thworp

17 ms·

151.
by thworp 3y ago
I think McNamara is the poster child for what damage unconstrained technocracy can do. This project is one of the less horrible ones he spearheaded, but it too had results that were completely predictable to anyone on the ground (who actual
152.
by thworp 3y ago
Those tests do not mean anything once you clear a lower bound somewhere between 70 and 90. N N Taleb summed it up best as "IQ is a measure of un intelligence.
153.
by thworp 3y ago
I think using terms and concepts from classical Information Science when talking about brains is a non-starter. To speak HN lingo, it's like measuring a computer's performance while it is in the middle of compiling the Linux kerne
154.
by thworp 3y ago
This is a truism. Of course we could create social organizations that are totally unconstrained, but they will fail catastrophically. We are (and will always be) constrained and as soon as we prefer one goal to another we want to bring that
155.
by thworp 3y ago
> Markets dominate the world, they are not a hierarchy. Correct. But markets are downstream from hierarchy. The hierarchy determines the access to its rewards, those rewards can then be used to participate in the market, either by direct
156.
by thworp 3y ago
What is a hierarchy? Broadly it's a ranking based on some criterion. As such hierarchies follow from a society's wants and needs (you could say it follows from the needs hierarchy of society itself) and shift all the time. As an e
157.
by thworp 3y ago
This is a claim so extraordinary you should at least have linked some obscure paper from a *-Studies department. Every human has their own hierarchies. Hierarchies of need, of goals and of peers (this is basically each individual's soc
158.
by thworp 3y ago
There are good reasons why someone might temporarily be breaking the speed limit, that are even accepted legal defences in some countries (if you have enough proof). Biggest one is just merging / changing lanes. Often you have to go 10
159.
by thworp 3y ago
There isn't a totally wild area larger than a few square kilometres anywhere west of Warsaw in Europe.
160.
by thworp 3y ago
I would like to add a point that is rarely spelled out: A shock-therapy style stop to fossil fuel extraction will kill millions of people through starvation, economic collapse and insufficient heating in winter. Depending how shocking the s
161.
by thworp 3y ago
If you had ever lived and worked in the countries that are the public boogeymen for world domination, or even just with people and companies from those countries, you wouldn't be quite so down. I think it's quite telling that the
162.
by thworp 3y ago
If you were just talking about plastic packaging you have a point. By weight that is a small percentage of plastics though, which is incidentally why it is so cheap. For other applications plastics are an outright miracle material though. I
163.
by thworp 3y ago
Mostly to prevent dust and other dirt accumulating before evrything goes into the final packaging.
164.
by thworp 3y ago
Sorry if my reply was a bit snarky. I think we have a fundamental philosophical disagreement here. You think that human systems should follow human ideals first and only deviate when absolutely necessary. I think human systems should follow
165.
by thworp 3y ago
In my experience the issue is not about taking it seriously, I've rarely met someone totally unconcerned in real life. The real issue is what to do about it, how to do it and in what timeframe. With these wet bulb events and the breath
166.
by thworp 3y ago
> Lithium Ion should be replaces ASAP by safer chemistries so we can sidestep this issue completely That would be nice, but so far there are no good candidates that have anywhere near the energy density of Li-based cells. As far as I und
167.
by thworp 3y ago
No you wouldn't. The average human driver is vastly safer than Autopilot. I will agree that autopilot is better than the worst 10% of drivers and maybe on par with the worst 20%. That group causes most accidents and almost all severe a
168.
by thworp 3y ago
disclaimer: I have no first-hand experience, just second-hand. It should be impossible to leave the factory like this. Let's say the issue is a substandard batch from a supplier that cracks from stress at some stage of the frame assemb
169.
by thworp 3y ago
Since you appear to have some insider knowledge: Do you know how airlines deal with different passenger demographics? Does Korean air have adjustment factors for passenger weight averages? Americans 1.4, Brits 1.2, Kenyans 0.9, North Korean
170.
by thworp 3y ago
You're right. When your plane has to fly to an alternate airport due to weather and runs out fuel on the way, the last thing you want to feel is guilt over having indirectly fat-shamed your fellow passengers.
171.
by thworp 3y ago
Lighting money on fire to increase valuation. Getting a cab dispatch service to get valued at insane multiples was a master stroke.
172.
by thworp 3y ago
> Which is all the end product of the demolition of the organized socialist left & trade union movement in the west through the 70s and 80s and early 90s and the retreat of associated intellectuals into academia and cultural politics
173.
by thworp 3y ago
Maybe industrialization reduced wages for some craftsmen who were forced to become factory workers. But for almost all new factory workers their wealth, working conditions and working hours were a huge step up from their previous occupati
174.
by thworp 3y ago
First, I meant that as a suggestion to look at comparable countries and look at what they're doing because it has been proven it will work. That is as opposed to different measure which might work but have side effects. That leads me
175.
by thworp 3y ago
Hah! They might be low-paid and on a salary, but they snub their noses at the "working class" and share none of their values or beliefs.
176.
by thworp 3y ago
I half agree with you, but if we're only talking about death and accident prevention it would be worth it to look at other highly developed countries that have much lower accident rates (there are quite a few that have much lower numbe
177.
by thworp 3y ago
It's not just that there is a risk of re-centralization from network effects. Since you mentioned email, there is also a large risk that filtering unwanted content and impersonators from appearing on your instance becomes so expensive
178.
by thworp 3y ago
You answered your own question, one of the ways is to "adjust for consumer preferences" the goods baskets You can also change the weights for various localities or overstate how much better the new version of a product is and redu
179.
by thworp 3y ago
It is certainly gamed, but maybe not in the way you mean it. The fundamental issue is that every agent in the economy has their own price index, condensing this into a single number is impossible without losing almost all the information. E
180.
by thworp 3y ago
I fully agree that these "blitzscale" business have a horrible business model that is not sound, both economically (depends on free funding) and morally (the goal is to corner the market or at least get an oligopoly and then explo

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