Wonder is the proper response to reality. Let me show you why.
Joined December 2016
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Ben McCarthy retweeted
I asked ChatGPT to analyse my ‘For You’ feed for hidden mood manipulation... it definitely found some things:
The emotional atmosphere is:
• High arousal: hot takes, ambition, intellectual pressure, outrage
• Status-comparison loops: achievements, big-name validation, productivity wins
• Cultural noise: memes, jokes, absurdity
• Threat cues: DDoS attacks, political chaos
Baseline effects:
• Slightly heightened anxiety
• Constant micro-comparison to others
• Pressure to “stay in the loop”
• Feeling like the world is fast + unstable
• Fragmented attention
• Less calm + spaciousness
Comment if you want the prompt to analyse your own feed
Ben McCarthy retweeted
Just want to remind everyone of my favorite cartoon ever. You aren't *in* the universe, you are a literal part of it, you are made of it, like a knot in a rope. When you read these words, it's the universe reading it's own writing.
Ben McCarthy retweeted
This could be an incredible revolution in Cosmology.
The Dark Energy model of the universe, which won a Nobel Prize in 2011, may be completely wrong.
The accelerating expansion instead is simply because time runs faster in the voids between galaxies.
Let me explain:
Ben McCarthy retweeted
Please spend a minute reading this note from William Shatner, the actor from Star Trek:
“Last year, I had a life-changing experience at 90 years old. I went to space, after decades of playing an iconic science-fiction character who was exploring the universe...
Ben McCarthy retweeted
🧵 There’s a lot of discussion around Twitter verification right now, aka the “Blue Check”.
I am going to dump some brief thoughts about the Blue Check. I think they are relevant and cover nuances frequently overlooked.
/1
ALT Large image of the Twitter “Blue Check”
Ben McCarthy retweeted
A YouTube ad campaign prepared viewers to identify common deception tactics. popsci.com/health/misinforma…
Ben McCarthy retweeted
When our environmental predicament is so vast and so obvious, why are so few eminent and powerful people prepared to confront it, or even seriously to discuss it?
Here’s a thread that seeks to explain the Great Silence.
🧵
Ben McCarthy retweeted
It’s crazy to me that every optimist talks about “going to the stars” as the A+ perfect future scenario
The universe supports qualia, experience, the only natural resource that inherently matters. We can shape that resource how we wish. What matters is what it’s like to be alive
Ben McCarthy retweeted
West Virginia v. EPA is potentially the most consequential US Supreme Court case remaining to be decided.
The immediate issue is the limits of the EPA's ability to regulate greenhouse gases.
The broader issue is the ability of Federal agencies to regulate anything at all.
1/
Ben McCarthy retweeted
In 1941 the world’s largest seed bank (created by Nikolai Vavilov) was housed in Leningrad. As the Germans surrounded the city forcing mass starvation, Vavilov’s scientists refused to eat from the collection, slowly dying of hunger as they maintained 16 rooms of edible plants.
Ben McCarthy retweeted
I've now been asked multiple times for my take on Elon's offer for Twitter.
So fine, this is what I think about that. I will assume the takeover succeeds, and he takes Twitter private. (I have little knowledge/insight into how actual takeover battles work or play out)
(long 🧵)
Ben McCarthy retweeted
Demon Horned Orb Weaver, a spider species that has giant stiff horns so that predatory birds will have trouble trying to swallow them and choke.
📸 by mb557x on r/DiscoverEarth
Ben McCarthy retweeted
Ercolania caerulea, a nudibranch who carries galaxies on its back
📸 @cagoie on Insta
