Ehud

@duhe.bsky.social

4723 Followers 833 Following

Do you really don’t know? (I’m a philosopher and historian of biology, interested in all things evolutionary, #genetic, or #cognitive. I find most things ridiculous.) http://www.ehudlamm.com

I used AI as a control system for my writing As a basis, I prepared about 4 different versions of the same idea and checked in AI what presented/conveyed the idea in the most clear way. I cross-referenced, using AI, the final version that I drafted, with all the recommendations I collected regarding academic writing and the comments and highlights you gave regarding our works, to identify any points of failure in reflection. My idea, my writing, I did not use AI to draft writing or to correct. Wherever a problem arose, the drafting of the correction was carried out by me.
causal diagram linking snoring, feeling tired, apnea, and spouse kicks
A desire path cutting across grass.
Ten day forecast with temperatures between 29-31 Celsius
Beginning of English and French Wikipedia entries on socialism.
Post from bodega cats with the mu.social online kitty at the bottom
". A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks. It is rather the same thing that is happening to the English language. It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts. "
WSJ: What Astrologers See in Trump’s Birthday Horoscope The president’s cage-match celebration makes perfect sense for a Gemini
Original cover of the book described in the thread.
Cover of Hebrew edition of Conflicting theories of instruction : conceptual dimensions by Zvi Lamm
Medawar describing buying Nietzche's complete works.
Poster for an event on interdisciplinary research in the humanities, at the Israeli Academy of Sciences (I organized one of the panels)
Poster for the workshop: Beyond Error: Rethinking Bias in Research Practice
Book cover: in praise of idleness
Diaspora Jews, if You Care About Israel – Fight Jewish Terrorism
Paragraph from Kuhn’s essay Logical discovery or psychology of research?
XKCD cartoon modified to include philosophy: "hey, home come you're all inside that box?"
Book cover of don’t think of an elephant
Bit of my finger seen, holding up the paper back edition
Front page of Haaretz newspaper.
Statement by the Senate of Tel Aviv University For a long time now, we have been witnessing acts of violence by Jewish residents in the West Bank against Palestinian residents. These acts, which include severe harm to persons and property, intimidation, humiliation, and displacement, have in some cases escalated into shocking acts of murder. These phenomena have intensified over the past month, under the cover of the war with Iran. As citizens of the State of Israel, we bear a heavy moral responsibility and feel deep shame in the face of this rampant Jewish terrorism. We protest the failure of the government and security forces to act with the necessary resolve against this phenomenon by using all means at their disposal. Terror directed against innocent civilians does not change according to the identity of the perpetrator or the victim; terror is terror, and it must be eradicated. The State of Israel, as the authority responsible for the territories, bears a clear obligation under both international and Israeli law: to ensure the safety and well-being of all residents, Jews and Palestinians alike. Beyond this legal duty, the government bears a paramount moral obligation: not to permit the shedding of blood in the West Bank, whether by action or by failure to act. As a people who have experienced pogroms and persecution driven by racism, we are bound to remember where such a path may lead. We must not stand idly by. History teaches us that in times of war, human rights are often pushed to the margins in the name of the demands of the moment or the pursuit of victory. We refuse to accept this reality. Jewish terrorism serves no legitimate purpose; on the contrary, it erodes the very foundations of our existence. Silence in the face of terror from within is a moral stain that cannot be erased, for the strength of the State of Israel is measured not only by its military power but first and foremost by the integrity of its values.
Many YouTube videos, magazine essays, and even books try to give advice and tips on how to be critical where appropriate while still being able to recognize bullshit that does not merit our time or attention. But trying to recognize bullshit is often not going to work. Each of us, as an individual, does not have the knowledge, time, resources, or skill to determine the truth value of any important claim. Even Newton, Einstein, or Darwin, wouldn’t be able to know whether a vaccine they heard about on Facebook was effective or safe. How could they? The data is not available; if it is available who knows how it was produced; and even if you trust everyone involved, these three genius scientists did not know any modern immunology.
