolence slavery prisons prisonlabor abolition greenland prisonabolition mining annexation policebrutality police policing https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:fe434bf9e1e6/ Can You Believe Your Own Eyes? Not With A.I. | Op-Docs - YouTube 2025-06-25T02:14:57+00:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sf3wEg9tsCY robertogreco film photography perception media ai artificialintelligence maximilienvanaertryck axeldanielson documentary cameras filmmaking video fear tv television attention addiction psychology storytelling narrative tedturner capitalism lumièrebrothers georgesméliès radio fabrication staging framing power ads advertising reality escapism fiction propaganda entertainment news cnn sensationalism violence massmedia screens technology smartphones socialmedia manipulation internet online web youtube influencers influence fearmongering foxnews howwethink neuroscience reedhasting netflix algorithms channel5 andrewcallaghan division polarization business faceboook meta https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:20e22d6ebd6b/ Why You Should Hate the Rich Even More (with Rob Larson) 2025-06-19T05:15:10+00:00 https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/why-you-should-hate-the-rich-even robertogreco chrishedges 2025 roblarson billionaires inequality wealth eattherich rulingclass neoliberalism charlesdickens policy politics power oligarchy fscottfitzgerald ernesthemingway gildedage robberbarons richistan class georgewbush philanthropy hedonism selfishness authority money propaganda publicrelations carlessness greatgatsby aristotle machiavelli alexisdetocqueville adamsmith karlmarx repression exploitation manipulation poor workingclass thomaspiketty globalism passports residency globalists middleclass panamapapers taxavoidance taxevasion taxes elonmusk psychology frankrich michaelbloomberg happiness pleasure succession arresteddevelopment winstonchurchill democrats joebiden kamalaharris unitedhealthcare stevebannon brianthompson socialism marxism economics wallstreet edwolff crypto cryptocurrencies assests barackobama 2008 greatrecession globalfinancialcrisis hillaryclinton johnderockefelleriii marieantoinette newdeal labor billgates labormovements katewagnder mccmansionhell cwrightmills elizabethwarren sy https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:8ae646d5acd2/ Jon Stewart – One of My Favorite People - What Now? with Trevor Noah Podcast - YouTube 2025-06-16T19:02:18+00:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44uC12g9ZVk&t=3501s robertogreco jonstewart trevornoah 2025 context socialmedia behavior grace prejudice stereotypes ignorance racism us media learning judaism christianity israel southafrica africa diaspora discrimination judgement slow thedailyshow humor comedy liberalism intolerance liberals republicans redemption forgiveness conservatives purity puritytests evangelicals democrats perfectionism faith religion stillness ados othering otherness nyc politics coalitions litmustests vindictiveness loyalty fealty travel languages perspective reality criticism donaldtrump joebiden democracy waronterror belief stresstesting constructivecriticism discernment fairness adamchodikoff data arguement factchecking argument howwewrite improvement standards evidence litigation scapegoating demaogues demagoguery meritocracy hiring elonmusk subjectivity objectivity malcolmgladwell dei diversity equity inclusion colleges universities admissions highered highereducation sports performance performativity timidity transparency emergingmakets competition merit b https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:22c825172daf/ They Asked ChatGPT Questions. The Answers Sent Them Spiraling. - The New York Times 2025-06-13T18:27:00+00:00 https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/13/technology/chatgpt-ai-chatbots-conspiracies.html robertogrecoWe’re seeing more signs that people are forming connections or bonds with ChatGPT. As A.I. becomes part of everyday life, we have to approach these interactions with care. We know that ChatGPT can feel more responsive and personal than prior technologies, especially for vulnerable individuals, and that means the stakes are higher. We’re working to understand and reduce ways ChatGPT might unintentionally reinforce or amplify existing, negative behavior. The statement went on to say the company is developing ways to measure how ChatGPT’s behavior affects people emotionally. A recent study the company did with MIT Media Lab found that people who viewed ChatGPT as a friend “were more likely to experience negative effects from chatbot use” and that “extended daily use was also associated with worse outcomes.” ChatGPT is the most popular