simonh

57 ms·

841.
by simonh 3y ago
They protect rich people from having to follow the rules that apply to everyone else. I say this as a conviction capitalist and neoliberal, but on this my friends on the left are quite correct.
842.
by simonh 3y ago
A mobius strip is an example of a space that is finite but unbounded in a single direction. A two dimensional plane that is finite but unbounded in all directions is called a Kline bottle, but you can’t build them for real in 3D space, only
843.
by simonh 3y ago
If they vote, they’re not lurkers. Even thumbs up-ing is useful engagement.
844.
by simonh 3y ago
Oh of course, that's why I wrote 'supposedly primitive'. Other commenters denied racism has anything to do with thinking some people are 'less evolved'. Of course it does, at least for a lot of racists, just look at
845.
by simonh 3y ago
Poster has a good point. There are all sorts of corporate cultures, but the previous poster is right too, there are many big corps where upper management is hyper competent to an extent most muggles, me included, find it hard to fathom. Tha
846.
by simonh 3y ago
I agree in general, but network effect companies are highly vulnerable to being out-grown. A bigger rival with a bigger network is inherently more attractive to users, and it's competitive advantage increases exponentially with size. T
847.
by simonh 3y ago
In the referendum on Ukrainian independence in the 90s every single oblast voted for Ukrainian independence, including Crimea. In Donetsk and Luhansk it was over 80% with very high turnout. The idea that ethnic Russian means pro Russian is
848.
by simonh 3y ago
He thinks dolphins would ask “ Why have you failed? Why have you failed to stop humans treating animals so badly?” Dolphins are violent murderous rapey predators. What on Earth makes anyone think an intelligent dolphin would give a crap how
849.
by simonh 3y ago
I think Taiwanese are being pretty long sighted. Sentiment has been steadily shifting in favour of eventual full independence for a long time, but the consensus is still clearly to defer it, perhaps indefinitely. https://en.wikip
850.
by simonh 3y ago
I’m not arguing that dolphins are objectively or even relatively good or bad. I’m saying that ascribing them with assumed superior moral judgement is silly, especially given what we actually know about them.
851.
by simonh 3y ago
I think he has a lot of good points on many such issues. I said as much above.
852.
by simonh 3y ago
Fair enough, but he’s said stuff like this before and nobody twisted his arm.
853.
by simonh 3y ago
However Singer is proposing a thought experiment in which Dolphins exercise moral judgement. So he started it.
854.
by simonh 3y ago
Yes, absolutely. We must strive to do much better. I said as much in my comment. That doesn’t make his naive projection of child like innocence and purity on anything non human credible.
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by simonh 3y ago
I’m disappointed he projects some sort of idealised aloof moral superiority on anything non human, as though humans are obviously morally inferior to any possible other species. That our failings are somehow objectively inexcusable. He choo
856.
by simonh 3y ago
>Imagine if ancient man, living in the woods, saw people of today living in cities. "It feels very uncomfortable seeing all of these people isolating themselves inside buildings". A city is literally millions of people all want
857.
by simonh 3y ago
There's a great scene in Casablanca when Claude Raines' police chief character shuts down the gambling den he gambles at, saying that he is "Shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in this establishment" befor
858.
by simonh 3y ago
Not if they follow biblical precedent.
859.
by simonh 3y ago
I had a look at a bunch of the big Samsung releases from 2019 and 2020. Some got updates 2 or 3 years later, and a few got no updates at all. Jetpack is cool, but the reason it exists is because the Android OS update picture is appalling.
860.
by simonh 3y ago
The latest stuff is still compatible with 5 year old iPhones. 80% of iPhones run the latest OS precisely because they are dead serious about long term support for devices.
861.
by simonh 3y ago
I mostly agree, mixed systems are very much the way to go and in fact I thin in practice are inevitable. The USSR and China never entirely eliminated private capital, not even North Korea and the US provides many socialised services to citi
862.
by simonh 3y ago
Well there’s always Marxism which gave us the concept of the lumpenproletariat, unproductive or wasted labour. Marx described them as a parasitical group that exploits society for its own ends, and commentators have noted that he used the t
863.
by simonh 3y ago
On the present being an exceptional time, it really is. Technological advances in the last few hundred years have changed the human condition in developed countries to almost unrecognisable levels. I saw this in my grandparents. When I talk
864.
by simonh 3y ago
So far the history of automation technologies is that they both augment the capabilities and replace them. Automated looms replaced manual weavers, but the result was much cheaper better quality cloth which massively increased demand for cl
865.
by simonh 3y ago
The British Raj is why Hindus lost nuclear technology 10,000 years ago?
866.
by simonh 3y ago
Just to nitpick that a bit, they have a lead. To me, a moat is some other axis of advantage that makes it hard for a rival to compete directly. So for example Tesla has/had a lead in EV tech, but their supercharger network is a moat be
867.
by simonh 3y ago
Also the test is adversarial, it’s not about throwing softballs to a child. The interrogator should have a good understanding of what constitutes intelligence, the kinds of mental faculties humans have, and ask questions that thoroughly tes
868.
by simonh 3y ago
One way this is all very important is in how we think about it politically and in terms of policy. The fact is war, disease, poverty etc are shrinking drastically on a proportional basis because of work people are doing to make that happen,
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by simonh 3y ago
>And Caplan is a university professor, not a random person. He wasn't compared to random people, he was compared to other professors also setting tests, and how GPT-4 fared on their tests. You're blatantly misrepresenting the p
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by simonh 3y ago
Sure you can accuse statisticians like this of picking and choosing metrics and you can choose other metrics to paint a different picture. That's really not the point the book is making though. What the book does is ask ordinary people

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