And therein lies the message. The social organization of science is such that when scientists just wait passively for value-laden hypotheses and proposals to come from outside they diminish their own ability to critically engage those proposals. The reason for this is that the interaction between science and the social systems around it (including ideological structures) is hardly symmetrical. The values of science – of open debate and keeping an open mind – embodied in the two assumptions we formulated at the beginning, make scientists an easy mark, while the ideologically driven views are harder to modify and are entrenched in large supporting social, ideological, and economic structures. The sociobiology debate is instructive in that it shows that direct engagement between scientists, philosophers, historians, and sociologists of science, helps map these tensions, and evaluate which aspects of these tensions can be solved by using standard scientific practices, which require different approaches, and which cannot be solved without engaging with the ideological structures within which scientific activity is embedded. Realizing that scientific activity happens within a larger social structure that is far from neutral and is not open to rational debate is a first step. Distinguishing between ideas that are scientifically motivated and challenges that are ideologically driven is a harder but necessary second step.
Stop the war! This war won't bring us security either. We, the Peace Partnership organizations, call for an immediate end to the war. This is a war of choice that endangers us all. The government repeatedly chooses dangerous eternal wars that cause loss of human life, destruction, and pain with no future and no political solutions. Only eight months ago they declared that the "Iranian threat" had been eliminated for generations. They lied to us then, and they lie to us now. This attack, and the crimes against the Palestinians that continue under its auspices, will not bring security. In Israel, Iran, Lebanon, and Palestine, there are frightened parents and children who just want to live. Only a joint struggle for a political settlement and a just peace based on the rights of peoples can bring true security to all residents of the region. The Peace Partnership
Ah what an unfortunate man your true magistrate is! You know, they ought to live outside the community, as pontiffs once did. The world should only see them when they emerged from their cells at fixed times, solemn, ancient, venerable, pronouncing judgment like the high priests of antiq- uity, combining in themselves the judicial and the sacerdotal powers! We should only be visible on the bench. . . . Nowadays we may be seen amusing ourselves or in difficulties like anybody else. . . . We may be seen in drawing rooms, at home, creatures of passion, and instead of being terrible we are grotesque. Balzac, A Harlot High and Low
Louise and our children continue to be an impediment to my scholarly productivity. They see no earthly reason why I should want to spend so much time writing books, given the cost in solitude and in opportunities foregone. This book was, like those before it, written in the teeth of their best efforts to bring me to my senses. There is little doubt that without them I could have written more and, who knows, maybe even have gotten smarter. All in all, a very small price to pay for their company.
Picture of a leaf-less tree against a pinkish grey background.
In 2025, the exchange rate averaged $1.10 per euro (1.05 at the beginning of the year, 1.15 at the end). However, to equalize price levels, the exchange rate would need to be around $1.50 per euro. By neglecting purchasing power parity, which is the only way to compare purchasing power and the actual levels of goods and services produced in different countries, we are therefore exaggerating US wealth by nearly 40% compared to European wealth.
First They Came for the Philosophers First they came for Plato, And I did not speak out, Because I did not dwell in the world of Forms. Then they came for Galileo, And I did not speak out, Because I refused to look through the glass. Then they came for Descartes, And I did not speak out, Because I did not care for the nature of the soul. Then they came for Kant, And I did not speak out, Because I did not think the mind shaped my reality. Then they came for Nietzsche, And I did not speak out, Because I feared the weight of a world without idols. Then they came for Darwin, And there was no one left to speak for me, Because I had traded the freedom of inquiry for the comfort of silence.
Voltaire, treatise on tolerance
Stall with highly decorated, mouth watering sufganiyot.
AI generated image of platypus (our group’s mascot) with Christmas hat.
Cover of Sandra Boynton's beloved children's book, But Not the Hippopotamus
In the 1960s the American historian of biology Mark Adams came to St. Petersburg in order to interview К. М. Zavadsky. In the course of their discussion Zavadsky asked: "Do you know Ernst Mayr?" Adams: "Yes, very well." Zavadsky: "Is he a Marxist?" Adams: "He is not, so far as I know." Zavadsky: "This is very curious because his writings are pure dialectical materialism."
Drake meme Youtube videos AI AI generated youtube videos