Recently, I’ve been watching YouTube videos on channels like Scammer Payback and Scambaiter. The idea is that a person pretends to fall for a scam, then uses the opportunity to hack into the scammer’s computer or even just make the scammer angry and waste their time. Refund scams One common type of scam goes like…
Author: Kenneth
Cat owner, educator, learner
What this blog is and why it is like how it is
“Thoughts on mind” is a very literal title. This blog consists of anything I happen to be thinking about, hence the diverse range of topics and lack of cohesion. I like explaining things, so a lot of posts are my explanations of things I’ve learned. This isn’t really meant to be authoritative. I mostly write…
Is ice a rock?
I was asked this question recently, and my initial answer was “I don’t think so.” To investigate deeper, we need to figure out what a rock is: A rock is an aggregate of one or more minerals, or a body of undifferentiated mineral matter. (USGS) So it looks like we need to figure out what…
Does AI image generation have a real world use case?
Since 2022 and the release of generative AI like Stable Diffusion, AI-generated images have been a novelty above all else. As some have pointed out online, modern AI seems at times like a solution in search of a problem. Now, a couple years into this AI boom (or bubble), some patterns of usage have emerged….
Pedagogy recapitulates history (sort of)
Because of the way mathematical ideas build on other mathematical ideas, the order in which these ideas were discovered/invented is often the same as the order in which they are taught. All humans typically start where humanity (is thought to have) started, with counting objects and identifying simple shapes. From there, we begin making calculations….
Stories in the history of written language (part 7)
The origins of literature To define narrative formally is to accept, perhaps dangerously, the idea or the feeling that the origins of narrative are self-evident, that nothing is more natural than to tell a story or to arrange a group of actions into a myth, a short story, an epic, a novel. (Genette and Levonas…
Fictitious reality in live action and animation
What’s the difference between live action film and animation? Well, a lot of things. A difference I’ve been thinking about lately is how each relates to reality. Live action is meant to depict a fictitious reality but actually presents a true reality (the performance) out of context (the film’s production). There is a suspension of…
A nihilist rebuttal to the cosmological argument
Premise 1. Everything that began to exist has a cause. Premise 2. The universe began to exist. Conclusion. Therefore, the universe has a cause. This is the basic form of the Kalam cosmological argument for the existence of god. Some say premise 2 is implied by the big bang theory, but this is not strictly…
Yoda was wrong
Do or do not. There is no try. There words from Jedi master Yoda are among the most quotable in the Star Wars saga. But in a world without the force, do Yoda’s words hold water? Judging by the title I clearly don’t think so, so here’s why. It’s reminiscent to me of a certain…
What it means to say “lobsters are conscious”
The creationist site Evolution News recently posted an article entitled What Does It Mean to Say “Lobsters Are Conscious”? The thrust of this article is to use research about animal sentience to uphold mind-body dualism while simultaneously downplaying the similarities between human and animal minds. In short, the author Denyse O’Leary is trying to have…
