Posts by AndyPerfors@aus.social
(DIR) Post #AR1ethr8S4z5iXs8oa by AndyPerfors@aus.social
2022-12-26T00:07:20Z
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I've been a fan of Star Trek nearly my whole life, and as a chlid dreamed of going to space. I wanted to be Captain Kirk or Mr Spock (could never decide which) and as an undergraduate started as a physics major because I wanted to be an astronaut.So, with that context, this interview (link below) with Shatner after he went to space really struck me:---"I thought I would experience a deep connection with the immensity around us, a deep call for endless exploration. I was absolutely wrong. The strongest feeling, that dominated everything else by far, was the deepest grief that I had ever experienced." ---"I had to get to space to understand that Earth is and will stay our only home. And that we have been ravaging it, relentlessly, making it uninhabitable."--"It was the death that I saw in space and the lifeforce that I saw coming from the planet — the blue, the beige and the white... And I realised one was death and the other was life."😢 💔 https://www.npr.org/2022/10/23/1130482740/william-shatner-jeff-bezos-space-travel-overview-effect
(DIR) Post #AR1etjZU4g3N2Nd4a0 by AndyPerfors@aus.social
2022-12-26T00:07:52Z
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See also this twitter thread about it:https://twitter.com/visevic/status/1606554876648951808
(DIR) Post #ARORDLnhEaBOkAEw0e by AndyPerfors@aus.social
2023-01-07T01:36:09Z
1 likes, 1 repeats
How to slow down scientific progress"Leo Szilard—the physicist who first conceived of the nuclear chain reaction and who urged the US to undertake the Manhattan Project—also wrote fiction. His book of short stories, The Voice of the Dolphins, contains a story “The Mark Gable Foundation,” dated 1948."You can see the full thing at this link, but I've also taken a screenshot of an excerpt. 😬 🤔 😢 https://rootsofprogress.org/szilard-on-slowing-science
(DIR) Post #AT6k2DWNpJcBsdIC80 by AndyPerfors@aus.social
2023-02-27T12:33:39Z
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There are people who have never been completely powerless and it really shows in how thoroughly they misunderstand so much of what is going on in the world right now.
(DIR) Post #AT6k2E91VeWVoTN3M8 by AndyPerfors@aus.social
2023-02-27T12:34:39Z
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If you haven't been powerless, you don't understand power.And power shapes *everything*(Arguably, if you've ONLY been powerless, you don't fully understand it either... but usually at least you realise that)
(DIR) Post #AT6k2EjBLDRlccHviS by AndyPerfors@aus.social
2023-02-27T12:36:18Z
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... not coincidentally, it's the people who have never felt totally powerless who are also the people who can't perceive their own irrationality; they don't realise this giant hole in their worldview even exists
(DIR) Post #AT8FJe31kKw0oKJNHU by AndyPerfors@aus.social
2023-02-27T22:51:47Z
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Got in a random convo with my dad about #trans stuff. Background is, he’s been generally supportive in theory but clearly nervous about talking about it at all, and I’ve been following his lead. So this was a bit of a departure.Spoiler: the questions and comments were mostly adorable, and amazingly similar to many conversations within the trans community 💕 “I understand L, G, B, and T. But what is Q? I am completely baffled.”“You said hormones are basically like another puberty. So does that mean you’ll grow taller?”“Are there a lot more trans women than trans men? Because nobody ever talks about trans men.” 😍 “I can totally understand not wanting boobs. I would find them very annoying.” 😂 “Why is everyone so worried about trans women in bathrooms? Who would bother dressing as a woman and changing their name just to assault someone? I don’t get it”“So if someone is female and changes to male but was always interested in women, does that mean they are straight?”--Folks, if a 70+ rural-raised cis white dude living in Trumpland can be this thoughtful, so can anyone
(DIR) Post #ATExexp3UqByFZZK88 by AndyPerfors@aus.social
2023-02-27T23:03:24Z
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@3wombats Yeah, he is great. I mean, he's not perfect and there are some issues: e.g. he still persistently calls me "she" (but a parent with Parkinson's who is clearly operating out of habit and not malice is one of the few situations where I give persistent misgendering a pass).But... he's mostly just a thoughtful, interesting nerd who is curious about everything. Which in practice means he is pretty great! Doesn't presume he knows stuff, asks questions and is honestly interested in learning, but also mostly still sees me as me because from his POV far more important than my gender is that I will talk about math with him 😂
(DIR) Post #ATExeywtJC3PkAF5yy by AndyPerfors@aus.social
2023-02-27T23:18:21Z
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@3wombats I totally get that, I have a few "they" people in my life and constantly struggle. I've found the trick is to stop trying to translate and just directly recode them as a different gender (i.e., really fully internalise that they are a THEY and what I'm seeking to do is change my conception of them, not the label I apply).(For some reason I don't have this problem with binary pronouns, only "they". Probably has to do with me having a harder time conceptualising what it means to be non-binary, since I'm not, and also age; function words get more and more entrenched with age)
(DIR) Post #AUBVWC3NMRY8yw4hxA by AndyPerfors@aus.social
2023-03-30T11:55:01Z
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This article is a year old but probably even more relevant now*How the far-right is turning feminists into fascists*The terrifying confluence of anti-trans thinkers, American evangelicals, anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists and global purveyors of dark money poses a much bigger threat than you might realizehttps://xtramagazine.com/power/far-right-feminist-fascist-220810
(DIR) Post #AUBVWDYFn7qLczWsim by AndyPerfors@aus.social
2023-03-30T12:04:19Z
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"I’m frightened for myself, but I’m more frightened because the longer I look at this, the more I concur with gender theorist Judith Butler that trans people might not be the point of anti-trans fascism at all; we are simply the most popular means by which facists “concoct a world of multiple imminent threats to make the case for authoritarian rule and censorship.”
