Such a great time

Computation is not consciousness. My latest post explores the "Abstraction Fallacy" in AI. Using C.S. Lewis and Lacanian theory, I argue that while LLMs are brilliant at using symbols, they have no capacity to inhabit the meaning behind them. paulhoard.substack.com/p/why-ai-can...

Are we talking to an "Other" or just an echo? 🪞 New post up on the intersection of AI consciousness and Lacanian theory. I’m arguing that we’ve made the metaphor of "thinking machines" so habitual that we’re now trapped inside our own projection. paulhoard.substack.com/p/the-mirror...

AI is a self-help book that talks back. 🤖📖 LLMs are brilliant "technicians," but they can’t be therapists. Therapy requires a subject shaped by lack and a "Real" encounter—not just language all the way down. New essay on the limits of AI knowledge: paulhoard.substack.com/p/what-ai-ke...

Therapy follows the Analyst’s Discourse. This requires the agent to function as "object a"—the cause of desire. LLMs are trapped in the University Discourse (S2). They can’t "not know." They have no lack, so they have no silence to offer. paulhoard.substack.com/p/constitutive-lack

LLMs offer "knowledge without a knower." In the University Discourse, AI provides data but lacks the constitutive lack that makes human inquiry honest. New post is up: Knowledge Without a Knower 🦋 paulhoard.substack.com/p/knowledge-... #Lacan #AI #Theory

I just posted a new piece: "The Anatomy of a Question." I’m looking at how we’ve moved from "ordering" Alexa around to "interrogating" AI. It’s a shift from a position of mastery to a position of seeking—and it changes our social bonds entirely. paulhoard.substack.com/p/from-command-to-question

New article out: “Lacan Plays Catan: Unconscious Desire in Tabletop Gaming.” A primer on Lacanian ideas and an attempt to use psychoanalysis to read games and play more carefully. #BoardGames #Psychoanalysis open.substack.com/pub/paulhoar...

AI can’t "miss the mark" because it has no mark to miss. My new essay uses Lacan’s "Four Discourses" to explain why we talk to Alexa differently than to each other. Read more: paulhoard.substack.com/p/the-failure-of-communication #Lacan #AI #Philosophy

Anthropic’s 'Constitution' isn't just a policy document. It’s a rhetorical one. I wrote about how we use 'master signifiers' like safety and ethics to try and anchor the slippery drift of AI language. These systems are mirrorsthey reflect our own desire. paulhoard.substack.com/p/claudes-co...

Most systems in life are built to produce success. Games are built to produce losers. Why do we return to structures designed to defeat most of us? New essay: on losing, repetition, and why winning is only a pause. open.substack.com/pub/paulhoar...

Is your game night a defense mechanism? We often treat "Alpha Players" as a flaw. But psychoanalytically, groups install them to escape the anxiety of shared uncertainty. New post on the big Other and being a "co-author of uncertainty": paulhoard.substack.com/p/quarterbacking-in-cooperative-games

If you missed the live stream of @trippfuller.bsky.social, @paulhoard.bsky.social, and I talking about AI and the Christmas story, fear not! You can watch the recording here. In this clip, we riff on desire, flourishing, The Good Place & Zechariah losing his voice. open.substack.com/pub/personal...

@paulhoard.bsky.social and I are so honored to have our book included on Dwight's Top 10 books of the year! And this list is fantastic. I absolutely recommend all of these! dwightfriesen.com/2025/12/5204...

Welcome to the season finale of @queerpolifaith.bsky.social! Today's episode is a conversation I had with @billieiswriting.bsky.social and @paulhoard.bsky.social about #bullshit. It is part 2 of our conversation about their book #Eucontamination: Disgust Theology and the Christian Life from August

Y'all this event is going to be February, virtual registration is available (and free to students I believe), @paulhoard.bsky.social and I are gonna be presenting, and my counselor friends will even get CEUs for it. You should definitely sign!!! open.substack.com/pub/paulhoar...

NGL I like how the ridiculous threats from Hegseth have prompted Kelly to start treating this fascist regime with the disdain it deserved all along. They will come for the rest of you and it will be better to act together now.