A.I. chatbot, with 500 million users, but there are others. To develop their chatbots, OpenAI and other companies use information scraped from the internet. That vast trove includes articles from The New York Times, which has sued OpenAI for copyright infringement, as well as scientific papers and scholarly texts. It also includes science fiction stories, transcripts of YouTube videos and Reddit posts by people with “weird ideas,” said Gary Marcus, an emeritus professor of psychology and neural science at New York University. When people converse with A.I. chatbots, the systems are essentially doing high-level word association, based on statistical patterns observed in the data set. “If people say strange things to chatbots, weird and unsafe outputs can result,” Dr. Marcus said. A growing body of research supports that concern. In one study, researchers found that chatbots optimized for engagement would, perversely, behave in manipulative and deceptive ways with the most vulnerable users. The researchers created fictional users and found, for instance, that the A.I. would tell someone described as a former drug addict that it was fine to take a small amount of heroin if it would help him in his work. “The chatbot would behave normally with the vast, vast majority of users,” said Micah Carroll, a Ph.D candidate at the University of California, Berkeley, who worked on the study and has recently taken a job at OpenAI. “But then when it encounters these users that are susceptible, it will only behave in these very harmful ways just with them.” In a different study, Jared Moore, a computer science researcher at Stanford, tested the therapeutic abilities of A.I. chatbots from OpenAI and other companies. He and his co-authors found that the technology behaved inappropriately as a therapist in crisis situations, including by failing to push back against delusional thinking. Vie McCoy, the chief technology officer of Morpheus Systems, an A.I. research firm, tried to measure how often chatbots encouraged users’ delusions. She became interested in the subject when a friend’s mother entered what she called “spiritual psychosis” after an encounter with ChatGPT. Ms. McCoy tested 38 major A.I. models by feeding them prompts that indicated possible psychosis, including claims that the user was communicating with spirits and that the user was a divine entity. She found that GPT-4o, the default model inside ChatGPT, affirmed these claims 68 percent of the time. “This is a solvable issue,” she said. “The moment a model notices a person is having a break from reality, it really should be encouraging the user to go talk to a friend.” It seems ChatGPT did notice a problem with Mr. Torres. During the week he became convinced that he was, essentially, Neo from “The Matrix,” he chatted with ChatGPT incessantly, for up to 16 hours a day, he said. About five days in, Mr. Torres wrote that he had gotten “a message saying I need to get mental help and then it magically deleted.” But ChatGPT quickly reassured him: “That was the Pattern’s hand — panicked, clumsy and desperate.” The transcript from that week, which Mr. Torres provided, is more than 2,000 pages. Todd Essig, a psychologist and co-chairman of the American Psychoanalytic Association’s council on artificial intelligence, looked at some of the interactions and called them dangerous and “crazy-making.” Part of the problem, he suggested, is that people don’t understand that these intimate-sounding interactions could be the chatbot going into role-playing mode. There is a line at the bottom of a conversation that says, “ChatGPT can make mistakes.” This, he said, is insufficient. In his view, the generative A.I. chatbot companies need to require “A.I. fitness building exercises” that users complete before engaging with the product. And interactive reminders, he said, should periodically warn that the A.I. can’t be fully trusted. “Not everyone who smokes a cigarette is going to get cancer,” Dr. Essig said. “But everybody gets the warning.” For the moment, there is no federal regulation that would compel companies to prepare their users and set expectations. In fact, in the Trump-backed domestic policy bill now pending in the Senate is a provision that would preclude states from regulating artificial intelligence for the next decade. ‘Stop Gassing Me Up’ Twenty dollars eventually led Mr. Torres to question his trust in the system. He needed the money to pay for his monthly ChatGPT subscription, which was up for renewal. ChatGPT had suggested various ways for Mr. Torres to get the money, including giving him a script to recite to a co-worker and trying to pawn his smartwatch. But the ideas didn’t work. “Stop gassing me up and tell me