bbctol

74 ms·

301.
by bbctol 10y ago
The Northernmost part of the Internet reachable by road.
302.
by bbctol 10y ago
I'm sorry: you would hesitate to extend marriage rights to post-menopausal women.
303.
by bbctol 10y ago
So you would ban post-menopausal women from getting married. Understood.
304.
by bbctol 10y ago
That's fair. I think a lot of this depends on the precise definitions of words like "objective" or "biased." The 'best' strategy would be to always read everything incredibly critically and carefully, but
305.
by bbctol 10y ago
Is that really true? Good, quality reporting doesn't necessarily make biases irrelevant. If (hypothetically) it's true that both candidates in an election are corrupt, though one is more corrupt and dangerous than the other, a sto
306.
by bbctol 10y ago
It's more complicated than either one.
307.
by bbctol 10y ago
Or if that's even the right question. Do we have an obligation to raise the minimum standard in our society, so that no decent citizen is starving or in pain, even if that doesn't optimize the average? How much should we count fut
308.
by bbctol 10y ago
Yeah, reading the Magician's Land took me longer than the previous two combined, because as much as I wanted to know what happened next, I also wanted to preserve that feeling of wanting to know what happens next.
309.
by bbctol 10y ago
His works are definitely more philosophical, though I think that's always been an important part of sci-fi; Asimov never explained how a positronic brain worked, just explored the possibilities of a hypothetical world. Chiang takes phi
310.
by bbctol 10y ago
The modern-day tensions are frustrating for many reasons. I always feel like Persia is an under-discussed historical civilization in pop culture, and I think that's due to modern perceptions, too much baggage associated with the region
311.
by bbctol 10y ago
I'm so glad that this movie is getting Ted Chiang more exposure. He's one of the most interesting and creative science fiction authors out there, despite and unbelievably small output (he has literally published fifteen stories ov
312.
by bbctol 10y ago
"Fake stories" are not the biggest problem, and focusing on them could fix surface issues without addressing the underlying echo chamber effect. This piece is better than most, but I wish all people arguing for Facebook and Google
313.
by bbctol 10y ago
A flamewar is not a real connection of opposing sides that lets each understand the other, it's a progressive back-and-forth of increasingly simplified versions of the other's position until both sides hate each other more than wh
314.
by bbctol 10y ago
There's too many facts and not enough truth. There are enough individual facts, anecdotes, and incidents out there to support any possible narrative, and make people believe anything without directly lying to them. It's a serious
315.
by bbctol 10y ago
This is also true, and does not contradict what I said. If people made all their choices about ensuring peace and prosperity, the world would be a heck of a lot more prosperous and peaceful. We do not.
316.
by bbctol 10y ago
Moreover, it's an undervalued question as to whether or not people want more pie, or a greater percentage of the pie. Utilitarianism is tricky at best, and money does not map onto utility; people who feel they're being screwed are
317.
by bbctol 10y ago
It's such an insane thing to have to hope for, but the best case scenario is that Trump is... George W. Bush. That he'll be impolite, but not undiplomatic. That he'll start one, maybe two wars, and keep them non-nuclear. That
318.
by bbctol 10y ago
God, what an insane deflection on his part. If Facebook can't manipulate people's behavior, why should advertisers pay them?
319.
by bbctol 10y ago
A lot of people are now trying to get Keith Ellison as new head of the DNC. There are arguments for and against, but this video is the single best argument for.
320.
by bbctol 10y ago
I'm curious as to what supports the idea that deserts will re-green and agricultural output will increase? I am not at all an expert in the field, but I've always heard desertification and disappearing arable land as chief concern
321.
by bbctol 10y ago
Sure, and that's the higher-order problem. If we could make machines that solve any problem the way we do, we'd be a lot closer to AGI, but for now, it's still science fiction for a computer to have beliefs, and understand in
322.
by bbctol 10y ago
If people are worried about a Donald Trump presidency because they're afraid he'll break norms, tear down established systems, and use his elected status to remove any independent/non-populist institution, it is not a good id
323.
by bbctol 10y ago
Watson scoring something for truth is only as good as the data drawn from. Who decides that data? Jeopardy questions center around long-established, non-controversial information; how does a Watson-like system evaluate unprecedented breakin
324.
by bbctol 10y ago
If social signals are important to you, the algorithm that presents those social signals is really important, no? What a herd mentality does depends on how the herd is made. Rebuttals to lies don't travel as fast as lies at all, espe
325.
by bbctol 10y ago
As disliked as Paul Ryan is by Trump followers around the country, his actual seat is very safe. There are plenty of Republicans relying on the Trump coalition, though.
326.
by bbctol 10y ago
SOME GUY IN SILICON VALLEY TWEETS SOME THINGS
327.
by bbctol 10y ago
Why wouldn't 3 be easy, given the makeup of the Senate and House?
328.
by bbctol 10y ago
That said, the definition of "space object" could make things tricky. Sure, China doesn't own this chunk of Mars, but they own the Mars base, and freely mine from the areas around the base, and decide who can open the door th
329.
by bbctol 10y ago
The newspapers/TV are plain, if somewhat conservative. However, South Korea has an internet culture that makes America look a decade behind, for better or worse; people get massive amounts of information from social media and citizen j
330.
by bbctol 10y ago
Ask A Korean is a really good blog if you remain interested in the country. I follow Korean issues less now than I once did, but the author has a nice style and is willing to deal with Korean/American issues complexly.

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