Utility Maximizer's guide to replicators, networks, game theory, and civilization
This is the first in a series I'm calling The Great Stagnation, a concept I took from Peter Thiel. Thiel argues that the rate of technological progress in the western world has stagnated. This post is reacting to a book by Scott Adams, Loserthink, which wasn't very good. One particularly dumb chapter is called, "The Golden … Continue reading Scott Adam’s Golden Age Fallacy
According to this manifesto, there exactly four functions of government: To protect people's health and property To oversee natural utilities, and one-of-a-kind goods (these topics are related via Georgism) To neutrally promote the creation and availability of information To maintain a national currency This section will cover #4. After this post, the manifesto will have … Continue reading Proper Sovereignty Manifesto, Part 4: Currency
Imagine you could only interact with the other people in a small town. The personalities, interests, and hobbies that you could be exposed to are limited by geographical location. In a small population, there may be some people with fringe ideas or unusual interests, but not in great enough numbers to form dedicated communities. But … Continue reading The paradox of interconnectedness
The penultimate speech: You Are Not a Lottery Ticket by Peter Thiel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZM_JmZdqCw The question of luck Thiel believes there are two forces of progress. First, globalization (horizontal progress), copying things that already work, or "doing more with more". Second, technology (vertical progress), doing things a different way, or "doing more with less." Globalization is mathematically represented … Continue reading Speech: Peter Thiel on predicting the future
All species have gone through oscillations: periods of zero-sum growth, and periods of positive-sum growth. This means we must have “programs within us that deal with both phases.” #technology #racism #political_compass #economics #zero-sum #bottlenecks @BretWeinstein
Previous posts: Part 1 - Part 2 Ancient history is a long list of civilizations that were once world leaders, region superpowers, and centers of innovation, that have since fallen from prominence. The British Empire, the Mongol Empire, the Roman Empire, various Caliphates, and too many to list. These were all at one point the … Continue reading Adaptive Valley: Late Culture Change Aversion
Pick a game you can win. Again, pick a game you can win. You may think work = success, like a linear equation. The more work, or investment of any sort, the more success. ___ @tferriss @cgpgrey The Adaptive Valley How to innovate like now other can
Technological innovation is as old as humanity. Technology can be a physical creation or a process, anything that increases the scope of possibility or improves efficiency. First and foremost, I am unabashedly pro-technology, and despite the side this paper takes, I wish for its progress to continue or accelerate. I will explain why the extreme … Continue reading Welfare and Automation
Epiphany a Week 