Neuro-sama (aka Neuro Sama or Neurosama) is a female-presenting AI vtuber (virtual YouTuber) created by Vedal987. In late December 2022, Neuro debuted on Twitch playing the rhythm game osu! and interacting with the live chat using text-to-speech and an anime girl avatar. The avatar was one that was included with the Live2D software used to…
Video share: Can Christianity Survive A Loss Of Community?
It seems awfully manmade. MindShift
Structural realism in the philosophy of science
One of the core issues in the philosophy of science is realism vs. antirealism. This concerns two things, the ontological status of entities referred to in scientific laws and what the aim of science is (or should be). Realism is the view that entities referred to in scientific laws genuinely exist to the extent that…
Words don’t have meanings
There is an argument I have heard. It goes like this: “Words have meanings.” The implication is that one cannot just use words to mean whatever they want, the words have defined meanings and these definitions are the only things those words can mean. I have seen this argument used a variety of contexts, from…
The decline and fall of young earth creationism
For most of human history, the age of the earth was unknown. Many believed it was created at some point in the past by supernatural forces, and others hypothesized that the earth always existed. Within the Abrahamic tradition, genealogical lists have been used to trace back to Adam and the date of creation as described…
The geometry of body plans
Let’s talk about evolution. All living organisms require a way to acquire and metabolize food, a way to respirate, and a way to reproduce. Many single-cell organisms like bacteria can eat by engulfing food within their cell, a process called phagocytosis. Algae and plants are autotrophic, meaning they produce their own food. Some simple animals,…
Stories in ludology & narratology (part 1)
Ludology and narratology are the two sides of the coin that is the study of games (in the non-mathematical sense). Ludology is the study of game mechanics and rules, and narratology is the study of story and setting. Ludology is closer to math, while narratology is closer to literary analysis. Narratology of games is particularly…
Being misgendered as a cis person
I am a white cisgender heterosexual man. Between the ages of around 12 to 15 years old, I grew out my hair; by the time I cut it, it was past my shoulders. During this time I was also skinny and had no facial hair. There were a few times when I was misgendered by…
“AI ‘art’ is bad” is a bad argument
There are many good reasons to oppose AI generated images being disseminated or put forward as art. Nevertheless, one argument I see with surprising frequency is that the images generated by AI look bad. The biggest reason I think this is a bad argument is because it’s contingent upon current technological limitations. AI image generation…
A plea to teach sig figs in math class
Measurement is an essential part of math. Quantities encountered in the real world are usually one of two things: a count or a measurement. Counting is what we learn first about math, before doing anything else with numbers. Counting is a way of measuring a quantity of discrete objects, but it is different from other…
thoughts on mind 