Ersatz Doctor

@ersatzdoctor

My philosophy explainer video channel: PhD in philosophy. Community college prof. Mostly here for unserious philosophy jokes.

614 Folgt1.244 Follower2.897 Posts

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Ersatz Doctor@ersatzdoctor· 28d

When someone asks why I’m not afraid of the diarrhea outbreak

The incredible Hulk “That’s my secret. I’m always angry” Meme but it says “that’s my secret. I always have diarrhea.”

Ersatz Doctor@ersatzdoctor· Jul 17

A Ralph Wiggum (from the Simpsons) meme that says “ADVANCED ALIENS WITHOUT BODIES WERE MAKING CONSCIOUSNESS AND I SAW ONE OF THE ALIENS AND THE ALIEN LOOKED AT ME.”

Ersatz Doctor@ersatzdoctor· Jul 15

Whenever I see these disguised cell towers I can only think of this

The Steve buscemi “how do you do, fellow kids?” Meme but a cell tower disguised as a tree is covering his face and it says “how do you do fellow trees?”

Ersatz Doctor@ersatzdoctor· Jul 15

I finished “The Light Eaters” and I highly recommend it. While Schlanger is a bit overzealous in talking about plant behavior in conscious/intentional terms, she does a great job surveying the incredible abilities of plants and raises significant questions about their intelligence or “agency”.

Cover of “The Light Eaters” by Zoe Schlanger. It has a black background and features a pink and green plant.

Ersatz Doctor@ersatzdoctor· Jul 15

This ain’t his first rodeo either

A screenshot of Google scholar showing two papers with the title “Effect of evidence-based method clinical educationon patients care quality and their satisfaction,” with one listing the author as MA Kenari.

Ersatz Doctor@ersatzdoctor· Jul 12

My 14yo needs a computer for his new high school so we just got him a MacBook Neo. As I painfully watched him “hunt and peck” type I realized that his middle school never taught him typing! So I did what any responsible millennial parent would do. I loaded up Mario Teaches Typing for him.

Ersatz Doctor@ersatzdoctor· Jul 10

The “cool mom” meme from the moveo Mean Girls.

It reads: WE'RE NOT LIKE A REGULAR STATE. WE'RE A COOL STATE.

Ersatz Doctor@ersatzdoctor· Jul 10

Hello hotness my old friend…

A 9-day forecast showing the following highs:
Fri 104°
Sat 104°
Sun 105°
Mon 103°
Tue 104°
Wed 102°
Thu 106°
Fri 105°
Sat 102°

Ersatz Doctor@ersatzdoctor· Jun 29

We were at Grocery Outlet (“Gross Out” I like to call it) and these boxes of sour patch kids and Swedish fish were $1.47. For a box of 18. We’re talking *full size* bags here. Filled with shame, I bought 10 boxes. Price per calorie this might be the greatest deal in history.

A photo of 10 bright colorful boxes of candy. Each box contains 18 bags (2 oz each). Not shown: my self-respect because it’s gone now.

Ersatz Doctor@ersatzdoctor· Jun 27

Welcome to the bourgeoisie

Ersatz Doctor@ersatzdoctor· Jun 23

I’ve been selected? I’ve been selected!

A screenshot of an email from Google:

Google Workspace
You've been selected to try new Al features
Your account has begun a trial of Al features in Google Sheets, Meet, and Drive. For a limited time, you have no-cost access to features typically reserved for paid accounts*
Try these new Al-powered tools to help you save time and boost creativity and productivity.

Ersatz Doctor@ersatzdoctor· Jun 21

I don’t normally post food pics but I just love the color on this too much

An open tortilla filled with green sliced avocado, brown fried tofu, purple cabbage and cilantro, topped with a lime crème sauce and tomatillo/avocado salsa.

Ersatz Doctor@ersatzdoctor· Jun 20

I recently learned that you should pour these boxed drinks with the spot at the top rather than the bottom so that it pours smoothly and doesn’t go “glug glug” (is there a word for that?)

A photo of a hand holding a 1qt box of oatmilk. The spout is on the top but on the left side (when standing up). And it’s being titled to the right so that the spout is higher up when ready to pour.

Ersatz Doctor@ersatzdoctor· Jun 19

I give you Jesus:

Renee Magritte’s “Son of Man” painting where a man in a suit has a green apple in front of his face.

Ersatz Doctor@ersatzdoctor· Jun 17

Yes 36ft is a joke but it still blows my mind that the rest is true. Goldfish actually get like 2+ feet long and they’re an invasive species.

A photo of a researcher holding a nearly 2 ft. goldfish. The caption reads:
“Gigantic goldfish, like this one held by University of Nevada, Reno, researcher Christine Ngai, have been found in the waters of Lake Tahoe. (Image credit: Heather Segale)”

Ersatz Doctor@ersatzdoctor· Jun 12

Me laughing at something someone in my group chat just said.

