There is a problem at the heart of, well everything. It pervades all our designs and is a time bomb whose ticks are accelerating. The problem is that of definition. (there are many footnotes in this article, as well as links. If you have an objection, check out the footnotes first! But if not, feel free to… Continue reading Post Modernism: What AI Alignment Teaches Us About Education (and everything else)
Category: Philosophy
The Spider in the Brain: Infinite Jest and Why Simple Rules Can Beat Complex Reasoning
This essay centers around addiction; while the subject centers around ruinous addictions to physical substances, it can apply to virtually any behavior that forms within us an unwanted compulsion. (For most readers, I would guess digital compulsions are more likely). But it is not just addiction; it is when we must acknowledge under what conditions simple… Continue reading The Spider in the Brain: Infinite Jest and Why Simple Rules Can Beat Complex Reasoning
Tantalus and How to be Unhappy: No Roads Lead Directly to Non-optimization
There are the three Greek damned, Sisyphus doomed to roll a boulder up a hill, the most famous of the three, Ixion rarely talked about because his punishment, being bound to an endlessly spinning wheel of fire being rather pedestrian, and Tantalus where we get the word tantalize. Like all ancient myths, there are many… Continue reading Tantalus and How to be Unhappy: No Roads Lead Directly to Non-optimization
Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer is Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis in Reverse
Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer is the story of a young reindeer discriminated against for having a red nose. It is also my favorite Claymation Christmas movie that I watch every year with a sweater and some hot chocolate. In the end, it turns out that his “deformity” his bright shining red nose has utility as… Continue reading Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer is Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis in Reverse
In Genuine Praise of So Called Folly: Why Only Nonoptimization Matters
Audio here The title of this article might seem a strange one coming from an economist. This is the third of three planned essays. The two preceding articles in this series, the first of which built a lens to observe life from a tautology and the second, took reasonable scientific inference from the first. In… Continue reading In Genuine Praise of So Called Folly: Why Only Nonoptimization Matters
Receptor Theory: Why Fiction is “True”
Audio version here This is a continuation of the last article on The Universal Lens. But only two claims from that article are needed. -All life must in some way be a statistical response model to its environment. This is because for life to continue, it must fulfill the dual mandates of gathering energy from… Continue reading Receptor Theory: Why Fiction is “True”
The Universal Lens: Basic Logic of Any Self Organizing System
(of which so far constitutes only life, but this logic applies to any and all future robot overlords[1]). All systems tend towards the inevitability of entropy. A drop of ink placed in a glass of water quickly and with statistical necessity will become a glass of tinted water. A rock placed in the water would… Continue reading The Universal Lens: Basic Logic of Any Self Organizing System
Jun
It was a hot summer's day. The shadows had grown short, the perfect time to acquire vitamin D from the sun's rays.I took my laptop in my bag, walking to the nearby park, doing my best to stay in the bits of road and path dappled in the sun's rays, passing parasols as I went.I… Continue reading Jun
I Appear Missing
The two sat across from each other, teapot between them, a cup in each hand. Brock's countenance was craggy, filled with all the lines one might expect of a map of local rivers and tributaries. Caleb's skin was smooth. His childlike face held a relaxed, open expression. They were the same age. "And that is… Continue reading I Appear Missing
Floyd and Towards a More Useful Definition of Privilege
What I think is the best way of understanding privilege is what you get to overlook in your day to day life that other people don't get to. I remember I used to tell students about taking late night bike rides in Beijing and how freeing that is to experience, biking through a massive empty… Continue reading Floyd and Towards a More Useful Definition of Privilege
Homo Economicish 