The bad kind of skeptic, coder, hiker, diver, and skier. Recently authored book series dealing with bullsh*t, summarized at #RealityTrackingDaily
Space Coast, Free State of FL
Joined February 2008
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My ‘Welcome to Florida’ deluge of rain overnight. Cat and I will retreat to camper van if water intrudes into house. ⛈️
Nov 2 - BLUFFING projects more force than is there: knowledge, confidence, authority, backing, willingness to escalate, or implied consequence. The goal is to make other people grant weight or deference before seeing the support. 1/3 #RealityTrackingDaily
A bluff can work through menace, but also through composure, prestige, procedural language, or performed certainty. It borrows reality from your caution. People may back off because challenge feels risky, awkward, or unnecessary. 2/3
Fun rendering. Needs more Dharma stations, jughead, and the Black Rock. At least before it blew up.
(I'm surprised no attempt has been made to spin off a new series, such as a Dharma prequel.)
Notorious case of audio pareidolia where our betters indulge their need to be morally outraged by willfully misinterpreting otherwise benign phrasing. 😸
Nov 1 - EMOTIONAL MANIPULATION uses feeling as leverage so judgment narrows and another person becomes easier to steer. The issue is not that emotion is present. It is emotion being exploited to do persuasive work that fair reasons could not do. 1/3 #RealityTrackingDaily
Fear compresses time. Guilt and shame make refusal feel ugly. Pity distracts from contradiction. Flattery and belonging cues lower defenses. Outrage makes restraint look like betrayal. Each emotion creates a different pressure route. 2/3
Theater in its various forms (eg, security theater) attempts to subvert our perception of reality.
As AI bots comb through the huge body of scientific research looking for flaws, as in this case, it'll show what the replication crisis has been pointing to: shoddy/faked results!
People who have been in research fields develop a felt sense that most "research" (in almost any field that isn't exactingly technical) is research theater, and many superstar careers enjoy star status not because of a unique connection to the truth but because of a unique connection with an audience. No one really has the time or stature to, from a position of objectivity and trust, bring popular researchers to heel. But it will get increasingly hard to hide from serious critique. The machines can do critique now, at the level of depth and rigor previously only possible for the academically deranged. We're going to have to revise a lot of what we "know" about the world that isn't really knowledge but is actually just received popular consensus - like floating voltages without grounding wires. The grounding wires are coming.
Oct 31 - BELIEF PERSEVERANCE is keeping a belief after its evidential support has weakened, collapsed, or faced serious challenge. Reality has started asking for revision, but the belief remains sticky. 1/3 #RealityTrackingDaily
Beliefs often do more than describe the world. They support identity, dignity, relationships, past commitments, and larger worldviews. Correction then stops feeling like a factual update and starts feeling like threat. 2/3
Oct 30 - EXTRAORDINARY CLAIMS are claims that would force unusually large revision of what you already have strong reason to think is true. Extraordinary does not mean weird, offensive, unfamiliar, or inconvenient. It means revisionary. 1/3 #RealityTrackingDaily
Evidential demands should scale with the size of the rewrite being requested. A vivid anecdote, confident witness, unexplained anomaly, or loose demonstration may deserve attention. It does not automatically earn a wholesale revision. 2/3
The Paul Lynde Halloween Special first aired 50 years ago today, on October 29, 1976.
I was 11 and have no recollection of watching it at the time.
If you have not seen it yourself, you have no idea what you're in for!
(Link to video in reply.)
It ranks high among the most bizarre of the 70s holiday specials. Notably it was KISS's first televised appearance. youtube.com/watch?v=CCJ0D4pI…
