ericdykstra

8 ms·

31.
by ericdykstra 7y ago
I think people tend either see the world primarily through existence or experience. For those who see the world through the experience frame, they will be more worried about the negative impacts toward an individual octopus, seeing it as an
32.
by ericdykstra 7y ago
I’m more worried about the genocide of species via chemical and plastic contamination. There are apparently rivers so flooded with estrogenics that fish can’t reproduce at a replacement rate, and need to be re-stocked by fish farms. This is
33.
by ericdykstra 7y ago
This seems a little overblown when put into context... Commercial fishing kills 300k cetaceans annually. [1] For contrast, at the peak of Japanese whaling, less than 40k were killed per annum[2] China alone, in 2010, had 8.8 million metric
34.
by ericdykstra 7y ago
This reminds me of the Limits to Growth graph, popularized by #GraphTwitter https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D7LCSEDWwAE5_Ar.jpg
35.
by ericdykstra 7y ago
The common conception is, like the person I responded to originally, that news outlets optimize for clicks and eyeballs in order to sell the most advertising. Many will cite "if it bleeds, it leads" as a mantra for news corporatio
36.
by ericdykstra 7y ago
I get the sentiment, but advertising is just a small part of how public perception is manipulated. Edward Bernays laid this out in his 1928 book, Propaganda , which is a how-to guide to indoctrination and manipulation of the public.
37.
by ericdykstra 7y ago
I take a little bit of issue with Truth is less important than shock value , which implies that news media is selling out their content for profit. The vast majority of news outlets don't make enough in ad revenue to stay afloat, and
38.
by ericdykstra 7y ago
We already see this problem with other streaming media services; just because something is available today doesn’t mean it will be available tomorrow. I don’t want to give that much control over to someone else. I don’t need all-you-can-eat
39.
by ericdykstra 7y ago
I’ve been an Audible subscriber for a fairly long time (2011), and really enjoy the format. I really wish it wasn’t tied to Amazon, though. The recent increase of their “digital book burning” is pretty egregious, and it’s weird to own books
40.
by ericdykstra 7y ago
I see this as just another way to replace some of the natural food in your diet with a garbage mix of highly processed plants and oils. No thanks, I’ll stick to the food that has created and sustained human life for 1000s of years over a sc
41.
by ericdykstra 8y ago
I can get a chunk of wasabi for about $6 at my local greengrocer in Tokyo. Unless you plan on eating a lot of sashimi at home within the next few days, though, it’s not practical since it goes bad much faster than the tube stuff. The taste
42.
by ericdykstra 8y ago
> If you watch some of the reality TV you see in UK about CCTV surveillance you’d think the county is suffering from a crime epidemic when in fact a lot of the situations are minor and often escalated by overly aggressive police officers
43.
by ericdykstra 8y ago
Fair Use is not a right; it's an affirmative defense ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affirmative_defense ) that needs to be used in court. Here's a recent (long) video on fair use that I enjoyed, and might be i
44.
by ericdykstra 8y ago
> What specifically do you think is the reason black people should not be expected to achieve demographic parity in academic math? I don't expect demographic parity in anything. > And how does that relate to “blank slate-ism”? Yo
45.
by ericdykstra 8y ago
No, again, this is blank-slateism. People are born with genetic predispositions that influence things such as height, eye color, mathematical ability, and career preference. You would only expect population-proportionate outcomes if genetic
46.
by ericdykstra 8y ago
This is baseless, unscientific blank-slateism, and isn't true anywhere in the world among any demographic segment in any measure. If 10% of Singaporean men are gay would you expect 10% of male plumbers in Singapore to be gay? If women
47.
by ericdykstra 8y ago
Maybe it's because it's taboo to say so, but I haven't even seen it speculated that the rise of these diseases be partly, or even mainly attributed to illegal immigration. How many anti-vaxxers are there compared to those ill
48.
by ericdykstra 8y ago
> Fun fact 1: since most people are raised by their parents, religion and political party affiliation are also highly heritable, but no one is suggesting that there's a genetic basis for religion or political views. Religious and po
49.
by ericdykstra 8y ago
The Theory of Poker by David Sklansky Studying and playing poker in high school changed how I thought about problems of incomplete information and how to gather the most information possible to make a decision. This book, in particular, f
50.
by ericdykstra 8y ago
We're currently well on our way to the first alternative, and I don't know if we can find a way out of it without the second "Climate change" is a red herring; we can "fix" the increasing temperature problem an
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by ericdykstra 8y ago
I used "eco-fascism" just because it's really the only somewhat mainstream movement that argues for ecological diversity preservation at all. There are potential forms of alternative or third position government structures th
52.
by ericdykstra 8y ago
Sometimes I think our only options going forward are a world where all natural habitat has been completely decimated, or an eco-fascist regime enforces pollution (and thus effectively population) control on the whole planet.
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by ericdykstra 8y ago
I agree with you. Governments subsidize and pay for things with a lot less ROI than sports stadiums that can foster a sense of local community. Seattle spent $5 million making public shelters for drug deals and prostitution[1], and I bet mo
54.
by ericdykstra 8y ago
The forecast still fluctuated way too much to be correct, as can be seen in Taleb's paper, which cites the "forecast" and not the "now cast."
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by ericdykstra 8y ago
Do you find humanity worthwhile? If you do, then you should be concerned about starting a process that will lead to the end of humanity. Just because we are able to split an atom doesn't mean we should end the world through nuclear wea
56.
by ericdykstra 8y ago
You’re ignoring the inevitability of a Phenotypic Revolution if we go down that path. Please read the book so you can get an understanding of what’s at stake. It was just released a couple of days ago, but it’s an update to our understandin
57.
by ericdykstra 8y ago
It's at least a little bit promising that the reaction to the CRISPR baby has been resoundingly negative. From the technical errors pointed out by scientists in this case, to the visceral reaction to the idea of "designer babies&q
58.
by ericdykstra 8y ago
Indeed. There's not a history book that is without some critique or alternative theories, anyway. Solzhenitsyn spent a long time compiling the information he presents in Two Hundred Years Together (1120 pages in the original Russia
59.
by ericdykstra 8y ago
Great profile of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn; one of the most important writers of the last century who was prolific up until his death. It's a shame that his last non-fiction work has yet to get a proper English translation even after all
60.
by ericdykstra 8y ago
While we're on the subject of young musical prodigies, I'd like to shine a light on the influential metal band Windir. At age 16, Terje Bakken wrote, arranged, and performed everything on the first album (with the exception of dru

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