larnmar

25 ms·

181.
by larnmar 7y ago
If climate change turns out to be a vast exaggeration, this period in history is going to look very silly.
182.
by larnmar 7y ago
Realistically the three laws are silly here. Better laws in this context would be something like “police robots cannot be armed”. Then maybe some other restrictions about circumstances under which they can be used — eg do we want a police r
183.
by larnmar 7y ago
Tokyo has a declining population. When Tokyo’s population was still increasing, housing prices there were ridiculous (there was the 80s factoid about the Imperial Palace grounds being worth more than the entire state of California). If you
184.
by larnmar 7y ago
That was a fun read, but... not even an extract from the final novel?
185.
by larnmar 7y ago
Yes, that would be the downside of that. On the other hand, suppose aliens land on Earth and quietly blorple all the fuzzbars between our atoms. We can’t possibly understand the blorpling but it doesn’t seem to be doing any harm so we leave
186.
by larnmar 7y ago
You’ve described the legal basis for British sovereignty over Australia, but ownership and sovereignty are different and independent (eg my backyard is the sovereign territory of Australia but the property of me). The legal basis for consid
187.
by larnmar 7y ago
I’ve seen this somewhere else, I think it was Argentina? It’s convenient! The only downside is a slight tendency towards encouraging drag race behaviour.
188.
by larnmar 7y ago
“A decade worth” or “a decade’s worth” would be fine, “a decades worth” would not. If it still doesn’t sound right to you, try “in a year’s time”.
189.
by larnmar 7y ago
Language communicates many things. Correct usage of apostrophes or who/whom is like metadata in your writing that communicates “I am at least educated enough to have been in fourth grade, and at least intelligent enough to have retaine
190.
by larnmar 7y ago
No. There is something wrong with that headline, but the apostrophe is not it.
191.
by larnmar 7y ago
The problem with “managing” a commons is the principal-agent problem — that the people you appoint to do the management will often wind up making or interpreting the rules in a way that benefits themselves. I don’t see much in these princip
192.
by larnmar 7y ago
If you are arguing with the goal of changing your opponent’s mind, you’re already doing argument wrong. These techniques will not make you better.
193.
by larnmar 7y ago
We can model an economy, but not at perfect precision. Building a model always involves decisions about what approximations you make, what entities you consider, and so forth. There’s a lot of flexibility when you build your model. As a res
194.
by larnmar 7y ago
I just searched for “free energy” with both google and bing and with both engines got a combination of the use in actual thermodynamics plus “omg free energy device exist coverup!” type results.
195.
by larnmar 7y ago
How would we determine whether an animal understands something? Presumably you could do experiments which test whether they can predict what will happen — eg if a thirsty monkey collects ice, expecting it to melt. (Although you can obtain w
196.
by larnmar 7y ago
Assuming the people on display did not especially object to it (and I assume they didn’t because if they did they’d be a lousy and dangerous exhibit) does this sound so bad? You have to remember that people in these days didn’t have nationa
197.
by larnmar 7y ago
A better version of HN might be one which is deliberately impossible to read unless you edit the CSS yourself.
198.
by larnmar 7y ago
You’re probably right about the OP, who has managed somehow to alienate his way into homelessness, a rather extreme case. On the other hand, selection bias. For every “out and proud” right-winger in the valley getting lynched by an angry mo
199.
by larnmar 7y ago
When you put it that way, authenticity sounds like a terrible idea. But I don’t think authenticity needs to be defined in opposition to professionalism.
200.
by larnmar 7y ago
In that case you should put effort into changing, rather than hiding, your self.
201.
by larnmar 7y ago
I’ve watched from the sidelines as a lot of rapid-growth but loss-making companies with “no idea how to make a profit” suddenly figure out how to make a profit. I said “pah, unprofitable!” And turned down opportunities to invest in Google,
202.
by larnmar 7y ago
You were downvoted but I think it’s a good question. One argument would be that photography involves many creative choices regarding angle, lighting, and so forth, so there’s millions of photos of the Grand Canyon and they’re all different,
203.
by larnmar 7y ago
> I'm more intelligent than someone with Downs Syndrome, but that doesn't mean their life is less valuable does it? Doesn’t it? It’s something we don’t say, because it’s horrendously impolite, and I wouldn’t say it myself outsi
204.
by larnmar 7y ago
I’ve often thought it very unfortunate that we leave calculus so late in K-12 education, and for some students never get there at all (at least in my country). I remember spending most of my childhood mystified about what this mysterious “c
205.
by larnmar 7y ago
And this is why arguing about “capitalism” is pointless, there’s a bunch of incompatible definitions. You are using a definition closer to Marx’s, while the GP is using a definition closer to Rand’s. (Most people use a fizzier definition th
206.
by larnmar 7y ago
But crediting the CCP for bringing people out of poverty is like thanking the guy who was drowning you for stopping drowning you.
207.
by larnmar 7y ago
And are the horrors of Chinese labour conditions supposed to make us feel better about the fact that all our stuff is getting made there? I’m confused by the structure of your comment.
208.
by larnmar 7y ago
Yes. While there’s arguments to be made against those laws, it seems to be relatively harmless to allow the government to be the arbiter of truth in a few limited situations where the truth is fairly easy to ascertain. (What’s that you say?
209.
by larnmar 7y ago
Luckily we’re living in the era where people are offloading their old last-gen dumb TVs for next to nothing in order to replace it with a smart one. I got my current TV off the side of the road. It’s a 42” LCD Samsung, and that’s good enoug
210.
by larnmar 7y ago
I think what’s most important is not so much critical thinking skills as critical thinking discipline . Don’t go round believing things just because you want them to be true, or disbelieving things just because you don’t want them to be

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