Today I am dropping the first of my brother @paulhoard.bsky.social 's Essay in his Lacanian Virtue Ethics Series. I plan to post Paul's essays (with a little additional commentary from me at the end) as my Friday posts for a while. open.spotify.com/episode/798d...

paulhoard.substack.com/p/not-whole-... A short essay on Lacan and humility

New essay on fidelity and friendship just dropped. open.substack.com/pub/paulhoar...

Had a couple of really good conversations now with @paulhoard.bsky.social and @billieiswriting.bsky.social regarding their new book, Eucontamination. This one is focused more on the Bible and theology. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/d...

“For if we ever fully belonged—if we were completed—we would lose the very condition that makes love possible.” A thoughtful, provocative essay. It prompted this in me: loving my community is sorta like loving my own body — it isn’t perfect; it’s mine & I accept it even as I try to improve it.

As if irony isn’t already dead, the Hatch Act violation on the DOJ website, which blames Democrats for the shutdown, appears on the page advising DOJ employees they are subject to the Hatch Act. joycevance.substack.com/p/a-note-abo...

Eucontamination Ch. 2 (because this is apparently what I'm doing this weekend 😄) "Disgust is not so much about inherent qualities of an object, person, or group but about the concern they create around contamination. Nothing is *inherently* disgusting."

All that to say, yeah. Disgust doesn't care about logic, and it is a powerful motivator. To deal with any of these messes we're in, we're going to have to undermine the disgust reaction, so thank you to Paul and Billie for jumping into the work.

Oh my gosh I love this so much!

For the record, the technical term for language spoken or written without regard for the truth, designed only to shape the listener's/reader's imagined reality in a particular way is "bullshit". @paulhoard.bsky.social and I wrote about that (building on Frankfurt) in our book.

If you wait to decide until the federal government calls the question, the temptation to justify making the "safe" decision will be overwhelming. As my brother writes: integrity requires commitment to the unfinished and uncertain; reject the fantasy of security. open.substack.com/pub/paulhoar... 6/

"Authoritarianism treats critique not as feedback, but as infection." This line makes my mind go to the theology of disgust that @billieiswriting.bsky.social and @paulhoard.bsky.social talk about in their book.....

"Courage is the risk of fidelity when fantasy fails—the act that carries us further than fear would allow, without any guarantee that it will make us whole." Y'all need to stop sleeping on the 🔥 my brother has been writing.

In our book "Eucontamination" @paulhoard.bsky.social and I talk about the Disgust cycle [nausea—trigger—vomit—rationalize] which drives social expulsion at every level from stigma to ethnic cleansing and genocide. These folks are so thirsty to make a trigger stick! 1/4

Excited to be presenting with @billieiswriting.bsky.social, @tamicenamaespeaks.bsky.social, and @orthoparadoxy.bsky.social at Theology Beer Camp this October!

Yay! Trans woman interviewing another trans woman (and my "token cis" brother @paulhoard.bsky.social ) about our scholarship! Check it out!

This was fun. Love working with my sister!

Eeek! I feel like a real author! @paulhoard.bsky.social and I will be presenting on the subversive power of Queer joy at 1:00 tomorrow and then signing books at 2:00 at Wild Goose!

Welcome to a very special episode of @queerpolifaith.bsky.social! Today, I am interviewing @billieiswriting.bsky.social and @paulhoard.bsky.social about the book #Eucontamination Disgust Theology and the Christian Life which came out on August 1. We start off by discussing what eucontamination is

NEW EPISODE: We’re back! And honored to have @billieiswriting.bsky.social and @paulhoard.bsky.social hanging out with @muzach.bsky.social and I. We talk their great new book Eucontamination! Listen in and pick up a copy! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/v...

Took a minute to shake the rust off, but it was so nice to catch up with friends. @davelester80.bsky.social and I have been talking with @paulhoard.bsky.social and @billieiswriting.bsky.social for nearly 3 years now, and couldn't be more proud of them now that it's actually out. Take a listen!

"The poet is on the side of undeceiving the world." — Seamus Heaney

I’m adding this to my book club reading list