Utility Maximizer's guide to replicators, networks, game theory, and civilization
I don't think this post was very good as originally written. However, it is part 4 in a multi-part series, so in lieu of deleting it, I have re-written the arguments I made as part of a larger post, here. The arguments from this post made it into part 1 and part 4. There is … Continue reading Malevolent Artificial Intelligence (Sam Harris is Wrong, Part 4)
Sometimes, I find a blog and have no idea where to start reading. The first post? The last post? The most popular post? This is a solution to that. That's too many links! Well don't get intimidated. It's not like you have to read everything. Just look around. Some of my good posts The order … Continue reading Just discovered this blog – what should I read?
I know I'm a day late to this, but here's something that's been annoyed me. Do me a favor. Go to this link, a Google image search for "vintage halloween costumes." Now, the black-and-white coloring may be a factor, and there's probably some selection bias. But those are some scary costumes. Now simply search for … Continue reading The quintessential problem of our day: halloween costumes aren’t scary enough
Harris fails to appreciate the narrative power of religion, or the importance of belief. Here is an excerpt from a debate between Harris and Jordan Peterson, moderated by Bret Weinstein. Harris: I'm not saying that stories aren't incredibly powerful and useful and inevitable... Peterson: You are. You might be saying that they're inevitable. But you … Continue reading Theism, atheism, and antitheism (Sam Harris is Wrong, Part 3)
Every boat is copied from another boat. . . . Let's reason as follows in the manner of Darwin. It is clear that a very badly made boat will end up at the bottom after one or two voyages and thus never be copied. . . . One could then say, with complete rigor, that … Continue reading Design vs Darwinism and “skin in the game”
This post will follow up on a previous one about anti-trust. In that post, I allege that the best (if not only) way to become aggressively rich — to have “passive income” — is to abuse some “barrier to entry.” A barrier to entry is essentially some leverage that makes it very difficult for someone else to compete with … Continue reading More about barriers to entry: How people get rich
See the image below. Imagine you start at the dot. Your job is to construct roads, in such a way to minimize the time spent traveling. It needs to be possible, starting at the dot, to arrive anywhere at the line. Here is the challenge: how do you construct the roads? If cost is not … Continue reading Tree structures, the last mile problem, fractals, and the inevitability of hierarchy
First of all, I think you should vote. Some people say, “I don’t vote because I don’t live in a swing state, so my vote doesn’t make a difference.” I find this to be a nonsensical reason for not voting, because your vote never makes a difference, whether you live in a swing state or … Continue reading Your vote will never matter. That’s why you should vote.
Anti-trust origins Anti-trust regulations are called that because they were once considered generically anti-corporate regulations, like what tough-on-corporation politicians expound today. Think the trusts are oppressing the workers? Hit them with some regulations! But eventually, anti-trust would come to by synonymous with curbing the power of monopoly. And with good reason. Market power is the … Continue reading A proposal for a better standard of anti-trust
You may have heard that symmetry is scientifically attractive. This statement is true, but incomplete. Symmetry is just a smaller component of a broader trait. Here, I will revisit a website I have linked previously on my blog, this. It allows you to combine faces. Personally, I think that all of the people’s faces are … Continue reading What is Attractiveness?
Epiphany a Week 