(DIR) Post #AVo1NJZxFvSlz2vNHE by AndyPerfors@aus.social
2023-05-19T05:31:18Z
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Got an electric #bike, in an effort to build #exercise naturally into my day. (I live in a lot of hills and could never do it without that).Today was the first day I tried it. Take-home messages.1. It was very fun!2. Man, I am so incredibly out of shape. Underscores that doing this was a very good idea but I'm in for a painful few weeks at minimum.3. My butt is sore. So sore. So so so sore.4. I need to figure out what clothing to wear. I tried wearing my leather jacket, for warmth and protection, but it was HOT by the end. But it's pretty chilly and rainy here, and I'm not sure what will work better. And these are windy, hilly roads without much shoulder so I do want as much protection as I can get.Bike commuters, any suggestions?
(DIR) Post #AVo1NLBZHZ90xzWvXk by AndyPerfors@aus.social
2023-05-19T05:44:45Z
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@rood Is there a good rule of thumb for how the handlebars should be adjusted so that my butt is in the right place? The lady at the bike shop was helpful and knowledgeable and suggested where it's currently at but also said people vary
(DIR) Post #AVo1NLRWKFu9lSzfPM by AndyPerfors@aus.social
2023-05-19T05:33:08Z
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(In hindsight I also should not have made my first go at this be the day after I got both my covid AND flu shots. I feel... weird)
(DIR) Post #AVo1yOGGoEk7DkOcHA by AndyPerfors@aus.social
2023-05-19T07:35:32Z
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@FroehlichMarcel @rood Thank you! :)
(DIR) Post #AWRpfOBMiKuEA1uXWi by AndyPerfors@aus.social
2023-06-07T05:23:04Z
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Whenever I'm tempted to overestimate the degree to which parents influence their #children, I just take a look at how much #vegemite my son slathers onto his sandwich and feel much better.
(DIR) Post #AXxcUJ4FaEHjyQXUqO by AndyPerfors@aus.social
2023-07-22T11:30:28Z
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8yo: You know what I keep thinking about?Me: What?8yo: What if every time you blinked, you slipped into a different universe, but nothing about it was different? How would you know?Me: ... 8yo: Every time I blink, I think about it.Me: Well. What if that happens but the new universe IS different but in a way you couldn't possibly realise, like a person in China has a different name or some flower somewhere died or something like that?8yo: ...8yo: Thanks. Now I'm never going to stop thinking about THAT, either
(DIR) Post #AXxcXiRbgpLBXy5d2m by AndyPerfors@aus.social
2022-11-20T10:24:46Z
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I just changed instances. Hello #aus.social! Glad to be here!Here's an #introduction.I'm a #prof in computational #cogsci at #UniMelb. I use behavioural experiments and mathematical models to study how people #learn and #reason. I think a lot about how we make #inferences from sparse #data, how we #share information with each other, and how this affects our #cultural and #informational #systems. I am a #parent to two amazing kids, love #teaching #rstats to psychology undergraduates, am an #American living in #Australia (citizen of both) in the beautiful #Dandenongs, and am #trans (see post below). I try not to take myself too seriously, especially on social media.https://perfors.net/blog/im-transgender-thats-okay/
(DIR) Post #Ab5EisQCibgpJro07k by AndyPerfors@aus.social
2023-10-23T23:43:52Z
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I'm very proud to have been a part of this paper written with @celestekidd and @spiantado. It is a short summary of why it is just wrong, given what we know about the cognitive science of concepts, to think that biological sex is the only "scientific" way to define man/woman. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-023-01657-y.epdf
(DIR) Post #Ab5Eiv6SkSgHdVamGm by AndyPerfors@aus.social
2023-10-23T23:46:44Z
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@celestekidd @spiantado A few things worth mentioning:1) None of this will be new to people who study concepts and concept change. We thought it worth writing given the ubiquitous talking point that defining "man" or "woman" in any way other than "biologically" is delusional.2) We actually tried for a long time to get this published in more popular outlets, often the very same ones who have published things from gender critical people about how they are being silenced and nobody wants "to hear both sides." Curious that none of them wanted to hear our side. 🤷♂️3) There were very strict limits on how long our reference list could be, and the original bibliography was much, much longer. Like I said, this is all well-established cognitive science, about as well-established as anything in our field. What we've done new is just bring it all together.4) 4) Huge thanks to my coauthors Celeste Kidd and Steve Piantadosi, who provided a thoughtful consideration, excellent writing, and much of the impetus to get this across the finish line. I've done something right in life to have ended up with friends and collaborators like these 😀