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The repetitive politician and their proxy epithets
This essay examines a rhetorical technique used by politicians.
- Politicians often use a specific discursive practice similar to Homeric epithets (like “swift-footed Achilles”)
- I describe the concept of “proxy epithets” – terms that combine:
- A concise qualifier attached to a subject.
- A rehearsed explanation that follows each mention.
- These epithets function as cognitive shortcuts. The epithet becomes interchangeable with its explanation.
- Example: the Argentine president calling taxes “coercive” and consistently explaining this means they are “extracted at gunpoint”
- When applied with intellectual honesty, proxy epithets can be an efficient tool for meaningful political communication.
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Music, its attachment to memories, to pain, and to joy
This essay explores the relationship between music and memory.
- About the fear of listening to songs attached to good memories during bad times, threatening to "tarnish" those memories.
- Sound is naturally connected to memory, with contextual elements enhancing these connections.
- Music can help "exorcise the demons of our past" in two key ways:
- By allowing us to revisit painful memories with a more mature perspective.
- By connecting negative past experiences with positive present ones.
- When revisiting painful memories through music:
- Music can infuse dignity and beauty into difficult memories.
- The song becomes a "totem" encoded with our renewed perspective, while intertwining past and present into denser binds.
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The resonant song – the artist’s personal ambassador & the listener’s means to discover their own beauty within
A resonant song creates a bridge between artist and listener, allowing both to discover, express, and share the beauty within themselves that touches upon universal human experience.
- Music, like living beings, has universal qualities but endless variations that make each piece unique
- A song functions in multiple important ways:
- As a construct that extends beyond the artist's physical presence
- As an ambassador representing the artist in the world
- As a personal asset that makes emotions and stories durable
- For the artist the finished piece combines universal human experience with individual expression.
- For the listener, the song becomes a medium to discover and convey their own interiority.
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Plato’s ladder of love and all the beautiful robots
I examine how Plato's concept of love might apply to humanoid robots. In which ways might we explain a loving feeling for certain robots as they become more predominant in daily life?
- Plato's "Ladder of Love" consists of six ascending levels. The three first steps begin in bodily love (Eros), followed by Soul Love (Philia) and Concept Love (loving the concepts a person embodies).
- How does it apply to humanoid robots?
- Robots might inspire different forms of love as they become more advanced
- Beyond sexual services (Eros) or AI companions (Philia), robots could embody Concept Love. Their programming could instill behaviors reflecting concepts we find beautiful
- Robots need not be human or "sentient" to be worthy of love
- They can be appreciated for the beautiful concepts they manifest in the world
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The things a teacher does when information technologies proliferate exponentially
I explore some of the fundamental points where a teacher’s role is affected as information technologies keep proliferating exponentially.
- When access and relationships with information spiral out of control in their variety and possibilities, teachers still serve multiple crucial functions. I list many of them.
- I ponder on whether "teacher" remains the right term:
- Has it become too institutionalized?
- Alternative terms (mentor, instructor, guide) capture only parts of the role
- A recurring essential function must remain unchanged regardless of terminology
- The teacher's role might be defined "negatively":
- What they prevent students from doing
- Which obstacles they help students avoid
- Education remains vital and complex. It balances timeless human needs with evolving technologies, while deserving continual examination and reinvention
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Nostalgia: a wish for historical regression? Or a wish for the future?
Is this single path of progress is inevitable? Are we truly limited to either fully embracing or rejecting modern technologies? Where might alternative or complementary visions of progress be found?
- I reframe nostalgia as a resource for guidance toward alternative futures rather than a desire to return to the past.
- Nostalgia often emerges from feelings that something valuable was lost in our rush toward technological progress
- Modern progress creates a false dichotomy:
- Forward = global, rational, technological advancement
- Backward = local, traditional, less efficient ways
- Current progress has three problematic qualities. For example, gradual but cumulative technological changes become nearly irreversible
- Nostalgia reveals what we truly value, which facilitates course correction. Today's nostalgia for pre-digital life reveals desires for connection, presence, and simplicity