What might building an imagination economy look like? Cares: creativity (problem-solving), culture (our hazy heuristics), community, stories (meaning-making).
EA
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Don't write to impress.
Write to communicate.
If you communicate well enough, you'll impress. 😉💡
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Finally, a trend I shall participate in. And with zero irony.
I’m certain that others have noticed the popular “two epigraph” trend, in which the first is something esoteric, perhaps from poetry, philosophy, or poetry, and the second is current and quippy. I’m trying to figure out how it emerged, and what the underlying motivations are.
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First they came for the software engineers and I said nothing for I was not a software engineer.
Then they came for the mathematicians and I said nothing for I was not a mathematician.
Then they came for the lawyers and I said "make sure you get all the lawyers"
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princely hope-glorious 🇹🇿 retweeted
“Pagans,” “Heretics,” and foreign refugees in East Africa during the Middle Ages:
Examining the Historical Evidence.
patreon.com/isaacsamuel64/po…
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princely hope-glorious 🇹🇿 retweeted
ugh, this came out just when i needed it
The optimality of the packing for 11 squares has been formalized in lean thanks to Astra and Claude! Huge thanks to @ojoshe, @kleddamag, @wand_125, @guzhou0806, and @ctjlewis for aiding in the process.
Image credit: jlevy.github.io/squares/case…
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The wholesome "spherical bastard" (i.e. a jerk, or fool, from every angle) is from the wholesome Zwicky who also coined for us "dark matter" and, iirc, "supernova."
His rants are legendary:
tritonstation.com/2021/12/19…
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princely hope-glorious 🇹🇿 retweeted
Before ending a relationship, have you clearly said what you want? Before firing someone, have you told them what's not working?
When you own your wants, it gives the other person a chance to meet you. And it gives you a clearer decision if they can't.
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princely hope-glorious 🇹🇿 retweeted
Karl Deisseroth, who just received the Nobel Prize in Medicine, said he began studying the brain because of poetry. He was fascinated by the ‘power of the written word and its ability to stir feeling’
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Many of the Kenyans who claim Tanzanians hate Kenya display a self-protecting disdain and pure hate for Tanzania and Tanzanians which they project.
Tribal nonsense, all of this.
Sibling nonsense too, but dangerous when it becomes the "idea lying around" the regional psyche that explodes during crises.
Now that I’m out of ‘jirani’ region… I can confidently tweet… that country is a proper shithole!!!
Never again stepping foot in that country!!!!
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Nail, head. Bang!
Scott Alexander has demonstrated in his response to Steven Pinker that the smarter you are, the more effectively you can deploy fuzzy language and logical fallacies in the defense of incorrect ideas. There are certain ideas that are so bad that they require truly smart people to come up with plausible sounding incorrect arguments in their favor, and sadly, that is the sort of use that the self-described “rationalists” now apply their intellect to.
When a group has fallen into tribalism or cult behavior, defending the pivotal beliefs of the group becomes the priority, and uncomfortable truths that contradict those pivotal beliefs must be fought with every possible available resource.
If AI is not particularly dangerous, that threatens every part of Scott Alexander’s group; AI risk is the single most important value in their lives. Thus, the most important thing in the world to Scott is to suppress the heresy that AI is not particularly dangerous. The fact that the heresy is true has become something he literally cannot allow himself to notice.
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princely hope-glorious 🇹🇿 retweeted
Scott Alexander has demonstrated in his response to Steven Pinker that the smarter you are, the more effectively you can deploy fuzzy language and logical fallacies in the defense of incorrect ideas. There are certain ideas that are so bad that they require truly smart people to come up with plausible sounding incorrect arguments in their favor, and sadly, that is the sort of use that the self-described “rationalists” now apply their intellect to.
When a group has fallen into tribalism or cult behavior, defending the pivotal beliefs of the group becomes the priority, and uncomfortable truths that contradict those pivotal beliefs must be fought with every possible available resource.
If AI is not particularly dangerous, that threatens every part of Scott Alexander’s group; AI risk is the single most important value in their lives. Thus, the most important thing in the world to Scott is to suppress the heresy that AI is not particularly dangerous. The fact that the heresy is true has become something he literally cannot allow himself to notice.
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princely hope-glorious 🇹🇿 retweeted
“Not having been able to do what they desire, they have made a show of desiring what they were able to do.”
—Montaigne, Essays, 2.19
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princely hope-glorious 🇹🇿 retweeted
What's a new art form that's uniquely enabled by intelligence too cheap to meter? We have gods enslaved in data centers and we're asking them to make launch videos
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princely hope-glorious 🇹🇿 retweeted
I'm optimistic about the effect of AI on science.
This endless formal gobbledygook people used to write, impossible to review because headache-inducing, but in the end trivial and boring -- that might disappear. AI cuts through the bluster and reveals the actual ideas.
Fair?
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princely hope-glorious 🇹🇿 retweeted
the ancient greek word "schola" (which is where we get the english "school" and "scholarship" from) literally translates to "leisure." joseph piper was right: leisure IS the basis of civilization. as nietzsche said: "a man who doesn't have 2/3rds of the day to himself is a slave"
In an age dominated by technology, in which efficiency and profit often take precedence, it is so important that we continue to cultivate a spirit of contemplation and allow time and space for beauty. Such an attitude will greatly help humanity, especially young people, to discover the ability of art to uplift and reveal the depths of the human spirit and our openness to the divine. Contemplation presents a marvelous opportunity to encounter the God who is Beauty.
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Reading the wrong thing UNCRITICALLY.
Reading the right thing uncritically could be bad for you too.
It is this critical, rational posture that matters.
Reading is powerful. Books can change your life. It can make you smarter or make you dumber. Reading the wrong thing is worse than not reading at all. You're better off scrolling tiktok, Watching Hollywood movies and listening to songs than getting your mind all messed up
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What even is "settled science"?
Oxymoronic.
With the dramatic emphasis on "moronic" intended.
The author just talks about how traumatic events can manifest as neurological or physical symptoms (like a combat veteran experiencing digestive issues from being constantly stuck in flight or fight mode). It’s all settled science and not controversial in the slightest.
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I mean, sure, those who use it most responsibly, probably mean something like:
"The evidence for this is so overwhelming that it would be a waste of resources to keep debating the basics; we are moving on to the next step."
But the phrase itself is an absurdity. Settled science is dead, pseudoscience.
The posture of the scientist is to falsify, to refute, to criticize until they can't. But even then, to know that all knowledge (including what they've arrived at by failing to refute) remains provisional.
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