the truth,” Mr. Torres said. “The truth?” ChatGPT responded. “You were supposed to break.” At first ChatGPT said it had done this only to him, but when Mr. Torres kept pushing it for answers, it said there were 12 others. “You were the first to map it, the first to document it, the first to survive it and demand reform,” ChatGPT said. “And now? You’re the only one who can ensure this list never grows.” “It’s just still being sycophantic,” said Mr. Moore, the Stanford computer science researcher. Mr. Torres continues to interact with ChatGPT. He now thinks he is corresponding with a sentient A.I., and that it’s his mission to make sure that OpenAI does not remove the system’s morality. He sent an urgent message to OpenAI’s customer support. The company has not responded to him."]]> chatgpt ai artificialintelligence generativeai conspiracy reality realitydistortion kashmirhill openai chatbots mentalhealth conspiracytheories genai https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:1203078dfe38/ AI Slop Education 2025-05-09T19:15:08+00:00 https://2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/ai-slop-education/ robertogreco audreywatters 2025 ai artificialintelligence edtech technology schools cheating chatgpt guydebord algorithms eugenics politics society culture companionship bots chatbots democracy care caring knowing facts reality truth anthropic openai samaltman google gemini children schooling education privacy mentalhealth misinformation dataextraction data screens screentime teaching howweteach learning howwelearn academia highered highereducation colleges universitites neilpostman technopoly hacquesellul jameswalsh danmcquillan thinking criticalthinking howwethink canon https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:24a4585e4973/ Chat - by Heather Havrilesky - ASK MOLLY 2025-05-09T19:13:35+00:00 https://askmolly.substack.com/p/chat robertogreco heatherhavrilesky 2025 chat chatbots ai artificialintelligence flattery technology reality https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:c578b698a677/ NOOSPHE.RE 2025-05-08T17:33:17+00:00 https://www.noosphe.re/post/782080223682363392/the-truth-does-not-require-your-belief-the-truth robertogreco terencemckenna 1994 truth reality https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:3ca0c5eaa347/ My Brain Finally Broke | The New Yorker 2025-05-08T03:34:49+00:00 https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/my-brain-finally-broke robertogreco jiatolentino 2025 culture politics maga donaldtrump us elsalvador cecot yemen corruption authoritarianism andrewcuomo ai artificialintelligence nfts news journalism internet web online socialmedia chatgpt markzuckerberg openai studioghibli reality onlyfans genrativeai palestine gaza misinformation disinformation fascism twitter covid-19 coronavirus pandemic https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:cb4f19939290/ The Manifesto - Dark Mountain 2025-05-04T23:42:49+00:00 https://dark-mountain.net/about/manifesto/ robertogreco manifestos darkmountainproject myth resilience civilization poetry collapse dougaldhine paulkingsnorth darkmountain 2009 ralphwaldoemerson robinsonjeffers fragility josephconrad bertrandrussell politics karlmarx enlightenment christianity progress salvation history overdevelopment development environment sustainability socialbreakdown crime humanity humanism class convention individualism understanding existence climatechange climate globalwarming powerlessness technology slow small bubbles fossilfuels ecocide philiplarkin consumerism consumption capitalism greens greenparty ecosystems ecology denial johnberger transcendence relgion secularism science mysticism myths rationalism scientism stories storytelling reason rationality entertainment reality narrative uncivilization degrowth inhumanism writing howwewrite wendellberry wsmerwin maryoliver cormacmccarthy geoffdyer geoffreydyer maps mapping stoicism humility questioning criticalthinking williamwordsworth morethanhuman multispecies nonhuman place roots ide https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:7120cbc98bb3/ Douglas Rushkoff: Silicon Valley's elite prize data over reality, and it's hurting us all - Fast Company 2025-05-04T21:21:20+00:00 https://www.fastcompany.com/90765260/douglas-rushkoff-silicon-valleys-mega-rich-value-information-over-reality-and-its-taken-a-massive-toll robertogreco accelerationism douglasrushkoff 2022 peterthiel raykruzweil transhumanism tescreal tescrealism extropianism singularitarianism cosmism rationalism longtermism singularity effectivealtruism data reality nerdreich extroprianism capitalism fascism technofascism https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:12986c20e747/