Elections Are Bad for Democracy
When you know you’re picked at random, you don’t experience enough power to be corrupted by it. Instead, you feel a heightened sense of responsibility: I did nothing to earn this, so I need to make sure I represent the group well.
A lottery would also improve our odds of avoiding the worst candidates in the first place. When it comes to character, our elected officials aren’t exactly crushing it. To paraphrase William F. Buckley Jr., I’d rather be governed by the first 535 people in the phone book. That’s because the people most drawn to power are usually the least fit to wield it.
There’s no better feeling than leaving, of pointing yourself in a direction and heading off…
The fight over what’s real (and what’s not) on dissociative identity disorder TikTok
It was TikTok, in Robinson’s eyes, that was driving the sudden rise in pediatric DID referrals. “It’s possible that social media is revealing new ways for individuals with genuine DID to express themselves,” he said in his lecture. But he also issued a warning: “however, it’s also very possible that social media and internet trends are contributing to increased DID claims that are not genuine.” That is, people claiming to have DID might be mistaken, confused, or simply faking it.
Robinson — a member of McLean Hospital’s trauma research program, which delivers specialized care to people with dissociative disorders — said he could not accurately diagnose anyone through social media at the outset of his talk. Still, he used TikToks to illustrate his points. He started with a clip of a rainbow-haired DID system purchasing a personalized cake to celebrate their official DID diagnosis, something Robinson thought was “surprising,” as it contrasted with the typically “hidden” nature of the disorder. He shared footage of a system cycling through eight elaborate neon outfits — complete with wigs and cat-like paws — attributed to their different alters, “overt changes” of appearance that Robinson felt were “not characteristic” of the DID patients clinicians see each day.
Kraft — whose alters include JA, a man-hating lesbian, and Kaleb, a hat-loving teenage boy — says Robinson’s presentation was distressing to her system and the other influencers he featured, who faced waves of abuse off the back of his lecture. “I have screenshots of someone coming onto my page to tell someone they shouldn’t believe me because this doctor says I’m faking,” she says. “People were given a license to hate.”
DID creators and their fans lashed out at Robinson in response. They felt the lecture discredited their experiences and further entrenched stigma against people with the disorder. Actress AnnaLynne McCord, who came out as a DID system in 2021, called the lecture “asinine” and “crazy.” Systems began to “review bomb” McLean Hospital, where Robinson works, leaving comments on Google about the “unethical” and “disgusting’ presentation. A petition was circulated calling for a “formal apology” and “reparations” from McLean Hospital as well as a wide range of trauma experts; another petition called for Robinson’s license to be revoked.
In the end, McLean removed all videos of Robinson’s lecture from its owned channels.
I’ve long suspected that many things like this are functions of social media. My experience of human nature is that many people will do absolutely anything for attention, and what is social media if not a tool designed explicitly to garner attention? (You only once have to be in a gay bar when a bachelorette party walks in to realize people love to co-opt identities that make them feel special, and will be absolutely shameless about doing so.)
Anecdotally, this is rampant in high schools. Teachers, kids, parents… I’ve had countless of each say, “yeah, lots of girls say they’re queer or trans to get attention.” Yet no one seems to say this in public for fear of reprisal.
Our culture has lost the ability to talk in nuance, so I feel the need to explicitly say: this does not mean I think trans people or people with DID don’t exist. They do, and have a right to, just the same as all of us.
I’m merely skeptical of the numbers we currently see on or infer from social media. I resent any wing of culture that says my skepticism, a hallmark of liberalism, is somehow “hateful” or “invalidating.”
Beware of anyone that says skepticism is “hateful.” They’re trying to shut down critical thought and conversation, not encourage it.
Saying Hello Linked to Higher Wellbeing, but With Limits
Adults in the U.S. who regularly say hello to multiple people in their neighborhood have higher wellbeing than those who greet fewer or no neighbors. Americans’ wellbeing score increases steadily by the number of neighbors greeted, from 51.5 among those saying hello to zero neighbors to 64.1 for those greeting six neighbors.
I can attest to this. I was in a dark place the winter of 2022 when I decided to make a conscious effort to say hello to my neighbors. Changed my mindset completely.
I feel it acutely in the morning, right when I wake up. My dreams are pleasant and vivid and in them, I’m still me, just a slightly different version of myself. But I wake with the feeling that this person in my dreams is closer to the real me than the one I inhabit throughout the day.
Prince, Tom Petty, Steve Winwood, Jeff Lynne and others — “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”
Imagine a world in which Steve Winwood is an afterthought.
This man taught me more about myself than anyone besides my parents.
Damn it. There’s not a day that goes by when I don’t miss him.
(Open this on a mobile device, not a laptop or desktop.)
Espresso Coffee Mitigates the Aggregation and Condensation of Alzheimer′s Associated Tau Protein
Sheila E. on Instagram via Kottke
I could watch this on a loop all day.
What I wouldn’t give to have a run-in with Sheila E.
Horrendous acting by some wonderful actors.
Participation Inequality: The 90–9–1 Rule
In most online communities, 90% of users are lurkers who never contribute, 9% of users contribute a little, and 1% of users account for almost all the action.
The only things you can leave behind are questions.
Kindness as a Signifier of Intelligence
I have found one thing to be universally true: the kindest person in the room is often the smartest.
The quest to capture mechanical traces of consciousness within spatiomatter presents a compelling challenge. By leveraging advanced technologies, such as mobile devices equipped with sensors, we have the potential to gather immense volumes of data from billions of participants. Through data analysis, we aim to uncover patterns, correlations, and anomalies that may reveal the influence of consciousness on the physical realm. The development of novel workflows and data processing techniques enables us to navigate this vast ocean of information, inching closer to capturing the elusive traces of consciousness within spatiomatter.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, cribbing liberally from my favorite comedian: free will is a cognitive distortion made to compartmentalize chaos.
As we traverse this fascinating territory, we inch closer to unraveling the fundamental nature of consciousness, empowering us to forge new paths in resource management, decision-making, and the pursuit of a more harmonious and prosperous future.
“Harmonious” and “prosperous” are doing a lot of work in that sentence.
Overall? Fascinating.
Humans first landed on the moon 54 years ago today.
Fran Drescher: “We are all going to be in jeopardy of being replaced by machines”
Not a headline I had on my bingo card.
Anthropic’s Claude Is Competing With ChatGPT. Even Its Builders Fear AI.
One Anthropic worker told me he routinely had trouble falling asleep because he was so worried about A.I. Another predicted, between bites of his lunch, that there was a 20 percent chance that a rogue A.I. would destroy humanity within the next decade.
Anything is beautiful if you decide it is.