The Nathan Fielder meme where he’s looking at something off camera and laughing.

Ersatz Doctor@ersatzdoctor· Jun 3

A few years ago I started taking care of my pool chemistry. I am bizarrely proud when I have it sparkling. I also get how people get sucked into weird hobbies and want to talk about them all the time. Me in my best Cliff Calvin voice: “Well ya see Norm, what you got there is cyanuric acid problem.”

A photo of my beautiful blue pool. Trees and plants run along the fence. An umbrella is partially visible in the foreground.

Ersatz Doctor@ersatzdoctor· Jun 3

This point about responsibility goes by quick but it’s important. LLMs are products made by people. When they cause harm, we must be vigilant in remembering which *persons* are morally responsible.

A screenshot of part of the article. It reads: “It's enough to make you wonder: Should we seriously consider the possibility that Claude, or any large language model, might be conscious? And if it has feelings, is it capable of receiving moral instruction?
No. Absolutely not. Generative Al is harmful enough when we understand it as a conventional technology, but if we confuse fluency at generating text with
consciousness or moral agency, we're at risk of assigning responsibility to entirely the wrong parties whenever anyone uses a chatbot. To appreciate the titanic magnitude of this error, we need to begin by understanding how LLMs work.”

Ersatz Doctor@ersatzdoctor· Jun 1

Life as a philosopher with an anxiety disorder

A Lord of the Rings screenshot meme.
Pippin: What about an existential crisis?
Aragorn: We already had it.
Pippin: We've had one, yes. What about second existential crisis

Ersatz Doctor@ersatzdoctor· May 31

“We’re all about science. We’re definitely not a cult. But btw we are promising you eternal life.”

“The researcher paraphrased his message like this: "Isn't it amazing that we are the last generation of humans who will need to think about procreating biologically? We were lucky enough to be born at a time where we can simply upload our consciousnesses instead."”

Ersatz Doctor@ersatzdoctor· May 31

Me seeing someone post something controversial: “I bet this person’s posts represent the views of their employer.” Me reading their bio:

The skeletor meme that says “Curses! Foiled again!”

Ersatz Doctor@ersatzdoctor· May 30

It's even cooler when you can hear it.

Ersatz Doctor@ersatzdoctor· May 29

Every time I see someone arguing with an LLM

A screenshot from The Simpsons. There’s a parrot in the four ground in Homer and Marge in the background. Marge is saying “look Homer there’s that bird you like to argue with“

Ersatz Doctor@ersatzdoctor· May 29

A black and white photo of Bernard Williams with red laser eyes.

Ersatz Doctor@ersatzdoctor· May 22

I just heard a radio ad for Amazon’s “Health AI” where the entire premise was that it’s embarrassing to talk about your symptoms with a doctor but with AI you don’t have to feel embarrassed. Just another “we’re so cooked” moment.

An ad for Amazon health AI that shows a phone in a hand with a text conversation. The person says “I’m not feeling well” and the AI responds “Let’s figure this out together. What are your symptoms?”

Ersatz Doctor@ersatzdoctor· May 16

Tired: film adaptation of The Odyssey Wired: film adaptation of Theodicy

A portrait of Leibniz. He has just such big hair. Really. It’s both tall and long.

Ersatz Doctor@ersatzdoctor· May 12

A screenshot from the cartoon Rick and Morty. A man dressed as a bird says “In bird culture that is considered a dick move.”

Ersatz Doctor@ersatzdoctor· May 10

INTERVIEWER: Can you explain this gap in your resume? ME: Buckle up…

A screenshot of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry for “Holes” including the first two lines which read “Holes are an interesting case study for ontologists and epistemologists. On the one…”

Ersatz Doctor@ersatzdoctor· May 8

preamble is just grandstanding. They also make a point to talk about how thin the margin of victory was but later explain the thin margin is irrelevant to their ruling (as it should be). But again the moralizing rhetoric is absurd.

The Virginia Department of Elections reported on April 30 that 1,604,276 Virginians had
cast "yes" votes in response to the "restore fairness" ballot question" and 1,499,393 Virginians had cast "no" votes."

Approximately 3.38% of the total votes separated the number of "yes" votes and "no" votes, and thus, the majority will of the people was secured by "yes" voters representing 1.69% of the total votes cast.

On the issues before us in this case, we hold that the ultimate vote margin plays no role in
the analytics of our judicial review of the constitutionality of the pre-election constitutional-amendment process. Neither a high margin of success nor a single-digit margin, supra at 5, logically or legally matters. As we earlier explained:

Ersatz Doctor@ersatzdoctor· May 8

I read the VA gerrymander opinion and it’s a joke. They claim the state “denied over 1.3 million Virginians their constitutional right to have a voice in the debate over whether their Constitution should be amended.” This makes it sound like those who engaged in early voting didn’t get to…